“I regret to say, that most of this misery is produced by our own countrymen. They furnish the means of conveyance in spite of existing enactments; and although there are strong circumstances against Berry, the late master of the Pons, sufficient to induce me to detain him, if I should meet him, I fear neither he nor his employers can be reached by our present laws.” In this letter to the Secretary of the Navy, Commander Bell further adds: “For twenty days did Berry wait in the roadstead of Kabenda, protected by the flag of his country, yet closely watched by a foreign man-of-war, who was certain of his intention: but the instant that cruiser is compelled to withdraw for a few hours, he springs at the opportunity of enriching himself and owners, and disgracing the flag which had protected him.” The prize “Pons” was taken to Monrovia. There the slaves were landed, and gave the people a practical exhibition of the trade by which their ancestors had been torn from their homes. In the fourteen days intervening between the capture and arrival of the vessel at Monrovia, one hundred and fifty had died. “The slaves,” says the Monrovia Herald of December 28th, “were much emaciated, and so debilitated that many of them found difficulty in getting out of the boats. Such a spectacle of misery and wretchedness, inflicted by a lawless and ferocious cupidity, so excited our people, that it became unsafe for the captain of the slaver, who had come to look on, to remain on the beach. Eight slaves died in harbor before they were landed, and the bodies were thrown overboard.” The slaves, who were from eight to thirty years of age, came starved and thirsting from on board. Caution was required in giving them food. “When it was supposed that the danger of depletion was over, water was poured into a long canoe, into which they plunged like hungry pigs into a trough--the stronger faring the best.” Still, the kindness of human nature had not altogether been obliterated by length and intensity of suffering. Two boys, brothers, had found beside them a younger boy of the same tribe, who was ill. They contrived to nestle together on the deck, under such shelter as the cover of the long-boat offered them--a place where the pigs, if they are small enough, are generally stowed. There they made a bed of some oakum for their dying companion, and placed a piece of old canvas under his head. Night and day one was always awake to watch him. Hardship rendered their care fruitless: the night after the vessel anchored he died, and was thrown overboard. The recaptured were apprenticed out, and kindly cared for by the Liberians. Several of them were found, when the Perry visited Monrovia, to have become members of churches, and others were attending Sunday-schools.