“‘Well, young gentleman,’ said the Englishman, ‘I think the best thing, and indeed the only thing you can do, is to get a passage in the first ship that touches here for England: arrived there, you will easily discover your relatives. Now I will tell you who I am, and what my intentions are, for I am not a resident here, I assure you, of my own free will. My name is Packenham, I am colonel of the —— Regiment. We were returning to England from the Cape, when we were sighted and chased by a remarkably fast privateer under the tricolour. Our ship was a new vessel, with a stout-hearted skipper, and a brave crew; and after an action, sharp, and of long duration, we beat the fellow off; but he so cut up our sails and rigging, and damaged our spars, that in a succession of gales, some days after, we were close driven towards the coast of Africa, and in a tremendous squall lost our fore-mast, and finally went ashore two leagues to the eastward of the new town. Fortunately, our ship was a strong one; she held together for two days, and we all, captain and crew, got safely on shore. But scarcely had we secured our baggage and effects before another hurricane, from a worse point, knocked the vessel all to pieces. We proceeded to the town, and strange enough I found settled there a very old friend and brother in arms, a Captain Stanhope, who had been induced to come out here by the Sierra Leone Company. He had a wife and eight children, and hoped to support them on his half pay and the stipend allowed him by the company. He is now with his two fine boys and four girls, all that’s left, up at Fort Banca, which we must endeavour to reach to-night. Our unfortunate skipper and his crew sailed in a miserably small schooner with what was saved from the wreck, about three weeks after our misfortune. I would not venture my children in her, so my friend Stanhope got me a house, and these two comely young negresses to attend on us, and I hired a negro, and here we have been waiting the arrival of some merchant ship from England, or a man-of-war, but not one has touched here since; and now these confounded _sans culottes_ have knocked down our house and driven us into the woods. The best thing you can do is to return to England with us. I will do my best to supply your wants, having luckily saved all my own effects, for the moment we perceived these French ships we all sent off our effects to Fort Banca; of course, we could offer no resistance.’ “I returned Colonel Packenham my most sincere thanks for his generous intentions. As the day wore on, we became anxious to know whether the French had returned to their ships. I offered to go and endeavour to discover, but one of the black attendants who was on the look out came running into our retreat, saying— “‘Massa! Massa! Pompey, he come!’