“As we launched our canoe, the wind began to blow with great violence from the sea; we were just at the end of the rainy season. The last week in October the rains were over, but sudden gales and squalls were frequent. By keeping close in with the western shore we were enabled to traverse the lake, but the twenty miles took us till dark, so we were forced to pull our canoe upon a bank, and make the best shelter we could for the night, amidst a frightful storm of rain, thunder, and lightning. The next morning it cleared, but blew tremendously in from the sea. We resolved to leave our boat, and make for the negro village on foot across a sandy waste. I was standing on the summit of a small hillock of sand, gazing in the direction of the negro village, when I saw a man coming across one of the streams that ran through the sands towards me. I soon discovered he was a negro with a bandage round his head; he had no clothing except his waist-cloth: to my intense joy, as he came nearer I recognised Pompey, Colonel Packenham’s faithful negro. He recognised me before I knew him, and the poor fellow’s joy was great. His head and hair were matted with blood. Some of our party soon joined us. Pompey, in his own way, gave the account of their seizure. He said he was sleeping, covered with a piece of matting, outside his master’s hut, and the first thing that woke him was a blow on the head with a piece of wood, but as he strove to get up, a negro—he saw him plain enough—struck him senseless with a hatchet: in fact the poor fellow had a frightful gash in his head. When he recovered he found himself in a large boat, full of negroes and three white men, with the Misses Packenham crying bitterly in each other’s arms, and their two black servants. When he attempted to move, the negroes rowing the boat kicked and beat him, so he lay still. When they arrived at the halting place, they stripped him, gave him a cloth and an old piece of canvas to tie over the bleeding cut in his head, and then dragged the boat over the land with the two young girls in her; all the rest had to walk. Pompey was made to assist in dragging the boat; then they passed down the lake, and got, by pulling the boat through the shallows, into the creek before the negro town. There was a fine schooner at anchor before the village, and on board this vessel they carried the distracted girls, and thrust Pompey into the hold, which was fitted up for two hundred slaves, of which there were one hundred and thirty on board. It was a Spanish vessel, and carried twelve hands; sixty or seventy slaves remained to ship, but from the heavy gale and neglecting proper precautions, she went ashore from the force of the wind, though there was no sea; in the confusion Pompey made his escape, with several other slaves; but they separated before Pompey fell in with us.