My colleague and I had just embarked at Mojangá, on board the _Malacca_, which was ready to sail for Zanzibar, when the _Vulture_ came into the Bay, and we were invited on board. We found the open deck covered with Africans, captured out of a slave-dhow the previous day: and near them, sitting in a corner by themselves, were thirty-seven Arabs, crew and “passengers,” _alias_ slave-dealers, who had had the unhappy people in charge. Commander Brooke welcomed us to his vessel and kindly explained to us what had occurred. He had been cruising about the coast for some time, and several of his boats were away, examining the bays and river mouths to the northward. Yesterday morning they had spied a dhow making for the land, but with little progress, owing to the light wind. His steamer was soon alongside; the flag was hauled down and his men went on board to take possession. Having sent away the crew, they proceeded to open the slaver’s hold. They lifted out several children, and then one of the men said to the officer, “Sir, these are only at the top: _there are three tiers of them; and the men and women are at the bottom_.” Exhausted, attenuated, wholly unable to stand, the poor creatures were carefully lifted out, one by one, into the boats, were rowed to the _Vulture_ and placed upon her deck. There were two hundred and thirty-six in all: forty-two men, fifty-seven women, and a hundred and thirty-seven children. They had all been packed, like herrings, in the hold of the dhow in a space, a yard and a half high, the little ones at the top. They had been seven days on board; and had been nearly starved. The dhow had all but made good her voyage, when in God’s providence, she was captured and her victims were set free. I had often read of the “horrors of the middle passage:” but they never came home to me as they did then. Poor people! Many of them were injured by their cruel confinement beyond recovery. The _Vulture_ carried them to the English colony in Sechelles: but before their ten days’ voyage was completed, seventeen of them were dead. Since our return to England we have seen with pleasure that the _Vulture_ and her companions have made other captures: that the squadron on the East Coast of Africa has been strengthened: and that the English government and people are determined to have the trade stopped.