It was now about two bells in the forenoon watch, and they expected to get up as high as it was possible before night.
This it was found impossible to do, so she was anchored, and next day succeeded in reaching a station some forty miles from the sea, called Sapelé. This in launches, the gun-boat being left further down. Here to their joy they found a fort or barracks, containing in all about two hundred and fifty officers and men (soldiers).
The expeditionary force from the Rattler was soon landed and hailed with delight. Together they were now quite a strong little army.
The commanding officer told Captain[[2]] Flint a sickening story of the massacre of the traders.
[[2]] A Commander in the Royal Navy is not in reality a captain, but is usually addressed so by courtesy.
"The king, in fact," he said, "is jealous of the approach of the Protectorate."
After the murders he, the officer, had sent a sergeant with a flag of truce and several Kroomen, to ask for an interview with the tyrant.
Two days afterwards the white sergeant dragged himself, wounded and half-dead, into barracks. Before he expired, poor fellow, he had only time to report that every Krooman was murdered, and that Benin was in a state of terrible ferment, like a hive of hornets.
"And so, Captain Flint," he added, "between your force and mine, I think we can give this murderous assassin such a drubbing that he will not forget it for years."
"We'll do our best," said Flint; "and I suppose the sooner we start the better."