The reason for the head of the law reconsidering his decision was that he was told he might retain the four thousand dollars found on board the “Charles et Georges,” and that one thousand more would be added if the vessel was restored.
The Governor-general was not to be trifled with in this manner, and decided that, as the judge had condemned her, he would send the “Charles et Georges” to Lisbon.
So far so good. The slave-trade was being effectually suppressed, as the British consul urged the Governor-general of Mozambique to do his duty. But another actor appeared on the scene, and soon altered the position of H.M. Consul at Mozambique.
On the 3rd of December H.M. frigate “Castor” called at Mozambique. The captain of that vessel, Henry Lyster, Esq., was quite astonished at the energy and determination displayed by the Governor-general of Mozambique, acting under the advice of the British consul. The day after his arrival he called upon the latter functionary, and remained with him about ten minutes.
In this short space of time H.M. Consul informed Captain Lyster, R.N., that on the night the “Charles et Georges” anchored in Mozambique harbour, the slaves belonging to the slave-dealers stoned the band of the Governor-general, while playing before the palace, and that he was obliged to flog a number of the slaves of the town, to prevent a repetition of this offence; that the slave-dealers, baffled in their attack on the Governor-general, twice attacked the consul’s house, through the medium of their slaves, whom they sent to stone the consul in his house; that he was served with a notice to quit the house he was then residing in, and that there was not one in the town which he could get to live in; that some short time previous, having gone to look at a house in the country, which he was told was to let, he was attacked by infuriated natives, who had been urged to this act by the slave-dealers, and that he escaped with his party by having been shown a road which led him from the natives to his own house.
He further showed Captain Henry Lyster, R.N., that he was without servants—all the slaves, with the exception of a child, which would not leave, having been taken from the house. He claimed his protection, and also asked him for a small boat by which he could communicate with the Governor-general.
To which Captain Lyster replied that he must immediately return to the Cape of Good Hope, and apprize the admiral of the serious state of affairs at Mozambique; and requested the consul to close his despatches, as his departure was immediate. He promised to send over in the evening for the consul’s despatches, if they did not reach him; and hurried out of the consul’s house, stating that he had to make arrangements for watering the ship at once.
The next morning at daylight, the “Castor” was observed, under her topsails, standing out to sea. It was imagined that H.M. frigate had gone in chase of some strange sail in the offing, but as day passed after day, the fearful and humiliating truth dawned on the inmates of the British consulate, that they had been abandoned to their fate.
The captain of H.M. frigate “Castor” left Mozambique without the consul’s despatches, either for the admiral at the Cape, or the British government. On the arrival of the “Castor” in England, Captain Lyster, R.N., was made superintendent of a naval dock-yard. Comment is needless, but sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.