Harry and Tom hearing our shouts had hurried down to the beach. Our surprise and satisfaction were mutual. We very quickly told him our adventures, and he then informed us that he had played the same trick on the pirates which they had played on Lieutenant Hallton, and that having recaptured the “Arrow” he had carried her safely back to England, and that he had now just arrived on the coast, the only misfortune which had happened to him being the death of a young man who had come out as supercargo.
“You may therefore still be of the greatest assistance to me,” he said, “and having now learned something of the language, and being acclimatised, you will be able to transact business with the natives far better than you could otherwise have done.”
We then told him of our black followers, who would, we believed, be of still greater assistance in procuring the articles we required, and disposing of the goods we had brought.
Iguma and Kendo were somewhat alarmed at first at the thought of going on board a ship, but we soon overcame their fears, and the next morning we all went on board, bidding farewell to our encampment, and once more trod the deck of the “Arrow.”
Harry and I resumed our berths on board, as did Tom Tubbs, for the boatswain who had come out had already fallen sick and was unable to do duty.
Caspar entered as one of the ship’s company, as did Aboh, Captain Magor arranged to carry Kendo and Iguma with their followers to England, if they preferred going there to being landed at one of the English settlements on the coast.
I must now bring my tale rapidly to a conclusion. Kendo and his wife—wisely, I think—determined not to go to England.
A week afterwards we fell in with the “Rover,” when Charley rejoined his ship, taking the blacks with him, the captain kindly promising to land them at Cape Coast Castle, where they would be properly treated and looked after. With the information we had gained, we were so well able to conduct our transactions, that our voyage was the most successful ever made by the “Arrow,” and we had the satisfaction of meeting with the approval of our employers, and receiving substantial acknowledgments.
Of course our disappearance had caused very great anxiety to our friends, though they had been buoyed up by the hope that we would surely return.
Harry and I having married the young ladies to whom we had so long been attached, entered the firm, and on the death of that kind and excellent man Mr Swab, we found that he had divided his fortune between us.