midnight
To commission such a vessel to chase and capture the nimble craft that were usually employed to transport the unhappy blacks across the Atlantic was simply a ghastly farce , and caused us , her unfortunate crew , to be the laughing-stock of the entire coast . Yet , considering all things , we had not done so very badly ; for realising , early in the commission , that we need never hope for success from the speed of our ship , we had invoked the aid of strategy , and by dint of long practice had brought the trapping of slavers almost up to the level of high art . Consequently the _ Psyche _ , despite the disabilities arising from her astonishing lack of speed , had acquired a certain reputation among the slave-dealing fraternity , and was as intensely detested by them as any ship on the station . At the moment when the reader first finds himself a member of her crew the _ Psyche _ was lying near the mouth of the Benin river , some two miles off the shore and about twice that distance from the river 's mouth , at which point we had arrived at midnight ; having made our way thither in consequence of `` information received , '' which led us to believe that a large ship was at that moment in the river taking on board a full cargo of blacks . We had drifted down to the position which we then occupied under the impulse of the last of the land-breeze , which had died out and left us becalmed some two miles short of the precise spot for which we were aiming . Still , we were near enough for all practical purposes , or believed that we were ; for we thought that if a thoroughly smart look - out were maintained -- and we had grown to be adepts at that sort of thing -- it would be impossible for a slaver to attempt to slip out of the river without our becoming cognisant of the fact . And now , to return to my story .