Again, the negroes of the coast were becoming educated and had a keen eye to business, so that the old profits were no longer obtainable.

The days had gone by when flint-lock guns and Manchester prints could be weighed in the balance against ivory and gold dust.
While these general causes were at work a special misfortune had befallen the house of Girdlestone.

Finding that their fleet of old sailing vessels was too slow and clumsy to compete with more modern ships, they had bought in two first-rate steamers.

One was the _Providence_, a fine screw vessel of twelve hundred tons, and the other was the _Evening Star_, somewhat smaller in size, but both classed A1 at Lloyd's.

The former cost twenty-two thousand pounds, and the latter seventeen thousand.