La Amistad
The men found the suspicious ship to be the schooner "La Amistad", of and from Havana, Cuba. She had set sail from the coast of Africa two months or so before, carrying two white passengers and 54 slaves, bound for Guanaja, Cuba. Four days out of port, the slaves rose and killed the captain and his crew, saving the two passengers to navigate the ship back to Africa. During the next two months, in which "La Amistad" had drifted at sea, nine of the slaves had died.