The story of the _Pandora_ has been told in all its terrible details. A
slave-ship, fitted out in England, and sailing from an English port,--
alas! not the only one by scores,--manned by a crew of ruffians, scarce
two of them owning to the same nationality. Such was the bark
_Pandora_.
Her latest and last voyage was to the slave coast, in the Gulf of
Guinea. There, having shipped five hundred wretched beings with black
skins,--"bales" as they are facetiously termed by the trader in human
flesh,--she had started to carry her cargo to that infamous market,--
ever open in those days to such a commodity,--the barracoons of Brazil.
In mid-ocean she had caught fire,--a fire that could not be
extinguished. In the hurry and confusion of launching the boats the
pinnace proved to be useless; and the longboat, stove in by the falling
of a cask, sank to the bottom of the sea. Only the gig was found
available; and this, seized upon by the captain, the mate, and four
others, was rowed off clandestinely in the darkness.
The rest of the crew, over thirty in number, succeeded in constructing a
raft; and but a few seconds after they had pushed off from the sides of
the ship, a barrel of gunpowder ignited by the flames, completed the
catastrophe.
But what became of the _cargo_? Ah! that is indeed a tale of horror.
Up to the last moment those unfortunate beings had been kept under
hatches, under a grating that had been fastened down with battens. They
would have been left in that situation to be stifled in their
confinement by the suffocating smoke, or burnt alive amid the blazing
timbers, but for one merciful heart among those who were leaving the
ship. An axe uplifted by the arm of a brave youth--a mere boy--struck
off the confining cleats, and gave the sable sufferers access to the
open air.
Alas! it was scarce a respite to these wretched creatures,--only a
choice between two modes of death. They escaped from the red flames but
to sink into the dismal depths of the ocean,--hundreds meeting with a
fate still more horrible: for there were not less than that number, and
all became the prey of those hideous sea-monsters, the sharks.
Of all that band of involuntary emigrants, in ten minutes after the
blowing up of the bark, there was not one above the surface of the sea!
Those of them that could not swim had sunk to the bottom, while a worse
fate had befallen those that could,--to fill the maws of the ravenous
monsters that crowded the sea around them! At the period when our tale
commences, several days had succeeded this tragical event; and the
groups we have described, aligned upon a parallel of latitude, and
separated one from another by a distance of some ten or a dozen miles,
will be easily recognised.
The little boat lying farthest west was the gig of the _Pandora_,
containing her brutal captain, his equally brutal mate, the carpenter,
and three others of the crew, that had been admitted as partners in the
surreptitious abstraction. Under cover of the darkness they had made
their departure; but long before rowing out of gun-shot they had heard
the wild denunciations and threats hurled after them by their betrayed
associates.
The ruffian crew occupied the greater raft; but who were the two
individuals who had intrusted themselves to that frail embarkation,--
seemingly so slight that a single breath of wind would scatter it into
fragments, and send its occupants to the bottom of the sea? Such in
reality would have been their fate, had a storm sprung up at that
moment; but fortunately for them the sea was smooth and calm,--as it had
been ever since the destruction of the ship.
But why were they thus separated from the others of the crew: for both
man and boy had belonged to the forecastle of the _Pandora_?
The circumstance requires explanation, and it shall be briefly given.
The man was Ben Brace,--the bravest and best sailor on board the
slave-bark, and one who would not have shipped in such a craft but for
wrongs he had suffered while in the service of his country, and that had
inducted him into a sort of reckless disposition, of which, however, he
had long since repented.
The boy had also been the victim of a similar disposition. Longing to
see foreign lands, he had _run away to sea_; and by an unlucky accident,
through sheer ignorance of her character, had chosen the _Pandora_ in
which to make his initiatory voyage. From the cruel treatment he had
been subjected to on board the bark, he had reason to see his folly.
Irksome had been his existence from the moment he set foot on the deck
of the _Pandora_; and indeed it would have been scarce endurable but for
the friendship of the brave sailor Brace, who, after a time, had taken
him under his especial protection. Neither of them had any feelings in
common with the crew with whom they had become associated; and it was
their intention to escape from such vile companionship as soon as an
opportunity should offer.
The destruction of the bark would not have given that opportunity. On
the contrary, it rendered it all the more necessary to remain with the
others, and share the chances of safety offered by the great raft.
Slight as these might be, they were still better than those that might
await them, exposed on such a frail fabric as that they now occupied.
It is true, that upon this they had left the burning vessel separate
from the others; but immediately after they had rowed up alongside the
larger structure, and made fast to it.
In this companionship they had continued for several days and nights,
borne backward and forward by the varying breezes; resting by day on the
calm surface of the ocean; and sharing the fate of the rest of the
castaway crew.
What had led to their relinquishing the companionship? Why was Ben
Brace and his _protege_ separated from the others and once more alone
upon their little raft?
The cause of that separation must be declared, though one almost
shudders to think of it. It was to save the boy _from being eaten_ that
Ben Brace had carried him away from his former associates; and it was
only by a cunning stratagem, and at the risk of his own life, that the
brave sailor had succeeded in preventing this horrid banquet from being
made!
The castaway crew had exhausted the slender stock of provisions received
from the wreck. They were reduced to that state of hunger which no
longer revolts at the filthiest of food; and without even resorting to
the customary method adopted in such terrible crises, they unanimously
resolved upon the death of the boy,--Ben Brace alone raising a voice of
dissent!
But this voice was not heeded. It was decided that the lad should die:
and all that his protector was able to obtain from the fiendish crew,
was the promise of a respite for him till the following morning.
Brace had his object in procuring this delay. During the night, the
united rafts made way under a fresh breeze; and while all was wrapped in
darkness, he cut the ropes which fastened the lesser one to the greater,
allowing the former to fall astern. As it was occupied only by him and
his _protege_, they were thus separated from their dangerous associates;
and when far enough off to run no risk of being heard, they used their
oars to increase the distance.
All night long did they continue to row against the wind; and as morning
broke upon them, they came to a rest upon the calm sea, unseen by their
late comrades, and with ten miles separating the two rafts from each
other.
It was the fatigue of that long spell of pulling--with many a watchful
and weary hour preceding it--that had caused the boy to sink down upon
the folded canvas, and almost on the instant fall asleep; and it was the
apprehension of being followed that was causing Ben Brace to stand
shading his eyes from the sun, and scan with uneasy glance the
glittering surface of the sea.