I was a close watcher of Mongo John whenever he engaged in the
purchase of slaves. As each negro was brought before him, Ormond
examined the subject, without regard to sex, from head to foot. A
careful manipulation of the chief muscles, joints, arm-pits and groins
was made, to assure soundness. The mouth, too, was inspected, and if a
tooth was missing, it was noted as a defect liable to deduction. Eyes,
voice, lungs, fingers and toes were not forgotten; so that when the
negro passed from the Mongo's hands without censure, he might have
been readily adopted as a good "life" by an insurance company.
Upon one occasion, to my great astonishment, I saw a stout and
apparently powerful man discarded by Ormond as utterly worthless. His
full muscles and sleek skin, to my unpractised eye, denoted the height
of robust health. Still, I was told that he had been medicated for the
market with bloating drugs, and sweated with powder and lemon-juice to
impart a gloss to his skin. Ormond remarked that these jockey-tricks
are as common in Africa as among horse-dealers in Christian lands; and
desiring me to feel the negro's pulse, I immediately detected disease
or excessive excitement. In a few days I found the poor wretch,
abandoned by his owner, a paralyzed wreck in the hut of a villager at
Bangalang.
[Illustration: INSPECTION AND SALE OF A NEGRO.]
When a slave becomes useless to his master in the interior, or
exhibits signs of failing constitution, he is soon disposed of to a
peddler or broker. These men call to their aid a quack, familiar with
drugs, who, for a small compensation, undertakes to refit an impaired
body for the temptation of green-horns. Sometimes the cheat is
successfully effected; but experienced slavers detect it readily by
the yellow eye, swollen tongue, and feverish skin.
After a few more lessons, I was considered by the Mongo sufficiently
learned in the slave traffic to be intrusted with the sole management
of his stores. This exemption from commerce enabled him to indulge
more than ever in the use of ardent spirits, though his vanity to be
called "king," still prompted him to attend faithfully to all the
"country palavers;"--and, let it be said to his credit, his decisions
were never defective in judgment or impartiality.
After I had been three months occupied in the multifarious intercourse
of Bangalang and its neighborhood, I understood the language well
enough to dispense with the interpreter, who was one of the Mongo's
confidential agents. When my companion departed on a long journey, he
counselled me to make up with Unga-golah, the _harem's_ Cerberus, as
she suspected my intimacy with Esther, who would doubtless be
denounced to Ormond, unless I purchased the beldame's silence.
Indeed, ever since the night of warning, when the beautiful
_quarteroon_ visited my hovel, I had contrived to meet this charming
girl, as the only solace of my solitude. Amid all the wild,
passionate, and savage surroundings of Bangalang, Esther--the
Pariah--was the only golden link that still seemed to bind me to
humanity and the lands beyond the seas. On that burning coast, I was
not excited by the stirring of an adventurous life, nor was my young
heart seduced and bewildered by absorbing avarice. Many a night, when
the dews penetrated my flesh, as I looked towards the west, my soul
shrank from the selfish wretches around me, and went off in dreams to
the homes I had abandoned. When I came back to myself,--when I was
forced to recognize my doom in Africa,--when I acknowledged that my
lot had been cast, perhaps unwisely, by myself, my spirit turned,
like the worm from the crashing heel, and found nothing that kindled
for me with the light of human sympathy, save this outcast girl.
Esther was to me as a sister, and when the hint of her harm or loss
was given, I hastened to disarm the only hand that could inflict a
blow. Unga-golah was a woman, and a rope of sparkling coral for her
neck, smothered all her wrongs.
The months I had passed in Africa without illness,--though I went
abroad after dark, and bathed in the river during the heat of the
day,--made me believe myself proof against malaria. But, at length, a
violent pain in my loins, accompanied by a swimming head, warned me
that the African fever held me in its dreaded gripe. In two days I was
delirious. Ormond visited me; but I knew him not, and in my madness,
called on Esther, accompanying the name with terms of endearment.
This, I was told, stirred the surprise and jealousy of the Mongo, who
forthwith assailed the matron of his harem with a torrent of inquiries
and abuse. But Unga-golah was faithful. The beads had sealed her
tongue; so that, with the instinctive adroitness peculiar to ladies of
her color, she fabricated a story which not only quieted the Mongo,
but added lustre to Esther's character.
The credulous old man finding Unga so well disposed towards his
watchful clerk, restored the warehouse to her custody. This was the
height of her avaricious ambition; and, in token of gratitude for my
profitable malady, she contrived to let Esther become the nurse and
guardian of my sick bed.
As my fever and delirium continued, a native doctor, renowned for his
skill, was summoned, who ordered me to be cupped in the African
fashion by scarifying my back and stomach with a hot knife, and
applying plantain leaves to the wounds. The operation allayed my pulse
for a few hours; but as the fever came back with new vigor, it became
necessary for my attendants to arouse the Mongo to a sense of my
imminent danger. Yet Ormond, instead of springing with alacrity to
succor a friend and retainer in affliction, sent for a young man,
named Edward Joseph, who had formerly been in his employment, but was
now settled on his own account in Bangalang.
Joseph proved a good Samaritan. As soon as he dared venture upon my
removal, he took me to his establishment at Kambia, and engaged the
services of another Mandingo doctor, in whose absurdities he believed.
But all the charms and incantations of the savage would not avail, and
I remained in a state of utter prostration and apparent insensibility
until morning. As soon as day dawned, my faithful Esther was again on
the field of action; and this time she insisted upon the trial of her
judgment, in the person of an old white-headed woman, who accompanied
her in the guise of the greatest enchantress of the coast. A slave,
paid in advance, was the fee for which she undertook to warrant my
cure.
No time was to be lost. The floor of a small and close mud hut was
intensely heated, and thickly strewn with moistened lemon leaves, over
which a cloth was spread for a couch. As soon as the bed was ready, I
was borne to the hovel, and, covered with blankets, was allowed to
steam and perspire, while my medical attendant dosed me with half a
tumbler of a green disgusting juice which she extracted from herbs.
This process of drinking and barbecuing was repeated during five
consecutive days, at the end of which my fever was gone. But my
convalescence was not speedy. For many a day, I stalked about, a
useless skeleton, covering with ague, and afflicted by an insatiable
appetite, until a French physician restored me to health by the use of
cold baths at the crisis of my fever.
When I was sufficiently recovered to attend to business, Mongo John
desired me to resume my position in his employment. I heard, however,
from Esther, that during my illness, Unga-golah used her opportunities
so profitably in the warehouse, that there would be sad deficiencies,
which, doubtless, might be thrown on me, if the crone were badly
disposed at any future period. Accordingly, I thought it decidedly
most prudent to decline the clerkship, and requested the Mongo to
recompense me for the time and attention I had already bestowed on
him. This was refused by the indolent voluptuary; so we parted with
coolness, and I was once more adrift in the world.
In these great outlying colonies and lodgments of European nations in
the East Indies and Africa, a stranger is commonly welcome to the
hospitality of every foreigner. I had no hesitation, therefore, in
returning to the house of Joseph, who, like myself, had been a clerk
of Ormond, and suffered from the pilferings of the matron.
My host, I understood, was a native of London, where he was born of
continental parents, and came to Sierra Leone with Governor Turner.
Upon the death or return of that officer,--I do not recollect
which,--the young adventurer remained in the colony, and, for a time,
enjoyed the post of harbor master. His first visit to the Rio Pongo
was in the capacity of supercargo of a small coasting craft, laden
with valuable merchandise. Joseph succeeded in disposing of his wares,
but was not equally fortunate in collecting their avails. It was,
perhaps, an ill-judged act of the supercargo, but he declined to face
his creditors with a deficient balance-sheet; and quitting Sierra
Leone for ever, accepted service with Ormond. For a year he continued
in this employment; but, at the end of that period, considering
himself sufficiently informed of the trade and language of the river,
he sent a message to his creditors at the British settlement that he
could promptly pay them in full, if they would advance him capital
enough to commence an independent trade. The terms were accepted by an
opulent Israelite, and in a short time Edward Joseph was numbered
among the successful factors of Rio Pongo.
As I had nothing to do but get well and talk, I employed my entire
leisure in acquiring the native language perfectly. The Soosoo is a
dialect of the Mandingo. Its words, ending almost universally in
vowels, render it as glibly soft and musical as Italian; so that, in a
short time, I spoke it as fluently as my native tongue.