Before I went to sea again, I took a long holiday with full pockets,
among my old friends at Regla and Havana. I thought it possible that a
residence in Cuba for a season, aloof from traders and their
transactions, might wean me from Africa; but three months had hardly
elapsed, before I found myself sailing out of the harbor of St. Jago
de Cuba to take, in Jamaica, a cargo of merchandise for the coast, and
then to return and refit for slaves in Cuba.
My voyage began with a gale, which for three days swept us along on a
tolerably good course, but on the night of the third, after snapping
my mainmast on a lee shore, I was forced to beach the schooner in
order to save our lives and cargo from destruction. Fortunately, we
effected our landing with complete success, and at dawn I found my
gallant little craft a total wreck on an uninhabited key. A large tent
or pavilion was quickly built from our sails, sweeps, and remaining
spars, beneath which every thing valuable and undamaged was stored
before nightfall. Parties were sent forth to reconnoitre, while our
remaining foremast was unshipped, and planted on the highest part of
the sandbank with a signal of distress. The scouts returned without
consolation. Nothing had been seen except a large dog, whose neck was
encircled with a collar; but as he could not be made to approach by
kindness, I forbade his execution. Neither smoke nor tobacco freed us
of the cloudy swarms of mosquitoes that filled the air after sunset,
and so violent was the irritation of their innumerable stings, that a
delicate boy among the crew became utterly insane, and was not
restored till long after his return to Cuba.
Several sad and weary days passed over us on this desolate key, where
our mode of life brought to my recollection many a similar hour spent
by me in company with Don Rafael and his companions. Vessel after
vessel passed the reef, but none took notice of our signal. At last,
on the tenth day of our imprisonment, a couple of small schooners
fanned their way in a nonchalant manner towards our island, and
knowing that we were quite at their mercy, refused our rescue unless
we assented to the most extravagant terms of compensation. After a
good deal of chaffering, it was agreed that the salvors should land us
and our effects at Nassau, New Providence, where the average should be
determined by the lawful tribunal. The voyage was soon accomplished,
and our amiable liberators from the mosquitoes of our island prison
obtained a judicial award of seventy per cent. for their extraordinary
trouble!
The wreck and the wreckers made so formidable an inroad upon my
finances, that I was very happy when I reached Cuba once more, to
accept the berth of sailing-master in a slave brig which was fitting
out at St. Thomas's, under an experienced Frenchman.
My new craft, the SAN PABLO, was a trim Brazil-built brig, of rather
more than 300 tons. Her hold contained sixteen twenty-four carronades,
while her magazine was stocked with abundance of ammunition, and her
kelson lined, fore and aft, with round shot and grape. Captain * * *,
who had been described as a Tartar and martinet, received me with much
affability, and seemed charmed when I told him that I conversed
fluently not only in French but in English.
I had hardly arrived and begun to take the dimensions of my new
equipage, when a report ran through the harbor that a Danish cruiser
was about to touch at the island. Of course, every thing was instantly
afloat, and in a bustle to be off. Stores and provisions were tumbled
in pell-mell, tanks were filled with water during the night; and,
before dawn, fifty-five ragamuffins of all castes, colors, and
countries, were shipped as crew. By "six bells," with a coasting flag
at our peak, we were two miles at sea with our main-topsail aback,
receiving six kegs of specie and several chests of clothing from a
lugger.
When we were fairly on "blue water" I discovered that our voyage,
though a slaver's, was not of an ordinary character. On the second
day, the mariners were provided with two setts of uniform, to be worn
on Sundays or when called to quarters. Gold-laced caps, blue coats
with anchor buttons, single epaulettes, and side arms were distributed
to the officers, while a brief address from the captain on the
quarter-deck, apprised all hands that if the enterprise resulted well,
_a bounty_ of one hundred dollars would be paid to each adventurer.
That night our skipper took me into council and developed his plan,
which was to load in a port in the Mozambique channel. To effect his
purpose with more security, he had provided the brig with an armament
sufficient to repel a man-of-war of equal size--(a fancy I never gave
way to)--and on all occasions, except in presence of a French cruiser,
he intended to hoist the Bourbon lilies, wear the Bourbon uniform, and
conduct the vessel in every way as if she belonged to the royal navy.
Nor were the officers to be less favored than the sailors in regard to
double salary, certificates of which were handed to me for myself and
my two subordinates. A memorandum book was then supplied, containing
minute instructions for each day of the ensuing week, and I was
specially charged, as second in command, to be cautiously punctual in
all my duties, and severely just towards my inferiors.
I took some pride in acquitting myself creditably in this new military
phase of a slaver's life. Very few days sufficed to put the rigging
and sails in perfect condition; to mount my sixteen guns; to drill the
men with small arms as well as artillery; and by paint and sea-craft,
to disguise the Saint Paul as a very respectable cruiser.
In twenty-seven days we touched at the Cape de Verds for provisions,
and shaped our way southward without speaking a single vessel of the
multitude we met, until off the Cape of Good Hope we encountered a
stranger who was evidently bent upon being sociable. Nevertheless, our
inhospitable spirit forced us to hold our course unswervingly, till
from peak and main we saw the white flag and pennant of France
unfurled to the wind.
Our drum immediately beat to quarters, while the flag chest was
brought on deck. Presently, the French _transport_ demanded our
private signal; which out of our ample supply, was promptly answered,
and the royal ensign of Portugal set at our peak.
As we approached the Frenchman every thing was made ready for all
hazards;--our guns were double-shotted, our matches lighted, our small
arms distributed. The moment we came within hail, our captain,--who
claimed precedence of the lieutenant of a transport,--spoke the
Frenchman; and, for a while, carried on quite an amiable chat in
Portuguese. At last the stranger requested leave to send his boat
aboard with letters for the Isle of France; to which we consented with
the greatest pleasure, though our captain thought it fair to inform
him that we dared not prudently invite his officers on deck, inasmuch
as there were "several cases of small-pox among our crew, contracted,
in all likelihood, at Angola!"
The discharge of an unexpected broadside could not have struck our
visitor with more dismay or horror. The words were hardly spoken when
her decks were in a bustle,--her yards braced sharply to the
wind,--and her prow boiling through the sea, without so much as the
compliment of a "_bon voyage_!"
Ten days after this _ruse d'esclave_ we anchored at Quillimane, among
a lot of Portuguese and Brazilian slavers, whose sails were either
clewed up or unbent as if for a long delay. We fired a salute of
twenty guns and ran up the French flag. The salvo was quickly
answered, while our captain, in the full uniform of a naval commander,
paid his respects to the Governor. Meantime orders were given me to
remain carefully in charge of the ship; to avoid all intercourse with
others; to go through the complete routine and show of a man-of-war;
to strike the yards, haul down signal, and fire a gun at sunset; but
especially to get underway and meet the captain at a small beach off
the port, the instant I saw a certain flag flying from the fort.
I have rarely seen matters conducted more skilfully than they were by
this daring Gaul. Next morning early the Governor's boat was sent for
the specie; the fourth day disclosed the signal that called us to the
beach; the fifth, sixth, and seventh, supplied us with _eight hundred
negroes_; and, on the ninth, we were underway for our destination.
The success of this enterprise was more remarkable because fourteen
vessels, waiting cargoes, were at anchor when we arrived, some of
which had been detained in port over fifteen months. To such a pitch
had their impatience risen, that the masters made common cause against
all new-comers, and agreed that each vessel should take its turn for
supply according to date of arrival. But the astuteness of my veteran
circumvented all these plans. His anchorage and non-intercourse as _a
French man-of-war_ lulled every suspicion or intrigue against him, and
he adroitly took advantage of his kegs of specie to win the heart of
the authorities and factors who supplied the slaves.
But wit and cleverness are not all in this world. Our captain returned
in high spirits to his vessel; but we hardly reached the open sea
before he was prostrated with an ague which refused to yield to
ordinary remedies, and finally ripened into fever, that deprived him
of reason. Other dangers thickened around us. We had been several days
off the Cape of Good Hope, buffeting a series of adverse gales, when
word was brought me after a night of weary watching, that several
slaves were ill of small-pox. Of all calamities that occur in the
voyage of a slaver, this is the most dreaded and unmanageable. The
news appalled me. Impetuous with anxiety I rushed to the captain, and
regardless of fever or insanity, disclosed the dreadful fact. He
stared at me for a minute as if in doubt; then opening his bureau and
pointing to a long coil of combustible material, said that it
communicated through the decks with the powder magazine, and ordered
me to--"_blow up the brig!_"
The master's madness sobered his mate. I lost no time in securing
both the dangerous implement and its perilous owner, while I called
the officers into the cabin for inquiry and consultation as to our
desperate state.
The gale had lasted nine days without intermission, and during all
this time with so much violence that it was impossible to take off the
gratings, release the slaves, purify the decks, or rig the wind-sails.
When the first lull occurred, a thorough inspection of the eight
hundred was made, and _a death announced_. As life had departed during
the tempest, a careful inspection of the body was made, and it was
this that first disclosed the pestilence in our midst. The corpse was
silently thrown into the sea, and the malady kept secret from crew and
negroes.
When breakfast was over on that fatal morning, I determined to visit
the slave deck myself, and ordering an abundant supply of lanterns,
descended to the cavern, which still reeked horribly with human vapor,
even after ventilation. But here, alas! I found nine of the negroes
infected by the disease. We took counsel as to the use of laudanum in
ridding ourselves speedily of the sufferers,--a remedy that is seldom
and secretly used in _desperate_ cases to preserve the living from
contagion. But it was quickly resolved that it had already gone too
far, when nine were prostrated, to save the rest by depriving them of
life. Accordingly, these wretched beings were at once sent to the
forecastle as a hospital, and given in charge to the vaccinated or
innoculated as nurses. The hold was then ventilated and limed; yet
before the gale abated, our sick list was increased to thirty. The
hospital could hold no more. Twelve of the sailors took the infection,
and fifteen corpses had been cast in the sea!
All reserve was now at an end. Body after body fed the deep, and still
the gale held on. At last, when the wind and waves had lulled so much
as to allow the gratings to be removed from our hatches, our
consternation knew no bounds when we found that nearly all the slaves
were dead or dying with the distemper. I will not dwell on the scene
or our sensations. It is a picture that must gape with all its horrors
before the least vivid imagination. Yet there was no time for languor
or sentimental sorrow. Twelve of the stoutest survivors were ordered
to drag out the dead from among the ill, and though they were
constantly drenched with rum to brutalize them, still we were forced
to aid the gang by reckless volunteers from our crew, who, arming
their hands with tarred mittens, flung the foetid masses of
putrefaction into the sea!
One day was a counterpart of another; and yet the love of life, or,
perhaps, the love of gold, made us fight the monster with a courage
that became a better cause. At length death was satisfied, but not
until the eight hundred beings we had shipped in high health had
dwindled to four hundred and ninety-seven skeletons!