I have always regretted that I left Ayudah on my homeward voyage
without interpreters to aid in the necessary intercourse with our
slaves. There was no one on board who understood a word of their
dialect. Many complaints from the negroes that would have been
dismissed or satisfactorily adjusted, had we comprehended their
vivacious tongues and grievances, were passed over in silence or
hushed with the lash. Indeed, the whip alone was the emblem of La
Estrella's discipline; and in the end it taught me the saddest of
lessons.
From the beginning there was manifest discontent among the slaves. I
endeavored at first to please and accommodate them by a gracious
manner; but manner alone is not appreciated by untamed Africans. A few
days after our departure, a slave leaped overboard in a fit of
passion, and another choked himself during the night. These two
suicides, in twenty-four hours, caused much uneasiness among the
officers, and induced me to make every preparation for a revolt.
We had been at sea about three weeks without further disturbance, and
there was so much merriment among the gangs that were allowed to come
on deck, that my apprehensions of danger began gradually to wear away.
Suddenly, however, one fair afternoon, a squall broke forth from an
almost cloudless sky; and as the boatswain's whistle piped all hands
to take in sail, a simultaneous rush was made by the confined slaves
at all the after-gratings, and amid the confusion of the rising gale,
they knocked down the guard and poured upon deck. The sentry at the
_fore-hatch_ seized the cook's axe, and sweeping it round him like a
scythe, kept at bay the band that sought to emerge from below him.
Meantime, the women in the cabin were not idle. Seconding the males,
they rose in a body, and the helmsman was forced to stab several with
his knife before he could drive them below again.
About forty stalwart devils, yelling and grinning with all the savage
ferocity of their wilderness, were now on deck, armed with staves of
broken water-casks, or billets of wood, found in the hold. The
suddenness of this outbreak did not appal me, for, in the dangerous
life of Africa, a trader must be always admonished and never off his
guard. The blow that prostrated the first white man was the earliest
symptom I detected of the revolt; but, in an instant, I had the
arm-chest open on the quarter-deck, and the mate and steward beside me
to protect it. Matters, however, did not stand so well forward of the
mainmast. Four of the hands were disabled by clubs, while the rest
defended themselves and the wounded as well as they could with
handspikes, or whatever could suddenly be clutched. I had always
charged the cook, on such an emergency, to distribute from his coppers
a liberal supply of scalding water upon the belligerents; and, at the
first sign of revolt, he endeavored to baptize the heathen with his
steaming slush. But dinner had been over for some time, so that the
lukewarm liquid only irritated the savages, one of whom laid the
unfortunate "doctor" bleeding in the scuppers.
All this occurred in perhaps less time than I have taken to tell it;
yet, rapid as was the transaction, I saw that, between the squall with
its flying sails, and the revolt with its raving blacks, we would soon
be in a desperate plight, unless I gave the order _to shoot_.
Accordingly, I told my comrades _to aim low and fire at once_.
Our carabines had been purposely loaded with buck-shot, to suit such
an occasion, so that the first two discharges brought several of the
rebels to their knees. Still, the unharmed neither fled or ceased
brandishing their weapons. Two more discharges drove them forward
amongst the mass of my crew, who had retreated towards the bowsprit;
but, being reinforced by the boatswain and carpenter, we took command
of the hatches so effectually, that a dozen additional discharges
among the ebony legs, drove the refractory to their quarters below.
It was time; for sails, ropes, tacks, sheets, and blocks, were
flapping, dashing, and rolling about the masts and decks, threatening
us with imminent danger from the squall. In a short time, every thing
was made snug, the vessel put on our course, and attention paid to the
mutineers, who had begun to fight among themselves in the hold!
I perceived at once, by the infuriate sounds proceeding from below,
that it would not answer to venture in their midst by descending
through the hatches. Accordingly, we discharged the women from their
quarters under a guard on deck, and sent several resolute and
well-armed hands to remove a couple of boards from the bulk-head, that
separated the cabin from the hold. When this was accomplished, a party
entered, on hands and knees, through the aperture, and began to press
the mutineers forward towards the bulk-head of the forecastle. Still,
the rebels were hot for fight to the last, and boldly defended
themselves with their staves against our weapons.
By this time, our lamed cook had rekindled his fires, and the water
was once more boiling. The hatches were kept open but guarded, and all
who did not fight were suffered to come singly on deck, where they
were tied. As only about sixty remained below engaged in conflict, or
defying my party of sappers and miners, I ordered a number of
auger-holes to be bored in the deck, as the scoundrels were forced
forward near the forecastle, when a few buckets of boiling water,
rained on them through the fresh apertures, brought the majority to
submission. Still, however, two of the most savage held out against
water as well as fire. I strove as long as possible to save their
lives, but their resistance was so prolonged and perilous, that we
were obliged to disarm them _for ever_ by a couple of pistol shots.
So ended the sad revolt of "La Estrella," in which two of my men were
seriously wounded, while twenty-eight balls and buck-shot were
extracted, with sailors' skill, from the lower limbs of the slaves.
One woman and three men perished of blows received in the conflict;
but none were deliberately slain except the two men, who resisted unto
death.
I could never account for this mutiny, especially as the blacks from
Ayudah and its neighborhood are distinguished for their humble manners
and docility. There can be no doubt that the entire gang was not
united or concerned in the original outbreak, else we should have had
harder work in subduing them, amid the risk and turmoil of a West
Indian squall.