IN WHICH PHIL GOES AFT, WITH OTHERS OF THE CREW, AND THEN GOES FORWARD.
I believed that the Michigan was bound to the coast of Africa for a
cargo of slaves. The boatman who had tried to assist me to escape had
said as much to me, though I did not understand it at the time. Captain
Farraday declared that he should make his fortune on this voyage; and
Waterford was desperate enough to do anything. The bark was certainly
ten or twelve hundred miles south of her proper latitude if she was
bound up the Mediterranean.
If there was anything in the world which I regarded as more horrible
and wicked than anything else, it was the slave trade. At the time of
which I write, in spite of the vigilance of the British and American
cruisers on the African coast, several vessels had been successful in
running cargoes of negroes to Cuba. The profits of the trade were
so enormous that large wages could be paid to crews, and the vessel
sacrificed at the end. It was evident to me that the Spanish and
Portuguese seamen on board had been shipped for a slave voyage, or they
would not have known the destination of the bark. We had often heard
them talking together in their own language; but, as none of the crew
understood it, their secret was safe till they or the officers chose to
divulge it.
"What do you say to that, Jack?" asked Dick Baxter, as several of the
American sailors met in the forecastle.
"I believe it, Dick," replied the old salt.
"There is no doubt of it," I added; and I felt as though I stood on the
brink of despair.
"Grant it's true, what can we do about it?" continued Dick.
"Nothing," replied Jack.
"But it's piracy."
"Worse than piracy. I would rather be hung for murder than for stealing
niggers."
"Can't we do something?" I inquired, anxiously.
"What can we do against a set of cutthroats like the mate?" growled
Jack.
"We may do anything we can," added Dick. "It isn't a lawful voyage, and
we can't be compelled to do duty. We shipped for Palermo, not to steal
niggers."
I was glad to hear even two of my shipmates speak in this decided
manner. They abhorred the slave trade, like true American sailors; and
I hoped that more of the crew would be actuated by the same feelings of
humanity.
"This business is piracy, and every man engaged in it is liable to be
hanged," I added.
"But no one ever was hung," added Dick.
"So much the worse; they ought to have been," said Jack. "What can we
do?"
"I'll tell you what we can do, to make a beginning. Let us ascertain
first who are opposed to the business," I suggested.
"The Portuguese are in the scrape," replied Dick.
"And the Spaniards," said Jack.
"There are only five of them," I continued. "How is it with the second
mate?"
"I don't know; but we will soon find out who the pirates are."
We separated to obtain the facts. At eight bells in the evening, when
the port watch went on duty, we had canvassed the crew. There were
twenty-five persons on board, of whom eighteen were men before the
mast. The captain, two mates, the cook and cabin steward, and two
passengers, formed the rest of the number. Only the five Spanish and
Portuguese sailors among the crew were committed to the nefarious
scheme. The captain, the chief mate, and the two passengers made nine
who were actually engaged in the conspiracy. Of the remaining sixteen,
eight, including the second mate, were opposed to a slave voyage on any
terms, and would rather die than take part in the scheme. The other
eight were in doubt, but most of them objected to the deception which
had been practised upon them.
The bark went along on her course for a couple of days longer, during
which time the conspiracy was constantly under discussion. Those of
us who had decided views on the subject did our best to convince the
doubtful ones of the peril and wickedness of the enterprise. We
brought five of them to say that they would join us in a remonstrance
to the officers.
"That's the talk; we will go to work peaceably," said Jack Sanderson.
"Now's our time," added Dick Baxter. "All hands are on deck, and we may
as well form a line, and state the case. Who shall speak for us?"
"Jack Sanderson," I suggested.
"I'm no lawyer," replied the old salt, modestly.
"We don't need any lawyer. You are the oldest man, and will do the job
best," I insisted.
"Agreed!" added several.
Without giving the spokesman time to consider his speech, we collected
our forces, comprising twelve men, and walked aft as far as the
mainmast, with old Jack at the head of the procession. The captain,
the mate, and the two passengers were smoking their cigars on the
quarter-deck; but their attention was immediately arrested by the
appearance of the twelve seamen.
"What's the matter now?" demanded Waterford, stepping forward to the
mainmast, where we had halted. "Do you want plum duff every day in the
week?"
"No, sir; we don't find any fault with our grub," answered Jack, taking
off his hat; and the rest of us followed his example, so as to be
entirely respectful.
"What do you want, then?"
"I beg your pardon, sir; but we all shipped for Palermo, and up the
Mediterranean; and we don't think we shall make that port on this tack."
"You are more than half right," added the mate, with an oath, as he
glanced at the captain and the two passengers.
"If you please, sir, we would like to know where the bark is bound,"
continued Jack, scraping his foot upon the deck, as he made his most
respectful bow.
"She is bound to put a lot of money in your pockets, my lads."
"Thank you, sir; but where shall we fetch up?"
"No matter about that, now. I'll tell you all about it in a few days,"
replied Waterford, more gently than I had heard him speak since I came
on board. "If you want plum duff for dinner every day, you shall have
it. Here, doctor!" he shouted to the cook. "Give all hands plum duff
every day."
"Thank you, sir," Jack proceeded, with another scrape and bow. "Plum
duff is good; but we would like to know where the bark is bound."
"Bound for a port where you will make more money than you ever saw
before, my lads. By the way, boys, we are going to serve out grog in
this bark three times a day after this, and we will begin now."
My heart sank within me, for I was afraid that the virtue of Sanderson
and Baxter would not be proof against the seductions of rum. They were
good men when sober; I knew that they were little better than demons
when drunk.
"Don't let him buy you off with liquor and plum duff," I whispered,
with my heart in my throat.
"We don't object to the grog, your honor; but we would like to know
something more about the voyage," replied Jack, mildly.
"Steward!" shouted the mate.
"Here, sir," replied this official.
"Splice the main brace, all round. Give every man half a tumbler full,
and let Sanderson have Phil's share; he belongs to the temperance
society, and never splices the main brace," laughed the mate, as though
he thought himself inexpressibly funny.
"Don't let him pull wool over your eyes, Jack," I whispered, turning my
back to the mate.
"Thank your honor, kindly," continued Sanderson, whose heart seemed to
be won by the rum.
"I know how to warm the heart of an old sailor," added Waterford,
glancing at his companions on the quarter-deck.
"If you please, sir, some of the men think the bark is going a
slaving," persisted Jack.
"Do they? What put that into their heads?"
"We all think we are bound down the coast of Africa."
"Well, don't you like the idea?" laughed the mate.
"No, sir; we do not," responded Jack, so decidedly that my courage rose
a little.
"You don't? That's because you don't understand it."
"We think we understand the business well enough, sir."
"Don't you want to make five hundred or a thousand dollars out of a
three months' cruise?"
"Not slaving, sir," answered Jack, with another scrape of his foot, and
a low bow.
"Come, let's splice the main brace, and we will talk it over another
time," said the mate, as the cabin steward appeared with a pitcher of
rum.
"Here, Jack," said the mate, as he took the glass from the steward, and
filled it two thirds full of the reddish poison.
"Not any for me, thank your honor," replied Jack, to my astonishment.
"What!" exclaimed the mate.
"None for me, sir."
"Don't you drink liquor?"
"Yes, sir; when I'm on shore I do; but I never was in the habit of
drinking it on board ship."
The mate looked very ugly.
"Here, Baxter," he added, turning to the next man.
"None for me, sir."
I was amazed at the self-denial and firmness of these men. The others
followed their example; not one of them would take the grog. They
understood that it was a bribe--that it was used to induce them to
comply with the new order of events. At that moment I felt that the
Michigan would not bear a cargo of shackled human beings over the
ocean, to be sold into bondage in Cuba or the Southern States. The grog
was served out to the rest of the crew, who did not refuse it.
"I suppose we are to understand that the bark is bound down the coast
of Africa, slaving," continued Jack, when the mate came aft again.
"You can understand what you please," growled Waterford, savagely; for
his good humor had failed him with the defeat of his scheme to win over
the men.
"We are sorry for it, your honor, because we shipped for Palermo."
"Go forward, every one of you!" roared the mate.
"If this isn't a lawful voyage, Mr. Waterford--"
"Do you hear me?"
"We do, sir. We shipped for a lawful voyage, and--"
"Do you mean to get up a mutiny? Go forward, and attend to your duty,
or I'll put every mother's son of you in irons."
"If you say we are not going a slaving, we shall be satisfied."
"I won't say anything to you," said the mate, picking up a belaying-pin.
The two passengers went below; but they immediately appeared again
with revolvers in their hands. Captain Farraday picked up a handspike,
and placed himself by the mate. At the same time the five Spanish and
Portuguese sailors came aft, each of them armed with a handspike or
some other weapon. The affair began to look serious to us, who were
provided with nothing to defend ourselves with.
"My men, this is mutiny," interposed Captain Farraday.
"We have a right to know whether this is a lawful voyage or not," said
Baxter.
"You will obey your officers, whether the voyage is lawful or not,"
added the captain.
"I'm not going to parley with mutineers," said Waterford, sternly, as
he moved forward towards us.
The two passengers cocked their pistols, and the five sailors who were
in the plot closed in before us. We were unprepared for a fight, and we
retreated in a body to the forecastle.