The "Black Slaver" well deserved her name. Her hull was black, without
the usual relief of a coloured ribbon; her masts and spars were of the
same ebon hue, her cargo was black, and surely her decks were dark as
the darkest night. She was a very large vessel, certainly upwards of
three hundred tons, and also heavily armed with a long brass gun
amidships, and ten long nines in battery, besides small brass
swivel-guns mounted on her quarter, to aid in defending her against an
attack in boats.
Her crew was composed of every nation under the sun, for crime makes all
men brothers, but brothers who, Cainlike, were ready any moment to
imbrue their hands in each other's blood; and their costume was as
varied as their language--a mixture of that of many nations. A mongrel
Spanish, however, was the language in which all orders were issued, as
being that spoken by the greater number of the people. She was a very
beautiful and powerful vessel, and all the arrangements on board
betokened strict attention to nautical discipline. For more than two
years she had run her evil career with undeserved success, and her
captain and owner was reputed to be a wealthy man, already in possession
of several estates in Cuba. Slaving was his most profitable and safe
occupation, mixed up with a little piracy, as occasion offered, without
fear of detection. Several slavers had unaccountably disappeared, which
had certainly not been taken by English cruisers, and others had
returned to the coast complaining that they had been robbed of their
slaves by a large armed schooner, which had put on board a few bales of
coloured cottons, with an order to them to go back and take in a fresh
cargo of human beings. The "Espanto" was more than suspected of being
the culprit; but she was always so disguised that it was difficult to
bring the accusation home to her, while they themselves being illegally
employed, could obtain no redress in a court of law.
She had for some time been cruising, as usual, in the hopes of picking
up a cargo without taking the trouble of looking into the coast for it,
when, weary of waiting, and being short of water and provisions, the
captain determined to run the risk of procuring one by the usual method.
From the ruse practised by the "Sylph," she was not seen by his lookouts
till he was nearly close up to her. He was in no way alarmed, however,
for he recognised the British man-of-war, and knowing the respective
rate of sailing of the two vessels, felt certain, if the wind held, to
be able to walk away from her. To make certain what she was, he had
stood on some time after he had first seen her, a circumstance which
had, as we mentioned, somewhat surprised Captain Staunton and his
officers. Having ascertained that the sail inside of him was the
"Sylph," he hauled his wind, and making all sail, before an hour of the
first watch had passed, aided by the darkness, he had completely run her
out of sight. When he stood in he had been making for the Pongos River;
but being prevented from getting in there, he determined to run for the
Coanza River, some forty miles further to the south, before daybreak,
and as the mouth is narrow, and entirely concealed by trees, he had many
chances in his favour of remaining concealed there while the British
man-of-war passed by. A slave-agent, also, of his resided in the
neighbourhood, who would be able to supply him at the shortest notice,
and at moderate prices, with a cargo of his fellow-beings. At this
rendezvous he knew there would be a look-out for him, and that there
were pilots ready to assist him in entering the river.
"Square the yards and keep her away, Antonio," he sung out to his first
mate, a ferocious-looking mulatto, who was conning the vessel. "We are
just abreast of--Point, and Diogo, if he has his eyes open, ought to see
us."
The helm was kept up, the yards were squared, and the vessel stood stem
on towards the shore.
Before long the dark line of a tree-fringed coast was visible, when she
was again brought to the wind; her lower sails were furled, and she was
hove-to under her topsails.
"We must make a signal, or the lazy blacks will never find us out, senor
captain," observed Antonio to his chief.
"Yes, we must run the risk: we shall not be in before daylight if we do
not, and the enemy will scarcely distinguish from what direction the
report of the gun comes. Be smart about it though."
A gun from the lee quarter was accordingly discharged, the dull echoes
from which were heard rebounding along the shore, and directly
afterwards a blue-light was fired, the bright flame giving a
spectre-like appearance to the slaver and her evil-doing crew. They
might well have been taken for one of those phantom barks said to cruise
about the ocean either to warn mariners of coming danger or to lure them
to destruction.
Soon afterwards a small light was seen to burst out, as it seemed, from
the dark line, and to glide slowly over the water towards them.
Gradually it increased, and as it approached nearer, it was seen to
proceed from a fire burning in the bow of a large canoe pulled by a
dozen black fellows. When it came alongside, two of them scrambled on
board, and recognising the captain, welcomed him to the coast. Their
language was a curious mixture of Spanish, Portuguese, English, and
African.
"Ah, senor captain, berry glad you et Espanto, come esta nocha, viento
es favoravel, for run up de river Diogo--me vos on the look-out you,
sabe."
Having thus delivered himself, the chief pilot went aft to the helm with
much the same air as one of his European brethren, habited in Flushing
coat and tarpaulin hat, although the only garment he boasted was a blue
shirt, secured at the waist by a piece of spun-yarn, and a red
handkerchief bound round his head.
"Up with the helm, then square away the yards!" sung out the captain,
and the vessel, under the direction of the negro, was standing dead on
to the apparently unbroken line of dark shore.
It required great confidence in the honesty and knowledge of the pilot
for the crew not to believe that he was running the schooner on shore,
for such a thing had been more than once before done.
"Remember," whispered Antonio, as he passed him, "if the vessel touches,
my pistol sends a ball through your head."
"No tien duvida, senor, contremestre," answered Quacko, quite unmoved by
the threat, as being one to which he was well accustomed.
"Viento favoravel, rio fundo. Have de anchor pronto to let go."
The bowsprit of the schooner was now almost among the mangrove bushes.
"Stivordo!" sung out the pilot.
A yellow line of sand was seen over her quarter. This seemed to spring
up from the sea on either side, like dark, shapeless phantoms, eager to
destroy the slaver's crew, the spirits of those their cruelty had sent
from this world. Taller and taller they grew, for so calmly did the
vessel glide on, that she appeared not to move, yet the broad open sea
was completely shut out from the view of those on board; a narrow dark
line, in which the reflection of a star was here and there visible, was
the only water seen as still, on the schooner moved.
"Bombordo!" sung out the pilot.
The helm was put to port, and the schooner glided into another passage,
her yards, as they were squared away or braced up to meet the
alterations in her course, almost brushing the branches of the lofty
trees. For some minutes more she ran on, till the stream grew suddenly
wider, and a little bay, formed by a bend of the shore, appeared on the
starboard hand, into which she glided. The anchor was let go, the
topsails were furled, and so entirely was she concealed by the
overhanging boughs, that a boat might have passed down the centre of the
stream without seeing her.
At dawn the next morning a busy scene was going on on board and round
the slaver. Her crew, aided by a number of negroes, were employed in
setting up her rigging and fitting slave-decks, while several canoes
were assisting her boats in bringing water and provisions alongside.
Thus they were employed without cessation for two days. There was no
play, it was all hard, earnest work. It is a pity they were not
labouring in a good cause instead of a bad one.
In the mean time the King of --, as he was called, in reality the
principal slave-dealer and greatest rogue in the district, was
collecting the negroes who had been kidnapped by him or his allies, from
whom he had bought them in the neighbouring provinces--some as they were
quietly fishing in their canoes on the coast, others as they were seated
beneath the shade of the palm-tree in their native forest, or were
coming from the far interior with a load of oil or ivory, to sell to the
nearest trader--untutored savages, who perhaps had never before seen the
face of a white man, or the blue dancing ocean. It is no wonder that
they paint the Devil white, and believe the sea is the passage to his
realms. Eight hundred human beings were thus collected to be conveyed
in that fell bark to the Far West, there to wear out their lives in
hopeless slavery.
The greater part of the fourth day was spent in receiving half the
number on board, and stowing them below. This operation was performed
by men whose especial trade it is. The unhappy wretches are compelled
to sit down with their legs bent under them, so closely packed that they
cover but little more space than the length of their feet,
between-decks, little more than a yard high; and thus they remain,
bolted down to the decks, the whole voyage, a few only being allowed to
come up at a time to be aired, while the smallest quantity of water
possible is afforded them to quench their burning thirst.