Captain Canot; Or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver
in irons, to _Lisbon_, where a tribunal condemned them to the galleys
for five years. I understand they were subsequently released by the
clemency of Don Pedro de Braganza when he arrived from Brazil.
Every thing was ready for our departure. My rice was stored and about
to be sent on board; when, about three o'clock in the morning of the
25th of May, 1828, the voice of my servant roused me from pleasant
dreams, to fly for life! I sprang from the cot with a bound to the
door, where the flickering of a bright flame, reflected through the
thick, misty air, gave token of fire. The roof of my house was in a
blaze, and one hundred and fifty kegs of powder were close at hand
beneath a thatch! They could not be removed, and a single spark from
the frail and tinder-like materials might send the whole in an instant
to the skies.
A rapid discharge from a double-barrelled gun brought my people to
the spot with alacrity, and enabled me to rescue the two hundred and
twenty slaves stowed in the _barracoon_, and march them to a
neighboring wood, where they would be secure under a guard. In my
haste to rescue the slaves I forgot to warn my body-servant of his
peril from the powder. The faithful boy made several trips to the
dwelling to save my personal effects, and after removing every thing
he had strength to carry, returned to unchain the bloodhound that
always slept beside my couch in Africa. But the dog was as ignorant of
his danger as the youth. _He knew no friend but myself_, and tearing
the hand that was exposed to save him, he forced his rescuer to fly.
And well was it he did so. Within a minute, a tremendous blast shook
the earth, _and the prediction of the Matacan wizard was
accomplished_! Not even the red coals of my dwelling smouldered on the
earth. Every thing was swept as by the breath of a whirlwind. My
terrified boy, bleeding at nose and ears, was rescued from the ruins
of a shallow well in which he fortunately fell. The bamboo sheds,
barracoons, and hovels,--the _adobe_ dwelling and the comfortable
garden--could all spring up again in a short time, as if by
enchantment,--but my rich stuffs, my cottons, my provisions, my arms,
my ammunition, my capital, were dust.
In a few hours, friends crowded round me, according to African custom,
with proffered services to rebuild my establishment; but the heaviest
loss I experienced was that of the rice designed for the voyage, which
I could not replace in consequence of the destruction of my
merchandise. In my difficulty, I was finally obliged to swap some of
my two hundred and twenty negroes for the desired commodity, which
enabled me to despatch the Feliz, though I was, of course, obliged to
abandon the voyage in her.
My mind was greatly exercised for some time in endeavors to discover
the origin of this conflagration. The blaze was first observed at the
top of one of the gable ends, which satisfied Ali-Ninpha as well as
myself that it was the work of a malicious incendiary. We adopted a
variety of methods to trace or trap the scoundrel, but our efforts
were fruitless, until a strange negro exhibited one of my
double-barrelled guns for sale at a neighboring village, whose chief
happened to recognize it. When the seller was questioned about his
possession of the weapon, he alleged that it was purchased from inland
negroes in a distant town. His replies were so unsatisfactory to the
inquisitive chief, that he arrested the suspected felon and sent him
to Kambia.
I had but little remorse in adopting any means in my power to extort a
confession from the negro, who very soon admitted that my gun was
stolen by a runner from the wizard of Matacan, who was still hanging
about the outskirts of our settlement. I offered a liberal reward and
handsome bribes to get possession of the necromancer himself, but such
was the superstitious awe surrounding his haunt, that no one dared
venture to seize him in his sanctuary, or seduce him within reach of
my revenge. This, however, was not the case in regard to his emissary.
I was soon in possession of the actual thief, and had little
difficulty in securing his execution on the ruins he had made. Before
we launched him into eternity, I obtained his confession after an
obstinate resistance, and found with considerable pain that a brother
of Ormond, the suicide, was a principal mover in the affair. The last
words of the Mongo had been reported to this fellow as an injunction
of revenge against me, and he very soon learned from personal
experience that Kambia was a serious rival, if not antagonist, to
Bangalang. His African simplicity made him believe that the "red cock"
on my roof-tree would expel me from the river. I was not in a position
to pay him back at the moment, yet I made a vow to give the new Mongo
a free passage in irons to Cuba before many moons. But this, like
other rash promises, I never kept.
Sad as was the wreck of my property, the conflagration was fraught
with a misfortune that affected my heart far more deeply than the loss
of merchandise. Ever since the day of my landing at Ormond's factory,
a gentle form had flitted like a fairy among my fortunes, and always
as the minister of kindness and hope. Skilled in the ways of her
double blood, she was my discreet counsellor in many a peril; and,
tender as a well-bred dame of civilized lands, she was ever disposed
to promote my happiness by disinterested offices. But, when we came
to number the survivors of the ruin, ESTHER was nowhere to be found,
nor could I ever trace, among the scattered fragments, the slightest
relic of the Pariah's form!
* * * * *
Of course, I had very little beside my domestics to leave in charge of
any one at Kambia, and intrusting them to the care of Ali-Ninpha, I
went in my launch to Sierra Leone, where I purchased a schooner that
had been condemned by the Mixed Commission.
In 1829, vessels were publicly sold, and, with very little trouble,
equipped for the coast of Africa. The captures in that region were
somewhat like playing a hand,--taking the tricks, reshuffling the same
cards, and dealing again to take more tricks! Accordingly, I fitted
the schooner to receive a cargo of negroes immediately on quitting
port. My crew was made up of men from all nations, captured in prizes;
but I guardedly selected my officers from Spaniards exclusively.
We were slowly wafting along the sea, a day or two out of the British
colony, when the mate fell into chat with a clever lad, who was
hanging lazily over the helm. They spoke of voyages and mishaps, and
this led the sailor to declare his recent escape from a vessel, then
in the Rio Nunez, whose mate had poisoned the commander to get
possession of the craft. She had been fitted, he said, at St. Thomas
with the feigned design of coasting; but, when she sailed for Africa,
her register was sent back to the island in a boat to serve some other
vessel, while she ventured to the continent _without_ papers.
I have cause to believe that the slave-trade was rarely conducted upon
the honorable principles between man and man, which, of course, are
the only security betwixt owners, commanders and consignees whose
commerce is exclusively contraband. There were men, it is true,
engaged in it, with whom the "point of honor" was more omnipotent than
the dread of law in regular trade. But innumerable cases have occurred
in which the spendthrifts who appropriated their owners' property on
the coast of Africa, availed themselves of such superior force as
they happened to control, in order to escape detection, or assure a
favorable reception in the West Indies. In fact, the slaver sometimes
ripened into something very like a pirate!
In 1828 and 1829, severe engagements took place between Spanish
slavers and this class of contrabandists. Spaniards would assail
Portuguese when the occasion was tempting and propitious. Many a
vessel has been fitted in Cuba for these adventures, and returned to
port with a living cargo, purchased by cannon-balls and boarding-pikes
exclusively.
Now, I confess that my notions had become at this epoch somewhat
relaxed by my traffic on the coast, so that I grew to be no better
than folks of my cloth. I was fond of excitement; my craft was sadly
in want of a cargo; and, as the mate narrated the helmsman's story,
the Quixotic idea naturally got control of my brain that I was
destined to become the _avenger_ of the poisoned captain. I will not
say that I was altogether stimulated by the noble spirit of justice;
for it is quite possible I would never have thought of the dead man
had not the sailor apprised us that his vessel was half full of
negroes!
As we drifted slowly by the mouth of my old river, I slipped over the
bar, and, while I fitted the schooner with a splendid nine-pounder
amidships, I despatched a spy to the Rio Nunez to report the facts
about the poisoning, as well as the armament of the unregistered
slaver. In ten days the runner verified the tale. She was still in the
stream, with one hundred and eighty-five human beings in her hold, but
would soon be off with an entire cargo of two hundred and twenty-five.
The time was extraordinarily propitious. Every thing favored my
enterprise. The number of slaves would exactly fit my schooner. Such a
windfall could not be neglected; and, on the fourth day, I was
entering the Rio Nunez under the Portuguese flag, which I unfurled by
virtue of a pass from Sierra Leone to the Cape de Verd Islands.
I cannot tell whether my spy had been faithless, but when I reached
Furcaria, I perceived that my game had taken wing from her anchorage.
Here was a sad disappointment. The schooner drew too much water to
allow a further ascent, and, moreover, I was unacquainted with the
river.
As it was important that I should keep aloof from strangers, I
anchored in a quiet spot, and seizing the first canoe that passed,
learned, for a small reward, that the object of my search was hidden
in a bend of the river at the king's town of Kakundy, which I could
not reach without the pilotage of a certain mulatto, who was alone fit
for the enterprise.
I knew this half-breed as soon as his person was described, but I had
little hope of securing his services, either by fair means or promised
recompense. He owed me five slaves for dealings that took place
between us at Kambia, and had always refused so strenuously to pay,
that I felt sure he would be off to the woods as soon as he knew my
presence on the river. Accordingly, I kept my canoemen on the schooner
by an abundant supply of "bitters," and at midnight landed half a
dozen, who proceeded to the mulatto's cabin, where he was seized _sans
ceremonie_. The terror of this ruffian was indescribable when he found
himself in my presence,--a captive, as he supposed, for the debt of
flesh. But I soon relieved him, and offered a liberal reward for his
prompt, secret and safe pilotage, to Kakundy. The mulatto was willing,
but the stream was too shallow for my keel. He argued the point so
convincingly, that in half an hour, I relinquished the attempt, and
resolved to make "Mahomet come to the mountain."
The two boats were quickly manned, armed, and supplied with lanterns;
and, with muffled oars, guided by our pilot,--whose skull was kept
constantly under the lee of my pistols--we fell like vampyres on our
prey in the darkness.
With a wild hurrah and a blaze of our pistols in the air, we leaped on
board, driving every soul under hatches without striking a blow!
Sentries were placed at the cabin door, forecastle and hatchway. The
cable was slipped, my launch took her in tow, the pilot and myself
took charge of the helm, and, before daylight, the prize was alongside
my schooner, transhipping one hundred and ninety-seven of her slaves,
with their necessary supplies.