Captain Canot; Or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver
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!
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
The San Pablo might have been considered entitled to a "clean bill of
health" by the time she reached the equator. The dead left space,
food, and water for the living, and very little restraint was imposed
on the squalid remnant. None were shackled after the outbreak of the
fatal plague, so that in a short time the survivors began to fatten
for the market to which they were hastening. But such was not the fate
of our captain. The fever and delirium had long left him, yet a
dysenteric tendency,--the result of a former malady,--suddenly
supervened, and the worthy gentleman rapidly declined. His nerves gave
way so thoroughly, that from fanciful weakness he lapsed into helpless
hypochondria. One of his pet ideas was that a copious dose of calomel
would ensure his restoration to perfect health. Unfortunately,
however, during the prevalence of the plague, our medicine chest had
one day been accidentally left exposed, and our mercury was
abstracted. Still there was no use to attempt calming him with the
assurance that his _nostrum_ could not be had. The more we argued the
impossibility of supplying him, the more was he urgent and imperative
for the sanative mineral.
In this dilemma I ordered a bright look-out to be kept for merchantmen
from whom I hoped to obtain the desirable drug. At last a sail was
reported two points under our lee, and as her canvas was both patched
and dark, I considered her a harmless Briton who might be approached
with impunity.
It proved to be a brig from Belfast, in Ireland; but when I overhauled
the skipper and desired him to send a boat on board, he declined the
invitation and kept his course. A second and third command shared the
same fate. I was somewhat nettled by this disregard of my flag,
pennant, and starboard epaulette, and ordering the brig to be run
alongside, I made her fast to the recusant, and boarded with ten men.
Our reception was, of course, not very amicable, though no show of
resistance was made by officers or crew. I informed the captain that
my object in stopping him was entirely one of mercy, and repeated the
request I had previously made through the speaking trumpet. Still, the
stubborn Scotchman persisted in denying the medicine, though I offered
him payment in silver or gold. Thereupon, I commanded the mate to
produce his log-book, and, under my dictation, to note the visit of
the San Pablo, my request, and its churlish denial. This being done to
my satisfaction, I ordered two of my hands to search for the medicine
chest, which turned out to be a sorry receptacle of stale drugs,
though fortunately containing an abundance of calomel. I did not
parley about appropriating a third of the mineral, for which I counted
five silver dollars on the cabin table. But the metal was no sooner
exhibited than my Scotchman refused it with disdain. I handed it,
however, to the mate, and exacted a receipt, which was noted in the
log-book.
As I put my leg over the taffrail, I tried once more to smooth the
bristles of the terrier, but a snarl and a snap repaid me for my good
humor. Nevertheless, I resolved "to heap coals of fire on the head" of
the ingrate; and, before I cast off our lashings, threw on his deck a
dozen yams, a bag of frijoles, a barrel of pork, a couple of sacks of
white Spanish biscuits,--and, with a cheer, bade him adieu.
But there was no balm in calomel for the captain. Scotch physic could
not save him. He declined day by day; yet the energy of his hard
nature kept him alive when other men would have sunk, and enabled him
to command even from his sick bed.
It was always our Sabbath service to drum the men to quarters and
exercise them with cannons and small arms. One Sunday, after the
routine was over, the dying man desired to inspect his crew, and was
carried to the quarter-deck on a mattress. Each sailor marched in
front of him and was allowed to take his hand; after which he called
them around in a body, and announced his apprehension that death would
claim him before our destination was reached. Then, without previously
apprising us of his design, he proceeded to make a verbal testament,
and enjoined it upon all as a duty to his memory to obey implicitly.
If the San Pablo arrived safely in port, he desired that every officer
and mariner should be paid the promised bounty, and that the proceeds
of cargo should be sent to his family in Nantz. But, if it happened
that we were attacked by a cruiser, and the brig was saved by the risk
and valor of a defence,--then, he directed that one half the voyage's
avails should be shared between officers and crew, while one quarter
was sent to his friends in France, and the other given to me. His
sailing-master and Cuban consignees were to be the executors of this
salt water document.
We were now well advanced north-westwardly on our voyage, and in every
cloud could see a promise of the continuing trade-wind, which was
shortly to end a luckless voyage. From deck to royal,--from flying-jib
to ring-tail, every stitch of canvas that would draw was packed and
crowded on the brig. Vessels were daily seen in numbers, but none
appeared suspicious till we got far to the westward, when my glass
detected a cruising schooner, jogging along under easy sail. I ordered
the helmsman to keep his course; and taughtening sheets, braces, and
halyards, went into the cabin to receive the final orders of our
commander.
He received my story with his usual bravery, nor was he startled when
a boom from the cruiser's gun announced her in chase. He pointed to
one of his drawers and told me to take out its contents. I handed him
three flags, which he carefully unrolled, and displayed the ensigns of
Spain, Denmark, and Portugal, in each of which I found a set of papers
suitable for the San Pablo. In a feeble voice he desired me to select
a nationality; and, when I chose the Spanish, he grasped my hand,
pointed to the door, and bade me not to surrender.
When I reached the deck, I found our pursuer gaining on us with the
utmost speed. She outsailed us--two to one. Escape was altogether out
of the question; yet I resolved to show the inquisitive stranger our