Un capitaine de quinze ans. English Read online

  CHAPTER IV.

  THE SURVIVORS OF THE "WALDECK."

  In spite of the watchfulness of the French and English cruisers, thereis no doubt that the slave-trade is still extensively carried on in allparts of equatorial Africa, and that year after year vessels loadedwith slaves leave the coasts of Angola and Mozambique to transporttheir living freight to many quarters even of the civilized world.

  Of this Captain Hull was well aware, and although he was now in alatitude which was comparatively little traversed by such slavers, hecould not help almost involuntarily conjecturing that the negroes theyhad just found must be part of a slave-cargo which was on its way tosome colony of the Pacific; if this were so, he would at least have thesatisfaction of announcing to them that they had regained their freedomfrom the moment that they came on board the "Pilgrim."

  Whilst these thoughts were passing through his mind, Mrs. Weldon,assisted by Nan and the ever active Dick Sands, was doing everything inher power to restore consciousness to the poor sufferers. The judiciousadministration of fresh water and a limited quantity of food soon hadthe effect of making them revive; and when they were restored to theirsenses it was found that the eldest of them, a man of about sixty yearsof age, who immediately regained his powers of speech, was able toreply in good English to all the questions that were put to him. Inanswer to Captain Hull's inquiry whether they were not slaves, the oldnegro proudly stated that he and his companions were all free Americancitizens, belonging to the state of Pennsylvania.

  Mrs. Weldon, assisted by Nan and the ever active DickSands, was doing everything in her power to restore consciousness tothe poor sufferers.]

  "Then, let me assure you, my friend," said the captain, "you have by nomeans compromised your liberty in having been brought on board theAmerican schooner 'Pilgrim.'"

  Not merely, as it seemed, on account of his age and experience, butrather because of a certain superiority and greater energy ofcharacter, this old man was tacitly recognized as the spokesman of hisparty; he freely communicated all the information that Captain Hullrequired to hear, and by degrees he related all the details of hisadventures.

  He said that his name was Tom, and that when he was only six years ofage he had been sold as a slave, and brought from his home in Africa tothe United States; but by the act of emancipation he had long sincerecovered his freedom. His companions, who were all much younger thanhimself, their ages ranging from twenty-five to thirty, were allfree-born, their parents having been emancipated before their birth, sothat no white man had ever exercised upon them the rights of ownership.One of them was his own son; his name was Bat (an abbreviation ofBartholomew); and there were three others, named Austin, Actaeon, andHercules. All four of them were specimens of that stalwart race thatcommands so high a price in the African market, and in spite of theemaciation induced by their recent sufferings, their muscular,well-knit frames betokened a strong and healthy constitution. Theirmanner bore the impress of that solid education which is given in theNorth American schools, and their speech had lost all trace of the"nigger-tongue," a dialect without articles or inflexions, which sincethe anti-slavery war has almost died out in the United States.

  Three years ago, old Tom stated, the five men had been engaged by anEnglishman who had large property in South Australia, to work upon hisestates near Melbourne. Here they had realized a considerable profit,and upon the completion of their engagement they determined to returnwith their savings to America. Accordingly, on the 5th of January,after paying their passage in the ordinary way, they embarked atMelbourne on board the "Waldeck." Everything went on well for seventeendays, until, on the night of the 22nd, which was very dark, they wererun into by a great steamer. They were all asleep in their berths, but,roused by the shock of the collision, which was extremely severe, theyhurriedly made their way on to the deck. The scene was terrible; bothmasts were gone, and the brig, although the water had not absolutelyflooded her hold so as to make her sink, had completely heeled over onher side. Captain and crew had entirely disappeared, some probablyhaving been dashed into the sea, others perhaps having saved themselvesby clinging to the rigging of the ship which had fouled them, and whichcould be distinguished through the darkness rapidly receding in thedistance. For a while they were paralyzed, but they soon awoke to theconviction that they were left alone upon a half-capsized and disabledhull, twelve hundred miles from the nearest land. Mrs. Weldon was loudin her expression of indignation that any captain should have thebarbarity to abandon an unfortunate vessel with which his owncarelessness had brought him into collision. It would be bad enough,she said for a driver on a public road, when it might be presumed thathelp would be forthcoming, to pass on unconcerned after causing anaccident to another vehicle; but how much more shameful to desert theinjured on the open sea, where the victims of his incompetence couldhave no chance of obtaining succour! Captain Hull could only repeatwhat he had said before, that incredibly atrocious as it might seem,such inhumanity was far from rare.

  On resuming his story, Tom said that he and his companions soon foundthat they had no means left for getting away from the capsized brig;both the boats had been crushed in the collision, so that they had noalternative except to await the appearance of a passing vessel, whilstthe wreck was drifting hopelessly along under the action of thecurrents. This accounted for the fact of their being found so far southof their proper course.

  For the next ten days the negroes had subsisted upon a few scraps offood that they found in the stern cabin; but as the store room wasentirely under water, they were quite unable to obtain a drop ofanything to drink, and the freshwater tanks that had been lashed to thedeck had been stove in at the time of the catastrophe. Tortured withthirst, the poor men had suffered agonies, and having on the previousnight entirely lost consciousness, they must soon have died if the"Pilgrim's" timely arrival had not effected their rescue.

  All the outlines of Tom's narrative were fully confirmed by the othernegroes; Captain Hull could see no reason to doubt it; indeed, thefacts seemed to speak for themselves.

  One other survivor of the wreck, if he had been gifted with the powerof speech, would doubtless have corroborated the testimony. This wasthe dog who seemed to have such an unaccountable dislike to Negoro.

  Dingo, as the dog was named, belonged to the fine breed of mastiffspeculiar to New Holland. It was not, however, from Australia, but fromthe coast of West Africa, near the mouth of the Congo, that the animalhad come. He had been picked up there, two years previously, by thecaptain of the "Waldeck," who had found him wandering about and morethan half starved. The initials S. V. engraved upon his collar were theonly tokens that the dog had a past history of his own. After he hadbeen taken on board the "Waldeck," he remained quite unsociable,apparently ever pining for some lost master, whom he had failed to findin the desert land where he had been met with.

  Larger than the dogs of the Pyrenees, Dingo was a magnificent exampleof his kind. Standing on his hind legs, with his head thrown back, hewas as tall as a man. His agility and strength would have made him asure match for a panther, and he would not have flinched at facing abear. His fine shaggy coat was a dark tawny colour, shading offsomewhat lighter round the muzzle, and his long bushy tail was asstrong as a lion's. If he were made angry, no doubt he might become amost formidable foe, so that it was no wonder that Negoro did not feelaltogether gratified at his reception.

  But Dingo, though unsociable, was not savage. Old Tom said that, onboard the "Waldeck," he had noticed that the animal seemed to have aparticular dislike to negroes; not that he actually attempted to dothem any harm, only he uniformly avoided them, giving an impressionthat he must have been systematically ill-treated by the natives ofthat part of Africa in which he had been found. During the ten daysthat had elapsed since the collision, Dingo had kept resolutely alooffrom Tom and his companions; they could not tell what he had beenfeeding on; they only knew that, like themselves, he had suffered anexcruciating thirst.

  Such had been the experience of the
survivors of the "Waldeck." Theirsituation had been most critical. Even if they survived the pangs ofwant of food, the slightest gale or the most inconsiderable swell mightat any moment have sunk the water-logged ship, and had it not been thatcalms and contrary winds had contributed to the opportune arrival ofthe "Pilgrim," an inevitable fate was before them; their corpses mustlie at the bottom of the sea.

  Captain Hull's act of humanity, however, would not be complete unlesshe succeeded in restoring the shipwrecked men to their homes. This hepromised to do. After completing the unlading at Valparaiso, the"Pilgrim" would make direct for California, where, as Mrs. Weldonassured them, they would be most hospitably received by her husband,and provided with the necessary means for returning to Pennsylvania.

  The five men, who, as the consequence of the shipwreck, had lost allthe savings of their last three years of toil, were profoundly gratefulto their kind-hearted benefactors; nor, poor negroes as they were, didthey utterly resign the hope that at some future time they might haveit in their power to repay the debt which they owed their deliverers.

  The good natured negroes were ever ready to lend ahelping hand.]