by Daniel Defoe
as they came to the Ship's Side, a surprizing Multitude of black Sailors, such
as they were, appeared upon Deck, and in short, terrify'd our Men so much, that
the Boat which was to enter her Men in the Waste, stood off again, and durst not
board her; and the Men that enter'd out of the other Boat, finding the first
Boat, as they thought, beaten off, and seeing the Ship full of Men, jump'd all
back again into their Boat, and put off, not knowing what the Matter was. Upon
this we prepared to pour in a Broadside upon her. But our Friend William set us
to Rights again here; for it seems he guess'd how it was sooner than we did, and
coming up to me (for it was our Ship that came up with her) Friend, says he, I
am of Opinion thou art wrong in this Matter, and thy Men have been wrong also in
their Conduct: I'll tell thee how thou shalt take this Ship, without making use
of those things call'd Guns. How can that be, William, said I? Why, said he,
thou mayst take her with thy Helm; thou seest they keep no Steerage, and thou
seest the Condition they are in; board her with thy Ship upon her Lee Quarter,
and so enter her from the Ship: I am perswaded thou wilt take her without
Fighting, for there is some Mischief has befallen the Ship, which we know
nothing of.
In a Word, it being a smooth Sea, and little Wind, I took his Advice, and lay'd
her aboard. Immediately our Men entred the Ship, where we found a large Ship
with upwards of 600 Negroes, Men and Women, Boys and Girls, and not one
Christian, or white Man, on board.
I was struck with Horror at the Sight, for immediately I concluded, as was
partly the Case, that these black Devils had got loose, had murthered all the
white Men, and thrown them into the Sea; and I had no sooner told my Mind to the
Men, but the Thought of it so enraged them, that I had much ado to keep my Men
from cutting them all in Pieces. But William, with many Perswasions prevailed
upon them, by telling of them, that it was nothing but what, if they were in the
Negroes Condition, they would do, if they could; and that the Negroes had really
the highest Injustice done them, to be sold for Slaves without their Consent;
and that the Law of Nature dictated it to them; that they ought not to kill
them, and that it would be wilful Murder to do it.
This prevailed with them, and cooled their first Heat; so they only knock'd down
twenty or thirty of them, and the rest run all down between Decks, to their
first Places, believing, as we fancy'd, that we were their first Masters come
again.
It was a most unaccountable Difficulty we had next, for we could not make them
understand one Word we said, nor could we understand one Word our selves that
they said. We endeavoured by Signs to ask them whence they came, but they could
make nothing of it; we pointed to the Great Cabin, to the Round-house, to the
Cook-room, then to our Faces, to ask if they had no white Men on board, and
where they were gone? But they could not understand what we meant: On the other
Hand, they pointed to our Boat, and to their Ship, asking Questions as well as
they could, and said a Thousand things, and expressed themselves with great
Earnestness, but we could not understand a Word of it all, or know what they
meant by any of their Signs.
We knew very well they must have been taken on board the Ship as Slaves, and
that it must be by some European People too. We could easily see that the Ship
was a Dutch-built Ship, but very much alter'd, having been built upon, and as we
suppose, in France ; for we found two or three French Books on board, and
afterwards we found Clothes, Linnen, Lace, some old Shoes, and several other
things: We found among the Provisions, some Barrels of Irish Beef, some
Newfoundland Fish, and several other Evidences that there had been Christians on
board, but saw no Remains of them. We found not a Sword, Gun, Pistol, or Weapon
of any kind, except some Cutlasses; and the Negroes had hid them below where
they lay. We ask'd them what was become of all the small Arms, pointing to our
own, and to the Places where those belonging to the Ship had hung: One of the
Negroes understood me presently, and beckon'd to me to come up upon the Deck,
where taking my Fuzee, which I never let go out of my Hand for some time after
we had master'd the Ship; I say, offering to take hold of it, he made the proper
Motion of throwing it into the Sea, by which I understood, as I did afterwards,
that they had thrown all the small Arms, Powder, Shot, Swords, &c. into the Sea,
believing, as I supposed, those things would kill them, tho' the Men were gone.
After we understood this, we made no Question but that the Ship's Crew having
been surprized by these desperate Rogues, had gone the same Way, and had been
thrown over-board also. We look'd all over the Ship, to see if we could find any
Blood, and we thought we did perceive some in several Places; but the Heat of
the Sun melting the Pitch and Tar upon the Decks, made it impossible for us to
discern it exactly, except in the Round-house, where we plainly saw that there
had been much Blood. We found the Skuttle open, by which we supposed the Captain
and those that were with him had made their Retreat into the Great Cabin, or
those in the Cabin had made their Escape up into the Round-house.
But that which confirmed us most of all in what had happen'd, was, that upon
farther Enquiry we found that there were seven or eight of the Negroes very much
wounded, two or three of them with Shot; whereof one had his Leg broke, and lay
in a miserable Condition, the Flesh being mortified, and, as our Friend William
said, in two Days more he would have died. William was a most dexterous Surgeon,
and he shew'd it in this Cure; for tho' all the Surgeons we had on board both
our Ships (and we had no less than five that called themselves bred Surgeons,
besides two or three who were Pretenders or Assistants) and all these gave their
Opinion that the Negroe's Leg must be cut off, and that his Life could not be
saved without it; that the Mortification had touch'd the Marrow in the Bone,
that the Tendons were mortified, and that he could never have the Use of his
Leg, if it should be cured. William said nothing in general, but that his
Opinion was otherwise, and that he desired the Wound might be search'd, and that
he would then tell them farther. Accordingly he went to Work with the Leg, and,
as he desired he might have some of the Surgeons to assist him, we appointed him
two of the ablest of them to help, and all of them to look on, if they thought
fit.
William went to Work his own Way, and some of them pretended to find Fault at
first. However, he proceeded, and search'd every Part of the Leg where he
suspected the Mortification had touch'd it: In a Word, he cut off a great deal
of mortified Flesh; in all which the poor Fellow felt no Pain. William proceeded
till he brought the Vessels which he had cut to bleed, and the Man to cry out:
Then he reduced the Splinters of the Bone, and calling for Help, set it, as we
call it, and bound it up, and laid the Man to Rest, who found himself much
/> easier than before.
At the first Opening, the Surgeons began to triumph, the Mortification seem'd to
spread, and a long red Streak of Blood appeared from the Wound upwards to the
Middle of the Man's Thigh, and the Surgeons told me the Man would die in a few
Hours. I went to look at it, and found William himself under some Surprize; but
when I ask'd him how long he thought the poor Fellow could live, he look'd
gravely up at me, and said, As long as thou canst: I am not at all apprehensive
of his Life, said he, but I would cure him if I could, without making a Cripple
of him. I found he was not just then upon the Operation, as to his Leg, but was
mixing up something thing to give the poor Creature, to repel, as I thought, the
spreading Contagion, and to abate or prevent any feverish Temper that might
happen in the Blood: After which he went to Work again, and open'd the Leg in
two Places above the Wound, cutting out a great deal of mortified Flesh, which
it seems was occasioned by the Bandage which had press'd the Parts too much, and
withal, the Blood being at that time in a more than common Disposition to
mortify, might assist to spread it.
Well, our Friend William conquer'd all this, clear'd the spreading
Mortification, that the red Streak went off again, the Flesh began to heal, and
Matter to run; and in a few Days the Man's Spirits began to recover, his Pulse
beat regular, he had no Fever, and gathered Strength daily; and in a Word he was
a perfect sound Man in about ten Weeks, and we kept him amongst us, and made him
an able Seaman. But to return to the Ship, we never could come at a certain
Information about it, till some of the Negroes which we kept on board, and whom
we taught to speak English, gave the Account of it afterwards, and this maim'd
Man in particular.
We enquired by all the Signs and Motions we could imagine, what was become of
the People, and yet we could get nothing from them. Our Lieutenant was for
torturing some of them to make them confess; but William opposed that
vehemently; and when he heard it was under Consideration, he came to me, Friend,
says he, I make a Request to thee, not to put any of these poor Wretches to
Torment. Why, William, said I, why not? You see they will not give any Account
of what is become of the white Men. Nay, says William, do not say so; I suppose
they have given thee a full Account of every Particular of it. How so, says I,
pray what are we the wiser for all their Jabbering? Nay, says William, that may
be thy Fault, for ought I know; thou wilt not punish the poor Men because they
cannot speak English, and perhaps they never heard a Word of English before. Now
I may very well suppose, that they have given thee a large Account of every
thing; for thou seest with what Earnestness, and how long some of them have
talk'd to thee, and if thou canst not understand their Language, nor they thine,
how can they help that; at the best thou doest but suppose that they have not
told thee the whole Truth of the Story, and on the contrary I suppose they have,
and how wilt thou decide the Question, whether thou art right, or whether I am
right? Besides, what can they say to thee, when thou askest them a Question upon
the Torture, and at the same time they do not understand the Question, and thou
doest not know whether they say Ay or No ?
It is no Complement to my Moderation, to say I was convinc'd by these Reasons;
and yet we had all much ado to keep our second Lieutenant from murthering some
of them to make them tell. What if they had told, he did not understand one Word
of it; but he would not be perswaded but that the Negroes must needs understand
him, when he ask'd them, whether the Ship had any Boat or no, like ours, and
what was become of it?
But there was no Remedy but to wait till we made these People understand
English; and to adjourn the Story till that time. The Case was thus. Where they
were taken on board the Ship, that we could never understand, because they never
knew the English Names which we give to those Coasts, or what Nation they were
who belong'd to the Ship, because they knew not one Tongue from another; but
thus far the Negroe I examin'd, who was the same whose Leg William had cured,
told us, that they did not speak the same Language we spoke, nor the same our
Portugueze spoke; so that in all Probability they must be French or Dutch.
Then he told us, that the white Men used them barbarously; that they beat them
unmercifully; that one of the Negroe Men had a Wife, and two Negroe Children,
one a Daughter about sixteen Years old; that a White Man abused the Negroe Man's
Wife, and afterwards his Daughter, which, as he said, made all the Negroe Men
mad; and that the Woman's Husband was in a great Rage, at which the White Man
was so provoked, that he threaten'd to kill him; but in the Night, the Negroe
Man being loose, got a great Club, by which he made us understand he meant a
Handspike, and that when the same Frenchman (if it was a Frenchman) came among
them again, he began again to abuse the Negroe Man's Wife; at which the Negroe
taking up the Handspike, knock'd his Brains out at one Blow; and then taking the
Key from him with which he usually unlock'd the Hand-cuffs which the Negroes
were fetter'd with, he set about a Hundred of them at Liberty, who getting up
upon the Deck by the same Skuttle that the White Man came down; and taking the
Man's Cutlass who was killed, and laying hold of what came next them, they fell
upon the Men that were upon the Deck, and killed them all, and afterwards those
they found upon the Forecastle, that the Captain and his other Men, who were in
the Cabin and the Round-house, defended themselves with great Courage, and shot
out at the Loopholes at them, by which he and several other Men were wounded,
and some killed; but that they broke into the Round-house after a long Dispute,
where they killed two of the white Men, but own'd that the two white Men killed
eleven of their Men before they could break in; and then the rest having got
down the Skuttle into the Great Cabin, wounded three more of them.
That after this, the Gunner of the Ship having secured himself in the Gun-room,
one of his Men haul'd up the Long-Boat close under the Stern, and putting into
her all the Arms and Ammunition they could come at, got all into the Boat, and
afterwards took in the Captain, and those that were with him, out of the Great
Cabin. When they were all thus embark'd, they resolved to lay the Ship aboard
again, and try to recover it; that they boarded the Ship in a desperate Manner,
and killed at first all that stood in their Way; but the Negroes being by this
time all loose, and having gotten some Arms, tho' they understood nothing of
Powder and Bullet, or Guns; yet the Men could never master them. However, they
lay under the Ship's Bow, and got out all the Men they had left in the
Cook-room, who had maintained themselves there, notwithstanding all the Negroes
could do, and with their small Arms killed between thirty and forty of the
Negroes, but were at last forc'd to leave them.
They could give me no Account
whereabouts this was, whether near the Coast of
Africk, or far off, or how long it was before the Ship fell into our Hands; only
in general, it was a great while ago, as they called it, and by all we could
learn, it was within two or three Days after they had set Sail from the Coast.
They told us, that they had killed about thirty of the white Men, having knock'd
them on the Head with Crows and Hand-spikes, and such things as they could get;
and one strong Negroe killed three of them with an Iron Crow, after he was shot
twice thro' the Body, and that he was afterwards shot thro' the Head by the
Captain himself at the Door of the Round-house, which he had split open with the
Crow; and this we suppose was the Occasion of the great Quantity of Blood which
we saw at the Round-house Door.
The same Negroe told us, that they threw all the Powder and Shot they could
find, into the Sea, and they would have thrown the great Guns into the Sea, if
they could have lifted them. Being ask'd how they came to have their Sails in
such a Condition, his Answer was, they no understand, they no know what the
Sails do; that was, they did not so much as know that it was the Sails that made
the Ship go; or understand what they meant, or what to do with them. When we
asked him whither they were going, he said, they did not know, but believed they
should go Home to their own Country again. I asked him in particular, what he
thought we were, when we came first up with them? He said, they were terribly
frighted, believing we were the same white Men that had gone away in their
Boats, and were come again in a great Ship, with the two Boats with them, and
expected they would kill them all.
This was the Account we got out of them, after we had taught them to speak
English, and to understand the Names and Use of the things belonging to the
Ship, which they had Occasion to speak of, and we observed that the Fellows were
too innocent to dissemble in their Relation, and that they all agreed in the
Particulars, and were always in the same Story, which confirm'd very much the
Truth of what they said.
Having taken this Ship, our next Difficulty was, what to do with the Negroes.
The Portugueze in the Brasils would have bought them all of us, and been glad of
the Purchase, if we had not shew'd our selves Enemies there, and been known for
Pyrates; but as it was, we durst not go on Shore any where thereabouts, or treat
with any of the Planters, because we should raise the whole Country upon us; and
if there were any such things as Men of War in any of their Ports, we should be
assured to be attack'd by them, and by all the Force they had by Land or Sea.
Nor could we think of any better Success, if we went Northward to our own
Plantations. One while we determined to carry them all away to the Buenos Ayres,
and sell them there to the Spaniards; but they were really too many for them to
make Use of; and to carry them round to the South-Seas, which was the only
Remedy that was left, was so far, that we should be no Way able to subsist them
for so long a Voyage.
At last, our old never-failing Friend William help'd us out again, as he had
often done, at a Dead-lift. His Proposal was this, that he should go as Master
of the Ship, and about twenty Men such as we could best trust, and attempt to
trade privately upon the Coast of Brasil, with the Planters, not at the
principal Ports, because that would not be admitted.
We all agreed to this, and appointed to go away our selves towards the Rio de la
Plata, where we had Thought of going before, and to wait for him not there, but
at Port St. Pedro, as the Spaniards call it, lying at the Mouth of the River
which they call Rio Grande, and where the Spaniards had a small Fort, and a few
People, but we believe there was no Body in it.
