discovering his face, the negro Babo, coming close,
said words to this effect: “Keep faith
with the blacks from here to Senegal, or you shall
in spirit, as now in body, follow your leader,”
pointing to the prow; * * * that the same morning
the negro Babo took by succession each Spaniard
forward, and asked him whose skeleton that was,
and whether, from its whiteness, he should not think
it a white’s; that each Spaniard covered
his face; that then to each the negro Babo repeated
the words in the first place said to the deponent;
* * * that they (the Spaniards), being then assembled
aft, the negro Babo harangued them, saying that
he had now done all; that the deponent (as navigator
for the negroes) might pursue his course, warning
him and all of them that they should, soul and body,
go the way of Don Alexandro, if he saw them (the Spaniards)
speak, or plot anything against them (the negroes)—a
threat which was repeated every day; that, before
the events last mentioned, they had tied the cook
to throw him overboard, for it is not known what
thing they heard him speak, but finally the negro Babo
spared his life, at the request of the deponent;
that a few days after, the deponent, endeavoring
not to omit any means to preserve the lives of
the remaining whites, spoke to the negroes peace and
tranquillity, and agreed to draw up a paper, signed
by the deponent and the sailors who could write,
as also by the negro Babo, for himself and all
the blacks, in which the deponent obliged himself
to carry them to Senegal, and they not to kill any
more, and he formally to make over to them the
ship, with the cargo, with which they were for
that time satisfied and quieted. * * But the next
day, the more surely to guard against the sailors’
escape, the negro Babo commanded all the boats
to be destroyed but the long-boat, which was unseaworthy,
and another, a cutter in good condition, which
knowing it would yet be wanted for towing the
water casks, he had it lowered down into the hold.
* * * * *
[Various particulars of
the prolonged and perplexed navigation
ensuing here follow, with
incidents of a calamitous calm, from
which portion one passage
is extracted, to wit:]
—That on the fifth day of the calm, all on board suffering much from the heat, and want of water, and five having died in fits, and mad, the negroes became irritable, and for a chance gesture, which they deemed suspicious—though it was harmless—made by the mate, Raneds, to the deponent in the act of handing a quadrant, they killed him; but that for this they afterwards were sorry, the mate being the only remaining navigator on board, except the deponent.
* * * * *