The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1862-04-08

ID
she stranger a wide berth. She followed
u slierg. =. We showed her q clean pair
u " giias time, and hy eight bells we'd
oa all sight Of her. So there was an end
" niger tor the present. II would ha'
Ion better. af.er ai, i VIC had ha' ben
captured By her then and there, as you'll
soon hear.
OF course the niggers WAS All sea-sick
as soon as we got out into blue water, and
= dreadful moanin and groanin' and jab-
BERN The poor ignorant savages made.
You could hear il right through the main
deck aud up in the shrouds, even when a
heavy sea was on, and above the roaring
THE wind. We'd fixed EN- in the rcgu-
lar way, stark naked, in sitting position,
jammed into one anoiher's laps, SOS they
could hardly move anything bni their
heads, for with snch crowd there warn't
an inch Of room TO spare, and the cries
and groans and smell was horrid. When
turned in that night, il were pretty rough
and pitch dark, with now and then strcak
o lightning and a growl o thunder 70 the
sou west. and if dida't dream | was in
hell among tie devils and damned people,
I'm Dutchmsn
Ii blew hard all the next day, and the
next to that, SO we couldn't tend to EN-
much, or have amy Of EN- up on deck.
Once the sea broke over US, and We had
to fasien down the matches. You may
fancy what il was like tween decks then
,El,ell ilic gale had overblown itself and
We went below--n nobody liked that job,
and one man turned sick and tainted dead
away with the smell--there was forty odd
corpses TO be chueked overheard. The
lad air, the rollin' aud crowdin' and chok-
in and smoiherin', and want of water, had
killed 'em. They was mostly women and
children.
The Captain cursed some OF the loss,
which, however, made leetle more room
for the rest Of the misablc devils. We
.hauled EN- on deck in squads; some on
EN- was 50 cramped and stiff they couldn't
move; pumped on en-, and set EN- IN the
sun TO dry, aud sarved EN- out an allow
ance Of boiled rice and water Thunder !
YOU should la seen them niggers drink
the eatin was bad enough, bollin the grub
like staryin wolves. but tbs drinkin was
awful. rhey actually fit and struggled
over the first bucketsful so that every
drop of the water was spilled, and then
lapped il up off the deck like dogs If
the mates hadn't used handspikes pretty
free we couldn't ha' 60: EN- 70 behave hu-
man nohovs.
Wei, we did what we could for EN- in
clesnin and physickin, and sent EN- below
again. Always in fair weather they was
had up, by turns, on deck, and never put
in irons except when muIinous. The
decks, too, below, was swabbed out once,
and sprinkIed with somethin' o lime, |
misremember the name, to prevent sick
ness. | mention this because folks gem
eraly thinks as sayers hasn't got any hui
manity. Fit warn't agin the Law the dar-
keys wouldn't haze to be crowded up so,
by fetcbin' so many; that's what makes
it unpleasant.
There was one thing, however, as that
first-mate did rs was downright cruel.
Ye see the bigger and stronger ones got to
fightiu' and stragglin' for more room, as
was but natural, siltin' jammed up in a
heap like that. In consequence the weak
er crowd, the women and picaninncs, SUI.
fered. So, to make em all lie quiet he
Jest goes below with case of tacks-little
nails, you know--and sprnkles 'em loose
among the darkeys. The more they stir
red arer that the more the tacks run into
their naked bodies, aud though il hurt bad
il didn't damage the niggers value. An
old hand aboard told me this was the reg
ular thing; before it was thought on they
used to be at no end Of expense Tor irons.
Was YOU ever at sea, sir Z Because, il
50. you'll know that il there's one thing a
sailor hates worse than another, its a
calm. It's worse than a storm by q long
sight 10 have the sails fappin', the
ropes frayin', everything creakin' and
creakin' and uearin' itself out for nothin,
the blue water all around as smooth as q
pond nothin' TO do and maxim no way
why, it's enough to set saint swearin at
his grandmother Well, jest suppose a
three DAYS calm in the tropics, the sun
pitch hot overhead, and us with nigh a
thousand niggers on board
tell you il was awful hardly breath
Of air stirring on deck, and jest like the
black hole Of Calcutta below. The poor
devils there sweItsred, and sizzled, and
bried, and moaned, and yelled BY turns
and altogether, as if they'd knowed Of the
sharks a. was a-swimmin' alongside q.
waitin for EN-. They say the burned
yarnints will nose out SLAYER and follow
her anywIleres, on the lookout COR corpses
and | believe il. for, sartin, two stuel
pretty close to us from the third day out
They wern't mistaken either. A feyei
broke out among the niggers, and they
began to die off ike rotten sheep ",
lad to throw nigh two hundred overheard
in three days. That, With the ones q.
had gone before. mads a loss Of fourtl
of fks earao aud mt our skinner in al