Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-06-21
A CARGO OF SLAVES.
A MERCHANTS STORY OF A MEETING
INTHE SOUTH ATLANTIC.

A merchant said the other day, "
never see a COlured crew with Il whit
mate going down the pier that don
; think of my first trip To kio and the slave
l l saw on the way there Ii WAS in tn
early part of 1919 Its hard to realize /
) now. but the slave trade was then a mos
profitable business in spite of its difficult
les. The vigilance of the British cruiser
% had driven the infamous Dagoes VIII,
manned the slavers into all sorts of de
) wees TO escape detection, but the favorit,
method just then seemed to be 10 resort Ia
small schoOnerS and coasters which, on
account Of their size. could be run up the
small creeks. where the slave marts were
located in Africa. out of sight of the
cruisers and there loaded safely and
quickly and then sent to sea at the first
moment when the coast was clear \
little schooner Of some thirty tons once
escaped British trigate in calm by get
ting out sweeps which the slaves were
compelled 10 work
In this voyage I'm telling you about we
had fine run Of luck, crossing the dold-
runs and catching the southeast trades
much sooner than we had expected Al
though we there fUund the wind light
every one was in goc spirits over the run
II WAS just after di lner one day, when IA
man who was seiZiIlg some new chatting
/ gear on To the fOreiOpmast rigging in the
wake of the yards hailed the deck and
said that small boat seemed to be adrift
/ about three points on the weather bow
and that signal of distress was flying
7 over it.
FILLED WITH NEGRO CHILDREN.
/ As soon As attention was attracted to
7 il. it could be plainly seen from the
weather rail. The captain examined it
closely with glass and told the second
mate that there were three men on il
alive, and that there seemed to be others
lying under the thwarts. The boat ap-
partntly contained the last of some ship
wrecked crew. and our captain at once
headed the ship up so as tO bring the small
boat little on the lee We Were running
about five or six knots an hour and in the
course of fifteen minutes we had ap-
preached so near the drifting boat that il
could lie very plainly seen with the naked
eye. The captain had been growing eX
cited as he looked at ii. and finally put
down his glass and said with an oath that
the boat was from the wreck of a SLAYER,
and was filled with negroes. He declared
he would hang the white men to the yard
arm. Just then one of the owners of the
ship who, unfortunately. was making the
voyage with us, put his hand on the cap
tain : arm and said something that made
the captain bite his lip, but no more was
said about the hanging
1t WAS probably half an hour from the
time we saw the boat until one Of the
white men in it caught the end of heav-
ing line and had dropped the boat under
the stern OF our ship, where she towed
very comfortably A more pitiful sight
never met the eye than the people of that
ships boat. Half the. thwarts had been
taken out, and between and under those
that remained were forty children rang
ing from about to II years of age. The
oldest of them were girls All were stark
naked, and apparently more then half
dead. Ii is useless to try To tell you how
much their sufferings had affected them.
some of them never looked up when the |
talking was going on, while Others moaned |
aloud. One of the white men asked for |
supplies He said he wasn't begging; he |
was ready to pay. He hoped we would let |
hill have water. At that word many of |
the children raised themselves up with |
eager looks. for he talked in Portuguese and !
they were accustomed To il enough to |
know what was said They began to talk |
all at once, but the man picked up a big |
blacksnake whip and then they cowed |
down instantly. But there were three or
four of the children who were unable To |
raise themselves up or to realize that they |
were near To help. One was boy who |
had been horribly beaten with the whip |
and was dying
CROSSING THE OCEAN.
Our captain was for taking the entire
lot on board and delivering them to the
first British cruiser we should meet The
owner would not hear Of it. He was will
ing 20 take the gold. Then both began to
question the DagOes.
How long have you been in that boats"
said the captain.
'Twenty-eight days
~'Where did you take to herr"
"'At Inhambane'
What, Do you mean TO say You
started out to cross the western ocean in
that boat with all those children,'
such WAS the fact They had rowed
away from the coast almost under the jib-
boom Of a British cruiser, with fifty
slaves on board, the oldest of whom was a
girl not above Is. Ten of the children
had died from exposure and ill treatment
The boat was just twenty four feet long
over all. seven feet wide, and three feet
nine inches deep. Their supply of water
had run so low that for several days only
about four tablespOOnfuls had been given
to the children three times day | have
read that in their native jungles these
children drank q gallon or more of water
a day. You can imagine their sufferings
under that boiling sun with only half
.F..N 81
shot of it all was that we gave them all
they wanted, saw that every child had all
it could drink safely for once at least, and
then headed off on our course. The sight
Of those children almost made a mutiny
when 1t was learned that they were to be
left in the boat. but then it was some
thing akin to crime against the flag in
those days to express abolition senti
ments, and the anger of the men soon
passed away
Was the boat ever heard Of again.
Yes, she landed at Bahia about two
weeks later, having lost five more of the
children. Those three DagOes We're
counted heroes there, so Mr.. Edward POr-
ter, the British consel at Bahia, told our
captain when we stopped there for re
turn cargo of coffee They had crossed
the Atlantic in the smallest boat that had
ever tried the passage, and had landed as
large proportion of their cargo as the
biggest vessels usually did. The children
were sold at a net profit of about 500 each,
the market being rather brisk when they
arrived. To appreciate the strides of civ
lizatiOn during recent years one has only
TO consider that such things happened
Dnly twenty-eight years ago New York
sun.
added to the list of mineral building
materials 4 kaOliuite of good quality is
mixed with sawdust, worked by machinery
ITO slabs and is then burned, sawed, and
dressed. 1t is in this condition. ready for
market, and is said TO be iudestructible by
ire, water or gas. 1t is poor conductor,
and suffers but slight expansion or con
traCtion by changes of temperature. Its