Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-03-26

| They were unlOaded and dumped below,
where everything was ready to receive
'em. Well, to make along story short,
when they got through we had nearly
six hundred niggers below matches.
They was all slowed away like herrin's
in a box. Then we trimmed ship and
sailed away. Our our lay for sew
eral days due east, and the skipper
kept a sharp lookout all the time,
1 can tell you. l don't ex-
actly remember what latitude we
was in when we sighted a sail
far astcrn, but I know it sent Skipper
Gordon aloft with his glass in hand.
He must have been up in the cross-trec
for nearly an hour, and durin' all that
time he never once shifted that glass
from the little speck on the distant
sea. When he did come down he called
I his mates and hurried into his cabin.
They was all in there about half an
hour, when they came out and gave
orders to set every stitch of canvas. All
hands went to work, and in q short
time the ship was drivin' through the
water with studdin' sails, sky-sails, roy
ais and sky-scrapers all bellied out
with the stiff breeze. But, all the same,
the vessel astern was gainin' on us.
"When the skipper seed this he
whispered to his mates, and the first
we knew orders were given to bring
the niggers up from below. They were
brought up in squads and chained to-
gether with heavy cables. When the
first squad was fixed Skipper Gordon
! ordered the crew to toss 'em overheard.
1t went against the better feelin's o
the men. l can tell you, but it had to
be done, cause if we'd a refused we'd
likely as not been shot down. Well,
sir, squad after squad of the poor Mig
gers was chucked overheard in this
way, until maybe there warn't
than a hundred left below. Then we
seed that the vessel astern was nearin'
us rapidly. She vas chasin' us, and l
knowed she was a revenue cutter. jest
then the skipper had another talk with
his mates, and pretty soon the latter
came aft and ordered the small boats
of'n their davits and us sailors to take
to them. The mates took charge O.
the two boats. After putting provis-
ions and water in 'em we pulled away.
l heard the first mate bcggin' the skip
per to go with him, but he wouldn't do
it, and so when we pulled off in the
open sea there wasn't a soul
aboard the SLAYER but Skipper
Gordon and the niggers below.
sit was Il good many years after
that before l heard any thing about the
fate of Skipper Gordon and the ship.
When we pulledaway we could see her
until night set in, but the next mornin'
she was nowhere. Our small boats
met a clipper ship on the third day,
bound for Liverpool, and the mates
told a yarn about us bein' wrecked,
and we were taken on board. At Liv-
erpool we all parted company; but as 1
say, some years afterward I CHANGED to
ship on a vessel whose skipper was the
tirst-mate of the SLAYER. He recognized
me, and we had a long talk about that
voyage to the Zanzibar coast for Mig
gers. Then he told what had happened
to Skipper Gordon. 1t seems he stayed
aboard the ship till she was taken by
the other vessel, which proved to be a
government cutter. The SLAYER was
conveyed to New York, and the war
was goin' on then, and things was hot.
Gordon laid in that there Jail for over
two years. He was tried a couple O.
times, but the jury disagreed each
time. They went to him and told him
they'd give him his liberty if he'd tell
who fitted him out for the African
coast. But he kept his lips closed and
wouldn't tell anything. There was
some big men in New York and Bos-
ton behind the skipper and they shook
in their boots for fear he'd squeal.
The skipper had plenty O. money
when he went to Jail, but he had to
buy certain favors and pay his lawyers,
so that in two years he was broke.
''He had a wife and little boy wei in
Brooklyn His wife never missed a
day that she didn't go over to the Jail
and remain with her husband, always
takin' the child when the weather was
right. But she'd go rain or shine.
She was q brave little woman, and
fought like a hero for her husband.
After awhile the skipper worked it SOS
that a deputy sheriff used to take him
I'VE to his own house on Saturday
nights and stay with him until just be-
fore daylight on Monday mornin',
when the two'd go back to Jail. Along
toward the last, after the second jury
disagreed, they used to lethim go home
alone. He had to pay heavily for the
privilege, though. Several times while
he was out on his own hook, the back
er of the SLAYER urged him to quit the
country, offerin' him plenty O. money
to go with. But he wouldn't break his
parole. He was III jail when Lincoln's
proclamation frecin' all the niggers
was made. Then his friends thought
he'd get off. When his third trial came
off he was convicted and sentenced to
be hanged.
THAT was up to within six weeks O.
the time when he used to have his free
dom to 60 home o Saturday nights.
His poor wife went nearly crazy when
the sentence was pronounced. They
got up a big petition for her, and she
went to Washington and got down on
her knees to Lincoln and begged him
to pardon her husband. But he
wouldn't do it. 10 she came back and
waited the awful day set for the
hangin'. 1t came, but when they went
into his cell to take him out to the gal
lows they fonnd him kickin' on his
bunk. The doctors came, and they
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