The Springdale news., 1908-09-25
THE LAST OF
 THE SLAVERS.
fOrizinal.]

l thing in all my seafaring life happen ed We were on the banks of New l foundland, the home of the fog king. and the mist had come down on us thicker than l had ever seen 1t. It lasted so long without lifting that the captain lost all traces of reckoning. We were off Halifax, Cape Race CT l Cape Breton. we didn't know which. Finally he concluded 10 drop an anchor and wait.
 There was a considerable swell roll l ing beneath us, but of course no wind. 1 That would have blown away the fog. l One night the watch heard the sound of a distant bell. For an hour it tolled faintly, then very slowly became more distinct It was evidently coming to- ward us. 1t must be drifting, for there was no wind to fill sails, and we could l hear DO sound of steam. At last the l bell toled dismally within a cables length of us.
 We began to be anxious and rang our own bell to let the stranger know that we were in her course. There was lit l tie chance of her crew being able to l they might anchor. She was coming so slowly as not to hurt us much from l fouling except for the waves. If we should be rolled together in the trough of the sea or one should be let down on the other, there might be a terrible 1 crash
 Our signal excited no reply. except the tolling of the bell, which continued constantly. Fearing those on the ap- preaching vessel had not heard us, We l fired a gun. But this elicited nothing. Presently we could hear the bell toll l ing right beside us, and now and then something black would appear not | twenty feet from us, hover there for q few minutes. then disappear Once 1t came near enough for us to distinguish l the side of a ship.
 We were on terrible strain for awhile. fearing that we would clash with the stranger; then we caught glimpse of her stern under our bow. spirit She had evidently passed us. After waiting some time longer with no view of her we concluded We were out of danger.
 At eight bells the next morning the fog lifted. There was no sign of land, but on our starboard quarter was barkentine without sails, her foremast gone, rolling with the waves. \ wind sprang up, and. raising sail, we made 1 toward her. When We came near her the captain sent boats crew to inves- tigate
 We found dereliet that had evident 1 ly been floating long while. The only thing aboard that had ever had life in 1t was the body of woman, and we had to staye in the door of the cap tains cabin to find that. It was lying in berth and, notwithstanding the many tossings the vessel had received, 1t had not rolled out We looked oil the log book for the last entry. It was i dated eighteen months agone Nov. 10. 1854
 We read the entry and went back further for all explanation. No part of the log made mention of anything un- usual transpiring aboard. Nevertheless we traced what must have been some thing of the story. bundle of love letters from woman to the captain, the last dated not long before the log began, told us that lie and his wife must have made the voyage q wedding trip. The last observation showed lau- tude 23 degrees 35 minutes north, longi- tude 1920 east. or about 300 miles south of the Canary islands and off the coast of Africa. The ships boats were gone, which led us to believe that ey- cry one on board except the woman had left the vessel and made for the land
 The period, 1851. was when the slavers were running the last cargoes of negroes from the African coast to the United States. In the forecastle we found scrap of paper on which was written. The old man won't con, sent; do the job" We interpreted this to mean that the men wished to force the captain to take the crew ashore to secure a cargo of slaves. He declined, and they were to kill him. All this accounts for the captains wife being locked in his cabin. The port anchor was gone. This indicated that the
 
 her. We found no evidence to show whether the captain was killed or went with them. The cable had evi- dently parted and was blown offshore, Probably while the men were ashore after negroes q storm came up and broke the cable. Likely the captain was killed on the ship, and during the melee his wife went to the cabin and locked herself in. Possibly she may have lain on the berth. faint from fright, and died there.
 And so it was that this woman's bier floated no one knew where. Likely it drifted southwestward, eventually turning northward. possibly to the northern end of the Atlantic ocean, then caught winds or currents which bore it south again to where We found it. The rope to the bell rotted away. and the waves tolled with it a requiem for this bride whose happiness was so