The daily Alaskan., 1908-10-12
THE LAST OF THE SLAVERS.
,. .i.,. 5. .;...
LCrIgiuuli


 1 was first mate of the Mary Good win of Philadelphia when the surangest thing in all my seafarlIg fife happen ed. We were on the banks Of New foundland, tEe home of the fog king, and the mist had come down on us thicker than 1 had ever seen 1t. It lasted so long without lifting that the captain lost all traces of reckoning. We were or Halifax, Cape Race or Cape Breton, we didn't know which. Finally he concluded 10 drop an anchor and wait
 There was a considerable swell roll ing beneath us, but of course no wind. That would have blown away the fog. One night the watch heard the sound of distant bell. For an hour lt tolled falntly, then very slowly became more distinct. It was evidently coming to. ward US. It must be drifting, for there was no wind tO fill sails, and we could hear 20 sound of steam. At last the bell tolled dsmally within a cables length of us.
 We began 10 be anxious and rang our own bell to let the stranger know that we were In her course. There was lit tie chance of her crew being able to turn her. for there was no wind, but they might anchor She was coming so slowly as not tO hurt us much from 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 he terrible crash
 Our signal excited ne reply, except the tolllng of the bell. which continued constantly. Fearing tbosc on the ap- prouching vessel had not heard us, We fired a gun. But this elicitcd nothing Presently we could hrar the bell toll ing right beside us, and now and then something black would appear not twenty feet from us, hover there for few minutes. then disappear. Once It came near enough for us to distinguish the side of ship.
 We were on q terrible strain for awhile, fearing that We would clash with the stranger: then We caught glimpse of her stern unde" 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 harkentlnc without sails. her fOrcmast gone. rolling with the waves, X wind sprang up. and. raising sail, we made toward her. When we came near her the captain sent boats crew to inves- tIgate.
 We found a derclct that had evident ly been floating a long while. The only thing aboard that had ever had life in it was the body of woman, and we had to stayc in the door of the cap tain's cabin 10 find that. It was lying in berth. and, notwithstanding the many tossings the vessel had received, lt had not rolled out We looked on the log book for the last entry. It was dated eighteen months agone, Nov. 10. 1854
 We read the entry and went back further for an explanation. No part of the log made mention of anything un- usual transplrlng aboard. Nevertheless we traced what must have been some thing of the story. A bundle of love letters from woman to the captain. the last dated not long before the log began. told us that he and his wife must have made the voyage wedding trip. The last observation showed lati- tudc 23 degrees % minutes north, longi- tudc 1920 cast, or about 800 miles south of the Canary islands and off the coast of Africa. Tho ships boats were gone. which led us to believe that ev- cry one on board except the woman had left the vessel and made for the land.
 The period, 1854, was when the sIavers were running the last carSoes 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 ,sle captain to take the crew ashore to secure 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 ship was at anchor when the crew left her. We found no evidence to show whether the captain was killed or went with them. The cc,ir had cyi- dcntly parted and was blown oIaAU"c Probably while the men were ashore after negroes storm came up and broke tle cable. L,hgly the capi&iI was killed on the ship, G"d during iae melee his wife went to the cabin %nd locked herself h. Possibly s&c may have lain ca the Lc.th, faint from fright, and died there.
 And so 1t was that this wom@n's b!er Aoated no one knew where Likely it | driftnl sOuthWpStwoTl eventually