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THE SLAVE-SHIP.
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THE French ship, Le
Rodeur, with a crew of 22 men, and with 160 negro
slaves, sailed from Bonny, in Africa, April, 1819.
On approaching the line, a terrible malady broke out -
an obstinate disease of the eyes - contagious, and
altogether beyond the resources of medicine. It
was aggravated by a scarcity of water among the slaves
(only half a wine-glass per day being allowed to each),
and by the extreme impurity of the air in which they
breathed. By the advice of the physician, they
were brought on deck occasionally; but some of the poor
wretches, locking themselves in each other's arms,
leaped overboard, in the hope, which so universally
prevails among them, of being swiftly transported to
their own homes in Africa. To check this, the
captain ordered several, who were stopped in the
attempt, to be shot or hung before their companions.
The disease extended to the crew; and one after another
was smitten with it, until only one remained unaffected.
Yet even this dreadful condition did not preclude
calculation: to save the expense of supporting slaves
rendered unsaleable, and to obtain grounds for a claim
against the underwriters, 36 of the negroes, having
become blind, were thrown into the sea and drowned.
In the midst of their dreadful fears, lest the solitary
individual whose sight remained unaffected, should also
be seized with the malady, a sail was discovered.
It was the Spanish slaver, Leon. The same
disease had been there; and, horrible to tell, all the
crew had become blind! Unable to assist each
other, the vessels parted. The Spanish ship was
never after heard of. Le Rodeur
reached Guadaloupe in June; the only man who escaped the
disease, and was thus enabled to steer the slaver into
port, caught it in three days after its arrival. -
Speech in French Chamber of Deputies, June 17, 1820.
"All ready? cried
the captain;
"Ay, ay!" the seaman said;
"Heave up the worthless lubbers-
The dying and the dead."
Up from the slave-ship's prison
Fierce, bearded heads were thrust -
"Now let the sharks look to it -
Toss up the dead ones first!"
Corpse after corpse came up, -
Death had been busy there;
Where every blow is mercy,
Why should be spoiler spare? |
Page 2 -
Corpse after corpse they
cast
Sullenly from the ship,
Yet bloody with the traces
Of fetter-link and whip.
Gloomily stood the captain,
With his arms upon his breast,
With his cold brow sternly knotted,
And his iron-lip compress'd.
"Are all the dead dogs over?"
Growl'd through that matted lip -
"The blind ones are no better,
Let's lighten the good ship."
Hark! from the ship's dark
bosom,
The very sounds of hell!
The ringing clank of iron -
The maniac's short, sharp yell! -
The hoarse, low curse, throat-stifled -
The starving infant's moan -
The horror of a breaking heart
Pour'd through a mother's groan!
Up from that loathsome
prison
The stricken blind ones came :
Below, had all been darkness -
Above, was still the same.
Yet the holy breath of heaven
Was sweetly breathing there,
And the heated brow of fever
Cool'd in the soft sea air.
" Overboard with them,
shipmates!"
Cutlass and dirk were plied;
Fetter'd and blind, one after one,
Plunged down the vessel's side.
The sabre smote above -
Beneath, the lean shark lay,
Waiting with wide and bloody jaw,
His quick and human prey.
God of the earth! what
cries
Rang upwards unto Thee?
Voices of agony and blood,
Prom ship-deck and from sea. |
Page 3 -
The last dull plunge was
heard -
The last wave caught its stain -
And the unsated sharks looked up
For human hearts in vain.Red
glowed the Western waters -
The setting sun was there,
Scattering alike on wave and cloud
His fiery mesh of hair.
Amidst a group in blindness,
A solitary eye
Gazed, from the burden'd slaver's deck,
Into that burning sky.
"A storm," spoke out the
gazer,
"Is gathering and at hand -
Curse on't - I'd give my other eye
For one firm rood of land."
And then he laughed - but only
His echo'd laugh replied -
For the blinded and the suffering
Alone were at his side.
Night settled on the
waters,
And on a stormy heaven,
While fiercely on that lone ship's track
The thunder-gust was driven.
"A sail! - thank God, a sail!"
And, as the helmsman spoke,
Up through the stormy murmur
A shout of gladness broke.
Down came the stranger
vessel
Unheeding on her way,
So near, that on the slaver's deck
Fell off her driven spray.
"Ho! for the love of mercy -
We're perishing and blind!"
A wail of utter agony
Came back upon the wind.
"Help us! for we
are stricken
With blindness every one;
Ten days we've floated fearfully
Unnoting star or sun. |
Page 4 -
Our ship's the slaver
Leon -
We've but a score on board -
Our slaves are all gone over -
Help - for the love of God!"On
livid brows of agony
The broad red lightning shone -
But the roar of wind and thunder
Stifled the answering groan.
Wailed from the broken waters
A last despairing cry,
As, kindling in the stormy light,
The stranger ship went by.
In the sunny Guadaloupe
A dark-hulled vessel lay,
With a crew who noted never
The night-fall or the day.
The blossom of the orange
Waved white by every stream,
And tropic leaf, and flower, and bird,
Were in the warm sunbeam.
And the sky was bright as
ever,
And the moonlight slept as well,
On the palm-trees by the hill-side,
And the streamlet of the dell;
And the glances of the Creole
Were still as archly deep,
And her smiles as full as ever
Of passion and of sleep.
But vain were bird and
blossom,
The green earth and the sky,
And the smile of human faces,
To the ever-darken'd eye;
For, amidst a world of beauty,
The slaver went abroad,
With his ghastly visage written
By the awful curse of God! |
Leeds Anti-slavery
Series. No. 43
Sold by W. and F. G. CASH, 5,
Bishopsgate Street, London; and by JANE JOWETT, Friends'
Meeting Yard, Leeds, at 1s. 2. per 100.
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