Transcript

Benito Cerno · Benito Cerno

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Section one of Benito Serena. In the year seventeen ninety nine, Captain Amasdellino
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of Duxbury in Massachusetts, commending a large sealer and general trader, lay at
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anchor with a valuable cargo in the harbor of Saint Maria, a small desert
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uninhabited island towards the southern extremity of the Long Coast of Chile. There he
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had touched for water on the second day, not long after dawn. While
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lying in his berth, his mate came below, informing him that a strange
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sail was coming into the bay. Ships were then not so plenty in those
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waters as now. He rose, dressed and went on deck. The morning
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was one peculiar to that coast. Everything was mute and calm, everything gray.
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The sea, though undulated into long roods of swells, seemed fixed and
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was sleep at the surface, like waved lead that has cooled and set in
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the smelter's mold. The sky seemed a gray mantle. Flights of troubled gray
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fowl, kith and kin, with flights of troubled gray vapors, among which
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they were mixed, skimmed low and fitfully over the waters as swallows over meadows
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before storms, shadows present foreshadowing deeper shadows to come. To Captain Delano's surprise,
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the stranger, viewed through the glass, showed no colors, though to
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do so upon entering a haven, however, uninhabited in its shores, where
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but a single other ship might be lying, was the custom among peaceful seamen
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of all nations. Considering the lawlessness and loneliness of the spot, and the
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sort of stories at that day associated with those seas, Captain Delano's surprise might
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have deepened into some uneasynes had he not been a person of singularly undistrustful good
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nature, not liable except on extraordinary and repeated excitement, and hardily then to
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indulge in personal alarms any way involving the imputation of malign evil in man.
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Whether in view of what humanity is capable such a trade implies, along with
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a benevolent heart, more than ordinary quickness and accuracy of intellectual perception, may
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be left to the wise to determine. But whatever misgivings might have obtruded on
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first seeing the stranger would almost in any seaman's mind, have been dissipated by
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observing that the ship, in navigating into the harbor, was drawing too near
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the land for her own safety's sake. Owing to a sunken wreath making out
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of her bow, this seemed to prove her a stranger, indeed, not
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only to the sealer but the island. Consequently, she could be no wanted
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freebooter in that ocean. With no small interest, Captain Delano continued to watch
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her, a proceeding not much facilitated by the vapors, partly mantling the hall,
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through which the far matin light from her cabin streamed equivocally enough much like
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the sun by this time crestened on the rim of the horizon, and apparently
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in company with the strange ship entering the harbor, which wimpled by the same
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low creeping clouds, showed not unlike a lima Intraguante's one sinister eye peering across
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the plaza from the Indian loophole of her dusk saya Emnta. It might have
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been but a deception of the vapors. But the longer the stranger was watched,
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the more singular appeared her maneuvers. Ere long it seemed hard to decide
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whether she meant to come in or know what she wanted or what she was
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about. The wind, which had breezed up a little during the night,
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was now extremely light and baffling, which the more increased the apparent uncertainty of
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her movements. Surmising at last that it might be a ship in distress,
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Captain Delano ordered his whale boat to be dropped, and, much to the
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wary opposition of his mate, prepared to board her and at the least pilot
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her in. On the night previous, a fishing party of the seamen had
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gone a long distance to some detached rocks out of sight from the seiler,
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and an hour or two before daybreak had returned, having met with no small
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success. Presuming that the stranger might have been long off soundings, the good
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captain put several baskets of the fish for presents into his boat, and so
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pulled away from her, continuing too near the sunken reef, deeming her in
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danger. Calling to his men, he made all haste to apprise those on
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board of their situation. But sometime ere the boat came up. The wind
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light, though it was having shifted, had headed the vessel off as well
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as partly broken the vapors from about her. Upon gaining a less remote view
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the ship, when made signally visible on the verge of the leaden hued swells,
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with the shreds of fog here and there, raggedly furring her, appeared
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like a whitewashed monastery after a thunder storm scene perched upon some dun cliff among
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the Pyrenees. But it was no purely fanciful resemblance, which now for a
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moment almost led Captain Delano to think that nothing less than a shipload of monks
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was before him. Peering over the buldworks were what really seemed in the hazy
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distance throngs of dark cows, while fitfully revealed through the open portholes, other
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dark moving figures were dimly descried as of black friar pacing the cloisters. Upon
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a still nigher approach, this appearance was modified, and the true character of
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the vessel was plain a Spanish merchantman of the first class, carrying Negro slaves,
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amongst other valuable freight from one colonial port to another. A very large
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and in its time a very fine vessel, such as in those days,
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were at intervals encountered along that main sometimes superseded Acapulco treasure ships or retired frigates
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of the Spanish King's Navy, which, like superannuated Italian palaces still under a
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decline of masters, preserved signs of former state. As the whale boat drew
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more and more nigh, the cause of the peculiar pipe clayed. Aspect of
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the stranger was seen in the slovenly neglect pervading her. The spars, ropes,
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and great part of the bulwarks looked wooly from long eend acquaintance with the
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scraper tar and the brush. Her keels seemed laid, her ribs put together,
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and she launched from Ezekiel's valley of dry bones. In the present business
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in which she was engaged, the ship's general model and rig appeared to have
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undergone no material change from their original warlike in freus Art pattern, however,
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no guns were seen. The tops were large and were railed about with what
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had once been octagonal network, all in sad disrepair. The tops hung overhead
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like three ruinous aviaries, in one of which was seen perched on a ratlin,
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a white knotty, a strange fowl so called from its lethargic somnambulistic character,
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being frequently caught by hand at sea, battered in moldy. The castellated
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forecastle seen some ancient turret long ago taken by assault and then left to decay
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towards the stern two high raised quarter galleys, the balustrades here and there covered
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with dry tindery sea moss, opening out from the unoccupied state cabin, whose
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dead lights, for all the mild weather were hermetically closed and calked. These
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tenantless balconies hung over the sea as if it were the Grand Venetian Canal.
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But the principal relic of faded grandeur was the ample oval of the shield like
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stern piece, intricately carved with the arms of castile and leon, medallioned about
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by groups of mythological or symbolical devices, uppermost and central of which was a
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dark setter in a mask, holding his foot on the prostrate neck of a
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writhing figure likewise mass. Whether the ship had a figurehead or only a plain
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beak was not quite certain, owing to canvas wrapped about that part, either
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to protect it while under going a refurbishing, or else decently to hide its
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decay, rudely painted or chalked as in a sailor freak, along the forward
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side of a sort of pedestal. Below the canvas was the sentence seguid vethrojete
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follow your leader. While upon the tarnished headboards near by appeared in stinately capitals,
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once gilt the ship's name San Dominic, each letter streakingly corroded with tricklings
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of copper spike rust, while like mourning weeds, dark festoons of sea grass
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slimily swept to and fro over the name with every hearse like roll of the
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hull. As at last the boat was hooked from the bow along toward the
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gangway amidship its keel. While yet some inches separated from the hull harshly grated
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as on a sunken coral reef, it proved a huge bunch of conglobated barn
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adhering below the water to the side like a wind. A token of baffling
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airs and long calms passed somewhere in those seas. End of section one,
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Section two of Benito Sereno. Climbing the side, the visitor was at once
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surrounded by a clamorous throng of whites and blacks, but the latter outnumbering the
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former more than could have been expected. Negro transportationship, as the stranger in
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port, was but in one language, and as with one voice, all
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poured out a common tale of suffering, in which the negresses, of whom
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there were not a few, exceeded the others in their dolorous vehemence. The
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scurvy, together with a fever, had swept off a great part of their
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number, more especially the Spaniards off Cape Horn. They had narrowly escaped shipwreck.
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Then for days together they had lain entranced without wind. Their provisions were
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low, their water next to none. Their lips that moment were baked.
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While Captain Delano was thus made the mark of all eager tongues, His one
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eager glance took in all the faces, with every other object about him.
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Always, upon first boarding a large and populous ship at sea, especially a
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foreign one with a nondescript crew, such as Lascar's or Manilla men, the
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impression varies in a peculiar way from that produced by first entering a strange house
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with strange inmates in a strange land, both house and ship. The one
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by its walls and blinds the other by its high bulwarks, like ramparts,
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hoared from view their interiors till the last moment. But in the case of
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the ship, there is this addition that the living spectacle it contains, upon
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its sudden and complete disclosure, has, in contrast with the blank ocean which
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zones it, something of the effect of enchantment. The ship seems unreal these
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strange costumes, gestures, and faces, but a shadowy tableau just emerged from
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the deep, which directly must receive back what it gave. Perhaps it was
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some such influence as above, as attempted to be described, which in Captain
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Delano's mind, heightened whatever upon a staid scrutiny might have seemed unusual, especially
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the conspicuous figures of four elderly grizzled negroes, their heads like black dotted willow
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tops, who, in venerable contrast to the tumult below them, were couched
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sphinx like, one on the starboard cat head, another on the larboard,
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and the remaining pair face to face on the opposite bulwarks above the main chains.
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They each had bits of unstranded old junk in their hands, and with
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a sort of stoical self content, were picking the junkin to oakum, a
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small heap of which lay by their sides. They accompanied the task with a
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continuous, low, monotonous chant, droning and drooling away like so many gray
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headed bagpipers playing a funeral march. The quarter deck rose into an ample elevated
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poop upon the forward verge of which lifted like the oakum pickers, some eight
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feet above. The general throng sat along in rows separated by irregular spaces,
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the cross legged figures of six other blacks, each with a rusty hatchet in
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his hand, which, with a bit of brick and rag, he was
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engaged like a skull and scouring, while between each two was a small stack
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of hatchets. Their rested edges turned forward waiting alike operation. Though occasionally the
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four oakum pickers would briefly address some person or persons in the crowd below,
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Yet the six hatchet polishers neither spoke to others, nor breathed a whisper among
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themselves, but sat intent upon their task, except at intervals when with the
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peculiar love in negroes of uniting industry with pastime. Two and two, they
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sideways clashed their hatchets together like cymbals with a barbarous din. All six,
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unlike the generality, had the raw aspect of unsophisticated Africans, but the first
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comprehensive glance which took in these ten figures with scores less conspicuous, rested but
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an instant upon them. As impatient of the hubbub of voices, the visitor
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turned in quest of whomsoever it might be that commanded the ship, but as
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if not unwilling to let nature make known her own case among his suffering charges
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or else, in despair of restraining it for the time, the Spanish captain,
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a gentlemanly, reserved looking, and rather young man to a stranger's eye,
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dressed with a singular richness, but bearing plain traces of sleepless cares and
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disquietudes, stood passively by leaning against the mainmast, at one moment, casting
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a dreary, spiritless look upon his excited people, at the next an unhappy
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glance toward his visitor. By his side stood a black of small stature,
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in whose rude face, as occasionally like a shepherd's dog, he mutely turned
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it up to the spa sorrow and affection were equally blended. Struggling through the
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throng, the American advanced to the Spaniard, assuring him of his sympathies and
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offering to render whatever assistance might be in his power, to which the Spaniard
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returned for the present but grave and ceremonious acknowledgments his national formality. Dusked by
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the saturnine mood of ill health, but losing no time in mere compliments,
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Captain Delano returned to the gangway, had his baskets of fish brought up,
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and, as the wind still continued light so that some hours at least must
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elapse ere the ship could be brought to the anchorage, he bade his men
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return to the sealer and fetch back as much water as the whale boat could
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carry, with whatever soft bread the stewart might have, all the remaining pumpkins
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on board, with a box of sugar and a dozen of his private bottles
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of cider. Not many minutes after the boat's pushing off to the vexation of
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all, the wind entirely died away, and the tide turning began drifting back.
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The ship helplessly seaward, but trusting this would not last. Captain Delano
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sought with good hopes, to cheer up the strangers, feeling no small satisfaction
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that with persons in their condition, he could, thanks to his frequent voyages
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along the Spanish main, converse with some freedom in their native tongue. While
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left alone with them, he was not long in observing some things tending to
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heighten his first impressions, But surprise was lost in pity, both for the
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Spaniards and blacks alike, evidently reduced from scarcity of water and provisions, while
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long continued suffering seemed to have brought out the least good natured quality of the
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Negroes, besides at the same time impairing the Spaniard's authority over them. But
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under the circumstances precisely this condition of things was to have been anticipated in armies,
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navies, cities, or families in nature herself. Nothing more relaxes good
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order than misery. Still, Captain Delano was not without the idea that had
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Benito Sereno been a man of greater energy, misrule could hardly have come to
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the present paths. But the debility constitutional or induced by the hardships bodily and
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mental of the Spanish captain was too obvious to be overlooked, a prey to
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settled dejection, as if long mocked with hope, he would not now indulge
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it, even when it had ceased to be a mock. The prospect of
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that day or evening at furthest lying at anchor, with plenty of water for
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his people and a brother captain to counsel and befriend, seemed in no perceptible
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degree to encourage him. His mind appeared unstrung, if not more seriously affected,
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shut up in the oaken walls, chained to one dull round of command,
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whose unconditionality cloyed him. Like some hypochondriac abbot. He moved slowly about,
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at times suddenly pausing, starting or staring, biting his lip, biting
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his finger, nail flushing, paling, twitching his beard, with other symptoms
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of an absent or moody mind. This distempered spirit was lodged, as before
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hinted in as distempered a frame. He was rather tall, but seemed never
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to have been robust, and now, with nervous suffering, was worn almost
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to a skeleton. A tendency to some pulmonary complaint appeared to have been lately
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confirmed. His voice was like that of one with lungs half gone, hoarsely
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suppressed, a husky whisper. No wonder that, as in this state he
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tottered about, his private servant apprehensively followed him. Sometimes the Negro gave his
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master his arm or took his handkerchief out of his pocket for him, performing
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these in similar offices with that affectionate zeal which transmutes into something filial or fraternal,
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acts in themselves but menial, and which has gained for the Negro the
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repute of making the most pleasing body servant in the world one two, whom
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a master need be on no stiffly superior terms with, but may treat with
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familiar, trust less a servant than a devoted companion. Marking the noisy indecary
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of the blacks in general, as well as what seemed the sullen inefficiency of
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the whites, it was not without humane satisfaction that Captain Delaino witnessed the steady
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good conduct of Babo. But the good conduct of Babo, hardly more than
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the ill behavior of others, seemed to withdraw the half lunatic Don Benito from
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his cloudy languor not that such precisely was the impression made by the Spaniard on
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the mind of his visitor. The spaniard's individual unrest was for the present but
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noted as conspicuous a feature in the ship's general affliction. Still, Captain Delino
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was not a little concerned at what he could not help taking, for the
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time to be Don Benito's unfriendly indifference towards himself. The Spaniard's manner, too,
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conveyed a note of sour and gloomy disdain, which he seemed at no
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pains to disguise. But this the American in charity ascribed to the harassing effects
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of sickness, since in former instances he had noted that there are peculiar natures
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on whom prolonged physical suffering seems to cancel every social instinct of kindness. As
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if forced to black bread themselves, they deemed it but equity that each person
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coming nigh them should, indirectly, by some slighter affront, be made to
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partake of their fare. But ere long Captain Delano bethought him that indulgent,
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as he was at the first in judging the Spaniard, he might not,
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after all have exercised charity enough. At bottom, it was Don Benito's reserve
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which displeased him, But the same reserve was shown towards all but his personal
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attendant. Even the formal reports, which, according to c Usage were at
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stated times made to him by some petty underling, either a white Mula or
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black, he hardly had patience enough to listen to without betraying contemptuous aversion.
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His manner upon such occasions was, in its degree not unlike that which might
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be supposed to have been his imperial countrymen's Charles the Fifth, just previous to
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the anchoritish retirement of that monarch from the throne. This splenetic disrelish of his
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place was evinced in almost every function pertaining to it. Proud as he was
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moody, he condescended to no personal mandate. Whatever special orders were necessary,
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their delivery was delegated to his body servant, who in turn transferred them to
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their alternate destination through runners alert Spanish boys or slave boys like Pages or pilot
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fish with an easy call, continually hovering around Don Benito, so that to
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have beheld this undemonstrative, invalid, gliding about, app athetic and mute.
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No landsman could have dreamed that in him was lodged a dictatorship beyond which,
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while at sea, there was no earthly appeal. Thus the Spaniard regarded in
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his reserve seemed as the involuntary victim of mental disorder. But in fact his
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reserve might in some degree have proceeded from design. If so, then in
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Don Benito was invinced the unhealthy climax of that icy though conscientious policy more or
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less adopted by all commanders of large ships, which, except in signal emergencies,
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obliterates alike the manifestation of sway with every trace of sociality, transforming the
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man into a block, or rather into a loaded cannon, which, until
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there is call for thunder, has nothing to say. Viewing him in this
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light, it seemed but a natural token of the perverse habit induced by a
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law course of such hard self restraint, that, notwithstanding the present condition of
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his ship, the Spaniard should still persist in a demeanor which, however harmless
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or it may be appropriate in a well appointed vessel such as the San Dominic,
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might have been at the outset of the voyage was anything but judicious now,
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But the Spaniard perhaps thought that it was with captains, as with gods,
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reserve under all events must still be their cue. But more probably this
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appearance of slumbering dominion might have been but an attempted disguise to conscious imbecility,
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not deep policy, but shallow device. But be all as this might,
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whether Don Benito's manner was designed or not. The more Captain Delano noted its
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pervading reserve, the less he felt uneasiness at any particular manifestation of that reserve
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towards himself. Neither were his thoughts taken up by the captain alone. Wanted
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to the quiet orderliness of the sealer's comfortable family of a crew, the noisy
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confusion of the Sandomic's suffering host repeatedly challenged his eye. Some prominent breaches,
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not only of discipline but of decency were observed. These Captain Delano could not
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but described, in the main to the absence of those subordinate deck officers,
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to whom, along with higher duties, is intrusted what may be styled the
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police department of a populous ship. True, the old Oakum pickers appeared at
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times to act part of monitorial constables to their countrymen, the Blacks, But
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though occasionally succeeding in allaying trifling outbreaks now and then between man and man,
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they could do little or nothing towards establishing a general quiet. The sand Dominic
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was in the condition of a transatlantic immigrant ship, among whose multitude of living
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freight are some individuals doubtless as little troublesome as crates and bales. But the
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friendly remonstrances of such with their ruder companions are of not so much avail as
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the unfriendly arm of the mate. What the San Dominic wanted was what the
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immigrant ship has stern superior officers. But on these decks not so much as
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a fourth mate was to be seen. End of Section two Section three of
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Benito Sereno. The visitor's curiosity was roused to learn the particulars of those mishaps
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which had brought about such absenteeism with its consequences, because, though deriving some
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inkling of the voyage from the whales, which at the first most moment had
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greeted him, yet of the details no clear understanding had been had. The
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best account would doubtless be given by the captain, Yet at first the visitor
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was loath to ask it, unwilling to provoke some distant rebuff, But plucking
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up courage, he at last accosted Don Benito, renewing the expression of his
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benevolent interest, adding that did he, Captain Delano, but know the particulars
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of the ship's misfortunes, he would perhaps be better able in the inn to
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relieve them. Would Don Benito favor him with the whole story? Don Benito
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faltered, then, like some somnambulist, suddenly interfered with vacantly stared at his
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visitor, and ended by looking down on the deck. He maintained this posture
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so long that Captain Delano, almost equally disconcerted and involuntarily almost as rude,
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turned suddenly from him, walking forward to accost one of the Spanish seamen for
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the desired information. But he had hardly gone five paces when with a sort
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of eagerness, Don Benito invited him back, regretting his momentary absence of mind
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and professing readiness to gratify him. While most part of the story was being
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given, the two captains stood on the after part of the main deck,
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a privileged spot no one being near but the servant. It is now one
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hundred and ninety days. Began the Spaniard in his husky, whisper that this
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ship, well officered and well manned, with several cabin passengers, some fifty
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Spaniards in all, sailed from Buenos Aires, bound to Lima with a general
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cargo Paraguay, Tea and the like, and pointing forward that parcel of Negro,
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now not more than one hundred and fifty, as you see, but
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then numbering over three hundred souls. Off Cape Horn, we had heavy gales
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in one moment. By night, three of my best officers, with fifteen
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sailors, were lost, with the main yard, the spar snapping under them
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in the slings as they sought with heavers to beat down the icy sail to
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lighten the hull. The heavier sacks of mata were thrown into the sea,
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with most of the water pipes laughed on deck at the time. And this
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last necessity, it was combined with the prolonged detentions afterwards experienced, which eventually
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brought about our chief causes of suffering. When here there was a sudden fainting
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attack of his cough brought on no doubt by his mental distress. His servants
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sustained him, and, drawing a cordial from his pocket, placed it to
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his lips. He a little revived, but unwilling to leave him unsupported,
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while yet imperfectly restored the black with one arm still encircled his master, at
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the same time keeping his eye fixed on his face, as if to watch
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for the first sign of complete restoration or relapse, as the event might prove.
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The Spaniard proceeded, but brokenly and obscurely, as one in a dream.
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Oh, my God, Rather than pass through what I have with joy,
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I would have hailed the most terrible gales. But his cough returned,
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and with increased violence, this subsiding with reddened lips and closed eyes, he
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fell heavily against his supporter. His mind wanders. He was thinking of the
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plague that followed the gales. Plaintively sighed the servant, My poor, poor
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master, wringing one hand and with the other wiping the mouth. But to
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be patient, signor again, turning to Captain Delano, These fits do not
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last long. Master will soon be himself. Don Benito, reviving went on,
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but as this portion of the story was very brokenly delivered the substance only
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will here be set down. It appeared that, after the ship had been
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many days tossed in storms off the cape, the scurvy broke out, carrying
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off numbers of the whites and blacks. When at last they had worked round
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into the Pacific, their spars and sails were so damaged and so inadequately handled
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by the surviving mariners, most of whom were become invalids that, unable to
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lay her northerly course by the wind which was powerful, the unmanageable ship,
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for successive days at nights was blown northwestward, where the breeze suddenly deserted her
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in un waters to sultry calms. The absence of the water pipes now proved
33:06
as fatal to life, as before their presence had menaced it, induced or
33:10
at least aggravated by the more than scanty allowance of water. A malignant fever
33:16
followed the scurvy, with the excessive heat of the lengthened calm, making such
33:22
short work of it as to sweep away, as by billows, whole families
33:28
of the Africans, and yet a larger number proportionally of the Spaniards, including
33:34
by a luckless fatality every officer on board. Consequently, in the smart west
33:40
winds eventually following the calm, the already rent sails, having to be simply
33:46
dropped, not furled at need, had been gradually reduced to the beggar's rags.
33:52
They were now to procure substitutes for his lost sailors, as well as
33:58
supplies of water and sails. The captain, at the earliest opportunity, had
34:04
made for Baldivia, the southernmost civilized port of Chile and South America, but
34:10
upon nearing the coast, the thick weather had prevented him from so much as
34:15
sighting that harbor. Since which period, almost without a crew, and almost
34:22
without canvas, and almost without water, and at intervals giving its added dead
34:27
to the sea, the San Dominic had been battledored about by contrary winds,
34:34
inveigled by currents, or grown weedy in calms, like a man lost in
34:38
woods. More than once she had doubled upon her own track. But throughout
34:45
these calamities, huskily continued Don Benito, painfully turning in the half embrace of
34:52
his servant. I have to thank those negroes, you see who, though
34:58
to your inexperienced eyes appear unruly, have indeed conducted themselves with less of restlessness
35:05
than even their owner could have thought possible under such circumstances. Here he again
35:10
fell faintly back Again, his mind wandered, but he rallied, and less
35:16
obscurely proceeded. Yes, their owner was quite right in assuring me that no
35:22
fetters would be needed with his blacks, so that while as his wont in
35:27
this transportation, those Negroes have always remained upon deck, not thrust below as
35:34
in the Guinea men. They have also, from the beginning been freely permitted
35:38
to range within given bounds at their pleasure. Once More, the faintness returned,
35:45
his mind roved, but recovering, he resumed. But it is Babo
35:51
here to whom under God I own not only my own preservation, but likewise
35:57
to him. Chiefly the merit is due of pacifying his more ignorant brethren,
36:04
when, at intervals tempted to murmurings. Ah, Master sighed the black,
36:09
bowing his face. Don't speak of me, Babo is nothing. What Babo
36:14
has done was but duty, faithful, fellow, cried Captain Delano don Benito
36:22
I envy you such a friend slave, I cannot call him. End of
36:29
Section three, Chapter four. The blacks, as master and man stood before
36:42
him, the black upholding the white. Captain. Delano could not but think
36:45
of the beauty of that relationship, which could present such a spectacle of fidelity
36:50
on the one hand and confidence on the other. The scene was heightened by
36:54
the contrast in dress to noting their relative positions. The Spaniard wore loose the
37:00
chili jacket of dark velvet, white small clothes and stockings with silver buckles at
37:04
the knee and end step, a high crown, sombrero, fine grass,
37:08
a slender sword, silver mounted, hung from monotonous sash, the last being
37:13
an almost invariable adjunct, more for utility than ornament. Of a South American
37:16
general's dressed to this hour, excepting when his occasional nervous contortions brought about disarray,
37:23
there was a certain precision in his attire, curiously at variance with the
37:28
unsightly disorder around, especially in the belittered ghetto forward of the mainmast, wholly
37:35
occupied by the Blacks. The servant wore nothing but wide trousers, apparently from
37:40
their coarseness in patches made out of some old topsail. They were clean and
37:45
confined to the waist by a bit of unstranded rope, which, with his
37:47
composed, deprecatory air, at times made him look something like a begging friar
37:52
of Saint Francis. However unsuitable for the time and place, at least in
37:58
the blunt thinking American's eyes, and however strangely surviving in the midst of all
38:01
his afflictions, the toilette of Don Benito might not, in fashion at least
38:07
have gone beyond the style of the day among South Americans of his class,
38:12
though on the present voyage sailing from Buenos Aires, he had avowed himself a
38:15
native and resident of Chile, whose inhabitants had not so generally adopted the plain
38:20
coat and once plebeian pantaloons, but with a becoming modification, adhered to their
38:24
provincial costume, picturesque as any in the world. Still relatively to the pale
38:30
history of the voyage and his own pale face, there seemed something so incongruous
38:35
in the Spaniards apparel as almost to suggest the image of an invalid courtier tottering
38:39
about London streets in the time of the plague. The portion of the narrative
38:45
which perhaps most excited interest as well as some surprise considering the latitudes in question,
38:50
was the long calms spoken of, and more particularly the ships so long
38:53
drifting about. Without communicating the opinion, of course, the American could not
38:59
but impute it part of the detentions, both to clumsy seamanship and faulty navigation.
39:05
Eyeing on Benito's small yellow hands, he easily inferred that the young captain
39:08
had not got into command at the hall's hall, but the cabin window,
39:12
and if so, why wonder it incompetence in youth, sickness and aristocracy united.
39:19
Such was his democratic conclusion, but drowning criticism and compassion. After a
39:24
fresh repetition of his sympathies, Captain Delano, having heard out his story,
39:29
not only engaged as in the first place, to see Don Benito in his
39:32
people supplied in their immediate bodily needs, but also now further promise to assist
39:37
him in procuring a large permanent supply of water, as well as some sails
39:42
and rigging. And though it would involve no small embarrassment to himself, yet
39:46
he would spare three of his best seamen for temporary deck officers, so that
39:51
without delay, the ship might proceed to Concepcion, there fully to refit for
39:54
Lima, her destined port. Such generosity view was not without its effect.
40:00
Even upon the invalid. His face lighted up. Eager and hectic, he
40:05
met the honest glance of his visitor with gratitude. He seemed overcome. This
40:09
excitement is bad for master, whispered the servant, taking his arm and with
40:15
soothing words, gently drawing him aside. When Don Benito returned, the American
40:20
was pained to observe that his hopefulness, like the sudden kindling in his cheek,
40:23
was but febrile and transient. Ere long with joyless mien. Looking up
40:30
toward the poop, the host invited his guest to accompany him there for the
40:32
benefit of what little breath of wind might be stirring. As during the telling
40:37
of the story, Captain Delano had once or twice started at the occasional sembling
40:42
of the hatchet polishers, wondering why such an interruption should be allowed, especially
40:46
in that part of the ship, and in the ears of an invalid,
40:50
And moreover, as the hatchets had anything but an attractive look, and the
40:53
handlers of them still less. So it was therefore to tell the truth,
40:58
not without some lurking reluctance, or even shrinking. It may be that Captain
41:02
Delano, with apparent complaisance, acquiesced in his host's invitation, the more so
41:08
since an untimely caprice of punctilio, rendered distressing by his cadaverous aspect. Don
41:15
Benito, with Castilian boughs, solemnly insisted upon his guest preceding him up the
41:20
ladder leading to the elevation, where one on each side of the last step
41:23
sat four armorial supporters, and centuries two of the ominous file gingerly enough stepped
41:30
good Captain Delano between them, and in the instant of leaving them behind,
41:34
like one running the gauntlet, he felt an apprehensive twitch in the calves of
41:37
his legs. But when facing about, he saw the whole file, like
41:43
so many organ grinders, still stupidly intent on their work, unmindful of everything
41:47
beside. He could not but smile at his late fidgeting panic. Presently,
41:52
while standing with Don Benito, looking forward upon the decks below, he was
41:57
struck by one of those instances of insubordination, and previously alluded to. Three
42:02
black boys with two Spanish boys were sitting together on the hatches, scraping a
42:07
rude wooden platter in which some scanty mess had recently been cooked. Suddenly,
42:12
one of the black boys, enraged at a word dropped by one of his
42:15
white companions, seized a knife, and, though called to forbear by one
42:19
of the oakum pickers, struck the lad over the head, inflicting a gash
42:22
from which blood flowed. In amazement, Captain Delano inquired what this meant,
42:28
to which the pale benito dully muttered that it was merely the sport of the
42:30
lad, pretty serious sport. Truly rejoined Captain Delano. Had such a thing
42:36
happened on board the Bachelor's delight, instant punishment would have followed. At these
42:42
words, the Spaniard turned upon the American one of his sudden, staring,
42:45
half lunatic looks, then, relapsing into his torpor, answered doubtless, doubtless
42:51
signor is it thought, Captain Delano, that this helpless man is one of
42:55
those paper captains I've known, who, by policy wink at what by power
43:00
they cannot put down. I know no sadder sight than a commander who has
43:04
little of command but the name, I should think Don Benito, he now
43:08
said, glancing toward the oakum picker who had sought to interfere with the boys,
43:13
that you invited advantageous to keep all your blacks employed, especially the younger
43:17
ones, no matter at what useless task, and no matter what happens to
43:21
the ship. Why, even with my little band, I find such a
43:24
course indispensable. I once kept a crew on my quarter deck thrumbing mats for
43:29
my cabin, when for three days I had given up my ship, mats,
43:31
men and all for a speedy loss, owing to the violence of a
43:35
gale in which we could do nothing but helplessly drive before it. Doubtless,
43:42
doubtless, muttered Don Benito. But continued Captain Dolano, again glancing upon the
43:46
oakum pickers, and then at the hatchet polishers nearby. I see you keep
43:51
some at least if your host employed. Yes, was again the vacant response.
43:57
Those old men there, shaking their powers from their pulpits. Continued Captain
44:00
Delano, pointed to the oakum pickers, seem to act the part of old
44:04
dominies to the rest little heeded, as their admonitions are at times. Is
44:07
this voluntary on their part, Don Benito? Or have you appointed them shepherds
44:12
to your flock of black sheep? What posts they feel I appointed them?
44:16
Rejoined the Spaniard in an acrid tone, as if resenting some supposed satiric reflection.
44:22
And these others, these are shanti condres. Here continued Captain Delano,
44:27
rather uneasily, eyeing the brandish steel of the hatchet polishers, wherein spots it
44:30
had been brought to a shine. This seems a curious business there at,
44:35
Don Benito, in the Gales we met, answered the Spaniard. What of
44:39
our general cargo was not thrown overboard? Was much damaged by the brine?
44:45
Since coming into calm weather, I have had several cases of knives and hatchets
44:50
daily brought up for overhauling and cleaning. A prudent idea, Don Benito,
44:54
You are part owner of ship and cargo, I presume, but not of
44:58
the slaves. Perhaps I am owner of all you see, impatiently returned Don
45:04
Benito, except the main company of blacks who belonged to my late friend Alejandro
45:08
Aranda. As he mentioned this name, his air was heart broken, his
45:14
knees shook. His servants supported him, thinking he divined the cause of such
45:17
unusual emotion. To confirm his surmise, Captain Delano, after a pause,
45:22
said, and may I ask Don Benito, whether since a while ago you
45:27
spoke of some cabin passengers, the friend whose lawso afflicts you at the outset
45:30
of the voyage, accompanied his blacks. Yes, but died of the fever.
45:37
Died of the fever. Oh could I but again, quivering, the
45:43
Spaniard paused. Pardon me, said Captain Delano slowly. But I think that
45:49
by a sympathetic experience, I conjecture, Don Benito, what it is that
45:53
gives the keener edge to your grief. It was once my hard fortune to
45:58
lose at sea, you, dear friend, my own brother, then supercargo,
46:02
assured of the welfare of his spirit its departure, I could have borne
46:07
like a man, but that honest eye, that honest hand, both of
46:10
which had so often met mine, and that warm heart, all all like
46:15
scraps to the dogs, to throw all to the sharks. It was then
46:21
I vowed never to have for fell a voyager a man I loved, unless,
46:23
unbeknown to him I had provided every requisite in case of her fatality,
46:29
for embalming his mortal part for interment on shore. We your fringe remains now
46:35
on board this ship, done, Benito? Not thus strangely would the mention
46:37
of his name affect you on the board this ship, echoed the Spaniard.
46:44
Then, with horrified gestures as directed against some specter, he unconsciously fell into
46:49
the ready arms of his attendant, who, with a silent appeal toward Captain
46:52
Delano, seemed beseeching him not again to approach a theme so unspeakably distressing to
46:58
his master. This poor fellow now thought, the pained American is the victim
47:02
of that sad superstition which associates goblins with the deserted body of a man as
47:07
ghosts with an abandoned house. How unlike are we made? What to me
47:13
in like case would have been a solemn satisfaction. The bare suggestion even terrifies
47:17
the Spaniard into this trance. Poor Alexandro Arande, what would you say?
47:22
Could you see your friend who on former voyages when you for months were left
47:27
behind, has I daresay often longed and longed for one Peepeche now transported with
47:34
terror at the least thought of having you anyway nigh him at this moment,
47:38
with a dreary graveyard tull betokening a flaw. The ship's forecastle bell, smote
47:44
by one of the grizzled oakum pickers, proclaimed ten o'clock through the leaden calm,
47:50
when Captain Delano's attention was caught by the moving figure of a gigantic black,
47:53
emerging from the general crowd below and slowly advancing toward the elevated poop.
48:00
The iron collar was about his neck, from which depended a chain thrice well
48:02
round his body. The terminating lynx pad luck together at a broad band of
48:07
iron his girdle, how like a mutato fall moves, murmured the servant.
48:15
The black mounted the steps of the poop, and, like a brave prisoner
48:19
brought up to receive sentence, stood in unquailing muteness before Don Benito, now
48:23
recovered from his attack. At the first glimpse of his approach, Don Benito
48:29
had started, a resentful shadow swept over his face, and as with the
48:32
sudden memory of bootless rage, his white lips glued together. This is some
48:38
mulish mutineer, thought Captain Delano, surveying, not without a mixture of admiration,
48:44
the colossal form of the Negro. See he waits your question, master,
48:50
said the servant, thus reminded Don Benito, nervously averting his glance as
48:54
if shining by anticipation some rebellious response. In a disconcert voice, thus spoke
49:01
artofoll, will you ask my pardon? Now? The black was silent again,
49:07
Master, reported the servant, with bitter upbraiding eye in his countrymen.
49:13
Again, Master, he will bend to master. Yet answer, said Don
49:19
Benito, still averting his glance, Say but the one word pardon, and
49:22
your chain shall be off upon this The black, slowly raising both arms,
49:28
let them lifelessly fall, his lynx clanking. His head bowed as much as
49:32
to say no, I am content, Go, said Don Benito, with
49:38
inkept an unknown emotion, deliberately as he had come. The black obeyed.
49:45
Excuse me, Don Benito, said Captain de Lano. But this scene surprises
49:50
me. What means it? Pray? It means that that Negro alone of
49:55
all the band, has given me peculiar cause of a fit. I have
50:00
put him in chains. I here he paused, his hand to his head
50:05
as if there were swimming there, or sudden bewilderment of memory had come over
50:08
him. But meeting his servant's kindly glance, seemed reassured, and proceeded.
50:15
I could not scourge such a form. But I told him he must ask
50:20
my pardon. And yet he has not at my command. Every two hours
50:24
he stands before me. And how long has this been? Some sixty days?
50:34
And obedient in all else, and respectful. Yes upon my conscience,
50:39
then exclaimed Captain Delano impulsively. He has a royal spirit in him, this
50:44
fellow, he may have some right to it. Bitterly, returned Don Benito,
50:50
He says he was king in his own land, Yes, said the
50:54
servant, entering a word. Those slits and out the fall's ears once wedges
51:00
of gold. But poor Babo here in his own land, was only a
51:05
poor slave. A black man's slave, was Babo, who now is the
51:08
whites. Somewhat annoyed by these conversational familiarities, Captain Delano turned curiously upon the
51:15
attendant, then glanced inquiringly at his master. But as if long wonted to
51:21
these little informalities, neither master nor man seemed to understand him. What prey
51:27
was that of all's offense? Don Benito asked Captain Delano, if it was
51:30
not something very serious, take a fool's advice, and, in view of
51:34
his general docility, as well as in some natural respect for a spirit,
51:37
remit his penalty. No, no, Master will never do that here,
51:44
murmured the servant to himself, proud that of all must first ask master's pardon.
51:49
The slave there carries the padlock, but master here carries the key.
51:54
His attention thus directed, Captain Delano now noticed for the first time that suspended
52:00
by a slender silken cord from Don Benito's neck hunger key at once from the
52:05
servant's muttered syllables divining the key's purpose, he smiled and said, so,
52:08
Don Benito, padlock and key symbolic symbols, truly biting his lip. Don
52:15
Benito faltered. Though the remark of Captain Delano, a man of such native
52:21
simplicity as to be incapable of satire or irony, had been dropped in playful
52:25
allusion to the Spaniard's singularly evidenced lordship over the black. Yet the Hypochontriac seemed
52:31
in some way to have taken it as a malicious reflection upon his confessed inability,
52:36
thus far to break down, at least on a verbal summons, the
52:39
entrenched will of the slave. Deploring this supposed misconception, yet despairing of correcting
52:45
it, Captain Dolano shifted the subject, but finding his companion more than ever
52:50
withdrawn, as if still slowly digesting the leaves of the presumed affront above mentioned
52:55
by and by Captain Delano likewise became less talkative, oppressed against his own will
53:01
by what seemed the secret vindictiveness of the morbidly sensitive Spaniard. But the good
53:07
sailor himself, of a quite contrary disposition, refrained on his part, alike
53:12
from the appearances, from the feeling of resentment, and if silent, was
53:15
only so from contagion. Presently, the Spaniard, assisted by a servant,
53:21
somewhat discourteously, crossed over from Captain Delano, a procedure which sensibly enough might
53:25
have been allowed to pass for idle caprice of ill humor, had not Master
53:30
and man, lingering round the corner of the elevated skylight, begun whispering together
53:34
in low voices. This was unpleasing, and more the moody air of the
53:39
Spaniard, which at times had not been without a sort of valetudinarian stateliness,
53:45
now seemed anything but dignified, while the menial familiarity of the servant lost its
53:51
original charm of simple hearted attachment. End of Chapter four Questions. In his
54:01
embarrassment, the visitor turned his face to the other side of the ship.
54:07
By so doing his glance accidentally fell on a young Spanish sailor a coil of
54:14
rope in his hand, just stepped from the deck to the first round of
54:17
the mizzen rigging. Perhaps the man would not have been particularly noticed, were
54:22
it not that, during his ascent to one of the yards, he,
54:27
with a sort of covert intentness, kept his eye fixed on Captain Delano,
54:31
from whom presently it passed, as if by a natural sequence to the two
54:37
whisperers, his own attention thus redirected to that quarter. Captain Delano gave a
54:45
slight start from something in Don Benito's manner. Just then it seemed as if
54:50
the visitor had at least partly been the subject of the withdrawn consultation, going
54:54
on a conjecture as little agreeable to the gees as it was little flattering to
55:01
the host. The singular alternations of courtesy and ill breeding in the Spanish captain
55:07
were unaccountable except on one of two suppositions, innocent lunacy or wicked impostor.
55:17
But the first idea, though it might naturally have occurred to an indifferent observer,
55:22
and in some respects, had not hitherto been wholly a stranger to Captain
55:28
Delano's mind. Yet now that in an incipient way he began to regard the
55:34
stranger's conduct something in the light of an intentional affront, of course, the
55:38
idea of lunacy was virtually vacated. But if not a lunatic, what then,
55:45
under the circumstances, would a gentleman, nay, any honest boor act
55:50
the part now acted by his host. The man was an impostor, some
55:55
low born adventurer masquerading as an ocean grandee, yet so ignorant of the first
56:04
requisites of mere gentlemanhood as to be betrayed into the present remarkable in decorum.
56:10
That strange ceremoniousness too. At other times events seemed not uncharacteristic of one playing
56:17
a part above his real level. Benito Cereno Don Benito Cereno, a sounding
56:24
name one two at that period not unknown in the surname to supercargoes and sea
56:31
captains trading along the Spanish main as, belonging to one of the most enterprising
56:37
and extensive mercantile families in all those provinces, several members of it having titles,
56:43
a sort of Castilian rothchild with a noble brother or cousin in every great
56:49
trading town of South America. The alleged Don Benito was in early manhood about
56:55
twenty nine or thirty to assume a sort of roving cadet in the maritime affairs
57:00
of such a house. What more likely scheme for a young knave of talent
57:06
and spirit. But the Spaniard was a pale invalid. Never mind, for
57:12
even to the degree of simulating mortal disease, the craft of some tricksters had
57:15
been known to attain to think that under the aspect of infantile weakness, the
57:22
most savage energies might be couched those velvets of the Spaniard. But the velvet
57:28
paw to his fangs. From no train of thought did these fancies come not
57:34
from within but from without. Suddenly too, and in one throng like hoarfrost,
57:40
yet as soon to vanish as the mild sun of Captain Delano's good nature
57:45
regained its meridian, glancing over once again toward Don Benito, whose side face
57:52
revealed above the skylight was now turned toward him. Captain Delano was struck by
57:58
the profile, whose clearness of cut was refined by the Thinness incident to ill
58:04
health, as well as ennobled about the chin by the beard away with suspicion
58:09
he was a true offshoot of a true Idalgo Sereno. Relieved by these and
58:16
other better thoughts, the visitor, lightly humming a tune, now began indifferently
58:22
pacing the poop, so as not to betray to Don Benito that he had
58:27
at all mistrusted incivility, much less duplicity, for such mistrust would yet be
58:34
proved illusory, and by the event, though for the present, the circumstance
58:39
which had provoked that distrust remained unexplained. But when that little mystery should have
58:45
been cleared up, Captain Delano thought he might extremely regret it. Did he
58:51
allow Don Benito to become aware that he had indulged in ungenerous surmises in short
58:58
to the Spaniard's black letter text, it was best for a while to leave
59:04
open margin. Presently, his pale face twitching and overcast, the Spaniard,
59:10
still supported by his attendant, moved over toward his guest, when with even
59:15
more than unusual embarrassment and a strange sort of intriguing intonation in his husky whisper,
59:22
the following conversation began. Senor, May I ask how long you have
59:29
lain at this isle? Oh, but a day or two, Don Benito.
59:35
And from what port are you last canton? And there, Signor,
59:39
you exchanged your seal skins for teas and silks. I think you said,
59:45
yes, silks mostly, and the balance you took in specie perhaps. Captain
59:52
Delano, fidgeting a little, answered yes, some silver. Not a very
59:57
great deal though, Ah well, May I ask how many men have you
1:00:01
on board, Senor. Captain Delano slightly started, but answered about five and
1:00:07
twenty all told, and at present, Signor, all on board. I
1:00:13
suppose all on board, Don Benito, replied the captain, now with satisfaction,
1:00:20
and will be tonight Senor. At this last question, following so many
1:00:25
pertinacious ones, for the soul of him, Captain Delano could not but look
1:00:30
very earnestly at the questioner, who, instead of meeting the glance with every
1:00:35
token of craven discomposure, dropped his eyes to the deck, presenting an unworthy
1:00:40
contrast to his servant, who just then was kneeling at his feet adjusting a
1:00:46
loose shoe buckle. His disengaged face, meantime, with humble curiosity, turned
1:00:52
openly up into his master's downcast one. The Spaniard, still with a guilty
1:00:59
shuffle, repeated his question, and and will be to night, Senor?
1:01:07
Yes, for aught, I know, returned Captain Delano, but nay,
1:01:12
rallying himself into fearless truth. Some of them talked of going off on another
1:01:15
fishing party about midnight. Your ships generally go go more or less armed,
1:01:22
I believe, Senor. Oh a six pounder or two in case of emergency,
1:01:29
was the intrepidly indifferent reply, with a small stock of muskets, sealing
1:01:34
spears, and cutlasses. You know. As he thus responded, Captain Delano
1:01:39
again glanced at Don Benito, but the latter's eyes were averted. While abruptly
1:01:45
and awkwardly shifting the subject, he made some peevish allusion to the calm,
1:01:51
and then, without apology, once more with his attendant withdrew to the opposite
1:01:55
bulwarks, where the whispering was resumed. At this moment and ere Captain Delano
1:02:02
could cast a cool thought upon what had just passed. The young Spanish sailor
1:02:07
before mentioned was seen descending from the rigging in act of stooping over to spring
1:02:15
inboard to the deck. His voluminous unconfined frock or shirt of coarse woolen,
1:02:21
much spotted with tar, opened out far down the chest, revealing a soiled
1:02:25
undergarment of what seemed the finest linen, edged about the neck with a narrow
1:02:31
blue ribbon sadly faded and worn. At this moment, the young sailor's eye
1:02:38
was again fixed on the whisperers, and Captain Delano thought he observed a lurking
1:02:44
significance in it, as if silent signs of some freemason sort had that instant
1:02:49
been interchanged. This once more impelled his own glance in the direction of Don
1:02:55
Benito, and as before he could not but infer that himself formed the subject
1:03:01
of the conference. He paused the sound of the hatchet polishing fell on his
1:03:07
ears. He cast another swift side look at the two. They had the
1:03:13
air of conspirators. In connection with the late questionings and the incident of the
1:03:20
young sailor. These things now begat such return of involuntary suspicion that the singular
1:03:25
guilelessness of the American could not endure it. Plucking up a gay and humorous
1:03:31
expression, he crossed over to the two rapidly, saying, Ah, don
1:03:37
Benito, your black hair seems high in your trust, a sort of privy
1:03:42
counselor in fact. Upon this, the servant looked up with a good natured
1:03:46
grin, but the master started as from a venomous bite. It was a
1:03:52
moment or two before the Spaniard sufficiently recovered himself to reply, which he did
1:03:57
at last with cold constraint. Yes, Senor, I have trust in Babo.
1:04:03
Here Babo, changing his previous grin of mere animal humor into an intelligent
1:04:10
smile not ungratefully eyed his master, finding that the Spaniard now stood silent and
1:04:16
reserved, as if involuntarily or purposely, giving hint that his guest's proximity was
1:04:24
inconvenient. Just then, Captain Delano, unwilling to appear uncivil, even to
1:04:29
incivility itself, made some trivial remark, and moved off again and again,
1:04:34
turning over in his mind the mysterious demeanor of Don Benito Sereno. He had
1:04:42
descended from the poop and wrapped in thought, was passing near a dark hatchway
1:04:46
leading down into the steerage. When perceiving motion there, he looked to see
1:04:51
what moved the same instant There was a sparkle in the shadowy hatchway, and
1:04:58
he saw one of the Spanish sailors prowling there, hurriedly placing his hand in
1:05:02
the bosom of his frock, as if hiding something. Before the man could
1:05:08
have been certain who it was that was passing, he slunk below, out
1:05:12
of sight, but enough was seen of him to make it sure that he
1:05:15
was the same young sailor before noticed in the rigging. What was that which
1:05:21
so sparkled, thought Captain Delano. It was no lamp, no match,
1:05:27
no live coal. Could it have been a jewel? But how come sailors
1:05:32
with jewels or with silk trimmed undershirts either? Has he been robbing the trunks
1:05:39
of the dead cabin passengers? But if so, he would hardly wear one
1:05:43
of the stolen articles on board ship. Here ah ah, if now that
1:05:48
was indeed a secret sign I saw passing between this suspicious fellow and his captain
1:05:55
a while since, if I could only be certain that in my uneasiness my
1:05:59
sae did not deceive me, then here, passing from one suspicious thing to
1:06:04
another, his mind revolved the point of the strange questions put to him concerning
1:06:10
his ship. By a curious coincidence, as each point was recalled, the
1:06:15
black wizards of Ashanti would strike up with their hatchets as an ominous comment on
1:06:20
the white stranger's thoughts. Pressed by such enigmas and portents, it would have
1:06:26
been almost against nature had not even into the least distrustful heart, some ugly
1:06:30
misgivings obtruded. Observing the ship now helplessly fallen into a current with enchanted sails,
1:06:39
drifting with increased rapidity seaward, and noting that from a lately intercepted projection
1:06:45
of the land the sealer was hidden, the stout mariner began to quake at
1:06:49
thoughts which he barely durst confess to himself. Above all, he began to
1:06:55
feel a ghostly dread of Don Benito. And yet when he roused himself,
1:07:00
dilated his chest, felt himself strong on his legs, and coolly considered it.
1:07:05
What did all these phantoms amount to? Had the Spaniard any sinister scheme,
1:07:13
it must have reference not so much to him, Captain Delano, as
1:07:16
to his ship the Bachelor's Delight. Hence the present drifting away of the one
1:07:24
ship from the other. Instead of favoring any such possible scheme, was for
1:07:28
the time at least opposed to it. Clearly, any suspicion combining such contradictions
1:07:34
must need be delusive. Besides, was it not absurd to think of a
1:07:41
vessel in distress, a vessel by sickness, almost dismanned of her crew,
1:07:45
a vessel whose inmates were parched for water? Was it not a thousand times
1:07:51
absurd that such a craft should at present be of a piratical character, or
1:07:58
her commander either or himself or those under him, cherish any desire but for
1:08:03
speedy relief and refreshment. But then might not general distress and thirst in particular
1:08:11
be affected, And might not that same undiminished Spanish crew alleged to have perished
1:08:16
off to a remnant be at that very moment, lurking in the hold on
1:08:23
heartbroken pretense of entreating a cup of cold water. Fiends in human form had
1:08:29
got into lonely dwellings, nor retired until a dark deed had been done.
1:08:33
And among the Malay pirates it was no unusual thing to lure ships after them
1:08:39
into their treacherous harbors or entice borders from a declared enemy at sea, by
1:08:45
the spectacle of thinly manned or vacant decks beneath which prowled a hundred spears with
1:08:50
yellow arms, ready to upthrust them through the mats. Not that Captain Delano
1:08:56
had entirely credited such things, he had heard them, and now as stories
1:09:01
they recurred. The present destination of the ship was the anchorage. There she
1:09:06
would be near his own vessel. Upon gaining that vicinity, might not the
1:09:12
san Dominic, like a slumbering volcano, suddenly let loose energies now hid,
1:09:18
he recalled the spaniard's manner while telling his story. There was a gloomy hesitancy
1:09:24
and subterfuge about it. It was just the manner of one making up his
1:09:29
tale for evil purposes as he goes. But if that story was not true.
1:09:33
What was the truth that the ship had unlawfully come into the Spaniard's possession,
1:09:41
But in many of its details, especially in reference to the more calamitous
1:09:45
parts, such as the fatalities among the seamen, the consequent prolonged beating about
1:09:51
the past sufferings from obstinate calms, and still continued suffering from thirst. In
1:09:57
all these points, as well as others, Don Benito's story had been corroborated
1:10:02
not only by the wailing ejaculations of the indiscriminate multitude, white and black,
1:10:09
but likewise what seemed impossible to be counterfeit by the very expression and play of
1:10:15
every human feature which Captain Delano saw. If Don Benito's story was throughout an
1:10:21
invention, then every soul on board, down to the youngest negress, was
1:10:27
his carefully drilled recruit in the plot, an incredible inference. And yet if
1:10:32
there was ground for mistrusting the Spanish captain's veracity, that inference was a legitimate
1:10:39
one. In short, scarce and uneasiness entered the honest sailor's mind, but
1:10:45
by a subsequent spontaneous act of good sense it was ejected. At last,
1:10:50
he began to laugh at these forebodings, and laugh at the strange ship,
1:10:55
for in its aspects some way siding with them, as it were, laughed
1:11:00
too at the odd looking blacks, particularly those old scissors grinders, the ashantes,
1:11:06
and those bed ridden old knitting women, the oakum pickers, and in
1:11:11
a human way, he almost began to laugh at the dark spaniard himself,
1:11:15
the central hobgoblin of all. For the rest whatever, in a serious way
1:11:21
seemed enigmatical, was now good naturedly explained away by the thought that for the
1:11:28
most part the poor invalids scarcely knew what he was about, either sulking in
1:11:32
black vapors or putting random questions without sense or object. Evidently, for the
1:11:39
present the man was not fit to be entrusted with the ship. On some
1:11:44
benevolent plea. Withdrawing the command from him, Captain Delano would yet have to
1:11:47
send her to Concepcion in charge of his second mate, a worthy person and
1:11:53
good navigator, a plan which would prove no wiser for the San Dominic than
1:11:58
for Don Benito, For, relieved from all anxiety, keeping wholly to his
1:12:03
cabin, the sick man, under the good nursing of his servant would probably,
1:12:09
by the end of the passage be in a measure restored to health,
1:12:13
and with that he should also be restored to authority. End of chapter five,
1:12:19
the boat appears, such were the Americans thoughts they were tranquilizing. There
1:12:28
was a difference between the idea of Don Benito's darkly pre ordaining Captain Delano's fate
1:12:33
and Captain Delano's lightly arranging Don Benito's. Nevertheless, it was not without something
1:12:42
of relief that the good seaman presently perceived his whale boat in the distance.
1:12:47
Its absence had been prolonged by unexpected detention at the seiler's side, as well
1:12:54
as its returning trip lengthened by the continual recession of the goal. The advancing
1:13:01
speck was observed by the Blacks. Their shouts attracted the attention of Don Benito,
1:13:06
who, with a return of courtesy approaching Captain Delano, expressed satisfaction at
1:13:14
the coming of some supplies, slight and temporary, as they must necessarily prove.
1:13:20
Captain Delano responded, but while doing so, his attention was drawn to
1:13:26
something passing on the deck below. Among the crowd climbing the landward bulwarks.
1:13:31
Anxiously watching the coming boat, two blacks, to all appearances, accidentally incommoded
1:13:36
by one of the sailors, flew out against him with horrible curses, which
1:13:42
the sailor, some way resenting the two blacks, dashed him to the deck
1:13:45
and jumped upon him, despite the earnest cries of the oakum pickers. Don
1:13:51
Benito said Captain Delano quickly, do you see what is going on there?
1:13:57
Look? But seized by his cough, the Spaniard staggered with both hands to
1:14:03
his face, on the point of falling. Captain Delano would have supported him,
1:14:09
but the servant was more alert, who, with one hand sustaining his
1:14:13
master, with the other, applied the cordial Don Benito restored the black withdrew
1:14:19
his support, slipping aside a little, but dutifully remaining within call of a
1:14:25
whisper. Such discretion was here evinced as quite wiped away in the visitor's eyes
1:14:31
any blemish of impropriety which might have attached to the attendant from the in decorous
1:14:38
conferences before mentioned, showing too that if the servant were to blame, it
1:14:44
might be more the master's fault than his own, since when left to himself,
1:14:48
he could conduct thus well. His glance thus called away from the spectacle
1:14:55
of disorder to the more pleasing one before him. Captain Delano could not avoid
1:14:59
it, again, congratulating Don Benito upon possessing such a servant, who,
1:15:03
though perhaps a little too forward now and then, must upon the whole be
1:15:09
invaluable to one in the invalid's situation. Tell me, Don Benito, he
1:15:15
added, with a smile, I should like to have your man here myself.
1:15:19
What will you take for him? Would fifty doubloons be any object?
1:15:25
Master wouldn't part with Babo for a thousand dobloons, murmured the black overhearing the
1:15:30
offer and taking it in earnest and with the strange vanity of a faithful slave
1:15:35
appreciated by his master, scorning to hear so paltry a valuation put upon him
1:15:42
by a stranger. But Don Benito, apparently hardly yet completely restored, and
1:15:47
again interrupted by his cough, made but some broken reply. Soon his physical
1:15:55
distress became so great, affecting his mind too, apparently, that, as
1:16:00
if to screen the sad spectacle, the servant gently conducted his master below left
1:16:06
to himself. The American to while away the time till his boat should arrive,
1:16:12
would have pleasantly accosted some one of the few Spanish seamen he saw,
1:16:16
but recalling something that Don Benito had said, touching their ill conduct, he
1:16:21
refrained, as a shipmaster indisposed to countenance cowardice or unfaithfulness in seamen. While
1:16:30
with these thoughts, standing with eye directed forward toward that handful of sailors,
1:16:35
suddenly he thought that some of them returned the glance, and with a sort
1:16:40
of meaning, he rubbed his eyes and looked again, but again seemed to
1:16:45
see the same thing, under a new form, but more obscure than any
1:16:49
previous one. The old suspicions recurred, but in the absence of Don Benito,
1:16:57
with less of panic than before. Despite the bad account given of the
1:17:01
sailors, Captain Delano resolved forthwith to accost one of them. Descending the poop,
1:17:09
he made his way through the blacks, his movement drawing a queer cry
1:17:14
from the oakum pickers, prompted by whom the Negroes, twitching each other aside,
1:17:18
divided before him, but as if curious to see what was the object
1:17:24
of this deliberate visit, to their ghetto. Closing in behind in tolerable order,
1:17:29
followed the white stranger up, his progress thus proclaimed as by mounted kings
1:17:34
at arms and escorted as by a Kaffir guard of honor. Captain Delano,
1:17:40
assuming a good humored off hand air, continued to advance now and then,
1:17:45
saying a blithe word to the negroes, and his eye curiously surveying the white
1:17:49
faces here and there, sparsely mixed in with the blacks, like stray white
1:17:55
ponds, venturously involved in the ranks of the chessmen opposed. While thinking which
1:18:01
of them to select for his purpose, he chanced to observe a sailor seated
1:18:05
on the deck, engaged in tarring the strap of a large block, with
1:18:11
a circle of blacks squatted round him, inquisitively eyeing the process. The mean
1:18:16
employment of the man was in contrast with something superior in his figure. His
1:18:23
hand black, with continually thrusting it into the tar pot held for him by
1:18:27
a Negro, seemed not naturally alied to his face, a face which would
1:18:32
have been a very fine one but for its haggardness. Whether this haggardness had
1:18:38
ought to do with criminality could not be determined, since as intense heat and
1:18:44
cold, though unlike, produce like sensations, so innocence and guilt when through
1:18:49
casual association with mental pain, stamping any visible impress use one seal a hacked
1:18:58
one. Not again that this reflection occurred to Captain Delano at the time charitable
1:19:03
man as he was, rather another idea, because observing so singular a haggardness
1:19:12
to be combined with a dark eye averted as in trouble and shame. And
1:19:15
then, however, illogically uniting in his mind his own private suspicions of the
1:19:20
crew with the confessed ill opinion on the part of their captain, he was
1:19:26
insensibly operated upon by certain general notions which, while disconnecting pain and abashment from
1:19:32
virtue as invariably linked them with vice. If indeed there be any wickedness on
1:19:41
board this ship, thought Captain Delano, be sure that man there has fouled
1:19:46
his hand in it, even as now he fouls it in the pitch.
1:19:50
I don't like to accost him. I will speak to this other, this
1:19:56
old jack here on the windlass. He advanced to an old Barcelona tar in
1:20:01
ragged red breeches and dirty nightcap, cheeks trenched and bronzed, whiskers dense as
1:20:09
thorn hedges. Seated between two sleepy looking Africans, this mariner, like his
1:20:14
younger shipmate, was employed upon some rigging splicing a cable, the sleepy looking
1:20:20
blacks performing the inferior function of holding the outer parts of the ropes for him.
1:20:27
Upon Captain Delano's approach, the man at once hung his head below its
1:20:31
previous level, the one necessary for business. It appeared as if he desired
1:20:38
to be thought absorbed with more than common fidelity in his task being addressed.
1:20:44
He glanced up, but with what seemed a furtive, diffident air, which
1:20:48
sat strangely enough on his weather beaten visage, much as if a grizzly bear,
1:20:55
instead of growling and biting, should simper and cast sheep's eyes. He
1:21:00
was asked several questions concerning the voyage, questions purposely referring to several particulars in
1:21:06
Don Benito's narrative not previously corroborated by those impulsive cries greeting the visitor on first
1:21:14
coming on board. The questions were briefly answered, confirming all that remained to
1:21:19
be confirmed of the story. The negroes about the windlass joined in with the
1:21:26
old sailor, but as they became talkative, he, by degrees became mute,
1:21:31
and at length quite glum, seemed morosely unwilling to answer more questions.
1:21:36
And yet all the while this ersine air was somehow mixed with his sheepish one,
1:21:45
despairing of getting into unembarrassed talk with such a centaur. Captain Delano,
1:21:49
after glancing round for a more promising countenance, but seeing none, spoke pleasantly
1:21:56
to the blacks to make way for him, And so, amid various grins
1:22:00
and grimaces, returned to the poop, feeling a little strange at first he
1:22:04
could hardly tell why, but upon the whole with regained confidence. In beneath
1:22:10
o Sereno, how plainly thought he did that old whiskerindo yonder betray a consciousness
1:22:17
of ill desert, no doubt, when he saw me coming he dreaded lest
1:22:21
I, apprized by his captain of the crew's general misbehavior, came with sharp
1:22:27
words for him, and so down with his head. And yet, and
1:22:32
yet now that I think of it, that very old fellow, if I
1:22:38
err not, was one of those who seemed so earnestly eyeing me here a
1:22:42
while since, Ah, these currents spin one's head round almost as much as
1:22:47
they do the ship. Huh. There now's a pleasant sort of sunny sight.
1:22:55
Quite sociable too. His attention had been drawn to a slumbering negress,
1:23:01
partly disclosed through the lace work of some rigging, lying with youthful limbs,
1:23:06
carelessly disposed under the lee of the bulwarks like a dough in the shade of
1:23:12
a woodland rock. Sprawling at her lapped breasts was her wide awake fawn,
1:23:17
stark naked, its black little body half lifted from the deck crosswise with its
1:23:24
dams, its hands like two paws clambering upon her, its mouth and nose
1:23:29
ineffectually rooting to get at the mark, and meantime giving a vexatious half grunt,
1:23:35
blending with the composed snore of the negress. The uncommon vigor of the
1:23:42
child at length roused the mother. She started up at distance, facing Captain
1:23:47
Delano, but as if not at all concerned at the attitude in which she
1:23:51
had been caught, Delightedly, she caught the child up with maternal transports,
1:23:58
covering it with kisses. There's naked nature now, pure tenderness and love,
1:24:04
thought Captain Delano. Well pleased, this incident prompted him to remark the other
1:24:12
negresses more particularly than before, he was gratified with their manners. Like most
1:24:17
uncivilized women, they seemed at once tender of heart and tough of constitution,
1:24:23
equally ready to die for their infants or fight for them. Unsophisticated as leopardesses,
1:24:30
loving as doves, ah, thought Captain Delano. These perhaps are some
1:24:35
of the very women whom Mungo Park saw in Africa, and gave such a
1:24:40
noble account of these natural sights. Somehow insensibly deepened his confidence and ease.
1:24:48
At last, he looked to see how his boat was getting on, but
1:24:51
it was still pretty remote. He turned to see if Don Benito had returned,
1:24:58
but he had not to change the scene, as well as to please
1:25:02
himself with a leisurely observation of the coming boat. Stepping over into the mizzen
1:25:09
chains, he clambered his way into the starboard quarter galley, one of those
1:25:13
abandoned Venetian looking water balconies previously mentioned retreats cut off from the deck. As
1:25:20
his foot pressed the half damp, half dry sea mosses matting the place,
1:25:26
and a chance phantom cat's paw an islet of breeze unherlded unfollowed. As this
1:25:33
ghostly cat's paw came fanning his cheek, his glance fell upon the row of
1:25:39
small, round dead lights, all closed like coppered eyes of the coffined,
1:25:45
and the State cabin door, once connecting with the gallery, even as the
1:25:48
dead lights had once looked out upon it, but now calked fast like a
1:25:54
sarcophagus lid to a purple black tarred over panel, threshold and post. And
1:26:00
he bethought him of the time when that state cabin and the state balcony had
1:26:05
heard the voices of the Spanish king's officers, and the forms of thelem of
1:26:11
Viceroy's daughters had perhaps leaned where he stood. As these and other images flitted
1:26:16
through his mind as the cat's paw through the calm, gradually he felt rising
1:26:23
a dreamy inquietude, like that of one who alone on the prairie feels unrest
1:26:30
from the repose of the noon. He leaned against the carved balustrade, again
1:26:35
looking off toward his boat, but found his eye falling upon the ribbon grass
1:26:42
trailing along the ship's water line, straight as a border of green box and
1:26:46
parterres of seaweed, broad ovals and crescents, floating nigh and far, with
1:26:53
what seemed long formal alleys, between crossing the terraces of swells, and sweeping
1:26:59
round as if leading to the grottoes below. And Overhanging all was the balustrade
1:27:05
by his arm, which, partly stained with pitch and partly embossed with moss,
1:27:11
seemed the charred ruin of some summer house in a grand garden, long
1:27:16
running to waste. Trying to break one charm, he was but becharmed new,
1:27:24
though upon the wide sea he seemed in some far inland country, prisoner
1:27:30
in some deserted chateau, left to stare at empty grounds and peer out at
1:27:34
vague roads where never wagon or wayfarer passed. But these enchantments were a little
1:27:42
disenchanted as his eye fell on the corroded main chains of an ancient style,
1:27:47
massy and rusty in link, shackle and bolt. They seemed even more fit
1:27:54
for the ship's present business than the one for which probably she had been built.
1:28:00
Presently, he thought something moved nigh the chains. He rubbed his eyes
1:28:04
and looked hard. Groves of rigging were about the chains, and there,
1:28:10
peering from behind a great stay like an Indian, from behind a hemlock,
1:28:15
a Spanish sailor a marling spike in his hand, was seen, who made
1:28:19
what seemed an imperfect gesture toward the balcony, but immediately, as if alarmed
1:28:26
by some advancing step along the deck within, vanished into the recesses of the
1:28:30
hempen forest like a poacher. What meant this something the man had sought to
1:28:38
communicate unbeknown to any one, even to his captain. Did the secret involve
1:28:44
ought unfavorable to his captain? Were those previous misgivings of Captain Delano's about to
1:28:49
be verified, or, in his haunted mood at the moment, had some
1:28:55
random unintentional motion of the man, while busy with the stay, as if
1:29:00
repairing it, been mistaken for a significant beckoning. Not unbewildered again, he
1:29:06
gazed off for his boat, but it was temporarily hidden by a rocky spur
1:29:12
of the aisle. As with some eagerness he bent forward, watching for the
1:29:17
first shooting view of its beak. The balustrade gave way before him like charcoal.
1:29:23
Had he not clutched an outreaching rope, he would have fallen into the
1:29:27
sea. The crash, though feeble, and the fall, though hollow,
1:29:31
of the rotten fragments, must have been overheard. He glanced up with sober
1:29:39
curiosity. Peering down upon him was one of the old oakum pickers, slipped
1:29:45
from his perch to an outside boom. While below the old negro, and
1:29:50
invisible to him, reconnoitering from a porthole like a fox from the mouth of
1:29:56
its den, crouched the Spanish sailor. Again from something suddenly suggested by the
1:30:02
man's heir, the mad idea now darted into Captain Delano's mind that Don Benito's
1:30:10
plea of indisposition and withdrawing below was but a pretense that he was engaged there
1:30:16
maturing some plot of which the sailor, by some means gaining an inkling,
1:30:23
had a mind to warn the stranger against incited, it may be by gratitude
1:30:29
for a kind word on first boarding the ship. Was it from foreseeing some
1:30:34
possible interference like this that Don Benito had beforehand, given such a bad character
1:30:41
of his sailors while praising the Negroes, though indeed the former seemed as docile
1:30:45
as the latter. The contrary, the whites, too, by nature,
1:30:51
were the shrewder race. A man with some evil design? Would not he
1:30:57
be likely to speak well of that stupidity which was blind to his depravity,
1:31:01
and beligned that intelligence from which it might not be hidden? Not unlikely perhaps,
1:31:09
But if the whites had dark secrets concerning Don Benito, could then Don
1:31:14
Benito be any way in complicity with the blacks. But they were too stupid.
1:31:20
Besides, whoever heard of a white so far a renegade as to apostatize
1:31:26
from his very species, almost by leaguing in against it. With Negroes.
1:31:31
These difficulties recalled former ones lost in their mazes. Captain Delano, who had
1:31:39
now regained the deck, was uneasily advancing along it when he observed a new
1:31:44
face, an aged sailor seated cross legged near the main hatchway. His skin
1:31:50
was shrunk up with wrinkles, like a pelican's empty pouch, His hair frosted,
1:31:56
his countenance grave and composed. His hands were full of ropes, which
1:32:01
he was working into a large knot. Some blacks were about him, obligingly
1:32:06
dipping the strands for him here and there, as the exigencies of the operation
1:32:12
demanded. Captain Delano crossed over to him and stood in silence, surveying the
1:32:18
knot his mind by a not uncongenial transition, passing from its own entanglements to
1:32:26
those of the hemp for intricacy. Such a knot he had never seen in
1:32:31
an American ship, or indeed any other. The old man looked like an
1:32:36
Egyptian priest making Gordian knots for the temple of a man. The knot seemed
1:32:43
a combination of double bowline knot, trouble crown knot, backhanded well knot not
1:32:49
in an out knot, and jamming knot. At last, puzzled to comprehend
1:32:57
the meaning of such a knot, Captain de la addressed the nootter, What
1:33:02
are you nodding there, my man? The knot, was the brief reply,
1:33:08
without looking up, so it seems, But what is it for for
1:33:13
someone else to undo? Muttered back the old man, plying his fingers harder
1:33:17
than ever, the not being now nearly completed. While Captain Delano stood watching
1:33:24
him. Suddenly, the old man threw the knot toward him and said,
1:33:29
in broken English, the first herd in the ship, something to this effect.
1:33:34
Undo it cut it quick, it was said, lowly, but with
1:33:44
such condensation of rapidity that the long, slow words in Spanish which had preceded
1:33:50
and followed almost operated as covers to the brief English between. For a moment,
1:33:58
not in hand and not in head, Captain Delano stood mute, while
1:34:03
without further heeding him, the old man was now intent upon other ropes.
1:34:10
Presently, there was a slight stir behind Captain Delano. Turning, he saw
1:34:15
the chained negro at to fall, standing quietly there. The next moment the
1:34:20
old sailor rose, muttering, and, followed by his subordinate negroes, removed
1:34:27
to the forward part of the ship, where in the crowd he disappeared.
1:34:32
An elderly negro in a clout like an infant's and with a pepper and salt
1:34:38
head and a kind of atturney air, now approached Captain Delano, intolerable Spanish,
1:34:45
and with a good natured, knowing wink, he informed him that the
1:34:48
old notter was simple witted but harmless, often playing his old tricks. The
1:34:57
negro concluded by begging the knot for a of course, the stranger would not
1:35:00
care to be troubled with it. Unconsciously, it was handed to him with
1:35:06
a sort of kannga. The negro received it, and, turning his back,
1:35:12
ferreted into it like a detective custom house officer. After smuggled laces.
1:35:18
Soon with some African word equivalent to psh, he tossed the knot overboard.
1:35:28
End of chapter six, The boat arrives. All this is very queer,
1:35:34
now, thought Captain Delano, with a qualmish sort of emotion, But as
1:35:41
one feeling incipient seasickness, he strove by ignoring the symptoms to get rid of
1:35:45
the malady. Once more, he looked off for his boat. To his
1:35:51
delight, it was now again in view, leaving the rocky spur astern the
1:35:59
sensation nation here experienced. After at first relieving his uneasiness with unforeseen efficiency,
1:36:05
soon began to remove it the less distant sight of that well known boat,
1:36:12
showing it not as before half blended with the haze, but with outline defined
1:36:16
so that its individuality like a man's, was manifest. That boat rover by
1:36:24
name, which though now in strange seas, had often pressed the beach of
1:36:29
Captain Delano's home and brought to its threshold for repairs. Had familiarly lain there
1:36:35
as a Newfoundland dog. The sight of that household boat evoked a thousand trustful
1:36:42
associations, which, contrasted with previous suspicions, filled him not only with lightsome
1:36:48
confidence, but somehow with half humorous self reproaches at his former lack of it.
1:36:57
What I a Masa Delano, Jack of the beach, as they called
1:37:00
me? When a lad I a masa the same that duck satchel in hand
1:37:06
used to paddle along the water side to the schoolhouse made from the old hulk,
1:37:11
I little jack of the beach that used to go bearing with cousin Nat
1:37:15
and the rest. I to be murdered here at the ends of the earth,
1:37:19
on board a haunted pirate ship by a horrible spaniard too nonsensical to think
1:37:25
of. Who would murder a Masa Delano. His conscience is clean. There
1:37:30
is someone above fi fi Jack of the beach. You are a child,
1:37:35
indeed a child of the second childhood. Old boy, you are beginning to
1:37:41
dote and drool. I'm afraid light of heart and foot. He stepped aft
1:37:48
and there was met by Don Benito's servant, who, with a pleasing expression
1:37:54
responsive to his own present feelings, informed him that his master had recovered from
1:37:59
the effects of his coughing fit and had just ordered him to go present his
1:38:02
compliments to his good guest Don Amasa and say that he Don Benito would soon
1:38:10
have the happiness to rejoin him there. Now do you mark that again?
1:38:15
Thought Captain Delano, walking the poop, What a donkey, I was,
1:38:20
this kind gentleman who here sends me his kind compliments. He but ten minutes
1:38:26
ago, dark lantern in hand, was dodging round some old grindstone in the
1:38:30
hold, sharpening a hatchet for me. I thought, well, well,
1:38:35
these long calms have a morbid effect on the mind, I've often heard,
1:38:40
though I never believed it before. Humph. Glancing toward the boat, there's
1:38:46
Rover, a good dog, a white bone in her mouth, a pretty
1:38:50
big bone, though, seems to me. What, Yes, she has
1:38:55
fallen a foul of the bubbling tide rip there it sets her the other way
1:38:59
too, for the time patience. It was now about noon, though from
1:39:05
the grayness of everything it seemed to be getting toward dusk. The calm was
1:39:12
confirmed. In the far distance, away from the influence of land, the
1:39:17
leaden ocean seemed laid out and let it up, its course finished, soul
1:39:23
gone defunct, but the current from landward where the ship was increased, silently
1:39:30
sweeping her further and further toward the tranced waters beyond. Still from his knowledge
1:39:39
of those latitudes, cherishing hopes of a breeze and a fair and fresh one
1:39:43
at any moment, Captain Delano, despite present prospects, buoyantly counted upon bringing
1:39:49
the San Dominique safely to anchor Ere night. The distance swept over was nothing,
1:39:56
since with a good wind, ten minutes sailing would reach trace more than
1:40:00
sixty minutes drifting meantime, one moment turning to Mark Rover fighting the tide rip,
1:40:06
and the next to see Don Benito approaching. He continued walking the poop.
1:40:14
Gradually he felt a vexation arising from the delay of his boat. This
1:40:18
soon merged into uneasiness, and at last his eye falling continually as from a
1:40:25
stage box into the pit, upon the strange crowd before and below him,
1:40:30
and by and by recognizing there the face now composed to indifference of the Spanish
1:40:35
sailor, who had seemed to beckon from the main chains, something of his
1:40:40
old trepidations returned. Ah thought he gravely enough, this is like the ag
1:40:47
Hu. Because it went off, it follows not that it won't come back.
1:40:53
Though ashamed of the relapse, he could not altogether subdue it, and
1:40:58
so, exerting his good nature to the utmost insensibly, he came to a
1:41:02
compromise. Yes, this is a strange craft, a strange history too,
1:41:09
and strange folks on board, but nothing more. By way of keeping his
1:41:16
mind out of mischief till the boat should arrive, he tried to occupy it
1:41:20
with turning over and over in a purely speculative sort of way, some lesser
1:41:26
peculiarities of the captain and crew, among others. Four curious points recurred.
1:41:33
First the affair of the Spanish lad assailed with a knife by the slave boy
1:41:40
and act winked at by Don Benito. Second, the tyranny in Don Benito's
1:41:45
treatment of Atufal the Black, as if a child should lead a bull of
1:41:49
the nile by the ring in his nose. Third, the trampling of the
1:41:56
sailor by the two negroes. A piece of insolence passed without so much as
1:42:00
a Reprimand fourth, the cringing submission to their master of all the ship's underlings,
1:42:08
mostly Blacks, as if by the least inadvertence, they fear to draw
1:42:12
down his despotic displeasure. Coupling these points, they seem somewhat contradictory. But
1:42:20
what then, thought Captain Delano, glancing toward his now nearing boat, What
1:42:26
then, why this done? Benito is a very capricious commander, but he
1:42:31
is not the first of the sword I have seen, though it's true he
1:42:34
rather exceeds any other. But as a nation, continued he in his reveries.
1:42:41
These Spaniards are all an odd set. The very word spaniard has a
1:42:45
curious conspirator guy fawkish twang to it. And yet I dare say Spaniards in
1:42:51
the main are as good folks as any in Dukesbury, Massachusetts. Ah good.
1:43:00
At last roverus come as with its welcome freight. The boat touched the
1:43:08
side. The Oakum pickers, with venerable gestures, sought to restrain the Blacks,
1:43:13
who, at the sight of three gurried water casks in its bottom and
1:43:17
a pile of wilted pumpkins in its bow, hung over the bulwarks in disorderly
1:43:23
raptures. Don Benito, with his servant, now appeared his coming, perhaps
1:43:29
hastened by hearing the noise of him, Captain Delano sought permission to serve out
1:43:34
the water, so that all might share alike, and none injure themselves by
1:43:40
unfair excess, but sensible and on Don Benito's account, kind as this offer
1:43:45
was, it was received with what seemed impatience, as if aware that he
1:43:51
lacked energy as a commander. Don Benito, with the true jealousy of weakness,
1:43:57
resented as an affront any interference, so at least Captain Delano inferred.
1:44:02
In another moment, the casks were being hoisted in when some of the eager
1:44:08
Negroes accidentally jostled Captain Delano where he stood by the gangway, so that,
1:44:13
unmindful of Don Benito, yielding to the impulse of the moment, with good
1:44:17
natured authority, he bade the Blacks stand back to enforce his words, making
1:44:24
use of a half mirthful, half menacing gesture. Instantly, the Blacks paused
1:44:30
just where they were, each Negro and Negress suspended in his or her posture
1:44:34
exactly as the word had found them. For a few seconds, continuing so
1:44:40
while as between the responsive posts of a telegraph, an unknown syllable ran from
1:44:45
man to man among the perched oakum pickers. While Captain Delano's attention was fixed
1:44:50
by this scene, Suddenly the hatchet polishers half rose, and a rapid cry
1:44:56
came from Don Benito. Thinking that at the signal of the Spaniard he was
1:45:01
about to be massacred, Captain Delano would have sprung for his boat, but
1:45:05
paused, as the oakum pickers, dropping down into the crowd with earnest exclamations,
1:45:12
forced every white and every Negro back at the same moment, with gestures
1:45:16
friendly and familiar, almost jocose, bidding him in substance not be a fool.
1:45:23
Simultaneously, the hatchet polishers resumed their seats quietly as so many tailors,
1:45:29
and at once, as if nothing had happened, the work of hoisting in
1:45:31
the casks was resumed, whites and blacks singing at the tackle. Captain Delano
1:45:40
glanced toward Don Benito as he saw his meager form in the act of recovering
1:45:45
itself from reclining in the servant's arms, into which the agitated invalid had fallen.
1:45:50
He could not but marvel at the panic by which himself had been surprised,
1:45:55
on the darting supposition that such a commander, who, upon a legitimate
1:46:00
an occasion so trivial too, as it now appeared, could lose all self
1:46:03
command, was, with energetic iniquity, going to bring about his murder.
1:46:11
The casks being on deck, Captain Delano was handed a number of jars and
1:46:15
cups by one of the steward's aides, who, in the name of Don
1:46:18
Benito, entreated him to do as he had proposed, dole out the water.
1:46:25
He complied with republican impartiality as to this Republican element, which always seeks
1:46:30
one level, serving the oldest white no better than the youngest black, excepting,
1:46:36
indeed, poor Don Benito, whose condition, if not rank, demanded
1:46:42
an extra allowance to him in the first place. Captain Delano presented a fair
1:46:47
pitcher of the fluid, but thirsting as he was for fresh water, Don
1:46:54
Benito quaffed not a drop until after several grave bows and salutes, a reciprocate
1:47:00
of courtesies which the sight loving Africans hailed with clapping of hands, two of
1:47:06
the less wilted pumpkins being reserved for the cabin table. The residue were minced
1:47:12
up on the spot for the general regalement. But the soft bread, sugar,
1:47:16
and bottled cider Captain Delano would have given the Spaniards alone and in chief
1:47:21
Don Benito, but the latter objected, which disinterestedness on his part not a
1:47:28
little pleased the American, and so mouthfuls all around were given alike to whites
1:47:33
and blacks, excepting one bottle of cider, which Babo insisted upon setting aside
1:47:40
for his master. Here it may be observed that, as on the first
1:47:45
visit of the boat, the American had not permitted his men to board the
1:47:48
ship. Neither did he now, being unwilling to add to the confusion of
1:47:54
the decks, not uninfluenced by the peculiar good humor at pre prevailing, and
1:48:00
for the time oblivious of any but benevolent thoughts, Captain Delano, who from
1:48:06
recent indications counted upon a breeze within an hour or two at furthest dispatched the
1:48:13
boat back to the Seiler, with orders for all the hands that could be
1:48:16
spared immediately to set about rafting casks to the watering place and filling them.
1:48:24
Likewise, he bade word be carried to his chief officer that if, against
1:48:29
present expectation, the ship was not brought to anchor by sunset, he need
1:48:33
be under no concern, for as there was to be a full moon that
1:48:38
night, he Captain Delano would remain on board, ready to play the pilot
1:48:43
should the wind come soon or late. As the two captains stood together observing
1:48:47
the departing boat, the servant, as it happened, having just spied a
1:48:51
spot on his master's velvet sleeve and silently engaged rubbing it out, the American
1:48:59
expressed his regrets that the San Dominic had no boats, none at least,
1:49:02
but the unseaworthy old hulk of the longboat, which warped as a camel skeleton
1:49:09
in the desert and almost as bleached, lay pot wise inverted amidships one side,
1:49:14
a little tipped furnishing a subterraneous sort of den for family. Groups of
1:49:18
the Blacks, mostly women and small children, who squatting on old mats below
1:49:25
or perched above in the dark dome on the elevated seats, were descried some
1:49:30
distance within, like a social circle of bats sheltering in some friendly cave at
1:49:35
intervals, even flights of naked boys and girls three or four years old,
1:49:41
darting in and out of the den's mouth. Had you three or four boats
1:49:45
now, Don Benito, said Captain Delano. I think that by tugging at
1:49:50
the oars your negroes here might help along matters. Some did you sail from
1:49:56
port without boats, Don Benito? They were stove the gaels, Senor,
1:50:01
that was bad. Many men too, you lost? Then boats and men?
1:50:06
Those must have been hard gales, Don Benito, past all speech,
1:50:12
cringed the Spaniard. Tell me, Don Benito, continued his companion, with
1:50:17
increased interest. Tell me were these gales immediately off the pitch of cape horn?
1:50:24
Cape horn? Who spoke of cape horn? Yourself did when giving me
1:50:29
an account of your voyage, answered Captain Delano, with almost equal astonishment at
1:50:33
this eating of his own words, even as he ever seemed eating his own
1:50:38
heart on the part of the Spaniard, You yourself, Don Benito, spoke
1:50:43
of cape horn, he emphatically repeated. The Spaniard turned in a sort of
1:50:48
stooping posture, pausing an instant as one about to make a plunging exchange of
1:50:54
elements, as from air to water end of chapter chapter eight. In the
1:51:03
Cuddy, at this moment, a messenger boy a white, hurried by,
1:51:10
in the regular performance of his function, carrying the last expired half hour forward
1:51:15
to the forecastle from the cabin time piece, to have it struck at the
1:51:20
ship's large bell. Master, said the servant, discontinuing his work on the
1:51:26
coat sleeve and addressing the rapt Spaniard with a sort of timid apprehensiveness, as
1:51:32
one charged with a duty, the discharge of which, it was foreseen,
1:51:39
would prove irksome to the very person who had imposed it, and for whose
1:51:44
benefit it was intended. Master told me, never mind where he was,
1:51:48
or how engaged, always to remind him to a minute. When shaving time
1:51:54
comes. Miguel has gone to strike the half hour afternoon. It is now
1:52:00
Master. Will Master go into the cuddy. Ah, yes, answered the
1:52:04
Spaniard, starting somewhat as from dreams into realities. Then turning upon Captain Delano,
1:52:13
he said that ere long he would resume the conversation. Then, if
1:52:17
Master means to talk more to don Amasa, said the servant, why not
1:52:20
let Don Amasa sit by Master in the cuddy, and Master can talk,
1:52:25
and Don Amasa can listen while Babo here lathers and stops. Yes, said
1:52:30
Captain Delano, not unleased with this sociable plan. Yes, don Benito,
1:52:36
unless you had rather not, I will go with you. Be it so
1:52:42
signor. As the three passed aft, the American could not but think it
1:52:46
another strange instance of his host's capriciousness, this being shaved with such uncommon punctuality
1:52:56
in the middle of the day. But he deemed it more than likely that
1:53:00
the servant's anxious fidelity had something to do with the matter, inasmuch as the
1:53:05
timely interruption served to rally his master from the mood which had evidently been coming
1:53:11
upon him. The place called the cutty was a light deck cabin formed by
1:53:16
the poop, a sort of attic to the large cabin below. Part of
1:53:21
it had formerly been the quarters of the officers, but since their death all
1:53:27
the partitionings had been thrown down, and the whole interior converted into one spacious
1:53:32
and airy marine hall or absence of fine furniture and picturesque disarray of odd appurtenances,
1:53:42
somewhat answering to the wide cluttered hall of some eccentric bachelor's squire in the
1:53:47
country who hangs his shooting jacket and tobacco pouch on deer antlers, and keeps
1:53:54
his fishing rod, tongs and walking stick in the same corner. The similitude
1:54:00
was heightened, if not originally suggested, by glimpses of the surrounding sea,
1:54:06
since in one aspect the country and the ocean seem cousins German. The floor
1:54:14
of the cutty was matted. Overhead, four or five old muskets were stuck
1:54:18
into horizontal holes along the beams. On one side was a claw footed old
1:54:25
table lashed to the deck, a thumbed missile on it, and over it
1:54:30
a small meager crucifix attached to the bulkhead. Under the table lay dented cutlass
1:54:38
or two with a hacked harpoon, among some melancholy old rigging like a heap
1:54:44
of poor friar's girdles. There were also two long, sharp ribbed settees of
1:54:50
malacca cane, black with age and uncomfortable to look at as inquisitor's racks,
1:54:58
with a large misshapen armchair, which furnished with a rude barber's crutch at the
1:55:03
back, working with a screw, seemed some grotesque middle age engine of torments.
1:55:13
A flag locker was in one corner, exposing various colored bunting, some
1:55:17
rolled up, others half unrolled, still others tumbled. Opposite was a cumbrous
1:55:25
washstand, a black mahogany all of one block with a pedestal like a font,
1:55:31
and over it a railed shelf containing combs, brushes, and other implements
1:55:39
of the toilet. A tom hammock of stained grass swung near the sheets tossed,
1:55:46
and the pillow wrinkled up like a brow, as if whoever slept here
1:55:50
slept but illy, with alternate visitations of sad thoughts and bad dreams. Further
1:56:00
extremity of the cuddy overhanging the ship's stern was pierced with three openings windows or
1:56:06
portholes, according as men or cannon might peer socially or unsocially out of them.
1:56:15
At present, neither men nor cannon were seen, though huge ring bolts
1:56:20
and other rusty iron fixtures of the woodwork hinted of twenty four pounders glancing toward
1:56:30
the hammock. As he entered, Captain Delano said you sleep here, dom
1:56:34
Benito, Yes, signor, since we got into mild weather, this seems
1:56:41
a sort of dormitory, sitting room, sail loft, chapel, armory,
1:56:45
and private closet together, Dominito added Captain Delano looking around, Yes, signor,
1:56:53
events have not been favorable too much order in my arrangements. The servant,
1:57:00
napkin on arm, made a motion as if waiting his master's good pleasure.
1:57:04
Dominito signified his readiness when seating him in the Malacca armchair, and for
1:57:12
the guest's convenience, drawing opposite it one of the settees. The servant commenced
1:57:16
operations by throwing back his master's collar and loosening his cravat. There is something
1:57:25
in the negro which, in a peculiar way fits him for avocations about one's
1:57:30
person. Most negroes are natural valets and hairdressers, taking to the comb and
1:57:38
brush congenially as to the castanets, and flourishing them apparently with almost equal satisfaction.
1:57:46
There is to a smooth tact about them in this employment, with a
1:57:53
marvelous, noiseless gliding briskness, not ungraceful in it way. Singularly pleasing to
1:58:01
behold, and still more so to be the manipulated subject of And above all
1:58:09
is the great gift of good humor. Not the mere grin or laugh is
1:58:14
here meant. Those were unsuitable, but a certain easy cheerfulness, harmonious in
1:58:23
every glance and gesture, as though God had set the whole Negro to some
1:58:29
pleasant tune. When to all this has added the docility arising from the unaspiring
1:58:35
contentment of a limited mind, and that susceptibility of blind attachment, sometimes inhering
1:58:44
in indisputable inferiors, one readily perceives why those hypochondriacs Johnson and Byron. It
1:58:53
may be something like the hypochondriac Benito Sereno took to their hearts almost to the
1:59:00
exclusion of the entire white race, their serving men, the negroes Barber and
1:59:05
Fletcher. But if there be that in the Negro which exempts him from the
1:59:11
inflicted sourness of the morbid or cynical mind, how in his most prepossessing aspects
1:59:19
must appear to a benevolent one when at ease with respect to exterior things.
1:59:28
Captain Delano's nature was not only benign, but familiarly and humorously so at home
1:59:34
he had often taken rare satisfaction in sitting in his door watching some free man
1:59:41
of color at his work or play. If on a voyage he chanced to
1:59:45
have a black sailor, invariably he was on chatty and half gain some terms
1:59:51
with him. In fact, like most men of a good, blithe heart,
1:59:57
Captain Delano took to negroes not philanthropically but genially, just as other men
2:00:04
to Newfoundland dogs. Hitherto the circumstances in which he found the Sandomenik had repressed
2:00:13
the tendency, but in the cutting, relieved from his former uneasiness, and
2:00:17
for various reasons, more sociably inclined than at any previous period of the day.
2:00:25
And seeing the colored servant napkin on arm so debonair about his master in
2:00:31
a business so familiar as that of shaving, to all his old weakness for
2:00:39
negroes returned. Among the things he was amused with an odd instance of the
2:00:46
African love of bright colors and fine shows in the blacks, in formally taking
2:00:53
from the flag locker a great piece of bunting of all hues, and lavishly
2:00:58
tucking it under his master's chin, brun Apron. The mode of shaving among
2:01:03
the Spaniards is a little different from what it is with other nations. They
2:01:08
have a basin specially called a barber's basin, which on one side is scooped
2:01:14
out so as accurately to receive the chin, against which it is closely held
2:01:19
in lathering, which is done not with a brush, but with soap dipped
2:01:25
in the water of the basin and rubbed on the face. In the present
2:01:30
instance, salt water was used for lack of better and the parts lathered were
2:01:34
only the upper lip and low down under the throat, all the rest being
2:01:41
cultivated beard. These preliminaries being somewhat novel to Captain delano Is sat curiously eyeing
2:01:47
them, so that no conversation took place, nor for the present did Don
2:01:53
Benito appear disposed to renew any Setting down his basin, the Negro searched among
2:01:59
the rays as for the sharpest, and, having found it, gave it
2:02:03
an additional edge by expertly dropping it on the firm, smooth, oily skin
2:02:10
of his open palm. He then made a gesture as if to begin,
2:02:15
but midway stood suspended for an instant. One hand elevating the razor, the
2:02:21
other professionally dabbling among the bubbly SuDS on the Spaniard's lank neck. Not unaffected
2:02:29
by the close side of the gleaming steel dom Benito nervously shuddered. His usual
2:02:36
ghastliness was heightened by the lather, which lather again was intensified in its hue
2:02:44
by the sootiness of the negro's body. Altogether, the scene was somewhat peculiar,
2:02:50
at least to Captain Delano, Nor as he saw the two thus postured,
2:02:58
could he resist the vagary that in the black he saw a headsman,
2:03:02
and in the white a man at the block. But this was one of
2:03:09
those antique conceits, appearing and vanishing in a breath from which perhaps the best
2:03:15
regulated mind is not free. Meantime, the agitation of the spaniard had a
2:03:20
little loosened the bunting from around him, so that one broad fold swept curtainlike
2:03:27
over the chair arm to the floor, revealing amid a profusion of armorial bars
2:03:32
and ground colors black blue and yellow, a closed castle and a blood red
2:03:40
field diagonal with a lion rampant in a white The castle and the lion exclaimed
2:03:47
Captain Delano. Why don't, Benito, this is the flag of Spain you
2:03:51
use here. It's well, it's only I and not the king that sees
2:03:56
this, he added, with a smile, but turning toward the black it's
2:04:01
all one, I suppose, so the colors be gay, which playful remark
2:04:08
did not fail somewhat to tickle the Negro. Now, Master, he said,
2:04:13
readjusting the flag and pressing the head gently further back into the crotch of
2:04:17
the chair. Now, Master, and the steel glanced neither throats again.
2:04:25
Dominito faintly shuddered. You must not shake, so Master, see Donomasa,
2:04:31
Master always shakes when I shave him, and yet Master knows I never yet
2:04:35
have drawn blood. Though it's true. If Master will shake, so I
2:04:41
may some of these times, now Master, he continued, And now Donomasa,
2:04:46
please go on with your talk about the gale and all that Master can
2:04:51
hear, and between times Master can answer. Ah, yes, these gales,
2:04:58
said Captain de Laano. But the more I think of your voyage,
2:05:00
Don Benito, the more I wonder not at the gales, terrible as they
2:05:05
must have been, but at the disastrous interval following them. For here by
2:05:11
your account have you been these two months and more getting from Cape Horn to
2:05:15
Saint Maria, a distance which I myself and a good wind have sailed in
2:05:19
a few days. True, you had calms and long ones, but to
2:05:25
be be calmed for two months, that is at least unusual. Why Don
2:05:30
Benito had almost any other gentleman told me such a story, I should have
2:05:35
been half disposed to a little incredulity. Here an involuntary expression came over the
2:05:43
spaniard, similar to that just before on the deck. And whether it was
2:05:46
the start he gave, or a sudden gawky roll of the hull in the
2:05:50
calm, or a momentary unsteadiness of the servant's hand, however it was just
2:05:56
then the razor drew blood, spots of which stained creamy lather under the throat.
2:06:01
Immediately, the black barber drew back his steel, and, remaining in
2:06:05
his professional attitude, back to Captain Delano and face to Don Benito, held
2:06:13
up the trickling razor, saying, with a sort of half humorous sorrow,
2:06:17
the seamaster you shook. So here's Babo's first blood. No sword drawn before
2:06:25
James the first of England, No assassination in that timid king's presence could have
2:06:30
produced a more terrified aspect than was now presented by Don Benito. Poor fellow,
2:06:40
thought Captain Delano, so nervous he can't even bear the sight of barber's
2:06:44
blood, and this unstrung sick man. Is it credible that I should have
2:06:49
imagined he meant to spill all my blood? Who can't endure the sight of
2:06:55
one little drop of his own? Surely, Amasa Delano, you have been
2:07:00
beside yourself this day? Tell it not when you get home sappy a Maasa?
2:07:06
Well, well he looks like a murderer, does he? More like
2:07:11
as if himself were to be done for? Well? Well, this day's
2:07:15
experience shall be a good lesson. Meantime, While these things were running through
2:07:23
the honest seaman's mind, the servant had taken the napkin from his arm,
2:07:27
and to Don Benito had said, but answered, on Amasa, please,
2:07:31
master, while I wiped his ugly stuff off the razor and strop it again.
2:07:38
As he said these words, his face was turned half round so as
2:07:42
to be alike visible to the Spaniard and the American, and seemed, by
2:07:46
its expression to hint that he was desirous by getting his master to go on
2:07:51
with the conversation considerately, to withdraw his attention from the recent annoying accidents.
2:07:59
As if glad to snatch the offered relief dom, Benito resumed rehearsing to Captain
2:08:05
Delano that not only were the calms of unusual duration, but the ship had
2:08:11
fallen in with obstinate currents and other things he added, some of which were
2:08:16
but repetitions of former statements, to explain how it came to pass that the
2:08:20
passage from Cape Warren to Saint Maria had been so exceedingly long. Now,
2:08:26
and then, mingling with his words incidental praises less qualified than before to the
2:08:33
Blacks for their general good conduct, These particulars were not given consecutively. The
2:08:41
servant now and then using his razor, and so between the intervals of shaving,
2:08:46
the story and panegyric went on with more than usual huskiness. To Captain
2:08:54
Delano's imagination, now again not wholly at rest, there was something so hollow
2:09:01
in the spaniard's manner, with apparently some reciprocal hollowness in the servant's dusky comment
2:09:09
of silence, that the idea flash across him that possibly master and man,
2:09:16
or some unknown purpose were acting out both in word and deed, nay,
2:09:22
to the very tremor of dom Benito's limbs, some juggling play before him.
2:09:28
Neither did the suspicion of collusion lack apparent support from the fact of those whispered
2:09:35
conferences before mentioned. But then, what could be the object of enacting this
2:09:43
play of the barber before him? At last, regarding the notion as a
2:09:48
whimsy insensibly suggested, perhaps by the theatrical aspect of dom Benito in his harlequin
2:09:58
ensign, kept Sindolano speedily banished it. The shaving over, the servant bestirred
2:10:05
himself with a small bottle of scented waters, pouring a few drops on the
2:10:11
head, and then diligently rubbing the vehemits of the exercise, causing the muscles
2:10:16
of his face to twitch rather strangely. His next operation was with comb,
2:10:24
scissors and brush, going round and round, smoothing a curl here, clipping
2:10:28
an unruly whisker hair, there, giving a graceful sweep to the temple lock.
2:10:35
With other impromptu touches evincing the hand of a master while like any resigned
2:10:43
gentleman in barber's hands, Dominito bore all much less uneasily, at least than
2:10:50
he had done the razoring. Indeed, he sat so pale and rigid now
2:10:56
that the Negro seemed a nubian's sculptor, finishing off a white statue head.
2:11:03
All being over at last, the standard of Spain removed, tumbled up,
2:11:09
and tossed back into the flag locker, the Negro's warm breath blowing away any
2:11:15
stray hair which might have lodged down his master's neck collar, and gravat readjusted
2:11:22
a speck of lint whist off the velvet lapel, All this being done,
2:11:28
backing off a little space, and pausing with an expression of subdued self complacency,
2:11:35
the servant for a moment surveyed his master as in toilet, at least
2:11:41
the creature of his own tasteful hands. Captain Delano playfully complimented him upon his
2:11:48
achievement, at the same time congratulating Don Benito. But neither sweet waters,
2:11:54
nor shampooing, nor fidelity nor sociality delighted the Spaniard, seeing him relapsing into
2:12:05
forbidding gloom, and still remaining seated. Captain Delano, thinking that his presence
2:12:09
was undesired, just then withdrew on pretense of seeing whether, as he had
2:12:16
prophesied, any signs of a breeze were visible. Walking forward toward the mainmast,
2:12:22
he stood a while, thinking over the scene, and not without some
2:12:26
undefined misgivings, when he heard a noise near the cutting, and turning saw
2:12:31
the Negro his hand to his cheek. Advancing, Captain Delano perceived that the
2:12:37
cheek was pleading. He was about to ask the cause when the negroes wailing
2:12:43
soliloquy enlightened him. Ah, when will Master get better from his sickness?
2:12:50
Only the sour heart that sour sickness breeds made him deserve Babo's soul. Cutting
2:12:56
Babo with the razor because only by accident Babo had given Master one little scratch,
2:13:03
and for the first time in so many a day too ah ah ah,
2:13:09
holding his hand to his face. Is it possible, thought, Captain
2:13:15
Delano, was it to wreck in private this Spanish spite against this poor friend
2:13:22
of his, that Don Benito, by his sullen manner, impelled me to
2:13:28
withdraw? Ah, This slavery breathes ugly passions in man, poor fellow,
2:13:37
he is about to speak in sympathy to the Negro, though with a timid
2:13:41
reluctance. He now re entered the cutting. Presently, Master and man came
2:13:48
forth, Don Benito, leaning on his servant, as if nothing had happened
2:13:54
but a sort of love quarrel, after all, thought Captain Delano. He
2:14:00
accosted Dominito, and they slowly walked together. They had gone but a few
2:14:05
paces when the steward, a tall rajah looking mulatto Orientaly, set off with
2:14:11
a pagoda turban formed by three or four madras, handkerchiefs wound about his head,
2:14:16
tier on tier, approaching with a Salaam announced lunch in the cabin.
2:14:24
On their way, the two captains were preceded by the mulatto, who,
2:14:30
turning round as he advanced, with continual smiles and bows, ushered them in
2:14:35
a display of elegance, which quite completed the insignificance of the small, bareheaded
2:14:39
babo, who, as if not unconscious of inferiority, eyed askance the graceful
2:14:46
steward. But in part Captain Delano imputed his jealous watchfulness to that peculiar feeling
2:14:56
which the full blooded African entertains for the the adulterated one. As for the
2:15:03
steward, his manner, if not bespeaking much dignity of self respect, yet
2:15:09
evidenced his extreme desire to please, which is doubly meritorious. As at once
2:15:18
Christian and Chesterfieldian, Captain Delano observed with interest that while the complexion of the
2:15:26
mulatto was hybrid, his physiognomy was European classically. So Don Benito, whispered
2:15:35
he, I'm glad to see this usher of the golden rod of yours.
2:15:41
The site refutes an ugly remark once made to me by a Barbados planter that
2:15:46
when a mulatto has a regular European face, look out for him he is
2:15:52
a devil. But see your steward here has features more regular than King George's
2:15:58
of England. And yet here he nods and bows and smiles a king,
2:16:03
indeed, the king of kind hearts and polite fellows. What a pleasant voice
2:16:09
he has too, he has signor but tell me has he not? So
2:16:16
far as you have known him, always proved a good worthy fellow, said
2:16:20
Captain Delano, pausing, while with a final genuflection, the Steward disappeared into
2:16:28
the cabin. Come for the reason just mentioned, I am curious to know
2:16:33
Franaisco is a good man, rather sluggishly responded dom Benito, like a fledgmatic
2:16:41
appreciator who would neither find faults nor flatter. Ah. I thought so,
2:16:48
for it were strange, indeed, and not very creditable to us white skins.
2:16:54
If a little of our blood mixed with the Africans should, far from
2:16:58
improving the latter's quality, have the sad effect of pouring vitriolic acid into black
2:17:03
broth, improving the hue perhaps, but not the wholesomeness doubtless, doubtless sgnor
2:17:13
But glancing at Babo not to speak of negroes your planter's remark, I have
2:17:18
heard applied to the Spanish and Indian intermixtures in our provinces, but I know
2:17:26
nothing about the matter, he listlessly added, And here they entered the cabin
2:17:35
end of chapter eight. Business. The lunch was a frugal one, some
2:17:41
of Captain Delano's fresh fish and pumpkins, biscuit and salt beef, the reserved
2:17:46
bottle of cider, and the San Dominique's last bottle of canary As they entered,
2:17:52
Francesco, with two or three colored aids, was hovering over the table
2:17:56
giving the last adjustments. Upon perceiving their master, they withdrew Francesco making a
2:18:03
smiling conch, and the Spaniard, without condescending to notice it, fastidiously remarking
2:18:09
to his companion that he relished not superfluous attendants. Without companions, host and
2:18:16
guests sat down like a childless married couple at opposite ends of the table.
2:18:22
Don Benito waving Captain Delano to his place, and weak as he was insisting
2:18:26
upon that gentleman being seated before himself. The Negro placed a rug under Don
2:18:33
Benito's feet and a cushion behind his back, and then stood behind not his
2:18:37
master's chair, but Captain Delano's. At first this a little surprised the latter,
2:18:43
but it was soon evident that in taking his position, the black was
2:18:48
still true to his master, since by facing him he could the more readily
2:18:52
anticipate his slightest want. This is an uncommonly intelligent fellow of yours, Don
2:18:58
Benito, whispered Captain Delano across the table. You say, true signour.
2:19:03
During the repast, the guest again reverted to parts of Don Benito's story,
2:19:09
begging further particulars. Here and there he inquired how it was that the scurvy
2:19:13
and fever should have committed such wholesale havoc upon the white while destroying less than
2:19:20
half of the blacks, as if this question reproduced the whole scene of plague
2:19:24
before the Spaniard's eyes, miserably, reminding him of his solitude in a cabin
2:19:30
where before he had had so many friends and officers round him. His hand
2:19:33
shook, his face became hueless, broken words escaped, but directly the sane
2:19:39
memory of the past seemed replaced by insane terrors of the present. With starting
2:19:45
eyes, he stared before him at vacancy, for nothing was to be seen
2:19:48
but the hand of his servant, pushing the canary over towards him. At
2:19:54
length, a few SIPs served partially to restore him. He made random refaceference
2:20:00
to the different constitutions of races, enabling one to offer more resistance to certain
2:20:05
maladies than another. The thought was new to his companion. Presently, Captain
2:20:11
Delano, intending to say something to his host concerning the pecuniary part of the
2:20:16
business he had undertaken for him, especially since he was strictly accountable to his
2:20:22
owners with reference to the new suit of sales and other things of that sort,
2:20:26
and naturally preferring to conduct such affairs in private, was desirous that the
2:20:31
servant should withdraw, imagining that Don Benito for a few minutes could dispense with
2:20:37
his attendants. He however, waited awhile, thinking that as the conversation proceeded,
2:20:43
Don Benito, without being prompted, would perceive the propriety of the step.
2:20:50
But it was otherwise. At last, catching his host's eye, Captain
2:20:54
Delano, with a slight backward gesture of his thumb, whispered, Don Benito,
2:21:00
pardon me, but there is an interference with the full expression of what
2:21:03
I have to say to you. Upon this, the Spaniard changed countenance,
2:21:07
which was imputed to his, resenting the hint as in some way a reflection
2:21:13
upon his servant. After a moment's pause, he assured his guest that the
2:21:16
blacks remaining with them would be of no disservice beaus since losing his officers,
2:21:22
he had made Babo, whose original office, it now appeared, had been
2:21:26
captain of the slaves, not only his constant attendant and companion, but in
2:21:31
all things his confidant. After this nothing more could be said, though indeed
2:21:39
Captain Delano could hardly avoid some little tinge of irritation upon being left ungratified in
2:21:45
so inconsiderable a wish by one two for whom he intended such solid services.
2:21:52
But it is only his quarrelousness, thought he, and so filling his glass,
2:21:56
he proceeded to business. The price of the sales and other matters was
2:22:01
fixed upon. But while this was being done, the American observed that though
2:22:05
his original offer of assistance had been hailed with hectic animation, yet now when
2:22:11
it was reduced to a business transaction, indifference and apathy were betrayed. Don
2:22:18
Benito in fact appeared to submit to hearing the details more out of regard to
2:22:22
common propriety than from any impression that weighty benefit to himself and his voyage was
2:22:28
involved. Soon his manner became still more reserved. The effort was vain to
2:22:35
seek to draw him into social talk. Gnawed by his splenetic mood, he
2:22:39
sat twitching his beard, while to little purpose, the hand of his servant,
2:22:43
mute as that on the wall, slowly pushed over the canary. Lunch
2:22:48
being over, they sat down on the cushioned transom, the servant placing a
2:22:52
pillow behind his master. The long continuance of the calm had now effected the
2:22:58
atmosphere. Don Benito sighed heavily, as if for breath. Why not adjourn
2:23:03
to the cuddy, said Captain Delano There is more air there. But the
2:23:09
host sat silent and motionless. Meantime, his servant knelt before him with a
2:23:13
large fan of feathers, and Francesco, coming in on tiptoes, handed the
2:23:18
Negro a little cup of aromatic waters, with which, at intervals he chafed
2:23:24
his master's brow, smoothing the hair along the temples, as a nurse does
2:23:28
a child's. He spoke no word. He only rested his eye on his
2:23:33
master's, as if amid all Don Benito's distress, a little to refresh his
2:23:39
spirit by the silent sight of fidelity. End of Chapter nine, Safe Harbor.
2:23:54
Presently, the ship's bell sounded two o'clock, and through the cabin windows
2:23:58
a slight rippling of the sea was discerned, and from the desired direction there,
2:24:05
exclaimed Captain Delano, I told you so, Don Benito, look he
2:24:11
had risen to his feet, speaking in a very animated tone, with a
2:24:16
view the more to rouse his companion. But though the crimson curtain of the
2:24:20
stern window near him that moment fluttered against his pale cheek, Don Benito seemed
2:24:26
to have even less welcome for the breeze than the calm poor fellow, thought
2:24:33
Captain Delano. Bitter experience has taught him that one ripple does not make a
2:24:37
wind any more than one swallow a summer. But he is mistaken, for
2:24:43
once I will get his ship in for him and prove it. Briefly,
2:24:48
alluding to his weak condition, he urged his host to remain quietly where he
2:24:54
was, since he, Captain Delano, would with pleasure to upon himself the
2:25:01
responsibility of making the best use of the wind. Upon gaining the deck,
2:25:07
Captain Delano started at the unexpected figure of Atufal, monumentally fixed at the threshold,
2:25:15
like one of those sculptured porters of black marble guarding the porches of Egyptian
2:25:20
tombs. But this time the start was perhaps purely physical. Atufal's presence,
2:25:26
singularly attesting docility even in sullenness, was contrasted with that of the hatchet polishers,
2:25:35
who, in patience evinced their industry. While both spectacles showed that lax
2:25:41
As don Benito's general authority might be still whenever he chose to exert it.
2:25:46
No man so savage or colossal, but must more or less bow. Snatching
2:25:54
a trumpet which hung from the bulwarks. With a free step, Captain Delano
2:25:58
advanced to the forward edge of the poop, issuing his orders in his best
2:26:03
Spanish. The few sailors and many negroes, all equally pleased, obediently set
2:26:09
about heading the ship toward the harbor, while giving some directions about setting a
2:26:16
lower stunsil. Suddenly Captain Delano heard a voice faithfully repeating his orders. Turning,
2:26:24
he saw Babo, now for the time, acting under the pilot,
2:26:28
his original part of captain of the slaves. This assistance proved valuable. Tattered
2:26:33
sails and warped yards were soon brought into some trim, and no brace or
2:26:39
halliard was pulled. But to the blithe songs of the inspirited negroes good fellows,
2:26:46
thought Captain Delano, A little training would make fine sailors of them.
2:26:52
Why see the very women pull and sing too These must be some of those
2:26:56
ashanti negresses that make such capital soldiers I've heard. But who's at the helm?
2:27:03
I must have a good hand There he went to sea. The San
2:27:11
Dominic steered with a cumbrous tiller with large horizontal pulleys attached. At each pulley
2:27:18
end stood a subordinate black, and between them at the tiller head the responsible
2:27:22
post a Spanish seaman, whose countenance evinced his due share in the general hopefulness
2:27:28
and confidence. At the coming of the breeze, he proved the same man
2:27:35
who had behaved with so shamefaced an air on the windlass. Ah it is
2:27:41
you, my man, exclaimed Captain Delano. Well no more sheep's eyes.
2:27:46
Now look straightforward and keep the ship so good hand I trust and want to
2:27:52
get into the harbor, don't you, si signor, assented the man with
2:27:56
an inward chuckle, grasping the tiller head firm Upon this, unperceived by the
2:28:03
American, the two blacks eyed the sailor askance. Finding all right at the
2:28:09
helm, the pilot went forward to the forecastle to see how matters stood there.
2:28:15
The ship now had way enough to breast the current with the approach of
2:28:18
evening, the breeze would be sure to freshen. Having done all that was
2:28:24
needed for the present, Captain Delano, giving his last orders to the sailors,
2:28:30
turned aft to report affairs to Don Benito in the cabin, perhaps additionally
2:28:35
incited to rejoin him by the hope of snatching a moment's private chat while his
2:28:39
servant was engaged upon deck. From opposite sides, there were beneath the poop
2:28:46
two approaches to the cabin, one further forward than the other, and consequently
2:28:52
communicating with a longer passage marking the servants still above kept taking the nightest entrance.
2:29:01
The one last named, and at whose porch Atufal still stood, hurried
2:29:07
on his way till arrived at the cabin threshold. He paused an instant a
2:29:11
little to recover from his eagerness. Then, with the words of his intended
2:29:18
business upon his lips, he entered. As he advanced toward the Spaniard on
2:29:22
the transom, he heard another footstep keeping time with his from the opposite door,
2:29:28
a salver in hand. The servant was likewise advancing confound the faithful fellow,
2:29:35
thought Captain Delano, what a vexatious coincidence. Possibly, the vexation might
2:29:43
have been something different were it not for the buoyant confidence inspired by the breeze.
2:29:48
But even as it was, he felt a slight twinge from a sudden
2:29:52
involuntary association in his mind of Babo with atufal Bano said he, I give
2:30:01
you joy. The breeze will hold and will increase by the way your tall
2:30:07
man and time piece at to fall stands without by your order. Of course,
2:30:13
Don Benito recoiled, as if at some bland satirical touch, delivered with
2:30:20
such a droit garnish of apparent good breeding as to present no handle for retort.
2:30:26
He is like one flayed alive, thought Captain Delano. Where may one
2:30:31
touch him without causing a shrink? The servant moved before his master, adjusting
2:30:37
a cushion. Recalled to civility, the Spaniard stiffly replied, you are right.
2:30:45
The slave appears where you saw him according to my command, which is
2:30:48
that if at the given hour I am below, he must take his stand
2:30:52
and abide my coming. Ah. Now, pardon me, but that is
2:30:58
treating the poor fellow like an execs king, denied ah. Don Benito,
2:31:03
smiling for all the license you permit in some things. I fear lest at
2:31:07
bottom, you are a bitter hard master. Again, Don Benito shrank,
2:31:15
and, this time as the good sailor thought from a genuine twinge of his
2:31:18
conscience, conversation now became constrained in vain. Captain Delano called attention to the
2:31:28
now perceptible motion of the keel, gently cleaving the sea. With lackluster eye,
2:31:35
Don Benito returned words few and reserved by and bye. The wind having
2:31:41
steadily risen and still blowing right into the harbor bore the San Dominic. Swiftly,
2:31:46
on rounding a point of land, the sealer, at distance, came
2:31:50
into open view. Meantime, Captain Delano had again repaired to the deck,
2:31:58
remaining there some time, Having at last altered the ship's course so as to
2:32:03
give the reef a wide berth. He returned for a few moments below.
2:32:09
I will cheer up my poor friend this time, thought he better and better,
2:32:15
Don Benito, he cried, as he blithely re entered. There will
2:32:18
soon be an end to your cares, at least for a while. For
2:32:22
when after a long sad voyage, you know, the anchor drops into the
2:32:26
heaven all its vast weight seems lifted from the captain's heart. We are getting
2:32:31
on famously, Don Benito, my ship is in sight. Look through the
2:32:35
side light. Here there she is all a taunt. Oh, the bachelor's
2:32:41
delight, My good friend. Ah, how this wind braces one up.
2:32:45
Come, you must take a cup of coffee with me this evening. My
2:32:48
old steward will give you as fine a cup as ever any sultan tasted.
2:32:52
What say you, Don Benito? Will you? At first, the spaniard
2:32:58
glanced feverishly up, casting a longing look toward the seiler, while with mute
2:33:03
concern his servant gazed into his face. Suddenly, the old a u of
2:33:09
coldness returned, and dropping back to his cushions, he was silent. You
2:33:16
do not answer. Come all day you have been my host. Would you
2:33:20
have hospitality all on one side? I cannot go, was the response.
2:33:26
What it will not fatigue you. The ships will lie together as near as
2:33:31
they can without swinging fowl. It will be little more than stepping from deck
2:33:35
to deck, which is but as from room to room. Come, Come,
2:33:39
you must not refuse me. I cannot go. Decisively and repulsively repeated
2:33:46
Don Benito, renouncing all but the last appearance of courtesy with a sort of
2:33:52
cadaverous sullenness, and biting his thin nails to the quick. He glanced,
2:33:58
almost glared at his guest, as if impatient that a stranger's presence should interfere
2:34:05
with the full indulgence of his morbid hour. Meantime, the sound of the
2:34:09
parted waters came more and more, gurglingly and merrily in at the windows,
2:34:15
as reproaching him for his dark spleen as telling him that sulk as he might
2:34:20
and go mad with it. Nature cared not a jot, since whose fault
2:34:24
was it, pray, But the foul mood was now at its depth,
2:34:31
as the fair wind at its height. There was something in the man,
2:34:35
so far beyond any mere unsociality or sourness previously evinced that even the forbearing good
2:34:43
nature of his guest could no longer endure it wholly at a loss to account
2:34:48
for such demeanor and deeming sickness with eccentricity, however extreme no adequate excuse.
2:34:56
Well satisfied too, that nothing in his own condom duct could justify it.
2:35:01
Captain Delano's pride began to be roused himself became reserved, but all seemed one
2:35:07
to the Spaniard, quitting him. Therefore, Captain Delano once more went to
2:35:13
the deck. The ship was now within less than two miles of the seiler.
2:35:18
The whale boat was seen darting over the interval to be brief. The
2:35:22
two vessels, thanks to the pilot's skill, ere long in neighborly style,
2:35:28
lay anchored together before returning to his own vessel. Captain Delano had intended communicating
2:35:37
to Don Benito the practical details of the proposed services to be rendered, but
2:35:43
as it was unwilling anew to subject himself to rebuffs, he resolved, now
2:35:48
that he had seen the send Dominic safely moored, immediately to quit her without
2:35:54
further allusion to hospitality or business. Indefinitely postponed his ulterior plans. He would
2:36:01
regulate his future actions according to future circumstances. His boat was ready to receive
2:36:07
him, but his host still tarried below. Well, thought Captain Delano,
2:36:13
if he has little breeding, the more need to show mine. He descended
2:36:18
to the cabin to bid a ceremonious, and it may be tacitly rebukeful adieu,
2:36:24
but to his great satisfaction Don Benito, as if he began to feel
2:36:30
the weight of that treatment with which his slighted guest had not indecorously retaliated upon
2:36:37
him. Now supported by his servant, rose to his feet and grasping Captain
2:36:41
Delano's hand stood tremulous, too much agitated to speak. But the good augury
2:36:48
hents drawn was suddenly dashed by his resuming all his previous reserve with augmented gloom,
2:36:56
as with half averted eyes, he silently re seated himself on his cushions,
2:37:01
with a corresponding return of his own chilled feelings. Captain Delano bowed and
2:37:07
withdrew. He was hardly midway in the narrow corridor dim as a tunnel leading
2:37:15
from the cabin to the stairs, when as sound as of the tolling for
2:37:18
execution in some jail yard fell on his ears. It was the echo of
2:37:24
the ship's flawed bell striking the hour drearily reverberated in this subterranean vault, instantly
2:37:33
by a fatality not to be withstood. His mind, responsive to the portent,
2:37:39
swarmed with superstitious suspicions, he paused in images far swifter than these sentences.
2:37:46
The minutest detail of all his former distrusts swept through him, hitherto credulous
2:37:56
good nature had been too ready to furnish excuses for reasonable fear. Why was
2:38:01
the Spaniard so superfluously punctilious at times now heedless of common propriety? In not
2:38:09
accompanying to the side his departing guest, did indisposition forbid? Indisposition had not
2:38:16
forbidden more irksome exertion that day his last equivocal demeanor recurred. He had risen
2:38:24
to his feet, grasped his guest's hand, motioned toward his hat. Then
2:38:30
in an instant, all was eclipsed in sinister muteness and gloom. Did this
2:38:35
imply one brief repentant relenting at the final moment from some iniquitous plot, followed
2:38:43
by remorseless return to it. His last glance seemed to express a calamitous,
2:38:48
yet acquiescent farewell to Captain Delano forever? Why declined the invitation to visit the
2:38:56
Sealer that evening? Or was the Spaniard less hardened than the jew who refrained
2:39:01
not from supping at the board of him whom the same night he meant to
2:39:05
betray what imported all those day long enigmas and contradictions, except they were intended
2:39:11
to mystify, preliminary to some stealthy blow atu fall the pretended rebel but punctual
2:39:20
shadow. That moment lurked by the threshold without he seemed a sentry and more
2:39:28
who, by his own confession, had stationed him. There was the Negro
2:39:33
now lying in wait, the Spaniard behind his creature. Before to rush from
2:39:41
darkness to light was the involuntary choice. The next moment, with clenched jaw
2:39:48
and hand, he passed Atufall and stood unarmed in the light, as he
2:39:54
saw his trim ship lying peacefully at her anchor and almost within ordinary call.
2:39:58
As he saw his household boat with familiar faces in it, patiently rising and
2:40:03
falling on the short waves by the Sandominic's side, and then glancing about the
2:40:09
decks where he stood, saw the oakum pickers still gravely plying their fingers,
2:40:15
and heard the low buzzing whistle and industrious hum of the hatchet polishers, still
2:40:20
bestirring themselves over their endless occupation. And more than all, as he saw
2:40:26
the benign aspect of nature taking her innocent repose in the evening, the screened
2:40:33
sun in the quiet camp of the west, shining out like the mild light
2:40:37
from Abraham's tent. As his charmed eye and ear took in all these with
2:40:43
the chained figure of the black the clenched jaw and hand relaxed once again.
2:40:50
He smiled at the phantoms which had mocked him, and felt something like a
2:40:54
tinge of remorse that by indulging them, even for a moment, he should,
2:40:58
by implication, have betrayed an almost atheistic doubt of the ever watchful providence
2:41:05
above end of chapter ten. Into the boat. There was a few minutes
2:41:16
delay, while, in obedience to his orders, the boat was being hooked
2:41:20
along to the gangway. During this interval, a sort of saddened satisfaction stole
2:41:26
over Captain Delano at thinking of the kindly offices he had that day discharged for
2:41:33
a stranger, Ah thought he after good actions. One's conscience is never ungrateful,
2:41:39
however much so the benefited party may be. Presently his foot in the
2:41:46
first act of descent into the boat, pressed the first round of the side
2:41:50
ladder, his face presented inward upon the deck. In the same moment he
2:41:56
heard his name courteously sounded, and to his pleased surprise, saw Don Benito
2:42:03
advancing an unwonted energy in his air, as if at the last moment,
2:42:09
intent upon making amends for his recent discourtesy. With instinctive good feeling, Captain
2:42:16
Delano, revoking his foot, turned and reciprocally advanced. As he did so,
2:42:22
the Spaniard's nervous eagerness increased, but his vital energy failed, so that
2:42:28
the better to support him, the servant, placing his master's hand on his
2:42:33
naked shoulder and gently holding it there, formed himself into a sort of crutch.
2:42:41
When the two captains met, the Spaniard again fervently took the hand of
2:42:45
the American, at the same time casting an earnest glance into his eyes.
2:42:50
But as before, too much overcome to speak, I have done him wrong
2:42:56
self, reproachfully, thought Captain Delano. His apparent coldness has deceived me.
2:43:03
In no instance has he meant to offend meantime, as if fearful that the
2:43:09
continuance of the scene might too much unstring his master, the servant seemed anxious
2:43:15
to terminate it, and so, still presenting himself as a crutch, and
2:43:20
walking between the two captains. He advanced with them toward the gangway, while
2:43:26
still as if full of kindly contrition, Don Benito would not let go the
2:43:31
hand of Captain Delano, but retained it in his across the black's body.
2:43:37
Soon they were standing by the side, looking over into the boat, whose
2:43:43
crew turned up their curious eyes, waiting a moment for the Spaniard to relinquish
2:43:48
his hold. The now embarrassed Captain Delano lifted his foot to overstep the threshold
2:43:54
of the open gangway, but still Don Benito would not let go his hand,
2:43:58
and yet with an agitated tone, he said, I can go no
2:44:03
further here. I must bid you adieu. Adieu, my dear dear Donamasa,
2:44:09
go go, suddenly tearing his hand, loose go and God guard you
2:44:16
better than me, my best friend. Not unaffected, Captain Delano would now
2:44:22
have lingered, but catching the meekly admonitory eye of the servant, with a
2:44:26
hasty farewell, he descended into his boat, followed by the continual adieus of
2:44:31
Don Benito, standing rooted in the gangway. Seating himself in the stern,
2:44:39
Captain Delano, making a last salute, ordered the boat shoved off. The
2:44:43
crew had their oars on end. The bowsmen pushed the boat a sufficient distance
2:44:50
for the oars to be lengthwise dropped. The instant that was done, Don
2:44:54
Benito sprang over the bulwarks, falling at the feet of Captain Delano, at
2:45:00
the same time, calling towards his ship, but in tones so frenzied that
2:45:05
none in the boat could understand him. But as if not equally obtuse,
2:45:09
three Spanish sailors from three different and distant parts of the ship splashed into the
2:45:16
sea, swimming after their captain, as if intent upon his rescue. The
2:45:22
dismayed officer of the boat eagerly asked what this meant, to which Captain Delano,
2:45:28
turning a disdainful smile upon the unaccountable Benito Cereno, answered that for his
2:45:33
part, he neither knew nor cared, but it seemed as if the Spaniard
2:45:37
had taken it into his head to produce the impression among his people that the
2:45:41
boat wanted to kidnap him or else. Give way for your lives, he
2:45:48
wildly added, starting at a clattering hubub in the ship, above which rang
2:45:52
the tocsin of the hatchet polishers and seizing Don Benito by the throat. He
2:45:58
added, this plotting pirate means murder. Here, in apparent verification of the
2:46:05
words, the servant, a dagger in his hand, was seen on the
2:46:09
rail overhead, poised in the act of leaping, as if with desperate fidelity
2:46:15
to befriend his master to the last, while seemingly to aid the Black.
2:46:20
The three Spanish sailors were trying to clamber into the hampered bow. Meantime,
2:46:26
the whole host of Negroes, as if inflamed at the sight of their jeopardized
2:46:31
captain, impended in one sooty avalanche over the bulwarks. All this with what
2:46:39
preceded and what followed, occurred with such involutions of rapidity, that past,
2:46:45
present and future seemed one. Seeing the Negro coming, Captain Delano had flung
2:46:52
the Spaniard aside, almost in the very act of clutching him, and by
2:46:56
the unconscious recoil shifting his place with arms thrown up, so promptly grappled the
2:47:03
servant in his descent, that, with dagger presented at Captain Delano's heart,
2:47:07
the Black seemed of purpose to have leaped there as to his mark, but
2:47:13
the weapon was wrenched away, and the assailant dashed down into the bottom of
2:47:16
the boat, which, now with disentangled oars, began to speed through the
2:47:22
sea. At this juncture, the left hand of Captain Delano, on one
2:47:28
side, again clutched the half reclined Don Benito, heedless that he was in
2:47:33
a speechless feint, while his right foot on the other side ground the prostrate
2:47:37
Negro, and his right arm pressed for added speed on the after oar,
2:47:43
his eye bent forward, encouraging his men to their utmost. But here the
2:47:48
officer of the boat, who had at last succeeded in beating off the towing
2:47:52
Spanish sailors, and was now with face turned aft, assisting the bowsman at
2:47:58
his oar, suddenly called to Captain Delano to see what the black was about,
2:48:03
while a Portuguese oarsman shouted to him to give heed to what the Spaniard
2:48:09
was saying. Glancing down at his feet, Captain Delano saw the freed hand
2:48:15
of the servant aiming with a second dagger, a small one before concealed in
2:48:20
his wool. With this he was snakishly writhing up from the boat's bottom at
2:48:26
the heart of his master. His countenance lividly vindictive, expressing the centered purpose
2:48:31
of his soul, while the Spaniard, half choked, was vainly shrinking away
2:48:37
with husky words incoherent to all but the Portuguese. That moment across the long
2:48:45
benighted mind of Captain Delano, a flash of revelation swept, illuminating in unanticipated
2:48:52
clearness Benito Sedeno's whole mysterious demeanor with every enigmatic event of the day, as
2:48:58
well as the entire past voyage of the San Dominic. He smote Babo's hand
2:49:03
down, but his own heart smote him harder. With infinite pity, he
2:49:09
withdrew his hold from Don Benito, not Captain Delano, but Don Benito the
2:49:15
Black, and leaping into the boat, had intended to stab both. The
2:49:20
Black's hands were held as glancing up toward the San Dominic. Captain Delano now
2:49:26
would these scales drop from his eyes. Saw the Negroes, not in misrule,
2:49:31
not in tumult, not as if frantically concerned for Don Benito, but
2:49:37
with masks torn away, flourishing hatchets and knives, in ferocious piratical revolt,
2:49:43
like delirious black dervishes, the six Ashantis danced on the poop. Prevented by
2:49:50
their foes from springing into the water, The Spanish boys were hurrying up to
2:49:54
the topmost spars, while such of the few Spanish sailors not all ready and
2:50:00
the sea less alert, were descried helplessly mixed in on deck with the blacks.
2:50:07
Meantime, Captain Delano hailed his own vessel, ordering the ports up and
2:50:11
the guns run out. But by this time the cable of the San Dominic
2:50:16
had been cut and the fag end in lashing out, whipped away the canvas
2:50:22
shroud about the beak, suddenly revealing as the bleached hull swung round toward the
2:50:26
open ocean. Death for the figurehead in a human skeleton chalky comment on the
2:50:33
chalked words below, follow your leader. At the sight, Don Benito,
2:50:41
covering his face, wailed out, tis he arnda my murdered unburied friend.
2:50:50
Upon reaching the seiler, calling for ropes, Captain Delano bound the Negro,
2:50:54
who made no resistance, and had him hoisted to the deck. He would
2:51:00
then have assisted the now almost helpless Don Benito up the side, but Don
2:51:05
Benito won as he was refused to move or be moved until the Negro should
2:51:09
have been first put below out of view. When presently assured that it was
2:51:15
done, he no more shrank from the ascent. The boat was immediately dispatched
2:51:22
back to pick up the three swimming sailors. Meantime, the guns were in
2:51:26
readiness, though owing to the San Dominic having glided somewhat astern of the seiler,
2:51:31
only the aftermost one could be brought to bear with this, they fired
2:51:37
six times, thinking to cripple the fugitive ship by bringing down her spars,
2:51:43
but only a few inconsiderable ropes were shot away. Soon the ship was beyond
2:51:48
the gun's range, steering broad out of the bay. The blacks, thickly
2:51:54
clustering round the bowsprit one moment with taunting cries toward the whites, the next
2:52:00
with upthrown gestures hailing the now dusky expanse of ocean. Cawing crows escaped from
2:52:07
the hand of the fowler end of Chapter eleven. Pursuit. The first impulse
2:52:18
was to slip the cables and give chase, but upon second thought, to
2:52:24
pursue with whale boat and yawl seemed more promising. Upon inquiring of Don Benito,
2:52:33
what firearms they had on board the San Dominic Captain Delano was answered that
2:52:37
they had none that could be used, because, in the earlier stages of
2:52:41
the mutiny, a cabin passenger since dead, had secretly put out of order
2:52:48
the locks of what few muskets there were. But with all his remaining strength,
2:52:54
Don Benito entreated the Americans not to give chase, either with ship or
2:52:58
boat, for the Negroes had already proved themselves such desperadoes that in case of
2:53:05
a present assault, nothing but a total massacre of the whites could be looked
2:53:11
for. But regarding this warning as coming from one whose spirit had been crushed
2:53:16
by misery, the American did not give up his design. The boats were
2:53:22
got ready and armed. Captain Delano ordered twenty five men into them. He
2:53:28
was going himself when Don Benito grasped his arm. What have you saved my
2:53:35
life? Signor? And are you now going to throw away your own?
2:53:39
The officers, also, for reasons connected with their interests and those of the
2:53:45
voyage and a duty owing to the owners, strongly objected against their commander's going.
2:53:52
Weighing their remonstrances a moment, Captain Delano felt bound to remain appointing his
2:53:58
chief mate, an athletic, resolute men who had been a privateersman, and
2:54:03
as his enemies whispered a pirate to head the party. The more to encourage
2:54:09
the sailors, they were told that the Spanish captain considered his ship as good
2:54:13
as lost, that she and her cargo, including some gold and silver,
2:54:18
were worth upwards of ten thousand doubloons. Take her, and no small part
2:54:24
should be theirs. The sailors replied with a shout. The fugitives had now
2:54:31
almost gained an offing. It was nearly night, but the moon was rising.
2:54:37
After hard, prolonged pulling, the boats came up on the ship's quarters
2:54:43
at a suitable distance, laying upon their oars to discharge their muskets. Having
2:54:48
no bullets to return, the negroes sent their yells, but upon the second
2:54:54
volley, indian like, they hurtled their hatchets. One took off a sailor's
2:55:00
fingers. Another struck the whaleboat's bow, cutting off the rope there and remaining
2:55:05
stuck in the gunwale like a woodman's axe. Snatching it quivering from its lodgment,
2:55:11
the mate hurled it back. The returned gauntlet now stuck in the ship's
2:55:16
broken quarter gallery, and so remained the Negroes giving too hot a reception.
2:55:24
The Whites kept a more respectful distance, hovering now just out of reach of
2:55:28
the hurtling hatchets. They, with a view to the close encounter which must
2:55:33
soon come, sought to decoy the Blacks into entirely disarming themselves of their most
2:55:39
murderous weapons and a hand to hand fight by foolishly flinging them as missiles short
2:55:45
of the mark into the sea. But ere long perceiving the stratagem, the
2:55:50
Negroes desisted, though not before many of them had to replace their lost hatchets
2:55:56
with hand spikes, an exchange which, as mounted upon, proved in the
2:56:01
end favorable to the assailants. Meantime, with a strong wind, the ship
2:56:07
still clove the water, the boats alternately falling behind and pulling up to discharge
2:56:15
fresh volleys. The fire was mostly directed toward the stern, since there chiefly
2:56:20
the Negroes at present were clustering. But to kill or maim the Negroes was
2:56:26
not the object. To take them with the ship was the object. To
2:56:33
do it, the ship must be boarded, which could not be done by
2:56:35
boats. While she was sailing so fast A thought now struck the Mate.
2:56:43
Observing the Spanish boys still aloft high as they could get, he called to
2:56:48
them to descend to the yards and cut adrift the sails. It was done
2:56:54
about this time, owing to causes hereafter to be shown, two Spaniards,
2:57:00
in the dress of sailors, and conspicuously showing themselves, were killed not by
2:57:05
volleys, but by deliberate marksmen's shots, while, as it afterwards appeared,
2:57:11
during one of the general discharges, a to fall the black and the Spaniard
2:57:16
at the helm likewise were killed. What now, with the loss of the
2:57:20
sails and loss of leaders, the ship became unmanageable to the Negroes, with
2:57:28
creaking masts. She came heavily round to the wind, the prow slowly swinging
2:57:33
into view of the boats, its skeleton gleaming in the horizontal moonlight and casting
2:57:39
a gigantic ribbed shadow upon the water. One extended arm of the ghost seemed
2:57:46
beckoning the Whites to avenge it. Follow your leader, cried the mate,
2:57:52
and one on each bow. The boats boarded ceiling spears and cutlasses, crossed
2:57:58
hats and handspikes. Huddled upon the long boat amidships, the Negresses raised a
2:58:05
wailing chant whose chorus was the clash of the steel. For a time the
2:58:11
attack wavered the Negroes, wedging themselves to beat it back. The half repelled
2:58:18
sailors, as yet unable to gain a footing, fighting as troopers in the
2:58:22
saddle, one leg sideways, flung over the bulwarks and one without plying their
2:58:28
cutlasses like Carter's whips, but in vain they were almost overborne. When rallying
2:58:37
themselves into a squad as one man with a huzzah, they sprang inboard,
2:58:43
where entangled they involuntarily separated again for a few breath space. There was a
2:58:50
vague, muffled inner sound, as of submerged swordfish rushing hither and thither through
2:58:56
shoals of black fish. Soon, in a reunited band, and joined by
2:59:01
the Spanish seamen, the whites came to the surface irresistibly, driving the Negroes
2:59:05
toward the stern, But a barricade of casks and sacks from side to side
2:59:11
had been thrown up by the mainmast. Here the Negroes faced about, and
2:59:18
those scorning peace or truce yet fane would have had a respite, but without
2:59:24
pause overleaping the barrier, the unflagging sailors again closed. Exhausted, the blacks
2:59:31
now fought in despair. Their red tongues lolled wolf like from their black mouths,
2:59:37
but the pale sailor's teeth were set. Not a word was spoken,
2:59:41
and in five minutes more the ship was won. Nearly a score of the
2:59:46
Negroes were killed. Exclusive of those by the balls, many were mangled,
2:59:52
their wounds mostly inflicted by the long edged ceiling spears resembling those shaven ones of
2:59:58
the English at Preston pans made by the polled skithes of the Highlanders. On
3:00:05
the other side, none were killed, though several were wounded, some severely,
3:00:09
including the mate. The surviving Negroes were temporarily secured, and the ship
3:00:16
towed back into the harbor at midnight once more lay anchored. End of chapter
3:00:24
twelve. Chapter thirteen, a deposition omitting the incidents and arrangements ensuing suffice it
3:00:33
that after two days spent in refitting, the two ships sailed in company for
3:00:39
Concepcion in Chile, and thence for Lima in Peru, where before the vice
3:00:45
regal courts. The whole affair from the beginning underwent investigation, though midway on
3:00:52
the passage, the ill fated Spaniard relaxed from constraint, showed some signs of
3:00:58
regaining health with free will, yet agreeably to his own foreboding. Shortly before
3:01:03
arriving at Lima, he relapsed, finally becoming so reduced as to be carried
3:01:09
ashore in arms. Hearing of his story and plight, one of the many
3:01:15
religious institutions of the city of Kings opened an hospitable refuge to him, where
3:01:22
both physician and priest were his nurses, and a member of the order volunteered
3:01:26
to be his one special guardian and consoler by night and by day. The
3:01:33
following extracts, translated from one of the official Spanish documents, will, it
3:01:39
is hoped, shed light on the preceding narrative, as well as in the
3:01:43
first place, revealed the true port of departure and true history of the San
3:01:48
Dominique's voyage down to the time of her touching at the island of Santa Maria.
3:01:54
But ere the extracts come, it may be well to preface them with
3:01:58
a remark. The documents selected from among many others. For partial translation,
3:02:03
contains the deposition of Benito Serno, the first taken in the case. Some
3:02:09
disclosures therein were at the time held dubious for both learned and natural reasons.
3:02:16
The Tribunal inclined to the opinion that the deponent, not undisturbed in his mind
3:02:22
by recent events, raved of some things which could never have happened. But
3:02:28
subsequent depositions of the surviving sailors, bearing out the revelations of their captain and
3:02:33
several of the strangest particulars, gave credence to the rest so that the Tribunal,
3:02:39
in its final decision, rested its capital sentences upon statements which, had
3:02:45
they lacked confirmation, it would have deemed it but duty to reject. I
3:02:50
Don Jose de Abos and Padija, his Majesty's Notary for the Royal Revenue and
3:02:56
Register of this Province, and Notary public of the Holy Crusade of this Bishopric,
3:03:01
et cetera, do certify and declare, as much as is requisite in
3:03:07
law, that in the criminal case commenced the twenty fourth of the month of
3:03:11
September in the year seventeen hundred and ninety nine, against the Senegal Negroes of
3:03:16
the ship San Dominique. The following declaration before me was made declaration of the
3:03:24
first witness, Dom Benito seer Reno. The same day and month and year,
3:03:28
his Honor Doctr. Juan Martinez de doosas Counselor of the Royal Audience of
3:03:35
this Kingdom, and learned in the law of this Intendency, ordered the captain
3:03:39
of the ship San Dominique, Dom Benito Serno, to appear, which he
3:03:45
did in his litter, attended by the Monk in Felees, of whom he
3:03:48
received before Don Jose the Abbosimpadija, notary public of the Holy Crusade, the
3:03:54
oath which he took by God, our Lord, and a sign of the
3:04:00
Cross, under which he promised to tell the truth of whatever he should know
3:04:03
and should be asked, and being interrogated agreeably to the tenor of the act.
3:04:09
Commencing the process, he said that on the twentieth of May last,
3:04:15
he set sail with his ship from the port of Alparaiso, bound to that
3:04:20
of Caaijao, loaded with the produce of the country and one hundred and sixty
3:04:24
blacks of both sexes, mostly belonging to Donallejandro Aranda, gentlemen of the city
3:04:31
of Mendoza, that the crew of the ship consisted of thirty six men,
3:04:37
beside the persons who went as passengers, that the Negroes were in part as
3:04:41
follows here in the original follows a list of some fifty names, descriptions and
3:04:48
ages, compiled from certain recovered documents of Arandas and also from recollections of the
3:04:54
Deponent, from which portions only are extracted. One from about eighteen to nineteen
3:05:01
years named Jose and this was the man that waited upon his master, Don
3:05:05
Alejandro, and who speaks well the Spanish, having served him four or five
3:05:11
years. A Mulatto named Francesco, the cabin steward of a good person and
3:05:16
voice, having sung in the Valparaiso churches, native of the province of Buenos
3:05:22
Aires, aged about thirty five years. A smart Negro named Dago, who
3:05:26
had been for many years a grave digger among the Spaniards, aged forty six
3:05:31
years. Four old Negroes born in Africa from sixty to seventy but sound cockers
3:05:37
by trade, whose names are his follows. The first was named Mooi,
3:05:43
and he was killed, as was also his son named Diamelo. The second
3:05:48
Nacta, the third Jola likewise killed the fourth Gofan and six full grown negroes
3:05:56
aged from thirty to forty five, all all raw and born among the Ashantes
3:06:03
Martiniki Yan Lecbe, Mapenda, Yambayo Akim, four of whom were killed,
3:06:11
a powerful Negro named Atufal, who being supposed to have been a chief in
3:06:16
Africa, his owners set great store by him, and a small negro of
3:06:20
Senegal, but some years among the Spaniards aged about thirty, which negro's name
3:06:26
was Babo, that he does not remember the names of the others, but
3:06:31
that still expecting the residue of Don Alejandro's papers will be found, will then
3:06:35
take due account of them all and remit to the court and thirty nine women
3:06:41
and children of all ages. After the catalog. The deposition goes on as
3:06:46
follows, that all the negroes slept upon deck, as is customary in this
3:06:50
navigation, and none wore fetters because the owner, his friend Aranda, told
3:06:56
him that they were all tractable. That on the dam the seventh day after
3:07:01
leaving port, at three o'clock in the morning, all the Spaniards being asleep
3:07:05
except the two officers on the watch, who were the bosun Juan Trobles and
3:07:09
the carpenter Juan Bautista Gagette, and the helmsman and his boy. The Negroes
3:07:16
revolted, suddenly wounded dangerously the bosun and the carpenter, and successively killed eighteen
3:07:22
men of those who were sleeping upon deck, some with handspikes and hatchets,
3:07:28
and others by throwing them alive overboard after tying them. That of the Spaniards
3:07:35
upon deck, they left about seven, as he thinks, alive and tied
3:07:39
to maneuver the ship, and three or four more who hid themselves, remained
3:07:43
also alive. Although in the act of revolt the Negroes made themselves masters of
3:07:48
the hatchway, six or seven wounded went through it to the cockpit without any
3:07:54
hindrance on their part. That in the act of revolt, the mate and
3:07:58
another person whose name he does not recollect attempted to come up through the hatchway,
3:08:05
but having been wounded at the onset, they were obliged to return to
3:08:07
the cabin. That the deponent resolved at break of day to come up the
3:08:13
companionway, where the negro Babo was being the ringleader, and Atufal, who
3:08:18
assisted him, and having spoken to them, exhorted them to cease committing such
3:08:24
atrocities, asking them at the same time what they wanted and intended to do,
3:08:31
offering himself to obey their commands. That notwithstanding this, they threw in
3:08:35
his presence three men alive and tide overboard. That they told the opponent to
3:08:43
come up and that they would not kill him, which having done, the
3:08:46
negro Babo asked him whether there were in those seas any Negro countries where they
3:08:52
might be carried, and he answered them no. That the Negro Babo afterwards
3:08:58
told him to carry them to, say Senegal, or to the neighboring islands
3:09:01
of Saint Nicholas. And he answered that this was impossible on account of the
3:09:07
great distance, the necessity involved of rounding Cape Horn, the bad condition of
3:09:13
the vessel, the want of provisions, sails and water. But that the
3:09:16
Negro Babo replied to him he must carry them in any way, that they
3:09:22
would do and conform themselves to everything the opponent should require as to eating and
3:09:26
drinking. That, after a long conference, being absolutely compelled to please them,
3:09:33
for they threatened him to kill all the whites if they were not,
3:09:35
at all events carried to Senegal. He told them that what was most wanting
3:09:41
for the voyage was water, that they would go near the coast to take
3:09:46
it, and hence they would proceed on their course. That the Negro Babo
3:09:50
agreed to it, and the opponent steered toward the intermediate ports, hoping to
3:09:56
meet some Spanish or foreign vessel that would save them. That within ten or
3:10:01
eleven days they saw the land and continued their course by it in the vicinity
3:10:05
of Nasca. That the deponent observed that the Negroes were now restless and mutinous
3:10:11
because he did not effect the taking inn of water, the Negro Babo having
3:10:16
required with threats that it should be done without fail. The following day he
3:10:22
told him he saw plainly that the coast was steep and the rivers designated in
3:10:26
the maps were not to be found, with other reasons suitable to the circumstances,
3:10:33
that the best way would be to go to the island of Santa Maria,
3:10:37
where they might water and victual easily, it being a desert island.
3:10:41
As the foreigners did. That the opponent did not go to Pisco. That
3:10:46
was near nor make any other port of the coast, because the Negro Babo
3:10:50
had intimated to him several times that he would kill all the whites the very
3:10:54
moment he should perceive any city, town or settlement of any kind on the
3:11:01
shores to which they should be carried. That having determined to go to the
3:11:05
island of Santa Maria, as the Deponent had planned, for the purpose of
3:11:09
trying whether in the passage or in the island itself they could find any vessel
3:11:13
that should favor them, or whether he could escape from it in a boat
3:11:18
to the neighboring coast of Aruco. To adopt the necessary means, he immediately
3:11:24
changed his course, steering for the island. That the negroes Babo and Ottufal
3:11:28
held daily conferences in which they discussed what was necessary for their design of returning
3:11:35
to Senegal, whether they were to kill all the Spaniards, in particularly the
3:11:39
deponent. That eight days after parting from the coast of Nasca, the deponent
3:11:45
being on the watch, a little after daybreak and soon after the Negroes had
3:11:50
their meeting, the Negro Babo came to the place where the deponent was and
3:11:54
told him that he had determined to kill his master, Don Alejandro Aranda,
3:12:00
both because he and his companions could not otherwise be sure of their liberty,
3:12:05
and that to keep the seamen in subjection, he wanted to prepare a warning
3:12:09
of what road they should be made to take did they or any of them
3:12:13
oppose him, and that by means of the death of Don Alejandro, that
3:12:20
warning would best be given. But that what this last meant the opponent did
3:12:24
not at the time comprehend, nor could not further than that the death of
3:12:30
Don Alejandro was intended. And moreover, the negro Babo proposed to the deponent
3:12:35
to call the mate Ranids, who was sleeping in the cabin before the thing
3:12:41
was done, for fear, as the opponent understood it, that the mate,
3:12:46
who was a good navigator, should be killed with Don Alejandro, and
3:12:48
the rest that the opponent, who was the friend from youth of Don Alejandro,
3:12:54
prayed and conjured, but all was useless, for the Negro Babo answered
3:13:00
him that the thing could not be prevented, and that all the Spaniards risked
3:13:05
their death if they should attempt to frustrate his will in this matter or in
3:13:09
any other. That in this conflict the opponent called the mate Ranids, who
3:13:15
was forced to go apart, and immediately the Negro Babo commanded the Ashanti Martiniqui
3:13:20
and the Ashanti Lekbe to go and commit the murder. That those two went
3:13:26
down with the hatchets to the birth of Don Alejandro, that yet half alive
3:13:31
and mangled, they dragged him on deck, that they were going to throw
3:13:35
him overboard in that state, but the Negro Babo stopped them, bidding the
3:13:41
murder be completed on the deck before him, which was done, when by
3:13:46
his orders the body was carried below forward, that nothing more was seen of
3:13:50
it by the deponent for three days. That Don Alonzo Sidonia, an old
3:13:56
man, long resident of Valparaiso, and lately appointed to a civil office in
3:14:01
Peru, whither he had taken passage, was at the time sleeping in the
3:14:05
berth opposite Don Alejandros. That awakening at his cries, surprised by them,
3:14:11
and at the sight of the Negroes with their bloody hatchets in their hands,
3:14:16
he threw himself into the sea through a window which was near him, and
3:14:20
was drowned without its being in the power of the deponent to assist or take
3:14:24
him up. That a short time after killing Aranda, they brought upon deck
3:14:30
his German cousin of middle age, Don Francisco Masa of Mendoza, and the
3:14:35
young Don Joaquin Marques de arambolasa then lately from Spain, with his Spanish servant
3:14:43
Ponce, and the three young clerks of Aranda, Jose Mozairi, Dorenzo Bargas
3:14:48
and er Menehildo Gandiks, all of Goddis that Don Joaquin and at Minnehildo Gandiks
3:14:56
the Negro Babo for purposes hereafter to appear preserved alive. But Don Francisco Masa,
3:15:03
Jose Mozairi, and Lorenzo Bargas with Ponce the servant, besides the Boson
3:15:09
Juan Robles, the Bosun's mates Manuel Biskaija and Rodrigo Urda, and four of
3:15:16
the sailors the Negro Babo ordered to be thrown alive into the sea, although
3:15:22
they made no resistance nor begged for anything else but mercy. That the Bozen
3:15:26
Juan Roblis, who knew how to swim, kept the longest above water,
3:15:31
making acts of contrition, and in the last words he uttered charged this deponent
3:15:37
to cause mass to be said for his soul to our Lady of succor that
3:15:43
during the three days which followed, the opponent, uncertain what fate had befallen
3:15:48
the remains of Don Alejandro, frequently asked the negro Babo where they were,
3:15:52
and, if still on board, whether they were to be preserved for interment
3:15:58
Ashore, treating him so to order it that the negro Babo answered nothing till
3:16:03
the fourth day, when at sunrise the opponent, coming on deck, the
3:16:09
negro Babo showed him a skeleton which had substituted for the ship's proper figurehead,
3:16:15
the image of Christopher Cologne, the discoverer of the New World. That the
3:16:20
negro Babo asked him whose skeleton that was, and whether from its whiteness he
3:16:24
should not think at a whites That, upon his covering his face, the
3:16:28
negro Babo, coming close, said words to this effect quote, keep faith
3:16:35
with the Blacks from here to Senegal, or you shall in spirit, as
3:16:39
now in body, follow your leader end quote, pointing to the prow That
3:16:45
the same morning the negro Babo took, by succession each Spaniard forward and asked
3:16:50
him whose skeleton that was, and whether from its whiteness he should not think
3:16:54
at a whites. That each Spaniard covered his face, that then to each
3:17:00
the Negro Babo repeated the words in the first place, said to the Deponent
3:17:05
that they the Spaniards being then assembled aft the Negro Babo, who rangued them,
3:17:11
saying that he had now done all that the Deponent, as navigator for
3:17:15
the Negroes, might pursue his course, warning him and all of them that
3:17:20
they should soul and body go the way of Don Alejandro if he saw them
3:17:26
the Spaniards speak or plot anything against them the Negroes, a threat which was
3:17:31
repeated every day. That before the events last mentioned, they had tied the
3:17:37
cook to throw him overboard, for it is not known what thing they heard
3:17:41
him speak. But finally the Negro Babo spared his life at the request of
3:17:46
the Deponent. That a few days after the Deponent, endeavoring not to omit
3:17:52
any means to preserve the lives of the remaining whites, spoke to the Negroes
3:17:56
peace and tranquility, and agreed to draw up a paper signed by the Deponent
3:18:03
and the sailors who could write, as also by the Negro Babo for himself
3:18:07
and all the blacks, in which the opponent obliged himself to carry them to
3:18:11
Senegal, and they not to kill any more, and he formerly to make
3:18:16
over to them the ship with a cargo with which they were for that time
3:18:22
satisfied and quieted. But the next day the more surely, to guard against
3:18:26
the sailor's escape, the Negro Babo commanded all the boats to be destroyed,
3:18:31
but the long boat, which was unseaworthy, and another a cutter in good
3:18:37
condition, which, knowing it would yet be wanted for lowering the water casks,
3:18:43
he had it lowered down into the hold. Various particulars of the prolonged
3:18:48
and perplexed navigation ensuing here follow with incidents of a calamitous calm, from which
3:18:54
portion one passage is extracted, to wit that, on the fifth day of
3:19:00
the calm, all on board, suffering much from the heat and want of
3:19:05
water, and five having died in fits and mad, the Negroes became irritable,
3:19:11
and for a chance gesture which they deemed suspicious, though it was harmless,
3:19:16
made by the mate Ranids to the deponent in the act of handing a
3:19:20
quadrant, they killed him but that for this they afterwards were sorry, the
3:19:26
mate being the only remaining navigator on board except the opponent, that omitting other
3:19:31
events which daily happened and which can only serve uselessly to recall past misfortunes and
3:19:37
conflicts. After seventy three days navigation reckoned from the time they sailed from Nasca,
3:19:43
during which they navigated under a scanty allowance of water and were afflicted with
3:19:48
the calms before mentioned, They at last arrived at the island of Santa Maria
3:19:54
on the seventeenth of the month of August, at about six o'clock in the
3:19:58
afternoon, at which hour they cast anchor very near the American ship Bachelor's Delight,
3:20:05
which lay in the same bay, commanded by the generous Captain Amasa Delano.
3:20:11
But at six o'clock in the morning they had already descried the port,
3:20:16
and the Negroes became uneasy as soon as at a distance they saw the ship,
3:20:20
not having expected to see one there. That the Negro Babo pacified them,
3:20:26
assuring them that no fear need be had that straightway, he ordered the
3:20:31
figure on the bow to be covered with canvas as four repairs, and had
3:20:35
the decks a little set in order that for a time the negro Babo and
3:20:41
the Negro Atufal conferred that the Negro Atufal was for sailing away, but the
3:20:46
negro Babo would not, and by himself cast about what to do. That
3:20:52
at last he came to the deponent, proposing to him to say and do
3:20:56
all that the deponent declares to have said and done to the American captain.
3:21:01
That the negro Babo warned him that if he varied in the least or uttered
3:21:07
any word, or gave any look that should give the least intimation of the
3:21:11
past events or present state, he would instantly kill him with all his companions,
3:21:16
showing a dagger which he carried hid saying something which, as he understood
3:21:22
it meant that the dagger would be alert as his eye. That the negro
3:21:26
Babo then announced the plan to all his companions, which pleased them. That
3:21:31
he, then, the better to disguise the truth, devised many expedients,
3:21:37
in some of them uniting deceit and defense. That of this sort was the
3:21:41
device of the six ashantees before named, who were his bravoes. That them
3:21:46
he stationed on the break of the poop, as if to clean certain hatchets
3:21:52
in cases which were part of the cargo, but in reality to use them
3:21:56
and distribute them at need and at a given word. He'd told them that,
3:22:00
among other devices, was the device of presenting Atufal his right hand man
3:22:05
as chained, though in a moment the change could be dropped. That in
3:22:09
every particular he informed the opponent what part he was expected to enact in every
3:22:16
device, and what story he was to tell on every occasion, always threatening
3:22:20
him with instant death if he varied in the least That, conscious that many
3:22:26
of the Negroes would be turbulent, the Negro Babo appointed the four aged Negroes
3:22:31
who were conquers, to keep what domestic order they could on the decks.
3:22:37
That again and again he harangued the Spaniards and his companions, informing them of
3:22:43
his intent and of his devices, and of the invented story that this deponent
3:22:48
was to tell, charging them lest any of them varied from that story.
3:22:54
That these arrangements were made and matured during the interval of two or three hours
3:22:58
between their first siding of the ship and the arrival on board of Captain Amasa
3:23:03
Delano. That this happened at about half past seven in the morning, Captain
3:23:09
Amasa Delano coming in his boat, and all gladly receiving him that that opponent
3:23:15
as well as he could force himself, acting then the part of principal owner
3:23:18
and a free captain of the ship, told Captain Amasa Delano, when called
3:23:24
upon, that he came from Buenos Aires bound to Lima with three hundred negroes
3:23:30
that off Cape Horn, and in a subsequent fever, many negroes had died.
3:23:35
That also, by similar casualties, all the sea officers and the greatest
3:23:41
part of the crew had died. And so the deposition goes on circumstantially recounting
3:23:46
the fictitious story dictated to the deponent by Babo, and through the deponent,
3:23:52
imposed upon Captain Delano, and also recounting the friendly offers of Captain Delano with
3:23:58
other things, but all of which were omitted after the fictitious strange story,
3:24:03
et cetera. The deposition proceeds that the generous Captain Amasa Delano remained on board
3:24:11
all the day till he left the ship anchored at six o'clock in the evening,
3:24:15
deponent speaking to him always of his pretended misfortunes under the foe mentioned principles,
3:24:22
without having had it in his power to tell a single word or give
3:24:24
him the least hint that he might know the truth and state of things.
3:24:30
Because the negro Babo, performing the office of an officious servant, with all
3:24:35
the appearance of submission of the humble slave, did not leave the deponent one
3:24:39
moment. That this was in order to observe the deponent's actions and words,
3:24:45
for the negro Babo understands well the Spanish, And besides, there were thereabouts
3:24:50
some others who were constantly on the watch and likewise understood the Spanish. That
3:24:56
upon one occasion, while duponent was standing on the deck conversing with a Masa
3:25:01
Delano, by a secret sign, the negro Babo drew him the deponent aside,
3:25:07
the act appearing as if originating with the deponent. That then he being
3:25:13
drawn aside, the negro Babo proposed to him to gain from a Massa Delano
3:25:18
full particulars about his ship and crew and arms. That the opponent asked for
3:25:24
what that the negro Babo answered, he might conceive that grieved at the prospect
3:25:31
of what might overtake the generous captain a Massa Delano. The opponent at first
3:25:37
refused to ask the desired questions, and used every argument to induce the negro
3:25:41
Babo to give up this new design, that the negro Babo showed the point
3:25:46
of his dagger. That after the information had been obtained, the negro Babo
3:25:52
again drew him aside, telling him that very night he the opponent, would
3:25:58
be captain of two ships instead of one, for that great part of the
3:26:01
American ship's crew being to be absent fishing, the six essentees without any one
3:26:07
else would easily take it. That at this time, he said other things
3:26:13
to the same purpose, that no entreaties availed, that before Amasa Delano's coming
3:26:18
on board, no hint had been given touching the capture of the American ship.
3:26:24
That to prevent this project, the deponent was powerless. That in some
3:26:28
things his memory is confused. He cannot distinctly recall every event. That as
3:26:35
soon as they had cast Anchor at six of the clock in the evening,
3:26:39
as has before been stated, the American captain took leave to return to his
3:26:43
vessel. That upon a sudden impulse, which the deponent believes to a come
3:26:48
from God and his angels. He, after the farewell had been said,
3:26:52
followed the generous Captain Amasa Delano as far as the gunwale, where he stayed
3:26:58
under the pretense of taking leave, until Amasa Delano should have been seated in
3:27:03
his boat. That on shoving off, the opponent sprang from the gunwale into
3:27:07
the boat and fell into it. He knows not how God guarding him that.
3:27:15
Here in the original follows the account of what further happened at the escape
3:27:18
and how the San Dominique was retaken, and of the passage to the coast,
3:27:24
including in the recital many expressions of eternal gratitude to the generous Captain Amasa
3:27:30
Delano. The deposition then proceeds with recapitulatory remarks and a partial remuneration of the
3:27:37
Negroes, making record of their individual part in the past events, with a
3:27:43
view to furnishing, according to command of the court, the data whereon to
3:27:48
found the criminal sentences to be pronounced. From this portion is the following that
3:27:54
he believes that all the Negroes, though not in the first place knowing to
3:27:58
the design of revolt when it was accomplished, approved it that the negro Jose,
3:28:05
eighteen years old and in the personal service of Don Alejandro, was the
3:28:09
one who communicated the information to the Negro Babo about the state of things in
3:28:13
the cabin before the revolt. That this is known because in the preceding midnight
3:28:20
he used to come from his berth, which was under his masters in the
3:28:24
cabin, to the deck where the ringleader and his associates were, and had
3:28:28
secret conversations with the Negro Babo, in which he was several times seen by
3:28:33
the mate. That one night the mate drove him away twice. That this
3:28:37
same Negro Jose was the one who, without being commanded to do so by
3:28:43
the Negro Babo, as Lecbe and Martinki were stabbed his master, Don Alejandro,
3:28:50
after he had been dragged half lifeless to the deck, that the mulatto
3:28:54
steward Francesco was of the first band of revolters, that he was, in
3:28:58
all things the creature and tool of the Negro Babo, that to make his
3:29:03
court, he, just before a repassed in the cabin, proposed to the
3:29:09
Negro Babo poisoning a dish for the generous captain a Massa Delano. This is
3:29:15
known and believed because the Negroes have said it, but that the Negro Babo,
3:29:20
having another design forbade Francisco, that the Ashanti Lecbe was one of the
3:29:26
worst of them, for that on the day the ship was retaken, he
3:29:30
assisted in the defense of her with a hatchet in each hand, with one
3:29:35
of which he wounded in the breast the chief mate of a Massa Delano.
3:29:39
And the first act of boarding this all knew that inside of the deponent Legbay
3:29:46
struck with a hatchet Don Francisco Masa, when by the Negro Babo's orders,
3:29:52
he was carrying him, to throw him overboard alive, Beside participating in the
3:29:56
murder before mentioned of Dona le Handro Randa and others of the cabin passengers,
3:30:03
that owing to the fury with which the Ashantis fought in the engagement with the
3:30:07
boats, but this Alekbe and Jan survived, that Jan was bad as Lekbay,
3:30:13
that John was the man who, by Babo's command, willingly prepared the
3:30:18
skeleton of Don Alejandro, in a way the Negroes afterwards told the Deponent,
3:30:24
but which he, so long as reason is left him, can never divulge,
3:30:28
that Jean and Lecbe were the two who in a calm by night,
3:30:33
riveted the skeleton to the bow. This also the Negroes told him that the
3:30:39
negro Babo was he who traced the inscription below it, that the negro Babo
3:30:45
was the plotter from first to last, He ordered every murder and was the
3:30:48
helm and keel of the revolt. That Atufal was his lieutenant in all but
3:30:54
Atufal, with his own hand, committed no murder, nor did the negro
3:31:00
Babo. That Atufal was shot being killed in the fight with the boats air
3:31:05
boarding. That the negresses of age were knowing to the revolt, and testified
3:31:09
themselves satisfied at the death of their master Donalejandro, that had the Negroes not
3:31:16
restrained them, they would have tortured to death instead of simply killing the Spaniards
3:31:20
slain by command of the negro Babo. That the Negresses used their utmost influence
3:31:26
to have the deponent made away with that in the various acts of murder they
3:31:31
sang songs and danced not gaily but solemnly, and before the engagement with the
3:31:37
boats, as well as during the action, they sang melancholy songs to the
3:31:43
Negroes, and that this melancholy tone was more inflaming than a different one would
3:31:48
have been, and was so intended. That all this is believed because the
3:31:54
Negroes have said it. That of the thirty six men of the crew excled
3:32:00
elusive of the passengers, all of whom are now dead, which the opponent
3:32:03
had knowledge of, six only remained alive, with four cabin boys and ship
3:32:09
boys not included with the crew. That the Negroes broke an arm of one
3:32:13
of the cabin boys and gave him strokes with hatchets. Then follow various random
3:32:20
disclosures referring to various periods of time. The following are extracted that during the
3:32:26
presence of Captain Amasa Delano on board, some attempts were made by the sailors
3:32:33
and one by Edminnehilo Gandiks, to convey hints to him of the true state
3:32:37
of affairs, but that these attempts were ineffectual owing to fear of incurring death
3:32:45
and furthermore, owing to the devices which offered contradictions to the true state of
3:32:48
affairs, as well as owing to the generosity and piety of Amasa Delano incapable
3:32:56
of sounding such wickedness that Luis Galgo, as sailor about sixty years of age
3:33:01
and formerly of the King's navy, was one of those who sought to convey
3:33:05
tokens to Captain Amasa Delano, but his intent, though undiscovered, being suspected,
3:33:13
he was on a pretense made to retire out of sight and at last
3:33:18
into the hold, and there was made away with this. The Negroes have
3:33:22
since said that one of the ship boys, feeling from Captain Amaso Delano's presence
3:33:28
some hopes of release, and not having enough prudence, dropped some chance word
3:33:35
respecting his expectations, which, being overheard and understood by a slave boy with
3:33:41
whom he was eating at the time, the latter struck him on the head
3:33:45
with a knife, inflicting a bad wound, but of which the boy is
3:33:48
now healing. That likewise, not long before the ship was brought to anchor,
3:33:54
one of the seamen steering at the time endangered himself by letting the blacks
3:34:00
remark a certain unconscious hopeful expression in his countenance, arising from some cause similar
3:34:07
to the above. But this sailor, by his heedful after conduct, escaped.
3:34:13
That these statements are made to show the court that from the beginning to
3:34:16
the end of the revolt it was impossible for the opponent and his men to
3:34:20
act otherwise than they did. That the third Clerk ed Minehildo Gandiks, who
3:34:26
before had been forced to live among the seamen, wearing a seaman's habit,
3:34:31
and in all respects appearing to be won for the time. He Gandiks was
3:34:37
killed by a musket ball fired through a mistake from the American boats before boarding,
3:34:43
having in his fright, ran up the mizzen rigging, calling to the
3:34:48
boats don't board, lest upon their boarding the Negroes should kill him. That
3:34:52
this inducing the Americans to believe he some way favored the cause of the Negroes,
3:34:58
they fired two balls at him, so that he fell wounded from the
3:35:01
rigging and was drowned in the sea. That the young Don Joaquin Marques de
3:35:07
arambolasa like Edmenechilo Gandik's, the third Clerk, was degraded to the office and
3:35:13
appearance of a common seaman. That upon one occasion, when Don Joaquin shrank,
3:35:18
the Negro Babo commanded the ashantee Lecbe to take tar and heat it and
3:35:24
pour it upon Don Joaquin's hands, that Don Joaquin was killed owing to another
3:35:31
mistake of the Americans, but one impossible to be avoided, as upon the
3:35:35
approach of the boats, Don Joaquin, with a hatchet tied edge out and
3:35:39
upright to his hand, was made by the Negroes to appear on the bulwarks,
3:35:46
whereupon seen with arms in his hands and in a questionable attitude, he
3:35:50
was shot for a renegade seaman, that on the person of Don Joaquin was
3:35:56
found secreted a jewel, which, by papers that were covered, proved to
3:36:01
have been meant for the shrine of our Lady of Mercy in Lima, a
3:36:05
vote of offering beforehand, prepared and guarded to attest his gratitude when he should
3:36:11
have landed in Peru, his last destination, for the safe conclusion of his
3:36:16
entire voyage from Spain. That the jewel, with the other effects of the
3:36:20
late Don Joaquin, is in the custody of the brethren of the os Pitad
3:36:24
Sasserdotes, awaiting the decision of the Honorable Court that, owing to the condition
3:36:31
of the deponent, as well as the haste in which the boats departed for
3:36:35
the attack, the Americans were not forewarned that there were among the apparent crew
3:36:41
a passenger and one of the clerks disguised by the Negro Babo, that besides
3:36:48
the Negroes killed in the action, some were killed after the capture and re
3:36:52
anchoring at night, when shackled to the ring bolts on the deck, that
3:36:56
these deaths were committed by the sailors, ere they could be prevented, that
3:37:01
so soon as informed of it, Captain Amasa Delano used all his authority,
3:37:07
and in particular with his own hand, struck down Martinez Gola, who,
3:37:13
having found a razor in the pocket of an old jacket of his, which
3:37:16
one of the shackled negroes had on, was aiming it at the negro's throat.
3:37:22
That the noble Captain Amasa Delano also wrenched from the hand of Bartholomew Barlo
3:37:28
a dagger secreted at the time of the massacre of the whites, with which
3:37:33
he was in the act of stabbing a shackled Negro, who the same day,
3:37:37
with another Negro, had thrown him down and jumped upon him. That
3:37:41
for all the events befalling through so long a time during which the ship was
3:37:46
in the hands of the Negro Babo. He cannot here give account, but
3:37:50
that what he has said is the most substantial of what occurs to him at
3:37:56
present, and is the truth under the oath which he has taken, which
3:38:01
declaration he affirmed and ratified, after hearing it read to him, he said
3:38:05
that he is twenty nine years of age, and broken in body and mind,
3:38:09
that when finally dismissed by the court, he shall not return home to
3:38:13
Chile, but betake himself to the monastery of the mount Agonia without and signed
3:38:20
with his honor, and crossed himself and for the time departed as he came
3:38:24
in his litter with a monk in Felese to the ospitald Sasserrotes end of Chapter
3:38:31
thirteen. Conclusion. If the deposition of Benito Cereno has served as the key
3:38:50
to fit into the lock of the complications which preceded it, then as a
3:38:54
vault whose door has been flung back, the San Dominic's hull lies open today.
3:39:03
Hitherto the nature of this narrative, besides rendering the intricacies in the beginning
3:39:07
unavoidable, has more or less required that many things, instead of being set
3:39:13
down in the order of occurrence, should be retrospectively or irregularly. Given.
3:39:20
This last is the case with the following passages, which will conclude the account.
3:39:26
During the Long Mild Voyage Telema, there was, as before hinted,
3:39:31
a period during which Don Benito a little recovered his health, or at least
3:39:37
in some degree his tranquility. Ere the decided relapse which came. The two
3:39:45
captains had many cordial conversations, their fraternal unreserve in singular contrast with former withdrawmns.
3:39:54
Again and again it was repeated how hard it had been to enact the
3:40:00
art forced on the Spaniard by Babo. Ah, My dear Donamasa, Don
3:40:05
Benito once said, at those very times when you thought me so morose and
3:40:11
ungrateful, Nay, when as you now admit, you half thought me plotting
3:40:16
your murder, at those very times, my heart was frozen. I could
3:40:20
not look at you, thinking of what both on board this ship and your
3:40:24
own hung from other hands over my kind benefactor, and as God lives,
3:40:31
Donamasa, I know not whether desire for my own safety alone could have nerved
3:40:37
me to that leap into your boat, had it not been for the thought
3:40:39
that did you unenlightened return to your ship. You, my best friend,
3:40:46
with all who might be with you, stolen upon that night in your hammocks,
3:40:50
would never in this world have wakened again. Do but think how you
3:40:54
walk this deck, how you sat in this cabin, Every inch of mined
3:41:01
into honeycombs under you. Had I dropped the least hint, made the least
3:41:05
advance toward an understanding between us death explosive death, yours and mine, would
3:41:13
have ended the scene. True, true, cried Captain Delano, starting you
3:41:18
saved my life, don Benito, more than I Yours saved it too,
3:41:22
against my knowledge and will nay, my friend rejoined the Spaniard, courteous even
3:41:30
to the point of religion. God charmed your life, but you saved mine.
3:41:35
To think of some things you did, those smilings and chattings, rash
3:41:39
pointings and gesturings, for less than these they slew my mate renids. But
3:41:46
you had the Prince of Heaven's safe conduct through all ambuscades. Yes, all
3:41:52
is owing to providence, I know. But the temper of my mind that
3:41:56
morning was more than commonly pleasant, while the sight of so much suffering,
3:42:01
more apparent than real, added to my good nature, compassion and charity,
3:42:05
happily interweaving the three. Had it been otherwise, doubtless, as you hint,
3:42:11
some of my interferences with the Blacks might have ended unhappily enough. Besides
3:42:16
that, those feelings I spoke of enabled me to get the better of momentary
3:42:22
distrust at times when acuteness might have cost me my life without saving another's.
3:42:28
Only at the end did my suspicions get the better of me. And you
3:42:33
know how wide of the mark they then proved? Wide? Indeed, said
3:42:37
Don Benito, sadly you were with me all day, stood with me,
3:42:41
sat with me, talked with me, looked at me, ate with me,
3:42:46
drank with me. And yet your last act was to clutch for a
3:42:50
villain, not only an innocent man, but the most pitiable of all men.
3:42:56
To such degree may malign machinations and deceptions impose, so far may even
3:43:01
the best men err in judging the conduct of one with the recesses of whose
3:43:07
condition he is not acquainted. But you were forced to it, and you
3:43:11
were, in time undeceived. Would that in both respects it was? So?
3:43:16
Ever, and with all men, I think I understand you. You
3:43:22
generalized, Don Benito, and mournfully enough. But the past is past.
3:43:28
Why moralize upon it? Forget it? See Yon, bright sun has forgotten
3:43:33
it all, And the blue sea and the blue sky, these have turned
3:43:37
over new leaves because they have no memory, he dejectedly replied, because they
3:43:43
are not human. But these mild trades that now fan your cheeked on,
3:43:50
Benito, do they not come with a human like healing to you? Warm
3:43:54
friends? Steadfast friends? Are the trades? Would their starf ahe at fastness?
3:44:00
They but wafft me to my tomb? Senor was the foreboding response.
3:44:05
You are saved, don Benito, cried Captain Delano, more and more astonished
3:44:11
and pained. You are saved? What is cast such a shadow upon you?
3:44:18
The negro? There was silence, while the moody man sat slowly and
3:44:24
unconsciously, gathering his mantle about him as if it were appall. There was
3:44:31
no more conversation that day. But if the Spaniard's melancholy sometimes ended in muteness
3:44:37
upon topics like the above, there were others upon which he never spoke at
3:44:43
all, on which, indeed all his old reserves were piled pass over the
3:44:48
worst and only to elucidate let an item or two of these be sighted the
3:44:54
dress so precise and costly warned by him on the day whose events have been
3:44:58
near, had not willingly been put on. And that silver mounted sword,
3:45:05
apparent symbol of despotic command, was not indeed a sword, but the ghost
3:45:09
of one. The scabbard, artificially stiffened, was empty. As for the
3:45:16
black, whose brain not body, had schemed and led the revolt with the
3:45:22
plot, his slight frame, inadequate to that which it held, had at
3:45:26
once yielded to the superior muscular strength of his captor in the boat. Seeing
3:45:31
all was over, he uttered no sound, and could not be forced to
3:45:37
his aspects. Seemed to say, since I cannot do deeds, I will
3:45:41
not speak words. Put in irons in the hold with the rest. He
3:45:45
was carried to Lima. During the passage, Don Benito did not visit him,
3:45:50
nor then, nor at any time after. Would he look at him.
3:45:54
Before the tribunal, he refused. When pressed by the judge, he
3:46:00
fainted. On the testimony of the sailors alone rested the legal identity of Babo.
3:46:07
And yet the Spaniard would, upon occasion verbally refer to the Negro as
3:46:13
has been shown, but look on him he would not or could not.
3:46:20
Some months after, dragged to the gibbet at the tail of a mule,
3:46:24
the black met his voiceless end. The body was burned to ashes, but
3:46:30
for many days the head, that hive of subtlety, fixed on a pole
3:46:33
in the plaza, met unabashed the gaze of the whites, and across the
3:46:39
plaza looked towards Saint Bartholomew's Church, in whose vaults slept then as now the
3:46:46
recovered bones of Aranda, And across the Rimac Bridge looked toward the monastery on
3:46:52
Mount Agonna, without where, three months after being dismissed by the court,
3:46:58
Benito Cereno, born on the bier, did indeed follow his leader. The
3:47:05
end end of chapter fourteen. End of Benito Cereno by Hermann Melville