Then cried Van Koek: “An excellent plan!
“Dear Doctor, I utter no slander,
“When I say that like Aristotle you’re wise,
“The tutor of Alexander.
“The Tulip-improvement Society’s head
“In the town of Delft may be clever,
“But he hasn’t one half of your brains, I’m sure,—
“Your equal I’ve met with never.
“Then, music, music! The niggers all
“On the deck I’ll see dancing and kicking,
“And whosoever won’t join in the fun
“Shall receive in reward a good licking.”
PART II.
On high, from the heaven’s blue canopy,
Many thousand stars are gleaming,
Like the eyes of fair women, so large and clear,
And with locks of yearning beaming.
They’re looking down on the ocean below,
Whose waves in the distance are curling,
In phosphorescent blue vapour all veil’d,
While the billows are joyously whirling.
Not a sail on the slave-ship is fluttering now,
As though without tackle she’s lying;
But lanthorns are glimmering high on the decks
Where the dance with the music is vying.
The cook of the vessel is playing the flute,
The steersman’s playing the fiddle,
The trumpet is blown by the Doctor himself,
And a lad beats the drum in the middle.
A hundred niggers, both women and men,
Are yelling and whirling and leaping,
As though they were mad; and at every spring
Their irons the tune are keeping.
They stamp on the ground in uproarious mirth,
And many a swarthy maiden
Clasps her naked partner with warmth, while at times
The air with their groanings is laden.