“First and last pretty nigh sixty years,” he answered.
“I was a small boy when I first ran off from home, and I never lived on shore many weeks together from that time up to within a few years ago. I have served on board every sort of craft afloat, and have seen a good many curious sights, as you may suppose.”
I resolved not to interrupt him, unless he should get a hitch in his yarn with which a question might help him through, so I let him run on, and, once having begun, he seemed nothing loth to allow his tongue full play. Probably he had not had auditors who could understand him for many a long day.
“The first craft I shipped aboard was bound for the coast of Africa. In those days not a few vessels belonging to Liverpool were engaged in one way or another in the slave trade, either in supplying the slavers with goods, and stores, and provisions, or in actually running cargoes of blacks, which though the most profitable was a dangerous business to engage in.
“I understood that we were to bring back gold dust and ivory, but instead of that we began to load with negroes, and soon had pretty nigh three hundred stowed away below hatches. We had hoisted the Spanish flag, and had a Spanish captain, and fresh papers, for it was, I fancy, a hanging matter for an Englishman to command a slaver, though a few years back it had been all lawful and shipshape, but things change, you see, and what seems right one day is wrong the other. We had to keep a bright look out for English cruisers, who were on the coast to put a stop to the business.
“I heard some curious yarns of the way the slaves are taken. Some powerful tribes make it a regular business, and attack their weaker neighbours for no other purpose than to capture them, and then to sell them to the slave dealers. They generally steal on a village at night, surround and set fire to it, and seize all the inhabitants who rush from their huts to escape the flames. Parties go out to pick up others wandering in the woods, or travelling from one place to another. The inhabitants of the West Coast of Africa must have an uncomfortable life of it, I suspect. With our living cargo on board we made sail for South America.
“Before we were many leagues from the shore, an English man-of-war hove in sight. Should we be taken we should not only lose the vessel and our expected profits, but it would go hard with the English part of the crew. All knew that, and were ready to do anything to escape. We made all sail, but for a wonder the British man-of-war was a fast craft, and soon began to overhaul us. Our skipper, and most of the officers and crew, swore fearfully at the stranger, and some declared that sooner than be taken they would blow our vessel, with all the niggers on board, as well as the English cruiser, into the air.
“I observed the captain and officers talking together, and there was a fierce determination in their looks which showed they meant what they said. I had no fancy to be blown into the air, and was considering what I could do to save myself.
“As the cruiser drew near I saw some of our men go below, and presently up they came with a black fellow. They led him aft and lowered him overboard.