The Two Supercargoes; Or, Adventures in Savage Africa

by William Henry Giles Kingston

I heartily responded to Harry’s remark, and so I believe did Tubbs, who, although nothing of a theologian, not even knowing the meaning of the word, was a pious man in his rough way.

“Ay, ay, sir,” he said. “I know that God made us, and He has a right to our service; and if we don’t run away from Him and hide ourselves, He’ll look after us a precious deal better than we can look after ourselves. That’s my religion, and it’s my opinion it’s the sum total of all the parsons can tell us.”

“Not quite,” said Harry, “although it goes a long way. We are sinners in God’s sight, whatever we are in the sight of men; and if God in His mercy hadn’t given us a way by which we can be made friends to Him and saved from punishment, we should be in a bad condition.”

“You are right, sir,” answered Tubbs; “but to my idea that’s all included in what I said.”

We sat listening in silence.

“We are pretty well over the bar now, and I don’t think we shall be cast away this time,” he observed a few minutes afterwards.

That he was right we were convinced by the more regular movement of the vessel, as she slowly rose and fell, moved by the undulations which rolled in towards the coast. We could judge that she was making good way, and Tubbs was of opinion that all sail was set, and that we were standing to the westward. At the time the slaves were fed, we had a bowl of farina brought us, but the man put it down and disappeared again without saying a word. Soon afterwards the mate came down, and told me that I might come on deck for a quarter of an hour to stretch my legs. I was thankful to breathe the fresh air, although there was but little of it, and the ship was almost becalmed. I glanced astern, and could distinguish the shore, although I could no longer make out the mouth of the river. We had, at all events, got a safe offing. When my time was up I was sent below and Harry took my place, and he was succeeded by Tubbs. We were treated, however, with no more consideration than was afforded to the slaves, who were brought up on deck at intervals in the same fashion. The hold felt doubly close and oppressive after the mouthful of fresh air we had enjoyed.

The second night of our captivity was even more trying than the first, for the atmosphere of the hold, into which the horrible odour from the slave-deck penetrated, was becoming every hour more and more unendurable. I feared that should we be kept below during the voyage, I, at all events, would sink under it, for I already felt sick almost to death, and my spirits were at a lower ebb than they had ever before reached. Harry was almost in as bad a condition as I was. Tubbs, who had been well seasoned in the close air of forecastles, held out better than we did.

“Don’t give way, young gentlemen, whatever you do,” he said very frequently to us. “Cheer up, cheer up! When we get a breeze, some of it will find its way down here perhaps; and if not, I’ll ask the skipper if he wishes to kill us by inches, and I’ll tell him he’ll never land either of us if we are kept shut up in this hold and treated worse than the negroes. They are born to it, as it were, and we are not, and have been accustomed to pure air all our lives.”

I did not quite agree with Tubbs as to negroes being born to be shut up in the hold of a slave ship, but I did not just then contradict him. By a faint gleam, like the light of a glow-worm, which came down from overhead, we knew that it was morning, and soon afterwards we felt the ship heel over to larboard, or port as it is now called. In a short time the increasing motion also showed us that the sea had got up. We heard sounds which indicated that sail was being shortened. We stood on, it might have been an hour, on the same tack, when the ship was put about, and now she heeled over more often, and pitched and tumbled about in a way which showed that it was blowing fresh. The cries of the wretched slaves, unaccustomed to the motion, reached our ears, while the tossing stirred up the bilge water and almost stifled us. Two or three hours passed, when the ship became somewhat steadier. Tubbs averred that the helm had been put up, and that we were running before the wind.