"But, marster, as it turned out, we as was left to die were the only
ones saved. We watched after that boat with longing eyes, though we
could only see it when the lightning flashed. And every time we saw it
it was farther off. At last, marster, a flash of lightning showed us the
boat as far off as ever we could see her, capsized and beaten hither and
thither by the wild waves--its crew had perished.
"Marster, as soon as the sea had swallowed up that wicked captain and
crew the wind died away, the waves fell and the storm lulled--just as if
it had done what it was sent to do and was satisfied. The wreck--where
we poor forlorn ones stood--the wreck that had shivered and trembled
with every wave that struck it,--until we had feared it would break up
every minute, became still and firm on its sand-bar, as a house on dry
land.
"Daylight came at last. And a little after sunrise we saw a sail bearing
down upon us. We could not signal the sail, but by the mercy of
Providence, she saw us and lay to, and sent off a boat and picked us up
and took us on board--me and the baby and the cook and the sailor lad.
"It was a foreign wessel, and we could not understand a word they said,
nor they us. All we could do was by signs. But they were very good to
us--dried our clothes and gave us breakfast and made us lie down and
rest, and then put about and continued their course. The sailor
lad--Herbert Greyson--soon found out and told me they were bound for New
York. And, in fact, marster, in about ten days we made that port.
"When the ship anchored below the Battery, the officers and passengers
made me up a little bundle of clothes and a little purse of money and
put me ashore, and there I was in a strange city, so bewildered I didn't
know which way to turn. While I was a-standing there, in danger of being
run over by the omnibuses, the sailor boy came to my side and told me
that he and the cook was gwine to engage on board of another 'Merican
wessel, and axed me what I was gwine to do. I told him how I didn't know
nothing at all 'bout sea sarvice, and so I didn't know what I should do.
Then he said he'd show me where I could go and stay all night, and so he
took me into a little by-street, to a poor-looking house, where the
people took lodgers, and there he left me to go aboard the ship. As he
went away he advised me to take care of my money and try to get a
servant's place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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