That, after this, the gunner of the ship having secured himself in the
gun-room, one of his men hauled up the long-boat close under the stern,
and putting into her all the arms and ammunition they could come at, got
all into the boat, and afterwards took in the captain, and those that
were with him, out of the great cabin. When they were all thus embarked,
they resolved to lay the ship aboard again, and try to recover it. That
they boarded the ship in a desperate manner, and killed at first all
that stood in their way; but the negroes being by this time all loose,
and having gotten some arms, though they understood nothing of powder
and bullet, or guns, yet the men could never master them. However, they
lay under the ship's bow, and got out all the men they had left in the
cook-room, who had maintained themselves there, notwithstanding all the
negroes could do, and with their small-arms killed between thirty and
forty of the negroes, but were at last forced to leave them.
They could give me no account whereabouts this was, whether near the
coast of Africa, or far off, or how long it was before the ship fell
into our hands; only, in general, it was a great while ago, as they
called it; and, by all we could learn, it was within two or three days
after they had set sail from the coast. They told us that they had
killed about thirty of the white men, having knocked them on the head
with crows and handspikes, and such things as they could get; and one
strong negro killed three of them with an iron crow, after he was shot
twice through the body; and that he was afterwards shot through the
head by the captain himself at the door of the round-house, which he had
split open with the crow; and this we supposed was the occasion of the
great quantity of blood which we saw at the round-house door.
The same negro told us that they threw all the powder and shot they
could find into the sea, and they would have thrown the great guns into
the sea if they could have lifted them. Being asked how they came
to have their sails in such a condition, his answer was, "They no
understand; they no know what the sails do;" that was, they did not so
much as know that it was the sails that made the ship go, or understand
what they meant, or what to do with them. When we asked him whither they
were going, he said they did not know, but believed they should go home
to their own country again. I asked him, in particular, what he thought
we were when we first came up with them? He said they were terribly
frighted, believing we were the same white men that had gone away in
their boats, and were come again in a great ship, with the two boats
with them, and expected they would kill them all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account