rew)
whether the blacks died of thirst or by drowning. They could throw them
overboard, after the breath was out of them, all the same. But some of
them might live it out. He had known niggers to stand it a long while
without water--they could hold out much longer than white men--for in
this respect they resembled the ostriches, camels, and other animals of
their own country, that could go for whole weeks without drinking! No
doubt many of them would die, and therefore be lost to him; but they
would not die if they could help it, and there were still the chances
that a good many would stick it out (these were the captain's words)
till they had made land, or overhauled some vessel; and though they
might be pretty far gone (another phrase of the speaker), a drink of
water would set their stomachs all right again. So ran the ruffian
speech.

He further proceeded to point out to his audience the destitute
condition that he and they would be in, should they reach the Brazilian
coast without a cargo. There would be no bounty--no spending-money--
nothing; whereas, if they could only get there with even a portion of
the negroes alive--even one out of five (a hundred out of the whole
lot)--there would still be a large sum realised; and he promised that he
would be liberal to all hands.

It was absurd, therefore, to talk of flinging the cargo overboard. They
could do no harm as they were; there could arise no danger, since they
would keep the blacks securely under hatches; and, therefore, in every
way it was better to let these hold out as long as they could, and take
chance of bringing some of them to a market. Such was the skipper's
speech; and I have followed his phraseology as nearly as I remember it.
It was an awful harangue, and my heart sickened within me as I listened
to it.

Meanwhile, the ill-starred victims who were the subject of these
deliberations were, happily for themselves, still ignorant of the horrid
fate with which they were threatened. A few of them, whose gaunt faces
looked up through the grating, may have noticed that something was
amiss; but, ignorant both of the language and ways of their tyrant
gaolers, they could not possibly have known the danger in which their
lives were now placed.

Alas! alas! they would soon learn--too soon. Soon would they experience
the agony of thirst; soon would they feel its horrid cravings.

Even at that moment was it drawing upon them; even then were they cry