soil.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

HOW SNOWBALL ESCAPED FROM THE SLAVER.

On this curious embarkation, drifting about amid the remains of the
wrecked ship, there were only the two human figures,--the negro and the
little girl. It is superfluous to say that they were also a portion of
the wreck itself,--other castaways who had, so far, succeeded in saving
themselves from the fearful doom that had overtaken, no doubt, every one
of the wretched beings composing the _cargo_ of the slaver.

The negro upon the raft, though black as the blackest of his unfortunate
countrymen, was not among the number of those who had been carried as
_freight_. On the contrary, he was one of the crew,--the lord of the
caboose, and known upon the slave-bark by the satirical _soubriquet_ of
"Snowball."

Although originally a slave from Africa, and by race a Coromantee,
Snowball had long been in the enjoyment of his liberty; and, as cook or
steward, had seen service in scores of ships, and circumnavigated the
globe in almost every latitude where circumnavigation was possible.

Though not naturally of a wicked disposition, he was by no means
particular as to the company he kept, or the sort of ship he sailed
in,--so long as the wages were good and the store-room well supplied;
and as these conditions are usually found on board of a slaver, it was
not Snowball's first voyage in a vessel of the kind. It is true that he
had never sailed in company with a more ribald crew than that of the
_Pandora_; but it is only justice to say, that, long before the fatal
interruption of that voyage, even he had become tired of their
companionship, and had been almost as eager to get away from the ship as
Ben Brace or little William.

He, too, had been deterred from attempting to escape while upon the
African coast, by the knowledge that such an attempt would have been
worse than idle. In all likelihood it would have ended in his being
captured by his own countrymen,--or, at all events, by people of his own
colour,--and sold once more into that very slavery from which he had
formerly succeeded in emancipating himself.

Though Snowball's morality was far from being immaculate, there was one
virtue which he was not wanting,--gratitude. But for the possession of
this, he might have been alone upon the raft, and, perhaps, less caring
in what direction the winds and waves might carry him. As it was, his
sole thought and anxiety was about his little companion, w