Near the shore, and partly sheltered by a
woody promontory, was a long, low, small vessel. Her look was what
sailors would decidedly term suspicious, and such she really was. The
prisoners were taken to a shed near the coast, and were immediately
visited by half a dozen sailor-looking men, all of whom were dark,
ruffianly-looking fellows. Hans spoke in Dutch and in English to them,
but obtained no attention, the sailors either not understanding him, or
else purposely declining to listen to his complaint. After what
appeared to be a bargain between the sailors and Hans' capturers, the
former brought some rope from their boat, and tying Hans and the Zulus
together, led them down to the boat, their capturers following them with
cudgels and spears to employ force should any resistance be offered.

Upon reaching the boat, the prisoners were dragged in, and ordered into
the stem, where they were compelled to lie down. The boat was pushed
off and rowed to the vessel.

No sooner did Hans get on board the vessel than the horrible smell which
he encountered, and the first peep down below, convinced him that all
the tales he had heard connected with slavery were true. Upwards of two
hundred dark-skinned men were crowded together and chained like wild
beasts to the deck, and to benches. Hans, who had all his life been
accustomed to the pure air of the open country, who had left the least
sign of a town to obtain the freedom of the wilderness, found himself
thus brought into that condition of all others which was to him the most
repulsive. That he should be chained like a wild beast, and brought
into contact with some hundreds of foul natives, whom he and all his
class looked upon as little better than animals, was more than he could
endure. "Even death is better than this," he thought; and with a sudden
wrench he drew his hands from the fastenings with which he was held,
seized a handspike that was near him, and in an instant had felled two
of the sailors that had brought him on board. Several of the ship's
crew who were standing near, on seeing this sudden attack, recoiled from
Hans; but being armed with pistols and cutlasses, Hans' career would
soon, have been terminated, had not the captain, who witnessed the
proceeding, called to his men, and given them some directions which Hans
could not understand. The captain, seizing another handspike,
approached Hans, as though to decide by single combat the question
whether