CHAPTER TWO.
THE "CHIEFTAIN" ARRIVES OFF THE COAST OF AFRICA, AND WE CARRY ON A BRISKTRADE WITH THE NATIVES, WHO COME OFF TO US THROUGH THE SURF.--AT LENGTHCAPTAIN WILLIS PROPOSES TO RUN UP THE RIVER BONNY TO COMPLETE OUR CARGO.NOT FORGETFUL OF MY PROMISE TO MAMMY, I MAKE INQUIRIES FOR HER SONCHEEBO.
It was my morning watch. I was indulging in the pleasure particularlyenjoyable after sweltering in the close hot atmosphere of the cabin, ofpaddling about with bare feet on the wet deck, over which I and some ofthe men were heaving buckets of water, while others were lustily usingholy-stones and scrubbing brushes, under the superintendence of MrWesbey, the first mate. The black cook was lighting his fire in thecaboose, from whence a wreath of smoke ascended almost perpendicularlyin the clear atmosphere. The sea was smooth as glass, but every now andthen a slowly heaving swell lifted the vessel, and caused her sails,which hung down against the masts, to give a loud flap, while here andthere the surface was broken by the fin or snout of some monster of thedeep swimming round us. Our monkey, Quako, who had been turned out ofhis usual resting-place, was exhibiting more than his ordinary agility--springing about the rigging, and chattering loudly, now making his wayaloft, whence he looked eastwards, and now returning to the caboose, asif to communicate his ideas to his sable friend.
"What makes Quako so frisky this morning?" I asked of Dick Radforth,the boatswain, a sturdy broad shouldered man of iron frame, who, withtrousers tucked up, and bare arms brawny as those of Hercules, wasstanding, bucket in hand, near me, deluging the deck with water.
"He smells his native land, Harry," he answered, "and thinks he is goingto pay a visit to his kith and kindred. We shall have to keep himmoored pretty fast, or he will be off into the woods to find them. Ihave a notion you will get a sight of it before long, when the seabreeze sets in and sends the old barky through the water."
"What! the coast of Africa!" I exclaimed, and thoughts of thatwonderful region, with its unexplored rivers, its gloomy forests, andits black skinned inhabitants, with their barbarous customs andsuperstitious rites, rose in my mind.
"Aye, sure and it will be a pleasant day when we take our departure fromthe land, and see the last of it," observed Dick. "If those niggerswould trade like other people we might make quick work of it, and beaway home again in a few weeks, but we may thank our stars if we get afull cargo by this time next year, without leaving some of our numberbehind."
"What? I should not fancy that any of our fellows were likely todesert," I observed.
"No; but they are likely to get pressed by a chap who won't let go hisgripe of them again," answered Dick.
"Who is that?" I asked.
"Yellow-fingered Jack we call him sometimes, the coast fever," saidDick. "If they would but take better care of themselves and not drinkthose poisonous spirits and sleep on shore at night, they might keep outof his clutches. I give this as a hint to you, Harry. I have beenthere a score of times, and am pretty well seasoned, but I have felt hisgripe, though I do not fear him now." I thanked the boatswain for hisadvice. It was given, I suspected, for others' benefit as well as mine.
As the bright hot red sun rose in the sky, casting his beams down on ourheads, and making the pitch bubble up from the seams in the deck--as ithad done not unfrequently during the voyage--a few cats' paws were seenplaying over the mirror-like deep. The sails bulged out occasionally,again to hang down as before; then once more they swelled out with thegentle breeze, and the brigantine glided through the water, graduallyincreasing her speed. I was eagerly looking out for the coast; atlength it came in sight--its distant outline rendered indistinct by themisty pall which hung over it. As we drew nearer, its forest coveredheights had a particularly gloomy and sombre appearance, which made methink of the cruelties I had heard were practised on those shores, ofthe barbarous slave trade, of the fearful idolatries of its dark-skinnedchildren, of its wild beasts, and of its deadly fevers. There wasnothing exhilarating, nothing to give promise of pleasure or amusement.As our gallant brigantine glided gaily on, sending the sparkling foamfrom her bows through the tiny wavelets of the ocean, which glittered inthe radiance of a blue and cloudless sky, and her sails filled with thefresh sea breeze, these feelings rapidly wore off. Now, on either side,appeared a fleet of fishing canoes, the wild songs of their naked crewscoming across the water, as with rugged sails of matting lolling attheir ease, they steered towards the shore. We overtook some of them,and such a loud jabber as they set up, talking to each other, or hailingus, I had never heard.
Being near enough to the dangerous coast, we hove-to, and watched themas they fearlessly made their way to shore on the summits of asuccession of rollers which burst in fearful breakers on the beach.With our glasses we could see hundreds of dingy figures like black ants,hurrying down to meet them, and to assist in hauling up their canoes.As I cast my eye along the coast I could see many a bay and headlandbordered with a rim of glittering white sand, fringed by an unbrokenline of sparkling surf. Now we could make out the mud walls andthatched roofs of the native villages, scattered here and there alongthe shore, mostly nestling amid groves of graceful cocoa-nut trees,while further inland appeared, at distant intervals, that giant monarchof the tropical forest, the silk cotton tree, stretching its mightylimbs upwards towards the sky, and far and wide around. Such was myfirst view of the African coast.
"Well, what do you think of it?" asked Captain Willis.
"It looks better than I expected," I said. "But I don't see how we areever to reach it, much less carry on any trade with the people. How canwe possibly send any goods on shore?"
"You will see presently," he answered. "We have hoisted our tradingsignal, and before long we shall have plenty of dealers along sideunless some other vessel has been before us; if so, we may have to waitsome days till the black merchants can bring more goods down from theinterior. The people about here are imbued with the very spirit ofcommerce. They understand too how to make a sharp bargain. We have tobe wide awake, or, naked savages as they are, they will contrive tooutwit us."
Our various assortments of cotton and other goods had been got up fromthe hold ready for the expected trade. The captain had also taken outfrom his strong box a supply of sovereigns and Spanish dollars, shouldcoin be demanded, though he relied chiefly on the more advantageousproceeding of barter.
After standing off and on the coast for some hours, we perceived severallarge canoes about to be launched. On either side of each canoe stood adozen or fifteen men, holding to the gunwale with one hand, and carryinga paddle in the other. At a signal from their head man the canoe washurried into the foaming surf; but, instead of getting in, they swam byher side, guiding her course, until the first heavy swell was past, thenthey threw themselves simultaneously into her, and began to paddle withmight and main till they got beyond the outer swell, and on they came,shouting with satisfaction at the success of their enterprise. Two gotoff without accident; but three others, when in the very midst of thebreakers, were swamped, and I thought that their crews, and, at allevents, their cargoes, would be lost. But no such thing. As I watchedthem through the glass I saw that they were all holding on to thegunwale, shoving her from side to side, until the water was thrown out,when in they got again, and began to gather up numerous articlesfloating around them. This accomplished, off they came as if nothinghad happened. As they got alongside I discovered the reason why theireffects did not sink--some were casks of palm oil, which naturallyfloated, while the elephants' tusks and other pieces of ivory, werefastened to large floats of cork-wood, and several of the men had smalllight wooden boxes, which contained gold-dust, secured to their waists.Though these were of a weight sufficient greatly to incumber, if not tosink, an ordinary swimmer, so expert were, they in the water that theyappeared in no way to be inconvenienced. Several of them recognisedCaptain Willis, who had frequently before been off the coast, and havingbeen fairly dealt with by him, and aware that he knew the price theywould be ready to take, gave him very litt
le trouble. Some, however,tried to outwit him, but he was very firm with them, and let themunderstand that he was indifferent to trading except on equitable terms.Altogether he was well satisfied with the result of his first day'sbusiness.
We stood off the coast before the sea breeze died away, and returnedagain on the following morning. This sort of work we continued forseveral days. It was, however, a very tedious mode of proceeding. Atlength we found that the amount of produce, brought off from day to day,rapidly diminishing, while the natives began to demand higher pricesthan at first. We accordingly stood down the coast towards anothernative town, with the inhabitants of which we began to trade in the sameway as before.
From the time we first came into these latitudes we kept a brightlook-out night and day. I asked old Radforth what was the use of doingthis when we were engaged in a lawful commerce, which must of necessityprove an advantage to the negroes. "Why, you see, Harry, there areother gentry visit this coast with a very different object in view," heanswered. "For the Spaniards and Portuguese, especially, come here tocarry off the unfortunate inhabitants as slaves, and sometimes thevillainous crews of their craft, if in want of provisions and water,will help themselves, without ceremony, from any merchantman they mayfall in with. And should she have a rich cargo on board, they have beenknown, I have heard say, to make her people walk the plank, and sink orburn her, so that no one may know anything about the matter. Now ourskipper has no fancy to be caught in that fashion, and if we were tosight a suspicious looking sail, as the `Chieftain' has got a fast pairof heels of her own, we should do our best to keep out of her way. Yousee when once fellows take to slaving they go from bad to worse. I haveknown something of the trade in my time, and it made my heart turn sickto see the way in which they crowd hundreds of their fellow-creaturesdown on the slave decks of their vessels, packed as close together asherrings in a cask, for their run across the Atlantic to the Brazils orCuba. It may be, before we leave this coast, you will have theopportunity of seeing for yourself, so I need not tell you more about itnow."
After this I was as vigilant as anyone on board in looking out forsuspicious craft,--for I had no fancy to be caught by a piraticalslaver, and be made to walk the plank, and have our gallant little"Chieftain" sent to the bottom.
We continued cruising along the coast for some weeks, slowly exchangingour cargo for African products.
At length Captain Willis got tired of this style of doing business. "Iam going to run up the river Bonny, Harry, where we are certain in timeto get a full cargo of palm oil, though I would rather have filled upwithout going into harbour at all, for the climate, I own, is not thehealthiest possible, and we may chance to have a touch of sickness onboard."
He spoke, however, in so unconcerned a way that I had no seriousapprehensions on that score.
I had not forgotten my promise to Mammy, and had asked all the blacks Icould manage to speak to if they could tell me anything of Cheebo. Ineed scarcely say that my question was received with a broad grin bymost of them. "Plenty Cheebos," was the general reply. "Dat blackfellow Cheebo; and dat, and dat, and dat Quamino," was added, when Isaid that such was the name of the father of the Cheebo of whom I was insearch, but none of them answered the description of poor Mammy's son.At length I felt very much inclined to give up my inquiries as hopeless.