What Struck Us Most, During The Trip From The Zambesi To Mosambique,
Was The Admirable Way In Which Captain Chapman
Handled the "Ariel" in
the heavy sea of the hurricane; the promptitude and skill with which,
when we had broken
Three hawsers, others were passed to us by the
rapid evolutions of a big ship round a little one; and the ready
appliance of means shown in cutting the hawser off the screw nine
feet under water with long chisels made for the occasion; a task
which it took three days to accomplish. Captain Chapman very kindly
invited us on board the "Ariel," and we accepted his hospitality
after the weather had moderated.
The little vessel was hauled through and against the huge seas with
such force that two hawsers measuring eleven inches each in
circumference parted. Many of the blows we received from the billows
made every plate quiver from stem to stern, and the motion was so
quick that we had to hold on continually to avoid being tossed from
one side to the other or into the sea. Ten of the late Bishop's
flock whom we had on board became so sick and helpless that do what
we could to aid them they were so very much in the way that the idea
broke in upon us, that the close packing resorted to by slavers is
one of the necessities of the traffic. If this is so, it would
account for the fact that even when the trade was legal the same
injurious custom was common, if not universal.
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