No Notice,
However, Was Taken By Any Of These Of The Information Which Had Been
Thus Sent Them."
Another incident of the Middle Passage suggested to James Montgomery
a poem called "The Voyage of the Blind."
"It was that fatal and perfidious bark,
Built in the eclipse, and rigged with curses dark."
MILTON'S Lycidas.
The ship Le Rodeur, Captain B., of 200 tons burthen, left Havre on
the 24th of January, 1819, for the coast of Africa, and reached her
destination on the 14th of March following, anchoring at Bonny, on
the river Calabar. The crew, consisting of twenty-two men, enjoyed
good health during the outward voyage and during their stay at
Bonny, where they continued till the 6th of April. They had
observed no trace of ophthalmia among the natives; and it was not
until fifteen days after they had set sail on the return voyage, and
the vessel was near the equator, that they perceived the first
symptoms of this frightful malady. It was then remarked that the
negroes, who to the number of 160 were crowded together in the hold
and between the decks, had contracted a considerable redness of the
eyes, which spread with singular rapidity. No great attention was
at first paid to these symptoms, which were thought to be caused
only by the want of air in the hold, and by the scarcity of water,
which had already begun to be felt. At this time they were limited
to eight ounces of water a day for each person, which quantity was
afterwards reduced to the half of a wine-glass.
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