By The Advice Of M.
Maugnan, The Surgeon Of The Ship, The Negroes, Who Had Hitherto
Remained Shut Up In The Hold, Were Brought Upon Deck In Succession,
In Order That They Might Breathe A Purer Air.
But it became
necessary to abandon this expedient, salutary as it was, because
many of the negroes, affected with nostalgia (a passionate longing
to return to their native land), threw themselves into the sea,
locked in each other's arms.
The disease, which had spread itself so rapidly and frightfully
among the Africans, soon began to infect all on board. The danger
also was greatly increased by a malignant dysentery which prevailed
at the time. The first of the crew who caught it was a sailor who
slept under the deck near the grated hatch which communicated with
the hold. The next day a landsman was seized with ophthalmia; and
in three days more the captain and the whole ship's company, except
one sailor, who remained at the helm, were blinded by the disorder.
All means of cure which the surgeon employed, while he was able to
act, proved ineffectual. The sufferings of the crew, which were
otherwise intense, were aggravated by apprehension of revolt among
the negroes, and the dread of not being able to reach the West
Indies, if the only sailor who had hitherto escaped the contagion,
and on whom their whole hope rested, should lose his sight, like the
rest. This calamity had actually befallen the Leon, a Spanish
vessel which the Rodeur met on her passage, and the whole of whose
crew, having become blind, were under the necessity of altogether
abandoning the direction of their ship.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 164 of 167
Words from 44512 to 44789
of 45368
