Down the facts which should come out
in the course of it. These he gave to the public afterwards. He
communicated them also, with a copy of the trial, to the Lords of
the Admiralty, as the guardians of justice upon the seas, and to the
Duke of Portland, as principal Minister of state. 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. 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. These unhappy creatures, as
they passed, earnestly entreated the charitable interference of the
seamen of the Rodeur; but these, under their own affliction, could
neither quit their vessel to go on board the Leon, nor receive the
crew of the latter into the Rodeur, where, on account of the cargo
of negroes, there was scarcely room for themselves. The vessels
therefore soon parted company, and the Leon was never seen nor heard
of again, so far as could be traced at the publication of this
narrative. In all probability, then, it was lost. On the fate of
THIS vessel the poem is founded.
The Rodeur reached Guadaloupe on the 21st of June, 1819, her crew
being in a most deplorable condition. Of the negroes, thirty-seven
had become perfectly blind, twelve had lost each an eye, and
fourteen remained otherwise blemished by the disease. Of the crew,
twelve, including the surgeon, had entirely lost their sight; five
escaped with an eye each, and four were partially injured.
Footnotes:
{1} I should have before observed that I found the language of
Bambarra a sort of corrupted Mandingo. After a little practice, I
understood and spoke it without difficulty.
{2} There is another town of this name hereafter to be mentioned.
{3} From a plant called kabba, that climbs like a vine upon the
trees.
{4} Soon after baptism the children are marked in different parts
of the skin, in a manner resembling what is called tattooing in the
South Sea Islands.
{5} Chap. xxxi. vv. 26-28.
{6} Poisoned arrows are used chiefly in war. The poison, which is
said to be very deadly, is prepared from a shrub called koono (a
species of echites), which is very common in the woods. The leaves
of this shrub, when boiled with a small quantity of water, yield a
thick black juice, into which the negroes dip a cotton thread: this
thread they fasten round the iron of the arrow in such a manner that
it is almost impossible to extract the arrow, when it has sunk
beyond the barbs, without leaving the iron point and the poisoned
thread in the wound.
{7} A minkalli is a quantity of gold nearly equal in value to ten
shillings sterling.
