Page:History and adventures of Jack Mansong.pdf/7

7 bound up his wounds, and sent him with the rest of his party, to the slave merchants.

Four hundred slaves were offered by Daisy for Mansong‘s release, but the offer was rejected ; and on the bank of the Gambia, they were sold to an English Captain bound for Jamaica.— On their voyage, they experienced all these horrors peculiar to confinement in a slave ship.

On their arrival, Mansong, whom we shall, in future call Jack, that being the name given him on his arrival at Jamaica, with his fellow-slaves, were disposed of according to lot. He was then branded on the breast, and he smiled upon the red hot iron as it seared him ; but he had vowed revenge, and called upon the God of his country to witness his vows of vengeance on the European race. He had often received the lash of his employers on his bare shoulders ; and as the blood trickled down his back, so did he resolve that for every drop a white man‘s blood should sprinkle the plain !

Eighteen long tedious months had passed since he was dragged from his native country, from his friends, and from his betrothed bride, the beautiful Zaldwna—eighteen long tedious months had heard his groans ; and Jack devised how to lash his persecutors with a rod of iron.

At this period the island of Jamaica was greatly infested the professors of Obi, which caused the most dangerous and fatal consequences among the negroes. The obi was a system of witchcraft, religiously believed in by all the negroes. No wonder then that the heroic soul of Jack became a prey to this weakness. He confidently hoped that the possession of an obi would at once render him feared by his fellow slaves, and secure his vengeance on the Europeans. He therefore sought the most eminent professor of the art.