Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/328

 eluded detection. When clear of the Cygnet, she stood out to sea, and two days afterwards was captured by the Yorktown.

Commander Bell says: "The captain took us for an English man-of-war and hoisted the American colors; and no doubt had papers to correspond." These he threw overboard. "As soon as the slaves were recaptured, they gave a shout that could have been heard a mile."

During the night, eighteen of the slaves had died, and one jumped overboard. The master accounted for the number dying from the necessity of his sending below all the slaves on deck, and closing the hatches, when he fell in with the Yorktown, in order to escape detection. Ought not every such death be regarded as murder?

Commander Bell says: "The vessel has no slave-deck, and upwards of eight hundred and fifty were piled, almost in bulk, on water-casks below. As the ship appeared to be less than three hundred and fifty tons, it seemed impossible that one-half could have lived to cross the Atlantic. About two hundred filled up the spar-deck alone when they were permitted to come up from below; and yet the captain assured me that it was his intention to have taken four hundred more on board if he could have spared the time.

"The stench from below was so great that it was impossible to stand more than a few minutes near the hatchways. Our men who went below from curiosity, were forced up sick in a few minutes: then all the hatches were off. What must have been the sufferings of those poor wretches when the hatches were closed! I am informed that very often in these cases, the stronger will strangle the weaker; and this was probably the reason why so many died, 01 rather were found dead the morning after the capture. None but an eye-witness can form a conception of the horrors these poor creatures must endure in their transit across the ocean.

"I regret to say that most of this misery is produced by our own countrymen. They furnish the means of conveyance in spite of existing enactments; and although there are strong circumstances against Berry, the late master of the Pons, sufficient to induce me to detain him, if I should meet him, "I fear neither he nor his employers can be reached by our present laws."

In this letter to the Secretary of the Navy, Commander Bell adds: "For twenty days did Berry wait in the roadstead of Kabenda, protected by the flag of his country, yet closely watched by a foreign man-of-war, who was certain of his intention; but the instant that cruiser is compelled to withdraw for a few hours, he springs at the opportunity of enriching himself and owners, and disgracing the flag which had protected him."

The prize "Pons" was taken to Monrovia. There "the slaves were landed, and gave the people a practical exhibition of the trade by which their ancestors had been torn from their homes. In the fourteen days intervening between the capture and arrival of the vessel at Monrovia, one hundred and fifty had died.

"The slaves," says the Monrovia Herald of December 28th, "were much emaciated, and so debilitated that many of them found difficulty in getting out of the boats. Such a spectacle of misery and wretchedness, inflicted by a