Page:The Naval Officer (1829), vol. 2.djvu/282

 sequence. At length, I gave the order to shove off. The unhappy captain, who, till that moment, might have entertained some faint hope from the lurking compassion which he perceived I felt for him, now resigned himself to despair of a more sullen and horrible aspect. He sat himself down on one of the hen-coops, and gazed on us with a ghastly eye. I cannot remember ever seeing a more shocking picture of human misery.

While I looked at him, the black man, Mungo, who belonged to the ship, sprang overboard from the boat, and swam back to the wreck. Seizing a rope which hung from the gangway, he ascended the side, and joined his master. We called to him to come back, or we should leave him behind.

"No, massa," replied the faithful creature; "me no want to lib: no takee Massa Green, no takee me! Mungo lib good many years wi massa cappen. Mungo die wi massa, and go back to Guinea!"