Page:The White Slave, or Memoirs of a Fugitive.djvu/123

 for salvage; and that the Court had ordered the libelled property to be sold at auction, for the joint benefit of the owners and salvors. This was all Greek to us. I had not the most distant idea what was meant by ‘libelling for salvage,' and I hardly think that any of the others understood it better than I. Nobody took the trouble to explain it to us; it was enough for us to understand, that we were to be sold; the why and the wherefore, it was thought of no consequence for slaves to know.

As I had already been twice sold at public auction, the thing had lost its interest and its novelty. I was tired of the confinement of the prison; and as I knew that I must be sold at last, I was as ready to take my chance now as ever.

The sale was much like other sales of slaves. There was only one circumstance about it, that seemed worthy of particular notice. The wounded men, though they were not yet cured, indeed two of the four were hardly thought out of danger, were to be sold among the rest. Damaged articles," the auctioneer observed, "which he was willing to dispose of at a great discount." The four were offered in one lot, — "Like so many broken frying pans," said one of the spectators, "but for my part, I have no fancy for speculating either in broken frying pans, wounded slaves, or sick horses." A physician who was present, was advised to purchase. If they should happen to die," said his adviser, "they would be quite useless to any body else, but you might find some use for their dead bodies." Various other jests equally brilliant and pointed, were thrown out by others of the company, and were received with shouts of laughter that contrasted a little harshly, with the sad, woe-begone faces, and low moans of the wounded men, who were brought to the place of sale on little pallets, and who lay upon the ground, the very pictures of sickness and distress.

This jocular humor had reached a high pitch, when it was rather suddenly checked, by a tall fine looking man, who had more the air and manners of a gentleman than the greater part of the company. He observed, with a tone and a look of some severity, that in his opinion, selling men upon their death-beds was no laughing matter. He