Page:The White Slave, or Memoirs of a Fugitive.djvu/249

 But justice ought never to be sullied by passion, — and if possible, should be unstained with blood. If in my feelings at that moment, there was something noble, there was far too much of savage fury and passionate revenge. Yet from what I then felt, I can well understand the fierce spirit and ferocious energy of the slave, who vindicates his liberty at the sword's point, and who looks upon the slaughter of his oppressors almost as a debt due to humanity.

The crew no sooner saw their captain slain, than they threw down their arms and cried for quarter. The schoon-er was ours, and a finer vessel never sailed the seas.

Every officer on board the brig was wounded. All confessed that the capture of the prize was, in a great measure, due to me; and with the approbation of all the crew, I was put on board as prize-master.





We had a short passage to Liverpool. The schooner was condemned as a prize, and was bought in by the owners of the brig. ‘They fitted her out as a privateer; and as they had been informed how large a share I had in her capture, they offered me the command of her. I readily accepted it; and having selected an experienced old sailor for my first lieutenant, I soon collected a crew, and set sail.

The cruising ground which I preferred, was the coast of America. Off the harbor of Boston, we were so lucky as to fall in with, and make prize of a homeward bound East-Indiaman, with a very valuable cargo of teas and silks. We put a prize-crew on board and sent her off for Liverpool, where she arrived safely, and produced us a very handsome sum in prize-money. We now stood to the southward; and for a month or two, we cruised off the capes of Virginia. As we kept well in to the coast, we often made the land; and I never saw it without feeling a strong inclination to send a boat's crew ashore, and to kidnap from their beds, such of the nearest planters as I could