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1、【英文读物】Black IvoryPreface.In writing this book, my aim has been to give a true picture in outline of the Slave Trade as it exists at the present time on the east coast of Africa.In order to do this I have selected from the most trustworthy sources what I believe to be the most telling points of “the
2、trade,” and have woven these together into a tale, the warp of which is composed of thick cords of fact; the woof of slight lines of fiction, just sufficient to hold the fabric together. Exaggeration has easily been avoided, becauseas Dr Livingstone says in regard to the slave-trade“exaggeration is
3、impossible.”If the readers taste should be offended by finding the tragic and comic elements in too close proximity I trust that he will bear in remembrance that “such is life,” and that the writer who would be true to life must follow, not lead, nature.I have to acknowledge myself indebted to Dr Ry
4、an, late Bishop of Mauritius; to the Rev. Charles New, interpreter to the Livingstone Search Expedition; to Edward Hutchinson, Esquire, Lay Secretary to the Church Missionary Society, and others, for kindly furnishing me with information in connexion with the slave trade.Besides examining the Parlia
5、mentary Blue-books which treat of this subject, I have read or consulted, among others, the various authoritative works to which reference is made in the foot-notes sprinkled throughout this book,all of which works bear the strongest possible testimony to the fact that the horrible traffic in human
6、beings is in all respects as bad at the present time on the east coast of Africa as it ever was on the west coast in the days of Wilberforce.I began my tale in the hope that I might produce something to interest the young (perchance, also, the old) in a most momentous cause,the total abolition of th
7、e African slave-trade. I close it with the prayer that God may make it a tooth in the file which shall eventually cut the chains of slavery, and set the black man free.R.M. Ballantyne.1873Chapter One.Shows that a Good Beginning may Sometimes be Followed by a Bad Ending.“Six feet water in the hold, s
8、ir!”That would not have been a pleasant announcement to the captain of the Aurora at any time, but its unpleasantness was vastly increased by the fact that it greeted him near the termination of what had been, up to that point of time, an exceedingly prosperous voyage.“Are you sure, Davis?” asked th
9、e captain; “try again.”He gave the order under the influence of that feeling which is styled “hoping against hope,” and himself accompanied the ships carpenter to see it obeyed.“Six feet two inches,” was the result of this investigation.The vessel, a large English brig, had sprung a leak, and was ro
10、lling heavily in a somewhat rough sea off the east coast of Africa. It was no consolation to her captain that the shores of the great continent were visible on his lee, because a tremendous surf roared along the whole line of coast, threatening destruction to any vessel that should venture to approa
11、ch, and there was no harbour of refuge nigh.“Shes sinking fast, Mr Seadrift,” said the captain to a stout frank-looking youth of about twenty summers, who leant against the bulwarks and gazed wistfully at the land; “the carpenter cannot find the leak, and the rate at which the water is rising shows
12、that she cannot float long.”“What then do you propose to do?” inquired young Seadrift, with a troubled expression of countenance.“Abandon her,” replied the captain.“Well, you may do so, captain, but I shall not forsake my fathers ship as long as she can float. Why not beach her somewhere on the coas
13、t? By so doing we might save part of the cargo, and, at all events, shall have done the utmost that lay in our power.”“Look at the coast,” returned the captain; “where would you beach her? No doubt there is smooth water inside the reef, but the channels through it, if there be any here, are so narro
14、w that it would be almost certain death to make the attempt.”The youth turned away without replying. He was sorely perplexed. Just before leaving England his father had said to him, “Harold, my boy, heres your chance for paying a visit to the land youve read and talked so much about, and wished so o
15、ften to travel through. I have chartered a brig, and shall send her out to Zanzibar with a cargo of beads, cotton cloth, brass wire, and such like: what say you to go as supercargo? Of course you wont be able to follow in the steps of Livingstone or Mungo Park, but while the brig is at Zanzibar you
16、will have an opportunity of running across the channel, the island being only a few miles from the main, and having a short run up-country to see the niggers, and perchance have a slap at a hippopotamus. Ill line your pockets, so that you wont lack the sinews of war, without which travel either at h
17、ome or abroad is but sorry work, and I shall only expect you to give a good account of ship and cargo on your return.Come, is it fixed?”Need we say that Harold leaped joyfully at the proposal? And now, here he was, called on to abandon the Aurora to her fate, as we have said, near the end of a prosp
18、erous voyage. No wonder that he was perplexed.The crew were fully aware of the state of matters. By the captains orders they stood ready to lower the two largest boats, into which they had put much of their worldly goods and provisions as they could hold with safety.“Port, port your helm,” said the
19、captain to the man at the wheel.“Port it is, sir,” replied the man at the wheel, who was one of those broad-shouldered, big-chested, loose-garmented, wide-trousered, bare-necked, free-and-easy, off-hand jovial tars who have done so much, in years gone by, to increase the wealth and prosperity of the
20、 British Empire, and who, although confessedly scarce, are considerately allowed to perish in hundreds annually on our shores for want of a little reasonable legislation. But cheer up, ye jolly tars! There is a glimmer of sunrise on your political horizon. It really does seem as if, in regard to you
21、, there were at last “a good time coming.”“Port, port,” repeated the captain, with a glance at the compass and the sky.“Port it is, sir,” again replied the jovial one.“Steady! Lower away the boat, lads.Now, Mr Seadrift,” said the captain, turning with an air of decision to the young supercargo, “the
22、 time has come for you to make up your mind. The water is rising in the hold, and the ship is, as you see, settling fast down. I need not say to you that it is with the utmost regret I find it necessary to abandon her; but self-preservation and the duty I owe to my men render the step absolutely nec
23、essary. Do you intend to go with us?”“No, captain, I dont,” replied Harold Seadrift firmly. “I do not blame you for consulting your own safety, and doing what you believe to be your duty, but I have already said that I shall stick by the ship as long as she can float.”“Well, sir, I regret it but you
24、 must do as you think best,” replied the captain, turning away “Now, lads, jump in.”The men obeyed, but several of those who were last to quit the ship looked back and called to the free-and-easy man who still stood at the wheel “Come along, Disco; well have to shove off directly.”“Shove off wen you
25、 please,” replied the man at the wheel, in a deep rich voice, whose tones were indicative of a sort of good-humoured contempt; “wot I means for to do is to stop where I am. Itll never be said of Disco Lillihammer that he forsook the owners son in distress.”“But youll go to the bottom, man, if you do
26、nt come.”“Well, wot if I do? Id raither go to the bottom with a brave man, than remain at the top with a set o fine fellers like you!”Some of the men received this reply with a laugh, others frowned, and a few swore, while some of them looked regretfully at their self-willed shipmate; for it must no
27、t be supposed that all the tars who float upon the sea are of the bold, candid, open-handed type, though we really believe that a large proportion of them are so.Be this as it may, the boats left the brig, and were soon far astern.“Thank you, Lillihammer,” said Harold, going up and grasping the horn
28、y hand of the self-sacrificing sea-dog. “This is very kind of you, though I fear it may cost you your life. But it is too late to talk of that; we must fix on some plan, and act at once.”“The werry thing, sir,” said Disco quietly, “that wos runnin in my own mind, cos its werry clear that we haint go
29、t too many minits to spare in confabilation.”“Well, what do you suggest?”“Arter you, sir,” said Disco, pulling his forelock; “you are capting now, an ought to give orders.”“Then I think the best thing we can do,” rejoined Harold, “is to make straight for the shore, search for an opening in the reef,
30、 run through, and beach the vessel on the sand. What say you?”“As theres nothin else left for us to do,” replied Disco, “thats zactly wot I think too, an the sooner we does it the better.”“Down with the helm, then,” cried Harold, springing forward, “and Ill ease off the sheets.”In a few minutes the
31、Aurora was surging before a stiff breeze towards the line of foam which indicated the outlying reef, and inside of which all was comparatively calm.“If we only manage to get inside,” said Harold, “we shall do well.”Disco made no reply. His whole attention was given to steering the brig, and running
32、his eyes anxiously along the breakers, the sound of which increased to a thunderous roar as they drew near.“There seems something like a channel yonder,” said Harold, pointing anxiously to a particular spot in the reef.“I see it, sir,” was the curt reply.A few minutes more of suspense, and the brig
33、drove into the supposed channel, and struck with such violence that the foremast snapped off near the deck, and went over the side.“God help us, were lost!” exclaimed Harold, as a towering wave lifted the vessel up and hurled her like a plaything on the rocks.“Stand by to jump, sir,” cried Disco. An
34、other breaker came roaring in at the moment, overwhelmed the brig, rolled her over on her beam-ends, and swept the two men out of her. They struggled gallantly to free themselves from the wreck, and, succeeding with difficulty, swam across the sheltered water to the shore, on which they finally land
35、ed.Harolds first exclamation was one of thankfulness for their deliverance, to which Disco replied with a hearty “Amen!” and then turning round and surveying the coast, while he slowly thrust his hands into his wet trouser-pockets, wondered whereabouts in the world they had got to.“To the east coast
36、 of Africa, to be sure,” observed the young supercargo, with a slight smile, as he wrung the water out of the foot of his trousers, “the place we were bound for, you know.”“Werry good; so here we arecome to an anchor! Well, I only wish,” he added, sitting down on a piece of driftwood, and rummaging
37、in the pockets before referred to, as if in search of something“I only wish Id kep on my weskit, cause all my baccys there, and it would be a rael comfort to have a quid in the circumstances.”It was fortunate for the wrecked voyagers that the set of the current had carried portions of their vessel t
38、o the shore, at a considerable distance from the spot where they had landed, because a band of natives, armed with spears and bows and arrows, had watched the wreck from the neighbouring heights, and had hastened to that part of the coast on which they knew from experience the cargo would be likely
39、to drift. The heads of the swimmers being but small specks in the distance, had escaped observation. Thus they had landed unseen. The spot was near the entrance to a small river or creek, which was partially concealed by the formation of the land and by mangrove trees.Harold was the first to observe
40、 that they had not been cast on an uninhabited shore. While gazing round him, and casting about in his mind what was best to be done, he heard shouts, and hastening to a rocky point that hid part of the coast from his view looked cautiously over it and saw the natives. He beckoned to Disco, who join
41、ed him.“They havent a friendly look about em,” observed the seaman, “and theyre summat scant in the matter of clothin.”“Appearances are often deceptive,” returned his companion, “but I so far agree with you that I think our wisest course will be to retire into the woods, and there consult as to our
42、future proceedings, for it is quite certain that as we cannot live on sand and salt water, neither can we safely sleep in wet clothes or on the bare ground in a climate like this.”Hastening towards the entrance to the creek, the unfortunate pair entered the bushes, through which they pushed with som
43、e difficulty, until they gained a spot sufficiently secluded for their purpose, when they observed that they had passed through a belt of underwood, beyond which there appeared to be an open space. A few steps further and they came out on a sort of natural basin formed by the creek, in which floated
44、 a large boat of a peculiar construction, with very piratical-looking lateen sails. Their astonishment at this unexpected sight was increased by the fact that on the opposite bank of the creek there stood several men armed with muskets, which latter were immediately pointed at their breasts.The firs
45、t impulse of the shipwrecked friends was to spring back into the bushesthe second to advance and hold up their empty hands to show that they were unarmed.“Hold on,” exclaimed Disco, in a free and easy confidential tone; “were friends, we are; shipwrecked mariners we is, so ground arms, my lads, an m
46、ake your minds easy.”One of the men made some remark to another, who, from his Oriental dress, was easily recognised by Harold as one of the Arab traders of the coast. His men appeared to be half-castes.The Arab nodded gravely, and said something which induced his men to lower their muskets. Then wi
47、th a wave of his hand he invited the strangers to come over the creek to him.This was rendered possible by the breadth of the boat already mentioned being so great that, while one side touched the right bank of the creek, the other was within four or five feet of the left.Without hesitation Harold S
48、eadrift bounded lightly from the bank to the half-deck of the boat, and, stepping ashore, walked up to the Arab, closely followed by his companion.“Do you speak English?” asked Harold.The Arab shook his head and said, “Arabic, Portuguese.”Harold therefore shook his head;then, with a hopeful look, said “French?” interrogatively.The Arab repeated the shake of his head, but after a moments thought said, “I know littil Engleesh; speak, where comes you?”“We have been wrecked,” began Harold (the Arab glanced gravely at his dripping clothes, as if to