Samboe; or, The African Boy Part 2

"Where wast thou, then, sweet Charity, where then, Thou tutelary friend of helpless men?

Perish the wretch, that slighted and withstood The tender argument of kindred blood.

But tho' some n.o.bler minds a law respect, That none shall with impunity neglect, In baser souls unnumber'd evils meet, To thwart its influence, and its end defeat."

Shall a Briton, shall a man "honoured with a Christian name" encourage slavery, because the semi-barbarous, unenlightened, lawless African hath done it? "To what end (it is impressively asked) do we profess a religion whose dictates we so flagrantly violate? Wherefore have we that pattern of goodness and humanity, if we refuse to follow it? How long shall we continue a practice which policy rejects, justice condemns, and piety revolts at?"

CHAPTER V.

* * * the band of commerce is design'd T' a.s.sociate all the branches of mankind.

And if a boundless plenty be the robe, Trade is the golden girdle of the globe: This genial intercourse, and mutual aid, Cheers, what were else, an universal shade.

Calls nature from her ivy-mantled den, And softens human rock-work into men.

Cowper.

Most truly and impressively do these lines of our Christian poet describe the effects of legitimate and honourable commerce; the mutual exchange of the various gifts of an all-bounteous Providence, showered on the globe we inhabit, for the general use, benefit, and pleasure; and of those embellishments of art, which civilization has brought forth and nourished.

But no such effect can ever flow from the piratical commerce of men, that deformed and cruel offspring of Mammon, which riots in the blood, and glories in the miseries of man.

It may be urged, we are not the original agents in this trade: it is pursued with eagerness by the Africans themselves. But are those who live in that transcendent light which was granted to dispel the mists of error--to meliorate propensity to evil--to harmonize the rational soul--still to delight in works so dark, still to trample under foot every principle of humanity; still to spurn from them the obligations of justice, still to set at naught the precepts of religion; and to make themselves accomplices with pagan oppressors, in tyrannizing over those hapless beings, whom a mysterious Providence has subjected to their power? Is the Christian trader content to put himself upon a level with the unenlightened despot, and coolly to put his blood-stained profits in the balance, against the laws of religion and his country; laughing at the remonstrances of philanthropists, as the dreams of enthusiasm, or as puerile objections unworthy of attention? No; it surely will not be thus. England has entered the path of mercy [4], let her pursue it with energy and constancy: and if other nations refuse to follow her heaven-enlightened way, to them belongs the shame and the guilt of trampling down the laws which bind man to his G.o.d and his fellow-man; and, for the violation of which, every individual must be accountable, at that tremendous audit, before which the oppressed and the oppressor shall alike appear!

But to return to our narrative from these reflections, which the seriousness of the subject forced from us, and which must apologize for them with our young readers.

The time being fixed for Irving to have an audience with the king, he was conducted to the palace, which was a s.p.a.cious edifice, consisting of many large courts, entirely surrounded with porticoes, above which were apartments with small windows. These apartments, as well as every part of the palace, exhibited great magnificence in the furniture and decorations. Some of the floors were covered with exquisitely fine matting, and others with superb Turkey carpets; and the furniture consisted of chairs, sofas or divans, skreens, chests, cabinets and porcelain imported from China. The windows were not glazed, but were shaded with frames of fine white linen, and taffety curtains. The gardens of this superb palace were very extensive, laid out in long vistas of lofty and beautiful trees; affording a deliciously cool and shaded retreat, for the women immured in the splendid prison. It was evident to Irving, as he pa.s.sed some of these apartments to the hall of audience, that his African majesty intended to receive him in great state; but whether out of respect to him, as a European and a slave and spirit merchant, or to display his own magnificence, he could not determine: nor was it of much consequence, although he well knew that the Europeans in general are well received, and are allowed to dispense with the humiliating ceremonies they scrupulously exact from their own subjects; and, unlike them, are granted an audience whenever they desire it. When Irving, therefore, entered the hall where the king was seated to receive him, his majesty immediately rose, and advanced some steps to him; took him by the hand, pressed it in his own, and three times successively touched his fore finger, which was the greatest token of amity and affection. After this, he desired him to sit down by his side, upon fine mats spread on the floor; which Irving having complied with, he displayed his presents to his majesty, who was astonished to find he could, with ease, converse with him without the aid of an interpreter.

Irving could not but feel gratified at the extreme although childish pleasure the young monarch evinced, in receiving the presents; which consisted of an elegant case of English spirits, some beautiful guns, a superb sword, and a great variety of trinkets for the ladies of the seraglio. The king offered to sell him some of his discarded wives; but Irving respectfully declined the offer of the ladies, as not very well calculated for the labours of the colonies.

In the audience chamber were two benches, one of which was broader than the other, covered with an embroidered cloth, and by it was an oval stool; upon this the monarch seated himself, after having received and examined the presents. The other bench was covered with mats, on which Irving was directed to sit, as the usual seat of the Europeans during conferences. Irving was uncovered; not, however, by order, but from a voluntary desire of showing proper respect; for he had not forgot the early lesson, "honour the king," though as a slave-dealer, it may be, alas! inferred, that he had little recollection of the context, "fear G.o.d." He made himself so agreeable, however, to the king, that he was invited to dine with him, and the meal was served with great elegance. While they were feasting, the grandees prostrated themselves before their sovereign; and what provisions were left were given to them, which they appeared readily and cheerfully to accept. Irving had, during this long interview, an ample opportunity of observing the person, the dress, and the manners of the new king of Whidah; and, in some degree, to form a judgment of his character. His dress was superb, composed of silk and gold, with strings of beautiful coral round his neck, arms, and wrists. In person he was tall, well shaped, with remarkably smooth and polished skin. His manners were free, urbane, and familiar; but there was discovered a disposition to covetousness, and the usual propensity to inebriety. Nor was it difficult to discover that he was indolent and pusillanimous, the usual companions of luxury and dissipation. In fact, the faults of the king seemed those of his education; and his virtues, those of his nature, which required only civilization, good examples, and a pure faith, to nourish into fruitfulness.

The audience chamber in which Irving was received, was hung with tapestry. At the upper part of the room was a throne, formed of ivory; it was ascended by three steps, and shaded by a canopy of the richest silk. This is used on great state occasions.

The king readily granted permission to Irving, to view the palace, excepting, of course, the apartments of the women. Conducted by his friend the grandee, and some other officers of the palace, he found it more extensive than he had supposed, having entered by a private pa.s.sage. It consisted of several large squares, surrounded with galleries, each of which had a portico or gate, guarded by soldiers. The first gallery on entering the palace is very long, supported on each side by lofty pillars. At the termination of this gallery was a wall with three gates, the centre one ornamented with a turret seventy feet in height; terminated with a figure of a large snake, cast in copper, and very ingeniously carved. These gates opened into an immense area, enclosed also with a wall; then another gallery like the former, into another s.p.a.cious court; and so on to a fourth, beyond which were the apartments of the king. In this s.p.a.cious palace the king is sometimes immured for years, until he is crowned; and here, also, many wealthy courtiers spend the whole of their time, leaving trade and agriculture to be executed by their wives and slaves. (Note K.) These go to the circ.u.mjacent villages, either to trade in merchandise, or serve for daily wages; but they are obliged to bring the greatest part of what they obtain to their masters, otherwise they make no scruple to sell them for slaves.

Irving and his new royal acquaintance had pa.s.sed their time so convivially, that the negociation for slaves was deferred till the morrow, when he again attended his majesty to a depot, containing about two hundred; and as they were going to this place, they met nearly as many proceeding to the coast, the king's agents having sold them on the preceding day. Amongst this wretched group, Irving remarked some remarkably handsome men; and found, on enquiry, they were from Molembo, from whence the finest negroes are obtained.

The number he was invited to examine, consisted of men, women, and children; and, to any but a slave-dealer, the sight was heart-rending. Fathers overwhelmed in silent sorrow; mothers expressing their anguish in affecting lamentations, audible sighs, or deep groans, expecting every moment to be separated from their tender offspring, whom they clasped to their bosoms, or endeavoured to hide under the folds of their pacans; youthful females shrinking from the brutal gaze of the trader, and dreading nameless indignities; the fiery eye of many a youth, indignant at the bonds which confined him from levelling to the ground the wretches who bought and sold him as a beast of the field, and tore him from the object of his love, whom he was powerless to save from death and bondage. But such a scene was of too frequent occurrence, the cry of the innocent was too familiar, to make any impression upon those who were bargaining. Irving purchased many of them; and having seen them marked as his property, (Note L.) left his people to conduct them to Whidah; whither, after having taken a cordial leave of the king, and so far conciliated him and the grandee as to ensure future advantages, he himself, with his attendants and the female slave, returned that evening.

Canst thou, and honoured with a Christian name, Buy what is woman-born and feel no shame?

Trade in the blood of innocence, and plead Expedience as a warrant for the deed?

Perish the thought!

CHAPTER VI.

"And if perchance a momentary sigh, For such a lot reflection may supply, He follows not the feeling to its source."

Barton (adapted.)

"If ever thou hast felt another's pain, If ever when he sigh'd hast sigh'd again; If ever on thine eyelid stood the tear, That pity hath engender'd--drop one here: This man was happy."

It will naturally be supposed, from the eagerness of Irving to make good the purchase of Imihie and her poor boy, that his heart was deeply interested by their situation, and that he had it certainly in his power to ameliorate it. But, alas! if, for a moment, the chord of compa.s.sion was touched, the feeling was transient, the impulse too weak to prompt to action; and, so far from being strengthened by the night's reflections, they, on the contrary, did but lead to lament his own folly, in making himself liable to the loss he would probably sustain by the high price he had given; as it was a condition of his engagement with the Company, that he was to be individually accountable for all losses incurred by the purchase of unprofitable slaves. These antic.i.p.ations of pecuniary injury, were confirmed by the appearance of his poor captive on her arrival at the depot at Whidah. A fixed melancholy seemed to have absorbed every faculty, rendering her insensible even to the playful caresses of her boy, in whose sparkling eye, health "seemed a cherub yet divinely bright;"

so happily unconscious was he of the bitterness of his lot, and the sufferings of his mother. Finding, from his people, that she resolutely rejected sustenance, Irving himself endeavoured to persuade her, but without success; but when self-interest, aided by the dictates of conscience and compa.s.sion, induced him to resort to the usual mode of forcing it, (nor will we question it was a painful task to him,) his heart must have been of adamant, not to have felt the powerful appeal of wretchedness and despair, when, while in the execution of this cruel duty, the poor captive looked up in his face, and, with a mournful smile, said: "Presently I shall be no more." (Note M.) Irving, indeed, from her appearance, began to think so; and as he could not now remedy her situation, nor restore her to what she had lost, he considered his best plan was to consign her, as soon as possible, to the ship waiting to receive the collected slaves, congratulating himself on his humanity, in having prevented the mother and child from being separated, even if he should thereby sustain some loss. He determined, also, to do all he could to ensure her some attention during the pa.s.sage; and, with this view, determined to go immediately on board, to see the accommodation, and to give some particular instructions to the captain; leaving orders that Imihie should be conducted to the ship as soon as the day began to close.

The ship destined to convey these miserable beings to the West Indies, had already on board between four and five hundred negroes. The captain boasted much of the superior accommodation of his vessel for the trade; and, to confirm his a.s.sertion, entreated Irving to visit the slave-rooms. Willing to conciliate any who might promote his interest, Irving consented. The superior accommodation he found, was, that every slave, whatever his size, had five feet six inches in length, and sixteen inches in breadth, to lie upon! The floor was crowded with bodies, stowed or packed according to this allowance. But between the floor and deck, or ceiling, were platforms or broad shelves, in the mid-way, which were also covered with bodies. (Note N.) The men were shackled two and two, each by one leg, to a small iron bar; these, the captain with much self-complacence said, were every day brought upon deck for the air; but lest they should attempt to recover their freedom, they were made fast by ring-bolts to the deck, or by two common chains, which were extended on each side the main deck; but the women and children, he added, were suffered to remain loose. Few slaves fared so well as his, he continued, for he allowed each a pint of water a day, and yams and horse-beans twice a day; and afterwards, for exercise and health, they jumped in their irons, which, if they refused to do, he was obliged, certainly, to flog them, as it was his duty to preserve them in health, if possible. Irving, however, learnt, in the course of this man's conversation, that it was usual for these miserable beings to remain fifteen or sixteen hours below deck, out of the twenty-four; and that, in wet weather, they could not be brought up for two or three successive days: their situation was, he acknowledged, very distressing, but he could not remedy it. They would cling to the gratings for a little air; draw their breath with anxious and laborious efforts; fight with each other for a taste of water; and many died of suffocation. (Note O.)

Amongst the number thus confined in the hold of this ship, Irving remarked many whose n.o.bleness of aspect indicated that there was a "spirit within," which rose even above such calamity--a consciousness of moral dignity, that spurned at the cruelties of the oppressor; but there was one in particular, before the flame of whose eye even Irving shrunk abashed. He was evidently a person of consequence; high, it would seem, in military rank, inferred from certain personal indications, with the meaning of which Irving was acquainted; and also from some articles of dress, stated to have been taken from him when captured; and every look (action was denied him) indicated that he possessed a mind not insensible to the eminence of his station. Irving enquired from whence he was taken, and from whom purchased? He was told, from Molembo, it was thought; and that he had been only a few days purchased from the king of Whidah, with a number of his countrymen, taken by treachery, and in defiance of a treaty subsisting at the time. This was all he could learn; and having given his instructions respecting Imihie, Irving returned to Whidah before her arrival at the ship, being desirous to avoid another interview, the sight of her producing a painful emotion he could neither define nor account for.

CHAPTER VII.

"Soft airs, and gentle heavings of the wave, Impel the fleet whose errand is to save!

But ah! what wish can prosper, or what pray'r, For merchants rich in cargoes of despair.

The sable warrior, frantic with regret Of her he loves, and never can forget, Loses, in tears, the far-receding sh.o.r.e, But not the thought that they must meet no more."

Cowper.

Night shed her silent influence over the mighty deep; the firmament was bright with myriads of glittering worlds; the moon, in full and mild l.u.s.tre, rode majestically, like a sphere of silver light, on the summit of fleecy clouds, and was reflected, in many a fantastic form, by the tossing waves, the gentle ripplings of which were mingled with the distant sound of "All is well," borne on the gale from the fort, the regular tread of the watch on deck, and the boatswain's shrill whistle. The rush of the shark, "cutting the briny deep,"

as it instinctively followed the floating receptacle of misery, was the only sound that interrupted, painfully, the heavenly calmness of the scene and hour; a calmness, alas! little according with the soul-sickening agitations of the wretched beings, now silently borne from all held dear and precious, and on their way to all the horrors of a life in chains. Cargoes of despair they may truly be called!

Imagination, in its loftiest flight, must come short in attempting to embody in words, the smallest part of the aggregate of misery which exists on board a slave-ship; it will, therefore, not be attempted: one only being of the wretched number must appear a moment on our theatre of woe; he who had so forcibly arrested the attention of Irving, when visiting the slave-rooms.

Confined promiscuously with such a mult.i.tude of his wretched countrymen, the agony of his feelings is not to be described. With the form and visage of a man, he felt, indignantly felt, that his destiny was that of the beast of the field, and his soul seemed bursting from the frame that confined it. Wearied nature at length found a short cessation from the unutterable pangs of woe, in sleep--in consoling visions! He dreamt he was in his own beloved country, in the enjoyment of honour and command, caressed by his family, served by his wonted attendants, and surrounded with the comforts of his former life: his spicy groves exhaling sweets, his palm-tree's refreshing shade, his rivers teeming riches, his domestic endearments, his war-like preparations, and his hard-earned triumphs, came in succession on his fancy. But the sweet delusions were too soon dispelled: he awoke, with a hurried start, to the sad, sad reality, that he was a slave in the midst of slaves. The rapid retrospect of former happiness with existing misery, rushed on his soul; and the dreadful reverse drew from his manly breast the most affecting lamentations. Every dear object of his regard flitted before his mental view; but, alas! there was no reality but misery--interminable bondage: there was no fond eye to behold, no persuasive tongue to soothe, no attentive ear to listen to his woe. Mingled with the meanest of his subjects, whom he had no power to relieve; subjected to the cruelty and insolence of wretches a thousand degrees lower in the scale of humanity and intellectual endowment, yet arrogating their superiority as Christians, and the proud distinctions of national advantages, his soul refused comfort, and he determined upon death. Little did he think this foe to nature was so near; little did he imagine the horrid form in which he would present himself; and that there might be circ.u.mstances which, at the moment of expiring nature, would make him cling to, and even give value to a life of perpetual bondage!

The vessel made considerable way during the night, and the morning rose, with glorious splendour and beneficent freshness, upon the world of waters; on the majestic bosom of which, floated such an acc.u.mulation of moral turpitude and excelling misery! The hour arrived when the slaves were to be brought on deck for air and exercise. The sable warrior antic.i.p.ated it with a gloomy joy, as the most favourable opportunity of effecting his designed purpose of self-destruction; and when he found he was to be fastened to the deck, he violently resisted. This, however, did but provoke his oppressors to increased indignities. In the midst of this struggle, he became calm as a lamb, resistless as an infant. The sound of a female voice, singing a mournful African air, seemed to have bound him by a potent spell. (Note P.) His eyes appeared as if bursting from their orbits, his whole frame trembled; while the big tear rolled silently down his sable countenance, which a.s.sumed a mingled expression of doubt, hope, and agony. He at first directed his piercing eyes to the air, as if he thought the song proceeded from some hovering, viewless spirit. He again renewed his efforts to get free, and fixed his gaze intently on the remotest part of the ship, from whence the sound seemed to proceed, but nothing met his view: the song, however, still continued, only interrupted, at intervals, by deep sobs of anguish, and the scarcely-heard voice of infantine distress.

Rendered desperate by the confinement under such powerful emotions, he called loudly on the spirits of his fathers, to avenge him on the Christian tyrants; and while enduring, in consequence, the cruel scourging and insulting mockery of the barbarian crew, a piercing scream was heard, and the poor Imihie was seen rushing from an obscure place, (in which the captain had indulged her to remain,) with the infant Samboe clinging to her bosom. In a moment the names of Tumiah! Imihie! were interchanged; and the exhausted Imihie, letting her child fall from her relaxing arms, threw herself upon the panting bosom of her enchained and manacled husband.

We invade not the feelings of that moment: language has nothing to do with them. The Being who formed the heart of man, can alone judge of its emotions.