angled; their hands still grasping each others'
throats."

It is of a Brazilian slaver that this awful tale is told, but the event
itself was paralleled on more than one American ship. Occasionally we
encounter stories of ships destroyed by an exploding magazine, and the
slaves, chained to the deck, going down with the wreck. Once a slaver went
ashore off Jamaica, and the officers and crew speedily got out the boats
and made for the beach, leaving the human cargo to perish. When dawn broke
it was seen that the slaves had rid themselves of their fetters and were
busily making rafts on which the women and children were put, while the
men, plunging into the sea, swam alongside, and guided the rafts toward
the shore. Now mark what the white man, the supposed representative of
civilization and Christianity, did. Fearing that the negroes would
exhaust the store of provisions and water that had been landed, they
resolved to destroy them while still in the water. As soon as the rafts
came within range, those on shore opened fire with rifles and muskets with
such deadly effect that between three hundred and four hundred blacks were
murdered. Only thirty-four saved themselves--and for what? A few weeks
later they were sold in the slave mart at Kingston.

[Illustration: DEALERS WHO CAME ON BOARD WERE THEMSELVES KIDNAPPED]

In the early days of the trade, the captains dealt with recognized chiefs
along the coast of Guinea, who conducted marauding expeditions into the
interior to kidnap slaves. Rum was the purchase price, and by skillful
dilution, a competent captain was able to double the purchasing value of
his cargo. The trade was not one calculated to develop the highest
qualities of honor, and to swindling the captains usually added theft and
murder. Any negro who came near the ship to trade, or through motives of
curiosity, was promptly seized and thrust below. Dealers who came on board
with kidnapped negroes were themselves kidnapped after the bargain was
made. Never was there any inquiry into the title of the seller. Any slave
offered was bought, though the seller had no right--even under legalized
slavery--to sell.

A picturesque story was told in testimony before the English House of
Commons. To a certain slaver lying off the Windward coast a girl was
brought in a canoe by a well-known black trader, who took his pay and
paddled off. A few moments later another canoe with two blacks came
alongside and inquired for the gi