ndward. The first duty of the boarding officer was to secure
the officers of the craft with their papers. Not infrequently such vessels
would be provided with two captains and two sets of papers, to be used
according to the nationality of the warship that might make the capture;
but the men of all navies cruising on the slave coast came in time to be
expert in detecting such impostures. The crew once under guard, the first
task was to alleviate in some degree the sufferings of the slaves. But
this was no easy task, for the overcrowded vessel could not be enlarged,
and its burden could in no way be decreased in mid-ocean. Even if near the
coast of Africa, the negroes could not be released by the simple process
of landing them at the nearest point, for the land was filled with savage
tribes, the captives were commonly from the interior, and would merely
have been murdered or sold anew into slavery, had they been thus
abandoned. In time the custom grew up of taking them to Liberia, the free
negro state established in Africa under the protection of the United
States. But it can hardly be said that much advantage resulted to the
individual negroes rescued by even this method, for the Liberians were not
hospitable, slave traders camped upon the borders of their state, and it
was not uncommon for a freed slave to find himself in a very few weeks
back again in the noisome hold of the slaver. Even under the humane care
of the navy officers who were put in command of captured slavers the human
cattle suffered grievously. Brought on deck at early dawn, they so crowded
the ships that it was almost impossible for the sailors to perform the
tasks of navigation. One officer, who was put in charge of a slaver that
carried 700 slaves, writes:

"They filled the waist and gangways in a fearful jam, for there were over
700 men, women, boys, and young girls. Not even a waistcloth can be
permitted among slaves on board ship, since clothing even so slight would
breed disease. To ward off death, ever at work on a slave ship, I ordered
that at daylight the negroes should be taken in squads of twenty or more,
and given a salt-water bath by the hose-pipe of the pumps. This brought
renewed life after their fearful nights on the slave deck.... No one who
has never seen a slave deck can form an idea of its horrors. Imagine a
deck about 20 feet wide, and perhaps 120 feet long, and 5 feet high.
Imagine this to be the place of abode and sleep during long