e had recovered himself;
'it matters little whether I am brained by your own hand, or launched
overboard as a meal for the sharks; it will be but one more murder.'

'Mad fool! why do you tempt me thus?' replied Cain, again starting up,
and hastily quitting the cabin.

The altercation which we have just described was not unheard on deck, as
the doors of the cabin were open, and the skylight removed to admit the
air. The face of Cain was flushed as he ascended the ladder. He
perceived his chief mate standing by the hatchway, and many of the men,
who had been slumbering abaft, with their heads raised on their elbows,
as if they had been listening to the conversation below.

'It will never do, sir,' said Hawkhurst, the mate, shaking his head.

'No,' replied the captain; 'not if he were my own son. But what is to be
done?--he knows no fear.'

Hawkhurst pointed to the entering port.

'When I ask your advice, you may give it,' said the captain, turning
gloomily away.

In the meantime, Francisco paced the cabin in deep thought. Young as he
was, he was indifferent to death; for he had no tie to render life
precious. He remembered his mother, but not her demise; that had been
concealed from him. At the age of seven he had sailed with Cain in a
slaver, and had ever since continued with him. Until lately, he had been
led to suppose that the captain was his father. During the years that he
had been in the slave-trade, Cain had devoted much time to his
education; it so happened that the only book which could be found on
board of the vessel, when Cain first commenced teaching, was a Bible
belonging to Francisco's mother. Out of this book he learned to read;
and, as his education advanced, other books were procured. It may
appear strange that the very traffic in which his reputed father was
engaged did not corrupt the boy's mind; but, accustomed to it from his
infancy, he had considered these negroes as another species--an idea
fully warranted by the cruelty of the Europeans towards them.

There are some dispositions so naturally kind and ingenuous that even
example and evil contact cannot debase them: such was the disposition of
Francisco. As he gained in years and knowledge, he thought more and more
for himself, and had already become disgusted with the cruelties
practised upon the unfortunate negroes, when the slave vessel was seized
upon by Cain and converted into a pirate. At first, the enormities
committed had not been s