wever, after the lapse of about a quarter of an hour, a gang
ventured down into the now comparatively pure atmosphere, and the work
of passing up the dead bodies began. I stood to windward, as near the
hatchway as I could get without being sickened by the still pestilential
effluvium that even now arose from the hold, and watched the operation,
not from any feeling of morbid curiosity, but in order that I might
become aware, by the evidence of my own eyesight, of some of the blacker
horrors of this most foul and accursed trade, and the sights that I then
witnessed literally beggar description. The unhappy wretches had been
packed so tightly together that they had been unable to move more than
an inch or so, while the slave-deck was so low that a sitting posture
with the head bowed to the knees and the hands clasped in front of them
had been absolutely necessary; and the miserable creatures had died and
stiffened in this cramped and painful posture; it was gruesome enough,
therefore, to see the bodies passed up and thrown overboard in so woeful
an attitude; but the worst sight of all was in those cases where, in the
dying agony, some unfortunate wretch had writhed his head back until it
looked as though the neck had become dislocated, thus revealing the
distorted features, with the eye balls rolled back until only the whites
were visible, and the mouth wide open as though gasping for air. The
brigantine had left the Congo with four hundred and fifty-five slaves on
board, about three-fifths of whom were men, the remainder being young
women and children; and of these every woman and child, and one hundred
and twenty-seven men had succumbed, leaving, out of the grand total, the
miserable moiety of only one hundred and forty-six survivors! It was
horrible beyond the power of words to express, and to crown all, as the
work went on, the water in the ship's wake became alive with sharks, who
fought and struggled with each other for their prey, literally tearing
the bodies limb from limb in their frantic struggles to secure a morsel.
It was a sight that, one might have thought, would have excited pity in
the breast of the arch-fiend himself, but with Mendouca it only had the
effect of goading him into a state of mad, ungovernable fury. "See," he
exclaimed at last, stalking up to me and grasping me savagely by the
arm--"see the result of the thrice accursed meddlesome policy of your
wretched, contemptible little England and the