ure that the poor wretches below were grateful for
even so small a measure of relief.

As the day advanced the heat grew intolerable, and the consequent
suffering of the blacks more intense. It is the custom on board
slavers, I believe--at least it was so on board the _Francesca_--to feed
the slaves twice a day, the food consisting of a fairly liberal quantity
of boiled rice, farina, or calavance beans--these latter being used on
account of their great fattening powers, whereby the slaves are
maintained in a tolerably good condition of body--with a pint of water
at each meal. Mendouca made it a rule to vary the diet of the slaves as
much as possible on these three articles, one or the other of which was
given every third day, he having found that the poor wretches thus
thrived better, and took their food with more enjoyment than when fed
during the entire voyage upon one kind of food only; and whenever the
weather was sufficiently moderate to permit of it, he always had
one-half of the slaves on deck for an airing during the time that the
other half were being fed below, thus allowing room for the men who
dispensed the food and water to move about, and also for the slaves to
use their hands in the process of feeding; and on the particular morning
of which I am now writing it was unspeakably moving and pathetic to
note, as I did, the feverish eagerness and longing with which the
unhappy creatures waited and watched for the arrival of the moment when
they might come on deck and breathe for a few brief minutes the pure
and--to them--cool and refreshing outer atmosphere. My heart ached with
pity for them, and I determined that I would utilise my presence on
board this accursed ship by doing everything in my power to ameliorate
as far as possible the condition of the unfortunates that were
imprisoned within her. And I made up my mind to begin on that very
morning, if, when Mendouca made his appearance, he seemed to be in a
temper amenable to persuasion.

When he came on deck, however, the conditions appeared anything but
promising, for he was in a frightfully bad humour at the calm, cursing
the weather, his own ill-luck, and everything else that he could think
of to execrate. I allowed him to give unrestrained vent to his
ill-humour for some minutes, and when at length he had calmed down
somewhat I said--

"And yet it appears to me that this calm, about which you are
complaining so bitterly, may be made excellent use