ntly eternal
calm had been left, and a breeze of some sort found. There were ten of
these sweeps, or long, heavy oars, working through the ports, in beckets
firmly lashed to ringbolts in the stanchions, that were evidently placed
there expressly for that particular purpose. The loom of the sweep was
long enough to admit of four men working at it, and accordingly the
boatswain, having received his orders from Mendouca, selected forty of
the strongest-looking of the negroes, and set them to this exhausting
labour, the rest of the unfortunate creatures being driven below out of
the way. The vessel, lying there inert as a log on the water, proved
very heavy to start, especially as the blacks knew not how to handle the
sweeps, having evidently never touched one before; but, once fairly
started, the craft was kept moving with comparative ease at a speed of
about three and a half knots per hour. But it was cruel work for the
unhappy blacks, who, naked as when they were born, were remorselessly
kept at it by the boatswain and his mate, both of whom paced the deck,
fore and aft, armed with a heavy "colt," which they plied unmercifully
upon the shoulders of any man whom they chose to believe was not fully
exerting himself, although the perspiration poured from the dark naked
hides like rain. "Short spells and hard work" was, however, the order
of the day, and after half-an-hour of almost superhuman exertion a
relief was called, a fresh gang was set to work, and the exhausted
toilers were hustled below to rest and recover themselves as best they
could. I remonstrated hotly with Mendouca upon the needless cruelty
practised by the boatswain and his mate, but I was roughly told that I
did not know what I was talking about; that negroes would never work
unless kept continually in wholesome dread of the lash; and that it was
absolutely necessary to get every ounce of work out of them if we were
not one and all to perish miserably of hunger and thirst. So, as I
could do no better, I got a piece of the oldest and softest canvas I
could find, and a bucket of water, with which I descended to the
slave-deck and carefully bathed the poor lacerated shoulders of those
unfortunates who had suffered most severely at the hands of the
boatswain and his mate, a little piece of attention that I saw was most
gratefully received.

We made fully twenty miles of westing that day, from the time when the
negroes were first set to work up to sunset,