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- 4788
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T07:57:55.409Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 4717
- text
- times; thinking to cripple the fugitive ship by bringing down her
spars. But only a few inconsiderable ropes were shot away. Soon the
ship was beyond the gun’s range, steering broad out of the bay; the
blacks thickly clustering round the bowsprit, one moment with taunting
cries towards the whites, the next with upthrown gestures hailing the
now dusky moors of ocean—cawing crows escaped from the hand of the
fowler.
The first impulse was to slip the cables and give chase. But, upon
second thoughts, to pursue with whale-boat and yawl seemed more
promising.
Upon inquiring of Don Benito what firearms they had on board the San
Dominick, Captain Delano was answered that they had none that could be
used; because, in the earlier stages of the mutiny, a cabin-passenger,
since dead, had secretly put out of order the locks of what few muskets
there were. But with all his remaining strength, Don Benito entreated
the American not to give chase, either with ship or boat; for the
negroes had already proved themselves such desperadoes, that, in case
of a present assault, nothing but a total massacre of the whites could
be looked for. But, regarding this warning as coming from one whose
spirit had been crushed by misery the American did not give up his
design.
The boats were got ready and armed. Captain Delano ordered his men into
them. He was going himself when Don Benito grasped his arm.
“What! have you saved my life, Señor, and are you now going to throw
away your own?”
The officers also, for reasons connected with their interests and those
of the voyage, and a duty owing to the owners, strongly objected
against their commander’s going. Weighing their remonstrances a moment,
Captain Delano felt bound to remain; appointing his chief mate—an
athletic and resolute man, who had been a privateer’s-man—to head the
party. The more to encourage the sailors, they were told, that the
Spanish captain considered his ship good as lost; that she and her
cargo, including some gold and silver, were worth more than a thousand
doubloons. Take her, and no small part should be theirs. The sailors
replied with a shout.
The fugitives had now almost gained an offing. It was nearly night; but
the moon was rising. After hard, prolonged pulling, the boats came up
on the ship’s quarters, at a suitable distance laying upon their oars
to discharge their muskets. Having no bullets to return, the negroes
sent their yells. But, upon the second volley, Indian-like, they
hurtled their hatchets. One took off a sailor’s fingers. Another struck
the whale-boat’s bow, cutting off the rope there, and remaining stuck
in the gunwale like a woodman’s axe. Snatching it, quivering from its
lodgment, the mate hurled it back. The returned gauntlet now stuck in
the ship’s broken quarter-gallery, and so remained.
The negroes giving too hot a reception, the whites kept a more
respectful distance. Hovering now just out of reach of the hurtling
hatchets, they, with a view to the close encounter which must soon
come, sought to decoy the blacks into entirely disarming themselves of
their most murderous weapons in a hand-to-hand fight, by foolishly
flinging them, as missiles, short of the mark, into the sea. But, ere
long, perceiving the stratagem, the negroes desisted, though not before
many of them had to replace their lost hatchets with handspikes; an
exchange which, as counted upon, proved, in the end, favorable to the
assailants.
Meantime, with a strong wind, the ship still clove the water; the boats
alternately falling behind, and pulling up, to discharge fresh volleys.
The fire was mostly directed towards the stern, since there, chiefly,
the negroes, at present, were clustering. But to kill or maim the
negroes was not the object. To take them, with the ship, was the
object. To do it, the ship must be boarded; which could not be done by
boats while she was sailing so fast.
- title
- Chunk 29