- end_line
- 5037
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T07:57:55.409Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 4981
- text
- taking in of water, the negro Babo having required, with threats, that
it should be done, without fail, the following day; he told him he saw
plainly that the coast was steep, and the rivers designated in the maps
were not to be found, with other reasons suitable to the circumstances;
that the best way would be to go to the island of Santa Maria, where
they might water easily, it being a solitary island, as the foreigners
did; that the deponent did not go to Pisco, that was near, nor make any
other port of the coast, because the negro Babo had intimated to him
several times, that he would kill all the whites the very moment he
should perceive any city, town, or settlement of any kind on the shores
to which they should be carried: that having determined to go to the
island of Santa Maria, as the deponent had planned, for the purpose of
trying whether, on the passage or near the island itself, they could
find any vessel that should favor them, or whether he could escape from
it in a boat to the neighboring coast of Arruco, to adopt the necessary
means he immediately changed his course, steering for the island; that
the negroes Babo and Atufal held daily conferences, in which they
discussed what was necessary for their design of returning to Senegal,
whether they were to kill all the Spaniards, and particularly the
deponent; that eight days after parting from the coast of Nasca, the
deponent being on the watch a little after day-break, and soon after
the negroes had their meeting, the negro Babo came to the place where
the deponent was, and told him that he had determined to kill his
master, Don Alexandro Aranda, both because he and his companions could
not otherwise be sure of their liberty, and that to keep the seamen in
subjection, he wanted to prepare a warning of what road they should be
made to take did they or any of them oppose him; and that, by means of
the death of Don Alexandro, that warning would best be given; but, that
what this last meant, the deponent did not at the time comprehend, nor
could not, further than that the death of Don Alexandro was intended;
and moreover the negro Babo proposed to the deponent to call the mate
Raneds, who was sleeping in the cabin, before the thing was done, for
fear, as the deponent understood it, that the mate, who was a good
navigator, should be killed with Don Alexandro and the rest; that the
deponent, who was the friend, from youth, of Don Alexandro, prayed and
conjured, but all was useless; for the negro Babo answered him that the
thing could not be prevented, and that all the Spaniards risked their
death if they should attempt to frustrate his will in this matter, or
any other; that, in this conflict, the deponent called the mate,
Raneds, who was forced to go apart, and immediately the negro Babo
commanded the Ashantee Martinqui and the Ashantee Lecbe to go and
commit the murder; that those two went down with hatchets to the berth
of Don Alexandro; that, yet half alive and mangled, they dragged him on
deck; that they were going to throw him overboard in that state, but
the negro Babo stopped them, bidding the murder be completed on the
deck before him, which was done, when, by his orders, the body was
carried below, forward; that nothing more was seen of it by the
deponent for three days; * * * that Don Alonzo Sidonia, an old man,
long resident at Valparaiso, and lately appointed to a civil office in
Peru, whither he had taken passage, was at the time sleeping in the
berth opposite Don Alexandro’s; that awakening at his cries, surprised
by them, and at the sight of the negroes with their bloody hatchets in
their hands, he threw himself into the sea through a window which was
near him, and was drowned, without it being in the power of the
deponent to assist or take him up; * * * that a short time after
killing Aranda, they brought upon deck his german-cousin, of
middle-age, Don Francisco Masa, of Mendoza, and the young Don Joaquin,
- title
- Chunk 3