- end_line
- 5084
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:15.023Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 5028
- text
- 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,
Marques de Aramboalaza, then lately from Spain, with his Spanish
servant Ponce, and the three young clerks of Aranda, José Mozairi
Lorenzo Bargas, and Hermenegildo Gandix, all of Cadiz; that Don Joaquin
and Hermenegildo Gandix, the negro Babo, for purposes hereafter to
appear, preserved alive; but Don Francisco Masa, José Mozairi, and
Lorenzo Bargas, with Ponce the servant, beside the boatswain, Juan
Robles, the boatswain’s mates, Manuel Viscaya and Roderigo Hurta, and
four of the sailors, the negro Babo ordered to be thrown alive into the
sea, although they made no resistance, nor begged for anything else but
mercy; that the boatswain, Juan Robles, who knew how to swim, kept the
longest above water, making acts of contrition, and, in the last words
he uttered, charged this deponent to cause mass to be said for his soul
to our Lady of Succor: * * * that, during the three days which
followed, the deponent, uncertain what fate had befallen the remains of
Don Alexandro, frequently asked the negro Babo where they were, and, if
still on board, whether they were to be preserved for interment ashore,
entreating him so to order it; that the negro Babo answered nothing
till the fourth day, when at sunrise, the deponent coming on deck, the
negro Babo showed him a skeleton, which had been substituted for the
ship’s proper figure-head—the image of Christopher Colon, the
discoverer of the New World; that the negro Babo asked him whose
skeleton that was, and whether, from its whiteness, he should not think
it a white’s; that, upon discovering his face, the negro Babo, coming
close, said words to this effect: “Keep faith with the blacks from here
to Senegal, or you shall in spirit, as now in body, follow your
leader,” pointing to the prow; * * * that the same morning the negro
Babo took by succession each Spaniard forward, and asked him whose
skeleton that was, and whether, from its whiteness, he should not think
it a white’s; that each Spaniard covered his face; that then to each
the negro Babo repeated the words in the first place said to the
deponent; * * * that they (the Spaniards), being then assembled aft,
the negro Babo harangued them, saying that he had now done all; that
the deponent (as navigator for the negroes) might pursue his course,
warning him and all of them that they should, soul and body, go the way
of Don Alexandro, if he saw them (the Spaniards) speak, or plot
anything against them (the negroes)—a threat which was repeated every
day; that, before the events last mentioned, they had tied the cook to
throw him overboard, for it is not known what thing they heard him
speak, but finally the negro Babo spared his life, at the request of
the deponent; that a few days after, the deponent, endeavoring not to
omit any means to preserve the lives of the remaining whites, spoke to
the negroes peace and tranquillity, and agreed to draw up a paper,
signed by the deponent and the sailors who could write, as also by the
negro Babo, for himself and all the blacks, in which the deponent
obliged himself to carry them to Senegal, and they not to kill any
more, and he formally to make over to them the ship, with the cargo,
with which they were for that time satisfied and quieted. * * But the
- title
- Chunk 1