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- 11437
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:14.843Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 11378
- text
- they would slay us, if we did not desist.
“Haul it down!” roared the mate.
But the sailors fell back, murmuring something about merchant seamen
having no pensions in case of being maimed, and they had not shipped to
fight fifty to one. Further efforts were made by the mate, who at last
had recourse to entreaty; but it would not do; and we were obliged to
depart, without achieving our object.
About four o’clock that morning, the first four died. They were all
men; and the scenes which ensued were frantic in the extreme.
Certainly, the bottomless profound of the sea, over which we were
sailing, concealed nothing more frightful.
Orders were at once passed to bury the dead. But this was unnecessary.
By their own countrymen, they were torn from the clasp of their wives,
rolled in their own bedding, with ballast-stones, and with hurried
rites, were dropped into the ocean.
At this time, ten more men had caught the disease; and with a degree of
devotion worthy all praise, the mate attended them with his medicines;
but the captain did not again go down to them.
It was all-important now that the steerage should be purified; and had
it not been for the rains and squalls, which would have made it madness
to turn such a number of women and children upon the wet and
unsheltered decks, the steerage passengers would have been ordered
above, and their den have been given a thorough cleansing. But, for the
present, this was out of the question. The sailors peremptorily refused
to go among the defilements to remove them; and so besotted were the
greater part of the emigrants themselves, that though the necessity of
the case was forcibly painted to them, they would not lift a hand to
assist in what seemed their own salvation.
The panic in the cabin was now very great; and for fear of contagion to
themselves, the cabin passengers would fain have made a prisoner of the
captain, to prevent him from going forward beyond the mainmast. Their
clamors at last induced him to tell the two mates, that for the present
they must sleep and take their meals elsewhere than in their old
quarters, which communicated with the cabin.
On land, a pestilence is fearful enough; but there, many can flee from
an infected city; whereas, in a ship, you are locked and bolted in the
very hospital itself. Nor is there any possibility of escape from it;
and in so small and crowded a place, no precaution can effectually
guard against contagion.
Horrible as the sights of the steerage now were, the cabin, perhaps,
presented a scene equally despairing. Many, who had seldom prayed
before, now implored the merciful heavens, night and day, for fair
winds and fine weather. Trunks were opened for Bibles; and at last,
even prayer-meetings were held over the very table across which the
loud jest had been so often heard.
Strange, though almost universal, that the seemingly nearer prospect of
that death which any body at any time may die, should produce these
spasmodic devotions, when an everlasting Asiatic Cholera is forever
thinning our ranks; and die by death we all must at last.
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- Chunk 3