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13 -- A DEPOSITION
Omitting the incidents and arrangements ensuing, suffice it
that, after two days spent in refitting, the two ships sailed in
company for Concepcion in Chili, and thence for Lima in Peru; where,
before the vice-regal courts, the whole affair, from the beginning,
underwent investigation.
Though, midway on the passage, the ill-fated Spaniard, relaxed
from constraint, showed some signs of regaining health with free-will;
yet, agreeably to his own foreboding, shortly before arriving at Lima,
he relapsed, finally becoming so reduced as to be carried ashore in
arms. Hearing of his story and plight, one of the many religious
institutions of the City of Kings opened an hospitable refuge to
him, where both physician and priest were his nurses, and a member
of the order volunteered to be his one special guardian and
consoler, by night and by day.
The following extracts, translated from one of the official
Spanish documents, will, it is hoped, shed light on the preceding
narrative, as well as, in the first place, reveal the true port of
departure and true history of the San Dominick's voyage, down to the
time of her touching at the island of Santa Maria.
But, ere the extracts come, it may be well to preface them with
a remark.
The document selected, from among many others, for partial
translation, contains the deposition of Benito Cereno; the first taken
in the case. Some disclosures therein were, at the time, held
dubious for both learned and natural reasons. The tribunal inclined to
the opinion that the deponent, not undisturbed in his mind by recent
events, raved of some things which could never have happened. But
subsequent depositions of the surviving sailors, bearing out the
revelations of their captain in several of the strangest
particulars, gave credence to the rest. So that the tribunal, in its
final decision, rested its capital sentences upon statements which,
had they lacked confirmation, it would have deemed it but duty to
reject.
I, DON JOSE DE ABOS AND PADILLA, His Majesty's Notary for the
Royal Revenue, and Register of this Province, and Notary Public of the
Holy Crusade of this Bishopric, etc.
Do certify and declare, as much as is requisite in law, that, in
the criminal cause commenced the twenty-fourth of the month of
September, in the year seventeen hundred and ninety-nine, against
the Senegal Negroes of the ship San Dominick, the following
declaration before me was made.
Declaration of the first witness, DON BENITO CERENO.
The same day, and month, and year, His Honour, Doctor Juan
Martinez de Dozas, Councillor of the Royal Audience of this Kingdom,
and learned in the law of this Intendancy, ordered the captain of
the ship San Dominick, Don Benito Cereno, to appear; which he did in
his litter, attended by the monk Infelez; of whom he received,
before Don Jose de Abos and Padilla, Notary Public of the Holy
Crusade, the oath, which he took by God, our Lord, and a sign of the
Cross; under which he promised to tell the truth of whatever he should
know and should be asked; -- and being interrogated agreeably to the
tenor of the act commencing the process, he said, that on the
twentieth of May last, he set sail with his ship from the port of
Valparaiso, bound to that of Callao; loaded with the produce of the
country and one hundred and sixty blacks, of both sexes, mostly
belonging to Don Alexandro Aranda, gentleman, of the city of
Mendoza; that the crew of the ship consisted of thirty-six men, beside
the persons who went as passengers; that the Negroes were in part as
follows:
[Here, in the original, follows a list of some fifty names,
descriptions, and ages, compiled from certain recovered documents of
Aranda's, and also from recollections of the deponent, from which
portions only are extracted.]
-- One, from about eighteen to nineteen years, named Jose, and
this was the man that waited upon his master, Don Alexandro, and who
speaks well the Spanish, having served him four or five years;... a
mulatto, named Francesco, the cabin steward, of a good person and
voice, having sung in the Valparaiso churches, native of the
province of Buenos Ayres, aged about thirty-five years.... A smart
Negro, named Dago, who had been for many years a gravedigger among the
Spaniards, aged forty-six years.... Four old Negroes, born in
Africa, from sixty to seventy, but sound, caulkers by trade, whose
names are as follows: -- the first was named Muri, and he was killed (as
was also his son named Diamelo); the second, Nacta; the third, Yola,
likewise killed; the fourth, Ghofan; and six full-grown Negroes,
aged from thirty to forty-five, all raw, and born among the Ashantees --
Martinqui, Yan, Lecbe, Mapenda, Yambaio, Akim; four of whom were
killed;... a powerful Negro named Atufal, who, being supposed to
have been a chief in Africa, his owners set great store by him.... And
a small Negro of Senegal, but some years among the Spaniards, aged
about thirty, which Negro's name was Babo;... that he does not
remember the names of the others, but that still expecting the residue
of Don Alexandro's papers will be found, will then take due account of
them all, and remit to the court;... and thirty-nine women and
children of all ages.
[After the catalogue, the deposition goes on as follows:]
...That all the Negroes slept upon deck, as is customary in this
navigation, and none wore fetters, because the owner, his friend
Aranda, told him that they were all tractable;... that on the
seventh day after leaving port, at three o'clock in the morning, all
the Spaniards being asleep except the two officers on the watch, who
were the boatswain, Juan Robles, and the carpenter, Juan Bautista
Gayete, and the helmsman and his boy, the Negroes revolted suddenly,
wounded dangerously the boatswain and the carpenter, and
successively killed eighteen men of those who were sleeping upon deck,
some with handspikes and hatchets, and others by throwing them alive
overboard, after tying them; that of the Spaniards upon deck, they
left about seven, as he thinks, alive and tied, to manoeuvre the ship,
and three or four more who hid themselves remained also alive.
Although in the act of revolt the Negroes made themselves masters of
the hatchway, six or seven wounded went through it to the cockpit,
without any hindrance on their part; that in the act of revolt, the
mate and another person, whose name he does not recollect, attempted
to come up through the hatchway, but having been wounded at the onset,
they were obliged to return to the cabin; that the deponent resolved
at break of day to come up the companionway, where the Negro Babo was,
being the ringleader, and Atufal, who assisted him, and having
spoken to them, exhorted them to cease committing such atrocities,
asking them, at the same time, what they wanted and intended to do,
offering, himself, to obey their commands; that, notwithstanding this,
they threw, in his presence, three men, alive and tied, overboard;
that they told the deponent to come up, and that they would not kill
him; which having done, the Negro Babo asked him whether there were in
those seas any Negro countries where they might be carried, and he
answered them, No, that the Negro Babo afterwards told him to carry
them to Senegal, or to the neighbouring islands of St. Nicholas; and
he answered, that this was impossible, on account of the great
distance, the necessity involved of rounding Cape Horn, the bad
condition of the vessel, the want of provisions, sails, and water; but
that the Negro Babo replied to him he must carry them in any way; that
they would do and conform themselves to everything the deponent should
require as to eating and drinking; that after a long conference, being
absolutely compelled to please them, for they threatened him to kill
all the whites if they were not, at all events, carried to Senegal, he
told them that what was most wanting for the voyage was water; that
they would go near the coast to take it, and hence they would
proceed on their course; that the Negro Babo agreed to it; and the
deponent steered toward the intermediate ports, hoping to meet some
Spanish or foreign vessel that would save them; that within ten or
eleven days they saw the land, and continued their course by it in the
vicinity of Nasca; that the deponent observed that the Negroes were
now restless and mutinous, because he did not effect the 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 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 and victual easily, it being a desert 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, in the passage or in the
island itself, they could find any vessel that should favour them,
or whether he could escape from it in a boat to the neighbouring 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, Marques de Aramboalaza,
then lately from Spain, with his Spanish servant Ponce, and the
three young clerks of Aranda, Jose 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, Jose 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 Succour;... 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 his covering
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, endeavouring 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
next day, the more surely to guard against the sailors' escape, the
Negro Babo commanded all the boats to be destroyed but the
long-boat, which was unseaworthy, and another, a cutter in good
condition, which, knowing it would yet be wanted for lowering the
water casks, he had it lowered down into the hold.
[Various particulars of the prolonged and perplexed navigation
ensuing here follow, with incidents of a calamitous calm, from which
portion one passage is extracted, to wit:]
-- That on the fifth day of the calm, all on board suffering much
from the heat, and want of water, and five having died in fits, and
mad, the Negroes became irritable, and for a chance gesture, which
they deemed suspicious -- though it was harmless -- made by the mate,
Raneds, to the deponent, in the act of handing a quadrant, they killed
him; but that for this they afterwards were sorry, the mate being
the only remaining navigator on board, except the deponent.
-- That omitting other events, which daily happened, and which can
only serve uselessly to recall past misfortunes and conflicts, after
seventy-three days' navigation, reckoned from the time they sailed
from Nasca, during which they navigated under a scanty allowance of
water, and were afflicted with the calms before mentioned, they at
last arrived at the island of Santa Maria, on the seventeenth of the
month of August, at about six o'clock in the afternoon, at which
hour they cast anchor very near the American ship, Bachelor's Delight,
which lay in the same bay, commanded by the generous Captain Amasa
Delano; but at six o'clock in the morning, they had already descried
the port, and the Negroes became uneasy, as soon as at distance they
saw the ship, not having expected to see one there; that the Negro
Babo pacified them, assuring them that no fear need be had; that
straightway he ordered the figure on the bow to be covered with
canvas, as for repairs, and had the decks a little set in order;
that for a time the Negro Babo and the Negro Atufal conferred; that
the Negro Atufal was for sailing away, but the Negro Babo would not,
and, by himself, cast about what to do; that at last he came to the
deponent, proposing to him to say and do all that the deponent
declares to have said and done to the American captain;... that the
Negro Babo warned him that if he varied in the least, or uttered any
word, or gave any look that should give the least intimation of the
past events or present state, he would instantly kill him, with all
his companions, showing a dagger, which he carried hid, saying
something which, as he understood it, meant that that dagger would
be alert as his eye; that the Negro Babo then announced the plan to
all his companions, which pleased them; that he then, the better to
disguise the truth, devised many expedients, in some of them uniting
deceit and defence; that of this sort was the device of the six
Ashantees before named, who were his bravos; that them he stationed on
the break of the poop, as if to clean certain hatchets (in cases,
which were part of the cargo), but in reality to use them, and
distribute them at need, and at a given word he told them that,
among other devices, was the device of presenting Atufal, his
right-hand man, as chained, though in a moment the chains could be
dropped; that in every particular he informed the deponent what part
he was expected to enact in every device, and what story he was to
tell on every occasion, always threatening him with instant death if
he varied in the least; that, conscious that many of the Negroes would
be turbulent, the Negro Babo appointed the four aged Negroes, who were
caulkers, to keep what domestic order they could on the decks; that
again and again he harangued the Spaniards and his companions,
informing them of his intent, and of his devices, and of the
invented story that this deponent was to tell, charging them lest
any of them varied from that story; that these arrangements were
made and matured during the interval of two or three hours, between
their first sighting the ship and the arrival on board of Captain
Amasa Delano; that this happened at about half-past seven in the
morning, Captain Amasa Delano coming in his boat, and all gladly
receiving him; that the deponent, as well as he could force himself,
acting then the part of principal owner, and a free captain of the
ship, told Captain Amasa Delano, when called upon, that he came from
Buenos Ayres, bound to Lima, with three hundred Negroes; that off Cape
Horn, and in a subsequent fever, many Negroes had died; that also,
by similar casualties, all the sea officers and the greatest part of
the crew had died.
[And so the deposition goes on, circumstantially recounting the
fictitious story dictated to the deponent by Babo, and through the
deponent imposed upon Captain Delano; and also recounting the friendly
offers of Captain Delano, with other things, but all of which is
here omitted. After the fictitious, strange story, etc., the
deposition proceeds:]
-- That the generous Captain Amasa Delano remained on board all
the day, till he left the ship anchored at six o'clock in the evening,
deponent speaking to him always of his pretended misfortunes, under
the fore-mentioned principles, without having had it in his power to
tell a single word, or give him the least hint, that he might know the
truth and state of things; because the Negro Babo, performing the
office of an officious servant with all the appearance of submission
of the humble slave, did not leave the deponent one moment; that
this was in order to observe the deponent's actions and words, for the
Negro Babo understands well the Spanish; and besides, there were
thereabout some others who were constantly on the watch, and
likewise understood the Spanish;... that upon one occasion, while
deponent was standing on the deck conversing with Amasa Delano, by a
secret sign the Negro Babo drew him (the deponent) aside, the act
appearing as if originating with the deponent; that then, he being
drawn aside, the Negro Babo proposed to him to gain from Amasa
Delano full particulars about his ship, and crew, and arms; that the
deponent asked "For what?" that the Negro Babo answered he might
conceive; that, grieved at the prospect of what might overtake the
generous Captain Amasa Delano, the deponent at first refused to ask
the desired questions, and used every argument to induce the Negro
Babo to give up this new design; that the Negro Babo showed the
point of his dagger; that, after the information had been obtained,
the Negro Babo again drew him aside, telling him that that very
night he (the deponent) would be captain of two ships instead of
one, for that, great part of the American's ship's crew being to be
absent fishing, the six Ashantees, without any one else, would
easily take it; that at this time he said other things to the same
purpose; that no entreaties availed; that before Amasa Delano's coming
on board, no hint had been given touching the capture of the
American ship; that to prevent this project the deponent was
powerless;... -- that in some things his memory is confused, he cannot
distinctly recall every event;... -- that as soon as they had cast
anchor at six of the clock in the evening, as has before been
stated, the American captain took leave to return to his vessel;
that upon a sudden impulse, which the deponent believes to have come
from God and his angels, he, after the farewell had been said,
followed the generous Captain Amasa Delano as far as the gunwale,
where he stayed, under the pretence of taking leave, until Amasa
Delano should have been seated in his boat; that on shoving off, the
deponent sprang from the gunwale, into the boat, and fell into it,
he knows not how, God guarding him; that --
[Here, in the original, follows the account of what further
happened at the escape, and how the "San Dominick" was retaken, and of
the passage to the coast; including in the recital many expressions of
"eternal gratitude" to the "generous Captain Amasa Delano." The
deposition then proceeds with recapitulatory remarks, and a partial
renumeration of the Negroes, making record of their individual part in
the past events, with a view to furnishing, according to command of
the court, the data whereon to found the criminal sentences to be
pronounced. From this portion is the following:]
-- That he believes that all the Negroes, though not in the first
place knowing to the design of revolt, when it was accomplished,
approved it.... That the Negro, Jose, eighteen years old, and in the
personal service of Don Alexandro, was the one who communicated the
information to the Negro Babo, about the state of things in the cabin,
before the revolt; that this is known, because, in the preceding
midnight, he used to come from his berth, which was under his
master's, in the cabin, to the deck where the ringleader and his
associates were, and had secret conversations with the Negro Babo,
in which he was several times seen by the mate; that, one night, the
mate drove him away twice;... that this same Negro Jose, was the one
who, without being commanded to do so by the Negro Babo, as Lecbe
and Martinqui were, stabbed his master, Don Alexandro, after he had
been dragged half-lifeless to the deck;... that the mulatto steward,
Francesco, was of the first band of revolters, that he was, in all
things, the creature and tool of the Negro Babo; that, to make his
court, he, just before a repast in the cabin, proposed, to the Negro
Babo, poisoning a dish for the generous Captain Amasa Delano; this
is known and believed, because the Negroes have said it; but that
the Negro Babo, having another design, forbade Francesco;... that
the Ashantee Lecbe was one of the worst of them; for that, on the
day the ship was retaken, he assisted in the defence of her, with a
hatchet in each hand, with one of which he wounded, in the breast, the
chief mate of Amasa Delano, in the first act of boarding; this all
knew; that, in sight of the deponent, Lecbe struck, with a hatchet,
Don Francisco Masa when, by the Negro Babo's orders, he was carrying
him to throw him overboard, alive; beside participating in the murder,
before mentioned, of Don Alexandro Aranda, and others of the
cabin-passengers; that, owing to the fury with which the Ashantees
fought in the engagement with the boats, but this Lecbe and Yan
survived; that Yan was bad as Lecbe; that Yan was the man who, by
Babo's command, willingly prepared the skeleton of Don Alexandro, in a
way the Negroes afterwards told the deponent, but which he, so long as
reason is left him, can never divulge; that Yan and Lecbe were the two
who, in a calm by night, riveted the skeleton to the bow; this also
the Negroes told him; that the Negro Babo was he who traced the
inscription below it; that the Negro Babo was the plotter from first
to last; he ordered every murder, and was the helm and keel of the
revolt; that Atufal was his lieutenant in all; but Atufal, with his
own hand, committed no murder; nor did the Negro Babo;... that
Atufal was shot, being killed in the fight with the boats, ere
boarding;... that the Negresses, of age, were knowing to the revolt,
and testified themselves satisfied at the death of their master, Don
Alexandro; that, had the Negroes not restrained them, they would
have tortured to death, instead of simply killing, the Spaniards slain
by command of the Negro Babo; that the Negresses used their utmost
influence to have the deponent made away with; that, in the various
acts of murder, they sang songs and danced -- not gaily, but solemnly;
and before the engagement with the boats, as well as during the
action, they sang melancholy songs to the Negroes, and that this
melancholy tone was more inflaming than a different one would have
been, and was so intended; that all this is believed, because the
Negroes have said it.
-- That of the thirty-six men of the crew -- exclusive of the
passengers (all of whom are now dead), which the deponent had
knowledge of -- six only remained alive, with four cabin-boys and
ship-boys, not included with the crew;.... -- that the Negroes broke
an arm of one of the cabin-boys and gave him strokes with hatchets.
[Then follow various random disclosures referring to various
periods of time. The following are extracted:]
-- That during the presence of Captain Amasa Delano on board, some
attempts were made by the sailors, and one by Hermenegildo Gandix,
to convey hints to him of the true state of affairs; but that these
attempts were ineffectual, owing to fear of incurring death, and
furthermore owing to the devices which offered contradictions to the
true state of affairs; as well as owing to the generosity and piety of
Amasa Delano, incapable of sounding such wickedness;... that Luys
Galgo, a sailor about sixty years of age, and formerly of the king's
navy, was one of those who sought to convey tokens to Captain Amasa
Delano; but his intent, though undiscovered, being suspected, he
was, on a pretence, made to retire out of sight, and at last into
the hold, and there was made away with. This the Negroes have since
said;... that one of the ship-boys feeling, from Captain Amasa
Delano's presence, some hopes of release, and not having enough
prudence, dropped some chance-word respecting his expectations,
which being overheard and understood by a slave-boy with whom he was
eating at the time, the latter struck him on the head with a knife,
inflicting a bad wound, but of which the boy is now healing; that
likewise, not long before the ship was brought to anchor, one of the
seamen, steering at the time, endangered himself by letting the blacks
remark a certain unconscious hopeful expression in his countenance,
arising from some cause similar to the above; but this sailor, by
his heedful after conduct, escaped;... that these statements are
made to show the court that from the beginning to the end of the
revolt, it was impossible for the deponent and his men to act
otherwise than they did;... -- that the third clerk, Hermenegildo
Gandix, who before had been forced to live among the seamen, wearing a
seaman's habit, and in all respects appearing to be one for the
time; he, Gandix, was killed by a musket-ball fired through a
mistake from the American boats before boarding; having in his
fright ran up the mizzen-rigging, calling to the boats -- "don't board,"
lest upon their boarding the Negroes should kill him; that this
inducing the Americans to believe he some way favoured the cause of
the Negroes, they fired two balls at him, so that he fell wounded from
the rigging, and was drowned in the sea;... -- that the young Don
Joaquin, Marques de Aramboalaza, like Hermenegildo Gandix, the third
clerk, was degraded to the office and appearance of a common seaman;
that upon one occasion, when Don Joaquin shrank, the Negro Babo
commanded the Ashantee Lecbe to take tar and heat it, and pour it upon
Don Joaquin's hands;... -- that Don Joaquin was killed owing to
another mistake of the Americans, but one impossible to be avoided, as
upon the approach of the boats, Don Joaquin, with a hatchet tied
edge out and upright to his hand, was made by the Negroes to appear on
the bulwarks; whereupon, seen with arms in his hands and in a
questionable attitude, he was shot for a renegade seaman;... -- that
on the person of Don Joaquin was found secreted a jewel, which, by
papers that were discovered, proved to have been meant for the
shrine of our Lady of Mercy in Lima; a votive offering, beforehand
prepared and guarded, to attest his gratitude, when he should have
landed in Peru, his last destination, for the safe conclusion of his
entire voyage from Spain;... -- that the jewel, with the other effects
of the late Don Joaquin, is in the custody of the brethren of the
Hospital de Sacerdotes, awaiting the decision of the honourable
court;... -- that, owing to the condition of the deponent, as well as
the haste in which the boats departed for the attack, the Americans
were not forewarned that there were, among the apparent crew, a
passenger and one of the clerks disguised by the Negro Babo;... -- that,
beside the Negroes killed in the action, some were killed after the
capture and re-anchoring at night, when shackled to the ring-bolts
on deck; that these deaths were committed by the sailors, ere they
could be prevented. That so soon as informed of it, Captain Amasa
Delano used all his authority, and, in particular with his own hand,
struck down Martinez Gola, who, having found a razor in the pocket
of an old jacket of his, which one of the shackled Negroes had on, was
aiming it at the Negro's throat; that the noble Captain Amasa Delano
also wrenched from the hand of Bartholomew Barlo, a dagger secreted at
the time of the massacre of the whites, with which he was in the act
of stabbing a shackled Negro, who, the same day, with another Negro,
had thrown him down and jumped upon him;... that, for all the
events, befalling through so long a time, during which the ship was in
the hands of the Negro Babo, he cannot here give account; but that,
what he has said is the most substantial of what occurs to him at
present, and is the truth under the oath which he has taken; which
declaration he affirmed and ratified, after hearing it read to him.
He said that he is twenty-nine years of age, and broken in body
and mind; that when finally dismissed by the court, he shall not
return home to Chili, but betake himself to the monastery on Mount
Agonia without; and signed with his honour, and crossed himself,
and, for the time, departed as he came, in his litter, with the monk
Infelez, to the Hospital de Sacerdotes.
BENITO CERENO.
DOCTOR ROZAS.
Benito Cereno
by Herman Melville
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