Black Ivory | Page 6

I would help you, but we can't. Evidently we have got into a nest of
slavers. Rashness will only bring about our own death. Be wise; bide
your time, and we may live to do some good yet."
He stopped abruptly, for the new comers had reached the top of the
winding path that led to the hut.
A look of intense surprise overspread the faces of the two men when
they entered and saw the Englishmen sitting comfortably by the fire,
and both, as if by instinct threw forward the muzzles of their muskets.
"Oh! come in, come in, make your minds easy," cried Disco, in a
half-savage tone, despite the warning he had received; "we're all friends
here--leastwise we can't help ourselves."
Fortunately for our mariner the men did not understand him, and before
they could make up their minds what to think of it, or how to act
Harold rose, and, with a polite bow, invited them to enter.
"Do you understand English?" he asked.
A frown, and a decided shake of the head from both men, was the reply.
The poor negro girl cowered behind her keepers, as if she feared that
violence were about to ensue.
Having tried French with a like result, Harold uttered the name,
"Yoosoof," and pointed in the direction in which the trader had entered
the woods.
The men looked intelligently at each other, and nodded.
Then Harold said "Zanzibar," and pointed in the direction in which he
supposed that island lay.
Again the men glanced at each other, and nodded. Harold next said

"Boat--dhow," and pointed towards the creek, which remark and sign
were received as before.
"Good," he continued, slapping himself on the chest, and pointing to
his companion, "I go to Zanzibar, he goes, she goes," (pointing to the
girl), "you go, and Yoosoof goes--all in the dhow together to
Zanzibar--to-night--when moon goes down. D'ee understand? Now
then, come along and have some rice."
He finished up by slapping one of the men on the shoulder, and lifting
the kettle off the fire, for the rice had already been cooked and only
wanted warming.
The men looked once again at each other, nodded, laughed, and sat
down on a log beside the fire, opposite to the Englishmen.
They were evidently much perplexed by the situation, and, not knowing
what to make of it, were disposed in the meantime to be friendly.
While they were busy with the rice, Disco gazed in silent wonder, and
with intense pity, at the slave-girl, who sat a little to one side of her
guardians on a mat, her small hands folded together resting on one knee,
her head drooping, and her eyes cast down. The enthusiastic tar found it
very difficult to restrain his feelings. He had heard, of course, more or
less about African slavery from shipmates, but he had never read about
it, and had never seriously given his thoughts to it, although his native
sense of freedom, justice, and fair-play had roused a feeling of
indignation in his breast whenever the subject chanced to be discussed
by him and his mates. But now, for the first time in his life, suddenly
and unexpectedly, he was brought face to face with slavery. No wonder
that he was deeply moved.
"Why, Mister Seadrift," he said, in the confidential tone of one who
imparts a new discovery, "I do honestly confess to 'ee that I think that's
a pretty girl!"
"I quite agree with you," replied Harold, smiling.

"Ay, but I mean really pretty, you know. I've always thought that all
niggers had ugly flat noses an' thick blubber lips. But look at that one:
her lips are scarce a bit thicker than those of many a good-looking lass
in England, and they don't stick out at all, and her nose ain't flat a bit.
It's quite as good as my Nancy's nose, an' that's sayin' a good deal, I tell
'ee. Moreover, she ain't black--she's brown."
It is but justice to Disco to say that he was right in his observations, and
to explain that the various negro tribes in Africa differ very materially
from each other; some of them, as we are told by Dr Livingstone,
possessing little of what, in our eyes, seems the characteristic ugliness
of the negro--such as thick lips, flat noses, protruding heels,
etcetera,--but being in every sense handsome races of humanity.
The slave-girl whom Disco admired and pitied so much belonged to
one of these tribes, and, as was afterwards ascertained, had been
brought from the far interior. She appeared to be very young,
nevertheless there was a settled expression of meek sorrow and
suffering on her face; and though handsomely formed, she was
extremely thin, no doubt from prolonged hardships on the journey
down to the