“How comes it,” said Lieutenant1 Lindsay to Harold, on the first favourable2 opportunity that occurred after the meeting described in the last chapter; “how comes it that you and Kambira know each other so well?”
“I might reply by asking,” said Harold, with a smile, “how comes it that you are so well acquainted with Azinté? but, before putting that question, I will give a satisfactory answer to your own.”
Hereupon he gave a brief outline of those events, already narrated3 in full to the reader, which bore on his first meeting with the slave-girl, and his subsequent sojourn4 with her husband.
“After leaving the interior,” continued our hero, “and returning to the coast, I visited various towns in order to observe the state of the slaves in the Portuguese5 settlements, and, truly, what I saw was most deplorable—demoralisation and cruelty, and the obstruction6 of lawful7 trade, prevailed everywhere. The settlements are to my mind a very pandemonium8 on earth. Every one seemed to me more or less affected9 by the accursed atmosphere that prevails. Of course there must be some exceptions. I met with one, at the last town I visited, in the person of Governor Letotti.”
“Letotti!” exclaimed Lindsay, stopping abruptly10.
“Yes!” said Harold, in some surprise at the lieutenant’s manner, “and a most amiable11 man he was—”
“Was!—was! What do you mean? Is—is he dead?” exclaimed Lindsay, turning pale.
“He died suddenly just before I left,” said Harold.
“And Maraquita—I mean his daughter—what of her?” asked the lieutenant, turning as red as he had previously12 turned pale.
Harold noted13 the change, and a gleam of light seemed to break upon him as he replied:—
“Poor girl, she was overwhelmed at first by the heavy blow. I had to quit the place almost immediately after the event.”
“Did you know her well?” asked Lindsay, with an uneasy glance at his companion’s handsome face.
“No; I had just been introduced to her shortly before her father’s death, and have scarcely exchanged a dozen sentences with her. It is said that her father died in debt, but of course in regard to that I know nothing certainly. At parting, she told me that she meant to leave the coast and go to stay with a relative at the Cape14.”
The poor lieutenant’s look on hearing this was so peculiar15, not to say alarming, that Harold could not help referring to it, and Lindsay was so much overwhelmed by such unexpected news, and, withal, so strongly attracted by Harold’s sympathetic manner, that he straightway made a confidant of him, told him of his love for Maraquita, of Maraquita’s love for Azinté, of the utter impossibility of his being able to take Azinté back to her old mistress, now that she had found her husband and child, even if it had been admissible for a lieutenant in the British navy to return freed negroes again into slavery, and wound up with bitter lamentations as to his unhappy fate, and expressions of poignant16 regret that fighting and other desperate means, congenial and easy to his disposition17, were not available in the circumstances. After which explosion he subsided18, felt ashamed of having thus committed himself, and looked rather foolish.
But Harold quickly put him at his ease. He entered on the subject with earnest gravity.
“It strikes me, Lindsay,” he said thoughtfully, after the lieutenant had finished, “that I can aid you in this affair; but you must not ask me how at present. Give me a few hours to think over it, and then I shall have matured my plans.”
Of course the lieutenant hailed with heartfelt gratitude20 the gleam of hope held out to him, and thus the friends parted for a time.
That same afternoon Harold sat under a palm-tree in company with Disco, Jumbo, Kambira, Azinté, and Obo.
“How would you like to go with me to the Cape of Good Hope, Kambira?” asked Harold abruptly.
“Whar dat?” asked the chief through Jumbo.
“Far away to the south of Africa,” answered Harold. “You know that you can never go back to your own land now, unless you want to be again enslaved.”
“Him say him no’ want to go back,” interpreted Jumbo; “got all him care for now—Azinté and Obo.”
“Then do you agree to go with me?” said Harold.
To this Kambira replied heartily21 that he did.
“W’y, wot do ’ee mean for to do with ’em?” asked Disco, in some surprise.
“I will get them comfortably settled there,” replied Harold. “My father has a business friend in Cape Town who will easily manage to put me in the way of doing it. Besides, I have a particular reason for wishing to take Azinté there.—Ask her, Jumbo, if she remembers a young lady named Senhorina Maraquita Letotti.”
To this Azinté replied that she did, and the way in which her eyes sparkled proved that she remembered her with intense pleasure.
“Well, tell her,” rejoined Harold, “that Maraquita has grieved very much at losing her, and is very anxious to get her back again—not as a slave, but as a friend, for no slavery is allowed in English settlements anywhere, and I am sure that Maraquita hates slavery as much as I do, though she is not English, so I intend to take her and Kambira and Obo to the Cape, where Maraquita is living—or will be living soon.”
“Ye don’t stick at trifles, sir,” said Disco, whose eyes, on hearing this, assumed a thoughtful, almost a troubled look.
“My plan does not seem to please you,” said Harold.
“Please me, sir, w’y shouldn’t it please me? In course you knows best; I was only a little puzzled, that’s all.”
Disco said no more, but he thought a good deal, for he had noted the beauty and sprightliness22 of Maraquita, and the admiration23 with which Harold had first beheld24 her; and it seemed to him that this rather powerful method of attempting to gratify the Portuguese girl was proof positive that Harold had lost his heart to her.
Harold guessed what was running in Disco’s mind, but did not care to undeceive him, as, in so doing, he might run some risk of betraying the trust reposed25 in him by Lindsay.
The captain of the schooner26, being bound for the Cape after visiting Zanzibar, was willing to take these additional passengers, and the anxious lieutenant was induced to postpone27 total and irrevocable despair, although, Maraquita being poor, and he being poor, and promotion28 in the service being very slow, he had little reason to believe his prospects29 much brighter than they were before,—poor fellow!
Time passed on rapid wing—as time is notoriously prone30 to do—and the fortunes of our dramatis personae varied31 somewhat.
Captain Romer continued to roam the Eastern seas, along with brother captains, and spent his labour and strength in rescuing a few hundreds of captives from among the hundreds of thousands that were continually flowing out of unhappy Africa. Yoosoof and Moosa continued to throw a boat-load or two of damaged “cattle” in the way of the British cruisers, as a decoy, and succeeded on the whole pretty well in running full cargoes32 of valuable Black Ivory to the northern markets. The Sultan of Zanzibar continued to assure the British Consul33 that he heartily sympathised with England in her desire to abolish slavery, and to allow his officials, for a “consideration,” to prosecute34 the slave-trade to any extent they pleased! Portugal continued to assure England of her sympathy and co-operation in the good work of repression36, and her subjects on the east coast of Africa continued to export thousands of slaves under the protection of the Portuguese and French flags, styling them free engagés. British-Indian subjects—the Banyans of Zanzibar,—continued to furnish the sinews of war which kept the gigantic trade in human flesh going on merrily. Murders, etcetera, continued to be perpetrated, tribes to be plundered37, and hearts to be broken—of course “legally” and “domestically,” as well as piratically—during this rapid flight of time.
But nearly everything in this life has its bright lights and half-tints, as well as its deep shadows. During the same flight of time, humane38 individuals have continued to urge on the good cause of the total abolition39 of slavery, and Christian40 missionaries41 have continued, despite the difficulties of slave-trade, climate, and human apathy42, to sow here and there on the coasts the precious seed of Gospel truth, which we trust shall yet be sown broad-cast by native hands, throughout the length and breadth of that mighty43 land.
To come more closely to the subjects of our tale:
Chimbolo, with his recovered wife and child, sought safety from the slavers in the far interior, and continued to think with pleasure and gratitude of the two Englishmen who hated slavery, and who had gone to Africa just in the nick of time to rescue that unhappy slave who had been almost flogged to death, and was on the point of being drowned in the Zambesi in a sack. Mokompa, also, continued to poetise, as in days gone by, having made a safe retreat with Chimbolo, and, among other things, enshrined all the deeds of the two white men in native verse. Yambo continued to extol44 play, admire, and propagate the life-sized jumping-jack45 to such an extent that, unless his career has been cut short by the slavers, we fully19 expect to find that creature a “domestic institution” when the slave-trade has been crushed, and Africa opened up—as in the end it is certain to be.
During the progress and continuance of all these things, you may be sure our hero was not idle. He sailed, as proposed, with Kambira, Azinté, Obo, Disco, and Jumbo for Zanzibar, touched at the town over which poor Senhor Francisco Alfonso Toledo Bignoso Letotti had ruled, found that the Senhorina had taken her departure; followed, as Disco said, in her wake; reached the Cape, hunted her up, found her out and presented to her, with Lieutenant Lindsay’s compliments, the African chief Kambira, his wife Azinté, and his son Obo!
Poor Maraquita, being of a passionately46 affectionate and romantic disposition, went nearly mad with joy, and bestowed47 so many grateful glances and smiles on Harold that Disco’s suspicions were confirmed, and that bold mariner48 wished her, Maraquita, “at the bottom of the sea!” for Disco disliked foreigners, and could not bear the thought of his friend being caught by one of them.
Maraquita introduced Harold to her aunt, a middle-aged49, leather-skinned, excessively dark-eyed daughter of Portugal. She also introduced him to a bosom50 friend, at that time on a visit to her aunt. The bosom friend was an auburn-haired, fair-skinned, cheerful-spirited English girl. Before her, Harold Seadrift at once, without an instant’s warning, fell flat down, figuratively speaking of course, and remained so—stricken through the heart!
The exigencies51 of our tale require, at this point, that we should draw our outline with a bold and rapid pencil.
Disco Lillihammer was stunned52, and so was Jumbo, when Harold, some weeks after their arrival at the Cape, informed them that he was engaged to be married to Alice Gray, only daughter of the late Sir Eustace Gray, who had been M.P. for some county in England, which he had forgotten the name of, Alice not having been able to recall it, as her father had died when she was four years old, leaving her a fortune of next-to-nothing a year, and a sweet temper.
Being incapable53 of further stunning54, Disco was rather revived than otherwise, and his dark shadow was resuscitated55, when Harold added that Kambira had become Maraquita’s head-gardener, Azinté cook to the establishment, and Obo page-in-waiting—more probably page-in-mischief—to the young Senhorina. But both Disco and Jumbo had a relapse from which they were long of recovering, when Harold went on to say that he meant to sail for England by the next mail, take Jumbo with him as valet, make proposals to his father to establish a branch of their house at the Cape, come back to manage the branch, marry Alice, and reside in the neighbourhood of the Senhorina Maraquita Letotti’s dwelling56.
“You means wot you say, I s’pose?” asked Disco.
“Of course I do,” said Harold.
“An’ yer goin’ to take Jumbo as yer walley?”
“Yes.”
“H’m; I’ll go too as yer keeper.”
“My what?”
“Yer keeper—yer strait-veskit buckler, for if you ain’t a loonatic ye ought to be.”
But Disco did not go to England in that capacity. He remained at the Cape to assist Kambira, at the express command of Maraquita; and continued there until Harold returned, bringing Lieutenant Lindsay with him as a partner in the business; until Harold was married and required a gardener for his own domain57; until the Senhorina became Mrs Lindsay; until a large and thriving band of little Cape colonists58 found it necessary to have a general story-teller and adventure-recounter with a nautical59 turn of mind; until, in short, he found it convenient to go to England himself for the gal35 of his heart who had been photographed there years before, and could be rubbed off neither by sickness, sunstroke, nor adversity.
When Disco had returned to the colony with the original of the said photograph, and had fairly settled down on his own farm, then it was that he was wont60 at eventide to assemble the little colonists round him, light his pipe, and, through its hazy61 influence, recount his experiences, and deliver his opinions on the slave-trade of East Africa. Sometimes he was pathetic, sometimes humorous, but, however jocular he might be on other subjects, he invariably became very grave and very earnest when he touched on the latter theme.
“There’s only one way to cure it,” he was wont to say, “and that is, to bring the Portuguese and Arabs to their marrow-bones; put the fleet on the east coast in better workin’ order; have consuls62 everywhere, with orders to keep their weather-eyes open to the slave-dealers; start two or three British settlements—ports o’ refuge—on the mainland; hoist63 the union Jack, and, last but not least, send ’em the Bible.”
We earnestly commend the substance of Disco’s opinions to the reader, for there is urgent need for action. There is death where life should be; ashes instead of beauty; desolation in place of fertility, and, even while we write, terrible activity in the horrible traffic in—“Black Ivory.”
The End.
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1
lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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narrated
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| v.故事( narrate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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sojourn
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| v./n.旅居，寄居；逗留 | |
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Portuguese
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| n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语 | |
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obstruction
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| n.阻塞，堵塞；障碍物 | |
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lawful
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| adj.法律许可的，守法的，合法的 | |
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pandemonium
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| n.喧嚣，大混乱 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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poignant
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| adj.令人痛苦的，辛酸的，惨痛的 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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subsided
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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sprightliness
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| n.愉快，快活 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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24
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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reposed
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| v.将（手臂等）靠在某人（某物）上( repose的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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schooner
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| n.纵帆船 | |
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postpone
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| v.延期，推迟 | |
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promotion
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| n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传 | |
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prospects
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| n.希望，前途(恒为复数) | |
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30
prone
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| adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的 | |
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varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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cargoes
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| n.（船或飞机装载的）货物( cargo的名词复数 )；大量，重负 | |
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33
consul
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| n.领事；执政官 | |
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prosecute
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| vt.告发；进行；vi.告发，起诉，作检察官 | |
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gal
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| n.姑娘，少女 | |
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repression
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| n.镇压，抑制，抑压 | |
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plundered
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| 掠夺，抢劫( plunder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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humane
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| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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abolition
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| n.废除，取消 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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42
apathy
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| n.漠不关心，无动于衷；冷淡 | |
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43
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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44
extol
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| v.赞美，颂扬 | |
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45
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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46
passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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47
bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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48
mariner
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| n.水手号不载人航天探测器，海员，航海者 | |
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49
middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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50
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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51
exigencies
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| n.急切需要 | |
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52
stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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53
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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54
stunning
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| adj.极好的；使人晕倒的 | |
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55
resuscitated
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| v.使（某人或某物）恢复知觉，苏醒( resuscitate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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56
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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57
domain
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| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
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58
colonists
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| n.殖民地开拓者，移民，殖民地居民( colonist的名词复数 ) | |
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59
nautical
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| adj.海上的，航海的，船员的 | |
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60
wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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61
hazy
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| adj.有薄雾的，朦胧的；不肯定的，模糊的 | |
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62
consuls
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| 领事( consul的名词复数 )； （古罗马共和国时期）执政官 （古罗马共和国及其军队的最高首长，同时共有两位，每年选举一次） | |
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hoist
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| n.升高，起重机，推动；v.升起，升高，举起 | |
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