Bartleby the Scrivener: A Tale of Wall Street

156 THE PIAZZA TALES
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
abo, coming close, said words to this effect : .'J£eep
aith with the blacks from here to Senegal, or you shall
n spirit, as now in body, follow your leader,' pointing
o 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