Bartleby the Scrivener: A Tale of Wall Street

162 THE PIAZZA TALES
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
Matiluqui were, stabbed his master, Don Alexandra,
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,
* * * that
having another design, forbade Francesco ;
the Ashantee Lecbe was one of the worst of them ;
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, besides 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 afterward told
the deponent, but which he, so long as reason is left
him, can never divulge ;
for
that Yan and Lecbe were the