Bartleby the Scrivener: A Tale of Wall Street

BENITO CERENO 163
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 ;
did the negro Babo ;
nor
* * * 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