Bartleby the Scrivener: A Tale of Wall Street

BENITO CERENO 165
their boarding the negroes should kill him ; that this
inducing the Americans to believe he some way favoured
the cause of the negroes, they fired two balls at him, so
that he fell wounded from the rigging, and was drowned
in the sea * * * — that the ;
young Don Joaquin, Marques
de Aramboalaza, like Hermenegildo Gandix, the third
clerk, was degraded to the office and appearance of a
common seaman ; that upon one occasion when Don
Joaquin shrank, the negro Babo commanded the Ashantee
Lecbe to take tar and heat it, and pour it upon Don
* * * — that Don Joaquin was killed
Joaquin's hands ;
owing to another mistake of the Americans, but one
impossible to be avoided, as upon the approach of the
boats, Don Joaquin, with a hatchet tied edge out and
upright to his hand, was made by the negroes to appear
on the bulwarks ; whereupon, seen with arms in his
hands and in a questionable attitude, he was shot for
a renegade seaman * * * — that on the ;
person of Don
Joaquin was found secreted a jewel, which, by papers
that were discovered, proved to have been meant for
a votive offer-
the shrine of our Lady of Mercy in Lima ;
ing, beforehand prepared and guarded, to attest his
gratitude, when he should have landed in Peru, his last
destination, for the safe conclusion of his entire voyage
* * * — that the jewel, with the other
from Spain ;
effects of the late Don Joaquin, is in the custody of the
brethren of the Hospital de Sacerdotes, awaiting the
disposition of the honourable court * * * — ;
that, owing
to the condition of the deponent, as well as the haste
in which the boats departed for the attack, the Americans
were not forewarned that there were, among the apparent
crew, a passenger and one of the clerks disguised by
the negro Babo * * * — ;
that, besides the negroes killed
in the action, some were killed after the capture and reanchoring
at night, when shackled to the ring-bolts on