Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD LITERATURE
Masa, José Mozairi, and Lorenzo Bargas, with Ponce the servant, beside the
boatswain, Juan Robles, the boatswain’s mates, Manuel Viscaya and Roderigo
Hurta, and four of the sailors, the negro Babo ordered to be thrown alive into the
sea, although they made no resistance, nor begged for anything else but mercy; that
the boatswain, Juan Robles, who knew how to swim, kept the longest above water,
making acts of contrition, and, in the last words he uttered, charged this deponent
to cause mass to be said for his soul to our Lady of Succor: * * * that, during the
three days which followed, the deponent, uncertain what fate had befallen the
remains of Don Alexandro, frequently asked the negro Babo where they were, and,
if still on board, whether they were to be preserved for interment ashore, entreating
him so to order it; that the negro Babo answered nothing till the fourth day, when
at sunrise, the deponent coming on deck, the negro Babo showed him a skeleton,
which had been substituted for the ship’s proper gure-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 Babo, coming close, said words to
this eect: “Keep faith with the blacks from here to Senegal, or you shall in spirit, as
now in body, follow your leader,” pointing to 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 rst 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 nally the negro Babo spared his life, at the request
of the deponent; that a few days after, the deponent, endeavoring 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 time satised and quieted. * * But the next day, the more surely
to guard against the sailors’ escape, the negro Babo commanded all the boats to be
destroyed but the long-boat, which was unseaworthy, and another, a cutter in good
condition, which knowing it would yet be wanted for towing the water casks, he had
it lowered down into the hold.
* * * * *
[Various particulars of the prolonged and perplexed navigation ensuing here
follow, with incidents of a calamitous calm, from which portion one passage is
extracted, to wit:]
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