She was
evidently one of those London West Indiamen, on board of which I knew
there was much splendour and great comfort. But, alas, the hand of
lawless violence had been there. The captain lay across the table,
with his head hanging over the side of it next to us, and unable to
help himself, with his hands tied behind his back, and a gag in his
mouth; his face purple from the blood running to his head, and the
white of his eyes turned up, while his loud stertorous breathing but
too clearly indicated the rupture of a vessel on the brain.
He was a stout portly man, and although we released him on the instant,
and had him bled, and threw water on his face, and did all we could for
him, he never spoke afterwards, and died in half an hour.
Four gentlemanly-looking men were sitting at table, lashed to their
chairs, pale and trembling, while six of the most ruffian-looking
scoundrels I ever beheld stood on the opposite side of the table in a
row fronting us, with the light from the lamps shining full on them.
Three of them were small but very square mulattoes; one was a South
American Indian, with the square high-boned visage and long, lank,
black glossy hair of his caste.
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