The Plague at Sea.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2955, 29 November 1900, Page 3

The Plague at Sea.

Some terrible stories of slave-dealing days are narrated in “ Scribner’s Magazine.” One of them describes the last voyage of Captain Ruiz, a noted slaver, in his brig, the Gloria. Ruiz was so intent on his work that he forgot to ship any drinking water. On the route down a Portuguese schooner was met, with 190 slaves and a large quantity of gold dust on hoard. On learning, through a friendly visit, what the Portuguese carried, Captain Ruiz attacked and captured her, killing every one of her crew and transferring her cargo to his own ship. He then scuttled the schooner and went on to Papoe, a town belonging to a Dahoman chief, where 600 slaves had been gathered for a Spanish slaver soon to arrive. Ruiz promptly bought 400 of these, paying for them with gold dust taken from the Portuguese schooner. Now, Ruiz wasmot only a pirate, but a roysterer. Captain and crew were constantly under the influence of liquor, and the result was that only a part of the barrels in the hold were filled with fresh water. “ We were drawing from the last casks,” says Drake, the narrator “ before this discovery was made, and the horror of our situation sobered Captain Ruiz. He gave orders to hoist the precious remnant abaft the main grating, and made me calculate how long it would sustain the crew and cargo. I found that a half-gill a day would hold out to the Spanish Main, and it was decided that in order to save our cargo we should allow the slaves a half-gill and the crew a gill each day. Then began a tortpre worse than death to the blacks. Pent in their close dungeons to the number of nearly 500 (many had already died), they suffered continual torment/ Our crew quarrelled fiercely over their own stinted rations. Our cargo had been stored on the platforms closer than I ever saw slaves stowed before or since. Instead of lowering buckets of water to them as was customary, it became necessary to pour the water in half-pint measures. Those farthest from the grating never got a drop, and became raving mad for drink. Presently diseases of various kinds added to their misery. Matters grew worse. At last Captain Ruiz ordered the hatches down, and swore he would make the run on our regular water rations, and take the chances of his stock. Next morning came a storm which drove us on our course a. hundred knots. Two days afterwards Ruiz and four of the men were taken suddenly ill with a disease that baffled my medical knowledge, . . . . and in six hours they were dead. The first mate went next, and then three others of the crew, and a black diver.” It was discovered that the terrible condition had “ generated the plague.” “ I began to notice. ... a low heavy fog on deck

almost like steam. It was a death mist that I saw rising. At this time all but three of the men and myself had been attacked, and be abandoned the Gloria in her longboat.”