Black Ivory

Black Ivory, by R.M. Ballantyne

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Black Ivory, by R.M. Ballantyne This
eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Black Ivory
Author: R.M. Ballantyne
Illustrator: Pearson
Release Date: June 7, 2007 [EBook #21748]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACK
IVORY ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

Black Ivory
by R.M. Ballantyne.

In writing this book, my aim has been to give a true picture in outline
of the Slave Trade as it exists at the present time on the east coast of
Africa.
In order to do this I have selected from the most trustworthy sources
what I believe to be the most telling points of "the trade," and have
woven these together into a tale, the warp of which is composed of
thick cords of fact; the woof of slight lines of fiction, just sufficient to
hold the fabric together. Exaggeration has easily been avoided,
because--as Dr Livingstone says in regard to the
slave-trade--"exaggeration is impossible."
If the reader's taste should be offended by finding the tragic and comic
elements in too close proximity I trust that he will bear in remembrance
that "such is life," and that the writer who would be true to life must
follow, not lead, nature.
I have to acknowledge myself indebted to Dr Ryan, late Bishop of
Mauritius; to the Rev. Charles New, interpreter to the Livingstone
Search Expedition; to Edward Hutchinson, Esquire, Lay Secretary to
the Church Missionary Society, and others, for kindly furnishing me
with information in connexion with the slave trade.
Besides examining the Parliamentary Blue-books which treat of this
subject, I have read or consulted, among others, the various
authoritative works to which reference is made in the foot-notes
sprinkled throughout this book,--all of which works bear the strongest
possible testimony to the fact that the horrible traffic in human beings
is in all respects as bad at the present time on the east coast of Africa as
it ever was on the west coast in the days of Wilberforce.
I began my tale in the hope that I might produce something to interest
the young (perchance, also, the old) in a most momentous cause,--the
total abolition of the African slave-trade. I close it with the prayer that
God may make it a tooth in the file which shall eventually cut the
chains of slavery, and set the black man free.
R.M. Ballantyne.

1873
CHAPTER ONE.
SHOWS THAT A GOOD BEGINNING MAY SOMETIMES BE
FOLLOWED BY A BAD ENDING.
"Six feet water in the hold, sir!"
That would not have been a pleasant announcement to the captain of
the `Aurora' at any time, but its unpleasantness was vastly increased by
the fact that it greeted him near the termination of what had been, up to
that point of time, an exceedingly prosperous voyage.
"Are you sure, Davis?" asked the captain; "try again."
He gave the order under the influence of that feeling which is styled
"hoping against hope," and himself accompanied the ship's carpenter to
see it obeyed.
"Six feet two inches," was the result of this investigation.
The vessel, a large English brig, had sprung a leak, and was rolling
heavily in a somewhat rough sea off the east coast of Africa. It was no
consolation to her captain that the shores of the great continent were
visible on his lee, because a tremendous surf roared along the whole
line of coast, threatening destruction to any vessel that should venture
to approach, and there was no harbour of refuge nigh.
"She's sinking fast, Mr Seadrift," said the captain to a stout
frank-looking youth of about twenty summers, who leant against the
bulwarks and gazed wistfully at the land; "the carpenter cannot find the
leak, and the rate at which the water is rising shows that she cannot
float long."
"What then do you propose to do?" inquired young Seadrift, with a
troubled expression of countenance.

"Abandon her," replied the captain.
"Well, you may do so, captain, but I shall not forsake my father's ship
as long as she can float. Why not beach her somewhere on the coast?
By so doing we might save part of the cargo, and, at all events, shall
have done the utmost that lay in our power."
"Look at the coast," returned the captain; "where would you beach her?
No doubt there is smooth water inside the reef, but the channels
through it, if there be any here, are so narrow that it would be almost
certain death to make the attempt."