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PAGE 39

Benito Cereno
by [?]

[Here, in the original, follows the account of what further
happened at the escape, and how the San Dominick was retaken, and
of the passage to the coast; including in the recital many
expressions of “eternal gratitude” to the “generous Captain Amasa
Delano.” The deposition then proceeds with recapitulatory remarks,
and a partial renumeration of the negroes, making record of their
individual part in the past events, with a view to furnishing,
according to command of the court, the data whereon to found the
criminal sentences to be pronounced. From this portion is the
following
;]

–That he believes that all the negroes, though not in the first
place knowing to the design of revolt, when it was accomplished,
approved it. * * * That the negro, Jose, eighteen years old, and
in the personal service of Don Alexandro, was the one who
communicated the information to the negro Babo, about the state of
things in the cabin, before the revolt; that this is known,
because, in the preceding midnight, he use to come from his berth,
which was under his master’s, in the cabin, to the deck where the
ringleader and his associates were, and had secret conversations
with the negro Babo, in which he was several times seen by the
mate; that, one night, the mate drove him away twice; * * that
this same negro Jose was the one who, without being commanded to
do so by the negro Babo, as Lecbe and Martinqui were, stabbed his
master, Don Alexandro, after be had been dragged half-lifeless to
the deck; * * that the mulatto steward, Francesco, was of the
first band of revolters, that he was, in all things, the creature
and tool of the negro Babo; that, to make his court, he, just
before a repast in the cabin, proposed, to the negro Babo,
poisoning a dish for the generous Captain Amasa Delano; this is
known and believed, because the negroes have said it; but that the
negro Babo, having another design, forbade Francesco; * * that the
Ashantee Lecbe was one of the worst of them; for that, on the day
the ship was retaken, he assisted in the defense of her, with a
hatchet in each hand, with one of which he wounded, in the breast,
the chief mate of Amasa Delano, in the first act of boarding; this
all knew; that, in sight of the deponent, Lecbe struck, with a
hatchet, Don Francisco Masa, when, by the negro Babo’s orders, he
was carrying him to throw him overboard, alive, beside
participating in the murder, before mentioned, of Don Alexandro
Aranda, and others of the cabin-passengers; that, owing to the
fury with which the Ashantees fought in the engagement with the
boats, but this Lecbe and Yan survived; that Yan was bad as Lecbe;
that Yan was the man who, by Babo’s command, willingly prepared
the skeleton of Don Alexandro, in a way the negroes afterwards
told the deponent, but which he, so long as reason is left him,
can never divulge; that Yan and Lecbe were the two who, in a calm
by night, riveted the skeleton to the bow; this also the negroes
told him; that the negro Babo was he who traced the inscription
below it; that the negro Babo was the plotter from first to last;
he ordered every murder, and was the helm and keel of the revolt;
that Atufal was his lieutenant in all; but Atufal, with his own
hand, committed no murder; nor did the negro Babo; * * that Atufal
was shot, being killed in the fight with the boats, ere boarding;
* * that the negresses, of age, were knowing to the revolt, and
testified themselves satisfied at the death of their master, Don
Alexandro; that, had the negroes not restrained them, they would
have tortured to death, instead of simply killing, the Spaniards
slain by command of the negro Babo; that the negresses used their
utmost influence to have the deponent made away with; that, in the
various acts of murder, they sang songs and danced–not gaily, but
solemnly; and before the engagement with the boats, as well as
during the action, they sang melancholy songs to the negroes, and
that this melancholy tone was more inflaming than a different one
would have been, and was so intended; that all this is believed,
because the negroes have said it.–that of the thirty-six men of
the crew, exclusive of the passengers (all of whom are now dead),
which the deponent had knowledge of, six only remained alive, with
four cabin-boys and ship-boys, not included with the crew; *
*–that the negroes broke an arm of one of the cabin-boys and gave
him strokes with hatchets.