Part 38 (1/2)
But Harold quickly put him at his ease. He entered on the subject with earnest gravity.
”It strikes me, Lindsay,” he said thoughtfully, after the lieutenant had finished, ”that I can aid you in this affair; but you must not ask me how at present. Give me a few hours to think over it, and then I shall have matured my plans.”
Of course the lieutenant hailed with heartfelt grat.i.tude the gleam of hope held out to him, and thus the friends parted for a time.
That same afternoon Harold sat under a palm-tree in company with Disco, Jumbo, Kambira, Azinte, and Obo.
”How would you like to go with me to the Cape of Good Hope, Kambira?”
asked Harold abruptly.
”Whar dat?” asked the chief through Jumbo.
”Far away to the south of Africa,” answered Harold. ”You know that you can never go back to your own land now, unless you want to be again enslaved.”
”Him say him no' want to go back,” interpreted Jumbo; ”got all him care for now--Azinte and Obo.”
”Then do you agree to go with me?” said Harold.
To this Kambira replied heartily that he did.
”W'y, wot do 'ee mean for to do with 'em?” asked Disco, in some surprise.
”I will get them comfortably settled there,” replied Harold. ”My father has a business friend in Cape Town who will easily manage to put me in the way of doing it. Besides, I have a particular reason for wis.h.i.+ng to take Azinte there.--Ask her, Jumbo, if she remembers a young lady named Senhorina Maraquita Letotti.”
To this Azinte replied that she did, and the way in which her eyes sparkled proved that she remembered her with intense pleasure.
”Well, tell her,” rejoined Harold, ”that Maraquita has grieved very much at losing her, and is _very_ anxious to get her back again--not as a slave, but as a friend, for no slavery is allowed in English settlements anywhere, and I am sure that Maraquita hates slavery as much as I do, though she is not English, so I intend to take her and Kambira and Obo to the Cape, where Maraquita is living--or will be living soon.”
”Ye don't stick at trifles, sir,” said Disco, whose eyes, on hearing this, a.s.sumed a thoughtful, almost a troubled look.
”My plan does not seem to please you,” said Harold.
”Please me, sir, w'y shouldn't it please me? In course you knows best; I was only a little puzzled, that's all.”
Disco said no more, but he thought a good deal, for he had noted the beauty and sprightliness of Maraquita, and the admiration with which Harold had first beheld her; and it seemed to him that this rather powerful method of attempting to gratify the Portuguese girl was proof positive that Harold had lost his heart to her.
Harold guessed what was running in Disco's mind, but did not care to undeceive him, as, in so doing, he might run some risk of betraying the trust reposed in him by Lindsay.
The captain of the schooner, being bound for the Cape after visiting Zanzibar, was willing to take these additional pa.s.sengers, and the anxious lieutenant was induced to postpone total and irrevocable despair, although, Maraquita being poor, and he being poor, and promotion in the service being very slow, he had little reason to believe his prospects much brighter than they were before,--poor fellow!
Time pa.s.sed on rapid wing--as time is notoriously p.r.o.ne to do--and the fortunes of our _dramatis personae_ varied somewhat.
Captain Romer continued to roam the Eastern seas, along with brother captains, and spent his labour and strength in rescuing a few hundreds of captives from among the hundreds of thousands that were continually flowing out of unhappy Africa. Yoosoof and Moosa continued to throw a boat-load or two of damaged ”cattle” in the way of the British cruisers, as a decoy, and succeeded on the whole pretty well in running full cargoes of valuable Black Ivory to the northern markets. The Sultan of Zanzibar continued to a.s.sure the British Consul that he heartily sympathised with England in her desire to abolish slavery, and to allow his officials, for a ”consideration,” to prosecute the slave-trade to any extent they pleased! Portugal continued to a.s.sure England of her sympathy and co-operation in the good work of repression, and her subjects on the east coast of Africa continued to export thousands of slaves under the protection of the Portuguese and French flags, styling them _free engages_. British-Indian subjects--the Banyans of Zanzibar,--continued to furnish the sinews of war which kept the gigantic trade in human flesh going on merrily. Murders, etcetera, continued to be perpetrated, tribes to be plundered, and hearts to be broken--of course ”legally” and ”domestically,” as well as piratically-- during this rapid flight of time.
But nearly everything in this life has its bright lights and half-tints, as well as its deep shadows. During the same flight of time, humane individuals have continued to urge on the good cause of the total abolition of slavery, and Christian missionaries have continued, despite the difficulties of slave-trade, climate, and human apathy, to sow here and there on the coasts the precious seed of Gospel truth, which we trust shall yet be sown broad-cast by native hands, throughout the length and breadth of that mighty land.