and now our cup of misery seemed full indeed. we were friendless and captive, and we had for our jailers two of the most inhuman beings that ever lived to disgrace the earth, and both of them hated us with an exceeding bitter hatred; one because i had spat in his face, the other because we had escaped the fire. moreover, we were chained to an oar in a vessel which was sailing over i know not how many thousands of miles of water, in latitudes where it was not likely we should fall in with any ship that could rescue us. verily there seemed before us nothing but horror and death!
and truly our lot was hard. hour upon hour we tugged at the oar. where we toiled there we slept, amongst the shrieks, [pg 183]sobs, groans, and heart-rending lamentations of our fellow-captives. up and down the gangways that divided us walked stalwart spaniards, armed with heavy whips, which they scarcely ever ceased from laying about our bare shoulders. our food was such as is given to pigs in england—coarse maize or meal, soaked in cold water, with bread of the blackest and hardest description. the heat burned us to madness; the cold night-winds blew in upon us; the salt-spray dashing through the open ports found the raw places in our wounds and stung us as if with fire. verily, we were in hell! ere many days had gone by a man dropped and died at his post. they let him hang there by his chains till another day had gone past, then they knocked off his irons and flung him through the port-hole. and there was scarcely a man of us that did not envy him.
now that captain manuel nunez had us in his power there was apparently no [pg 184]limit to his cruelty. scarcely a day passed on which he did not descend the ladder to our deck and vex our souls with some new form of torture. sometimes he would take his station near us, and bid the overseers lay on to us with their whips. sometimes he would take the whip himself and beat us about the head and face with it until we became senseless. now and then he would amuse himself by pricking us with his sword or dagger; now and then he would spit in our faces and bespatter us with filth, pouring out upon us every foul and evil name he could think of. and when he had worked his will upon us, there would come to us frey bartolomeo, cold and cruel, and he would admonish and instruct us, and finding that he could get naught out of us, would depart cursing us for lutherans and dogs.
these two presently devised a new torture, and put it into operation upon us. they caused the ship’s armorer to make [pg 185]an iron brand, bearing the word “heretic”, and this being heated red, they came down to us and branded us on back and breast, so that all men, they said, should know us for what we were. and after that they gave us more lashes, and then deluged us with salt water, and so left us more dead than alive.
now, after i had undergone some weeks of this treatment, i was like to have lost my senses, for the strength of my body was giving out, and i felt myself powerless to resist the continued cruelties and insults which were put upon me. yea, i should certainly have gone mad at that time if it had not been for my faithful companion, pharaoh nanjulian, who did his best to cheer and support me, and got no reward for it but an increase of blows and stripes from nunez, and venomous curses from frey bartolomeo.
it was one of nunez’s chief delights at this period to come down upon our deck [pg 186]and goad me into a rage that closely approached madness. thus after exposing me to numerous insults, he would ask me what i proposed to do when i reached england again, and what fate i was keeping in store for my cousin stapleton.
“it must afford you the most exquisite delight of which the human mind is capable, master salkeld,” he said one day, when he had tormented and plagued me beyond endurance, “to sit here in these pleasant quarters and think of your cousin at home. he hath doubtless entered upon the family estates and married the lady whose affections you stole from him, and maybe he hath by this time told her of the trick he played upon you, and they laugh at it together.”
and at that i cursed him before god and man and wept bitter tears, for i was thoroughly broken, and had no more heart in me than a child.
“so you are broken at last?” said he, and [pg 187]struck me across the mouth and went away.
and then i wished to die, for i was indeed broken; but pharaoh did his best to console me and bade me be of good cheer, for we should triumph yet.
now the next day, our voyage having then lasted some nine or ten weeks, we were aware of a sail bearing down upon us from the south-east, and before long it became evident that this ship was chasing us, whereupon there was much to-do on board the santa filomena, and our overseers urged us to renewed exertions with continual lashing of their whips. nevertheless, within three hours the ship had overhauled us, and from our post we saw flying from her mast-head the flag of england.
