{"id":"01KG6YHAXAGX115QEZD5EKZ51E","cid":"bafkreienmce2fmfsxqo3pxpdrwqwusw53rjn2jd4pmyjcehwes4tcv7344","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2720,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:55.409Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 11","source_file":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","start_line":2651,"text":"preservation, but likewise to him, chiefly, the merit is due, of\r\npacifying his more ignorant brethren, when at intervals tempted to\r\nmurmurings.”\r\n\r\n“Ah, master,” sighed the black, bowing his face, “don’t speak of me;\r\nBabo is nothing; what Babo has done was but duty.”\r\n\r\n“Faithful fellow!” cried Captain Delano. “Don Benito, I envy you such a\r\nfriend; slave I cannot call him.”\r\n\r\nAs master and man stood before him, the black upholding the white,\r\nCaptain Delano could not but bethink him of the beauty of that\r\nrelationship which could present such a spectacle of fidelity on the\r\none hand and confidence on the other. The scene was heightened by, the\r\ncontrast in dress, denoting their relative positions. The Spaniard wore\r\na loose Chili jacket of dark velvet; white small-clothes and stockings,\r\nwith silver buckles at the knee and instep; a high-crowned sombrero, of\r\nfine grass; a slender sword, silver mounted, hung from a knot in his\r\nsash—the last being an almost invariable adjunct, more for utility than\r\nornament, of a South American gentleman’s dress to this hour. Excepting\r\nwhen his occasional nervous contortions brought about disarray, there\r\nwas a certain precision in his attire curiously at variance with the\r\nunsightly disorder around; especially in the belittered Ghetto, forward\r\nof the main-mast, wholly occupied by the blacks.\r\n\r\nThe servant wore nothing but wide trowsers, apparently, from their\r\ncoarseness and patches, made out of some old topsail; they were clean,\r\nand confined at the waist by a bit of unstranded rope, which, with his\r\ncomposed, deprecatory air at times, made him look something like a\r\nbegging friar of St. Francis.\r\n\r\nHowever unsuitable for the time and place, at least in the\r\nblunt-thinking American’s eyes, and however strangely surviving in the\r\nmidst of all his afflictions, the toilette of Don Benito might not, in\r\nfashion at least, have gone beyond the style of the day among South\r\nAmericans of his class. Though on the present voyage sailing from\r\nBuenos Ayres, he had avowed himself a native and resident of Chili,\r\nwhose inhabitants had not so generally adopted the plain coat and once\r\nplebeian pantaloons; but, with a becoming modification, adhered to\r\ntheir provincial costume, picturesque as any in the world. Still,\r\nrelatively to the pale history of the voyage, and his own pale face,\r\nthere seemed something so incongruous in the Spaniard’s apparel, as\r\nalmost to suggest the image of an invalid courtier tottering about\r\nLondon streets in the time of the plague.\r\n\r\nThe portion of the narrative which, perhaps, most excited interest, as\r\nwell as some surprise, considering the latitudes in question, was the\r\nlong calms spoken of, and more particularly the ship’s so long drifting\r\nabout. Without communicating the opinion, of course, the American could\r\nnot but impute at least part of the detentions both to clumsy\r\nseamanship and faulty navigation. Eying Don Benito’s small, yellow\r\nhands, he easily inferred that the young captain had not got into\r\ncommand at the hawse-hole, but the cabin-window; and if so, why wonder\r\nat incompetence, in youth, sickness, and gentility united?\r\n\r\nBut drowning criticism in compassion, after a fresh repetition of his\r\nsympathies, Captain Delano, having heard out his story, not only\r\nengaged, as in the first place, to see Don Benito and his people\r\nsupplied in their immediate bodily needs, but, also, now farther\r\npromised to assist him in procuring a large permanent supply of water,\r\nas well as some sails and rigging; and, though it would involve no\r\nsmall embarrassment to himself, yet he would spare three of his best\r\nseamen for temporary deck officers; so that without delay the ship\r\nmight proceed to Conception, there fully to refit for Lima, her\r\ndestined port.\r\n\r\nSuch generosity was not without its effect, even upon the invalid. His\r\nface lighted up; eager and hectic, he met the honest glance of his\r\nvisitor. With gratitude he seemed overcome.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 11"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGB7Z3K8B6BYJGR83VQN5","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YHAXCGZEQWWRDF5JMRHNA","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YHAXAE09CXHKRERXA5CAQ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:58.058Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:58:03.930Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}