{"id":"01KG6YHAXCGZEQWWRDF5JMRHNA","cid":"bafkreifyeu4y4oevewhzzpshoyoh2r7dlpcsb6x2hishplawbs6vxcpdt4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2660,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:55.409Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 10","source_file":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","start_line":2594,"text":"gales,” plaintively sighed the servant; “my poor, poor master!”\r\nwringing one hand, and with the other wiping the mouth. “But be\r\npatient, Señor,” again turning to Captain Delano, “these fits do not\r\nlast long; master will soon be himself.”\r\n\r\nDon Benito reviving, went on; but as this portion of the story was very\r\nbrokenly delivered, the substance only will here be set down.\r\n\r\nIt appeared that after the ship had been many days tossed in storms off\r\nthe Cape, the scurvy broke out, carrying off numbers of the whites and\r\nblacks. When at last they had worked round into the Pacific, their\r\nspars and sails were so damaged, and so inadequately handled by the\r\nsurviving mariners, most of whom were become invalids, that, unable to\r\nlay her northerly course by the wind, which was powerful, the\r\nunmanageable ship, for successive days and nights, was blown\r\nnorthwestward, where the breeze suddenly deserted her, in unknown\r\nwaters, to sultry calms. The absence of the water-pipes now proved as\r\nfatal to life as before their presence had menaced it. Induced, or at\r\nleast aggravated, by the more than scanty allowance of water, a\r\nmalignant fever followed the scurvy; with the excessive heat of the\r\nlengthened calm, making such short work of it as to sweep away, as by\r\nbillows, whole families of the Africans, and a yet larger number,\r\nproportionably, of the Spaniards, including, by a luckless fatality,\r\nevery remaining officer on board. Consequently, in the smart west winds\r\neventually following the calm, the already rent sails, having to be\r\nsimply dropped, not furled, at need, had been gradually reduced to the\r\nbeggars’ rags they were now. To procure substitutes for his lost\r\nsailors, as well as supplies of water and sails, the captain, at the\r\nearliest opportunity, had made for Baldivia, the southernmost civilized\r\nport of Chili and South America; but upon nearing the coast the thick\r\nweather had prevented him from so much as sighting that harbor. Since\r\nwhich period, almost without a crew, and almost without canvas and\r\nalmost without water, and, at intervals giving its added dead to the\r\nsea, the San Dominick had been battle-dored about by contrary winds,\r\ninveigled by currents, or grown weedy in calms. Like a man lost in\r\nwoods, more than once she had doubled upon her own track.\r\n\r\n“But throughout these calamities,” huskily continued Don Benito,\r\npainfully turning in the half embrace of his servant, “I have to thank\r\nthose negroes you see, who, though to your inexperienced eyes appearing\r\nunruly, have, indeed, conducted themselves with less of restlessness\r\nthan even their owner could have thought possible under such\r\ncircumstances.”\r\n\r\nHere he again fell faintly back. Again his mind wandered; but he\r\nrallied, and less obscurely proceeded.\r\n\r\n“Yes, their owner was quite right in assuring me that no fetters would\r\nbe needed with his blacks; so that while, as is wont in this\r\ntransportation, those negroes have always remained upon deck—not thrust\r\nbelow, as in the Guinea-men—they have, also, from the beginning, been\r\nfreely permitted to range within given bounds at their pleasure.”\r\n\r\nOnce more the faintness returned—his mind roved—but, recovering, he\r\nresumed:\r\n\r\n“But it is Babo here to whom, under God, I owe not only my own\r\npreservation, 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","title":"Chunk 10"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGB7Z3K8B6BYJGR83VQN5","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YHAXABDWM909V7TH73HJG","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YHAXAGX115QEZD5EKZ51E","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:58.060Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:58:03.936Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}