{"id":"01KG8AKTH0THGKTZ04WX8YQE1F","cid":"bafkreidy2s5acjty2io6qmufiqs7wcrt7vfhvauxs3a5yxwvjobc2z24bm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2308,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.838Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":2252,"text":"knock-down, for it was the most deep, subtle, infernal looking eye,\r\nthat I ever saw lodged in a human head. I believe, that by good rights\r\nit must have belonged to a wolf, or starved tiger; at any rate, I would\r\ndefy any oculist, to turn out a glass eye, half so cold, and snaky, and\r\ndeadly. It was a horrible thing; and I would give much to forget that I\r\nhave ever seen it; for it haunts me to this day.\r\n\r\nIt was impossible to tell how old this Jackson was; for he had no\r\nbeard, and no wrinkles, except small crowsfeet about the eyes. He might\r\nhave seen thirty, or perhaps fifty years. But according to his own\r\naccount, he had been to sea ever since he was eight years old, when he\r\nfirst went as a cabin-boy in an Indiaman, and ran away at Calcutta. And\r\naccording to his own account, too, he had passed through every kind of\r\ndissipation and abandonment in the worst parts of the world. He had\r\nserved in Portuguese slavers on the coast of Africa; and with a\r\ndiabolical relish used to tell of the _middle-passage,_ where the\r\nslaves were stowed, heel and point, like logs, and the suffocated and\r\ndead were unmanacled, and weeded out from the living every morning,\r\nbefore washing down the decks; how he had been in a slaving schooner,\r\nwhich being chased by an English cruiser off Cape Verde, received three\r\nshots in her hull, which raked through and through a whole file of\r\nslaves, that were chained.\r\n\r\nHe would tell of lying in Batavia during a fever, when his ship lost a\r\nman every few days, and how they went reeling ashore with the body, and\r\ngot still more intoxicated by way of precaution against the plague. He\r\nwould talk of finding a cobra-di-capello, or hooded snake, under his\r\npillow in India, when he slept ashore there. He would talk of sailors\r\nbeing poisoned at Canton with drugged _“shampoo,”_ for the sake of\r\ntheir money; and of the Malay ruffians, who stopped ships in the\r\nstraits of Caspar, and always saved the captain for the last, so as to\r\nmake him point out where the most valuable goods were stored.\r\n\r\nHis whole talk was of this land; full of piracies, plagues and\r\npoisonings. And often he narrated many passages in his own individual\r\ncareer, which were almost incredible, from the consideration that few\r\nmen could have plunged into such infamous vices, and clung to them so\r\nlong, without paying the death-penalty.\r\n\r\nBut in truth, he carried about with him the traces of these things, and\r\nthe mark of a fearful end nigh at hand; like that of King Antiochus of\r\nSyria, who died a worse death, history says, than if he had been stung\r\nout of the world by wasps and hornets.\r\n\r\nNothing was left of this Jackson but the foul lees and dregs of a man;\r\nhe was thin as a shadow; nothing but skin and bones; and sometimes used\r\nto complain, that it hurt him to sit on the hard chests. And I\r\nsometimes fancied, it was the consciousness of his miserable,\r\nbroken-down condition, and the prospect of soon dying like a dog, in\r\nconsequence of his sins, that made this poor wretch always eye me with\r\nsuch malevolence as he did. For I was young and handsome, at least my\r\nmother so thought me, and as soon as I became a little used to the sea,\r\nand shook off my low spirits somewhat, I began to have my old color in\r\nmy cheeks, and, spite of misfortune, to appear well and hearty; whereas\r\n_he_ was being consumed by an incurable malady, that was eating up his\r\nvitals, and was more fit for a hospital than a ship.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQ10JKKQP0HG6GFFSHC0","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKTGTA673QTYZM9Z58CGA","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKV2YSMC4ZA21ND4SBPRJ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:16.928Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.652Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}