{"id":"01KG8AKXB26431WDFFJV316R05","cid":"bafkreidnonyrddgzssfc6v4xkie56gatr6fejvy5zccn3rhix4na65tfpa","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4788,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.023Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 29","source_file":"01KG89J1F4D8P9BBX9AMGZ7TX7","start_line":4717,"text":"times; thinking to cripple the fugitive ship by bringing down her\r\nspars. But only a few inconsiderable ropes were shot away. Soon the\r\nship was beyond the gun’s range, steering broad out of the bay; the\r\nblacks thickly clustering round the bowsprit, one moment with taunting\r\ncries towards the whites, the next with upthrown gestures hailing the\r\nnow dusky moors of ocean—cawing crows escaped from the hand of the\r\nfowler.\r\n\r\nThe first impulse was to slip the cables and give chase. But, upon\r\nsecond thoughts, to pursue with whale-boat and yawl seemed more\r\npromising.\r\n\r\nUpon inquiring of Don Benito what firearms they had on board the San\r\nDominick, Captain Delano was answered that they had none that could be\r\nused; because, in the earlier stages of the mutiny, a cabin-passenger,\r\nsince dead, had secretly put out of order the locks of what few muskets\r\nthere were. But with all his remaining strength, Don Benito entreated\r\nthe American not to give chase, either with ship or boat; for the\r\nnegroes had already proved themselves such desperadoes, that, in case\r\nof a present assault, nothing but a total massacre of the whites could\r\nbe looked for. But, regarding this warning as coming from one whose\r\nspirit had been crushed by misery the American did not give up his\r\ndesign.\r\n\r\nThe boats were got ready and armed. Captain Delano ordered his men into\r\nthem. He was going himself when Don Benito grasped his arm.\r\n\r\n“What! have you saved my life, Señor, and are you now going to throw\r\naway your own?”\r\n\r\nThe officers also, for reasons connected with their interests and those\r\nof the voyage, and a duty owing to the owners, strongly objected\r\nagainst their commander’s going. Weighing their remonstrances a moment,\r\nCaptain Delano felt bound to remain; appointing his chief mate—an\r\nathletic and resolute man, who had been a privateer’s-man—to head the\r\nparty. The more to encourage the sailors, they were told, that the\r\nSpanish captain considered his ship good as lost; that she and her\r\ncargo, including some gold and silver, were worth more than a thousand\r\ndoubloons. Take her, and no small part should be theirs. The sailors\r\nreplied with a shout.\r\n\r\nThe fugitives had now almost gained an offing. It was nearly night; but\r\nthe moon was rising. After hard, prolonged pulling, the boats came up\r\non the ship’s quarters, at a suitable distance laying upon their oars\r\nto discharge their muskets. Having no bullets to return, the negroes\r\nsent their yells. But, upon the second volley, Indian-like, they\r\nhurtled their hatchets. One took off a sailor’s fingers. Another struck\r\nthe whale-boat’s bow, cutting off the rope there, and remaining stuck\r\nin the gunwale like a woodman’s axe. Snatching it, quivering from its\r\nlodgment, the mate hurled it back. The returned gauntlet now stuck in\r\nthe ship’s broken quarter-gallery, and so remained.\r\n\r\nThe negroes giving too hot a reception, the whites kept a more\r\nrespectful distance. Hovering now just out of reach of the hurtling\r\nhatchets, they, with a view to the close encounter which must soon\r\ncome, sought to decoy the blacks into entirely disarming themselves of\r\ntheir most murderous weapons in a hand-to-hand fight, by foolishly\r\nflinging them, as missiles, short of the mark, into the sea. But, ere\r\nlong, perceiving the stratagem, the negroes desisted, though not before\r\nmany of them had to replace their lost hatchets with handspikes; an\r\nexchange which, as counted upon, proved, in the end, favorable to the\r\nassailants.\r\n\r\nMeantime, with a strong wind, the ship still clove the water; the boats\r\nalternately falling behind, and pulling up, to discharge fresh volleys.\r\n\r\nThe fire was mostly directed towards the stern, since there, chiefly,\r\nthe negroes, at present, were clustering. But to kill or maim the\r\nnegroes was not the object. To take them, with the ship, was the\r\nobject. To do it, the ship must be boarded; which could not be done by\r\nboats while she was sailing so fast.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 29"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AK2X9P0E5X4X6Z77F9M13","peer_type":"intro","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1F4D8P9BBX9AMGZ7TX7","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKXB2DVYR6TEAGW4DVR2C","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKXBDKGQ0X50RPVHFVVFA","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:19.810Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:26.889Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}