about six o'clock in
    the afternoon
Although in the act of revolt the negroes made themselves masters of the hatchway , six or seven wounded went through it to the cockpit , without any hindrance on their part ; that during the act of revolt , the mate and another person , whose name he does not recollect , attempted to come up through the hatchway , but being quickly wounded , were obliged to return to the cabin ; that the deponent resolved at break of day to come up the companion-way , where the negro Babo was , being the ringleader , and Atufal , who assisted him , and having spoken to them , exhorted them to cease committing such atrocities , asking them , at the same time , what they wanted and intended to do , offering , himself , to obey their commands ; that notwithstanding this , they threw , in his presence , three men , alive and tied , overboard ; that they told the deponent to come up , and that they would not kill him ; which having done , the negro Babo asked him whether there were in those seas any negro countries where they might be carried , and he answered them , No ; that the negro Babo afterwards told him to carry them to Senegal , or to the neighboring islands of St. Nicholas ; and he answered , that this was impossible , on account of the great distance , the necessity involved of rounding Cape Horn , the bad condition of the vessel , the want of provisions , sails , and water ; but that the negro Babo replied to him he must carry them in any way ; that they would do and conform themselves to everything the deponent should require as to eating and drinking ; that after a long conference , being absolutely compelled to please them , for they threatened to kill all the whites if they were not , at all events , carried to Senegal , he told them that what was most wanting for the voyage was water ; that they would go near the coast to take it , and thence they would proceed on their course ; that the negro Babo agreed to it ; and the deponent steered towards the intermediate ports , hoping to meet some Spanish , or foreign vessel that would save them ; that within ten or eleven days they saw the land , and continued their course by it in the vicinity of Nasca ; that the deponent observed that the negroes were now restless and mutinous , because he did not effect the taking in of water , the negro Babo having required , with threats , that it should be done , without fail , the following day ; he told him he saw plainly that the coast was steep , and the rivers designated in the maps were not to be found , with other reasons suitable to the circumstances ; that the best way would be to go to the island of Santa Maria , where they might water easily , it being a solitary island , as the foreigners did ; that the deponent did not go to Pisco , that was near , nor make any other port of the coast , because the negro Babo had intimated to him several times , that he would kill all the whites the very moment he should perceive any city , town , or settlement of any kind on the shores to which they should be carried : that having determined to go to the island of Santa Maria , as the deponent had planned , for the purpose of trying whether , on the passage or near the island itself , they could find any vessel that should favor them , or whether he could escape from it in a boat to the neighboring coast of Arruco , to adopt the necessary means he immediately changed his course , steering for the island ; that the negroes Babo and Atufal held daily conferences , in which they discussed what was necessary for their design of returning to Senegal , whether they were to kill all the Spaniards , and particularly the deponent ; that eight days after parting from the coast of Nasca , the deponent being on the watch a little after day-break , and soon after the negroes had their meeting , the negro Babo came to the place where the deponent was , and told him that he had determined to kill his master , Don Alexandro Aranda , both because he and his companions could not otherwise be sure of their liberty , and that to keep the seamen in subjection , he wanted to prepare a warning of what road they should be made to take did they or any of them oppose him ; and that , by means of the death of Don Alexandro , that warning would best be given ; but , that what this last meant , the deponent did not at the time comprehend , nor could not , further than that the death of Don Alexandro was intended ; and moreover the negro Babo proposed to the deponent to call the mate Raneds , who was sleeping in the cabin , before the thing was done , for fear , as the deponent understood it , that the mate , who was a good navigator , should be killed with Don Alexandro and the rest ; that the deponent , who was the friend , from youth , of Don Alexandro , prayed and conjured , but all was useless ; for the negro Babo answered him that the thing could not be prevented , and that all the Spaniards risked their death if they should attempt to frustrate his will in this matter , or any other ; that , in this conflict , the deponent called the mate , Raneds , who was forced to go apart , and immediately the negro Babo commanded the Ashantee Martinqui and the Ashantee Lecbe to go and commit the murder ; that those two went down with hatchets to the berth of Don Alexandro ; that , yet half alive and mangled , they dragged him on deck ; that they were going to throw him overboard in that state , but the negro Babo stopped them , bidding the murder be completed on the deck before him , which was done , when , by his orders , the body was carried below , forward ; that nothing more was seen of it by the deponent for three days ; * * * that Don Alonzo Sidonia , an old man , long resident at Valparaiso , and lately appointed to a civil office in Peru , whither he had taken passage , was at the time sleeping in the berth opposite Don Alexandro 's ; that awakening at his cries , surprised by them , and at the sight of the negroes with their bloody hatchets in their hands , he threw himself into the sea through a window which was near him , and was drowned , without it being in the power of the deponent to assist or take him up ; * * * that a short time after killing Aranda , they brought upon deck his german-cousin , of middle-age , Don Francisco Masa , of Mendoza , and the young Don Joaquin , Marques de Aramboalaza , then lately from Spain , with his Spanish servant Ponce , and the three young clerks of Aranda , José Mozairi Lorenzo Bargas , and Hermenegildo Gandix , all of Cadiz ; that Don Joaquin and Hermenegildo Gandix , the negro Babo , for purposes hereafter to appear , preserved alive ; but Don Francisco Masa , José Mozairi , and Lorenzo Bargas , with Ponce the servant , beside the boatswain , Juan Robles , the boatswain 's mates , Manuel Viscaya and Roderigo Hurta , and four of the sailors , the negro Babo ordered to be thrown alive into the sea , although they made no resistance , nor begged for anything else but mercy ; that the boatswain , Juan Robles , who knew how to swim , kept the longest above water , making acts of contrition , and , in the last words he uttered , charged this deponent to cause mass to be said for his soul to our Lady of Succor : * * * that , during the three days which followed , the deponent , uncertain what fate had befallen the remains of Don Alexandro , frequently asked the negro Babo where they were , and , if still on board , whether they were to be preserved for interment ashore , entreating him so to order it ; that the negro Babo answered nothing till the fourth day , when at sunrise , the deponent coming on deck , the negro Babo showed him a skeleton , which had been substituted for the ship 's proper figure-head -- the image of Christopher Colon , the discoverer of the New World ; that the negro Babo asked him whose skeleton that was , and whether , from its whiteness , he should not think it a white 's ; that , upon discovering his face , the negro Babo , coming close , said words to this effect : `` Keep faith with the blacks from here to Senegal , or you shall in spirit , as now in body , follow your leader , '' pointing to the prow ; * * * that the same morning the negro Babo took by succession each Spaniard forward , and asked him whose skeleton that was , and whether , from its whiteness , he should not think it a white 's ; that each Spaniard covered his face ; that then to each the negro Babo repeated the words in the first place said to the deponent ; * * * that they -LRB- the Spaniards -RRB- , being then assembled aft , the negro Babo harangued them , saying that he had now done all ; that the deponent -LRB- as navigator for the negroes -RRB- might pursue his course , warning him and all of them that they should , soul and body , go the way of Don Alexandro , if he saw them -LRB- the Spaniards -RRB- speak , or plot anything against them -LRB- the negroes -RRB- -- a threat which was repeated every day ; that , before the events last mentioned , they had tied the cook to throw him overboard , for it is not known what thing they heard him speak , but finally the negro Babo spared his life , at the request of the deponent ; that a few days after , the deponent , endeavoring not to omit any means to preserve the lives of the remaining whites , spoke to the negroes peace and tranquillity , and agreed to draw up a paper , signed by the deponent and the sailors who could write , as also by the negro Babo , for himself and all the blacks , in which the deponent obliged himself to carry them to Senegal , and they not to kill any more , and he formally to make over to them the ship , with the cargo , with which they were for that time satisfied and quieted . * * But the next day , the more surely to guard against the sailors ' escape , the negro Babo commanded all the boats to be destroyed but the long-boat , which was unseaworthy , and another , a cutter in good condition , which knowing it would yet be wanted for towing the water casks , he had it lowered down into the hold . * * * * * -LSB- _ Various particulars of the prolonged and perplexed navigation ensuing here follow , with incidents of a calamitous calm , from which portion one passage is extracted , to wit _ :] -- That on the fifth day of the calm , all on board suffering much from the heat , and want of water , and five having died in fits , and mad , the negroes became irritable , and for a chance gesture , which they deemed suspicious -- though it was harmless -- made by the mate , Raneds , to the deponent in the act of handing a quadrant , they killed him ; but that for this they afterwards were sorry , the mate being the only remaining navigator on board , except the deponent . * * * * * -- That omitting other events , which daily happened , and which can only serve uselessly to recall past misfortunes and conflicts , after seventy-three days ' navigation , reckoned from the time they sailed from Nasca , during which they navigated under a scanty allowance of water , and were afflicted with the calms before mentioned , they at last arrived at the island of Santa Maria , on the seventeenth of the month of August , at about six o'clock in the afternoon , at which hour they cast anchor very near the American ship , Bachelor 's Delight , which lay in the same bay , commanded by the generous Captain Amasa Delano ; but at six o'clock in the morning , they had already descried the port , and the negroes became uneasy , as soon as at distance they saw the ship , not having expected to see one there ; that the negro Babo pacified them , assuring them that no fear need be had ; that straightway he ordered the figure on the bow to be covered with canvas , as for repairs and had the decks a little set in order ; that for a time the negro Babo and the negro Atufal conferred ; that the negro Atufal was for sailing away , but the negro Babo would not , and , by himself , cast about what to do ; that at last he came to the deponent , proposing to him to say and do all that the deponent declares to have said and done to the American captain ; * * * * * * * that the negro Babo warned him that if he varied in the least , or uttered any word , or gave any look that should give the least intimation of the past events or present state , he would instantly kill him , with all his companions , showing a dagger , which he carried hid , saying something which , as he understood it , meant that that dagger would be alert as his eye ; that the negro Babo then announced the plan to all his companions , which pleased them ; that he then , the better to disguise the truth , devised many expedients , in some of them uniting deceit and defense ; that of this sort was the device of the six Ashantees before named , who were his bravoes ; that them he stationed on the break of the poop , as if to clean certain hatchets -LRB- in cases , which were part of the cargo -RRB- , but in reality to use them , and distribute them at need , and at a given word he told them ; that , among other devices , was the device of presenting Atufal , his right hand man , as chained , though in a moment the chains could be dropped ; that in every particular he informed the deponent what part he was expected to enact in every device , and what story he was to tell on every occasion , always threatening him with instant death if he varied in the least : that , conscious that many of the negroes would be turbulent , the negro Babo appointed the four aged negroes , who were calkers , to keep what domestic order they could on the decks ; that again and again he harangued the Spaniards and his companions , informing them of his intent , and of his devices , and of the invented story that this deponent was to tell ; charging them lest any of them varied from that story ; that these arrangements were made and matured during the interval of two or three hours , between their first sighting the ship and the arrival on board of Captain Amasa Delano ; that this happened about half-past seven o'clock in the morning , Captain Amasa Delano coming in his boat , and all gladly receiving him ; that the deponent , as well as he could force himself , acting then the part of principal owner , and a free captain of the ship , told Captain Amasa Delano , when called upon , that he came from Buenos Ayres , bound to Lima , with three hundred negroes ; that off Cape Horn , and in a subsequent fever , many negroes had died ; that also , by similar casualties , all the sea officers and the greatest part of the crew had died . * * * * * -LSB- _ And so the deposition goes on , circumstantially recounting the fictitious story dictated to the deponent by Babo , and through the deponent imposed upon Captain Delano ; and also recounting the friendly offers of Captain Delano , with other things , but all of which is here omitted . After the fictitious story , etc. the deposition proceeds _ :] * * * * * -- that the generous Captain Amasa Delano remained on board all the day , till he left the ship anchored at six o'clock in the evening , deponent speaking to him always of his pretended misfortunes , under the fore-mentioned principles , without having had it in his power to tell a single word , or give him the least hint , that he might know the truth and state of things ; because the negro Babo , performing the office of an officious servant with all the appearance of submission of the humble slave , did not leave the deponent one moment ; that this was in order to observe the deponent 's actions and words , for the negro Babo understands well the Spanish ; and besides , there were thereabout some others who were constantly on the watch , and likewise understood the Spanish ; * * * that upon one occasion , while deponent was standing on the deck conversing with Amasa Delano , by a secret sign the negro Babo drew him -LRB- the deponent -RRB- aside , the act appearing as if originating with the deponent ; that then , he being drawn aside , the negro Babo proposed to him to gain from Amasa Delano full particulars about his ship , and crew , and arms ; that the deponent asked `` For what ? '' that the negro Babo answered he might conceive ; that , grieved at the prospect of what might overtake the generous Captain Amasa Delano , the deponent at first refused to ask the desired questions , and used every argument to induce the negro Babo to give up this new design ; that the negro Babo showed the point of his dagger ; that , after the information had been obtained the negro Babo again drew him aside , telling him that that very night he -LRB- the deponent -RRB- would be captain of two ships , instead of one , for that , great part of the American 's ship 's crew being to be absent fishing , the six Ashantees , without any one else , would easily take it ; that at this time he said other things to the same purpose ; that no entreaties availed ; that , before Amasa Delano 's coming on board , no hint had been given touching the capture of the American ship : that to prevent this project the deponent was powerless ; * * * -- that in some things his memory is confused , he can not distinctly recall every event ; * * * -- that as soon as they had cast anchor at six of the clock in the evening , as has before been stated , the American Captain took leave , to return to his vessel ; that upon a sudden impulse , which the deponent believes to have come from God and his angels , he , after the farewell had been said , followed the generous Captain Amasa Delano as far as the gunwale , where he stayed , under pretense of taking leave , until Amasa Delano should have been seated in his boat ; that on shoving off , the deponent sprang from the gunwale into the boat , and fell into it , he knows not how , God guarding him ; that -- * * * * * -LSB- _ Here , in the original , follows the account of what further happened at the escape , and how the San Dominick was retaken , and of the passage to the coast ; including in the recital many expressions of `` eternal gratitude '' to the `` generous Captain Amasa Delano . ''