three o'clock in the
    morning
* * * A smart negro , named Dago , who had been for many years a grave-digger among the Spaniards , aged forty-six years . * * * Four old negroes , born in Africa , from sixty to seventy , but sound , calkers by trade , whose names are as follows : -- the first was named Muri , and he was killed -LRB- as was also his son named Diamelo -RRB- ; the second , Nacta ; the third , Yola , likewise killed ; the fourth , Ghofan ; and six full-grown negroes , aged from thirty to forty-five , all raw , and born among the Ashantees -- Matiluqui , Yan , Leche , Mapenda , Yambaio , Akim ; four of whom were killed ; * * * a powerful negro named Atufal , who being supposed to have been a chief in Africa , his owner set great store by him . * * * And a small negro of Senegal , but some years among the Spaniards , aged about thirty , which negro 's name was Babo ; * * * that he does not remember the names of the others , but that still expecting the residue of Don Alexandra 's papers will be found , will then take due account of them all , and remit to the court ; * * * and thirty-nine women and children of all ages . -LSB- _ The catalogue over , the deposition goes on _ -RSB- * * * That all the negroes slept upon deck , as is customary in this navigation , and none wore fetters , because the owner , his friend Aranda , told him that they were all tractable ; * * * that on the seventh day after leaving port , at three o'clock in the morning , all the Spaniards being asleep except the two officers on the watch , who were the boatswain , Juan Robles , and the carpenter , Juan Bautista Gayete , and the helmsman and his boy , the negroes revolted suddenly , wounded dangerously the boatswain and the carpenter , and successively killed eighteen men of those who were sleeping upon deck , some with hand-spikes and hatchets , and others by throwing them alive overboard , after tying them ; that of the Spaniards upon deck , they left about seven , as he thinks , alive and tied , to manoeuvre the ship , and three or four more , who hid themselves , remained also alive . 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 .