The Sea-Witch, by Maturin Murray Ballou

Preface of The Sea-Witch.

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Recording by Jerry Dickson.

The Sea-Witch, by Maturin Murray Ballou.

PREFACE.


LET the reader peruse the following story with the same spirit in which
it was written, and not conceive that it is either a pro-slavery or
anti-slavery tale. The "peculiar institution" which is herein
introduced, is brought forward simply as an auxiliary, and not as a
feature of the story. It is only referred to where the plot and locality
upon the slave coast have rendered this necessary, and the careful
reader will observe that the subject is treated with entire
impartiality. These few remarks are introduced, because we desire to
appear consistent. Our paper shall neither directly nor indirectly
further any sectional policy or doctrine, and in its conduct shall be
neutral, free and independent. — Editor of The Flag of our Union.


THE SEA-WITCH.


CHAPTER I.

OUTWARD BOUND.


OUR story opens in that broad, far-reaching expanse of water which lies
deep and blue between the two hemispheres, some fifteen degrees north of
the equator, in the latitude of Cuba and the Cape Verd Islands. The
delightful trade winds had not fanned the sea on a finer summer's day
for a twelvemonth, and the waves were daintily swelling upon the heaving
bosom of the deep, as though indicating the respiration of the ocean. It
was scarcely a day's sail beyond the flow of the Caribbean Sea, that one
of those noblest results of man's handiwork, a fine ship, might have
been seen gracefully ploughing her course through the sky-blue waters of
the Atlantic. She was close-hauled on the larboard tack, steering
east-southeast, and to a sailor's eye presented a certain indescribable
something that gave her taut rig and saucy air a dash of mystery, which
would have set him to speculating at once as to her character and the
trade she followed.

Few things can be named that more potently challenge our admiration than
a full-sized ship under way; her myriad of ropes, sails and
appointments, all so complete and well-controlled, the power of her
volition, the promptness with which she obeys the slightest movement of
the helm, the majestic grace of her inclination to the power of the
winds, and the foaming prow and long glistening wake, all go to make up
the charm and peculiarity of a nautical picture. There is true poetry in
such a scene as this, beauty fit to move the heart of an anchorite. No
wonder the sailor loves his ship like a mistress; no wonder he
discourses of her charms with the eloquence of true love and confiding
trust; no landsman can be more enamored of his promised bride.

But the craft to which we especially refer at the present writing, was a
coquette of the first class, beautiful in the extreme, and richly
meriting the name that her owners had placed in golden letters on her
stern — the "Sea Witch." She was one of that class of vessels known as
flat upon the floor, a model that caused her to draw but little water,
and enabled her to run free over a sandbar or into an inlet, where an
ordinary ship's long boat would have grounded. She was very long and
sharp, with graceful concave lines, and might have measured some five
hundred tons. Speed had evidently been the main object aimed at in her
construction, the flatness of her floor giving her great buoyancy, and