As soon as the cargo was safe from the grasp of cruisers, I resolved to disregard the flagless and paperless craft that bore it safely from Africa, and being unacquainted in Sant' Iago, to cross the island towards the capital, in search of a consignee. Accordingly I mounted a spirited little horse, and with a _montero_ guide, turned my face once more towards the "ever faithful city of Havana."
My companion had a thousand questions for "the captain," all of which I answered with so much _bonhommie_, that we soon became the best friends imaginable, and chatted over all the scandal of Cuba. I learned from this man that a cargo had recently been "run" in the neighborhood of Matanzas, and that its disposal was most successfully managed by a Señor * * *, from Catalonia.
I slapped my thigh and shouted _eureka_! It flashed through my mind to trust this man without further inquiry, and I confess that my decision was based exclusively upon his _sectional_ nationality. I am partial to the Catalans.
Accordingly, I presented myself at the counting-room of my future consignee in due time, and "made a clean breast" of the whole transaction, disclosing the destitute state of my vessel. In a very short period, his Excellency the Captain-General was made aware of my arrival and furnished a list of "the Africans,"--by which name the Bosal slaves are commonly known in Cuba. Nor was the captain of the port neglected. A convenient blank page of his register was inscribed with the name of my vessel as having sailed from the port six months before, and this was backed by a register and muster-roll, in order to secure my unquestionable entry into a harbor.
Before nightfall every thing was in order with Spanish despatch when stimulated either by doubloons or the smell of African blood;--and twenty-four hours afterwards, I was again at the landing with a suit of clothes and blanket for each of my "domestics." The schooner was immediately put in charge of a clever pilot, who undertook the formal duty and _name_ of her commander, in order to elude the vigilance of all the minor officials whose conscience had not been lulled by the golden anodyne.
In the meanwhile every attention had been given to the slaves by my hospitable _ranchero_. The "head-money" once paid, no body,--civil, military, foreign, or Spanish--dared interfere with them. Forty-eight hours of rest, ablution, exercise and feeding, served to recruit the gang and steady their gait. Nor had the sailors in charge of the party omitted the performance of their duty as "_valets_" to the gentlemen and "_ladies' maids_" to the females; so that when the march towards Sant' Iago began, the procession might have been considered as "respectable as it was numerous."