CHAPTER IV.
THE SURVIVORS OF THE "WALDECK." The slave trade was still carried on, on a large scale, in all equinoctial Africa.

Notwithstanding the English and French cruisers, ships loaded with slaves leave the coasts of Angola and Mozambique every year to transport negroes to various parts of the world, and, it must be said, of the civilized world.
Captain Hull was not ignorant of it.

Though these parts were not ordinarily frequented by slave-ships, he asked himself if these blacks, whose salvage he had just effected, were not the survivors of a cargo of slaves that the "Waldeck" was going to sell to some Pacific colony.
At all events, if that was so, the blacks became free again by the sole act of setting foot on his deck, and he longed to tell it to them.
Meanwhile the most earnest care had been lavished on the shipwrecked men from the "Waldeck." Mrs.Weldon, aided by Nan and Dick Sand, had administered to them a little of that good fresh water of which they must have been deprived for several days, and that, with some nourishment, sufficed to restore them to life.
The eldest of these blacks--he might be about sixty years old--was soon able to speak, and he could answer in English the questions which were addressed to him.
"The ship which carried you was run into ?" asked Captain Hull, first of all.
"Yes," replied the old black.

"Ten days ago our ship was struck, during a very dark night.

We were asleep----" "But the men of the 'Waldeck'-- what has become of them ?" "They were no longer there, sir, when my companions and I reached the deck." "Then, was the crew able to jump on board the ship which struck the 'Waldeck' ?" demanded Captain Hull.
"Perhaps, and we must indeed hope so for their sakes." "And that ship, after the collision, did it not return to pick you up ?" "No." "Did she then go down herself ?" "She did not founder," replied the old black, shaking his head, "for we could see her running away in the night." This fact, which was attested by all the survivors of the "Waldeck," may appear incredible.