Page:A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields.djvu/100

Gonzales Perreiro shall to me count out
A hundred ducats by the head at least.'
All of a sudden, good Mynheer Van Kock
Is interrupted in his happy thoughts.
The surgeon of the brave ship enters in,
Monsieur le Docteur Van der Smissen, named.
It is a figure dry and thin, the nose
Full of red warts. 'Ah well! My surgeon friend,'
Cries out Van Kock, 'how fare my dear, dear blacks?'
The doctor thanks him for his interest,
And says, 'I came here, captain, to announce
That the mortality the night just past
Has much augmented. On an average,
One with another taken, there have died
About per day but two. This day have died
Not less than seven, four men and women three.
I have inscribed the loss without delay
Upon the registers; I have done more;
I have examined, and with care minute,
The corpses, for often will these rogues
Counterfeit death, in hopes they may be thrown
Amidst the waves. I took away their chains
And saw, as is my wont, the bodies flung
This morning in the sea at break of day.
Then instantly the sharks came darting forth
From the blue bosom of the waves; they came
Band after band, a serried army fierce.
They love the black flesh, captain, oh so much!
They're my pensioners since a long, long time.
They have pursued the track of our good ship
E'en from the day we left the savage coast.
The rogues! They scent the corpses,—far, far off,
With the dilated nostrils of gourmets.
It is most comical to see them seize