The Mutineers and Slavers 357 



"Sold at Rio Janeiro ( ? ), 1848, by captain. 

 Also 600 sperm." 



The story of the Herald, as told in a message 

 from President Polk, with accompanying docu- 

 ments (dated March 2, 1849), shows that the cap- 

 tain, after selling the oil, made a slave voyage 

 and then disappeared with the ship. 



The Laurens, Captain Eldredge, belonging to 

 Tiffany & Halsey, of Sag Harbor, was seized in 

 the harbor of Rio Janeiro in 1841 by Com- 

 modore Storer, U.S.N., on a charge of fitting 

 out for the slave-trade. The document just 

 quoted also declares that another whaler had been 

 fitted out at Bahia, and that it was supposed to 

 be the Cynosure, Captain Simonds, belonging 

 to J. F. Trumbull, of Stonington, Connecticut. 

 Of this whale ship Starbuck says that she was 

 "sold in Bahia." It is reasonable to suppose that 

 slave-traders bought her with the understanding 

 that she was to be sailed under the American flag, 

 and by the American captain and crew, to the 

 slave coast. This done the captain was to deliver 

 her to the new owners as soon as he learned that 

 the slaves were on the beach ready to embark. 



