I 
The Story of Crowther 
panions who were allowed to stay on deck saw 
a ship coming in sight, they ran below, frightened 
nearly out of their wits. This ship proved to be 
an English man-of-war, and when the captain of 
it came aboard the slaver and carried away every¬ 
body to his own ship, this little boy gave himself 
up for lost. When he saw large pieces of meat 
hanging from the yard-arms of the Englishman’s 
ship and piles of cannon balls on the deck, his 
terror knew no bounds; for he thought that the 
balls were the heads of little darkeys like himself, 
and that their meat had been hung up to cool be¬ 
fore being eaten. After his mind was disabused 
of this frightful impression and he found out that 
he was among friends instead of white cannibals, 
he is said to have cut some rare “capers.” As 
he was a wild, little heathen, this was not sur¬ 
prising. One day he saw the captain of the 
Portuguese slaver sitting on deck. Slipping up 
slyly behind him, he gave the unsuspecting pirate 
a sharp rap on his cheek with the palm of his 
open hand. We may imagine the rage of the 
man at such an insult from such a source, but be¬ 
fore he could resent it, his little monkey-like tor¬ 
mentor had disappeared below deck. 
Soon this little African pagan was taken to Sierra 
Leone, named Samuel Crowther, and was edu- 
39 
