Role

Chapter 1

Conditions aboard the slave ship was wretched. Men, women and children
crammed into every available space, denied adequate room, food or
breathing space. The stench was appalling - the atmosphere inhumane to
say the least.

She was called the Felaz, commanded by Captain Hallosin S'sambra (brother
of Narissorin S'sambra, a ruthless ex-Chancellor of the Scion), bound to
Hamsah Mu'tazz. She was a very broad-decked ship, with a mainmast, schooner
rigged, and behind her foremast was a large, formidable cannon, which turned
on a broad circle of iron, on deck, and which enabled her to act as a pirate
if her slaving speculation failed, and for defense . She had taken in, on
the coast of Aturi, 336 males and 226 females, making in all 562, and had
been out seventeen days, during which she had thrown overboard 55 who had
perished under harsh conditions.

The slaves were all enclosed under grated hatchways between decks. The space
was so low that they sat between each other's legs and were stowed so close
together that there was no possibility of their lying down or at all changing
their position by night or day. As they belonged to and were shipped on
account of different individuals, they were all branded like sheep with the
owner's marks of different forms. These were impressed under their breasts or
on their arms, burnt with a red-hot iron. It is impossible to conceive the
effect of this eruption - 517 fellow creatures of all ages and sexes and
species, some children, some adults, some old men and women, all in a state
of total nudity, hudded together, unable to move.

The heat in the slave-hold was so great and the odor so offensive that it
was quite impossible to enter, even had there been room - or if you had
wanted to.

It is into this inhumane living hell that I was brought into the world.