One day we got a couple of fishes from the sea while

One day, we got a couple of fishes from the sea. While we were eating them, the crew
member that knew a bit of medicine, said that those fishes were slightly contaminated, and that
definitely wasn’t good news for us, since we ate already half of them. We were planning to give the
leftovers to the slaves, but since it was not good for them, and they were having many health issues
already, unfortunately, the Capitan said that we had to throw them away. It was an awful moment
because while we were throwing those half bitten fishes away, we heard all the slaves screaming
and begging for some of it, which they probably were thinking that we threw them away for mere
cruelty. I felt very bad at that moment, that I even asked myself if the fishes were actually really
contaminated. So I couldn’t resist to all those screams that I got discreetly close to a couple of them
and gave them a bit of the fish. Nobody saw me, and I make hand signs to those slaves to hide
somewhere, but as soon as I moved away from them, some of my crew members found them, and
unfortunately, they got flogged so badly, while I cowardly hid. I felt horrible on that day, it was all my
fault, and I could see through the slaves’ eyes that they wanted to tell my partners that it was me
who gave them the fish, but hopefully, for me, my partners couldn’t understand anything they said. I
slept horribly that night.
On another day, I don’t know exactly why, but we all woke up a bit later, instants before we
got up, we heard the sound chains quickly hitting the deck, and when we noticed, two slaves were
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running and threw themselves into the sea. The whole crew got very worried, we ran to see if there
was any way to get them back because we couldn’t afford to lose more slaves, but those were gone.
Just a couple of seconds after, another slave that was upon deck receiving some medical
treatments, desperately got up and also threw himself into the sea. That was horrible, but we had to
go after him, we got the small boats and were able to get the sick one since the other two had chains
and drowned instantly. I felt very bad about the sick one, the Capitan didn’t seem to care and
ordered the crew to flog him. We had to take action, to avoid losing more slaves, so we put every
healthy slave lower under the deck.
Some days after, we were already reaching our destination, the island of Barbados, and I
couldn’t already this awful journey get to an end. On that day , I was in charge of the positioning of
the ship. As I was using the quadrant and writing on the map, I saw this slave very interested in what
I was doing, I couldn’t resist to that look, so I left him to look through the quadrant. As he was
looking, I saw his face so happy, like he was seeing the paradise. That moment definitely filled my
heart with joy and gave my journey an ending I wasn’t expecting at all. He thanked me so much after
that and went back to his spot with a huge smile. We’ve had finally boarded on Bridgetown, I couldn’t
wait to touch some ground already, that as soon as the ship stopped I went running off, and just
kissed the earth.
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