It was suffering, for this good son to be unable to turn his head towards his good father, whom he loved.
Doubtless, Tom had the satisfaction of seeing his son; however, he paid dear for it. How many times great tears flowed from his eyes when the overseer's whip fell upon Bat! It was a worse punishment than if it had fallen on his own flesh.
Austin and Acteon marched a few steps behind, tied to each other, and brutally treated every moment.
Ah, how they envied Hercules's fate!
Whatever were the dangers that threatened the latter in that savage country, he could at least use his strength and defend his life.
During the first moments of their captivity, old Tom had finally made known the whole truth to his companions.
They had learned from him, to their profound astonishment, that they were in Africa; that Negoro's and Harris's double treachery had first thrown them there, and then led them away, and that no pity was to be expected from their masters.
Nan was not better treated.
She made part of a group of women who occupied the middle of the convoy.
They had chained her with a young mother of two children, one at the breast, the other aged three years, who walked with difficulty.
Nan, moved with pity, had burdened herself with the little creature, and the poor slave had thanked her by a tear.
Nan then carried the infant, at the same time, sparing her the fatigue, to which she would have yielded, and the blows the overseer would have given her.
But it was a heavy burden for old Nan. She felt that her strength would soon fail her, and then she thought of little Jack.
She pictured him to herself in his mother's arms.
Sickness had wasted him very much, but he must be still heavy for Mrs. Weldon's weakened arms.
Where was she?
What would become of her?
Would her old servant ever see her again?
Dick Sand had been placed almost in the rear of the convoy.
He could neither perceive Tom, nor his companions, nor Nan. The head of the long caravan was only visible to him when it was crossing some plain.
He walked, a prey, to the saddest thoughts, from which the agents' cries hardly drew his attention.
He neither thought of himself, nor the fatigues he must still support, nor of the tortures probably reserved for him by Negoro.
He only thought of Mrs. Weldon.
In rain he sought on the ground, on the brambles by the paths, on the lower branches of the trees, to find some trace of her passage.
She could not have taken another road, if, as everything indicated, they were leading her to Kazounde. What would he not give to find some indication of her march to the destination where they themselves were being led!
Such was the situation of the young novice and his companions in body and mind.
But whatever they might have to fear for themselves, great as was their own sufferings, pity took possession of them on seeing the frightful misery of that sad troop of captives, and the revolting brutality of their masters. Alas! they could do nothing to succor the afflicted, nothing to resist the others.
All the country situated east of the Coanza was only a forest for over an extent of twenty miles.
The trees, however, whether they perish under the biting of the numerous insects of these countries, or whether troops of elephants beat them down while they are still young, are less crowded here than in the country next to the seacoast.
The march, then, under the trees, would not present obstacles. The shrubs might be more troublesome than the trees.
There was, in fact, an abundance of those cotton-trees, seven to eight feet high, the cotton of which serves to manufacture the black and white striped stuffs used in the interior of the province.
In certain places, the soil transformed itself into thick jungles, in which the convoy disappeared.
Of all the animals of the country, the elephants and giraffes alone were taller than those reeds which resemble bamboos, those herbs, the stalks of which measure an inch in diameter.
The agents must know the country marvelously well, not to be lost in these jungles.
Each day the caravan set out at daybreak, and only halted at midday for an hour.
Some packs containing tapioca were then opened, and this food was parsimoniously distributed to the slaves.
To this potatoes were added, or goat's meat and veal, when the soldiers had pillaged some village in passing.
But the fatigue had been such, the repose so insufficient, so impossible even during these rainy nights, that when the hour for the distribution of food arrived the prisoners could hardly eat.
So, eight days after the departure from the Coanza, twenty had fallen by the way, at the mercy of the beasts that prowled behind the convoy.
Lions, panthers and leopards waited for the victims which could not fail them, and each evening after sunset their roaring sounded at such a short distance that one might fear a direct attack.
On hearing those roars, rendered more formidable by the darkness, Dick Sand thought with terror of the obstacles such encounters would present against Hercules's enterprise, of the perils that menaced each of his steps.
And meanwhile if he himself should find an opportunity to flee, he would not hesitate.
Here are some notes taken by Dick Sand during this journey from the Coanza to Kazounde.
Twenty-five "marches" were employed to make this distance of two hundred and fifty miles, the "march" in the traders' language being ten miles, halting by day and night.
From 25th to 27th April.—Saw a village surrounded by walls of reeds, eight or nine feet high.
Fields cultivated with maize, beans, "sorghas" and various arachides.
Two blacks seized and made prisoners.
Fifteen killed. Population fled.
The next day crossed an impetuous river, one hundred and fifty yards wide.
Floating bridge, formed of trunks of trees, fastened with lianes.