Wag Benton, the Black-Birder [pp. 49-55]

OVERLAND MONTHLY
Wag Benton, who was sought after for his
special qualifications as an expert adventurer. He began his dubious career as a
sailor in the United States Navy during the
Mexican War of 1846. His appetite for
adventure increased with each hazard, and
he joined the Walker filibustering expedition to Honduras. After Walker's discomfiture at Leon, his few followers who escaped
death or capture were vigilantly hunted for
by Honduras spies. Wag Benton was of
the few who eluded them, and he only escaped by "holding up" a New York coffee
merchant, robbing him of his money and
passport, and then pushing boldly across
the country to the Caribbean coast and sailing for New Orleans.
He was just the man that his old naval
shipmate, Captain Rexton, was looking for
to act as super-cargo of his slaver, which
he was fitting out under the name of the
Trafican, and the guise of a trading ship for
South Africa. An armament of eight cannon and a hundred stand of arms was
smuggled on board in bales of goods, and a
hundred reckless men were sneaked on board
and stowed away. The Trafican then, with
a stuffed cargo of trading goods, a crew of
twenty men, and regular clearance papers
for South African ports, let go her cables
and steamed away for the slave fields of the
Congo river. The Captain had also a set of
false clearance papers for the Congo river,
which a treacherous clerk in the custom
house had forged, to display to any inquisitive man-of-war that might be patrolling
the track of the Congo slavers. The clerk
had an interest in the enterprise.
As was expected, a United States cruiser
was lying at the mouth of the river, but it
had the rather cumbrous company of a
Spanish cruiser and a French corvette. The
Captain of the Trafican, having paid his respects to his brother-in-law and partner on
board of the cruiser, proceeded up the river,
and began trading with the long-shore natives for their prisoners of war, at the ratio
of a red handkerchief for a five hundred
dollar negro. At the same time Wag Benton at the head of a company of blackbirders was out netting the dusky prey
in its native rookery.
It was the intention of the buccaneers to
purchase all of their contraband cargo, and
not attempt to make any captures themselves, but the supply of prisoners was lim
ited to about two hundred men, it being a time
of comparative peace between the Congo
tribes. They did not have time to wait for
a renewal of hostilities and take the chances
of the merchant warriors securing the necessary merchandise, and so it was decided
to attempt a stratagem for the capture of
an entire village.
The Captain set out with a party of thirty
men for the enemy's country. Each man
was armed with a brace of concealed pistols,
and supplied with a pack of trinkets. This
was called the "baiting brigade." They
marched boldly toward the "black-birds'
roosts."
Wag Benton with seventy well armed men,
known as the "cagers," sneaked along a
day's march behind. They traveled only at
night, and camped in the jungle without fires
during daylight. So cautiously did they
proceed that their presence in the country
was not discovered until the unwary birds
found themselves in a cage of armed men.
On the afternoon of the sixth day's journey, the Congo guide pointed out a village
of his enemy, containing about eight hundren inhabitants, and then went back to inform Wag Benton's party. The chief of the
village led his army out to meet the unexpected visitors, but finding that their attitude was friendly, escorted them back to
the village, laid weapons aside, and began to
barter their ivory, dye stuffs, and skins, for
the flashy trinkets of the slave traders.
Business was so brisk that it did not stop
for night, but continued by the light of the
huge fires until the stock in trade of the natives was in the hands of the white men.
Then the glittering beads were displayed,
which set the negroes wild with delight.
They had nothing left now to trade, and the
merchants, feigning reluctance,finally agreed
to accept arrows and spear heads, which
were urged upon them.
It was at the darkest hour that just precedes daylight, when the last arrow and
spear head were securely packed away
among the merchants' goods, that the cagers, having cautiously surrounded the village
and crept behind the out-skirting huts, fired
off their guns into the air, and rushed forward
with a fiendish yell upon the astonished natives. The warriors, remembering that they
had sold their weapons, ran toward the
traders' stand to recover them, only to be
met with a volley of blank cartridges from