They went out of the precincts
of the palace, and through a part of the town, until they arrived at the
docks. There the laborers, slaves and free, were already at work. Desmond
at the first glance noticed several Europeans among them, miserable
objects who scarcely lifted their heads to look at this latest newcomer
of their race. His guide called up one of the foremen shipwrights, and
instructed him to place the boy among a gang of the workmen. Then he went
away. Scarcely a minute had elapsed when Desmond heard a cry, and looking
round, saw the man brutally belaboring with his rattan the bare shoulders
of a native. He quivered; the incident seemed of ill augury.
In a few minutes Desmond found himself among a gang of men who were
working at a new gallivat in process of construction for Angria's own
use. He received his orders in dumb show from the foreman of the gang.
Miserable as he was, he would not have been a boy if he had not been
interested in his novel surroundings; and no intelligent boy could have
failed to take an interest in the construction of a gallivat. It was a
large rowboat of from thirty to seventy tons, with two masts, the mizzen
being very slight. The mainmast bore one huge sail, triangular in form,
its peak extending to a considerable height above the mast. The smaller
gallivats were covered with a spar deck made of split bamboos, their
armament consisting of pettararoes fixed on swivels in the gunwale. But
the larger vessels had a fixed deck on which were mounted six or eight
cannon, from two to four pounders; and in addition to their sail they had
from forty to fifty oars, so that, with a stout crew, they attained a
rate of four or five miles an hour.
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