A most gruesome story appears in all the books on the slave trade, of the experience of the French slaver, "Rodeur." With a cargo of 165 slaves, she was on the way to Guadaloupe in 1819, when opthalmia--a virulent disease of the eyes--appeared among the blacks.

It spread rapidly, though the captain, in hopes of checking its ravages, threw thirty-six negroes into the sea alive.

Finally it attacked the crew, and in a short time all save one man became totally blind.
Groping in the dark, the helpless sailors made shift to handle the ropes, while the one man still having eyesight clung to the wheel.

For days, in this wretched state, they made their slow way along the deep, helpless and hopeless.

At last a sail was sighted.