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Write An Essay On An American Fish

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One day, our European Gods blessed us with large amounts of edible fish. Shortly after spotting them in the water, my mates and I procured a large fishing net, and tossed it over. While we stood by and waited for our meal to gather, I noticed a few hopeful Africans looking over the edge of the boat, as though their freedom night be found in its depths. After the fish were properly caught and pulled onto the deck, where they flopped and flipped around, I busied myself setting a pot to boil with seawater while my other mates cleaned the fish and tossed the remains overboard. By now, the Africans were suffocatingly close. Hoards of them swarmed my mates, to the point where one could not make large movements with the extremities without hitting …show more content…

The slaves above deck whispered to each other in that horrible language of theirs, all guttural and sounding like a dying cat, if you ask me. By the time the fish were close to done and another mate of mine had put the coffee on, I could barely contain myself. With the saltwater acting as a natural seasoning, I could tell these fish were going to be fantastic. Sitting around the fire and telling stories of past voyages while eating fish and drinking coffee, that was the best part of the whole passage, in my personal opinion. After everyone was stuffed full of fish, and nobody could manage another bite, after we had played cards until midnight and the loser had to go down into the slave quarters for a whole thirty seconds, after all that, bone tired and ready for bed though we were, the problem of the remaining fish presented itself to us. Leaving them on deck overnight would let them rot, but none of us wanted to consider the other options, as any movement on our part was quickly becoming painfully difficult. I had devoured at least four entire fish. This was the point where the darned Africans began their pleading, in the soft and hesitant English they

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