Ten slave children's miraculous survival at sea

“On Sunday, April 5 last, ten miserable beings, just escaped from the jaws of death, were landed at the port of Kurrachee, British India. The history of these poor boys and girls, for there were five of each sex, is a heartrending one. Some twelve months ago they were shipped, with about 100 other slaves, from Zanzibar, by slave-trading Arabs. The dhow on which they were stowed appears to have coasted along the south of Arabia, its human cargo being disposed of at various ports where a ready market was found. The ten above alluded to were sold at a place called Sur, in the Gulf of Oman. For a long time they endured a course of ill-treatment from their owners, which induced them to conspire to run away. Finding a small boat near the shore, these poor boys and girls got on board, under cover of the darkness, and, without food or water, set sail into the unknown Indian Ocean. A small packet of dates that happened to lie at the bottom of the boat enabled them to live on very meagre fare for five days, but all this time they were without water. But when this small supply was exhausted they drifted for another five days at the mercy of the winds and waves. At the end of this terrible time, more dead than alive, they were picked up by the captain of a native craft, who tended them with the greatest kindness, and carried them to the port for which he was bound, and there he delivered them over to the British authorities. — Millennial Star 53:22”