The egyptians used hieroglyphics in the same way as the sumerians used ?

The  Egyptians used hieroglyphics in the same way as the Sumerians used cuneiform. Cuneiform means "wedge - shaped."  

Sumerian scribes  would use a stylus to imprint  or impress wedge shaped  marks in clay. The marks formed simple pictures or pictograms. For instance, a picture of the head of a person was read as the word "head". With time, The Sumerians improved this by adding sounds and meanings.

The writing was done on the clay tablets using a stylus made from a reed. The clay had to be soft and moist during writing, after which it was allowed to harden forming a permanent record.

the enslaved people onboard suffered from illness with some frequency

worcester v. georgia, legal case in which the u.s. supreme court on march 3, 1832, held (5–1) that the states did not have the right to impose regulations on native american land. andrew jackson refused to enforce the ruling, the decision form the basis for most subsequent indian law in the united states.