ver, by some twenty
slaveholders, all anxious for their prey. These paid little attention
to the dead and dying, but anxiously seized upon the living, and,
fastening the fetters upon their limbs, hurried them from the Fort,
and instantly commenced their return towards the frontier of Georgia.
Some fifteen persons in the Fort survived the terrible explosion, and
they now sleep in servile graves, or moan and weep in bondage.

The officer in command of the party, with his men, returned to the
boats as soon as the slaveholders were fairly in possession of their
victims. The sailors appeared gloomy and thoughtful as they returned
to their vessels. The anchors were weighed, the sails unfurled, and
both vessels hurried from the scene of butchery as rapidly as they
were able. After the officers had retired to their cabins, the
rough-featured sailors gathered before the mast, and loud and bitter
were the curses they uttered against slavery and against those
officers of government who had then constrained them to murder women
and helpless children, merely for their love of liberty.

But the dead remained unburied; and the next day the vultures were
feeding upon the carcasses of young men and young women, whose hearts
on the previous morning had beaten high with expectation. Their bones
have been bleaching in the sun for thirty-seven years, and may yet be
seen scattered among the ruins of that ancient fortification.

Twenty-two years elapsed, and a representative in Congress, from one
of the free States, reported a bill giving to the perpetrators of
these murders a gratuity of five thousand dollars from the public
treasury, as a token of the gratitude which the people of this nation
felt for the soldierly and gallant manner in which the crime was
committed toward them. The bill passed both houses of Congress, was
approved by the President, and now stands upon our statute book among
the laws enacted at the 3d Session of the 25th Congress.

The facts are all found scattered among the various public documents
which repose in the alcoves of our National Library. But no historian
has been willing to collect and publish them, in consequence of the
deep disgrace which they reflect upon the American arms, and upon
those who then controlled the government.

[Illustration: (signature) J. R. Giddings]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Vide Executive documents of the 2d Session 13th Congress.

[2] It is believed that this report was suggested by th