"I will however forward to His Majesty's Minister for Foreign Affairs
the Memorial above mentioned in the Hope that some arrangements may be
entered into to obviate in future the great Losses which are therein
described."

In the _Life and Adventures of Wilson Benson, written by himself_
(Toronto, 1876), is found the following, pp. 34-36:

"In 1849 I shipped on the schooner Rose of Milton, Capt. Hamilton,
cruising on Lakes Ontario and Erie. In one trip to the town of Erie,
Pennsylvania, for a cargo of coal, while lying at the dock, a
diminutive negro man, with a white beard, came on board the vessel,
and inquiried of me if this was a British vessel. On being informed
that it was, he desired to be secreted, stating that he was a runaway
slave, and that his pursuers were on his track. I at once secreted him
in a closet which served as a store-room for vegetables, &c., and as
we were almost ready to set sail, I did not discover his presence to
either Captain or crew until we were some distance out on the lake.
When he appeared, Capt. Hamilton inquired of me where I had obtained
'that child,' and on being informed, expressed some anxiety, as we
were liable to be captured had we been followed by a steamer. As it
was, he merely looked up at the rigging, and exclaimed, 'Blow,
breezes, blow!' The negro, who knew no other name than 'Sambo' we
brought to Toronto. On one occasion, when I offered him some molasses,
he shook his head and made grimaces expressive of disgust. He informed
me that the slaves employed on the sugar plantations, when beaten by
their masters, in order to obtain an indirect revenge, spat in the
syrup, and committed other filthy things as an imaginary punishment
upon the whites. I frequently saw Sambo in Toronto, and many times he
expressed thankfulness to me for his deliverance. I may here mention
that shortly after the arrival of Sambo on board the Rose of Milton at
Erie, two suspicious-looking men, dressed in plain clothes, came
aboard and paced up and down the deck several times, and as all the
crew were absent at the time, I felt some apprehenson for the safety
of the poor fugitive; but seeing nothing of a suspicious appearance,
and the almost entire absence of the crew, they sauntered away. I made
several other trips up and down the lakes during that summer on the
same vessel."

CHAPTER VII

SLAVERY IN THE MARITIME PROVINCES

The French population of the territory by the sea, the Acadia