n his journey to get on board his ship. The negro laughed and
said something to the other men. "You no go dere now, you go wid dees."
Jack's countenance fell. The other blackamoors grinned, and without
ceremony took him by the shoulder to lead him off. The midshipman's
impulse was to resist, and he began to lay about him with his stick,
which he snatched up from a corner, but the blacks threw themselves upon
him, while the horrid bloodhound sprang at his legs, and in an instant
he was overpowered, and his hands once more bound behind him. Jack
thought that before he was carried off, he would try and induce the big
negro to help him, so he exclaimed, "I say, friend pilot, perhaps you
can't help this; so just let them know on board ship where I am, and you
will be well rewarded." He saw the negro grin, but before he could get
an answer, he was hurried off by his new masters. They conducted him
along over ground very similar to that which he had passed the previous
day. Now and then he saw fields of Indian corn, and small patches
cultivated with other grains, but otherwise the country was covered
mostly with a dense jungle, very narrow paths only being cut through it.
After travelling five or six miles, they reached the river, and having
dragged a canoe from among the bushes on the banks, all the party got
into it, and paddled away up the stream. The cords were by this time
really hurting Jack's arms, and he made all the signs he could think of
to induce the negroes to remove them. To his great satisfaction, after
talking together, one of them got up and slackened the knots, so that he
could throw the rope off. He expressed his thanks to the negro, and
placed it gently by his side. Scarcely had he done so, when his eye
fell on a piece of board floating by. He stretched out his hand and got
hold of it. That instant the idea flashed into his mind, that this
board might enable him to communicate with his shipmates. It very soon
dried, and then, as if to amuse himself, he took out his knife and began
cutting away at it. If he could carve but a few words, they might be
sufficient to signify where he had gone. He carved, in no very regular
characters, "A prisoner, up south branch.--Jack R." As soon as he had
done this, pretending to be tired of the amusement, he threw the board
into the stream and watched it floating down towards the sea. "It is a
hundred to one whether it is picked up," he said to himself with a