e mercy seat, I always prayed that God would, of His great mercy,
and in His own good time, deliver me from my bondage.

I went, one day, on the wharf of Mr. Waters; and seeing two Irishmen
unloading a large scow of stone, or ballast I went on board, unasked,
and helped them. When we had finished the work, one of the men came to
me, aside, and asked me a number of questions, and among them, if I
were a slave. I told him "I was a slave, and a slave for life." The good
Irishman gave his shoulders a shrug, and seemed deeply affected by the
statement. He said, "it was a pity so fine a little fellow as myself
should be a slave for life." They both had much to say about the matter,
and expressed the deepest sympathy with me, and the most decided hatred
of slavery. They went so far as to tell me that I ought to run away, and
go to the north; that I should find friends there, and that I would be
as free as anybody. I, however, pretended not to be interested in what
they said, for I feared they might be treacherous. White men have been
known to encourage slaves to escape, and then--to get the reward--they
have kidnapped them, and returned them to their masters. And while I
mainly inclined to the notion that these men were honest and meant me
no ill, I feared it might be otherwise. I nevertheless remembered their
words and their advice, and looked forward to an escape to the north, as
a possible means of gaining the liberty{133} for which my heart panted.
It was not my enslavement, at the then present time, that most affected
me; the being a slave _for life_, was the saddest thought. I was too
young to think of running away immediately; besides, I wished to learn
how to write, before going, as I might have occasion to write my own
pass. I now not only had the hope of freedom, but a foreshadowing of the
means by which I might, some day, gain that inestimable boon. Meanwhile,
I resolved to add to my educational attainments the art of writing.

After this manner I began to learn to write: I was much in the ship
yard--Master Hugh's, and that of Durgan & Bailey--and I observed that
the carpenters, after hewing and getting a piece of timber ready for
use, wrote on it the initials of the name of that part of the ship for
which it was intended. When, for instance, a piece of timber was ready
for the starboard side, it was marked with a capital "S." A piece for
the larboard side was marked "L;" larboard forward, "L. F.;" larboard
aft, was