ed
to be on fire. It burnt so rapidly that it was impossible to save any
thing: so his clock and other personal property perished in the
flames. He had given to one of his sisters a feather-bed, upon which
he had slept for many years; and she, fortunately and thoughtfully,
removed it when he died, and prized it as the only memorial of her
distinguished brother. Some years after, she had occasion to open the
bed, when she discovered a purse of money--another illustration of his
careful habits and frugality.

Benjamin Banneker was known favorably on two continents, and at the
time of his death was the most intelligent and distinguished Negro in
the United States.

FULLER THE MATHEMATICIAN.

One of the standing arguments against the Negro was, that he lacked
the faculty of solving mathematical problems. This charge was made
without a disposition to allow him an opportunity to submit himself to
a proper test. It was equivalent to putting out a man's eyes, and then
asserting boldly that he cannot see; of manacling his ankles, and
charging him with the inability to run. But notwithstanding all the
prohibitions against instructing the Negro, and his far remove from
intellectual stimulants, the subject to whom attention is now called
had within his own untutored intellect the elements of a great
mathematician.

Thomas Fuller, familiarly known as the Virginia Calculator, was a
native of Africa. At the age of fourteen he was stolen, and sold into
slavery in Virginia, where he found himself the property of a planter
residing about four miles from Alexandria. He did not understand the
art of reading or writing, but by a marvellous faculty was able to
perform the most difficult calculations. Dr. Benjamin Rush of
Philadelphia, Penn., in a letter addressed to a gentleman residing in
Manchester, Eng., says that hearing of the phenomenal mathematical
powers of "Negro Tom," he, in company with other gentlemen passing
through Virginia, sent for him. One of the gentlemen asked him how
many seconds a man of seventy years, some odd months, weeks, and days,
had lived, he gave the exact number in a minute and a half. The
gentleman took a pen, and after some figuring told Tom he must be
mistaken, as the number was too great." 'Top, massa!" exclaimed Tom,
"you hab left out de leap-years!" And sure enough, on including the
leap-years in the calculation, the number given by Tom was correct.

"He was visited by William Hartshorn and S