d the contract to
Mr. Ingersoll, and that I had lost by the means, the land, and at least
five hundred dollars' worth of improvements. Then I brought a suit against
Lewis, to recover the money I had paid him for the contract; and then it
was that he asserted and attempted to prove, that I had forged the
assignment, and therefore, had no just claim on him for the amount paid.
But in this, as in the other case, he met a defeat and made an entire
failure. I recovered all that I claimed, which, was only my just due. One
would suppose that after so many unsuccessful attempts to ruin me, he
would have left me alone,--but not so with Lewis: he had the ambition of a
Bonaparte; and doubtless had he possessed the advantages of an education,
instead of having been born and bred a slave, he might, like an Alexander
or Napoleon, have astonished the world with his deeds of daring. I am,
however, no admirer of what the world call "great men,"--one humble,
self-sacrificing Christian, like Benjamin Lundy, has far greater claim on
my respect and reverence.

Lewis, failing in his second attack, backed up as he had been in all his
wicked course, by a friend wearing the sacred garb of a minister of the
gospel, cooled off, and it became evident to all, that he was meditating
some different mode of warfare. To this concealed confederate, I must
attach great blame, on account of the influence his station and superior
learning gave him, not only over Mr. Lewis, but the colonists generally,
and which should have been exerted for the good of all, in truth and
honesty.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

DESPERATION OF A FUGITIVE SLAVE.

We had as yet received no funds from our foreign agent, N. Paul, and the
board of managers had resolved to send a man after him. An Englishman and
a white man named Nell, would gladly undertake the mission, leaving his
wife and five children among the settlers. Again was I under the necessity
of returning to New York, to obtain the funds required to send out Mr.
Nell after our agent in England.

The night before I left home, I had a singular dream which I will briefly
relate. I dreamed of journeying on a boat to Albany, and of stopping at a
house to take tea. Several persons, I thought, were at the table, and as a
cup of tea was handed me, I saw a woman slyly drop something into it. I,
however, drank the tea, and dreamed that it made me very sick.

I found it difficult to drive from my mind the unpleasant impression thi