ered, forced his way
through or leaped over the dense throng which obstructed his progress,
and with the speed of a race horse rushed into the house, and almost
before the officers of the law were aware of his escape, he had donned
his garments, and without a scratch on his person, mingled unsuspected
with the throng of spectators. The boatswain, notwithstanding the woeful
plight he was in, for he was dreadfully punished, was marched off to the
guard house, accompanied by his faithful second, and on the following
day was mulcted in an exemplary fine for disturbing the peace.

The most singular battle between two-legged brutes that I ever beheld,
was fought one day between two stout negroes in the neighborhood of my
boarding house in Savannah. They had cherished a grudge against each
other for some time, and accidentally meeting, a war of words ensued,
which attracted a crowd of spectators, who kindly used all possible
efforts to induce them to break the peace, in which charitable
enterprise they finally succeeded.

Much to my surprise, and greatly to the amusement of the bystanders, the
darkies made no use of their fists, neither did they grasp each other by
the waist, or resort to the worse than savage practice of gouging. They
retreated from the spot where they had been standing, until the space
between them would measure some ten or twelve paces, a good duelling
distance, and then instead of throwing tomahawks or javelins at each
other's heads, or discharging bullets of lead from the mouths of pistols
or blunderbusses, they bowed down their heads, as if overcome with
humility, and rushed at each other with inconceivable fury.

Like knights of ancient days, they met half way in the lists; but
instead of shivering their spears right manfully, their heads came in
contact, like a collision between two locomotives, making a noise like a
clap of thunder. As they rose from the ground from which they were both
thrown by the violence of the shock, fire seemed actually to flash from
their eyes, and they shook their heads from shoulder to shoulder for
several seconds, apparently to know if all was right within.

The result being satisfactory, they retreated a short distance, not so
far as at first, and again tried the terrible experiment of seeing
which head was the hardest. After giving several of these practical
illustrations of the noble art of butting, in a fashion that would have
cracked, crushed and demolished the thic