es
come, and at last we hear dat great 'spedition going to start to search
all de mountains. Dey come, two tree thousand ob dem. Dey form long
skirmishing line, five or six mile long, and dey go ober mountain. Ebery
nigger dey find who not surrender when dey call to him dey shoot. When
I heard ob deir coming I had long talk wid wife. We agree that it better
to leave de mountains altogether and go down and live in the bushes
close to the old plantation. Nobody look for us dere. So we make our way
down and lib there quiet. We get the yams out ob de plantations and lib
very comfortable. When we tink all ober in the mountain we go back.

"Well, sar, when we tink it all safe, and we get widin a mile ob de huts
whar we had libed, all at once we came upon a lot of soldiers in camp.
Dey see us and make shout. I call to my wife to run, when dey fire. A
bullet hit de baby, which she hab at her back, and pass through both
deir bodies. I did not run any more, but jus' stood looking at my wife
and chile as if my senses had gone. Dere I stood till the soldiers came
up. Dey put a cord round my arms and led me away. After a time I was
taken down the country. Dere I was claimed, and when it was known I had
killed a white oberseer I was tried. But de new oberseer did not want me
to be hung, for I was a strong slave and worth money, so he told a story
about how it happen, and after dey had flogged me very hard dey sent me
back to plantation. Dere I work for a long time wid a great log of wood
chained to my ankle to prevent me from running away again.

"For a time I not care whether I lib or die, but at last I made up my
mind to 'scape again. After six months dey took off de log, tinking dat
I had had enuf of de mountains and would not try to 'scape, and de log
prevented my doing so much work. De bery next night I ran away again but
dis time I determined to make for de town in hopes ob getting on board
an English ship, for I had heard from de oder slabes dat de English did
not keep black men as slabes, but dat, on de contry, dey did what
dey could to stop de Spanish from getting dem away from Africa, and I
understood now dat de dreful noise we had heard on de first day we were
on board ship was an attack upon our vessel by an English cruiser.

"It was four days' journey down to de town by de sea. Dere was no
difficulty in finding de way, for de road was good, and I s'pose dat dey
only looked for me towards de hills. Anyhow I got dar safe,