y--one of the F.F.s of Newbern--but who
had latterly become the property of H---- & C----, a mercantile firm
then doing a flourishing business there. He was captain of a famous
lighter, which for its enormous carrying capacity had received the
cognomen of 'Hunger and Thirst.' In due time the firm of H---- &
C----dissolved, and C---- 'moved West,' leaving an undivided half of
Captain Jack in the hands of his attorney. Jack had sailed the craft 'on
shares,' and compromised his services by monthly wages to his masters,
and so had gradually accumulated some hundreds of dollars. Not fancying
his new share-holder, he concluded to invest his hard-earned dollars in
his own bone and muscle, or in other words, buy half of himself. After
considerable higgling, he made the bargain, paying five hundred dollars
for the share. On the next trip to the bar, as the entrance to the sea
is usually called, there came up one of those sudden hurricanes known as
a Southeaster, whose force nothing can withstand. The small craft was
foundered, and Jack, after floating for a long time on a plank, finally
drifted on to a sand-spit, and was saved.

Finding a passage home, he landed on the 'old County Wharf,' a
melancholy, disheartened, and depressed individual, and without
conferring with a single person, made his way to the attorney, from whom
he had so lately purchased himself, and by dint of persuasion succeeded
in having the trade canceled and his money returned. Jack was then
himself again. He recounted over and over his adventures by flood and
field to his wondering friends, and said no man, white or black, could
imagine the trouble he felt when floating on that plank, the waves
breaking over him every moment, when he considered he had just bought
half of 'dat nigger' that was now going to destruction, and paid all the
money he had for him. But he had 'traded back,' and then if he was
drowned, 'he wouldn't lose a cent by it.' It was long after this event
when he told me he would never again risk a cent in 'nigger' property,
it was too 'onsartin' entirely. Jack was a good deal of a wag, and told
this story with a gusto I can not describe.[A] But if Captain Jack is
still on this 'side of Jordan,' he has doubtless ere this found 'nigger'
property still more 'onsartin.'

Let us, however, turn from the past to the present condition of affairs
in Newbern. Secession would never have originated there. When
South-Carolina passed its act of folly and