ok it into her head to be jealous
of me, and all about this silver pipe-stopper. She vowed I had given it
away to some Quadroon lass up country; she would not hearken to my
protests of having bestowed it upon the nurse who had saved my life; and
indeed when, at my instance, inquiries were made, Cubjack's replies did
not in any way bear out my statement. The unhappy creature, who had
probably sold my Tobacco-stopper for a few joes, or been deluded out of
it by the Obeah Man, and was afraid of being flogged if discovery were
made thereof, positively denied that I had given her anything beyond the
half-dollar. You see that these Negroes have no more idea of the
pernicious quality of the Sin of Lying, than has a white European
shopkeeper deluding a Lady into buying of a lustring or a paduasoy; and
see what similar vices there are engendered among savages and Christian
folks by opposite causes.

We had a fearful war of words together, Maum Buckey and myself. She was
a bitter woman when vexed, and called me "beggar buckra," "poor white
trash," "tam lily thief," and the like. Whereat I told her plainly that
I had no liking for her lackered countenance, and that she was a
mahogany-coloured, slave-driving, old curmudgeon, that in England would
be shown about at the fairs for a penny a peep. At the which she
screamed with rage, and threw at me a jug of sangaree. Heavy enough it
was; but the old lady had not so good an Aim as I had when I brained
the Grenadier with the demijohn.

We had little converse after that. There were some wages due, and these
she paid me, telling me that I might "go to de Debble," and that if she
ever saw me again, she hoped it would be to see me hanged. I could have
got Employment, I doubt not, in Jamaica, or in some other of the
islands; but I was for the time sick of the Western Indies, and was
resolved, come what might, to tempt my fortune in Europe. A desire to
return to England first came over me; nor am I ashamed to confess that,
mingled with my wish to see my own country once more, was a Hope that I
might meet the Traitorous Villain Hopwood, and tell him to his teeth
what a false Deceiver I took him to be. You see how bold a lad can be
when he has turned the corner of sixteen; but it was always so with John
Dangerous.

Some difficulty, nay, considerable obstacles, I encountered in obtaining
a ship to carry me to Europe. The vindictive yellow woman, with whom
(through no fault of my own, I declar