elp, and said I wished to go ashore. "Den cum de best way
you can," he answered in a surly manner. "What duz you want 'bout here,
any way? What duz you want on Choc'late Plantation, anyhow?"

I explained to this ugly black that I was a northern man, travelling to
see the country, and wished to camp near his house for protection, and
promised, if he would aid me to land, that I would convince him of my
honest purpose by showing him the contents of my canoe, and would prove
to him that I was no enemy to the colored man. I told him of the maps,
the letters, and the blankets which were in the little canoe now so fast
in the mud, and what a loss it would be if some marauder, passing on the
next high tide, should steal my boat.

The fellow slowly lowered his gun, which had been held in a threatening
position, and said:

"Nobody knows his friends in dese times. I'se had a boat stealed
by some white man, and spose you was cumin to steal sumting
else. Dese folks on de riber can't be trussed. Dey steals
ebryting. Heaps o' bad white men 'bout nowadays sens de war.
Steals a nigger's chickens, boats, and ebryting dey lays hands
on. Up at de big house on High Pint (norfen gemmin built him,
and den got gusted wid cotton-planting and went home) de white
folks goes and steals all de cheers and beds, and ebryting out
ob de house. Sens de war all rascals."

It was a wearisome and dangerous job for me to navigate the canoe over
the soft, slippery mud to the firm shore, as there were unfathomed
places in the flats which might ingulf or entomb me at any step; but the
task was completed, and I stood face to face with the now half
tranquillized negro. Before removing the mud that hung upon me to the
waist in heavy clods, I showed the darky my chart-case, and explained
the object of my mission. He was very intelligent, and, after asking a
few questions, said to his son:

"Take dis gun to de house;" and then turning to me, continued: "Dis is
de sort ob man I'se am. I'se knows how to treat a friend like a white
man, and I'se can fight wid my knife or my fist or my gun anybody who
'poses on me. Now I'se knows you is a gemmin I'se won't treat you like a
nigger. Gib you best I'se got. Cum to de house."

When inside of the house of this resolute black, every attention was
paid to my comfort. The cargo of the paper canoe was piled up in one
corner of the room. The wife and children sat before the bright fire a