r poor;
but I always presented a bold front and showed the best side out,
which was all the pass I had. But when I got within about one hundred
miles of Jefferson city, where I expected to take a Steamboat passage
to St. Louis, I stopped over night at a hotel, where I met with a
young white man who was traveling on to Jefferson City on horse back,
and was also leading a horse with a saddle and bridle on.

I asked him if he would let me ride the horse which he was leading, as
I was going to the same city? He said that it was a hired horse, that
he was paying at the rate of fifty cents per day for it, but if I
would pay the same I could ride him. I accepted the offer and we rode
together to the city. We were on the road together two or three days;
stopped and ate and slept together at the same hotels.

CHAPTER XVI.

_Stratagem to get on board, the steamer.--My Irish friends.--My
success in reaching Cincinnati.--Reflections on again seeing
Kentucky.--I get employment in a hotel.--My fright at seeing the
gambler who sold me.--I leave Ohio with Mr. Smith.--His letter.--My
education._

The greatest of my adventures came off when I arrived at Jefferson
City. There I expected to meet an advertisement for my person; it was
there I must cross the river or take a steamboat down; it was there I
expected to be interrogated and required to prove whether I was
actually a free man or a slave. If I was free, I should have to show
my free papers; and if I was a slave I should be required to tell who
my master was.

I stopped at a hotel, however, and ascertained that there was a
steamboat expected down the river that day for St. Louis. I also found
out that there were several passengers at that house who were going
down on board of the first boat. I knew that the captain of a
steamboat could not take a colored passenger on board of his boat from
a slave state without first ascertaining whether such person was bond
or free; I knew that this was more than he would dare to do by the
laws of the slave states--and now to surmount this difficulty it
brought into exercise all the powers of my mind. I would have got
myself boxed up as freight, and have been forwarded to St. Louis, but
I had no friend that I could trust to do it for me. This plan has
since been adopted by some with success. But finally I thought I might
possibly pass myself off as a body servant to the passengers going
from the hotel down.

So I went to a store an