n the hours of six in the morning and eleven at
night. Three only were females, wives of men in the
parties, the rest were all able-bodied young men. That
they were all likely-looking it needed no southern eye
to decide, and that their hearts burned within them for
freedom was apparent in every look of their
countenances. But it is only of one arrival that my time
will allow me to speak on the present occasion.

This consisted of two married couples, and two single
young men. They had been a week on the way. To
accomplish the desired object they could see no way so
feasible as to cross the ---- Bay. By inquiry they
gained instructions as to the direction they should
steer to strike for the lighthouse on the opposite
shore. Consequently they invested six dollars in a
little boat, and at once prepared themselves for this
most fearful adventure. To the water and their little
bark they stealthily repaired, and off they started. For
some distance they rowed not far from the shore. Being
in sight of land, they were spied by the ever-watchful
slave-holder or some one not favorable to their escape.
Hence a small boat, containing four white men, soon put
out after the fugitives. On overhauling them, stern
orders were given to surrender. The boat the runaways
were in was claimed, if not the party themselves. With
determined words the fugitives declared that the boat
was their own property, and that they would not give it
up; they said they would die before they would do so. At
this sign of resistance one of the white men, with an
oar, struck the head of one of the fugitives, which
knocked him down. At the same moment another white man
seized the chain of their boat, and the struggle became
fearful in the extreme for a few moments. However, the
same spirit that prompted the effort to be free, moved
one of the heroic black bondmen to apply the oar to the
head of one of their pursuers, which straightway laid
him prostrate. The whites, like old Apollyon in the
Pilgrim's Progress, at this decided indication that
their precious lives might not be spared if they did not
avail themselves of an immediate retreat, suddenly