sue
her. A Mr. Dodge, of Georgetown, a wealthy old gentleman, originally
from New England, missed three or four slaves from his family, and a
small steamboat, of which he was the proprietor, was readily obtained.
Thirty-five men, including a son or two of old Dodge, and several of
those whose slaves were missing, volunteered to man her; and they set
out about Sunday noon, armed to the teeth with guns, pistols,
bowie-knives, &c., and well provided with brandy and other liquors. They
heard of us on the passage down, from the Baltimore steamer and the
vessel loaded with plaster. They reached the mouth of the river, and,
not having found the Pearl, were about to return, as the steamer could
not proceed into the bay without forfeiting her insurance. As a last
chance, they looked into Cornfield harbor, where they found us, as I
have related. This was about two o'clock in the morning. The Pearl had
come to anchor about nine o'clock the previous evening. It is a hundred
and forty miles from Washington to Cornfield harbor.

The steamer, with the Pearl in tow, crossed over from Point Lookout to
Piney Point, on the south shore of the Potomac, and here the Pearl was
left at anchor, a part of the steamer's company remaining to guard her,
while the steamer, having myself and the other white prisoners on board,
proceeded up Coan river for a supply of wood, having obtained which, she
again, about noon of Monday, took the Pearl in tow and started for
Washington.

The bearing, manner and aspect of the thirty-five armed persons by whom
we had been thus seized and bound, without the slightest shadow of
lawful authority, was sufficient to inspire a good deal of alarm. We had
been lying quietly at anchor in a harbor of Maryland; and, although the
owners of the slaves might have had a legal right to pursue and take
them back, what warrant or authority had they for seizing us and our
vessel? They could have brought none from the District of Columbia,
whose officers had no jurisdiction or authority in Cornfield harbor; nor
did they pretend to have any from the State of Maryland. Some of them
showed a good deal of excitement, and evinced a disposition to proceed
to lynch us at once. A man named Houver, who claimed as his property two
of the boys passengers on board the Pearl, put me some questions in a
very insolent tone; to which I replied, that I considered myself a
prisoner, and did not wish to answer any questions; whereupon one of the
bys