mained there but a short time, as I could not rest when
my mind was not actively engaged in some speculation. I commenced the
foundation of this mystic clan on that tour, and suggested the plan of
exciting a rebellion among the negroes, as the sure road to an
inexhaustible fortune to all who would engage in the expedition. The
first mystic sign which is used by this clan was in use among robbers
before I was born; and the second had its origin from myself, Phelps,
Haines, Cooper, Doris, Bolton, Harris, Doddridge, Celly, Morris, Walton,
Depont, and one of my brothers, on the second night after my
acquaintance with them in New Orleans. We needed a higher order to carry
on our designs, and we adopted our sign, and called it the sign of the
Grand Council of the Mystic Clan; and practised ourselves to give and
receive the new sign to a fraction before we parted; and, in addition to
this improvement, we invented and formed a mode of corresponding, by
means of ten characters, mixed with other matter, which has been very
convenient on many occasions, and especially when any of us get into
difficulties. I was encouraged in my new undertaking, and my heart began
to beat high with the hope of being able one day to visit the pomp of
the Southern and Western people in my vengeance; and of seeing their
cities and towns one common scene of devastation, smoked walls and
fragments.

"I decoyed a negro man from his master in Middle Tennessee, and sent him
to Mill's Point by a young man, and I waited to see the movements of the
owner. He thought his negro had run off. So I started to take possession
of my prize. I got another friend at Mill's Point to take my negro in a
skiff, and convey him to the mouth of Red river, while I took passage on
a steamboat. I then went through the country by land, and sold my negro
for nine hundred dollars, and the second night after I sold him I stole
him again, and my friend ran him to the Irish bayou in Texas; I
followed on after him, and sold my negro in Texas for five hundred
dollars. I then resolved to visit South America, and see if there was an
opening in that country for a speculation; I had also concluded that I
could get some strong friends in that quarter to aid me in my designs
relative to a negro rebellion; but of all people in the world, the
Spaniards are the most treacherous and cowardly; I never want them
concerned in any matter with me; I had rather take the negroes in this
country to fight