to make the nearest port, seemed to dread that all would
not be right in Charleston--that the bar was a very intricate one--water
very shoal in the ship-channel, and though marked with three distinctive
buoys, numbered according to their range, impossible to crops without
a skilful pilot. The mate plead a preference for Savannah, asserting,
according to his own knowlege, that a ship of any draft could cross
that bar at any time of tide, and that it was a better port for the
transaction of business.

The Janson was headed for Charleston, the queen city of the sunny South,
and, as may be expected from her disabled condition, made very slow
progress on her course. During the gale, her stores had become damaged,
and on the third day before making Charleston light, Manuel Pereira
came aft, and with a sad countenance reported that the last cask of
good water was nearly out; that the others had all been stove during
the gale, and what remained, so brackish that it was unfit for use.
From this time until their arrival at Charleston, they suffered those
tortures of thirst, which only those who have endured them can estimate.

CHAPTER IV. THE CHARLESTON POLICE.

MR. DURKEE had said in Congress, that a negro was condemned to be hung
in Charleston for resisting his master's attempts upon the chastity of
his wife; and that such was the sympathy expressed for the negro, that
the sheriffs offer of one thousand dollars could induce no one present
to execute the final mandate. Now, had Mr. Durkee been better acquainted
with that social understanding between the slave, the pretty wife, and
his master, and the acquiescing pleasure of the slave, who in nineteen
cases out of twenty congratulates himself on the distinguished honor, he
would have saved himself the error of such a charge against the tenor
of social life in Charleston. Or, had he been better acquainted with the
character of her police, he certainly would have saved the talent of
Mr. Aiken its sophomore display in that cumbrous defence. In the first
place, Mr. Durkee would have known that such attempts are so common
among the social events of the day, and so well understood by the slave,
that instead of being resented, they are appreciated to a great extent.
We speak from long experience and knowledge of the connection between
a certain class of slaves and their masters. In the second place,
Mr. Durkee would have known that any man connected with the city
police--sav