get the pure African blood. As they say
themselves, 'Wherever Buckra-man bin, make bad nigger.'"

"Well, Pilot, I think we've had enough about mixed niggers for the
present. Tell me! do you really think they'll give me trouble with my
steward? He certainly is not a black man, and a better fellow never
lived," inquired the Captain earnestly.

"Nothing else, Cap," said the pilot. "It's a hard law, I tell you, and
if our merchants and business men had a say in it, 'twouldn't last long;
ye can't pass him off for a white man nohow, for the thing's 'contrary
to law,' and pays so well that them contemptible land-sharks of officers
make all the fuss about it, and never let one pass. Just take the
infernal fees off, and nobody'd trouble themselves about the stewards.
It all goes into old Grimshaw's pocket, and he'd skin a bolt-rope for
the grease, and sell the steward if he could get a chance. He has sold a
much nearer relation. I'm down upon the law, you'll see, Cap, for I know
it plays the dickens with our business, and is a curse to the commerce
of the port. Folks what a'n't acquainted with shipping troubles, and
a shipowner's interests, think such things are very small affairs. But
it's the name that affects us, and when an owner stands at every item in
the disbursements, and a heavy bill for keeping his steward, and another
for filling his place, or boarding-house accommodations, and then be
deprived of his services, he makes a wry face, and either begins to
think about another port, or making the rate of freight in proportion to
the annoyance. It has an effect that we feel, but don't say much about.
I'm a secessionist, but I don't believe in running mad after politics,
and letting our commercial interests suffer."

"But what if I prove my steward a'n't a colored man?" said the Captain;
"they surely won't give me any trouble then. It would pain my feelings
very much to see Manuel locked up in a cell for no crime; and then to
be deprived of his services, is more than I can stand. If I'd known it
before, I'd suffered the torments of thirst, and put for a port farther
north."

"It'll cost more than it's worth," said the pilot. "Take my plain
advice, Cap; never try that; our lawyers are lusty fellows upon fees;
and the feller'd rot in that old nuisance of a jail afore you'd get him
out. The process is so slow and entangled, nobody'd know how to bring
the case, and ev'ry lawyer'd have an opinion of his own. But the worst
of