ader, if thou hast not a heart
made of something harder than adamant, thou canst not choose but melt at
the sufferings of our hero; he, who but just before, did what would have
immortalised the name of Caesar or Alexander, is now rewarded for it with
cruel and ignominious stripes, far from his native country, wife,
children, or any friends, and still doomed to undergo severe hardships.
As soon as the captain had satisfied his revenge, he ordered Mr. Carew on
shore, taking him to a blacksmith, whom he desired to make a heavy iron
collar for him, which in Maryland they call a pot-hook, and is usually
put about the necks of runaway slaves. When it was fastened on, the
captain jeeringly cried, Now run away if you can; I will make you help to
load this vessel, and then I'll take care of you, and send you to the
ironworks of Susky Hadlam.

Captain Froade soon after left the vessel, and went up to a storehouse at
Tuckhoe, and the first mate to Kent island, whilst the second mate and
boatswain kept the ship; in the mean time our hero was employed in
loading the vessel, and doing all manner of drudgery. Galled with a
heavy yoke and narrowly watched, he began to lose all hopes of escape;
his spirits now began to fail him, and he almost gave himself up to
despair, little thinking his deliverance so near at hand, as he found it
soon to be.

One day, as he was employed in his usual drudgery, reflecting within
himself upon his unhappy condition, he unexpectedly saw his good friends,
Captains Hervey and Hopkins, two of the Biddeford captains, who, as has
been before related, had offered to redeem him from the prison at New
Town; he was overjoyed at the sight of them, not that he expected any
deliverance from them, but only as they were friends he had been so much
obliged to.

The captains came up and inquired very kindly how it fared with him, and
how he bore the drudgery they saw him employed in; adding, that he had
better have accepted the offer they made him at New Town. Our hero
gallantly replied, that however severe the hardships he underwent, and
were they still more so, he would rather choose to suffer them, than
purchase liberty at their cost. The captains, charmed with his
magnanimity, were resolved to make one attempt more to get him his
liberty. They soon after sounded the boatswain and mate; and finding
them not greatly averse to give him an opportunity to escape, they took
him aside, and thus addressed him:--Frien