could not stay there. We went on to Hamilton, but stayed there only two
months. I worked at whatever I could get to do--whitewashing and odd
jobs of any kind. The women managed to get washing to do, so that we got
on very well. Our aim was when we left Memphis to get to Canada, as we
regarded that as the safest place for refugees from slavery. We did not
know what might come again for our injury. So, now, as we had found some
of my wife's people, we were more eager to go; and, as I could not get
any steady work in Hamilton, we made ready to move on. We went straight
to Detroit, and crossed over the river to Windsor, Canada, arriving
there on Christmas 1865. I succeeded in getting work as a porter at the
Iron House, a hotel situated near the landing. Here my wife also was
employed, and here we remained until spring; when, as the wages were so
small in Windsor, I went over to Detroit to seek for more profitable
employment. After some effort, I succeeded in securing a situation, as
waiter, in the Biddle House, and remained there two years, when the
manager died, and it changed hands; and, much as I disliked to make a
change in my work, I found it necessary. An opportunity soon offered of
a position as sailor on the steamer Saginaw, which ran from Green Bay to
Escanaba, in connection with the railroad.

* * * * *

A CLEW TO MY BROTHER WILLIAM.

While I was on this boat, one of the men who worked with me said to me,
one day: "Have you a brother, Hughes?" I said, "Yes, but I don't know
anything about him. We were sold from each other when boys." "Well,"
said he, "I used to sail with a man whose name was Billy Hughes, and he
looked just like you." I told him there were three boys of us; that we
were sold to different parties, and that I had never seen either of my