government land in a remote part of that state. Our meeting was quite
accidental, for I crossed the street and accosted him as he was hurrying
along. In the course of our interview he pressed me earnestly to go up
the country with him; but this I declined from motives of prudence, the
route lying through a slave-holding state, where a white and coloured
man travelling on terms of equality, would be sure to excite suspicion.
He had a small bundle of papers under his arm, and on my remarking he
appeared intent on business, he stated they were his free papers, and
that not ten minutes before he had been challenged to produce them; but
this, he said, would not have prevented his arrest and detention in the
city gaol until the authorities of Buffalo had been written to under
suspicion of his being a fugitive, had he not taken the precaution,
before he left that city, to obtain from the mayor a certificate of his
intention to proceed to the Missouri country, and the object of his
visit. He told me that if he liked his purchase, he should build a house
on it, and cultivate the land as a farm, as his continued residence in
Buffalo, after the disposition to annoy him shown by the citizens,
rendered his stay there out of the question. I afterwards dined with him
at his "hotel," which was an obscure tavern in an unfrequented part of
the city, in and about which I saw several coloured people. I afterwards
ascertained that this was what is there derisively termed a "nigger
boarding-house," and that the keepers of superior hotels would not think
of accommodating a coloured person even for a night. From subsequent
experience in such matters, I have no doubt that this version was a true
one.

The hotels and cafés in the Slave States are all frequented by slave
owners and dealers; these would not think of putting up at quarters
where "coloured folks" were entertained. This distinction is so marked,
that no negro would attempt to apply for refreshment at the bar of such