first care was to attend to the sufferer, and a surgeon being
fortunately amongst the passengers, the hemorrhage was soon abated, but
the wound was pronounced to be of a fatal character. The poor fellow,
who was a lad of about eighteen years of age, moaned piteously. Every
attention that skill and kindness could suggest was paid to him. He was
immediately carried to a state-room in the cabin, where he remained in
great agony until the vessel was moored alongside the levee, when he was
carefully removed on a litter to a hospital on shore. The perpetrator of
the savage act proved to be a negro, filling the office of assistant
cook. The passengers were very clamorous, and would, without doubt, have
hanged the culprit immediately, had it not been for the interference of
the captain, who, after a curt examination, had him pinioned and taken
below. From the version given of the affair by the negroes who witnessed
it (but which was contradicted by two white men who were on the spot), I
was inclined to think the crime was committed under feelings of great
provocation, the negro, as is commonly the case on board steam-boats,
having been for a long time browbeaten by the victim of the sad
catastrophe, and subjected to very insolent and overbearing treatment at
his hands. The culprit, who was a very sullen, stolid-looking, full-bred
negro, refused to answer the questions put to him on the subject, and
certainly manifested a careless indifference to consequences that was
not in his favour; his fierce scowl denoting great ferocity, in all
probability induced by long ill-treatment. As soon as convenience
allowed, some officers from the shore came on board and secured the
prisoner, who was conveyed by them to the city gaol, to await the
investigation of the outrage by the civic authorities and the result of
the injury committed. The victim of revenge died a few days after the
occurrence in excruciating agony. It will scarcely be believed that the
perpetrator of the deed, after a short confinement, was spirited away up
the country, no doubt at the connivance of the authorities, and sold!