a fictitious statement, and he confided in that penetration. So
confiding, the simplicity and integrity of my manner carried conviction
to his mind, and insured his good opinion and friendship.

He listened to my story with eagerness, and commented on the several
parts as I related them. He said, that this was only one fresh instance
of the tyranny and perfidiousness exercised by the powerful members of
the community, against those who were less privileged than themselves.
Nothing could be more clear, than their readiness to sacrifice the human
species at large to their meanest interest, or wildest caprice. Who that
saw the situation in its true light would wait till their oppressors
thought fit to decree their destruction, and not take arms in their
defence while it was yet in their power? Which was most meritorious,
the unresisting and dastardly submission of a slave, or the enterprise
and gallantry of the man who dared to assert his claims? Since, by the
partial administration of our laws, innocence, when power was armed
against it, had nothing better to hope for than guilt, what man of true
courage would fail to set these laws at defiance, and, if he must suffer
by their injustice, at least take care that he had first shown his
contempt of their yoke? For himself, he should certainly never have
embraced his present calling, had he not been stimulated to it by these
cogent and irresistible reasons; and he hoped, as experience had so
forcibly brought a conviction of this sort to my mind, that he should
for the future have the happiness to associate me to his pursuits.--It
will presently be seen with what event these hopes were attended.

Numerous were the precautions exercised by the gang of thieves with whom
I now resided, to elude the vigilance of the satellites of justice. It
was one of their rules to commit no depredations but at a considerable
distance from the place of their residence; and Gines had transgressed