My case was now desperate; and I took this desperate thought: "I will run
him a little farther from his coadjutor; I will then suddenly catch a
stone, and wound him in the breast." This was my fixed purpose, and I had
arrived near the point on the top of the hill, where I expected to do the
act, when to my surprise and dismay, I saw the other side of the hill was
not only all ploughed up, but we came suddenly upon a man ploughing, who
as suddenly left his plough and cut off my flight, by seizing me by the
collar, when at the same moment my pursuer seized my arms behind. Here I
was again in a sad fix. By this time the other pursuer had come up; I was
most savagely thrown down on the ploughed ground with my face downward,
the ploughman placed his knee upon my shoulders, one of my captors put his
upon my legs, while the other tied my arms behind me. I was then dragged
up, and marched off with kicks, punches and imprecations.

We got to the tavern at three o'clock. Here they again cooled down, and
made an appeal to me to make a disclosure. I saw that my attempt to escape
strengthened their belief that I was a fugitive. I said to them, "If you
will not put me in jail, I will now tell you where I am from." They
promised. "Well," said I, "a few weeks ago, I was sold from the eastern
shore to a slave-trader, who had a large gang, and set out for Georgia,
but when he got to a town in Virginia, he was taken sick, and died with
the small-pox. Several of his gang also died with, it, so that the people
in the town became alarmed, and did not wish the gang to remain among
them. No one claimed us, or wished to have anything to do with us; I left
the rest, and thought I would go somewhere and get work."

When I said this, it was evidently believed by those who were present, and
notwithstanding the unkind feeling that had existed, there was a murmur of
approbation. At the same time I perceived that a panic began to seize
some, at the idea that I was one of a small-pox gang. Several who had