asked him to let me go in Mr. Wood's service. Mr. Wood did not then want
to purchase me; it was my own fault that I came under him, I was so
anxious to go. It was ordained to be, I suppose; God led me there. The
truth is, I did not wish to be any longer the slave of my indecent master.

Mr. Wood took me with him to Antigua, to the town of St. John's, where he
lived. This was about fifteen years ago. He did not then know whether I
was to be sold; but Mrs. Wood found that I could work, and she wanted to
buy me. Her husband then wrote to my master to inquire whether I was to be
sold? Mr. D---- wrote in reply, "that I should not be sold to any one that
would treat me ill." It was strange he should say this, when he had
treated me so ill himself. So I was purchased by Mr. Wood for 300 dollars,
(or £100 Bermuda currency.)[9]

[Footnote 9: About £67. 10s. sterling.]

My work there was to attend the chambers and nurse the child, and to go
down to the pond and wash clothes. But I soon fell ill of the rheumatism,
and grew so very lame that I was forced to walk with a stick. I got the
Saint Anthony's fire, also, in my left leg, and became quite a cripple. No
one cared much to come near me, and I was ill a long long time; for
several months I could not lift the limb. I had to lie in a little old
out-house, that was swarming with bugs and other vermin, which tormented
me greatly; but I had no other place to lie in. I got the rheumatism by
catching cold at the pond side, from washing in the fresh water; in the
salt water I never got cold. The person who lived in next yard, (a Mrs.
Greene,) could not bear to hear my cries and groans. She was kind, and
used to send an old slave woman to help me, who sometimes brought me a
little soup. When the doctor found I was so ill, he said I must be put
into a bath of hot water. The old slave got the bark of some bush that was