he could there find arms, ammunition, and money; though they had already
obtained, it is dubiously reported, from eight hundred to one thousand
dollars. On the way it was necessary to pass the plantation of Mr.
Parker, three miles from Jerusalem. Some of the men wished to stop here
and enlist some of their friends. Nat Turner objected, as the delay might
prove dangerous; he yielded at last, and it proved fatal.

He remained at the gate with six or eight men; thirty or forty went to
the house, half a mile distant. They remained too long, and he went alone
to hasten them. During his absence a party of eighteen white men came up
suddenly, dispersing the small guard left at the gate; and when the main
body of slaves emerged from the house, they encountered, for the first
time, their armed masters. The blacks halted; the whites advanced
cautiously within a hundred yards, and fired a volley; on its being
returned, they broke into disorder, and hurriedly retreated, leaving some
wounded on the ground. The retreating whites were pursued, and were saved
only by falling in with another band of fresh men from Jerusalem, with
whose aid they turned upon the slaves, who in their turn fell into
confusion. Turner, Hark, and about twenty men on horseback retreated in
some order; the rest were scattered. The leader still planned to reach
Jerusalem by a private way, thus evading pursuit; but at last decided to
stop for the night, in the hope of enlisting additional recruits.

During the night the number increased again to forty, and they encamped
on Major Ridley's plantation. An alarm took place during the
darkness,--whether real or imaginary, does not appear,--and the men
became scattered again. Proceeding to make fresh enlistments with the
daylight, they were resisted at Dr. Blunt's house, where his slaves,
under his orders, fired upon them; and this, with a later attack from a
party of white men near Capt. Harris's, so broke up the whole force that