such as ammunition, a sharp flint, a priming wire, a scalping knife or tomahawk, was thought highly disgraceful. A man, who without a reasonable cause failed to go on a scout or campaign when it came to his turn, met with an expression of indignation in the countenances of all his neighbors, and epithets of dishonor were fastened upon him without mercy.

Debts, which make such an uproar in civilized life, were but little known among our forefathers at the early settlement of this country. After the depreciation of the continental paper they had no money of any kind; every thing purchased was paid for in produce or labor. A good cow and calf was often the price of a bushel of alum salt. If a contract was not punctually fulfilled, the credit of the delinquent was at an end.

Any petty theft was punished with all the infamy that could be heaped on the offender. A man on a campaign stole from his comrade a cake out of the ashes in which it was baking. He was immediately named "the Bread-rounds." This epithet of reproach was bandied about in this way. When he came in sight of a group of men, one of them would call, "Who comes there?" Another would answer, "The Bread-rounds." If any one meant to be more serious about the matter, he would call out, "Who stole a cake out of the ashes?" Another replied by giving the name of the man in full. To this a third would give confirmation by exclaiming, "That is true and no lie." This kind of "tonguelashing" he was doomed to bear for the rest of the campaign, as well as for years after his return home.

If a theft was detected in any of the frontier settlements, a summary mode of punishment was always resorted to. The first settlers, as far as I knew of them, had a kind of innate or hereditary detestation of the crime of theft, in any shape or degree, and their maxim was that "a thief must be whipped." If the theft was of something of some value, a kind of jury of the neighborhood, after hearing the testimony, would condemn the culprit to Moses's law, that is, to forty stripes save

one.

If the theft was of some small article, the offender was doomed to carry on his back the flag of the United States, which then consisted of thirteen stripes. In either case, some able hands were selected to execute the sentence, so that the stripes were sure to be well laid on.

This punishment was followed by a sentence of exile. He then was informed that he must decamp in so many days and be seen there no more on penalty of having the number of his stripes doubled.

For many years after the law was put in operation in the western part of Virginia, the magistrates themselves were in the habit of giving those who were brought before them on charges of small thefts, the liberty of being sent to jail, or taking a whipping. The latter was commonly chosen, and was immediately inflicted, after which the thief was ordered to clear out.

In some instances stripes were inflicted; not for the punishment of an offense, but for the purpose of extorting a confession from suspected persons. This was the torture of our early times, and no doubt sometimes very unjustly inflicted.

If a woman was given to tattling and slandering her neighbors, she was furnished by common consent with a kind of patent right to say whatever she pleased, without being believed. Her tongue was then said to be harmless, or to be no scandal.

With all their rudeness, these people were given to hospitality, and freely divided their rough fare with a neighbor or stranger, and would have been offended at the offer of pay. In their settlements and forts, they lived, they worked, they fought and feasted, or suffered together, in cordial harmony. They were warm and constant in their friendships. On the other hand they were revengeful in their resentments; and the point of honor sometimes led to personal combats. If one man called another a liar, he was considered as having given a challenge which the person who received it must ac cept, or be deemed a coward, and the charge was gene

rally answered on the spot with a blow. If the injured person was decidedly unable to fight the aggressor, he might get a friend to do it for him. The same thing took place on a charge of cowardice, or any other dishonorable action. A battle must follow, and the person who made the charge must fight either the person against whom he made it, or any champion who chose to espouse his cause. Thus circumstanced, our people in early times were much more cautious of speaking evil of their neighbors than they are at present.

Sometimes pitched battles occurred, in which time, place, and seconds were appointed beforehand. I remember having seen one of those pitched battles in my father's fort, when a boy. One of the young men knew very well beforehand that he should get the worst of the battle, and no doubt repented the engagement to fight; but there was no getting over it. The point of honor demanded the risk of battle. He got his whipping; they then shook hands, and were good friends afterwards.

The mode of single combat in those days was dangerous in the extreme. Although no weapons were used, fists, teeth and feet were employed at will; but above all, the detestable practice of gouging, by which eyes were sometimes put out, rendered this mode of fighting frightful indeed. It was not, however, so destructive as the stiletto of an Italian, the knife of a Spaniard, the small sword of the Frenchman, or the pistol of the American or English duelist.

Instances of seduction and bastardy did not frequently happen in our early times. I remember one instance of the former, in which the life of the man was put in jeopardy by the resentment of the family to which the girl belonged. Indeed, considering the chivalrous temper of our people, this crime could not then take place without great personal danger from the brothers or other relations of the victims of seduction, family honor being then estimated at a high rate.

I do not recollect that profane language was much more prevalent in our early times than at present.

Among the people with whom I was conversant, there was no other vestige of the christian religion than a faint observance of Sunday, and that merely as a day of rest for the aged and a play-day for the young.

The first christian service I ever heard was in the Garrison church in Baltimore county, in Maryland, where my father had sent me to school. I was then about ten years old. The appearance of the church, the windows of which were Gothic, the white surplice of the minister, and the responses in the service, overwhelmed me with surprise. Among my school-fellows in that place, it was a matter of reproach to me that I was not baptized, and why? Because, as they said, I had no name.

of baptism.

Such was their notion of the efficacy

CHAPTER XXX.

Slavery.

I will give some of my early impressions on seeing the cruelties exercised on slaves and convict servants in the state of Maryland.

If some of my readers should complain of the introduction of too great a portion of my own history, and that of my family, into this work, I trust I shall not be considered blamable for giving the narrative of the horrid cruelties exercised upon slaves and servants which I was doomed to witness in my early years, together with the lasting impressions which the view of these tortures made upon my infant mind.

On the death of my mother, which happened when I was about eight years old, my father sent me under

the care of a relation to Maryland, for the purpose of being sent to school.

When arrived there, I was in a new world. I had left the backwoods behind me. I had exchanged its rough manners and poor living, for the buildings, plenty and polish of civilized life. Every thing I saw and heard confounded me. I learnt, after some time, that there were rich and poor masters, slaves and convicts; and I discovered that the poor servants and convicts were under entire subordination to their masters. I saw that the slaves and convicts lived in filthy hovels called kitchens, and that they were poor, ragged and dirty, and kept at hard labor; while their masters and families lived in large houses, were well clothed and fed, and did as they pleased. The reason of this difference in the condition of men and women of the same race of beings, I could not comprehend.

Having no idea of crime, I thought it could be no otherwise than unjust, that some should have so little and others so much, and that one should work so hard and others perform no labor.

My residence was in a neighborhood where slaves and convicts were numerous, and where tortures inflicted upon them had become the occurrences of almost every day, so that they were viewed with indifference by the whole population of the neighborhood as matters of course. Thus it is that custom reconciles human nature, with all its native sympathies, to the grossest barbarities, and hardens the heart against the intrusion of feeling at the sight of the most exquisite suffering of a fellow creature.

Not so with me, who never had witnessed such tortures. I had not been long in my new habitation, before I witnessed a scene which I shall never forget. A convict servant, accused of some trivial offense, was doomed to the whip, tied with his arms extended upwards to the limb of a tree, and a bundle of hickories thrown down before him, which he was ordered to look at, and told that they should all be worn out on him,