To explain this sudden change in our situation, it is necessary to go back to Washington.  Great was the consternation in several families of that city, on Sunday morning, to find no breakfast, and, what was worse, their servants missing.  Nor was this disaster confined to Washington only.  Georgetown came in for a considerable share of it, and even Alexandria, on the opposite side of the river, had not entirely escaped.  The persons who had taken passage on board the Pearl had been held in bondage by no less than forty-one different persons.  Great was the wonder at the sudden and simultaneous disappearance of so many “prime hands,” roughly estimated, though probably with considerable exaggeration, as worth in the market not less than a hundred thousand dollars,—­and all at “one fell swoop” too, as the District Attorney afterwards, in arguing the case against me, pathetically expressed it!  There were a great many guesses and conjectures as to where these people had gone, and how they had gone; but it is very doubtful whether the losers would have got upon the right track, had it not been for the treachery of a colored hackman, who had been employed to carry down to the vessel two passengers who had been in hiding for some weeks previous, and who could not safely walk down, lest they might be met and recognized.  Emulating the example of that large, and, in their own opinion at least, highly moral, religious and respectable class of white people, known as “dough-faces,” this hackman thought it a fine opportunity to feather his nest by playing cat’s-paw to the slave-holders.  Seeing how much the information was in demand, and anticipating, no doubt, a large reward, he turned informer, and described the Pearl as the conveyance which the fugitives had taken; and, it being ascertained that the Pearl had actually sailed between Saturday night and Sunday morning, preparations were soon made to pursue her.  A Mr. Dodge, of Georgetown, a wealthy old gentleman, originally from New England, missed three or four slaves from his family, and a small steamboat, of which he was the proprietor, was readily obtained.  Thirty-five men, including a son or two of old Dodge, and several of those whose slaves were missing, volunteered to man her; and they set out about Sunday noon, armed to the teeth with guns, pistols, bowie-knives, &c., and well provided with brandy and other liquors.  They heard of us on the passage down, from the Baltimore steamer and the vessel loaded with plaster.  They reached the mouth of the river, and, not having found the Pearl, were about to return, as the steamer could not proceed into the bay without forfeiting her insurance.  As a last chance, they looked into Cornfield harbor, where they found us, as I have related.  This was about two o’clock in the morning.  The Pearl had come to anchor about nine o’clock the previous evening.  It is a hundred and forty miles from Washington to Cornfield harbor.

The steamer, with the Pearl in tow, crossed over from Point Lookout to Piney Point, on the south shore of the Potomac, and here the Pearl was left at anchor, a part of the steamer’s company remaining to guard her, while the steamer, having myself and the other white prisoners on board, proceeded up Coan river for a supply of wood, having obtained which, she again, about noon of Monday, took the Pearl in tow and started for Washington.