influence of some strangers.  Under this apprehension, a secret committee was formed to seize and try every suspected stranger, and, if he could not clear himself to their satisfaction, to “hang him up quietly.”  Of this secret and murderous committee Elder Wright—­an alumnus of Yale College, a professor of religion, and a preacher of the gospel—­was chosen chairman; and the statement I have just made came in the way described from his own lips!  It is notorious that in the South they think nothing of taking away a man’s life, if he be even suspected of sympathy with the slave; and a country so thinly inhabited affords abundant opportunities of doing it as “quietly” as can be desired.  America is indeed a land of “liberty!”

At night we came to Natchez, a town beautifully situated on the top of a hill, about 300 feet above the level of the river, and for this reason called “Natchez-on-the-Hill.”  Its population is about 5,000; and it is the largest town in the State of Mississippi.  Its distance from New Orleans is 300 miles.  Darkness had set in when we approached it; yet the numerous lights on shore, rising row above row to a great elevation, gave it a lively and interesting appearance.  But, alas!  Natchez also is a great slave market; and I can never think of it without remembering the sufferings of poor Mary Brown.  Let me narrate her painful story.  It may waken in some breast a feeling of sympathy for the American slave.

Mary Brown, a coloured girl, was the daughter of free parents in Washington city—­the capital of the freest nation under heaven!  She lived with her parents till the death of her mother.  One day, when she was near the Potomac Bridge, the sheriff overtook her, and told her that she must go with him.  She inquired what for?  He made no reply, but told her to come along, and took her immediately to a slave-auction.  Mary told him she was free; but he contradicted her, and the sale proceeded.  The auctioneer soon sold her for 350 dollars to a Mississippi trader.  She was first taken to jail; and after a few hours was handcuffed, chained to a man-slave, and started in a drove of about forty for New Orleans.  Her handcuffs made her wrists swell so much that at night they were obliged to take them off, and put fetters round her ankles.  In the morning the handcuffs were again put on.  Thus they travelled for two weeks, wading rivers, whipped up all day, and beaten at night if they had not performed the prescribed distance.  She frequently waded rivers in her chains, with water up to her waist.  The month was October, and the air cold and frosty.  After she had travelled thus twelve or fifteen days, her arms and ankles had become so swollen that she felt as if she could go no further.  They had no beds, usually sleeping in barns, sometimes out on the naked ground; and such were her misery and pain that she could only lie and cry all night.  Still she was driven on for another week; and every time the trader caught her crying