Hitherto I had lived mainly upon peaches, which were plenty on almost all the plantations in Alabama and Georgia; but the season was now too far advanced for them, and I was obliged to resort to apples.  These I obtained without much difficulty until within two or three days journey of the Virginia line.  At this time I had had nothing to eat but two or three small and sour apples for twenty-four hours, and I waited impatiently for night, in the hope of obtaining fruit from the orchards along the road.  I passed by several plantations, but found no apples.  After midnight, I passed near a large house, with fruit trees around it.  I searched under, and climbed up and shook several of them to no purpose.  At last I found a tree on which there were a few apples.  On shaking it, half a dozen fell.  I got down, and went groping and feeling about for them in the grass, but could find only two, the rest were devoured by several hogs who were there on the same errand with myself.  I pursued my way until day was about breaking, when I passed another house.  The feeling of extreme hunger was here so intense, that it required all the resolution I was master of to keep myself from going, up to the house and breaking into it in search of food.  But the thought of being again made a slave, and of suffering the horrible punishment of a runaway restrained me.  I lay in the worlds all that day without food.  The next evening, I soon found a large pile of excellent apples, from which I supplied myself.

The next evening I reached Halifax Court House, and I then knew that I was near Virginia.  On the 7th of October, I came to the Roanoke, and crossed it in the midst of a violent storm of rain and thunder.  The current ran so furiously that I was carried down with it, and with great difficulty, and in a state of complete exhaustion, reached the opposite shore.

At about 2 o’clock, on the night of the 15th, I approached Richmond, but not daring to go into the city at that hour, on account of the patrols, I lay in the woods near Manchester, until the next evening, when I started in the twilight, in order to enter before the setting of the watch.  I passed over the bridge unmolested, although in great fear, as my tattered clothes and naked head were well calculated to excite suspicion; and being well acquainted with the localities of the city, made my way to the house of a friend.  I was received with the utmost kindness, and welcomed as one risen from the dead.  Oh, how inexpressibly sweet were the tones of human sympathy, after the dreadful trials to which I had been subjected—­the wrongs and outrages which I witnessed and suffered!  For between two and three months I had not spoken with a human being, and the sound even of my own voice now seemed strange to my ears.  During this time, save in two or three instances I had tasted of no food except peaches and apples.  I was supplied with some dried meat and coffee, but the first mouthful occasioned nausea and faintness.  I was compelled