“I have just returned from an inquest I held over the body of a negro man, a runaway, that was shot near the South Edisto, in this District, (Barnwell,) on Saturday last.  He came to his death by his own recklessness.  He refused to be taken alive—­and said that other attempts to take him had been made, and he was determined that he would not be taken.  He was at first, (when those in pursuit of him found it absolutely necessary,) shot at with small shot, with the intention of merely crippling him.  He was shot at several times, and at last he was so disabled as to be compelled to surrender.  He kept in the run of a creek in a very dense swamp all the time that the neighbors were in pursuit of him.  As soon as the negro was taken, the best medical aid was procured, but he died on the same evening.  One of the witnesses at the Inquisition, stated that the negro boy said he was from Mississippi, and belonged to so many persons, that he did not know who his master was, but again he said his master’s name was Brown.  He said his name was Sam, and when asked by another witness, who his master was, he muttered something like Augusta or Augustine.  The boy was apparently above thirty-five or forty years of age, about six feet high, slightly yellow in the face, very long beard or whiskers, and very stout built, and a stern countenance; and appeared to have been a runaway for a long time.

WILLIAM H. PRITCHARD,
Coroner (Ex-officio,) Barnwell Dist.  S.C.”

The Norfolk (Va.) Herald, of Feb. 1837, has the following: 

“Three negroes in a ship’s yawl, came on shore yesterday evening, near New Point Comfort, and were soon after apprehended and lodged in jail.  Their story is, that they belonged to a brig from New York bound to Havana, which was cast away to the southward of Cape Henry, some day last week; that the brig was called the Maria, Captain Whittemore.  I have no doubt they are deserters from some vessel in the bay, as their statements are very confused and inconsistent.  One of these fellows is a mulatto, and calls himself Isaac Turner; the other two are quite black, the one passing by the name of James Jones and the other John Murray.  They have all their clothing with them, and are dressed in sea-faring apparel.  They attempted to make their escape, and it was not till a musket was fired at them, and one of them slightly wounded, that they surrendered.  They will be kept in jail till something further is discovered respecting them.”

The ‘St. Francisville (La.) Chronicle,’ of Feb. 1, 1839.  Gives the following account of a ‘negro hunt,’ in that Parish.

“Two or three days since a gentleman of this parish, in hunting runaway negroes, came upon a camp of them in the swamp on Cat Island.  He succeeded in arresting two of them, but the third made fight; and upon being shot in the shoulder, fled to a sluice, where the dogs succeeded in drowning him before assistance could arrive.”