repair this omission one day, but found that the negro had discovered all about them and was already quite independent of instruction.  From this time astronomy became the great object of Banneker’s life, and in its study he almost disappeared from the sight of his neighbors.  He was unmarried, and lived alone in the cabin and on the farm which he had inherited from his parents.  He had still to labor for his living; but he so simplified his wants as to be enabled to devote the greater portion of his time to astronomical studies.  He slept much during the day, that he might the more devotedly observe at night the heavenly bodies whose laws he was slowly, but surely, mastering.

And now he began to have a taste of that persecution to which every genius under similar circumstances is subject.  He was no longer seen in the field, where formerly his constancy had gained him a reputation for industry, and some who called at his cabin during the day-time found him asleep; so he began to be spoken of as a lazy fellow, who would come to no good, and whose age would disappoint the promise of his youth.  There was a time when this so excited his neighbors against him that he had serious fears of disturbance.  A memorandum in his hand-writing, dated December 18, 1790, states:—­

“------ ------informed me that ------ stole my horse and great-coat,
and that the said ------ intended to murder me when opportunity
presented. ------ ------ gave me a caution to let no one come into my
house after dark.”

The names were originally written in full; but they were afterward carefully cancelled, as though Banneker had reflected that it was wrong to leave on record an unauthenticated assertion against an individual, which, if untrue, might prejudice him by the mere fact that it had been made.

Very soon after the possession of the books already mentioned, Banneker determined to compile an almanac, that being the most familiar use that occurred to him of the information he had acquired.  To make an almanac was a very different thing then from what it would be now, when there is an abundance of accurate tables and rules.  Banneker had no aid whatever from men or tables; and Mr. George Ellicott, who procured some tables and took them to him, states that he had advanced far in the preparation of the logarithms necessary for his purpose.  A memorandum in his calculations at this time thus corrects an error in Ferguson’s Astronomy:—­

“It appears to me that the wisest men may at times be in error:  for instance, Dr. Ferguson informs us, that, when the sun is within 12 deg. of either node at the time of full, the moon will be eclipsed; but I find, that, according to his method of projecting a lunar eclipse, there will be none by the above elements, and yet the sun is within 11 deg. 46’ 11” of the moon’s ascending node.  But the moon being in her apogee prevents the appearance of this eclipse.”

Another memorandum makes the following corrections:—­