The top and the bottom diameter define,
    To bear that proportion as fifteen to nine;
    Thirty-five inches are just what I crave,
    No more and no less, in the depth, will I have;
    Just thirty-nine gallons this vessel must hold,—­
    Then I will reward you with silver or gold,—­
    Give me your promise, my honest old friend?’
    ‘I’ll make it to-morrow, that you may depend!’
    So the next day the Cooper his work to discharge,
    Soon made the new vessel, but made it too large:—­
    He took out some staves, which made it too small,
    And then cursed the vessel, the Vintner and all. 
    He beat on his breast, ’By the Powers!’—­he swore,
    He never would work at his trade any more! 
    Now my worthy friend, find out, if you can,
    The vessel’s dimensions and comfort the man!

“BENJAMIN BANNEKER.”

The greater diameter of Banneker’s tub must be 24.746 inches; the less diameter, 14.8476 inches.

He was described by a gentleman who had often met him at Ellicott’s Mills as “of black complexion, medium stature, of uncommonly soft and gentlemanly manners and of pleasing colloquial powers.”

Fortunately Mr. George Ellicott was a gentleman of exquisite literary taste and critical judgment.  He discovered in Banneker the elements of a cultivated gentleman and profound scholar.  He threw open his library to this remarkable Negro, loaded him with books and astronomical instruments, and gave him the emphatic assurance of sympathy and encouragement.  He occasionally made Banneker a visit, when he would urge upon him the importance of making astronomical calculations for almanacs.  Finally, in the spring of 1789, Banneker submitted to Mr. Ellicott his first projection of an eclipse.  It was found to contain a slight error; and, having kindly pointed it out, Mr. Ellicott received the following reply from Banneker:—­

LETTER OF BENJAMIN BANNEKER TO GEORGE ELLICOTT.

“Sir,—­I received your letter at the hand of Bell but found nothing strange to me In the Letter Concerning the number of Eclipses, the according to authors the Edge of the penumber only touches the Suns Limb in that Eclips, that I left out of the Number—­which happens April 14th day, at 37 minutes past 7 o’clock in the morning, and is the first we shall have; but since you wrote to me, I drew in the Equations of the Node which will cause a small Solar Defet, but as I did not intend to publish, I was not so very peticular as I should have been, but was more intent upon the true method of projecting; a Solar Eclips—­It is an easy matter for us when a Diagram is laid down before us, to draw one in resemblance of it, but it is a hard matter for young Tyroes in Astronomy, when only the Elements for the projection is laid down before him to draw his diagram with any degree of Certainty.

“Says the Learned LEADBETTER,