and I am going to tell you what is the matter.  There were two men came through here last week, one night, and said ‘You see this picture?’ There is a picture of a farm in Kansas for me that General Grant has bought out there for me.  That is so because my name is on the back of it, and here is my ticket; that carries me to Kansas.”  Said I, “Let me see it.”  He showed me a piece of pasteboard that had printed on it “Good for one trip to Kansas.”  Said I, “What did you pay him for this?” He said, “We paid him $2 a piece.”  “How many of you are in this thing?” “Over eighty of us are in this thing.”  Said I, “That man then swindled you out of $160; he is an imposter; there is no farm bought for you in Kansas.”  I saw that the time for me to remonstrate with them was not then; they were on their way to the Mississippi River, and I let them all go.  After they got out there I went and expostulated with them; told them of the difference in climate, soil, and everything else that they were accustomed to, and that if they went there many of them would lose their families and children.  They would not listen to me.  They went on to the river bank, and those negroes who went out there owed me over $109,000.

Q. How many of them were there?  Eighty I think you said?  —­A.  There were 80, I think.  Once, I suppose, there were 150 negroes, perhaps more, on the bank of the river.  They were not at a regular landing.  They went out to the intermediate points where a boat would not be compelled to land.  We notified all the boats coming up the river not to land at this point.  I did not want these negroes to go off, being satisfied that they were going to their ruin if they did; that they were leaving comfortable homes; many of them had sold their mules or given them away at a mere sacrifice.  One negro sold a mule worth $150 for $15 to get off.  They opened their potato-houses, they opened their corn-cribs and scattered the corn, giving it away to everybody that would offer them five cents a bushel.  I had given two of these people a piece of land, the productions of all of which they were to have for bringing it into cultivation and improving it.  Knowing the negro nature as I do, and knowing that he would not want anybody to derive the benefit of something that he thought he was entitled to, I got two white men in the county to come and offer me to take this piece of land and cultivate it on shares with me, giving me one half its product, whereas with them I was entitled to nothing.  As soon as those two fellows found out that I had made a good bargain for their land they went back home from the river bank, and as soon as they went back all the rest followed.  Then I called the whole plantation up and told them to appoint two representatives and that I would send them to Kansas at my own expense to examine into this matter and report to them.  These two men went to Kansas, came back, and reported the true condition of affairs; and now if what they call in that country “a