This man had been
master mechanic of the mansion. With wooden spears were the men
armed and formed into two lines, the women, children, and old men in
the centre; and thus did they set off from the place of bondage to
seek freedom. In vain did the tyrant-whose name democracy has
enshrined with its glories-pursue them, and exhaust persuasion to
procure their return. For three days did they wander the woods,
delve morasses, and swim rivers, ere they reached the haven of St.
Augustine, where, being provided with provisions, their case was
tried, and, albeit, though Turnbull interposed all the perfidy
wealth could purchase, their fredeom established. But alas! not so
well was it with those fair daughters whom the tyrant sold slaves to
a life of infamy, and for whose offspring, now in the bitterness of
bondage, do we plead. Scores of these female children were sold by
the tyrant; but either the people were drunk of joy over their own
liberty, and forgot to demand the return of their children, or the
good Younge felt forcibly his weakness to bring to justice the rich
and great-for the law is weak where slavery makes men great-so as to
make him disgorge the ill-gotten treasure he might have concealed,
but the proof of which nothing was easier than to obliterate.
"Maldonard, then, was my grandfather; and, with my grandmother and
three children, was of those who suffered the cruelties I have
detailed. Two of his children were girls, fair and beautiful, whom
the tyrant, under the pretext of bettering their condition in
another colony, sold away into slavery.
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