If you want any thing more of me, you will find me
at Colonel Whaley's plantation to-morrow." Thus saying, he stepped
into his boat and returned on board of his vessel. Just as he was
getting under-weigh again, whiz! whiz! whiz! came three shots, one
in quick succession after the other, the last taking effect and
piercing the crown of his hat, at which they retired out of sight.
Fearing a return, he worked his vessel about two miles farther up
and came to anchor on the other side of the channel, where he waited
the return of the tide, and had an opportunity to put his affrighted
passengers on board a schooner that was passing down, bound to
Charleston.
The secret of such an outrage is told in a few words. The man was a
timber-getter from the vicinity of New Bedford, Massachusetts, who,
with his son, a lad about sixteen years of age, had spent several
winters in the vicinity of the Edisto, getting live-oak, what he
considered a laudable enterprise. He purchased the timber on the
stump of the inhabitants, at a price which left him very little
profit, and had also been charged an exorbitant price for every
thing he got, whether labor or provisions; and so far had that
feeling of South Carolina's self-sufficiency been carried out
against him in all its cold repulsiveness, that he found much more
honesty and true hospitality under the roof of a poor colored man.
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