bondage to a promised land.  Yet I was in a far worse state than Egyptian bondage; for they had houses and land; I had none; they had oxen and sheep; I had none; they had a wise counsel, to tell them what to do, and where to go, and even to go with them; I had none.  I was surrounded by opposition on every hand.  My friends were few and far between.  I have often felt when running away as if I had scarcely a friend on earth.

Sometimes standing on the Ohio River bluff, looking over on a free State, and as far north as my eyes could see, I have eagerly gazed upon the blue sky of the free North, which at times constrained me to cry out from the depths of my soul, Oh!  Canada, sweet land of rest—­Oh! when shall I get there!  Oh, that I had the wings of a dove, that I might soar away to where there is no slavery; no clanking of chains, no captives, no lacerating of backs, no parting of husbands and wives; and where man ceases to be the property of his fellow man.  These thoughts have revolved in my mind a thousand times.  I have stood upon the lofty banks of the river Ohio, gazing upon the splendid steamboats, wafted with all their magnificence up and down the river, and I thought of the fishes of the water, the fowls of the air, the wild beasts of the forest, all appeared to be free, to go just where they pleased, and I was an unhappy slave!

But my attention was gradually turned in a measure from this subject, by being introduced into the society of young women.  This for the time being took my attention from running away, as waiting on the girls appeared to be perfectly congenial to my nature.  I wanted to be well thought of by them, and would go to great lengths to gain their affection.  I had been taught by the old superstitious slaves, to believe in conjuration, and it was hard for me to give up the notion, for all I had been deceived by them.  One of these conjurers, for a small sum agreed to teach me to make any girl love me that I wished.  After I had paid him, he told me to get a bull frog, and take a certain bone out of the frog, dry it, and when I got a chance I must step up to any girl whom I wished to make love me, and scratch her somewhere on her naked skin with this bone, and she would be certain to love me, and would follow me in spite of herself; no matter who she might be engaged to, nor who she might be walking with.

So I got me a bone for a certain girl, whom I knew to be under the influence of another young man.  I happened to meet her in the company of her lover, one Sunday evening, walking out; so when I got a chance, I fetched her a tremendous rasp across her neck with this bone, which made her jump.  But in place of making her love me, it only made her angry with me.  She felt more like running after me to retaliate on me for thus abusing her, than she felt like loving me.  After I found there was no virtue in the bone of a frog, I thought I would try some other way to carry out my object.  I then sought another