TO LIBERTY FRIENDS:—­In the Signal of the 28th inst. is a report from the undersigned respecting Henry Bibb.  His narrative always excites deep sympathy for himself and favorable bias for the cause, which seeks to abolish the evils he so powerfully portrays.  Friends and foes attest his efficiency.

Mr. Bibb has labored much in lecturing, yet has collected but a bare pittance.  He has received from Ohio lucrative offers, but we have prevailed on him to remain in this State.

We think that a strong obligation rests on the friends in this State to sustain Mr. Bibb, and restore to him his wife and child.  Under the expectation that Michigan will yield to these claims:  will support their laborer, and re-unite the long severed ties of husband and wife, parent and child, Mr. Bibb will lecture through the whole State.

     Our object is to prepare friends for the visit of Mr. Bibb,
     and to suggest an effective mode of operations for the whole
     State.

Let friends in each vicinity appoint a collector—­pay to him all contributions for the freedom of Mrs. Bibb and child:  then transmit them to us.  We will acknowledge them in the Signal, and be responsible for them.  We will see that the proper measures for the freedom of Mrs. Bibb and child are taken, and if it be within our means we will accomplish it—­nay we will accomplish it, if the objects be living and the friends sustain us.  But should we fail, the contributions will be held subject to the order of the donors, less however, by a proportionate deduction of expenses from each.

The hope of this re-union will nerve the heart and body of Mr. Bibb to re-doubled effort in a cause otherwise dear to him.  And as he will devote his whole time systematically to the anti-slavery cause, he must also depend on friends for the means of livelihood.  We bespeak for him your hospitality, and such pecuniary contributions as you can afford, trusting that the latter may be sufficient to enable him to keep the field.

A.L.  PORTER,
C.H.  STEWART,
SILAS M. HOLMES

DETROIT, APRIL 22, 1845.

I have every reason to believe that they acted faithfully in the matter, but without success.  They wrote letters in every quarter where they would be likely to gain any information respecting her.  There were also two men sent from Michigan in the summer of 1845, down South, to find her if possible, and report—­and whether they found out her condition, and refused to report, I am not able to say—­but suffice it to say that they never have reported.  They were respectable men and true friends of the cause, one of whom was a Methodist minister, and the other a cabinet maker, and both white men.

The small spark of hope which had still lingered about my heart had almost become extinct.

CHAPTER XVIII.