conduct; you would see whites and blacks living in peace.  The negro would begin to improve, and the white people would help him.  It would not be long before the ideal of the negro would be individual freedom, not race freedom, as it is the white man’s ideal now.  There would be great striving throughout the negro race, which would be affected thereby from first to last of them.  Yes, I believe that if we had so done we should have been recognized.  England does not believe in sudden emancipation.  She provides for the freeing of the slaves throughout her dominions, but gradually carries her plans into effect, and she pays the owners.  I sometimes think that American Revolution was a mistake for the Southern colonies, for South Carolina especially.”

“A mistake, Captain?  That is a new idea to me.”

“We certainly had not the reason to rebel that Massachusetts had.  Our best people—­and we had many of them—­were closely allied to the best of the English, more closely than to Massachusetts.  Our trade with the mother country was profitable, and our products were favoured by bounties.  We had no connection, with the French and Indian wars which had given rise to so much trouble between Great Britain and New England.  But our people thought it would be base to desert the cause of Massachusetts.  I dare say this thought was the main reason that caused South Carolina to throw in her lot with that of our Northern colonies.  See what we get for it.  We renounce our profitable commerce with England, and we help our sister colonies; just so soon as their profitable commerce with us is threatened by our withdrawal, they maintain it by putting us to death.  It is their nature, sir.  They live by trade.  If they continue to increase in power, they will hold the West in commercial subjection—­and the isles of the sea, if they can ever reach to them.  Death has no such terrors to them as loss of trade.”

“But could the Revolution have succeeded without the South?”

“Certainly not.  The South really bore the brunt of the war.  New England suffered very little.  New York suffered; so did Pennsylvania and New Jersey, but nothing in comparison with South Carolina, which was in reality no more than a conquered province for years, and yet held faithful to the cause of the colonies.  And it was the eventual success of the Southern arms that caused the surrender of Cornwallis.  The North is very ungrateful to us.”

“With Great Britain and America under one government, we should have been a very powerful nation,” said I, musingly.

“And this war never would have been possible.  Our slaves would have been freed wisely, and we should have been paid for them.  England and America could have controlled the world in peace; but here we are, diligently engaged in killing one another.”

“Captain, I think our men are in bettor spirits than ever before.”

“That is very true, Jones.  They are full of hope and courage.  I have hope also, but I see no quick ending to this war.”