letting my feet touch or rest upon any thing.  Thus I hung, without any crime committed, and without judge or jury; merely because I was a free man, and could not by the law get any redress from a white person in those parts of the world.  I was in great pain from my situation, and cried and begged very hard for some mercy; but all in vain.  My tyrant, in a great rage, brought a musquet out of the cabin, and loaded it before me and the crew, and swore that he would shoot me if I cried any more.  I had now no alternative; I therefore remained silent, seeing not one white man on board who said a word on my behalf.  I hung in that manner from between ten and eleven o’clock at night till about one in the morning; when, finding my cruel abuser fast asleep, I begged some of his slaves to slack the rope that was round my body, that my feet might rest on something.  This they did at the risk of being cruelly used by their master, who beat some of them severely at first for not tying me when he commanded them.  Whilst I remained in this condition, till between five and six o’clock next morning, I trust I prayed to God to forgive this blasphemer, who cared not what he did, but when he got up out of his sleep in the morning was of the very same temper and disposition as when he left me at night.  When they got up the anchor, and the vessel was getting under way, I once more cried and begged to be released; and now, being fortunately in the way of their hoisting the sails, they released me.  When I was let down, I spoke to one Mr. Cox, a carpenter, whom I knew on board, on the impropriety of this conduct.  He also knew the doctor, and the good opinion he ever had of me.  This man then went to the captain, and told him not to carry me away in that manner; that I was the doctor’s steward, who regarded me very highly, and would resent this usage when he should come to know it.  On which he desired a young man to put me ashore in a small canoe I brought with me.  This sound gladdened my heart, and I got hastily into the canoe and set off, whilst my tyrant was down in the cabin; but he soon spied me out, when I was not above thirty or forty yards from the vessel, and, running upon the deck with a loaded musket in his hand, he presented it at me, and swore heavily and dreadfully, that he would shoot me that instant, if I did not come back on board.  As I knew the wretch would have done as he said, without hesitation, I put back to the vessel again; but, as the good Lord would have it, just as I was alongside he was abusing the captain for letting me go from the vessel; which the captain returned, and both of them soon got into a very great heat.  The young man that was with me now got out of the canoe; the vessel was sailing on fast with a smooth sea:  and I then thought it was neck or nothing, so at that instant I set off again, for my life, in the canoe, towards the shore; and fortunately the confusion was so great amongst them on board, that I got out of the reach of the musquet shot unnoticed,