These poor fellows were accordingly chained to the stake the next Sunday; but, before the fuel was lighted, Deputy Sheriff More and Mr. Rosevelt again questioned Quack and Cuffee, and reduced their confessions to paper, for they had stoutly protested their innocence while in court, in hope of being saved they confessed, in substance, that Hughson contrived to burn the town, and kill the people; that a company of Negroes voted Quack the proper person to burn the fort, because his wife lived there; that he did set the chapel on fire with a lighted stick; that Mary Burton had told the truth, and that she could implicate many more if she would, etc.  All this general lying was done with the understanding that the confessors were to be reprieved until the governor could be heard from.  But a large crowd had gathered to witness the burning of these poor Negroes, and they compelled the sheriff to proceed with the ceremonies.  The convicted slaves were burned.

On the 1st of June the boy Sawney was again put upon the witness-stand.  His testimony led to the arrest of more Negroes.  He charged them with having been sworn to the plot, and with having sharp penknives with which to kill white men.  One Fortune testified that he never knew of houses where conspirators met, nor did he know Hughson, but accuses Sawney, and Quack who had been burnt.  The next witness was a Negro girl named Sarah.  She was frightened out of her senses.  She foamed at the mouth, uttered the bitterest imprecations, and denied all knowledge of a conspiracy.  But the benevolent gentlemen who conducted the trial told her that others had said certain things in proof of the existence of a conspiracy, that the only way to save her life was to acknowledge that there had been a conspiracy to burn the town and kill the inhabitants.  She then assented to all that was told her, and thereby implicated quite a number of Negroes; but, when her testimony was read to her, she again denied all.  She was without doubt a fit subject for an insane-asylum rather than for the witness-stand, in a cause that involved so many human lives.

It will be remembered that John Hughson, his wife, and daughter had been in the jail for a long time.  He now desired to be called to the witness-stand.  He begged to be sworn, that in the most solemn manner he might deny all knowledge of the conspiracy, and exculpate his wife and child.  But the modest recorder reminded him of the fact that he stood convicted as a felon already, that he and his family were doomed to be hanged, and that, therefore, it would be well for him to “confess all.”  He was sent back to jail unheard.  Already condemned to be hung, the upright magistrates had Hughson tried again for “conspiracy” on the 4th of June!  The indictments were three in number:  First, that Hughson, his wife, his daughter, and Peggy Carey, with three Negroes, Caesar, Prince, and Cuffee, conspired in March last to set fire to the house in the fort.