In consequence of a bar, or ‘swash,’ which stretches inside Ocracoke Inlet, (at that time the only passage to the sea,) the vessels take in but a part of their cargoes at Newbern, while lighters with the remainder accompany them across the ‘swash,’ where the lading is completed.  Quite a number of small craft are thus constantly employed, and they are generally manned and commanded by slaves.  In this trade was once engaged ‘Jack Devereaux,’ an intelligent black man who formerly belonged to the Devereaux family—­one of the F.F.s of Newbern—­but who had latterly become the property of H——­ & C——­, a mercantile firm then doing a flourishing business there.  He was captain of a famous lighter, which for its enormous carrying capacity had received the cognomen of ‘Hunger and Thirst.’  In due time the firm of H——­ & C——­dissolved, and C——­ ‘moved West,’ leaving an undivided half of Captain Jack in the hands of his attorney.  Jack had sailed the craft ’on shares,’ and compromised his services by monthly wages to his masters, and so had gradually accumulated some hundreds of dollars.  Not fancying his new share-holder, he concluded to invest his hard-earned dollars in his own bone and muscle, or in other words, buy half of himself.  After considerable higgling, he made the bargain, paying five hundred dollars for the share.  On the next trip to the bar, as the entrance to the sea is usually called, there came up one of those sudden hurricanes known as a Southeaster, whose force nothing can withstand.  The small craft was foundered, and Jack, after floating for a long time on a plank, finally drifted on to a sand-spit, and was saved.

Finding a passage home, he landed on the ‘old County Wharf,’ a melancholy, disheartened, and depressed individual, and without conferring with a single person, made his way to the attorney, from whom he had so lately purchased himself, and by dint of persuasion succeeded in having the trade canceled and his money returned.  Jack was then himself again.  He recounted over and over his adventures by flood and field to his wondering friends, and said no man, white or black, could imagine the trouble he felt when floating on that plank, the waves breaking over him every moment, when he considered he had just bought half of ‘dat nigger’ that was now going to destruction, and paid all the money he had for him.  But he had ‘traded back,’ and then if he was drowned, ‘he wouldn’t lose a cent by it.’  It was long after this event when he told me he would never again risk a cent in ‘nigger’ property, it was too ‘onsartin’ entirely.  Jack was a good deal of a wag, and told this story with a gusto I can not describe.[A] But if Captain Jack is still on this ‘side of Jordan,’ he has doubtless ere this found ‘nigger’ property still more ‘onsartin.’