There was no more to be said; the argument relating to the fine was unanswerable; and I caused myself to be qualified forthwith. The duties were not arduous. The only official duty required of me, during my term of office, was to summon a coroner's jury, on one occasion, to sit on the body of a runaway slave, who was stabbed by a watchman while committing depredations on some "negro gardens" in the night time. Mr. Coxall finally gave up his establishment in Greenville, and I was obliged to look elsewhere for employment. A newspaper was published at St. George, owned and edited by an Englishman, who had been a non-commissioned officer in the regiment which was disbanded in the island a few years before. I had then, even at that early age, some indefinite hankering after newspaper life, and having picked up a crude mass of knowledge, incongruous and undigested, perhaps, from the many books I had devoured, I flattered myself that I could render good service as assistant editor of the St. George Chronicle. I accordingly offered my services to the proprietor, but found him less liberal in his opinions than the worthy sons of Scotia with whom I had been intimately associating. His prejudices against the Yankees were unconquerable. He did not even reply to my letter, but stated to a friend of mine that he must be very hard pushed before he would take a YANKEE into his office to assist in printing and editing an English newspaper. I again turned my attention to the planting business. A vacancy having occurred on the Hermitage estate, owing to the sudden death, by yellow fever, of a very promising young man from Aberdeen, who had been in the island only a few months, I succeeded, through the kind exertions of Mr. Church, in obtaining the situation.