The next day about eight o’clock Wages came up; we were all on the lookout for him. We gave him a hint to come to our place. We showed Wages what a raise we had made; he then told us that he had stolen two negroes and two fine horses, and that they were concealed in the swamp about five miles from town. In fear of pursuit he said we must leave instanter. We made an arrangement with Harden and our landlord to take the horses. They gave Wages twenty-five dollars a piece for the horses, and our board bill. That night Wages and Harden went out to the swamp; Harden took the horses and left, and Wages brought in his negroes and placed them with ours. That night while Wages was gone after his negroes McGrath and I went to a coffee house, and while there we met some Spaniards that had a little schooner there, and which was then loaded for New Orleans. We made the arrangement with them to carry us and our negroes to New Orleans, returned to our place, and had everything prepared. About ten o’clock Wages came in with his negroes, and we all went on board the vessel, which weighed anchor and sailed down the bar. Next morning the captain cleared his vessel, and by ten o’clock we were over the bar and under way, with a good breeze. On the second night, a little before day, we landed at the Pontchartrain railroad, and left in the first cars for the city. We went into one of our places in the city, got breakfast for ourselves and negroes, and at nine o’clock we left in a steamboat for Bayou Sara. We landed there, crossed the river and went to one of our clan—a rich planter—where we sold our negroes. I got one thousand dollars for my mulatto girl; McGrath sold his fellow for eleven hundred dollars, and Wages sold each of his boys for nine hundred dollars. We took our money and left for Mobile. My girl made considerable fuss when I was about to leave, but I told her I would return in a month, and rather pacified her. I must here acknowledge that my conscience did that time feel mortified, after the girl had come with me, and I had lived with her as a wife, and she had such implicit confidence in me. My conscience still feels mortified when I reflect how much better it would have been for me to have kept her and lived with her than to come to what I have. On our way to Mobile we stopped in New Orleans three or four days. During our stay there was one fire. We made a small raise on that of about one hundred dollars each. McGrath came very near being caught by attempting to make a second haul. We left next day for Mobile; landed at Pascagoula, and walked home by land, with our money and the small amount of goods we had stolen in New Orleans.