[Footnote 19: I omit the circumstance here mentioned, because it is too indecent to appear in a publication likely to be perused by females. It is, in all probability, a vile calumny; but even if it were perfectly true, it would not serve Mr. Wood's case one straw.--Any reader who wishes it, may see the passage referred to, in the autograph letter in my possession. T. P.] "Losing her value as a slave in a pecuniary point of view I consider of no consequence; for it was our intention, had she conducted herself properly and returned with us, to have given her freedom. She has taken her freedom; and all I wish is, that she would enjoy it without meddling with me. "Let me again repeat, if his Excellency wishes it, it will afford me great pleasure to state such particulars of her, and which will be incontestably proved by numbers here, that I am sure will acquit me in his opinion of acting unkind or ungenerous towards her. I'll say nothing of the liability I should incur, under the Consolidated Slave Law, of dealing with a free person as a slave. "My only excuse for entering so much into detail must be that of my anxious wish to stand justified in his Excellency's opinion. "I am, my dear Sir, Yours very truly, JOHN A. WOOD. "_20th Oct. 1830_." "_Charles Taylor, Esq._ _&c. &c. &c._ "I forgot to mention that it was at her own special request that she accompanied me to England--and also that she had a considerable sum of money with her, which she had saved in my service. I knew of L36 to L40, at least, for I had some trouble to recover it from a white man, to whom she had lent it. "J. A. W." Such is Mr. Wood's justification of his conduct in thus obstinately refusing manumission to the Negro-woman who had escaped from his "house of bondage." Let us now endeavour to estimate the validity of the excuses assigned, and the allegations advanced by him, for the information of Governor Sir Patrick Ross, in this deliberate statement of his case. 1. To allow the woman to return home free, would, he affirms "be to reward the worst species of ingratitude."