“We all now assembled and consulted as to how we should proceed. We were ten well-armed men; the storm had wonderfully befriended us, for it was very certain had the schooner remained afloat, it would by this time have been at sea, and the unfortunate girls lost. It was horrible to think what might be their fate. As I said, we were ten in all, well-armed and determined men. We thought it probable that we should have to contend with the crew of the schooner, and John Sinclair and his associates; but if we could get at the place where the slaves were confined—for when the schooner stranded they were taken out of her and confined in the great sheds erected for the purpose of holding them till ready to be embarked—by giving them freedom we should greatly embarrass our enemies. So being resolved, and ready to set out, we followed Pompey, who undertook to take us round the base of the hill, so that we should not be perceived till ready to make a rush upon the sheds. I asked Pompey where he thought the two young ladies were confined. He said he was sure they were in the cabin of the schooner. She was, though ashore, nearly upright, but they could not get her off before the next rise in the tide, and that would not be for four days. “After an hour’s walking and wading, we got safely to the back of the hills sheltering the cove and the slave station, and then, by a rugged path, well known to Pompey—for he himself had once been a prisoner there and about to be shipped when he escaped—we came nearly in view of the station, when our ears were saluted by the reports of muskets, the shouts, cries, and fierce yells of negroes; and, rushing forward, we beheld below us a scene of indescribable contention. Some two or three hundred negroes were furiously attacking a number of white men, who tried to save themselves behind the huts, firing and killing many of the negroes. With the white men were a number of blacks fighting on their side. Lying on the beach was the schooner, and on her decks were several men, trying to bring the two eight-pounders she had on board to bear upon the liberated slaves, of whom a large party were carrying combustibles to fire the schooner, which lay high and dry. “‘Good God!’ I exclaimed, ‘we have no time to lose; the blacks will fire the schooner; let us make for the vessel.’ “We rushed down the hill, and in five minutes were in the midst of the conflict. Ten or twelve blacks and three whites lay stark and stiff on the ground. “Pompey kept screaming to his countrymen that we were not come against them, but against Sinclair and the people of the schooner.