"In the ways described in these selections Mr. Ross induced companies of slaves to exchange bondage for freedom. How many he thus liberated we have, of course, no means of knowing. The risks he ran were such as to put his life in danger almost constantly. Betrayal would have ended, probably, in a lynching; and the disappearance simultaneously of a band of fugitives and the unknown naturalist was a coincidence not only sure to be noticed, but also widely published, thus increasing the dangers many fold. It is unnecessary to recount the occasions upon which the scientist found himself in danger of falling a victim to his zeal in befriending slaves. Suffice it to say, his adventures all had a fortunate termination. Mr. Ross is best known by his numerous works relating to the flora and fauna of Canada, for which he received recognition among learned men, and decoration at the hands of European princes."[535] [535] Mr. Richard J. Hinton in his book entitled _John Brown and His Men_, p. 171, while writing of Captain Brown's convention at Chatham, Canada West, mentions Mr. Ross in the following words: "Dr. Alexander M. Ross of Toronto, Canada, physician and ornithologist, who is still living, honored by all who know him, then a young (white) man who devoted himself for years to aiding the American slave, was a frequent visitor to this section (Chatham). He was a faithful friend of John Brown, efficient as an ally, seeking to serve under all conditions of need and peril." More or less extended notices of Dr. Ross and his work have appeared during the past few years; for example, in the _Toronto Globe_, Dec. 3 and 10, 1892; in the _Canadian Magazine of Politics, Science, Art and Literature_, May, 1896; and in the _Chicago Daily Inter-Ocean_, March 18, 1896. Elijah Anderson, a negro, has been described by Mr. Rush R. Sloane, an underground veteran of northwestern Ohio, as the "general superintendent" of the underground system in this section of Ohio. Mr. Anderson's work began before the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, and continued until the time of his incarceration in the state prison at Frankfort, Kentucky, where he died in 1857. During this period his activity must have been unceasing, for he is quoted as having said in 1855 that he had conducted in all more than a thousand fugitives from slavery to freedom, having brought eight hundred away after the passage of the act of 1850. Not all of these persons were piloted to Sandusky, although that city was the point to which Anderson usually conveyed his passengers. After the opening of the Cleveland and Cincinnati Railroad he took many to Cleveland.[536] [536] The _Firelands Pioneer_, July, 1888, p. 44. The last two of the devotees of abduction to be considered in this chapter are persons that were themselves fugitive slaves, John Mason and Harriet Tubman.