The next day we passed some sugar plantations and over some hills; the country was most beautiful, for every thing looked green and healthy. I crossed a considerable rivulet at the foot of a hill, and, ascending on the opposite side, put up at a single cottage, which was inhabited by white people; an old man, a widower, with a fine family of handsome sons and daughters. Their cottage had not room for us all, and therefore we intended to sleep in the open air altogether, but the old man insisted upon my going to sleep in the house, and I was not sorry for this, being rather afraid of a return of the ague. Nearly at sunset, or at the close of the day, which in that country are almost about the same time, the tame sheep was missing; great search was made for it, but to no purpose. The old man ordered two of his sons to set out, and not to return until every enquiry had been made in the neighbourhood. I did all in my power to prevent giving this trouble, but he persisted, saying, “No, you are under my roof, and this unfortunate circumstance may lead you to have an unfavourable opinion of me.” Long after dark the young men returned with the sheep and a mulatto man in custody. I wished the man to be released, but they said that this could not be, for he was a runaway slave, who had committed many depredations, and for whose apprehension a considerable reward was offered by his master. They had followed the footsteps of the sheep upon a sandy path as long as the day-light lasted, and then had taken a direction, which they thought might lead to some _mocambos_, or huts of the wood, made by runaway slaves. After they had proceeded a little way, the bleating of the sheep was heard, upon which they prepared themselves and came suddenly upon this fellow and a woman who were in a hut; the woman escaped, which they regretted, as she was likewise most probably a runaway slave. The man was taken into the house, and was tied fast upon a long bench with his face downwards, and the cord was passed round his arms and legs several times; this was done in the room which I was to inhabit for the night. The whole of the family retired to rest, and left us together; I had my knife with me, but naturally soon fell asleep. In the morning the bench and the cords remained, but the man was gone; he had crept through a small window at the opposite end of the room. The young men of the house were sadly vexed, but I told them it was their own fault, for some of them should have kept watch, as they could not suppose that I should remain awake, who had come in fatigued from travelling. We were now afraid that he might have taken one of our horses for his more convenient escape, but this was not the case.