Page:The White Slave, or Memoirs of a Fugitive.djvu/252

 long as possible, took care to conceal from her; and the first thing she knew of the matter, her entire property was seized on execution.

Among her other chattels, my wife and child were sold, — for it is the law and the practice of America to sell women and children to pay the debts of a gambler!

Cassy and her infant had fallen into the hands of a gentleman, — such is the American phrase, — who followed the lucrative and respectable business of a slave-trader. My agent no sooner learned his name, than he set out in pursuit of him. But he found that the man had been dead for a year or two; and that he had left no papers behind him, from which might be traced the history of his slave-trading expeditions. Not yet discouraged, my agent travelled over the entire route, which he was told the deceased slave-trader had usually followed. He even succeeded in getting some trace of the very gang of slaves which had been purchased at the sale of Mrs Montgomery's property. He tracked them from village to village, till he arrived at Augusta in the state of Georgia, — but here he lost sight of them altogether. 'That town is or was, one of the great marts of the American slave-trade; and here in all probability, the slaves were sold; but to whom, it was impossible to discover..

Thus baffled in his search, my agent had recourse to advertisements in the newspapers, in which the person of my wife was particularly described, mention was made of the name of her late owner, and a very generous reward was offered to any one who would give information where she or her child was to be found. These advertisements brought him an abundance of communications, but none to the purpose; and after having spent near two years in the search, he gave it up, at last, as unavailing.

Of Thomas he could learn nothing, except that general Carter had never retaken him. A man of his figure and appearance had been occasionally seen, traversing. the woods of that neighborhood, and lurking about the plantations; and it seemed not unlikely that he was still alive, and the leader of some band of runaways. Such was the information which my agent brought me.