met on the road; on our giving them such information as we were able, one of them observed, he had taken a drove of six hundred to one of the markets, and offered them at ten per cent. discount, and to take the pay in negroes, but could not succeed. On my companion remarking to him on his trading in his fellow creatures, he excused himself by saying, if he had made such an exchange it would not have been for his own private use; but in the course of conversation he gave sufficient proof that his motives for trying to make this purchase, were not such as he would have had us to suppose; for on our remarking we had met a wagon-load of negro children, and men and women on foot, he said he would have purchased the whole cargo if he could have agreed with the owner of them about the price. Although I felt much at the time he made these remarks, yet silence appeared to be my proper place; but in the morning, before we parted, I found it laid upon me to open my mind freely to him on the iniquitous practice of dealing in or keeping in bondage our fellow creatures, and to warn him against pursuing such evil courses.

THOMAS SHILLITOE AND THE SLAVE TRADER.

Previous to the downfall of slavery, the iniquitous traffic in human beings formed a regular branch of business in the city of Baltimore. The hard-hearted men who conducted it were on several occasions visited by Gospel messengers who endeavored in Christian love to show them the wickedness and inhumanity of their calling, and turn the attention of these guilty men to the requirements of that holy religion of which they made profession. A visit of this nature, paid by our Friend, Thomas Shillitoe, in the Eleventh Month, 1827, is thus related in his Journal:

My mind had been occupied with an apprehension of religious duty to make a visit to a great slave-merchant, who resided in this city, where the needy slave-holders, and such as had slaves who were refractory and difficult to manage, were encouraged, by his weekly advertisement, to come and find a ready market for them. A large building is erected on his

premises like a prison, to secure them until he has obtained a suitable complement to send to different places, where there is a demand for them. I found he was considered, as a man, independent of his employment, to be of a ferocious disposition, so that many, we were told, stood in dread of him; notwithstanding which, this subject had taken such hold of my mind, that I saw no way for my relief but to be willing to attempt an interview with him. Seventh-day morning we called upon a Friend, to whom I opened my situation relative to making a visit to this slave-merchant; we found if we did make such a visit, it would be best for us to go alone; and accordingly proceeded towards his residence. On our way I felt much for my companion, from what I had heard of the unsubdued will and wicked disposition of the slave-merchant, and the danger we might be exposed to from the large dogs he kept loose about his premises, to the terror of those who passed by. But there was no way for me but to cast my care on Him who had so many times preserved me as from the paw of the bear and the jaws of the devourer. As we advanced towards the house, one of these fierce looking animals came out at us, followed by another, as if they would have seized us. Their noise soon brought out one of the house-slaves, and, as we supposed, the slave merchant himself, whose countenance looked as fierce as his animals, querying with us in a stern, commanding manner: "What is your business?" I offered him my hand, feeling nothing in my heart but love towards him as a man; saying I would be obliged to him to suffer me to have a little conversation with him. He asked us into his house; on my requesting him to have the dogs taken care of, saying, I was a nervous man, he attended to it; and in ascending the steps of his house, we observed more of these large dogs chained about the yards. He showed us into a very elegantly furnished parlor. On the shelf of the chimney-piece was a pistol, which appeared to be ready cocked for use should he at any time be put to the test of defending himself; he ordered us to take a seat on a sofa, and placed himself near us. I gave him my certificate to read, which he appeared to do attentively; this afforded us an opportunity of having our minds brought into quiet after our besetment by the dogs, and their

master's angry countenance. When he returned my certificates, the reading of which appeared to have somewhat softened his mind, he said: "I suppose you are going about preaching the Gospel;" to which I replied: "I profess to be so circumstanced." I then endeavored, in a tender, feeling, but decided manner, to open the subject that brought me to his house, telling him I came on behalf of the poor colored people; that I lived in a country where the inhabitants were all free, but I found I was now in the slave-holding part of the United States of America; and by an advertisement of his which I had in my possession, it appeared he was a dealer in these colored people, who were kept in slavery. I requested him to pause for a moment, and endeavor, as much as possible, to place his own parents and nearest relatives in the very situation of those poor creatures he had at times purchased and sold again, thereby separating the nearest connections far from each other husbands from wives, and children from parents; and try how far such acts as he was in the practice of, accorded with such feelings of humanity as he would wish should be exercised towards his own parents and relatives; with more to the same effect.

He appeared to hear me patiently, and tried to justify his conduct, but with coolness and deliberation; saying, he was educated in a slave-holding State that his father was a slaveholder, that his mother was a pious woman, in connection with the Methodists; that she was in the practice of reading the Bible to her children, and that her pious care for him he yet remembered, and some of the good counsel that she gave him; that through her influence his father manumitted about seventy slaves; she died when he was young. On his father marrying again, he found he must leave home, or render it unpleasant to his parents, which he did not desire to do, and therefore entered into the army, and was at the battle of New Orleans; after the war was over the army was broken up; on quitting it he found himself in debt, and not knowing what employment to take to, to extricate himself from his difficulties, a relation encouraged him to become a slave merchant, offering him funds to commence this trade, which he accepted; and yet said, we thought feelingly so, it is a bad business, and

that he had concluded to give it up, and had been making arrangements for that purpose. But some of his employers, in the first rank of slave-holders, and even some who were making much profession of religion, would not allow of his giving up his business, but urged him to go on with it. He laid great stress on the encouragement he received from this latter description of his customers, from which I was led to fear, that when he felt any qualms of conscience on account of the manner in which he was getting his wealth, for he was deemed wealthy, the entreaties of this class would be resorted to, to salve over the wounds of conscience he at times experienced, which I could not doubt had been the case at times with him. He also pleaded having the laws of the State to sanction him in his traffic, which opened the way for me to go further into the subject; but in time it evidently was manifest, that the Divine witness was so reached in him, as to compel him to cast away all his weapons of defence. He gave it as his opinion, that before twenty years were passed over slavery would be brought to a final close, if the work was rightly gone about. By this time we thought we never witnessed the declaration that the lion should lie down with the lamb, more fully exemplified. He assured us again of his determination to quit the business, and acknowledged the gratitude he felt for the visit, took his leave of us in an affectionate manner, conducting us himself quite off his premises. As we quitted him, his countenance, which on our first approach, appeared terrific, was so changed that he was pleasant to look upon. Everything about his elegant house and his yards, told in plain terms that he considered himself living in continual danger of losing his life.

CHAPTER XVI.

SEPARATION.

Although our early Friends were richly endowed with the gifts and graces of the Spirit, yet their history clearly enforces the truth that they had their treasure in earthen vessels, and that they were not safe any longer than they were preserved in a state of humble watchfulness and dependence on Divine mercy. The case of James Nayler is a memorable illustration of this. He appears to have been eminently gifted as a minister, and to have preached with an eloquence, energy and Divine authority, which attracted the admiration and affection of his friends to a high degree.

Gough attributes the beginning of his downfall to the conduct of two women, who had been reproved by Edward Burrough and Francis Howgill for their impertinent opposition to their ministry. They carried their complaints to James Nayler, whom they were endeavoring to make the head of a party, in the hope he would give his opinion in their favor. He thought it his duty at first to discourage their insinuations against those worthy men, as tending to sow discord between brethren. Disappointed in their expectation, one of them vented her passion in weeping and expressions of regret, which sunk James Nayler into depression of mind, in which he lost his judgment, and became estranged from his best and most judicious friends, and exposed to the pernicious flatteries of these unsettled spirits. Some of his followers, in their letters to him, addressed him with appellations not fit to be attributed to any mortal man. Three of these silly women knelt before him and kissed his feet, and after his release from prison spread their handkerchiefs and scarfs before him as he rode into Bristol. His