Springfield Weekly Republican

THE LAST IMPORTATION OF NATIVE AFRICANS.

Mrs Orra Langhorne of Lynchburg, Va., sends to The Republican the following interesting, and, we must say, surprising reminiscence: An Alabama lady, whom I met in Philadelphia, told me the following story in answer to my questions as to her having seen a native African: Just before the war began, a slave-ship, bound for Cuba (my friend insisted upon this point), put into Mobile bay, pursued by a United States man-of-war. The cargo of slaves gave great anxiety to the officers of the ship, and, having taken counsel of friends in Mobile, they engaged passage for a gang of 100 on board of a steamer, which at once started up the river, and landed the negroes upon the plantation of this lady's father. Numbers of people from the neighborhood gathered in crowds to see the captives, and my informant saw them herself. They had crossed the ocean quite nude, but, after landing, each had been given a single loose cotton garment. They were all elaborately tattooed, and some of this skin embroidery was most delicately done, the outlines of leaves, vines and figures being carefully executed. The gang were all perfectly wild, would seize toads, grasshoppers, chickens or squirrels which chanced to cross their pathway, and, tearing them to pieces with hands and teeth, would greedily devour them. When given food and allowed fire, they cared little for cooking, merely turning the meat in the blaze before eating it. Not one of them spoke or understood a word of English, and their guards, detailed from the ship's crew, hearing rumors of pursuit, were at a loss to know how to convey them into the swamps to hide them. They finally succeeded by driving them like cattle; the men in chains running around an obdurate savage, "shooing" him with brush and forcing him back to the herd. Five years later the survivors of this wretched band of captives were made citizens of the republic, and the presence of such voters, with that of the miscreants who kept up the infamous traffic in human beings, explains some, at least, of the difficulties in our southern problem.