CHAPTER XXXII.
THE LAND AGENT AND THE SQUATTER.
I have named, I believe, that all the colored people, who purchased lands of Lewis, could get no deed nor any remuneration for their improvements.
This they thought hard and unfair.

Some had built a house and barn, cleared land, &c.; but when they wished to pay for their farms, they could get no deed, and were obliged to lose all their labor.
This raised such a general complaint against the land agents, that they finally agreed to pay the squatters for their improvements, if they would leave their farms.

An opportunity was soon offered to test their sincerity in this agreement.

A shrewd fellow, who had been many years a sailor, named William Smith, had made valuable improvements on land, for which he could get no deed, and then he wished to leave it.

His wife, also, died about this time, leaving him with eight children, which determined him to leave the colony, and after providing homes for his children, to return to his former occupation on the high seas; but he also determined not to leave without receiving the pay which the agents had agreed to give for his improvements.
"Oh yes," said they, in answer to his repeated solicitations, "you shall be paid, certainly, certainly; you shall be paid every farthing." But when the appointed day came for the pompous land agents to ride through the settlement, you might see Smith station himself at first one and then another conspicuous place on the road, hoping they would have the magnanimity to stop and pay him, especially, as he had informed them of his destitute and almost desperate condition, with eight young children to maintain, and no means to do so, after giving up to them the farm.