“Oh, he started, How did we know this nigger was a spy at all; it would be a terrible thing to kill him if we weren’t quite sure; perhaps he was hiding there because he was wounded. And then he broke out that, after all, these niggers were men fighting for their country; we would fight against the French if they came and took England from us; and the niggers were brave men, ‘please sir’—(every five minutes he’d pull his forelock, and say, ‘please sir!’)—‘and if we have to fight against them we ought to remember they’re fighting for freedom; we shouldn’t shoot wounded prisoners when they were black if we wouldn’t shoot them if they were white!’ And then he broke out pure unmitigated Exeter Hall! You never heard anything like it! All men were brothers, and God loved a black man as well as a white; Mashonas and Matabele were poor ignorant folk, and we had to take care of them. And then he started out, that we ought to let this man go; we ought to give him food for the road, and tell him to go back to his people, and tell them we hadn’t come to take their land but to teach them and love them. ‘It’s hard to love a nigger, Captain, but we must try it; we must try it!’—And every five minutes he’d break out with, ‘And I think this is a man I know, Captain; I’m not sure, but I think he comes from up Lo Magundis way!’—as if any born devil cared whether a bloody nigger came from Lo Magundis or anywhere else! I’m sure he said it fifteen times. And then he broke out, ‘I don’t mean that I’m better than you or anybody else, Captain; I’m as bad a man as any in camp, and I know it.’ And off he started, telling us all the sins he’d ever committed; and he kept on, ‘I’m an unlearned, ignorant man, Captain; but I must stand by this nigger; he’s got no one else!’ And then he says—‘If you let me take him up to Lo Magundis, sir, I’m not afraid; and I’ll tell the people there that it’s not their land and their women that we want, it’s them to be our brothers and love us. If you’ll only let me go, sir, I’ll go and make peace; give the man to me, sir!’” The Colonial shook with laughter.

“What did the Captain say?” asked the Englishman.