Note 116 — Chapter XIII

A man of colour with whom I was acquainted possessed several tame oxen, some of which with a cart he used to hire to the planters by the day, and one or other of his sons attended to drive them. Two of these animals were stolen, and a suspicion falling upon a man of reputed respectability in the country, who had rented a sugar plantation not far distant, one of the sons of the owner of the oxen determined to try to ascertain the fact. He dressed himself in leather, as a disguise, and rode to the dwelling of the person in question, where he arrived at dusk. The master of the house was not at home, but he spoke to the housekeeper, saying, that he had just arrived from the Sertam with cattle on sale, which would reach the neighbourhood on the following morning; he requested to know if she thought her master would purchase his drove. She answered in the affirmative, but said that he had better stay all night, for the purpose of seeing the intended purchaser, who would arrive on the next day. The false Sertanejo told her not to be uneasy about his accommodation, as he would sleep in the mill, to which he rode, and there he remained very quietly during the early part of the night. When all was still he began to search for the hides or horns of his oxen. The former would be recognised by the private mark, which was made (as is usual) with a red-hot iron upon the right haunch, and the latter he would know from the peculiar bore of their tips (by which they are in part harnessed to the cart) for he had bored them himself, and was in the constant habit of driving these oxen; besides, tame oxen are so seldom killed, that if he found any horns which were bored, he might presume that they were those of his beasts. He had given up his search, and almost all hope of finding what he sought, when, as he lay in his hammock, he happened to cast his eyes upwards, and saw two fresh out-stretched hides hanging to the higher wood-work of the mill. He scrambled up the timbers with a lighted piece of wood in one hand; and moving this to and fro near to the hides, that it might give a better light, he discovered that they bore his father’s mark. He lost no time in cutting from both of them the pieces which contained the mark, and carefully preserving these he mounted his horse about two o’clock in the morning and rode home. He kept the bits of leather as trophies, and shewed them in proof of his former assertions respecting the person who had stolen the oxen, but neither did he obtain, nor did he expect to obtain any redress. These transactions occurred in 1811, and within five leagues of Recife.