I quickly discovered that it was high time to stir in the matter, or possibly the next discovery would be that we were inmates of a jail; so, taking the advice of Squire Shelton, a gentleman whom we had baptized, I waited with him on Judge Bardsley, the judge of the county, who had frequently attended our meetings, and I procured a certificate from him that he had done so, and had heard nothing injurious to the people or the government.
With this and a similar certificate from Mr. Shelton, who was also a justice of the peace, Brother Crosby and I went to the governor's residence, and obtained an interview; but we found him most terribly prejudiced against us, and very ignorant of law and gospel.
He broke down, however, before the arguments of his aid-de-camp and counsel, who pleaded on our behalf, after battling with him for about two hours. The result was, that all law proceedings against us were stopped.
This enraged our enemies so much that our lives became endangered, and, to escape their violence, we had to sleep in the woods, and do our baptizing in the night, as their determination was to mob us the first opportunity.
Unfortunately, one of them overheard me promise to visit one of the brethren after I had been preaching one day. This mobber, with a party of about ten others, waylaid me. Some of them held me while the rest beat me about the head with their fists; but not being able to bruise me sufficiently in this manner, one of them took off one of my boots, and belabored me about the head with the heel of it until I was covered with blood, which ran down on to my clothes and the ground.
Some of them then threw me down, and jumped upon me with their knees until they broke several of my ribs. All this while I had been calling out loudly, whenever they did not stop my mouth.
But it suddenly occurred to me that, if I were to pretend to be dead they would leave me, thinking their murderous work accomplished; so I groaned loudly as if dying, and resigned myself into their hands, holding my breath as much as possible. This succeeded, the darkness of the night favoring my purpose, and they left me, and ran off as fast as they could.
Directly they were gone I arose, though with great difficulty, and went into a house not far distant, where I washed the blood off my person, and Elder Crosby, who also came there, laid hands upon me.
The mob, however, by some means discovering that I was not yet dead, and that Elder Crosby was with me, met, and resolved to attack the house that night, and, if possible, get possession of both of us, after which they purposed to cut off Elder Crosby's ears, tar and feather us, carry us out into the middle of St. Johns river, and, after tying stones to our feet, sink us both.
The first intimation that we received of this determination was by a wooden rail being hurled against the window. The rail broke through the window, came in upon the bed where we were sleeping, and awoke us both.