Nor were his troubles solely with the Government officials. Ina letter to Theodore Johnson, of New Orleans, he says that some of the planters with whom the negroes were left for safe keeping were proving recreant to the trust. He says:
I am astonished at what Governor Phiniz has written me. . . . . The idea of a man’s taking negroes to keep at fifty cents a head per day, and then refusing to give them up when demanded, simply because the law does not recognize them as property, is worse than stealing.
A letter from Lamar to "C. C. Cook, Esq., Blakely, Georgia,” is of interest here, though I am not able to say definitely that it refers to the Wanderer, for Lamar had two other slavers afloat. The italics are in the original:
Meantime arrests had been made. Captain Corrie was taken in custody on January 22, 1859. The date of Lamar’s arrest is not recorded, as far as I can learn.