I met Charles Drayton on the 1st of July in the streets, when he said, now get ready, we must break out at once, for we will not let six lives be taken. I asked him, where they would begin? He said, in Boundary street, directly as the patrol and light horse turned in. I said, had you not better wait till after the 4th of July. He said, no, because in the mean time the people would be hanged. Charles said, they had force enough, and we parted. I met him in Market, betwixt 8 and 9 o’clock, on the 2d of July, and said to him, now the people are hanged, I suppose you are sorry you joined in the business. He said yes, and we parted. Peter Poyas told me also, that they had force enough, that some would come from James’ and John’s islands, and some from Christ’s Church Parish, where he generally went over to a meeting to have a talk, and that he had some about and in town, the number of which he would show me from the Society books, if I would only come to the Society. He said, they were to fight the whites, and keep on fighting, till the English came to help them. Harry told me the same thing. Jack being the head man, I asked him about the plan, he told me the same thing; that the English were to come here to help them, that the Americans could do nothing against the English, and that the English would carry them off to St. Domingo. Monday and Charles were very great together. John, Mr. Horry’s coachman, came to me one day, and asked me what I thought? Every one is ready, said John, to fight the whites, are you ready? He said, I am ready. This took place sometime before the 16th June, and every day he asked me the same questions.—About this time George Vanderhorst came to me and said, they were going to take the country, and he had joined; that he was ready whenever the blacks broke out. He requested me to let him sleep at my wife’s house near Boundary street; I saw him almost every day after the 16th June, and he always said, he was ready whenever the troops were ready. On the 16th June, Jack requested me to let twelve men sleep at my wife’s, as they were to break out that night, and he wanted them to be near Boundary street. On being refused, he departed in anger, and reproached me. George called on me yesterday morning, and asked, if I knew that Charles Drayton was taken up, and said, he was afraid Charles would name him, not because he was on his list, for he had joined Jack’s company, but because Charles had met him at Gullah Jack’s, when they were consulting on the subject; that, if he could near that Charles had named him, he would run off. On Monday, 1st July, Charles Drayton told me, that there would be an insurrection on the morning of the 6th July, as soon as the Guard turned in; he said, he commanded the country born company. Jack told me on the 1st July the same thing, and in addition, that they were to rush in with their dirks, guns and swords, &c. they had got, kill the City Guard, and take all the arms in the arsenals; he also said, there were some arms in King street, beyond Boundary street, in possession of a white man, which they intended to take, (alluding to the arms of the Charleston Neck Company, deposited at Wharton’s, in King street). Charles Drayton said, he had prepared for himself a gun and a sword. John Horry came to me very often, and once said, he had a sword, and that, as soon as it broke out, he would go up stairs and kill his master and family. On the 17th of June, on his carriage box, he expressed himself to me in the same manner he had done previous to the 16th. The blacks would have risen on the night of the 16th, had the Guards not been so strong; this I know from Gullah Jack and Harry Haig, who said, that if the Guards were not too strong, they would get the arms near the Lines, but if the Guards were out, they could not get them to break out with.