May 16 (City Gazette, 16 May 1803).
Was he not capable, just like Peter, of fabricating stories and passing off the probable as the truth? 'He is capable of making out the most plausible stories.'  
Around one in ten fugitives in the body of notices from Jamaica and Carolina studied for this chapter is said to be 'cunning' and one in twenty is 'plausible', not to mention all those described as intelligent, artful, sensible or a flatterer. Charles, for instance, a Jamaican slave the subject of a notice in the Royal Gazette in late December 1800, is described by his master as 'very artful' and 'plausible' enough to fool the crew of a ship: 'he may impose, and endeavour to pass as a free man, or may procure a forged ticket, and get on board some vessel at Kingston' (The Royal Gazette, 27 December 1800). Davy, a slave of African origin living in South Carolina, did not try to leave South Carolina by sea, but seems to have been every bit as wily as Charles, 'a smooth spoken artful fellow' (City Gazette, 6 May 1805). The slaves in Louisiana seem to have been no less adept at invention and roleplay than their counterparts in Jamaica and Carolina. The story of Charles the mulatto, published on 12 March 1808 in Le Moniteur de la Louisiane, offers a good illustration. Charles plays on the ambivalence of reality and announces to anyone who asks him that he has been sent on 'important business' concerning the death (which was real) of his master. Not content with playing the role in which he had cast himself, Charles made his announcement in a tavern, as public a place as he could find in the absence of a theatre:  
60 Psts. Reward.
A Mulatto named Charles, belonging to the late John W. Gurley, made his escape on the evening of the 3rd of this month. He is about 25 years old, around 5 feet 10 inches, well proportioned, and speaks French \& English; he is alert \& intelligent, \& he will make up all sorts of stories to make good his escape. I do not remember