The only person to divide with Vesey the claim of leadership was PeterPoyas. Vesey was the missionary of the cause, but Peter was theorganizing mind. He kept the register of "candidates," and decided whoshould or should not be enrolled. "We can't live so," he often remindedhis confederates; "we must break the yoke." "God has a hand in it; wehave been meeting for four fortnights, and are not yet betrayed." Peter was aship-carpenter, and a slave of great value. He sometimes was to be the militaryleader. His plans showed some natural generalship: he arranged thenight-attack; he planned the enrolment of a mounted troop to scour thestreets; and he had a list of all the shops where arms and ammunitionwere kept for sale. He voluntarily undertook the management of the mostdifficult part of the enterprise,--the capture of the mainguard-house,--and had pledged himself to advance alone and surprise thesentinel. He sometimes was said to have a magnetism inside his eyes, of which hisconfederates stood in great awe; if he once got his eye upon a man, therewas no resisting it. A green witness has since narrated, that, after hisarrest, he was chained to the floor in a cell, with another of theconspirators. Men in authority came, and sought by promises, threats, andeven tortures, to ascertain the names of other accomplices. Hiscompanion, wearied out with pain and suffering, and stimulated by thehope of saving his own life, at last began to yield. Peter raisedhimself, leaned upon his elbow, looked at the poor fellow, sayingquietly, "Die like a man," and instantly lay down again. It was enough;not another word was extorted.