In _Mark Twain's Notebooks & Journals, vol. 1_, (Univ. of California Press, 1975) Clemens writes: "Hanging the negro in the Chinchas" (p. 253) "Capt Wakeman & the nigger hung" (p. 336) In the reference notes to _Roughing It_ (Univ. of California Press, 1993) the editors suggest that Clemens "reversed the roles of the Negro and the white bully" (p. 677). It seems likely the story in the _Chicago Republican_ is the correct version. And also that Clemens's awareness of racial issues prevented him from using a true version of the story in _Roughing It_. As an aside note -- Edgar Wakeman was also member of the San Francisco Vigilance Committee which made headlines in 1851 for lynching a prisoner. The news reports from San Francisco that I have found do not indicate the race of the man who was hung -- only that he was a convict from Sydney. I have found no news reports of the lynching in the Chinchas. Barb