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would be with us for a total and immediate abolition of this abominable traffick.

13. In short, unless I have misunderstood the subject, and unless some reasons should be offered much superiour to any I have yet heard, I shall think it the most singular act that ever was done by a deliberative assembly, to refuse to assent to the proposed amendment. It has been by å resolution declared to be the first object of their desire, the first object of their duty, and the first object of their inclination.

THE SLAVES. AN ELEGY.

IF late I paused upon the twilight plain
Of Fontenoy, to weep the free-born brave,
Sure fancy now may cross the western main,
And melt in sadder pity for the slave.

2. Lo, where to yon plantation drooping goes
A sable herd of human kind! while near
Stalks a pale despot, and around him throws
The scourge, that wakes, that punishes the tear.
3. O'er the far beach the mournful murmur strays,
And joins the rude yell of the tumbling tide,
As faint they labour in the solar blaze,
To feed the luxury of British pride!

4. E'en at this moment, on the burning gale,
Floats the weak wailing of the female tongue;
And can that sex's softness nought avail ?
Must feeble woman shriek amid the throng?

5. O cease to think, my soul, what thousands die
By suicide, and toil's extreme despair;
Thousands, who never raised to Heaven the eye;
Thousands, who feared no punishment but here.
6. Are drops of blood the horrible manure,
That fills with luscious juice the teeming cane?
And must our fellow-creatures thus endure,
For traffick vile, the indignity of pain?

7. Yes, their keen sorrows are the sweets we blend
With the green beverage of our morning meal,
The while to love meek mercy we pretend,
Or for fictitious ills affect to feel.

8. Yes, 'tis their anguish mantles in the bowl,
Their sighs excite the Briton's drunken joy;
Those ignorant sufferers know not of a soul,
That we, enlightened, may its hopes destroy.

9. And there are men, who, leaning on the laws,
What they have purchased claim a right to hold.
Cursed be the tenure, cursed its cruel cause;
Freedom's a dearer property than gold!

10. And there are men, with shameless front have said "That nature formed the negroes for disgrace; "That on their limbs subjection is displayed; "The doom of slavery stamped upon their face."

11. Send your stern gaze from Lapland to the Line, And every region's natives fairly scan;

Their forms, their force, their faculties combine,
And own the vast variety of man!

12. Then why suppose yourselves the chosen few,
To deal oppression's poisoned arrows round;
To gall, with iron bonds, the weaker crew,
Enforce the labour, and inflict the wound?

13. "Tis sordid interest guides you. Bent on gain, In profit only can ye reason find;

And pleasure too; but urge no more in vain
The selfish subject to the social mind.

14. Ah! how can he, whose daily lot is grief,
Whose mind is vilified beneath the rod,
Suppose his Maker has for him relief?

Can he believe the tongue that speaks of God?
15. For when he sees the female of his heart,
And his loved daughters, torn by lust away,
His sons the poor inheritors of smart,-

Had he religion, think ye he could

pray ?

16. Alas! he steals him from the loathsome shed,
What time moist midnight blows her venomed breath,
And, musing how he long has toiled and bled,
Drinks the dire balsam of consoling death!

17. Haste, haste, ye winds, on swiftest pinions fly, Ere from this world of misery he go,

Tell him his wrongs bedew a nation's eye,

Tell him Britannia blushes for his wo!

18. Say, that, in future, negroes shall be blest,
Ranked e'en as men, and men's just rights enjoy;
Be neither sold, nor purchased, nor opprest;
No grief shall wither, and no stripes destroy!

19. Say that fair freedom bends her holy flight
To cheer the infant, and console the sire;
So shall he, wondering, prove, at last, delight,
And in a throb of ecstasy expire.

20. Then shall proud Albion's crown, where laurels twine, Torn from the bosom of the raging sea,

Boast, 'midst the glorious leaves, a gem divine,
The radiant gem of pure humanity!

THE HUMANE INDIAN.

AN Indian, who had not met with his usual success in hunting, wandered down to a plantation among the back settlements in Virginia, and, seeing a planter at his door, asked for a morsel of bread, for he was very hungry. The planter bid him begone, for he would give him none.

2. "Will you give me a cup of your beer?" said the Indian. "No, you shall have none here," replied the planter. "But I am very faint," said the savage. "Will you give me only a draught* of cold water?" "Get you gone, you Indian dog; you shall have nothing here," said the planter.

3. It happened, some months after, that the planter went on a shooting party up into the woods, where, intent upon his game, he missed his company, and lost his way; and, night coming on, he wandered through the forest, till he espied an Indian wigwam.

4. He approached the savage's habitation, and asked him to show him the way to a plantation on that side the country. "It is too late for you to go there this evening, sir," said the Indian; "but if you will accept of my homely fare, you are welcome."

5. He then offered him some venison, and such other refreshment as his stock afforded, and, having laid some bear-skins for his bed, he desired that he would repose * Pronounced drăft.

himself for the night, and he would awake him early in the morning, and conduct him on his way.

6. Accordingly in the morning they set off, and the Indian led him out of the forest, and put him into the road which he was to pursue; but, just as they were taking leave, he stepped before the planter, and, turning round, staring full in his face, asked him whether he recollected his features. The planter was now struck with shame and confusion, when he rec'ognised in his kind protector the Indian whom he had so harshly treated.

7. He confessed that he knew him, and was full of excuses for his brutal behaviour; to which the Indian only replied; "When you see poor Indians fainting for a cup of cold water, don't say again, 'Get you gone, you Indian dog.'' The Indian then wished him well on his journey, and left him. It is not difficult to say which of these two had the best claim to the name of Christian.

THE MAMMOTH.

Of all the quadrupeds which have hitherto been described, the Mammoth is undoubtedly much the largest. This animal is not known to have an existence any where at present. We judge of it only from its bones and skeletons, which are of an unparalleled size, and are found in Siberia, Russia, Germany and North America.

2. On the Ohio, and in many places farther north, tusks, grinders and skeletons, which admit of no comparison with any other animal at present known, are found in vast numbers; some lying on the surface of the earth, and some a little below it.

3. A Mr. Stanley, taken prisoner by the Indians near the mouth of the Tennessee, relates, that, after being transferred from one tribe to another, he was at length carried over the mountains west of the Missouri to a river which runs westwardly; that these bones abounded there; and that the natives said the animal was still existing in the northern parts of their country.

4. Notwithstanding the great number of bones which have been found, the living animal has never been discovered. There is, however, one instance on record of the preservation of the carcass. In the year 1799, a fisherman observed a strange mass projecting from an ice-bank in Siberia, the nature of which he did not understand, and which was so high in the bank as to be beyond his reach.

5. He watched it for several years, and, in the spring of the fifth, the enormous carcass became entirely disengaged from the ice, and fell down upon a sand-bank forming part of the coast of the Arctic or Frozen Ocean.

6. In 1806, the whole skeleton remained upon the sandbank, although the carcass had been greatly mutilated by the white bears, dogs and other animals, which had feasted upon it about two years. The skin was extremely thick and heavy, and so much remained as required the exertions of ten men to carry it away.

7. As the natives in the vicinity have no traditional history of this enormous animal, the conclusion is, that it was imbedded in the ice many ages ago, and, from its perfect preservation, this probably took place at the very moment of its death.

8. A delegation of warriours from the Delaware tribe having visited the governour of Virginia, during the late revolution, on matters of business, after these had been discussed and settled in council, the governour asked them some questions relative to their country, and, among others, what they knew or had heard of the animal whose bones were found at the Salt-licks on the Ohio.

9. The chief speaker immediately put himself into an attitude of oratory, and, with a pomp suited to what he conceived the elevation of his subject, informed him, "That it was a tradition handed down from their fathers, that, in āncient times, a herd of these tremendous animals came to the Big-bone-licks, and began a universal destruction of the bears, deer, elks, buffaloes, and other animals, which had been created for the use of the Indians.

10. "That the Great Man above, looking down, and seeing this, was so enraged, that he seized his lightning, descended to the earth, seated himself on a neighbouring mountain, on a rock, on which his seat and the print of his

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