To whom Amanda, (paufing at the name) • What meant Avaro by the doubting dame? • Has any of your British damfels made

A doubt of what fuch godlike beings faid? 'Or is it customary to your clime? Has ever youth committed such a crime, As bafe ingratitude? Has any there Deluded first, and then forfook the fair? 'I cannot think your love will e'er decline, Nor can my radiant angel queftion mine.

By yon bright beams, which paint the rifing day;

By thy bright charms, as beautiful as they :

By all our pleafing hours of love, I vow
To share your fate thro' ev'ry scene of woe!
• Content, with you, to yield my vital breath:
For life, without you, would but lengthen death.'
With fuch fweet talk their moments they beguile;
Both feem impatient for the destin'd isle :

He daily vows, and daily is believ'd;
She daily hears, and daily is deceiv'd.

Farewel, bright goddess of th' Idalian grove!
Farewel, ye sportive deities of love!
No longer I your pleafing joys rehearse;
A rougher theme demands my pensive verse:
A scene of woes remains to be display'd,
Indulgent love with slavery repaid.
Ingratitude, and broken vows, and lyes,
The mighty ills that spring from avarice,
Provoke my lays: your aid, ye mufes, bring;
Affift my tragick numbers, while I fing;
Say, what enfu'd, when, on the briny deep,
The watchful dame beheld a floating fhip?
She call'd, and beckon'd to it from the fhore,
Then to the youth the grateful tidings bore;
And faid, I fomething fee like winged trees,
(Strange to behold !) fly swiftly o'er the feasa.

F f

* Their

• Their bulky roots upon the billows float;
Say, is not this the fhip you long have fought?
Or I mistake, or, by the gods command,

< This comes to bear us to your native land.
Then haben, fee the partner of your heart,
With you, her guide, is ready to depart:
< My father, mother, friends, I bid adieu;

Friends, father, mother, not fo dear as you.'

To whom the youth, with fmiling brow, reply'd:

O thou true pattern of a faithful bride!

Who dar'ft thy father, mother, friends refign;
And risk thy own dear life, to rescue mine!
If I forget the debt I owe to thee,
May all the gods forget their care of me!
• In more wild defarts let me rove again;
• Nor find a friend, like thee, to ease my pain!
There let the vultures, wolves, and tigers tear
This body, thou haft kindly nourish'd here!'
So faying, to the beach he straight defcends;
And, by the flag, difcerns the crew his friends:
And now his heart exults within his breast,
His loving mate an equal joy confefs'd;
She, with him, gladly ventures on the main,
Unthinking of her future toil and pain.

So, to the plough, the heifer, yet unbroke,
Walks chearful on, nor dreads th' impending yoke;
Till, in the fields, urg'd with the piercing goad,
She groans, and writhes, reluctant with her load.
The British bark was to Barbadoes bound;
Th' expected shore the failors quickly found:
Where, fafe from danger, now the perjur'd youth,
Falfe to his former vows of facred truth,
Reflecting, counts the int'rest he had loft,
While fate detain'd him on the Indian coaft;
The frugal thoughts fupprefs his am'rous flame,
And prompt him to betray the faithful dame.

Yet

Yet fcarce he can the curfed fact pursue ;
But hefitates at what he fain would do:
For, tho' his av'rice moves him to the ill,
His gratitude within him ftruggles ftill;
And, 'twixt two paffions, neither guides his will.
As when two fcales, which equal loads fufpend,
Sway to and fro, alternate both defcend;
Till, undeclining, each aloft abides;

Nor this, nor that, the doubtful weight decides.
So ftood the doubtful youth awhile; nor wou'd
Forfake the evil, nor purfue the good:

Till, as the failors in the haven stay,

To purchase flaves, the planters croud the key.
One afks, for what the Negro may be fold;
Then bids a price, and fhews the tempting gold;
Which, when Avaro views with greedy eyes,
He foon refolves to gain th' alluring prize;
Nor oaths, nor gratitude, can longer bind,
Her fate he thus determines in his mind.

• Suppose I should conduct this Indian o'er,
And thus, inftead of gold, import a Moor;
• Would not my fire, with ftern contracted brows,
Condemn my choice, and curse my nuptial vows?
Was it for this I learn'd the merchant's art?
'Only to gain a doating Negro's heart!
• Was it for this the raging feas I crofs'd?
'No! gold induc'd me to the Indian coaft;

And gold is offer'd for this fimple dame:
• Shall I refuse it, or renounce my flame?
• Let am'rous fools their tire fome joys renew,
And doat on love, while intereft I pursue.'
He added not; for now, intent on gold,
And dead to all remorfe, the dame he fold.
Amanda ftood confounded with furprize,
And filently reproach'd him with her eyes;

She often try'd to fpeak; but, when she try'd,

Her heart fwell'd full, her voice it's aid deny'd;
And, when she made her fault'ring tongue obey,
These words, commix'd with fighs, found out their way:
Who can the myftic ways of fate explain?

Am I awake, or do I dream again?

Is this the fad reward of all my care? • Was it for this I chear'd thee in despair? The gods above (if any gods there be)

• Witness what I have done to fuccour thee!
Yet, if my kindness can't thy pity move,
Pity the fruits of our unhappy love:

• Oh! let the infant in my pregnant womb,
• Excite thee to revoke my threaten'd doom!
• Think how the future flave, in climes remote,
• Shall curfe the treach'rous fire that him begot.'

So fpake the mourning dame, but fpake in vain;
Th' obdurate youth infults her with disdain:
Not all her kindness could his pity move,
Nor yet the fruits of their unhappy love.
But as the flames, which foften wax, difplay

The fame warm force to harden fordid clay;

That motive, which would melt another heart,

More harden'd his, and made him act a double villain's part.

He, for the child, demands a larger fum;

And fells it, while an embryo in the womb.

And now he fternly takes her by the hand: Then drags her on, reluctant, to the land; While, as the walks, her difmal fate the moans, The rocks around her echo to her groans.

;

O base! ungrateful youth!' fhe loudly cries
O base! ungrateful youth!' the shore replies;
And can't thou, cruel, perjur'd villain! leave
Thy tender infant, too, an abject slave;
To toil, and groan, and bleed beneath the rod ?
Fool, that I was, to think thou wert a God!

Sure

• Sure from fome favage tiger art thou fprung-
No! tigers feed, and fawn upon their young:
But thou defpifeft all paternal cares;

The fate of infants, and their mothers pray'rs.'
In vain she does her wretched ftate deplore;
Pleas'd with the gold, he gladly quits the fhore.
The ruffling winds dilate the fails, the ship
Divides the waves, and fkims along the deep.
Three days the bellying canvas gently fwells,
Clear fhines the fun, and friendly blow the gales:
Then frowning clouds inveft the vaulted sky,
And hollow winds proclaim a tempest nigh;

Fierce Boreas loudly o'er the ocean roars,

Smoke the white waves, and found the adverse shores;

While, to increase the horrors of the main,

Defcends a deluge of impetuous rain.

The giddy ship on circling eddies rides,

Tofs'd, and re-tofs'd, the sport of winds and tides;

Redoubled peals of roaring thunder roll,
And flames, conflicting, flash from pole to pole,
While guilty thoughts diftract Avaro's foul.
Of life defpairing, though afraid to die,
One fatal effort yet he means to try:
While all the bufy crew, with panting breath,
Were lab'ring to repel the liquid death;
Avaro from the ftern the boat divides,

And yields up to the fury of the tides.
Tofs'd on the boift'rous wave, the veffel flies;
Now finking low, now mounting to the fkies:
Till foon the ftorm decreas'd; and, by degrees,
Hufh'd were the winds, and calm the ruffled feas;
The failors fafely steer their course again,
And leave Avaro floating on the main ;
Who landed quickly on a lonely ifle,

Where human feet ne'er print the baleful foil.

A dreary