wards one of the water-falls, where the bushes were thick. I wanted a bamboo for my fishing tackle, and left the child among the bushes, telling him to stay there till I had found the bamboo. The cataract made a loud roaring, which might be heard from far. I pushed my way among the bushes, and saw a boat, or canoe, falling down the stream towards where I had left my son, and carrying a crew of ill-looking men, one of them seated at the stern, and gently directing their course with a paddle. I started back; but it was too late. In a moment they were on the bank; for they had just caught a glance of me. In the space of five minutes I was pursued, seized, gagged, and laid at the bottom of the canoe. I had struggled indeed, and shrieked; but the noise of the fall drowned my cries. So, happily for him, the child did not hear me; else he would have been captured too. As to myself, during the first surprise of my captivity, I was so bewildered that I know not what passed: perhaps I had been stunned by being violently thrown into the canoe. But when I came a little to myself, my agonies about the child--left, for all that I knew, to perish, or to be enslaved-drove me almost to desperation.. They sent me to the coast, and I was immediately put into the hold of a slave ship.-I shall not particularly describe the terrors of the middle passage; but, you may even now see the scars, through the holes in my stocking, and where the flesh looks seamed and rugged. I will only tell one part of my sufferings at sea. I was linked to a Coromantee Negro-not, observe, my right hand and foot to his left ones, but across, so that we could not move either hand or foot, but with great caution and perfect consent. Well, in companion was taken with a sad painful disease; and his sufferings were not very patiently borne, as I have seen others bear them; for the Coromantees are a much

"In the slave-ship in which I afterwards (1801) sailed from the Windward Coast, this part of the practice was more humane; but in the most inexorable systems of oppression there are shades of cruelty. The method mentioned in the text was used in Mr. Newton's time. See his Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade' (Works, vi. 530); to which I cannot refer, without breathing an earnest wish that many of the admirers of Cardiphonia, Omicron, and the Olney Hymns, would also study the subject of Slavery under their justly venerated master. What he says about his own connection with the trade, and his subsequent self-abhorrence, is quite applicable to such religionists, in these days, as refuse honestly to examine the anti-slavery question; and content themselves with a guilty neutrality; or, what is more serious, with a hostile feeling against the abolitionists."

fiercer tribe than many others: so his disease was exasperated by his violence. Before the illness came on, we had accommodated each other, by governing our motions so as to suit both; and so far escaped injury-that is, escaped this kind of injury; for otherwise, as I have heard at church, the iron entered into our souls! But when my poor comrade, in fits of pain, gave convulsive starts and twitches, and sometimes wrenching himself as one possessed with an unclean spirit, he sorely lacerated both himself and me! I used to cry, and complain; but torture hears no cries. I do not blame him-he was the worst sufferer-and then, we did not well understand each other's language; or rather, what was more afflicting, I only understood half of what he said, and so sometimes did exactly contrary to what he meant; and then he was outrageous with me, and, in defiance of the pain, struggled, and tore, and raved-Oh the agonies of the days and nights spent in this terrible conflict!-One night the Coromantee lay so quiet that I was compara. tively at ease; and I supposed he was recovering-all was still, and I slept-nature indeed was worn out. On waking, I felt his side and limbs surprisingly cool, and said, all the fever is gone--but he was dead; and I was fettered hand and foot to a corpse!'

"This portion of Cæsar's story was told me when I was at school; and I recollect shuddering at the account of his being linked to a body of death. I cried out,

And is it in this way that we get slaves? and does my father know it?" " pp. 17-24.

It may be as well to inform our readers, lest they should accuse us of tantalizing them with a detached extract, that Cæsar returns to the West Indies with our worthy planter, and finds his long lost son a slave on his estate.

The writer pourtrays in no pleasing colours the kind of society to which he was introduced on his arrival in the West Indies. He has done well, in making so painful a deposition, to take care that his charge is detached from the fictitious part of his narrative, and conveyed in the words of authentic writers; writers, we may add, friendly to the colonies and their system. Let our readers listen to their averments.

"In proceeding to paint the moral state of the West Indies, I shall begin by describing the character and manners of the White inhabitants; and, to obviate the prejudice naturally created against myself as an abolitionist, and which would of

course hesitate to receive my own depositions, I shall call to the witnesses' bar Mr. Stewart, and other deponents of the same unexceptionable class. Mr. Stewart writes: The most gross and open licentiousness continues (1821) to prevail among all ranks of the Whites. The males, of course, are exclusively meant. Every unmarried White man, and of every class, has his Black or his Brown mistress, with whom he lives openly: and of so little consequence is this thought, that his White female friends and relations think it no breach of decorum to visit his house, fondle his children, and converse with his housekeeper-as if that conduct, which they regarded as disgraceful in their own class, was not so in the female of colour. The example of a few ladies of a juster way of thinking has little weight in discountenancing this levelling sort of familiarity. But the most striking proof of the low estimate of moral obligation here, is the fact, that the man who lives in open adultery-that is, who keeps his Brown or Black mistress, in the very face of his wife and family and of the community-has generally as much outward respect shewn him, and is as much countenanced, visited, and received into company, especially if he be a man of some weight and influence in the community, as if he had been guilty of no breach of decency! If a gentleman pays his addresses to a lady, it is not thought necessary, as a homage to her delicacy, to get rid, a priori, of his illicit establishment; nor is the lady so unreasonable as to expect such a sacrifice: the Brown lady remains in the house till within a few days of the marrige, and, if she is of an accommodating disposition, even assists in making preparations for the reception of the bride; in which case there may be a tolerably good understanding between them; and the wife may even condescend to take in good part the occasional calls, inquiries, and proffered services of the ex-favourite, and make suitable returns of kindness to her and her children.'- -Among the Negroes,' says Dr. Williamson, licentious appetites are promiscuously gratified; and the truth requires that it should not be concealed, the Whites on estates follow the same habits, on many occasions, to a greater extent. Black or Brown mistresses are considered necessary appendages to every establishment: even a young book-keeper, coming from Europe, is generally instructed to provide himself; and, however repugnant may seem the idea at first, his scruples are overcome, and he conforms to general custom.'- The 'accusation generally brought,' says Bryan Edwards, against the free People of Colour, is the incontinency of their women; of whom such as are young, and have tolerable persons, are universally maintained by White men of all ranks and CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 307.

conditions as kept mistresses. The fact is too notorious to be concealed or controverted.-That this system ought to be utterly abolished, I most readily admit. But by whom is a reform to be begun and accomplished? It can hardly be expected, I think, from the objects of our present inquiries; who are conscious of no vices which their Christian instructors have not taught them."" pp. 74-76.

After describing the splendid tropical scenery of some of the WestIndia Islands, our author adverts to the conflicting emotions which arise in the mind, from contrasting the beauties and sublimities of inanimate nature, with the moral desolations which darken and deform it.

"How is the glory of the land darkened by the influence of slavery! The very first night of my journey, as I was sleeping at a house embosomed in the loveliest scenery, I was awaked, at midnight, by a great tumult, as of arms, with cries of women and children. In a few minutes a private servant came to my window, and informed me, that it was the marshal's deputies making a levy on the Negroes, and that the noise proceeded from the clashing of weapons; for some of the slaves, he said, had stoutly resisted. I then alarmed my host, and we determined to go out. By the time we arrived at the Negro-houses the resistance had ceased; for the Negroes, being divided, had been overcome. Many of the men escaped from the property; and a few others, with some women, secreted themselves among the coffee trees, till the party had gone off with their prey. They secured, however, ten or twelve men, and many of the women and children; amounting in the whole to between thirty and forty; who were huddled together on the outside of the principal fence, and presented such a heart-rending scene as I never witnessed before. Some of the children had lost their mothers; and some of the mothers had been torn away from a part of their children--for some of the little ones also escaped. One woman, in particular-a house-woman-had six or seven children: two or three of them were seized, and the others escaped; but the youngest, an infant, had been caught; and she wept aloud and very bitterly, saying, that she must give up herself if the child was not got back, for she could not live separated from it. Most of the men were sullen, and only wanted arms to obtain their freedom from the savage Whites and their associates, who now guarded them. As it was, two or three of the poor fellows were wounded. They were tied together or hand-cuffed, and driven off the same morning to SpanishTown gaol.-The same kind of incident

3 K

occurred to Mr. Bickell; and I record my own adventure almost in his words." pp. 82-84.

We have several times had occasion to advert to the reserve of the conductors of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in reference to the slaves on their plantations. We are glad to find that this subject also has arrested the attention of Mr. Riland; and we trust that the friends of the society will be induced to institute a full inquiry into it. Mr. Riland furnishes the following statements.

"The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel hold plantations in Barbadoes under the devise of Colonel Codrington. On this very estate Mr. Coleridge found, in 1825, a river! An extraordinary apology for the retention, by a Christian corporation, of an estate worked under the whip, is offered by Edwards, who says:-They are induced, from the purest and best motives, to purchase occasionally a certain ⚫ number of Negroes, in order to divide the work, and keep up the stock. They well know that moderate labour, unaccompanied with that wretched anxiety to which the poor of England are subject, is a state of comparative felicity,' &c. &c.I doubt whether, in 1793, a single member of the society had the slightest knowledge of the practice on the Codrington property. It is a question of some importance, how far an association, instituted for the express purpose of diffusing Christianity, is justified in putting into its treasury the fruits of slave labour.-The Society, as might have been supposed, has always been under a cloud. Bishop Porteus made a vain effort, about fifty years ago, to stimulate this corporation to look into the concerns of their trust-estate, in order to some plan for the general instruction of slaves; but all to no purpose! His attempt was discussed at a committee-meeting, and in four hours rejected. Thus,' says

* Mr. Riland refers to the work entitled

"Six Months in the West Indies," written by Mr. Coleridge, a nephew of the Bishop of Barbadoes. Its merits have been already amply and gravely discussed in our pages; but if our younger readers wish to know more of it, they may consult a lively and well-principled dialogue just published, entitled, "The Young Logicians, or School-Boy Conceptions of Right and Wrong, with a Particular Reference to Six Months in the West Indies. Part the First." It is, we believe, the production of a young writer, whose wit is to the full as good as Mr. Coleridge's, which has been so much lauded, while it is employed in an infinitely better cause.

the Bishop, was a final period put at once to a most interesting and important subjeet; and the spiritual condition of near half a million of Negro slaves decided in four hours. That the particular plan offered provement, and that a better might be to the Society might stand in need of imsubstituted in its room, is very probable. I would have given my hearty vote for any wiser plan in preference to my own. It had at heart. That no other plan should be adopted or proposed, nor any one effectual measure taken for the conversion and salvation of near 300 slaves, who were the immediate property of a religious'the Bishop's own italics- society, did, I own, a little surprise me.'--Hodgson's Life of Porteus, 1813. p. 88.-But the very last Report of this institution is very unsatisfactory. It contains no statement of what has been received from the toil of the Society's slaves, neither of any expenditure in their favour. We find indeed that Messrs. Daniel and Trattle (who are these?) have paid in 35421.; but from what sources is not recorded. In the synopsis of the Society's missionaries, catechists, &c., the stations in Barbadoes are wholly omitted-There is in the payments an item, Paid for a piece of plate voted to Mr. F. Clarke, 101. 4s. 6d.'" pp. 198,

was not the mode, it was the measure I

199.

We must pass by Mr. Riland's remarks upon the inadequate numbers, and, to say the least, the inefficient ministrations, of the insular clergy; upon the want of schools and churches; the general repug nance exhibited to the instruction of slaves; the torture of the driving whip; the commercial inexpediency of slavery; the necessarily depraved moral condition of the slaves themselves; the want of legal sanction to their marriages; the utter incompatibility of West-India slavery and Christianity; the opposition made to missionaries; and numerous other important topics. We cordially wish our author the blessing of God in his humane efforts to enlighten and animate his countrymen on a subject of such pressing moment; and we are quite convinced that, in a solemn review of his labours as a minister of Christ, he will not regret those which he has exerted for the tem. poral and eternal welfare of our enslaved fellow-creatures in our colonial possessions.

GREAT BRITAIN. PREPARING for publication:-A Defence of the Missions in the South-Sea and Sandwich Islands, against the Quarterly Review;-Oriental Observations and occasionalCriticisms, illustrating several hundred Passages of Scripture. By the Rev. J. Calloway.

In the press-An edition in six volumes 4to (the price not to exceed six guineas), of Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Old and New Testament, with an Introduction, by the Rev. Edward Bickersteth Three Courses of Lent Lectures delivered in the Church of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate; by the Right Rev. Bishop Bloomfield, D.D. Rector of the Parish; -The Laws of Moses, from the "More Nevochim" of Maimonides, with Dissertations and a Life of the Author; by James Townley, D.D. ;-The Achievements of Prayer, selected from the Holy Scriptures. 12mo. ;-A Treatise on the Existence, Nature, and Ministry of the Holy Angels. 12mo.

OXFORD. The prize compositions this year were adjudged as follows:-Latin Verse: "Mexicum." C. Wordsworth, of Christ Church.-Latin Essay: "Lex apud Romanos Agraria." W. J. Blake, of Christ Church.-English Essay: "The Influence of the Crusades upon the Arts and Literature of Europe." F. Oakeley, of Baliol. English Verse (Newdigate): Pompeii." R. S. Hawker, of Magdalenhall.

The following subjects are for the Chancellor's Prizes for the ensuing year:Latin Verse: "Machinæ vi vaporis impulsæ." English Essay: "The domestic Virtues and Habits of the ancient Greeks and Romans compared with those of the more refined Nations of modern Europe.' Latin Essay: "Unde evenit ut in artium liberalium studiis præstantissimus quisque apud singulas civitates eodem fere sæculo floruerit?" English Verse: "Richard Cœur de Lion."

The judges appointed to decide Dr. Ellerton's Theological Prize, established in 1825, have adjudged it this year to Mr. Oakeley, of Baliol College. The subject is as follows:-" What was the object of the Reformers in maintaining the following proposition, and by what arguments did they establish it? Holy Scripture is

the only sure foundation of any article of faith.' The subject of the present year is, "The Faith of the Apostles in the Divine Mission of our Saviour was not the result of weakness or delusion, but of reasonable conviction."

CAMBRIDGE.-The Porson Prize (for the best translation of a passage from Shakspeare into Greek verse) was adjudged to J. Wordsworth, of Trinity College. Sir William Browne's gold medals were adjudged-for the Greek Ode, to W. Selwyn, St. John's College; Latin Ode and Epigrams, to C. Wordsworth, Trinity College.-The Members' Prizes to two Bachelors of Arts, for Latin prose composition, were adjudged to R. Williamson and W. M. Heald, of Trinity College. Subject, "Homerus." The Members' Prizes to under-graduates were adjudged to E. H. Fitzherbert, and T. W. Peile, of Trinity College. Subject," Græcia capta ferum victorem cepit, et artes intulit agresti Latio."

Some workmen, employed in digging stone at Boughton-hall, near Maidstone, having discovered bones and teeth of several animals, Dr. Buckland, Mr. Lyvell, and several other scientific gentlemen have visited the spot. They report, that the bones in question are in a fissure of the rock, which had evidently been filled up by diluvial action. The bones of at least two hyenas (of the extinct Kirkdale species), were found, together with the bones and teeth of the horse, the rat, and other animals.

The Devonport column, erected to commemorate the alteration in the name of the town from Plymouth Dock to Devonport, is completed. It has cost about 2000. It is 112 feet above the brow of Windmill Hill.

FRANCE.