hunger, he appealed to my feelings. Humanity pleaded in his behalf, and without a too scrupulous inquiry into the whys and wherefores of the punishment, its tender dictates were obeyed. The poor man followed me to the fort: the soldiers grew indignant on seeing his naked sores; and the impulse of their feelings not being opposed, his neck was quickly freed from its load, and the massive yoke and its spikes were as speedily converted into pot-hooks for the benefit of the mess. Thus made happy, the thankful slave had now found his way to my home at La Bourgade, in order to make his further acknowledgments, and to tender me his services. Shall it be said that Africans know not the divine sentiment of gratitude!'

He

Dr. Pinckard about this time had an opportunity of purchasing a horse, for which he paid nearly 40 guineas, horses being very scarce, and of high value upon this coast. also had the gratification of accompanying another party upon an excursion up the river Demarara; but it did not differ much from his former one up the river Berbice. On his return 'the first object,' says he, that attracted my attention, upon approaching the barracks of the hospital department, was a string of negroes singing out in the sailors' cry,-yeoh-yeoh, yeohyeoh, and hauling at a long rope, towing something heavy round the corner of the building. Curiosity arrested me, for a moment; when, alas! I discovered at the end of the cord, the body ......... of my poor horse! who, in the last night of his master's absence, had fallen a victim to the relentless foe, who spares neither man, nor the patient steed. He was now being dragged away to his grave, and my pause of curiosity only brought me the sad gratification of casting a last look upon his corpse.

'This is a heavy loss to me, and less on account of the exorbitant price of horses in these colonies, than from the extreme difficulty, or perhaps the impossibility of finding another, at any price whatever. I had long waded through the mud before an opportunity offered of providing myself, and by mere chance, I had, at length, been well suited---but I had scarcely brought my horse into condition fit for riding, before he was

snatched from me, by what is often termed the seasoning malady of the climate.

I should not omit noting that on my return, I was almost stifled with the greetings of a fat old negro woman of the house, who, at the moment I appeared in her sight, ran to me in loud shoutings of joy, and, seizing me in her arms, squeezed me until I had scarcely power to speak; at the same time calling out to one of her sable companions" Come and help Jenny hug Massa, for me no savez hug Massa enough, for tell him how glad Jenny for see Massa again." But the gratulations of both Jenny and her friend together, became alarmingly impressive; and, in order to prevent the evils of impeded respiration, I was compelled rudely to force myself from their jetty embraces.'

At this time our author was induced from curiosity to be present at another sale of human merchandise, called a prime cargo of 300 men and women from the Gold coast of Africa. 'Amidst a scene,' says he, 'every way repugnant to humanity, I was pleased to remark that a general sympathy was excited towards one particular family, whose appeals to the compassion of the multitude were not less powerful than their claims. This family consisted of a mother, three daughters, and a son. The parent, although the days of her youth were past, was still a well-looking woman; the children appeared to be from fourteen to twenty years of age: they were very like the mother, and still more resembled each other, being all of distinguished face and figure, and remarkably the handsomest negroes of the whole cargo. The distress lest they should be separated, and sold to different masters, was so strongly depicted upon their countenances, and expressed in such lively, and impressive appeals, that the whole crowd were, impulsively, led to commiserate their sufferings; and, by universal consent, they were removed from the three great lots, and placed in a separate corner by themselves, in order that they might all be sold to the same master.

'Observing their extreme agitation, I was led particularly to notice their conduct, as influenced by the terror of being

torn from each other, and I may truly say, that I witnessed a just and faithful representation of..... the distressed mother! and such as might bid defiance even to the all-imitative powers of a Siddons! for the fears of the parent, lest she should bet separated from her children, or these from each other, were anxious and watchful beyond all that imagination could paint, or the most vivid fancy can pourtray. When any one approached their little group, or chanced to look towards them with the attentive eye of a purchaser, the children, in broken sobs, crouched nearer together, and the tearful mother in agonizing impulse, instantly fell down before the spectator, bowed herself to the earth, and kissed his feet; then, alternately clinging to his legs, and pressing her children to her bosom, she fixed herself upon her knees, clasped her hands together, and, in anguish, cast up a look of humble petition, which might have found its way even to the heart of a Caligula !---and, thus, in Nature's truest language, did the afflicted parent urge the strongest appeal to his compassion, while she im plored the purchaser, in dealing out to her the hard lot of slavery, to spare her the additional pang of being torn from - her children :--to forbear exposing her to the accumulated agonies which would result from forcing those asunder, whom the all-wise disposer of events had bound together by the most sacred ties of nature and affection.'

In the beginning of May, the commandant received instructions for our author to proceed to St. Domingo, by the earliest opportunity; after which, it does not appear that he drew more 'NOTES,' although these have been most willingly' accepted' by the public.

EARLY

ENGLISH

VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY

ΤΟ

AMERICA.

ENGLAND was the second nation that ventured to visit the new world. The account of Columbus's successful voyage filled all Europe with astonishment and admiration. But in England it did something more; it excited a vehement de sire of emulating the glory of Spain, and of aiming to obtain some share in those advantages which were expected in this new field opened to national activity. The attention of the English court had been turned towards the discovery of unknown countries, by its negociation with Bartholomew Columbus. Henry VII. having listened to his propositions with a more favourable ear than could have been expected from a cautious, distrustful prince, averse by habit as well as by temper to new and hazardous projects, he was more easily induced to approve of a voyage for discovery, proposed by some of his own subjects, soon after the return of Christopher Co

lumbus.

But though the English had spirit to form the scheme, they had not, at that period, attained to such skill in navigation as qualified them for carrying it into execution. From the inconsiderate ambition of its monarchs, the nation had long wasted its genius and activity in pernicious and ineffectual efforts to conquer France. When this ill-directed ardour began to abate, the fatal conquest between the houses of York and Lancaster turned the arms of one half of the kingdom against

the other, and exhausted the vigour of both. During the course of two centuries, while industry and commerce were making gradual progress both in the south and north of Europe, the English continued so blind to the advantages of their own situation, that they hardly began to bend their thoughts towards those objects and pursuits, to which they are indebted for their present opulence and power. While the trading ves sels of Italy, Spain, and Portugal, as well as those of the Hans Towns, visited the most remote ports in Europe, and carried on an active intercourse with its various nations, the English did little more than creep along their own coasts in small barks, which conveyed the productions of one country to another. Their commerce was almost wholly passive. Their wants were supplied by strangers; and whatever necessary or luxury of life their own country did not yield, was imported in foreign bottoms. The cross of St. George was seldom displayed beyond the precincts of the narrow seas. Hardly any English ship traded with Spain and Portugal before the beginning of the 15th century; and half a century more elapsed before the English mariners became so adventurous as to enter the Mediterranean.

In this infancy of navigation, Henry could not commit the conduct of an armament, destined to explore the unknown regions, to his own subjects. He invested Giovanni Gaboto, a Venetian adventurer who had settled in Bristol, with the chief command; and issued a commission to him and his three sons, empowering them to sail, under the banner of England, towards the east, north, or west, in order to discover countries unoccupied by any Christian state; to take possession of them in his name, and to carry on an exclusive trade with the inhatants, under condition of paying a fifth part of the free profit on every voyage to the crown. This commission was granted on March 5th, 1495, in less than two years after the return of Columbus from America. But Cabot (for that is the name he assumed in England, and by which he is best known) did not set out on his voyage for two years. He, together with his second son Sebastian, embarked at Bristol, [May, 1497,]