feeling in an address to the Earl of Dartmouth, secretary of state for North America, on the occasion of some relaxation of the system of haughty severity which the home government then pursued towards the colonies, and which ultimately caused their separation and independence.

Hail, happy day, when smiling like the morn,
Fair freedom rose New England to adorn :

*

Long lost to realms beneath the northern skies,
She shines supreme, while hated faction dies:
Soon as appeared the goddess long desired,
Sick at the view, she languished and expired;
Thus from the splendours of the morning light
The owl in sadness seeks the caves of night.

No more, America, in mournful strain
Of wrongs and grievance unredressed complain,
No longer shalt thou dread the iron chain,
Which wanton tyranny with lawless hand
Made, and with it meant to enslave the land.

Should you, my lord, while you peruse my song,
Wonder from whence my love of freedom sprung ;
Whence flow those wishes for the common good,
By feeling hearts alone best understood—

I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate,

Was snatched from Afric's fancied happy seat.
What pangs excruciating must molest,
What sorrows labour in my parents' breast!
Steeled was that sou!, and by no misery moved,
That from a father seized his babe beloved :

Such, such my case. And can I then but pray
Others may never feel tyrannic sway!

The other compositions of this African poetess are on Virtue, Humanity, Freedom, Imagination, &c. The following lines contain a beautiful address and prayer to the Deity. Great God, incomprehensible, unknown

To sense, we bow at thine exalted throne.
O, while we crave thine excellence to feel,

Thy sacred spirit to our hearts reveal,

And give us of that mercy to partake,

Which thou hast promised for the Saviour's sake!

One of her pieces is an address to a young painter of her own colour. On seeing his works, she vented her grief for the sorrows of her countrymen, in a pathetic strain.

After the publication of her volume, and about the twenty-first year of her age, Phillis was liberated; but she continued in her master's family, where she was much respected for her good conduct. Many of the most respectable inhabitants of Boston and its vicinity, visiting at the house, were pleased with an opportunity of conversing with her, and of observing her modest deportment, and the cultivation of her mind.

The constitution of Phillis being naturally delicate, her health became such as to alarm her friends. A sea voyage was recommended by her physicians, and it was arranged that she should take a voyage to England in company with a son of Mrs. Wheatley, who was proceeding thither on commercial business. The amiable Negro girl had hitherto never been parted from the side of her benefactress since the hour of her adoption into the family; and though the necessity of the separation was acknowledged, it was equally painful to both. She recorded her feelings upon this occasion in the following lines:

A FAREWELL TO AMERICA;

ADDRESSED TO MRS. WHEATLEY.

Adieu, New England's smiling meads,
Adieu, the flowery plain :

I leave thine opening charms, O spring,
And tempt the roaring main.

In vain for me the flowerets rise,
And boast their gaudy pride,

While here beneath the northern skies
I mourn for health denied.

Celestial maid of rosy hue,
O let me feel thy reign;
I languish till thy face I view,
Thy vanished joys regain.

Susannah mourns, nor can I bear

To see the chrystal shower,
Or mark the tender falling tear
At sad departure's hour;

Not unregarding can I see

Her soul with grief opprest,
But let no sighs, no groans for me
Steal from her pensive breast.
In vain the feathered warblers sing,
In vain the garden blooms,
And on the bosom of the spring
Breathes out her soft perfumes.

While for Britannia's distant shore
We sweep the liquid plain,
And with astonished eyes explore
The wide extended main.

Lo! Health appears, celestial dame,
Complacent and serene,

With Hebe's mantle o'er her frame,
With soul-delighting mien.

For thee, Britannia, I resign

New England's smiling fields;
To view again her charms divine,

What joy the prospect yields.

Phillis was received and admired in the first circles English society; and it was here that her poems were fi given to the world, with a portrait of the authoress attach to them. From this portrait, her countenance appears have been pleasing, and the form of her head highly i tellectual. On the engraving being transmitted to M Wheatley in America, that lady placed it in a conspicuo part of her room, and called the attention of her visito to it. But the health of this good and humane lady d clined rapidly, and she soon found that the beloved origin of the portrait was necessary to her comfort and happines On the first notice of her benefactress's desire to see he once more, Phillis, whose modest humility was unshake by the severe trial of flattery and attention from the grea re-embarked immediately for the land of her true hom

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A Tribute for the Legra.

347

Within a short time after her arrival, she discharged the melancholy duty of closing the eyes of her mistress, mother, and friend, whose husband and daughter soon sunk also into the grave. The son had married and settled in England, and Phillis Wheatley found herself alone in the world. The happiness of the African poetess now became clouded. Little is known of the latter years of her life, except what is of a melancholy character. Shortly after the death of her friends, she received an offer of marriage from a respectable Coloured man of the name of Peters. In her desolate condition, it would have been hard to have blamed Phillis for accepting any offer of protection of an honourable kind. At the time it took place, Peters not only bore a good character, but was every way a remarkable specimen of his race; being a fluent writer, a ready speaker, and altogether an intelligent and well-educated man. He was a grocer by trade, but having obtained considerable learning, also officiated as a lawyer, under the title of Doctor Peters; pleading the cause of his brethren the Africans, before the tribunals of the state. Phillis was, at the time of her marriage with Peters, about twenty-three years of age.

The reputation he enjoyed, with his industry, procured him a fortune, though it appears he was subsequently unsuccessful in business. The connexion did not prove a happy one, and Phillis, being possessed of a susceptible mind and delicate constitution, fell into a decline, and died in 1780, about the twenty-sixth year of her age, much lamented by those who knew her worth.

Thus perished a woman who, by a fortunate accident, was rescued from the degraded condition to which those of her race who are brought to the Slave-market are too often condemned, as if for the purpose of showing to the world what care and education could effect in elevating the character of the benighted African. Such an example ought to impress us with the conviction, that, out of the

countless millions to whom no similar opportunities have ever been presented, many might be found fitted by the endowments of nature, and wanting only the blessings of education, to be made ornaments, like Phillis Wheatley, not only to their race, but to humanity.

JOHN KIZELL

Was a native of a country some leagues inland from the Sherbro river. His father was a Chief of some consequence, and so was his uncle. They resided at different towns, and when Kizell was a boy, he was sent by his father on a visit to his uncle. On the very night of his arrival the town was attacked: a bloody battle ensued, in which his uncle and many of his people were killed. Some escaped: the rest were taken prisoners, amongst whom was Kizell. His father, as soon as he heard of his son's disaster, made every effort to release him, but in vain. He was taken to the Gallinas, put on board a ship, and carried, as one of a cargo of Slaves, to Charlestown.

On the passage, one of the women pining away with grief on account of her situation, was tied up to the mast and flogged to death, as a warning to others not to indulge their melancholy to the detriment of their health, and thereby injure their value to their Christian owners.

John Kizell arrived in Charlestown a few years before it was taken by Sir H. Clinton; and in consequence of that general's proclamation, with many others, he joined the royal standard. After the war he was removed to Nova Scotia, and from thence to Sierra Leone. He was an intelligent man, always preserved an excellent character, and had the welfare of his native country sincerely at heart. The government of Sierra Leone often employed him in their negociations with the native chiefs; and he always discharged his duty with integrity and address.

In 1810, John Kizell was sent by governor Columbine, with a letter to some of the chiefs on the Sherbro river,