The African Chieftain.

A price thy nation never gave

Shall yet be paid for thee;

For thou shalt be the Christian's! slave, In land beyond the sea."

Then wept the warrior chief, and bade

To shred his locks away;

And one by one, each heavy braid

Before the victor lay.

Thick were the plaited locks, and long,

And deftly hidden there,

Shone many a wedge of gold among

The dark and crisped hair.

"Look! feast thy greedy eye with gold Long kept for sorest need,

Take it-thou askest sums untold

And say that I am freed:

Take it-my wife, the long, long day
Weeps by the cocoa tree,

And my young children leave their play,
And ask in vain for me."

"I take thy gold-but I have made
Thy fetters fast and strong;
And ween that by the cocoa shade,
Thy wife shalt wait thee long."
Strong was the agony that shook
The captive's frame to hear,
And the proud meaning of his look
Was changed to mortal fear.

His heart was broken-crazed his brain-
At once his eye grew wild,
He struggled fiercely with his chain,
Whisper'd, and wept, and smil'd;
Yet wore not long those fatal bands;

And once at shut of day,

They drew him forth upon the sands,
The foul Hyena's prey."

Measures in British Parliament.

CONVERSATION XIII.

"I pass with haste by the coast of Africa, whence my mind turns with indignation at the abominable traffic in the human species, from which a part of our countrymen dare to derive their most inauspicious wealth.” -Sir William Jones.

• AGAIN We will turn our attention, for a short time, if you please, my dear children, to the slave-trade.'

Has not public opinion undergone a very great change, Pa, in regard to the slave-trade within a few years?' inquired Caroline.

'The change has been great, indeed,' said Mr. L. • Once there were hardly a few to be found to make any effort whatever for Africa's relief. She was bleeding at every pore, but none commiserated her distress. She saw and there was none to help-she looked, and there was none to drop even the tear of pity over her miseries. Public opinion has been changing silently but rapidly in Great Britain and America for many years. Every passing year, the revolution in sentiment has been more and more apparent.

'In 1776, whilst the sensibilities of the public were much excited by the fact that 132 living slaves had been thrown overboard from a vessel engaged in the trade, DAVID HARTLEY, a member of the British Parliament, laid upon the table of the House of Commons, fetters that had been used in confining the unhappy victims of this traffic on board of slaveships, and moved a Resolution, "That the trade [was] contrary to the laws of God and the rights of man.'

In 1787, the Constitution of the United States fixed a

Abolition of the trade by the Congress of the U. S. and other nations.

period for the abolition of the trade, which by act of Congress became a law in 1808, prohibiting the farther introduction of slaves into the States.

'In 1787, Wilberforce made his first motion in Parliament for the abolition of the slave-trade, which motion was renewed annually in Parliament for twenty years, until at length it was enacted that after March, 1808, no slaves should be imported into the British dominions.

'On the 2d day of March, 1807, an act was passed by the Congress of the United States, the first section of which enacts, "that after the first day of January, 1808, it shall not be lawful to import or bring into the United States, or the territories thereof, from any foreign kingdom, place, or country, any negro, mulatto, or person of color, with intent to hold, sell or dispose of such negro, mulatto, or person of color, as a slave, or to be sold at service or labor."

At length, the Dutch, the Spanish, the Portuguese,* and the Brazilians made enactments against the traffic. France also denounced it, and Austria declared that the moment a slave touches an Austrian ship, he is free. At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the sovereigns there present, and the States represented, pledged themselves to the suppression of the trade. And on the 23d of March, 1830, the prosecution of the slave-trade ceased to be lawful for the citizens or subjects of any Christian power in Europe or America.

• The late universal emancipation of slaves by the British government in their West India colonies, which took effect,. August 1, 1834, is another most important step in the development of a right feeling in relation to this subject, and F cannot but hope, notwithstanding all unfavorable circumstances, that a very few years will have brought to pass all'

*The Queen of Portugal has recently issued a decree against the slave.. trade, making it piracy..

The trade not materially suppressed.

that we would claim of freedom, for slaves every where, and for the continent of Africa.'

'But if I have understood you, Pa, you have said that the slave-trade is yet carried on extensively?'

I am sorry to say that it is, Caroline, notwithstanding the obligations of laws and treaties to the contrary. When the United States, in connexion with England, declared the slave-trade to be piracy, and forbade the further introduction of slaves into their possessions, the friends of humanity indulged the hope that a death-blow was about to be given to the traffic. Other nations, by important measures, encouraged the hope. The event, however, has caused great disappointment. I have before stated some of the slavery statistics, showing the state of the trade in 1824 and in 1827. From a document which I have seen, it also appears that from 1820 to 1831, no less than 322,526 slaves were imported into the single port of Rio Janeiro alone. By very recent documents, it appears that the abominable still carried on to a considerable extent in Brazil. The fact that the trade is now generally denounced, and declared illegal, and although it be declared by every Christian government piratical, will not alone be sufficient to destroy, or even materially to lessen the trade.

traffic is

'Armed vessels may be sent to cruise off the coast, as they now do, to capture the slave-ships; but experience proves that no squadron will be likely effectually to prevent the trade, without the aid of settlements of civilized and christianized communities along the coast. Thousands of little rivers, and bays, that indent the shores of Africa, either refuse to admit our ships into their shallow waters, whilst they afford lurking and hiding places for those concerned in the traffic and well acquainted with the geography of the country, or enable the slaver being pursued, to elude the

Something more must be done.

search. If any one factory, mart, or haunt, be broken up, word is immediately sent by the traders into the country, that slaves must be brought to some less frequented and unsuspected part of the coast which is designated, and there they are received with impunity, the traders with their vessels lying concealed perhaps under the woody banks of unknown winding streams.

'It has been supposed, therefore, that COLONIES established along the coast are indispensable to the entire extinction of the trade. Twenty or thirty colonies scattered along the coast, it is said, would put an end to the trade effectually and for ever. The native chiefs of Sherbro district, through a strong desire to be shielded from the ravages of the slavetrade, presented one hundred miles of coast, southward of Sierra Leone, to the colony; and it is stated that all the coast in the vicinity of that place is now cleared of slave-factories and slave-vessels. Several native chiefs in the vicinity of the Liberian colony have desired arrangements to be entered into with them for the security of that part of the coast, and are hoping for as favorable results. The New-York and Pennsylvania colony at Bassa Cove, it is anticipated, will be an efficient coadjutor with those already named, in extending a Christian influence in Africa, and in hastening the day when the traffic in human flesh and blood will end.'

What is there, then, Sir, to prevent the formation of colonies like those that now exist, along the whole coast? It would, I suppose, be a great work-but is it not worthy of great effort?'

Many are hoping and praying and laboring for such a result, Caroline. I shall have occasion to refer to this subject again in a future conversation. It will be consistent with the plan which I have proposed for these conversa