attempts to gain possession of them. The natives are Norman, and the language Norman-French. These islands enjoy a political constitution of their own; exemption from all duties, and various privileges granted them by Royal Charter; they are much attached to the English government, but entirely averse to the French. We will now pass over the other islands, and, putting our ship about,' we will stop to view the Eddystone lighthouse."

MR. WILTON. "Before we quit the shores of France, I wish to read you an extract from Leigh Ritchie's Travelling Sketches. You remember in our conversations on the Rivers last winter, that we mentioned the stain that would ever remain on Havre from the prominent part taken by the inhabitants in the dreadful traffic in slaves. The extract I am about to read is from the journal of a youth named Romaine, on board the 'Rodeur,' a vessel of 200 tons, which cleared out of Havre for Guadaloupe, on the 15th January, 1819. The boy writes to his mother, while the vessel lay at Bony in the river Calabar, on the coast of Africa:- Since we have been at this place, I have become more accustomed to the howling of these negroes. At first it alarmed me, and I could not sleep. The captain says if they behave well they will be much better off at Guadaloupe; and I am sure I wish the ignorant creatures would come quietly, and have it over. To-day, one of the blacks, whom they were forcing into the hold, suddenly knocked down a sailor, and attempted to leap over-board. He was caught, however, by the leg, by another of the crew; and the sailor, rising in a passion, hamstrung him with his cutlass. The captain, seeing this, knocked the butcher flat upon the deck with a handspike. "I will teach you to keep your temper," said he; "he was the best slave of the lot!"" The boy then runs to the chains, and sees the slave who was found to be useless,' dropped into the sea, where he continued to

swim after he had sunk under the water, making a red track, which broke, widened, faded, and was seen no more. At last they got fairly to sea. The captain is described as being in the best temper in the world; walking the deck, rubbing his hands, humming a tune, and rejoicing that he had six dozen slaves on board; men, women, and children; and all in 'prime marketable condition.' The boy says, their cries were so terrible, that he dare not go and look into the hold; that at first he could not close his eyes, the sound so froze his blood; and that one night he jumped up, and in horror ran to the captain's room: he was sleeping profoundly with the lamp shining upon his face, calm as marble. The boy did not like to disturb him. The next day, two of the slaves were found dead in the hold, suffocated by the foulness of the atmosphere. The captain is informed of this, and orders them in gangs to the forecastle to take the fresh air. The boy runs up on deck to see them: he did not find them so very unwell, but adds, that blacks are so much alike, that one can hardly tell.' On reaching the ship's side, first one, then another, then a third, of the slaves leaped into the sea, before the eyes of the astonished sailors. Others made the attempt, but were knocked flat upon the deck, and the crew kept watch over them with handspikes and cutlasses, until they should receive orders from the captain. The negroes who had escaped, kept gambolling upon the waves, yelling what appeared like a song of triumph, in the burden of which some on deck joined. The ship soon left the ignorant creatures' behind, and their voices were heard more and more faint; the black head of one, and then another, disappearing, until the sea was without a spot, and the air without a sound. The captain, having finished his breakfast, came on deck, and was informed of the revolt. He grew pale with rage, and, in dread of losing all his cargo, determined to make

an example. He selects six from those who joined in the chorus, has three hanged, and three shot before their companions. That night the boy could not sleep. The negroes, in consequence of the revolt, are kept closer than ever. As a consequence, ophthalmia makes its appearance among them. The captain is compelled to have them between decks, and the surgeon attends them just as if they were white men.' All the slaves, then the crew, save one, the captain, surgeon, and mate, the boy, and at last the solitary one of the crew, are stone blind. Mother,' says the boy, your son was blind for ten days.'

"Some of the crew were swearing from morning till night, some singing abominable songs, some kissing the crucifix and making vows to the saints. The ship in the meanwhile helmless, but with sails set, driving on like the phantom vessel, is assailed by a storm, and the canvas bursts with loud reports, the masts strain and crack, she carrying on her course down the abyss of billows, and being cast forth like a log on the heights of the waters. The storm dies away, when the crew are startled with a sound which proves to be a hail from another vessel. They ask for hands, and are answered with a demand for like assistance. The one crew is too few to spare them, and the other is too blind to go. At the commencement of this horrible coincidence,' continues the boy, there was a silence among us for some moments like that of death. It was broken by a fit of laughter in which I joined myself; and before our awful merriment was over, we could hear, by the sound of the curses which the Spaniard shouted against us, that the St. Leo had drifted away.'

"The captain, crew, and some of the slaves gradually recover; some partially, with the loss of an eye, others entirely. The conclusion of the journal must be told in the boy's own words:

"This morning the captain called all hands on deck, negroes and all. The shores of Guadaloupe were in sight. I thought he was going to return God thanks publicly for our miraculous escape. "Are you quite certain," said the mate," that the cargo is insured?" "I am," replied the captain: "every slave that is lost must be made good by the underwriters. Besides, would you have me turn my ship into a hospital for the support of blind negroes? They have cost us enough already; do your duty." The mate picked out the thirty-nine negroes who were completely blind, and, with the assistance of the rest of the crew, tied a piece of ballast to the legs of each. The miserable wretches were then thrown into the sea !' Tears glistened in the eyes of the children during the perusal of this melancholy account, and Emma, covering her face with her hands, wept aloud.

"Poor, poor people!" exclaimed George; "oh! how glad I am that the English have no slaves: those wicked captains and sailors deserve to be hanged for treating them so cruelly."

GRANDY. "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.' These wicked men will one day be called to an awful account for the cruelties exercised on their hapless brethren; and not they alone, but also the purchasers of these wretched slaves, who, when possessed of them, still caused them to groan in bondage and misery; without once considering that negroes also are the work of God's hands, and are made immortal equally with themselves, notwithstanding their different complexion; for God is no respecter of persons,' and He takes as much interest in the soul of a poor negro as in that of the greatest white potentate on the earth."

MR. BARRAUD. "The glory of one of our celebrated navigators is tarnished, by not merely a participation in, but by being actually the originator of, the slave-trade in the English dominions.

E

Sir John Hawkins was the first Englishman who engaged in the slave-trade; and he acquired such reputation for his skill and success on a voyage to Guinea made in 1564, that, on his return home, Queen Elizabeth granted him by patent, for his crest, a demi-moor, in his proper colour, bound with a cord. It was in those days considered an honourable employment, and was common in most other civilised countries of the world: it was the vice of the age: therefore we must not condemn Sir John Hawkins individually, for it is probable that he merely regarded it as a lucrative branch of trade, and, like the rest of the world at that period, did not consider it as in the slightest degree repugnant to justice or Christianity. I presume our next halting place will be Ports

mouth?"

DORA. "Yes, sir; we are to anchor in Portsmouth harbour, because Charles has an excellent account of the wreck of the 'Royal George,' which, being so immediately connected with this naval town, will be more appropriate here than elsewhere. Will you read it, Charles?"

CHARLES. 66 Willingly. The narrative is written by one of the survivors, a Mr. Ingram, who lived many years after, at Woodford, near Bristol.

The Wreck of the Royal George.

"The "Royal George" was a ship of one hundred guns. In August, 1782, she came to Spithead in a very complete state, so that there was no occasion for the pumps to be touched oftener than once in every three or four days. By the 29th of August she had got six months' provisions on board, and also many