  Blest—ever blest, remain the gentle band! Whose peaceful spirits and whose Christian hand, Have loos'd the fetters of the captive race, And bade fair freedom seize oppression's place. Friends be their well-earn'd name, emphatic given, Friends to mankind, and delegates of heav'n! No frantic wars disgrace their mild abodes; Nor rigour bends, Nor impious oath their pure affirmance stains; Peace lights their gentle path, and wisdom reigns. Freedom, simplicity, religion's rays, Combin'd, restore AstrÆa's golden days. O would mankind the bright example view, Press the smooth track, the godlike aim pursue! Would they conjoin'd the virtuous purpose aid, Soon the black vitals of th' opprobrious trade Would fail; soon cease the blood-disfigur'd scene, The captive's woe, the victim's trembling mein, And all the ills (a lamentable train) That new demand the renovated strain. The hateful purchase made—compressive stow'd, The floating dungeon with th' unnatural load Is cramm'd profane: immers'd in deadly gloom, The shackled sufferers wait th' ambigious doom, Till the bark, glutted with the purchas'd gore, Hoists the full sail, and quits the wasted shore. Now from the scanty crew the goblins dire Avert awhile the dart: the fiends require A fuller carnage. On the hapless train, T' avenge whose wrongs they left the burning plain, They turn insatiate; and with recreant rage, On the chain'd sufferers wars atrocious wage. Soon as umbrageous night on raven-wings O'er the sad freight her dewy opiates flings, Pack'd in close misery, the reeking crowd, Sweltering in chains, pollute the hot abode. In painful rows with studious art comprest, Smoking they lie, and breathe the humid pest: Moisten'd with gore, on the hard platform ground, The bare-rub'd joint soon bursts the painful bound; Sinks in th' obdurate plank with racking force, And ploughs—dire task, its agonizing course! Nor can they turn to an exchange of pains, Prest in their narrow cribs, and whelm'd with chains, Th' afflictive posture all relief denies, Recruiting sleep the squalid mansion flies, One long sad groan the feeble throng unite; One strain of anguish wastes the dismal night. With broad'ning disk, and slow increasing ray, Up from old ocean climbs the orb of day. Then the drear hatchway morning hands disclose, And point the sufferers to a change of woes. Soon as the gorged cell of dim disease Opes the sick passage to a quicker breeze, From the rank maw, belched up in morbid stream, The hot mist thickens in the side-long beam; When from the noisome cave, the drooping crowd, In fetter'd pairs, break through the misty cloud. With keen despair they eye the morning's glow, And curse the added day that swells their woe. Wet with foul damps, behold, the sad array Disclose their misery to th' unpitying day. What deep dejection presses yonder face? Grief's dusky shade, and sad Reflection's trace. His fellow—see—from orbs of blood-shot ire, On his pale tyrants dart th' indignant fire! Striving with feeble force to press the grate, Yon struggling suff'rer heaves a pond'rous weight. Stripes from the sounding lash, fierce drawn, succeed, To give the fainting trembler hapless speed. Alas! the sounding lash applies in vain; For close united by the fest'ring chain, His dead companion up th' untoward height, (Struck by the mortal ministers of night) The living victim tugs with painful throes; Himself, less blest, reserv'd for keener woes. Now hot black clouds in spreading volumes rise: Now culinary uproar shakes the skies. Spread through the venom'd ship, with bustling care, A joyless meal the surly mates prepare. Marshal'd around th' unwish'd for mess they lie, And the strange nutriments discons'late eye. Sunk with dejection, some the viands spare, Some with keen scorn reject the profer'd fare, Keep the superior pride, that nerves the brave, Nor, free-born, taste the portion of a slave. Then flies the scourge, sparing nor sex her age, Stripe follows stripe, in boundless, brutal rage. Then the vile engines in the hateful cause Are plied relentless; in the straining jaws The wrenching instruments with barbarous force Give the detested food th' unwilling course. But vain are torments; fenced by deathless bounds Beyond the reach of chains, of racks, of wounds, 'Midst adamantine bulwarks thron'd serene, Immortal Freedom holds superior reign; Smiles from the heights of his eternal tower On tyrant's malice, and oppression's power. In the thick gloom of yonder pensive shade, Is lost Abyeda's wretched form display'd, Abyeda, once, among the vocal throng, The theme and mistress of each rural song: Once the blithe leader of each festive scene, That woke the music of the joyous green. Never did such a nymph her brightness lave Within Formosa's deep, translucent wave. O'er her smooth form grace threw her waving line, And beauty wandered in the rich design. Unrivall'd long had liv'd the happy maid; And many a hero had her love essay'd. But youthful Quam'no was the virgin's pride; Her friend, protector, and her faithful guide. Fast by her side he kept his guardian way, Lest trecherous Whites should seize the tempting prey. The freshening cocoas from their height he bore, Clustering bananas spread their juicy store, The spotted spoils adorn'd her rural bow'r, When from the chace, in the dear ev'ning hour, Glowing, she met him with the welcome smile; Pleas'd and yet anxious at the manly toil. And now through dewy dawn, the rising ray Lights up the radiance of their bridal day. With early nymphs within the busy room, Amidst the labours of the flying loom, Of vivid tints she plies the various thread; The long-plann'd work, to grace the nuptial bed. With beating steps resounds the hollow floor; To rapid strokes responds the clam'rous door. With breathless energy she flies amain, To meet her Quam'no and the bridal train. Alas! no Quam'no meets her eager eye— In rush the spoilers with detested cry; Seize with rapacious force the trembling prey; And to the shore the hapless spoil convey. When urg'd by rage or hunger's burning force, The rav'ning lion darts his furious course, And through the herd his bloody passage ploughs So Quam'no rushes through the crowd of foes, Carves his fierce way, entwines the fainting maid; With vain protection;—lo! a treach'rous blade, Darted behind with sure, with coward aim, Transfixes deep; convuls'd, the bleeding frame, Plunged indignant o'er the tainted ground; Life rolls his torrent through the yawning wound; O'er his fierce eyes death's hideous shadows move And dim, suffusion, shut out light and love. Abyeda, now upon the lifeless form, Sinks in despair beneath the trying storm. The murd'rous stroke that mark'd his early tomb, Involves her intellects in deadly gloom. Her wounded reason the sad mansion flies: Sense men widely, and Reflection dies! Now (scourges having long their fury spent) Gloomy and sad, beneath oppression bent, Round her gall'd neck the festering iron winds, And to the gloomy mast oppressive binds. Sad strains of feeble melancholy flow; Half-meaning fragments of recorded woe, In wild succession break the pensive lay, Through the drear night and lamentable day. Her sad associates list the melting tones, And join each cadence with according groans. But sick'ning nature with the burden reels; O'er her wan face the deadly jaundice steals; The spirits die, the nerveless limbs unstrung, With mortal gripe the wounded heart-strings wrung, Fix'd her sunk eye—her love-lorn ditty fails, Life beats tumultuous 'gainst the feeble pales— Convulsive throbs expel the final breath, And o'er the fatal close Hark! from yon lodge in many a wounding groan A labouring victim raise the feeble moan! Swift to the darksome cell the females fly, To still the tumult of the conscious cry: Join the deep woe with sad combin'd exclaim; As pangs maternal shake her drooping frame. Heav'ns! what a mansion for the tender woes, The painful travail partial nature throws Upon the gentler sex—when lenient art And soothing care should cheer the fainting heart. Here, with dejected wretchedness enclos'd, To brutal hands and impious eyes expos'd, Her sacred sorrows the sad crisis press,— Occurrent horrors, premature distress, Spread with foul clouds the inauspicious ray, That opes the new-born victim's doleful day! Behold her bending o'er her infant charge, Hear the laments her copious grief enlarge. “Ill-fated innocent,” (she wailing cries) “Thou joy and anguish of these aching eyes, “Of parent misery the hapless heir, “Thy mother gives the welcome of despair; “Greets thy unconscious smile with throbbing fears; “Repays thy fondness with presageful tears. “Where now the joys should light the holy bow'r? “Where the sweet hopes that wing the natal hour? “Nor hope's blest dawn shall e'er thy fancy warm; “Nor joy's sweet smile illume thy abject form. “No grateful sire hails thee with conscious pride; “Thy future worth no flattering friends decide: “A wretched mother press'd by tyrant fate, “Can yield no succour to thy helpless state: “The spoiler's chains, that load her languid frame, “By spoiler's right thy fetter'd service claim. “Has o'er this pallid race a mother's love “E'er bent in fondness?—Could they ever prove “A wife's soft transport, as she gently prest “The smiling stranger to a father's breast? “Ah, sure the soft remembrance would have pow'r “T' attone the sex, and sooth this mournful hour!” For ev'ry virtue fam'd, ye British fair, Can ye this foul reproach unheedful bear? O rise auspicious, lead the liberal train, That aims to shake oppression's iron reign. A nation's councils oft your pow'r obey; The wars of nations own your sovereign sway. In soft humanity's congenial course, Your kindling charms will claim resistless force: When Beauty lifts the eye in misery's cause, Compassion's weeping form she gently draws From realms where Mercy, interpos'd, suspends The wrath-wing'd bolts, that awful Justice sends. Fainting, with such a course of loathsome views, And length of horrors, the dejected Muse Spreads her tir'd wings, and with desponding mein, Weeps o'er the close of the destructive scene; Sees the dire bark 'midst direr regions steer; Hears the plung'd anchor tell grim Slavery near; Beholds the fell Receivers fiercely pour, In savage swarms, upon the blood-stain'd shore, Sees their abhorr'd approach—with harsher chains, To load (curst act!) oppression's weak remains. Now o'er the gloomy ship, in villain guise, The shrouding canvass drawn, shuts out the skies. The pitchy curtain throws a shade unclean; Meet apparatus for the horrid scene. Marshal'd with fatal skill, in abject; bands— Forbearing heaven!—the human purchase stands. Now rush the trading fiends; and, with fell sway Fasten rapacious on the shuddering prey. What shrieks of terror pierce the sickening skies— What floods of anguish burst their wounded eyes! As strife tumultuous shakes the scrambling brood— Scrambling for human flesh—for kindred blood! In the hoar surge now dips the bladed oar; The crowded boat creeps to the guilty shore. Then shrieking wildness raises tumult high; To their low friends the parted wretches cry; With imprecating screams of horror wild, The frantic mother calls her sever'd child. Oneuniversal tumult raves around; From boat to ship responds the frenzied sound: With tenfold anguish bursts before the throne, Where Justice sits, and calls the thunder down. Immortal Power! in whose impartial gaze, Nor clime, nor realm can vain distinction raise; No worm-rais'd station thy attention draws, Nor tinctur'd skin contracts thy ample laws; But, to thy bounteous eye, the extended frame Of ranks and nations brings the equal claim! How long wilt thou ascending cries withstand? How long the red-bolt press thy lifted hand? Or dost thou, rather, from the horrid scene Turn thy relenting eye to the soft mein Of prostrate Mercy, who with powerful tears, Arrests thy wrath, and the drear prospect clears. Ah, yes, Humanity resumes her stand; Her raptur'd eye pervades th' increasing band; Views frowning Interest, with averted face Yield to Conviction the reluctant place; Beholds new champions join the glorious few, Whose well-tried efforts meet her grateful view— The glorious few—who midst conflicting storms And all the outrage busy Avarice forms, Unshaken stood, each mighty chief an host, And fix'd, and still defend the sacred post. Such, 'midst your foremost ranks, once soar'd sublime, (Too soon, alas! snatch'd by unsparing time) The man, whose genius, as a potent charm, Could animate the dull, make prudence warm. Bending the powers of his capacious soul, Skill'd in each part, and ample in the whole, He, in his liberal, comprehensive mind, The mazy system, with a glance, combin'd: And, arm'd by Mercy with a Nation's power, Struck the dire Demon in his savage tower: Breath'd the high fiat—angers the final doom, That sinks the Monster to his murky tomb. This the proud legacy, by wisdom given, Stampt by conviction, and enroll'd in heaven. The high behest awaken'd senates hail, And waft their sanction on each spreading gale. Afric's reviving Genius grateful bends, And greets the boon th' enlighten'd Empire sends. The sacred delegates from freedom's throne Through the glad soil speed the commission'd boon. Quick through the joyful land the tidings ring; Rejoicing crowds th' enfranchis'd blessing sing. Science awaken'd leads the free-born strain; And arts and commerce join the liberal train. Rear'dby protecting laws new cities rise, And heave their turrets to the lucid skies. Trade lifts his trident o'er the silver tide, New harbours opens, bids his navies ride; Sees, unpolluted by oppression's hand, His honest wealth stream through the joyous land; His crowded quays heap'd with the guiltless toil, Iv'ry and gold in many a burnish'd pile, Drugs, spices, gums, in rich profusion thrown, And all the treasures of the genial zone. Culture emergent o'er the damask'd plains Spreads her rich vest, and gaudy Flora reigns. Where marshes once display'd their sickly green, Health lifts her roseat face, and points serene The cot, where mild Content with conscious grace Smiles on her husband Labour's glowing face. Pierc'd by no suns, th' interminable wood, Whose pathless gloom screen'd horror's drear abode, Opes its long vistas to the cheerful loves: And nymphs and sylvans in the scented groves (Where demons us'd to haunt the thorny shade) Assemble blithe, and sweep th' unfolded glade. In freedom's train, the ever-formost band, The jocund muses skim the happy land. Sweet Poesy precedes the virgin quire Calls inspiration with her sounding lyre: Gives to awaken'd verse th' auspicious morn, Whose mid-day fire shall quicken bards unborn. In the full suffrage of immortal strains The future Hayley of these solar plains, Warm'd by the theme, will shake the tuneful shores, From Gambia's flood to mild Angola's bow'rs. His heav'n-born lay will fire th' enraptur'd throng, While neigb'ring realms hang o'er the sacred song, That sings, How wafted from the genial isle, Whose silver clifts on circling ocean smile, Loose-vested Liberty, by Mercy led, Broke the huge chain, press'd Slav'ry's miscreant head, Bad rescu'd Nature claim her birth-right boast; And British freedom smile on Afric's coast. FINIS. |
|
