the profession to which the two messmates belonged. The scene around the habitations of these poor negroes was extremely interesting, and the situation of one of their cottages in particular attracted their attention. It was on a small island, near the borders of a rocky cove, where the only living objects in view were a few silent blue and red birds perched on the boughs of the dwarf cedars, and the beautiful little angel fish sporting about among the branch coral in the blue water, that occasionally rippled against the petrescent shore that bounded it. Before, however, they reached the threshold of this sequestered abode, they were accosted by a poor old black man, who lay by the roadside. Age, which had made no impression on his complexion, seemed to have done its office on his constitution; and, while the quivering lip and tremulous voice bespoke the decay of nature, he told of his fate, which was replete with suffering and misery!" Me old!" he said, laying his hand upon his brow; "me poor! me lame, and cannot work!" he continued, as the tears trickled down his aged cheeks. "Me sick with pain! my foot! my foot! Me find no rest, no pity!" and he pointed to his swollen limb, and then appeared overcome with conflicting emotions. His story indeed was brief. Lameness from a wound in his foot, which threatened its loss, prevented him from working; while in his age his master saw no profit, and being bound by no law but self-interest, was heedless of his cure. The sum of his labour was complete, and humanity was forgotten. He was a slave. "This is another instance," said the Doctor to his friend, "of the evils to which slavery, in any shape, may be subject, and I shall record it in my pamphlet.” "Pamphlet !” replied Clarendon, “write if you will, but do not publish. I advise you to deposit it in some museum, where, like many other natural curiosities, it may be stowed away and never seen; but, seriously, Morrington, as a professional man, I recommend you never toto meddle with politics, especially in writing; for if you are a Whig, you will be flogged by a Tory; if a Tory, by a Whig; and if you have the misfortune to be a Radical, you need no farther purgatory on earth." "But I have brought a little manuscript in my pocket for your perusal as we ramble and sail about among the islands," answered the Doctor; "it is the sketch of a life which I have more heart to write than to speak about." "Then let me recommend you to beware,” said Clarendon (who was still a keen reckoner) "of those books, which, in their snug, dun, blue and yellow liveries, are insinuated into every gentleman's library in the country; whose pages are pawed over by the gouty hands of old lords, and toyed and turned over by the delicate fingers of their blushing daughters, besides serving as an ordinary gamut of taste and argument for the community.” "We will, if you please, Clarendon, leave the discussion. Here is the manuscript." CHAPTER I. Man, thro' all ages of revolving time, MONTGOMERY. 66 ALTHOUGH every thing which is commonplace may be considered vulgar, yet all men's lives, high or low, have much of that which is dull and uninteresting in them, which, like the shades of a picture, render the lights more conspicuous. "But, my friend and messmate, prepare your. self for a simple story, told in plain languagea language which, if it does not win your atten tion by touching and flowery descriptions, neither will it lure you into the gaudy, heartless world of folly, by insinuating descriptions of idleness and vice. "You know I am a Scotchman, and proud, very proud of the distinction: you know, too, that I was a merry one when we first met in the region of the cockpit; but time, which has worked a change in my situation for the better, has more than balanced it with a weight of grief. 66 My father lived on the eastern coast of Scotland, a lovelier spot than which is not under heaven; and he, being fully aware of the advantages of education, sent me to study at the University of Edinburgh; but I neglected this excellent opportunity of improving myself, and spent my time in revelry and dissipation. My spirits were high, my blood hot, and in proportion to my keen zest for pleasure was the coarseness of the means pursued to gratify my desires; but these were seldom achieved without their being accompanied by a due share of |