legal tribunal of this country, to that shameful traffic by which these miserable men were brought into illegal bondage-into the condition of Bozals; and thus the co-operation of American citizens in promoting that traffic, would be encouraged and confirmed.

That so great a calamity may be averted, must be the earnest desire of all who wish well to the cause of justice and humanity.

I cannot satisfactorily conclude this letter without expressing my deep sorrow of heart, that the flag of the freest nation upon earth should be found, with such perfect impunity, and to so great an extent, affording its broad shelter to the blackest of crimes against the liberties of mankind; and that so many Americans, in defiance of your own law, which treats the African slave-trade as piracy, should be taking an active part in promoting it and carrying it on. These, I doubt not, are subjects of lamentation to a multitude of enlightened and pious Americans, as well as to the friends of the cause in our own country. When this public feeling becomes more general and intense than it is at present, we may hope that adequate remedies will be applied. I am willing however to confess my own apprehension, that we shall never enjoy the full and cordial co-operation of America, in our efforts to extinguish the African slave-trade, until she is herself emancipated from her canker within-I mean slavery in all its branches, and more especially her own domestic traffic in the bodies and souls of

men.

I am, &c. &c.

LETTER XIV.

RETURN TO AMERICA.

Providence, R. I. Seventh month (July) 3rd, 1840.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

In order to bring our narrative to a satisfactory close, I must make a few remarks respecting our voyage home, which none of our company are in much danger of forgetting. It was a time, generally speaking, of quiet enjoyment; though we could not but watch with some sorrow and anxiety, the apparent descent of our two invalids, towards "the valley of the shadow of death." Our course, for the first day, lay to the eastward, and gave us the opportunity of surveying a considerable part of the northern coast of Cuba. We obtained a good view of the entrance of the harbor of Matanzas, about fifty miles east of Havana. The mountains which rise behind it are of greater elevation than any land in Cuba, which we had before seen. One of them, remarkable for its square outline, recalls the idea of a loaf of bread, and is called, "El pan de Matanzas." We now took our last leave of Cuba, and turned towards the north-east, our course lying through the channel which separates the dangerous

shores of Florida, from the still more fatal rocks of the Bahama Islands. The wind was contrary, and we should have made slow progress, as we beat along from one side of the channel to another, had it not been for the Gulph stream, which some of us had, more than once, encountered as an enemy, but which now proved an effective friend, in impelling us forward, four knots in the hour, in our right course, by the mere force of its current. This stream is by the mariners technically called the "Gulph;" and is remarkable for the frequent and sudden changes of weather to which it is perpetually liable. The following portrait of it, which served to amuse some of our company, is said to be quite accurate.

Of all the creatures here below

Or virtuous, or vicious,

O Gulph of gulphs, full well we know,

Thou art the most capricious.

We have seen thee locked in a hopeless calm,
And tossed with waves prodigious,

We have felt thy gentle breeze's balm,
And thy fitful blast litigious.

We have shuddered at thy ugly frown,

When all thy soul was spiteful,

And have watched thy malice melting down,

To radiant smiles delightful.

One moment-all thy charm is gone,

Thy looks are most distressing;

The next-thou hast thy dimples on,

Each sailor-boy caressing.

We have stood aghast at thy leaden vest,
Thy darksome shroud of mourning—
In ultra-marine, we have seen thee dressed,
The heaven and earth adorning.

Thy bosom boils with love or hate,
As thy restless passions waver;
Thy voice is the thunder of regal state,
Or a gentle lady-like quaver.

O Queen! of Premier, under thy reign,
Some conjurer holds the station;
His name, we take it, is Legerdemain,
And thine is Transmutation.

Such are the notorious uncertainties of the Gulph stream; and in the channel through which we were now passing, seamen are often exposed to danger. Many a wreck takes place on either side of it, and only a few days before our voyage, a vessel of considerable size was found bottom upwards, on the coast of Florida.

For ourselves we passed along, though slowly, yet safely, and found leisure to reflect, that the shores, on either side, were marked by circumstances of a most interesting character. As the low green coast, and keys of Florida, were gradually developed to our view, it was impossible not to mourn over the Seminole war, undertaken against the unhappy aborigines of the soil, in the support as we fear of slavery, conducted at an immense expense of blood and treasure, and now carried on (strange recurrence to ancient barbarism!) by the help of blood-hounds. The subject, so afflicting in its own particular features, was of course connected in our minds with a general view of that melancholy topic, the maltreatment of the native Indians of North America-witness the cruel banishment of the Cherokees of Georgia, and the projected expatriation of the Senecas of New-York, under the color of fraudulent treatise, and at the expense every principle of justice and mercy. I am confident that thy sentiments on these subjects, are in perfect agreement with our own.

of

Our view of the Bahamas was a very distant one; but it was enough to remind us of the excellent accounts which we had received, through Sir William Colebroke, of the favorable working of freedom in those islands. Sir William was their Governor, before he undertook the more important charge of the Leeward islands; and while we were with him in Antigua, he received from a friend whom he had left behind him, the accounts to which we allude. It appears that a large number of recaptured Africans are now settled, as free laborers, on the island of New Providence, and are conducting themselves well. The same may be said of the former slaves or apprentices, who are located chiefly on the outer islands of the group. Friendly societies, and other benevolent institutions, are prospering; and free grown cotton is now produced, in the Bahamas, under the care of the descendants of American loyalists, who settled in that colony, at the time of the Revolution.

I am reminded by this mention of the Bahamas, of our friend J. C. Calhoun's argument in the Senate, on the subject of the Comet, the Encomium, and the Enterprise, one of which vessels was, if I mistake not, driven by stress of weather, into a port of the Bermudas, and the other two wrecked on the Bahamas-each containing American slaves, on their passage from one of your slave states to another. As I have not his speech, of which he kindly gave me a copy, now before me, I may not be accurate in my recollection of the particulars; but I think that, in all the cases, the slaves were allowed, by the British authorities of the islands, to avail themselves of the law of

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