was sold with other slaves.  She had no school education there, but receiving some little instruction from the family, with whom she was so fortunate as to live, she obtained such a knowledge of the English language within sixteen months from the time of her arrival, as to be able to speak it and read it to the astonishment of those who heard her.  She soon afterwards learned to write, and, having a great inclination to learn the Latin tongue, she was indulged by her master, and made a progress.  Her Poetical works were published with his permission, in the year 1773.  They contain thirty-eight pieces on different subjects.  We shall beg leave to make a short extract from two or three of them, for the observation of the reader.

From an Hymn to the Evening[070].

“Fill’d with the praise of him who gives the light,
And draws the sable curtains of the night,
Let placid slumbers sooth each weary mind,
At morn to wake more heav’nly and refin’d;
So shall the labours of the day begin,
More pure and guarded from the snares of sin.
——­&c. &c.”

* * * * *

From an Hymn to the Morning.

“Aurora hail! and all the thousand dies,
That deck thy progress through the vaulted skies! 
The morn awakes, and wide extends her rays,
On ev’ry leaf the gentle zephyr plays. 
Harmonious lays the feather’d race resume,
Dart the bright eye, and shake the painted plume.
——­&c. &c.”

* * * * *

From Thoughts on Imagination.

“Now here, now there, the roving fancy flies,
Till some lov’d object strikes her wand’ring eyes,
Whose silken fetters all the senses bind,
And soft captivity involves the mind.

“Imagination! who can sing thy force,
Or who describe the swiftness of thy course? 
Soaring through air to find the bright abode,
Th’ empyreal palace of the thund’ring God,
We on thy pinions can surpass the wind,
And leave the rolling universe behind: 
From star to star the mental opticks rove,
Measure the skies, and range the realms above. 
There in one view we grasp the mighty whole,
Or with new worlds amaze th’ unbounded soul.
——­&c. &c.”

* * * * *

Such is the poetry which we produce as a proof of our assertions.  How far it has succeeded, the reader may by this time have determined in his own mind.  We shall therefore only beg leave to accompany it with this observation, that if the authoress was designed for slavery, (as the argument must confess) the greater part of the inhabitants of Britain must lose their claim to freedom.

To this poetry we shall only add, as a farther proof of their abilities, the Prose compositions of Ignatius Sancho, who received some little education.  His letters are too well known, to make any extract, or indeed any farther mention of him, necessary.  If other examples of African genius should be required, suffice it to say, that they can be produced in abundance; and that if we were allowed to enumerate instances of African gratitude, patience, fidelity, honour, as so many instances of good sense, and a sound understanding, we fear that thousands of the enlightened Europeans would have occasion to blush.