damped my prosperity, they have mingled with adversity and increased its bitterness.  To that Heaven which protects the weak from the strong, I commit the care of your innocence and virtues, if they have not already received their full reward, and if your youth and delicacy have not long since fallen victims to the violence of the African trader, the pestilential stench of a Guinea ship, the seasoning in the European colonies, or the lash and lust of a brutal and unrelenting overseer.

I did not long remain after my sister.  I was again sold, and carried through a number of places, till, after travelling a considerable time, I came to a town called Tinmah, in the most beautiful country I have yet seen in Africa.  It was extremely rich, and there were many rivulets which flowed through it, and supplied a large pond in the centre of the town, where the people washed.  Here I first saw and tasted cocoa-nuts, which I thought superior to any nuts I had ever tasted before; and the trees, which were loaded, were also interspersed amongst the houses, which had commodious shades adjoining, and were in the same manner as ours, the insides being neatly plastered and whitewashed.  Here I also saw and tasted for the first time sugar-cane.  Their money consisted of little white shells, the size of the finger nail.  I was sold here for one hundred and seventy-two of them by a merchant who lived and brought me there.  I had been about two or three days at his house, when a wealthy widow, a neighbour of his, came there one evening, and brought with her an only son, a young gentleman about my own age and size.  Here they saw me; and, having taken a fancy to me, I was bought of the merchant, and went home with them.  Her house and premises were situated close to one of those rivulets I have mentioned, and were the finest I ever saw in Africa:  they were very extensive, and she had a number of slaves to attend her.  The next day I was washed and perfumed, and when meal-time came I was led into the presence of my mistress, and ate and drank before her with her son.  This filled me with astonishment; and I could scarce help expressing my surprise that the young gentleman should suffer me, who was bound, to eat with him who was free; and not only so, but that he would not at any time either eat or drink till I had taken first, because I was the eldest, which was agreeable to our custom.  Indeed every thing here, and all their treatment of me, made me forget that I was a slave.  The language of these people resembled ours so nearly, that we understood each other perfectly.  They had also the very same customs as we.  There were likewise slaves daily to attend us, while my young master and I with other boys sported with our darts and bows and arrows, as I had been used to do at home.  In this resemblance to my former happy state I passed about two months; and I now began to think I was to be adopted into the family, and was beginning to be reconciled to my situation, and to forget by degrees my misfortunes, when all at once the delusion vanished; for, without the least previous knowledge, one morning early, while my dear master and companion was still asleep, I was wakened out of my reverie to fresh sorrow, and hurried away even amongst the uncircumcised.