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than before. The small relief which her presence gave me from pain was
gone, and the wretchedness of my situation was redoubled by my anxiety
after her fate, and my apprehensions lest her sufferings should be
greater than mine, when I could not be with her to alleviate them.
Yes, thou dear partner of all my childish sports! thou sharer of my
joys and sorrows! happy should I have ever esteemed myself to
encounter every misery for you, and to procure your freedom by the
sacrifice of my own. Though you were early forced from my arms, your
image has been always rivetted in my heart, from which neither _time
nor fortune_ have been able to remove it; so that, while the thoughts
of your sufferings have 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
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