Thus it was in hoary time,
When our fathers sallied forth,
Full of confidence sublime,
From the famine-wasted North.

"Freedom, in a land of rocks
Wild as Scandinavia, give,
Power Eternal!—where our flocks
And our little ones may live!"

Thus they pray'd ;—a secret hand
Led them, by a path unknown,
To that dear delightful land
Which I yet must call my own.

To the Vale of Switz they came:
Soon their meliorating toil
Gave the forests to the flame,
And their ashes to the soil.

Thence their ardent labours spread,
Till above the mountain-snows
Towering Beauty show'd her head,
And a new creation rose!

So, in regions wild and wide
We will pierce the savage woods,
Clothe the rocks in purple pride,
Plough the valleys, tame the floods;-

Till a beauteous inland-isle,
By a forest-sea embraced,
Shall make Desolation smile
In the depth of his own waste.

There, unenvied and unknown.
We shall dwell secure and free,
In a country all our own,
In a land of liberty!

PART VI.] THE WANDERER OF SWITZERLAND.

20

Sliep. Yet the woods, the rocks, the streams,
Unbeloved, shall bring to mind,
Warm with evening's purple beams,
Dearer objects left behind.

And thy native country's song,
Caroll'd in a foreign clime,
When new echoes shall prolong,—
Simple, tender, and sublime,—

How will thy poor cheek turn pale!
And, before thy banish'd eyes,
Underwalden's charming vale,
And thine own sweet cottage rise!

Wand. By the glorious ghost of Tell!
By Morgarten's awful fray!
By the field where Albert fell
In thy last and bitter day!

Soul Of Switzerland, arise!

Ha! the spell has waked the dead:
From her ashes to the skies
Switzerland exalts her head!

See the Queen of Mountains stanu.
In immortal mail complete,
With the lightning in her hand,
And the Alps beneath her feet.

Hark! her voice:—" My sons, awake!
Freedom dawns, Denold the day!
From the bed of bondage break,
'Tis your mother calls,—obey!"

At the sound, our fathers' graves,
On each ancient battle-plain,
Utter groans, and toss like waves
Whon the wild blast sweeps the main.

Rise, my brethren! cast away
All the chains that bind you slavas;
Rise! your mother's voice obey,
And appease your fathers' graves!

Strike !—the conflict is begun;
Freemen! soldiers! follow-me!
Shout!—the victory is won,—
Switzerland and Liberty!

Stie]). Warrior! warrior! stay thine arm!

Sheathe, O sheathe thy frantic sword i Wand. Ah! I rave !—I faint!—the charm

Flies, and memory is restored!

Yes, to agony restored

From the too transporting charm :—

Sleep for ever, O my sword '.

Be thou wither'd, O mine arm!

Switzerland is but a name!
Yet 1 feel, where'er I roam,
That my heart is still the same,—
Switzerland is still my home •

m

THE WEST INDIES:

A FORM, IN FOUK PARTS

WRITTEN IN 1IONOUB OP THE ABOLITION Of T1IE AFRICAN SLAVE TBADE BY THE BRITISH LEGISLATURE IN 1S07.

"Receive him for ever; not now as a servant, but above a servant,—a brother beloved."

St Paul's Epistle To Philemon, V. 15, lfl

TO THE PUBLIC

There are objections against the title and plan of this piece, which will occur to almost every reader. Tha Author will not anticipate them : he will only observe, that the title seemed the best, and the plan the most eligible, which he could adapt to a subject so various and excursive, yet so familiar and exhausted, as the African Slave Trade,— a subject which had become antiquated, by frequent, minute, and disgusting exposure; which afforded no opportunity to awaken, suspend, and delight curiosity, by a subtle and surprising development of plot; and concerning which public feeling had been wearied into insensibility, by the agony of interest which the question excited, during three-and-twenty years of almost incessant discussion. That trade is at length abolished. May its memory bo immortal, that henceforth it may bo known only by its memory!

Introduction; on the Abolition of the Slave Trade—The Mariner's Com-
pass—Columbus—The Discovery of America—The West Indian Islands
—The Charibs—Their Extermination.

"Thy chains are broken, Africa, be free!"
Tims saith the island-empress of the sea;
Thus saith Britannia.—O, ye winds and waves!
Waft the glad tidings to the land of slaves;
Proclaim on Guinea's coast, by Gambia's side,
And far as Niger rolls his eastern tide,
Through radiant realms, beneath the burning zone,
Where Europe's curse is felt, her name unknown,
"Thus saith Britannia, empress of tne sea,
Thy chains are broken, Africa, be free!"

Long lay the ocean-paths from man conceal'd;
Light came from heaven,—the magnet was reveal'd,
A surer star to guide the seaman's eye
Than the pale glory of the northern sky;
Alike ordain'd to shine by night and day,
Through calm and tempest, with unsetting ray;
Where'er the mountains rise, the billows roll,
Still with strong impulse turning to the pole,
True as the sun is to the morning true,
Though light as film, and trembling as the dew.

Then man no longer plied with timid oar,
And failing heart, along the windward shore;
Broad to the sky he turn'd his fearless sail,
Defied the adverse, wooed the favouring gale,
Bared to the storm his adamantine breast,
Or soft on Ocean's lap lay down to rest;
While free, as clouds the liquid ether sweep,
His white-wing'd vessels coursed the unbounded deep;
From clime to clime the wanderer loved to roam,
The waves his heritage, the world his home.