A PRIZE POEM ON BIARD'S CELEBRATED PICTURE, In the possession of Samuel Gurney, Esq.

BY DAVID MALLOCK, M.A.

LOUD rose the hymn on wild Arabia's shore,
When Israel saw that Mizraim was no more;
And Miriam went, with all her virgin train,
To lead the song, and swell the lofty strain-
"O Israel! through yon rolling waters led,
Shout, for the Lord—the Lord hath triumphed.”
So, round the sea-girt island of the West,
The brightest gem on Ocean's heaving breast,

Glad sounds were heard when pealed the loud decrce,
"Thy chains are broken, Africa, be free!"
The patriot fulmin'd with unwonted fire;
The bard enraptured seized his glowing lyre,

And warmed with holy zeal, in fervid strains,
Sang the lorn Negro's woes, his stripes, his chains;
Till Britain willed -proud Empress of the Sea-
Then burst his bonds. The Slave-the Slave was free!

Vain, transitory hope! that thus foretold,

To trusting hearts, the coming age of gold;
When truth and justice, walking hand in hand,
Would shed their bounties o'er the blooming land;
And Afric's sable sons, with freedom blest,
Beneath their spreading palms securely rest;
Nor dread the spoiler's chain, the mart of blood,
Or stripes and bondage far across the flood.

Years since have sped, and still, in countless waves,
"Westward has roll'd the living tide of slaves :"
Vain Britain's menace-vain her generous call
To break the Negro's bonds, and burst his thrall.
Mammon, insatiate, hears not pity plead;
Cruel as death, his victims still must bleed;
And bold and daring grown, he sweeps the seas,
Spreads his full sails to every favouring breeze,
And, hardened in the trade of blood, defies
The threats of man, the thunders of the skies.
Illustrious master of a generous art,
That soothes, refines, and disciplines the heart!
Blest be the thought that taught thee to forego
Domestic joys, to paint a scene of woe;
That urged thee o'er the watery waste to roam,
A willing exile from the bliss of home,
While love and genius led thee on thy way
Through pathless fields, to realms that greet the day;
To stamp with powerful hand the bright design,
And rouse our feelings by each forceful line;
To shew the god-like wish has half been vain
To break the Negro's yoke, and burst his chain;
To prove through regions, trackless and unknown,
That bask beneath the blazing tropic's zone,
From Guinea's Coast and Congo's wealth of woods,
To Donga's hills that pour their golden floods;
From the green Cape that views the verdant isles,
To southern shores where endless summer smiles;
From Zarah's drifting wilderness of sand,
To the tall mountains of the central land,
Where cloudless skies with fiercest ardours burn,
And the blue Nile unseals his scanty urn;

To rich Sofala, and dark Mozambique,
Round every headland, bay, and winding creek,
Still the infernal traffic speeds its way,

PRICE 5d.

And hell-hounds lurk to seize their hapless prey!
Come, view the radiant work, and ponder well
The tale of woe and suffering it shall tell.
'Tis dawn: pale morn is breaking o'er the bay,
And glimmering light proclaims approaching day ;
The far-off mountains change their shadowy hue,
And swell and brighten on the gazer's view.
Looming in yonder creek, with canvass furled,
Anchors the slave-ship from the western world;
Dark, lowering, hateful, the vile craft appears
Fit for her freight of agony and tears.
Behold yon dusky groups that line the shore,
Fated to view their native soil no more!
Mark well their aspect: terror, grief, despair,
All that the heart o'erwhelms is pictured there.
In the dim distance, through the struggling light,
Gangs of chain'd captives meet the aching sight;
And-cruel wrong! alas! too sad for tears,-
Bound and exposed weak woman's form appears.
See, where yon massive shadows gain relief
From centering light: there sits the Negro chief.
Dull and embruted, he can calmly view
The thickening horror, and enforce it too;
His sparkling hookah, with its fragrant breath,
Lending strange contrast to this scene of death.
Prone on the earth yon stalwart figure lies,
Bound like a victim for the sacrifice;
While o'er his form that hoary savage kneels,
And to his captors for his price appeals.
Here female weakness shrieks, implores in vain
To 'scape the burning brand, the galling chain.
The wretched mother there, in maddening grief,
Hangs o'er her lifeless babe, and seeks relief
For speechless sorrow, in the vain defence
Her arms afford to murdered innocence.
To the fond maid whose heart was ever true,
Yon frantic lover gasps a wild adieu,
Forced by the scourge and fetter to forego
Misery's last balm, the fellowship of woe;
Her's the dread doom of the enfeebled slave,
Death on the lonely shore, without a grave.
And who is he that plans, directs the whole?
The man of iron nerve and rugged soul,
The miscreant who has crossed the stormy flood,
And dared its wrath to glut his thirst for blood;
Who laughs at human tears, and Heav'n defies,
Braving with impious deeds the vengeance of the skies?
Bland, calm, and callous, view him stretched at ease,
The blood-stained pirate of the Atlantic seas;
Who, 'mid the rushing blasts and howling waves,
Hurls his doom'd victims into living graves;
Or lands them on Colombia's plague-struck shore,
Clutches his gold, "and hurries back for more!"

"Let us now look at the second ordinance. The Chamber of Deputies, which unanimously displayed, during the discussion of the law, an eager desire to arrive speedily at the final abolition of slavery, went further than the project of the government. It voted, in right of its initiative, the sum of 400,000 francs in aid of the redemption of slaves, leaving to the administration the disposal of this fund. The second ordinance regulates this.

redemption, why not on the rest? And why, besides, did not the minister convoke at once the assemblies of the islands for the purpose of consulting them? It was both his right and his duty. He has neglected both the one and the other. And the slaves, deprived for six months of the benefits of the law, are they to wait six months longer? Where will M. de Mackau find an excuse for so cruel a delay? What does he expect? What does he

The preceding article was prepared for our last number. From

"By the royal attorneys and justices of the peace, so far as concerns the attorney-general.'

"It is not said, as we see, that these functionaries shall be obliged to make propositions, and this was worth the trouble. These functionaries being more or less proprietors of slaves, without excepting even the prefects apostolic, (to their utter shame,) it is to be feared that they will allow the money to vegetate in the colonial chest.

"With 400,000 francs, at the price to which the commission will be able to raise the slaves, the government will not be able to redeem more than 250 to 300; or, since they will not have to pay the whole price, say 500.

"Art. 4. Every grant made by the governor, according to the foregoing arrangements, shall be placed, in the name of the party, in the savings' bank; or, if there be none, in the municipal chest. It cannot be drawn out, but upon the completion of the price of redemption.'

"There is no question about the grants, that is, partial grants, being placed in the savings' bank. But, if we do not deceive ourselves, the second clause leaves scarcely any doubt that the ordinance means that the administration shall never give the whole price of a slave. This is evidently to falsify the spirit and design of the law, to misunderstand the will of the legislature, and to restrain its benevolent intentions.

"In conclusion, it is too true that the two ordinances are framed, as we said at the beginning, rather to hinder than to promote redemptions. Far from supplying an impulse to the movement towards emancipation in the colonies, as was desired by the mother country, they paralyse the beneficent tendencies of the law, and will have the worse effect of encouraging and augmenting the stubbornness of the Creoles. Besides, what dismay may we not feel, when, observing the spirit in which they are framed, we reflect that he who drew them up has to select the agents who shall administer

them!

"We have just seen the nature of the ordinances of the third of November; but what is to be thought when we recollect that they do not comprehend the hundredth part of that which was necessary, in order to give the laws of the 4th and 9th of July a practical and

executive character?

"In one word, it remains to regulate— "The food and treatment of the slaves;

"The exchange of food for a day's work;

"The modes of punishment;

ment, the following recent and important intelligence.

"The colonial commission charged with the valuation of the slaves who wish to purchase their freedom has been installed in Martinique, and, as we clearly foresaw, it fixes exorbitant prices. Heretofore the current value of slaves has been from 500 to 1500 francs, when the inhabitants dealt one with another; the commission has invariably raised it hitherto to from 1300 to 2000 francs. One lady, Madame B, asked 800 francs of one of her female slaves who wished to redeem herself; she refused, and appealed to the commission, which valued this poor girl at 1300 francs. Whether her mistress would be content with her ten doubloons after this we do not know; but it is unhappily certain that this fact supplies a measure of the good faith of colonial judges, in the matter of enfranchisement. We said that the plan of compulsory redemption would be useless. Many slaves who were about to redeem themselves under the new law have renounced their intention, seeing the unreasonable amount of the first valuations. How could it be otherwise? You have set the wolves to determine the ransom of the sheep whom they wish to devour.

"We said also that the mayors in the colonies, to whom the ordinance of the 3rd of November assigns several acts favourable to the slaves, would not only do nothing to help these unfortunate creatures, but would do all they could to obstruct them. We did not think we should so soon have an example of it; but the opposition of the planters to the liberty of the blacks, and to acts of enfranchisement, amounts in some cases to frenzy. One mayor has just refused to register an act of enfranchisement brought into his office, and the tribunal has been obliged to condemn him to fulfil his duty to the state! What order, or what government can there be, in a country where a municipal functionary thinks himself at liberty not to do what the law orders him to do, and where the judge must interfere to constrain him? Think of a mayor in France refusing to register the marriage of parties, because he did not like they should marry! M. Huc has done nothing less. He will not record an act of enfranchisement, because he does not like that the party should be free!

"It must be said, and reiterated, that the planters are encouraged in this incredible obstinacy by the connivance of those who ought to repress it. The colonists have reduced to slavery the colonial authorities. The creole oligarchy does as it pleases, and one can scarcely imagine the indulgence granted to the greatest excesses. The mayor who refuses to execute a legal act remains in his place. Others have done worse with equal impunity. The mayor of St. Pierre, M. Gosset, on the 25th of April, without either sentence or

"The religious and elementary instruction of slaves;

"The allotment of gardens;

inflicted on a negro boatman, in open day, and in the public square. This arbitrary act, which is forbidden by the penal law, and the violence of which only equals its enormity as committed by the

these criminal indulgences? The whites assume a right to listen to nothing but their own passions; and hence another fact of the

the assistant mayor of the place. He will be let off, like M. Gosset, with a private letter. If, on the contrary, any functionary shows the least sympathy with the slaves, things are very different; he is quickly expelled as a dangerous and dishonest man. Thus the governor of Martinique, M. Mathieu, has just sent to Europe, M. France, commandant of gendarmerie, for holding abolitionist sentiments; and the colonists triumph loudly in it. The colonists know very well how to apply this argument to every new comer. You see,' say they, that you must take our part if you wish to keep your place;' and so the evil perpetuates itself. "From all this, it results that the slaves despair of obtaining their

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freedom, and that they make more efforts than ever to acquire it elsewhere. The escapes, notwithstanding the redoubled vigilance of the coast-guards, continue, and we are happy to say, with complete success. The twenty slaves of whom we spoke in a former number have escaped from the steamer Styx, sent in pursuit of them; they set foot on English ground at the moment of being seized. When the boat of the Styx announced this intelligence to the colonists, the blacks who were on the shore uttered loud and significant cries of delight. Forty-eight hours afterwards, on the wedding-day of M. Larougerie, deputy attorney-general, while the married couple and the guests were dancing at Lamentin, on the plantation of M. Dheurville-Duchaxel, the uncle of the bride, ten first-rate blacks belonging to the plantation set off for Saint Lucia, where it is known they arrived in safety. Four slaves of M. H. D. du Tron-au-Chat also have succeeded in reaching the same island. And finally, at the moment we are writing, seven negroes of Trinity have fled in a boat belonging to M. Sauvis, one of the richest proprietors in Martinique. Their fate is not yet known. The number of slaves who have escaped within a few months, from Martinique and Guadeloupe alone, amounts to 176."

ESCAPE OF SLAVES IN THE FRENCH COLONIES. We have often had to record facts of this class; but we have now the pleasure of inserting an article in reference to them from La Reforme, a French paper, of the 29th ult. It is founded on the recent escape of twenty negroes from the town of St. Piere, Martinique, and expresses sentiments which do equal honour to the head and the heart of the writer.

66 ESCAPE OF TWENTY NEGROES.

"The colonists are suffering the punishment of their foolish obstinacy. By means of intrigues they obtain from the Government bad ordinances, to explain laws which are already too defective, and the slaves, who had been waiting with patience for their promised liberty, lose all hope. The escapes from Martinique and Guadeloupe have doubled within a short period, and they are effected with so much sagacity that they are almost always crowned with success. Twenty slaves have just escaped from St. Pierre, Martinique, with peculiar good fortune. They availed themselves of one of those very boats which are employed to prevent escapes. It was the great boat of M. Lejeune Delamotte, captain of the port of St. Pierre.

"Twenty negroes represent a sum of money not to be lost without feeling. When their flight was discovered on the following morning, a steamer which happened to be in the roads was despatched in pursuit; but the night had been fine, and every thing inspired hope that they would have been able to make Dominica,

the land of freedom.

"The negroes have an inalienable right to liberty. No barbarous treaty can destroy it. And we cannot observe without pleasure their perpetual efforts to acquire it by flight to the English colonies. It is a peaceful method, the hazards of which, even yet too great, are incured only by themselves.

"Apart from principle, however, another consideration makes us rejoice in the success of these attempts. They constitute a material loss to the proprietors of slaves, and the greater loss inasmuch as it is the most intelligent and courageous of the slaves who venture to face the perils of the passage. Perhaps these injuries to their property will open the eyes of the colonists. They have closed their ears against the entreaties of philanthropy. But they will doubtless show some sensibility when they see their thinking property escape from them. Even the least generous among them must be convinced of the spirit of freedom which agitates the plantations. They are compelled to acknowledge it to themselves. The negroes have a thirst for emancipation, of which their reiterated escapes are unquestionable proofs. We shall not cease to say to the creoles, that it is time for them to listen to the voice of justice, benevolence, and humanity. If they wish not to lose every thing, instead of repelling, as they now do, the universal wish of the mother country, they will wisely aid its realization."

THE MALAY SLAVE-TRADE.

(From the Singapore Free Press.)

In addition to the forty-two slaves lately brought from Pahang by the gun-boat, the steamer Diana, (on her return from Pahang on the 10th instant,) brought eight more, consisting of six Bugis women and one child, and a Javanese man, thus making fifty in all rescued from slavery by the authorities here within the last month.

The accounts given by some of these persons show the manner in which the trade is carried on; and it may not be altogether uninteresting to our readers to mention a few of the particulars given by the captives. One woman, a native of Tabunnan in the island of Bally, a widow, had a daughter who was one of the concubines of the Rajah of Tabunnan, and against whom the Rajah conceived suspicion of infidelity, on which both the mother and daughter were sold as slaves to a woman about five months ago. They were then taken to Baddong, where they were put on board the vessel of a Bugis Nakhoda named Wah Cassim, by whom they were conveyed, together with a number of others, to Pahang. The mother was brought away by the steamer, but the daughter still remains at Pahang. This woman states that a great number of persons are annually sold as slaves by the Rajahs in Bally and their nobles, the principal purchasers being Bugis traders.

Another widow stated that she lived in the district of Crambetan in Bally, but her husband dying about a year ago, and being necessitated to borrow about ten dollars to defray the expenses of his burial and consequent religious ceremonies, she and her child, of about two years of age, became bond servants to the lender, from whom they were, after some time, redeemed by the Rajah, and were subsequently sold by his Highness to a Chinaman. The Chinaman disposed of them to a Bugis, by whom they were conveyed to Pahang in Wah Cassim's boat.]

A native of Yanyah in Bally, and his wife, having gone a few months ago to Baddong to trade, they were seized by one of the principal men there, and put on board Wah Cassim's boat, being sold for thirteen dollars, and were conveyed to Pahang.

An inhabitant of Mengo, in Bally, and his wife, having accompanied their chief to Tabunnan, were both kidnapped by a gang of persons, who sold them to the Banda of Sarrangan for eleven dollars. They were by the that this boat conveyed forty-eight men and nineteen women to Pahang on latter sent in Wah Cassim's boat to Pahang for sale. The man states

this occasion.

Similar stories are told by others, from which it appears that a most active system of kidnapping and slave dealing prevails in the island of Bally. Indeed, so firm appears the conviction of these unfortunate people that if they returned to Bally they would again fall into a state of slavery, that they are almost unanimous in expressing their disinclination to return to Bally, preferring to remain in Singapore, where they find many of their countrymen settled.

The Rajahs in Bally have a very great number of slaves. The sources from which they are derived are various. The most usual appear to be these:--1st, Women who have been divorced by their husbands become the property of the Rajah. 2nd, Widows and daughters of men dying

without male issue go, with all the property of the deceased, to the Rajah.

3rd, All culprits and malefactors become slaves to the Rajah; and con4th, Prisoners taken in war, and poor unprotected persons, who are seized

victions, therefore, often proceed on the most unsatisfactory evidence.

and treated as slaves.

The ways in which these slaves, so obtained, are employed are various : some are engaged in working for the Rajah, and some he sends out to trade on condition of their bringing him a certain share of their profits; otherss are let out to hire, and of these persons many of the crews of the vessels which trade from Bally to Singapore and other places consist. The women, if young and handsome, become the concubines of the Rajah; if they do not take the royal fancy, he sends them to trade in the bazaar, receiving a portion of their gains; or he sends them out as dancing girls and prostitutes, participating in thier earnings. The largest source of gain must, however, arise from the sale of slaves. They are bought from the Rajahs by the Chinese and Bugis, the latter, as far as can be learnt, being now the principal dealers, and conveyed to the Malay states, where of slaves. Formerly Europeans did not scruple to derive large supplies they are sold; the Arabs residing in these places being the largest owners of slaves from Bally, though this is now happily at an end. We find from

a paper published in 1830, that the Netherlands government formerly had an agent established at Baddong to buy up slaves, who were sent up to Java to be employed as soldiers. It is therein stated that about 500 men had been obtained for that purpose during the two preceding years, who had cost the government, for price, agency, and transport, about 20,000 dollars. French vessels are also stated to have resorted to Bally for the purpose of buying slaves. Women were preferred by them; 150 rupees were given for a young and handsome woman; 80 for the middle-aged ; the old being rejected altogether. Boys were also bought, but grown up men were not in general taken, being considered too intractable. Slavery is, as far as we have the means of knowing, legal in all Ma.

layan states, which derive their supply of slaves from Bally; and being also legal according to the laws of Bally, there seems to exist considerable difficulty in the way of effecting its total suppression in the Archipelago. The recent efforts of the Singapore authorities, which must meet with the approbation of every one desirous of seeing the traffic in human beings blotted from the face of the globe, were only so far successful through the co-operation of the Rajah of Pahang, moved thereto by the intervention of

my own book-keeper, all which, in these times, is important to a renter or proprietor, as it saves a few hundred pounds per annum, in one shape or other, and makes a man master of his own business, and prevents his falling into expensive and may-be indifferent hands.

An experienced planter estimates my ensuing 1846 crop at

captives to us, the Rajah was undoubtedly committing a wrong upon those of his own subjects whom he disposessed of their slaves, and accordingly we have heard rumours of very great excitement having prevailed in Pahang on the subject, especially on the part of the Arabs, who, as we have before remarked, are very extensive slave-holders.

It seems, therefore, very desirable that the Rajah of Pahang, and other native princes on the Peninsula and elsewhere, should be induced to abolish slavery in their dominions, and then a convention being made between them and the British, a speedy stop would be put to all slave importation into their territories. The places where a large demand at present exists for slaves being shut against them, the Bugis traders and other slave dealers would find the trade no longer profitable, and it would gradually dwindle away. The Dutch government, could, no doubt, effect much for the amelioration of the slaves in Bally, were it willing to exert its influence, and from the character of the new Governor-General of Netherlands India, we should suppose he would be prompt to aid in the promotion of such a humane object.

The Nockodah Wah Cassim, by whom most of the recently rescued slaves were conveyed from Bally to Pahang, was sent to Singapore by the Rajah of Pahang, but he has been set at liberty by the authorities here. The only act which is applicable to his case is the 5 Geo. IV. cap. 113, sec. 9; but to bring him within its reach he would have required to have resided in some of her Majesty's dominions under the territory of the East India government. He, moreover, produced a document by which it appeared that he was in the employment of the Rajah of Bally, so that altogether it would be difficult to bring him within the reach of the law. One of the persons brought from Pahang, a Javanese from the neighbourhood of Samarang, states that as he and nine companions were out fishing at a considerable distance from the harbour about nine years ago, they were seized by Gallang pirates, by whom they were taken to Gallang, where the individual in question resided for three years. He was then taken to Endow, and sold to a person named Tuanko Mooda, with whom he lived for about three years at Endow, and then accompanied him to Pahang. He further states, that after being captured he remained in the piratical boat for nearly a month, and that about ten days after that event, and while hovering off Samarang, an European child was brought on board, with four Javanese who had been taken by the pirates. This boy he asserts to be Joseph Pahang, the European boy who was sometime ago brought from Pahang, and is at present in the Institution School. He says that the boy, whom the Javanese accompanying him called John, was taken to Gallang, but afterwards removed from thence, and that on his going to Pahang, he found the boy with Tuanko Syed. Joseph, on being shown this man, said he did not believe a word of his story, that he never heard anything of it at Pahang and that he was very slightly acquainted with him; on the contrary, he has always understood that he was brought by a Bugis of Punnen Rattie to Pahang, of whom he has a faint recollection, and who, he has been informed, sometimes comes to Singapore, so that he entertains hopes of meeting with him and learning something of his early history before he fell into this man's hands.

This boy, we believe, since he has been here, has improved much. He has gained good health, and intellectually he displays great acuteness and intelligence. He is versed in the Malay, Arabic, and Cochin China languages.

PROFITS OF SUGAR CULTIVATION IN THE
WEST INDIES.

To the Editor of the Tobago Chronicle and Royal Gazette. SIR,-Since the period of freedom, almost every planter in this island has bitterly complained of the ruinous returns of his sugar cultivation, and it is seldom I have spoken with any parties on the subject of our prospects, but they look to me for sympathy in their want of prosperity; and not a few thought proper to remark, that within six months of the period of my purchase of Arno's Vale sugar plantation, (it was placed in my possession on the last day of February, 1844,) there would not be a cane or a labourer on that estate. To show how utterly mistaken my kind friends have been in their prognostications, I beg leave, through your columns, to lay before my neighbours the accompanying debtor and creditor account for the crop just shipped, which I pledge myself to be correct. Up to the 18th October, 1844, I employed a manager, but thank God I find myself capable of managing my own affairs, and can do better without one. I am also my own attorney and

(seasons permitting) will be an increase of 10 hhds. on 1845 crop ; and mark, my expenses will be less! I recommend proprietors at home to rent their plantations. An industrious renter on the spot would be, in these difficult times, deeply interested in the soil, and in the welfare of the labouring class; would exert every means to improve the capabilities of property; and by being frugal at all ends, might reap a fair remuneration for his hard services. But it is evident to all who dare speak out, that proprietors resident in Europe, employing multifarious agents both at home and in the colonies, may expect on poor estates nothing but ruin, and on the very best little short of it.

The maximum of my wages is 8d per diem. I have 110 people on my pay-list constantly engaged; and instead of Arno's Vale being abandoned, I refused, in the past month, the aid of no less than twelve effective labourers. In writing this letter, I do not mean anything offensive to any man, or set of men, but I think it time to speak the bare truth, and put down the malignant observations that are occasionally hurled at those who are as independent Your most obedient servant,

as