Charles now fell under the care of other friends, and some days after dismissed all the Glenmorriston men except one, Patrick Grant, whom he kept for some time longer, and carried along with him, but only till he had got his purse replenished, so as to be able to send his preservers a pecuniary acknowledgment of their services. Grant returned to their haunt in Glenmorriston with twenty-four guineas, being at the rate of three guineas to each man.

The Glenmorriston men remained for some time longer in arms against the government, but ultimately resumed their ordinary occupations. It has often been stated, that one of them came to be hanged for stealing a cow; but this is a mistake, arising from a person of the same name as one of them having pretended to be the Glenmorriston man, in order to excite interest in his behalf, when condemned to that fate in 1754. Hugh Chisholm survived to 1812, and to the last day of his life would never allow any one to shake his right hand-that hand having been honoured with the royal gripe on parting from Prince Charles.

REAL HISTORY OF A SLAVE-BOY.

Ir is a pleasant sight to behold the labour of cane-cutting in the summer season, on the plantation fields of Antigua, one of the sweetest of all the fertile spots of earth in the Spanish main. So at least thought Mr Henry Paget, as he rode slowly behind the row of chattering negroes, male and female, busy at the task we have mentioned, on his aunt's estate, which the young gentleman had come all the way from England to visit, and in some respects to put in order. As he gazed on the scene before him, he almost felt sorry at the thought of his approaching departure, to rejoin his family in Britain. With their large cutting - bills in their hands, a long line of

white-jacketed and white-wrappered blacks were lopping off the stalks of the sugar-canes, dividing them into several portions, and laying them down in regular heaps as they went along. Others, again, behind these cutters, were busy binding up the strewed canes into bundles. Here and there, some female negro had her little chubby child tottering about her feet, or assisting her to arrange the canes into proper parcels. All these workers were stout, healthy, and particularly happy, if the ringing laughter they ever and anon set forth, while the white glancing teeth were seen through their wide - extended mouths, could be taken as indicating a state of happiness for the time. As Henry Paget gazed on the dusky labourers, a pleasing feeling sprang up in his mind, for he felt the consciousness that his own visit had conduced greatly to the comfort which he saw. And the negroes also were conscious of this, as any one might have learned, had he been near enough to hear the many Bless him young massa's!' that were addressed to the rider, sometimes loudly, and sometimes in the tones of half- unconscious ejaculation, from the mouths of both men and women in the band.

Mr Paget, after a time, left the scene, in order to take a ride along the borders of some of the neighbouring plantations. The day was hot, but the country being well wooded, he was shaded from the sun's heat in his progress, at one time by the drooping and feathery branches of the picturesque palm, and at another by the thick foliage of the lofty cabbage-tree. Of all the productions of these islands, this latter tree is perhaps the most extraordinary. Its long trunk, rising to the height of fifty feet without a branch, and its dense crest of broad leaves above, make it somewhat resemble the humble vegetable after which it is named; but the resemblance is more remarkable in another respect. On the very top of every cabbage-tree, and in the very centre of that top, there exists a heartand only one heart-some foot or two in height and breadth, and bearing the strongest likeness, in appearance, taste, and smell, to the heart or pith of a common cabbage.

But we must not digress too much upon natural objects, our business being to attend to what befell Mr Henry Paget in his ride. After he had wandered to a considerable distance from his own property, he chanced, when on the outskirts of a plantation not known to him, to hear, as he thought, a woman's cries at no great distance from him. Cantering smartly in the direction of the sounds, he saw, after turning the corner of a clump of palms, not a woman, but a black boy crying bitterly under the lash of a grown-up negro, beside whom stood a white overseer. Moved at the sufferings of the child, who did not seem to be above seven or eight years old, Mr Paget rode up, and asked what the boy had done.' The overseer, who seemed to know the querist by sight, touched his cap, and replied: The little rascal was running away, sir.'

6

'Why, a boy so young as this could not think of making his escape from his owners?' said Mr Paget.

'O no! massa-no run way! Berry bad him footlilly sore,' cried the boy, fixing on Mr Paget a look of most pathetic and intelligent entreaty, such as Henry thought he had seldom seen on a face before, though the one before him was black as the raven's wing. The poor creature pointed, at the time he spoke, to his foot.

'If your foot had been sore, you little scoundrel,' exclaimed the surly overseer, you could not have been here. Get home. Put the lash to him, Mingo, and he'll go fast enough.'

Perceiving the boy to sink to the ground, instead of running away, when the negro held up the lash, Mr Paget leaped from his horse, and asked him to desist for a moment. He then looked at the boy's foot, and found the ankle to be most severely swelled. On being asked, the poor little fellow told Mr Paget, that, his mother being 'berry, berry sick' at home, he had run to the woods between work-hours to gather some 'yarb' that she wished, and that, in his haste, he had fallen and hurt his foot so much that he could not walk.

Mr Paget could not help feeling considerably interested in the case of the boy, partly from the filial tenderness

which his mishap betrayed, and partly from his intelligent-looking countenance. He thought he had never seen a more pleasing physiognomy among the negro The overseer, meanwhile, was impatient.

race.

'You must not trust to all, sir,' said he, that these cunning imps say, simple as they seem.'

I trust so much to what this boy says, sir,' replied Mr Paget, that I will buy him from you, if you have the power to dispose of him.'

'I have no such authority,' said the man shortly.

Henry then inquired who managed the estate, and found that a Mr Carr had the direction, in the absence of the proprietors, who had long been non-residents. Not to dwell unnecessarily on this matter, we may briefly state, that, before returning home, Mr Paget, impelled by a feeling of interest for which he could scarcely account, had seen this gentleman, and purchased the boy, who had, in the interval, been carried home by the negro attendant on the overseer. In a few days afterwards, the boy, having recovered from his sprain, was an inmate of his new master's house. He had wept at parting from his parents, but they shed no tears themselves, being too glad to see him removed from an estate on which, as experience had taught them, he would have been hardly used, probably through life. In his new place, the little African got the name of Cæsar Paget, according to a custom often followed in the West Indies, of naming young slaves after their owners.

The negro boy thus accidentally rescued by Mr Paget -at the cost, it may be observed, of a very large sum -proved, as his purchaser had anticipated, to be gifted with uncommonly lively parts, and with great docility and affectionateness of disposition. So much, indeed, was Mr Paget struck with the promise of the lad, that, on setting out for England, a short time after the incident described, he took little Cæsar with him. Several circumstances concurred in making this voyage across the Atlantic a most fortunate thing for the boy, not only in its ultimate, but in its immediate consequences. Having

always, from his connection with a West Indian property, felt a strong interest in the question of the negro capabilities for intellectual culture, Mr Paget took a pleasure, while at sea, in promoting and watching the development of Cæsar's mind, finding therein an excellent amusement for his unoccupied time. Very little instruction of any kind had been given to the boy before, but he rapidly profited by that which his kind master deigned to bestow on him; and thus solved for his teacher the problem of negro improvability, which Lott Cary, Thomas Jenkins, and Phillis Wheatley, may have solved for others.

The facility with which the young African imbibed the common rudiments of education during the voyage, induced Mr Paget, on reaching his aunt's house in the west of England, to provide Cæsar with continued opportunities of instruction. In short, Cæsar, during several years succeeding his arrival at Pagetville, received a good ordinary education, such as is usually bestowed on the middle-classes of Britain. It was not thrown away on a barren soil. The boy's intelligence and correctness of deportment soon made him very much a favourite with Mrs Paget, the lady of the house, and aunt of his benefactor. It would be superfluous, however, to dwell on this part of our hero's life. Suffice it to say, that, after he had passed the period of boyhood, he became the personal and favourite attendant of his mistress. Subsequently, he advanced in position, as opportunity occurred, until he became house - steward, and was intrusted with the highest charge connected with his lady's household affairs.

Shortly after he was made house-steward, his mistress removed to the neighbourhood of Henley, on the Thames, where she had a small estate, with a mansion attached to it. Here Cæsar continued for several years in the management of the domestic matters of the family, and in the course of this occupation, became known to, and indeed familiarly acquainted with, many of the respectable tradesmen and merchants of the town of Henley. The consequence of this was seen in the course of time. Mrs Paget died. Her oldest nephew, a brother of Cæsar's