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                                SAMBOE;
                                  OR,
                            THE AFRICAN BOY.


                            BY THE AUTHOR OF
                   "Twilight Hours Improved," &c. &c.



                And man, where Freedom's beams and fountains rise,
                Springs from the dust, and blossoms to the skies.
                Dead to the joys of light and life, the slave
                Clings to the clod; his root is in the grave.
                Bondage is winter, darkness, death, despair;
                Freedom the sun, the sea, the mountain, and the air!

                                                             Montgomery.



                                London:
                     PRINTED FOR HARVEY AND DARTON,
                          GRACECHURCH-STREET.

                                 1823.







                                   TO
                       WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, Esq.
                                 M. P.

                           THIS SMALL VOLUME,
           DIFFIDENTLY AIMING TO SERVE THE CAUSE OF HUMANITY
                                  IS,
                         BY HIS KIND PERMISSION
                  TO GIVE IT THE SANCTION OF HIS NAME,
                           HUMBLY DEDICATED;
              WITH EVERY SENTIMENT OF UNFEIGNED VENERATION
                          AND RESPECT FOR HIS
                 EXALTED PATRIOTIC AND PRIVATE VIRTUES,

                      And grateful acknowledgment
              OF HIS CONDESCENSION, IN HONOURING WITH HIS
                    ATTENTION THE HUMBLE EFFORTS OF

                              THE AUTHOR.







ADVERTISEMENT.


It has been justly remarked, "that all who read may become
enlightened;" for readers, insensibly imbibing the sentiments of
others, and having their own latent sensibilities called forth,
contract, progressively, virtuous inclinations and habits; and thereby
become fitted to unite with their fellow-beings, in the removal or
amelioration of any of the evils of life. With a full conviction
of this, I have attempted, and now offer to my young readers, the
present little work. To the rising generation, I am told, the great
question of the slave-trade is little known; the abolition of it, by
our legislature, having taken place either before many of them existed,
or at too early a period of their lives to excite any interest. Present
circumstances, however, in reference to the subject, ensure for it
an intense interest, in every heart feeling the blessing of freedom
and all the sweet charities of home; blessings which it is our care
to dispose the youthful heart duly to appreciate, and hence to feel
for those, deprived, by violence and crime, of these high privileges
of man.

It is true, England has achieved the triumph of humanity, in effacing
from her Christian character so dark a stain as a traffic in human
beings; a commerce, "the history of which is written throughout in
characters of blood." Yet there are but too strong evidences that
it is yet pursued to great and fearful extent by other nations,
notwithstanding the solemn obligations they have entered into to
suppress it; obligations "imposed on every Christian state, no less by
the religion it professes, than by a regard to its national honour;"
and notwithstanding it has been branded with infamy, at a solemn
congress of the great Christian powers, as a crime of the deepest
dye. Of this there has long been most abundant melancholy proof; yet,
under its present contraband character, it has been attended by, if
possible, unprecedented enormities and misery, as well as involving
the base and cruel agents of it in the further crime of deliberate
perjury, in order to conceal their nefarious employment.

Surely, then, no age can scarcely be too immature, in which to sow the
seeds of abhorrence in the young breast, against this blood-stained,
demoralizing commerce! Surely, no means, however trivial, should
be neglected, to arouse the spirit of youth against it! It would be
tedious, and, indeed, inconsistent with the brevity of this little
work, to name the number of the great and the good who have protested
against, and sacrificed their time and their treasure to abolish
it. Suffice it to say, that an apparently trifling incident first
aroused the virtuous energies of the ardent, persevering Clarkson, in
the great cause;--that a view of the produce of Africa, and proofs of
the ingenuity of Africans, kindled the fire of enthusiasm in the noble
and comprehensive mind of a Pitt. Nor did the flame quiver or become
dim while he was the pilot of the state, though he was not decreed to
see the success of perseverance in the cause of justice and humanity.

Let me, therefore, be acquitted of presumption, when I express a hope,
that, trifling as is the present work, yet, as the leading events
it records are not the creations of fancy, but realities that have
passed; that they have not been collected for effect, or uselessly
to awaken the feelings; but having been actually presented in the
pursuit