My crime!--This sick'ning child to feed, Knowst thou, to Nature's great command In this, th' adopted babe I hold With anxious fondness to my breast, My heart's sole comfort I behold, More dear than life, when life was blest; I saw her pining, fainting, cold, I begg'd-but vain was my request. I saw the tempting food, and seized- But I have griefs of other kind, Troubles and sorrows more severe; Give me to ease my tortured mind,^ Lend to my woes a patient ear; And let me if I may not find A friend to help-find one to hear. Yet nameless let me plead-my name, My mother dead, my father lost, I wander'd with a vagrant crew; A common care, a common cost, Their sorrows and their sins I knew; With them, by want on error forced, Like them, I base and guilty grew. Few are my years, not so my crimes; And I am old in shame and care. Taught to believe the world a place Where every stranger was a foe, Train'd in the arts that mark our race, To what new people could I go? Could I a better life embrace, Or live as virtue dictates? No! So through the land I wandering went, A sturdy youth he was and tall, His looks would all his soul declare, His piercing eyes were deep and small, And strongly curl'd his raven-hair. Yes, Aaron had each manly charm, All in the May of youthful pride, Oft, when they grew in anger warm, His father was our party's chief, And dark and dreadful was his look; His presence fill'd my heart with grief, Although to me he kindly spoke. With Aaron I delighted went, His favour was my bliss and pride; In growing hope our days we spent, Love growing charms in either spied, It saw them, all which Nature lent, It lent them, all which she denied. 186 WOMA N. MR. LEDYARD, AS QUOTED BY M. PARK IN HIS TRAVELS INTO AFRIC. To a Woman I never addressed myself in the language of decency and friendship, without receiving a decent and friendly answer. If I was hungry or thirsty, wet or sick, they did not hesitate, like Men, to perform a generous action: in so free and kind a manner did they contribute to my relief, that if I was dry, I drank the sweetest draught; and if hungry, I ate the coarsest morsel with a double relish. |