THE WITNESSES.

IN Ocean's wide domains

Half buried in the sands,

Lie skeletons in chains,

With shackled feet and hands.

Beyond the fall of dews,

De per than P m.net lies,

Fl

hp, with. al. their crews,

No more to sink or rise.

There the back Slave-ship swims, Freighted with human forms, hose fettered, fleshless limbs, Are not the sport of storms.

These are the bones of Slaves;
They gleam from the abyss;
They cry, from yawning waves,
"We are the Witnesses!"

Within Earth's wide domains

Are markets for men's lives;

Their necks are galled with chains,
Their wrists are cramped with gyves

Dead bodies, that the kite

In deserts makes its prey;

Murders, that with affright

Scare schoolboys from their play!

All evil thoughts and deeds;

Anger, and lust, and pride;

The foulest, rankest weeds,

That choke Life's groaning tide!

THE WITNESSES.

These are the woes of Slaves;
They glare from the abyss;
They cry, from unknown graves.
We are the Witnesses!"

289

THE QUADROON GIRI.

THE Slaver in the broad lagoou
Lay moored with idle sail;
He waited for the rising moon,
And for the evening gale.

Under the shore his boat was tied And all her listless crew Watched the gray alligator slide Into the still bayou.

Odors of orange-flowers, and spice,

Reached them from time to time,

Like airs that breathe from Paradise

Upon a world of crime.

THE QUADROON GIRL.

The Planter, under his roof of thatch,
Smoked thoughtfully and slow;

The Slaver's thumb was on the latch,

He seemed in haste to go.

He said, "My ship at anchor rides
In yonder broad lagoon;

I only wait the evening tides,

And the rising of the moon."

Before them, with her face upraised

In timid attitude,

Like one half curious, half amazed,
A Quadroon maiden stood.

Her eyes were, like a falcon's, gray
Her arms and neck were bare;

No garment she wore save a kirtle gay,
And her own long, ; aven hair.

291