by the news my brother brought us, of Miss Bovy's sudden death. It called up all my sorrow and envy. Ah, poor Ophelia !' was continually in my mind; 'I thought thou shouldest have been my Hamlet's wife.' Mr. Appee was just set out for Charlestown, [on his way to] Holland; intending to return, when he had settled his affairs, and marry her: 'But death had quicker wings than love.' The following evening I saw her in her coffin, and soon after in her grave. July 21st. I heard by my brother that I was to set sail in a few days for England. 'July 22d. To-day I got their licences signed by Mr. Oglethorpe, countersigned them myself, and so entirely washed my hands of the traders. "July 25th. I resigned my Secretary's place, in a letter to Mr. Oglethorpe. After prayers he took me aside, and asked me whether all I had said was not summed up in the line he showed me on my letter: Magis apta tuis tua dona relinquo. Sir, to yourself your slighted gifts I leave; I answered, I desired not to lose his esteem, but could not preserve it with the loss of my soul. He answered, he was satisfied of my regard for him; owned my argument drawn from the heart unanswerable; and yet,' said he, 'I would desire you not to let the Trustees know of your resolution of resigning. There are many hungry fellows ready to catch at the office; and in my absence I cannot put in one of my own choosing. The best I can hope for is an honest Presbyterian, as many of the Trustees are such. Perhaps they may send me a bad man; and how far such an one may influence the traders, and obstruct the reception of the Gospel among the Heathen, you know. I shall be in England before you leave it. Then you may either put in a deputy, or resign. You need not be detained in London above three days; and only speak to some of my particular friends, (Vernon, Hutchinson, and Towers,) to the Board of Trustees, when called upon, and to the Board of Trade. On many accounts I should recom mend to you marriage, rather than celibacy. You are of a social temper, and would find in a married state the difficulties of working out your salvation exceedingly lessened, and your helps as much increased.' "July 26th. The words which concluded the lesson, and my stay in Georgia, were, 'Arise, let us go hence.' Accordingly at twelve I took my final leave of Savannah. When the boat put off I was surprised that I felt no more joy in leaving such a scene of sorrows." Mr. Charles Wesley was accompanied by his brother in a boat from Savannah to Charlestown, a port belonging to the neighbouring colony of Carolina. Thence he intended to embark for England. At Charlestown he was pleased to find his friend Appee, in whose company he expected to have an improving and pleasant voyage to Europe; though he was surprised to find that the sudden death of Miss Bovy, from whom Appee had just parted, and to whom he had made a promise of marriage, had apparently made little impression upon the mind of that young Dutchman. Mr. Charles Wesley remained eleven days in Charlestown; and during this period his feelings were lacerated by the barbarous cruelties which he found to be there inflicted upon the Negro slaves. "I had observed much," says he, " and heard more, of the cruelty of masters towards their Negroes; but now I received an authentic account of some horrid instances thereof. The giving a child a slave of its own age to tyrannize over, to beat and abuse out of sport, was, I myself saw, a common practice. Nor is it strange, that being thus trained up in cruelty, they should afterwards arrive at so great perfection in it: that Mr. Star, a gentleman I often met at Mr. Laserris's, should, as he himself informed me, first nail up a Negro by the ears, then order him to be whipped in Co the severest manner; and then to have scalding water thrown all over him; so that the poor creature could not stir for four months after. Another much-applauded punishment is, drawing their slaves' teeth. One Colonel Lynch is universally known to have cut off a poor Negro's legs; and to kill several of them every year by his barbarities. + + "It were endless to recount all the shocking instances of diabolical cruelty which these men (as they call themselves) daily practise upon their fellow-creatures, and that on the most trivial occasions. I shall only mention one more, related to me by a Swiss gentleman, Mr. Zouberbuhler, an eye-witness, of Mr. Hill, a dancing-master in Charlestown. He whipped a she-slave so long, that she fell at his feet for dead. When, by the help of a Physician, she was so far recovered as to show signs of life, he repeated the whipping with equal rigour; and concluded with dropping hot sealing-wax upon her flesh. Her crime was, over filling a tea-cup. "These horrid cruelties are the less to be wondered at, because the Government itself, in effect, countenances and allows them to kill their slaves, by the ridiculous penalty appointed for it, of about £7 sterling; half of which is usually saved by the criminal informing against himself. This I can look upon as no other than a public Act to indemnify murder." These expressions of sympathy with the oppressed Negro, and of honest indignation at the cruelties so wantonly inflicted upon the race, are honourable to Mr. Charles Wesley, and fully accord with that noble testimony against slavery which was afterwards borne by his brother. The settlers in Georgia clamoured for permission to import Negro slaves into that colony, till they obtained their request; and now for ages those southern states of America have been a land of oppression, wrong, and murder, for which the day of righteous retribution will ere long arrive. The voice of innocent blood is heard in heaven; and vengeance awaits every man that oppresses his fellow. + CHAPTER III. ON the 5th of August, 1736, Mr. John Wesley took leave of his brother at Charlestown, whence he returned to Savannah; and on the 11th Charles went on board to commence his voyage to England. On his entrance upon the ship, he had a specimen of the treatment which awaited him; but he little suspected the dangers that he would have to encounter. Had it not been for the skill and fidelity of the Mate, according to all human probability, the ship and all its hapless inmates must have perished. "I found," says Mr. Charles Wesley," the honest Captain had let my cabin to another. My flux and fever that have hung upon me forced me, for some nights past, to go into a bed; but now my only bed was a chest, on which I threw myself in my boots, and was not overmuch troubled with sleep till the morning. What was still worse, I had no asylum to fly to from the Captain; the most beastly man I ever saw a lewd, drunken, quarrelsome fool; praying, and yet swearing continually. The first sight I had of him was upon the cabin-floor, stark naked, and dead drunk." Towards the end of the month, the perilous situation of the ship's company became apparent. "August 28th," says our voyager, "after a restless, tempestuous night, I hardly rose at eight. Our happier Captain, having got his dose, could sleep a day and a night upon the stretch, and defy either pumps or squall to wake him. 'August 30th. At noon we were alarmed by an outcry of the sailors, at their having continued pumping several hours, without being able to keep the water under. They desired the Captain to put into some port, before they were got out to sea too far for returning; but he was too drunk to regard them. At five the sailors came down in a body to the great cabin, waked and told him, it was as much as their lives were worth, to proceed on the voyage, unless their leaks were stopped that he remembered it was as much as ever they could do to keep the ship above water in their passage from : : Boston, being forced to pump without ceasing: that the turpentine fell down upon and choked up the pumps continually; nor was it possible for them to get at it, or to hold out in such continual labour, which made them so thirsty, they could not live on their allowance of water: that they must come to shorter still, through his neglect to take in five more hogsheads of water, as his Mate advised him that he owned they had no candles for half the voyage. On all which accounts they begged him to consider whether their common safety did not require them to put in at some land for more water and candles; and, above all, to stop their leaks. The Captain, having now slept out his rum, replied, 'To be sure, the men talk reason;' and, without consulting any of his officers, immediately gave orders to stand away for Boston. Sept. 15th. This is the first time I have heard a sailor confess 'it was a storm.' We lay under our mainsail, and let the ship drive, being by conjecture about sixty leagues from Boston, upon George's Bank, though, as we hoped, past the shoals upon it. The Captain never troubled himself about anything; but lay snoring, even in such a night as the last, though frequently called, without ever stirring, either for squalls, soundings, or shoals. "In the afternoon the Mate came down, having sounded, and found forty, and soon after twenty, fathoms; told the Captain he apprehended coming into shoaler water still; and therefore it would be necessary to reef the foresail and mainsail in readiness, that in case we fell foul of the shoals, (being upon George's Bank, and in a storm,) the ship might have head-way to get clear again. This the Captain absolutely refused; and though told it could do no possible harm, and might be the saving of the ship and us, persisted in his obstinacy; so that the Mate left him to sleep, and the ship to take care of itself. But it pleased God to abate the storm, and on Thursday, about twelve, entirely to remove it. 'Sept. 20th. At seven Mr. Graham, the first Mate, came to ask for directions, as he constantly does, the Captain as constantly shifting him off, and leaving the whole management of the ship to him, or chance, or any body. The conversation being somewhat remarkable, I took it down in short-hand as they were speaking it. |