The Guinea Voyage: A Poem in Three Books. James Field Stanfield
all!
At length th' unfeeling colleagues close combine,
And midnight council broods the black design;
Strikes the first link of the tremend'ous chain,
Whose motion vibrates thro' the realms of pain.
Th' insatiate thirst of av'rice to supply,
Or fill the pomp of fancy's changing eye;
For vice, intemp'rance, passion, to provide,
To dress up folly, or to pamper pride,
Th' infernal traffic's plann'd. Now busy care
Furrows each face, and clamours rend the air.
The sounding anvil shakes the distant main,
Forging with pond'rous strokes th' accursed chain.
The' attractive Outfit claims each bustling hand:
Confusion works, and uproar gives command.
Th' undaunted souls, whose manly bosoms dare
The tempest's fury, or the nation's war,
Whose unsuspecting hearts no dangers scan,
Fall the first victims of th' enormous plan.
Round them, nefarious agents spread the wing,
And o'er unconscious youth their poisons fling.
Polluted dens of infamy they throng,
With painted vice, to raise the Syren-song;
With specious arts subdue th' unwary mind,
Close their limed web, their feeble victims bind.
Fictitious debts, false oaths, undue arrests,
Crowd the wrong'd prison with illegal guests.
Immur'd from friendship's aid, unnerv'd by grief,
Hopeless of justice—no disclos'd relief.—
One only portal opes the gloomy road;
One dire condition bursts the drear abode.
Slav'ry's dark genius heaves the iron door,
And, grinning ghastly, points to Guinea's shore—
Some few, the voluntary woe embrace,
Sore from false friends, or undeserv'd disgrace;
Subdu'd by pow'r, by fell misfortune worn,
Or by the pangs of hopeless passion torn;
Weary of griefs no patience can endure,
They seek the Lethe of a mortal cure.
Such, Russel—lov'd companion, faithful friend!
Such were thy motives, such thy purpos'd end.
Thy harmless spirit—gentlest of thy kind,
Was ne'er to savage cruelty inclin'd.
Long might rejoicing Afric see her sons
Crowd freedom's plains, beneath their native thrones;
E're thy meek hand—in virtue only brave,
Had fix'd one fetter on the prostrate slave!
Far other feelings his mild soul imprest;
Far other ardours shook his hopeless breast.
With purest passion long his bosom beat,
Its rise propitious, and its progress sweet.
Returning love diffus'd the nameless charm,
And met his hopes, in virgin blushes warm.
In mutual confidence and fondness blest,
Nor guilt alarm'd, nor fear disturb'd the breast.
But eyes parental, film'd with doubtful hue,
(That with inverted glass youth's prospects view,)
Mark'd the soft transports of their chaste delight,
And peevish envy sicken'd at the fight.
With keen infliction giv'n, the stern command
Cut with relentless stroke the tender band.
The pious maid, with dutious, fearful smart,
Tore the fond lover from her trembling heart.
Despairing, doating—with distracted mien—
He flew the spot, and chang'd the heav'nly scene;
Rush'd to the rigours of the frozen pole,
To quench the conflicts of his fervid soul:
His fervid griefs the frozen aid deny,
And brave the winter of an arctic sky;
Thence by the winds and fiercer passions blown,
He tries the ardours of the flaming zone.
Seeking with hopeless agony to find
Extremes like those, which shook his tortur'd mind;
From cold Despair's keen night and icy sway,
To all the scorchings of Love's burning ray.
See o'er the glossy wave the vessel skim,
In swelling garments proud, and gayest trim,
Glitt'ring in streamers, deck'd in painted guile,
Cov'ring the latent bane with specious smile,
In shining colours, splendidly array'd,
Assume the honours of an honest trade,
And hide, beneath a prostituted glare,
The poison'd purpose, and the' insidious snare.
Beguil'd, the crew now raise the' associate strain,
And the last drops from pleasure's goblet drain.
The gloomy master views with looks malign
Their short-liv'd mirth, and hugs the black design—
Feeds his dark rancour with the foul alloy—
How soon the impending fate will damn their joy.
So when primeval bliss through Eden stream'd
And young-ey'd innocence on pleasure beam'd,
With heedless joy the unsuspecting pair,
Revell'd in guiltless rapture, void of care.
Stung with the sight, the soul-ensnaring fiend,
Slav'ry's first author, with fell rancour grinn'd;
Fermenting envy swell'd the villain-thought—
How soon his kindred mates, with malice fraught,
Sin, Pain, and Death, would throw their shades between,
And blast with horror the delightful scene,
Change the lov'd converse and th' enchanting air,
To shrieks of woe and howlings of despair!
Now tost beneath the vessel's ample side,
The last boat lingers on the breaking tide.
The bending deck receives the parting crowd;
And shades of sorrow ev'ry face o'ercloud;
Associates, friends, compress the burning