188 A DAY OF DISTRESS. 



Isabella of Castile. What men become, who wield the 

 iron rod of uncontrolled, irresponsible authority, we 

 may learn,, not only from the Transatlantic annals of 

 Spanish avarice, but from such works of our own day 

 as Dr. Philips' " Researches in South Africa : " and 

 few, indeed, with common benevolence of heart, can 

 peruse so heart-rending a description of the slave-mart, 

 as the " Captive Chief " presents,* without the " pass- 

 ing tribute of a sigh" to the woes of Africa, and 

 fervent detestation of the miseries which arise from 

 civilized cupidity. With the desire of presenting the 

 negro to his readers, as " God's image carved in ebony, " 

 capable of participating in the least emotions of our 

 common nature, the foregoing Stanzas and remarks are 

 presented to the public : and although in some pass- 

 ages of the former, the author fully experienced the 

 truth of a well known aphorism 



Difficile est proprie communia dicere, 



he trusts, for the sake of the artless and interesting 

 narrative which they precede and introduce, to experi- 

 ence much lenity of criticism, in respect of their liter- 

 ary merit. 



A DAY OF DISTRESS. 



Concluded from page 152. 



At last they were gone ; and then began the search in good earn- 

 est. Every drawer not locked, every room that could be entered, 

 every box that could be opened, was ransacked over and over again 

 for these intolerable keys. 



All my goods and chattels were flung together in heaps, and then 

 picked over (a process which would make even new things seem dis- 

 jointed and shabby,) and the quantities of trumpery thereby disclosed, 

 especially in the shape of thimbles, needle-cases, pincushions, and 

 scissars, from the different work-baskets, work-boxes, and work-bags 

 (your idle person always abounds in working materials,) was astound- 



* One of the most pathetic and splendid pieces in the Poems of 

 W. C. Bryant, edited by Washington Irving, and well worthy the 

 editorial sanction of his name. 



