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KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



A TOUCHING TALE OF LOVE. 

 As we were going one morning through the 

 inner court-yard to the harem of a Moorish house 

 of distinction, t>,vo remarkably fine figures, among 

 some newly-purchased blacks — a beautiful woman 

 and a well-looking man — arrested our attention. 

 By their gestures it was easy to perceive that they 

 labored under some very deep distress : the 

 moment, therefore, our first compliments on meet- 

 ing the family were over, we inquired the history 

 of these unhappy people, and the reason of their 

 present apparent despair. We were told they had 

 given a great deal of trouble to the merchant's 

 family, so that they were obliged to be watched 

 day and night, and all instruments put out of the 

 way, as they were at first continually endeavoring 

 to destroy themselves, and sometimes each other. 

 Their story will prove that there is friendship and 

 fidelity to be found even among savages. 



The female, who is certainly very beautiful for 

 a black, is about sixteen ; her hair long, full, and 

 shining like jet, her teeth beautifully even and 

 small, and their whiteness more wonderfully 

 striking from the contrast of her face, which is of 

 the deepest black complexion. Her stature is tall, 

 and fuller than that of the blacks in general. She 

 is esteemed to be handsomer than any one that 

 has been brought here for years. This beauty 

 (probably the admiration of her own country) had 

 bestowed her heart and her hand on the man who 

 is now with her. Their nuptials were going to 

 be celebrated, when her friends, one morning, 

 missed her, traced her steps to the corner of an 

 adjacent wood, and immediately apprehending 

 she had been pursued, and that she had fled to the 

 thicket for shelter (the common and last resource 

 of escape from those who scoured the country for 

 slaves), they went directly to her lover, and told 

 him of their distress. He, without losing time to 

 search for her in the woods, hastened to the sea- 

 side, where his foreboding heart told him he should 

 find her in some vessels anchored there for the 

 purpose of carrying off slaves. He was just easy 

 enough in his circumstances not to be afraid of 

 being bought or stolen himself, as it is in general 

 only the unprotected that are carried off by these 

 hunters of the human race. 



His conjectures were just. He saw, with dis- 

 traction, his betrothed wife in the hands of those 

 who had stolen her. He knelt to the robbers who 

 now had the disposal of her, to know the price 

 they demanded for her ; but all he was worth did 

 not make him rich enough to purchase his female 

 friend, on whom the high price of two hundred 

 mahboobs (near a hundred pounds) was fixed. 

 He therefore did not hesitate a moment to sell 

 his little flock of sheep, and the small bit of 

 ground he w T as possessed of, and then disposed of 

 himself to those who had taken his companion. 

 Happy that they would do him this last favor, he 

 cheerfully accompanied her, and threw himself 

 into slavery for her sake. This faithful pair were 

 sold, with other slaves, to the African whose 

 house we were in. The woman was to be sent 

 off from this place, with the rest of the merchant's 

 slaves, to be sold again, she having, from her 

 figure and beauty, cost too much money to be 

 kept as a servant. The merchant meant to keep 

 the man, on whom a much less price was fixed, as 

 a domestic in his only family. 



This distressed pair, on hearing they were to 

 be separated, became frantic. They threw them- 

 selves on the ground, in the way of some of the 

 ladies of the family, whom they saw passing by; 

 and finding one was the daughter of their master, 

 they could not be prevented from clinging round 

 her to implore her assistance, and their ^rief 

 could only be moderated by this lady's humane 

 assurance that she would interfere with her father 

 not to part them. The master, too compassionate 

 in so hard a case to make use of his right in keep- 

 ing either of these unfortunate slaves by force, ex- 

 postulated with the man ; showing him how easy 

 his own blacks lived, and telling him, that if he 

 remained with him, and was deserving, he should 

 have many more indulgences. 



But the Black fell at the merchant's feet, 

 and entreated him not to keep him, if he sent his 

 companion away, saying, if he did, he would lose 

 all the money he had paid for them both, for that, 

 though knives and poison were kept out of their 

 way, no one could force them to eat, and that no 

 human means could make them break the oath 

 they had already taken, in presence of the Deity, 

 never to live asunder. In vain the merchant told 

 this slave that the beauty of his companion had 

 raised her far above the price of those bought for 

 menial servitude, and that she must soon become 

 the property of some rich Turk, and consequently 

 be separated from him for ever. This barbarity, 

 the slave replied, he expected, but still nothing 

 should make him voluntarily leave her ; adding, 

 that when they were parted by force, it would be 

 time enough for him to die, and go, according to 

 their implicit belief, to their own country, to meet 

 her, as in spite of those who had her in their 

 power, he knew she would already be gone thither 

 and waiting for him to join her. The merchant, 

 finding it impossible to persuade him by words 

 to stay, would not detain him by force, but has 

 left him at liberty to follow the fortunes of his 

 companion. 



Among a number of these newly-purchased 

 slaves, ordered into the apartment where we were r 

 was the beautiful female black. For some time 

 her attention was taken up with us, but the 

 novelty of the sight did not keep her many 

 minutes from bursting into the most extravagant 

 grief again at the thought of her own situation. 

 She ran from us, and, hiding her face with her 

 hands, sat down in a corner of the gallery; while 

 the rest of her companions, standing round her, 

 frequently pulled her violently to partake with 

 them of the sight of the Christians, at whom they 

 gazed with fear, amazement, and admiration; 

 while their more polished countrywomen, who had 

 been longer in the family, laughed at them for 

 their surprise and terror. But in these slaves, 

 just dragged away from their native soil, hunted 

 like wild animals from the woods, where they had 

 taken shelter, and enticed from their dearest con- 

 nexions, the sight of white people must naturally 

 inspire every sentiment of disgust and horror. 

 However, by the time they were a little convinced 

 that their dread, at least of the Christians' pre- 

 sence, was needless, some of them became quite 

 pacified, and were ordered to make up a dance. 

 Alout twenty of them stood up. The ablest 

 amongst them took the lead, the rest, touching the 

 tip of each others' hand and foot, according to the 



