2 
Succeeding our illustrious Washington in 
the chair of the people, your constitutional 
influence must be extensive, and there lives 
a powerful advocate in your bosom for the 
success of every measure that has a tend- 
ency to alleviate the sorrows of humanity. 
The untutored tribes of America have al- 
ready experienced the beneficence of your 
nature, and I am now desirous to arrest 
your attention, and interest your feelings, 
in behalf of those wandering children of 
nature, who are scattered over the deserts 
of the African world ; a race of unoffend- 
ing mortals, long persecuted by those en- 
lightened savages, who, under the appella- 
tions of Christians and Dutchmen, settled 
themselves by violence on the southern 
promontory. 
" To me, sir, this is a subject that takes 
full possession of all my affections. Cast 
with sixty of my people on the shores of 
Caffraria, after combating the horrors of a 
tempest, which I believe has but few pa- 
rallels in the history of naval misfortune 
(and which will be fully described in the 
succeeding Narrative), I found in the na- 
DSf 
