 me they came— no hope of a release—no well known face to greet me—those ships that departed impressed me with ideas yet more painful and gloomy. The arms of England, distant England, often enriched every streamer, and my sick soul groaned un∣der the conviction, that I must never hope to view the port, which would restore those mariners (comparatively careless of the advantage) to the local ties of coun∣try, kindred, and friendship; to all that gives charms to existence. —Haunted by a pleasure which was always in my view, without being ever in my reach, I could not subdue the killing emotions thus raised in my soul.

The growth of my child alone marked to me the progress of time. Ah! mo∣ment how sweet art thou yet to my me∣mory, when first her little voice strove at articulation! The blessed name of mo∣ther at length broke the drear silence of my prison, and hardly the celestial sounds of hovering Angels, had I been launch∣ing into eternity, could give me a sub∣limer pleasure. I saw her walk with a transport scarce inferior. Engrossed by, and devoted to this sole object of my eyes and heart, which the gracious author of universal being permitted her to fill, I no longer repined at my unmerited captivity. Only anxious lest any one should suspect my possession of this invaluable gem, I felt ready to hide her, even when the old slave made her daily appearance. The common raiment with which we were pe∣riodically supplied, I became ingenious in fitting to her little form; and by that insensible contraction of our faculties, which extends through nature, although it is only observed in the organs of sight, I drew into this narrow bound, those

fears, hopes, wishes, and employments, which in rapid succession fill up our lives, and leave behind a remembrance we always revert to with satisfaction, and often conceive to have been happiness.
Fearful, at some intervals, left the want of air or exercise should nip my beaute∣ous blossom, I devised a thousand little plans to make her run within her narrow bounds; and strengthen a constitution born perhaps to trials, not inferior to those which had blighted her mother's youth. I held her to the window, morn∣ing and evening, and found the winds of Heaven blew not less pure through iron bars than gilded lattices. Ah, surely my memory does not err when I say with the poet, that
From the children of the first-born Cain,
To him who did but yesterday suspire,
There was not such a gracious creature born;
For nature's gifts she might with lilies vie
