of connections so precious, lose the remainder of my days.
Alas! Madam, I required sentiments like these to sustain me against the con∣viction

that the intense heats of the cli∣mate had united with the want of air and exercise to fix the lameness the rheumatic fever had left, and completely debilitate my constitution, which has from that pe∣riod been subject to a thousand little wear∣ing, nameless maladies, that insensibly absorb the spirit of youth, and bring on an early old age.
Anana, actuated by a fondness for my daughter scarce inferior to my own, shared with me in every maternal care, and ear∣nestly besought me to receive her under my protection on our arrival in England; where I had made her sensible I held a distinguished rank. Solemnly assuring me it was her intention to bequeath to my sweet child the wealth she derived from the Governor, alike to prove her own attachment, and as a compensation for our long and unjust imprisonment. The state in which she had lived with Don Pe∣dro, supplied an objection at which my pride revolted, but that almost instanta∣neously gave way to principle. I resolved to be above sacrificing the duties of gra∣titude

and benevolence to opinion, and remembering her untaught mind knew no tie in wedlock but constancy, and per∣haps in that instance might vie with my∣self, I sought, by cultivating the wild but solid virtues of her soul, to bury the remembrance of her former error, and fortify her against any future one. Open to the pure impressions of religion and morality, the amiable Anana promised to become an ornament to human nature; but alas, a greater power than I could over-rule shortened her span, and at once determined for us all. The small pox, always so dangerous in the islands, broke out suddenly, and swept off hundreds. The apprehensions people of Anana's na∣tion ever entertain of it, contribute, most probably, to reader it so fatal. She threw herself into such agonies, that the erup∣tion soon appeared, with the most mortal symptoms. Delirious alike with the dreadful malady, and her extreme fond∣ness for my daughter, she called for her incessantly; she strove to break from her attendants, and get out of bed in search

of her. She intreated me in the most moving, broken accents, once more to let her hear the little angel she could no longer see; to suffer her to give into her little hand the casket she was so soon go∣ing to bequeath her. The terrified mo∣ther shrunk in silence from such a conflict. Ah, what are all the gems she will be∣queath her, cried I, to