world, and laid myself open to the innovation of many dangers seen and unseen, and gave up a certainty for an uncertainty; but "conscience commanded, and conscience I had to obey."

I was enabled thus to relinquish the sanguine prospects of worldly accumulation, and sailed for my native place, having some affairs of my father's to settle, who had departed this life some years before. I arrived in Dublin, after a tedious passage and eight years' absence, and was received gladly by my relatives; but when they understood that I had forsaken the church of Rome, they persecuted me as a heretic, and defrauded me of my rights with impunity.

After remaining about a year in Dublin, I laid out my funds in purchasing some valuable articles, which I shipped on board the schooner Despatch, Capt. Barry, bound for Philadelphia, who was cast away near the capes of Delaware. Thus was I reduced almost to a state of penury and want, in a strange country, having nothing left but a few clothes, my watch, &c; but the Almighty can change curses to blessings.

From the prefixed account of my voyages and adventures, the reader may ascertain that I must have seen much cruelty exercised by adventurers from Europe over the poor Africans. Indeed, I may almost affirm, without passing the line of veracity, that mortal eloquence can never depict the cruel and shocking barbarities I have seen them endure.

The motives of my writings are briefly these: to justify the ways of God to man, inspire the human heart with grati tude to God, and sympathy for his enslaved creatures; to guard the only republic which the ravages of monarchy and craft have left in the whole world, from the deleterious iunovations of apostate and prostitute politicians; to protect weak communities from the encroachments of the strong; the fair, affectionate, gentle sex, from the seduction of the coarse, cruel and unjust one; the innocent pupil from the flagellation of the unfeeling pedagogue; the docile, useful, generous ox and horse from the barbarous blows of the brutal drover and driver.

After travelling in my youth to many parts of the world, and nearly from the frigid to the torrid zone, I arrived at the city of brotherly love, and admired it more than any one I

visited, and made it the city of my adoption. Savannah, in Georgia, which I left nearly fifty years ago, I have com. pared to a rich, industrious, economical farmer's plantation, every thing was made for comfort, convenience, utility, and duration, and the people were hospitable; but Philadelphia I preferred, because slavery, which I detested, was abolished here. There were then, to the best of my recollection, but one capitalist, two banks, comparatively few brothels, grog shops, apothecary shops, and not one pawnbroker's shop in the whole city.

By contrasting the despotic governments of Europe with our federal government, I saw the supreme and superior excellency of the last, and became passionately enamoured with liberty and America. Some thirty or Some thirty or forty years ago, the legislature of South Carolina passed a law reviving the foreign slave trade. This intelligence grieved me, because I clearly saw that the extension of slavery in the only free country on earth, would not only endanger the integrity of the federal union, but finally ruin the republic.

My first work was entitled "A Preliminary Essay," on the oppression of the exiled sons of Africa, 278 pages, with an address to the legislature of South Carolina on the impolicy of reviving the foreign slave trade, proving that act to be as disgraceful to the present reputation, as it would be to the future prosperity and preservation of our republic. Also a letter to Napoleon Bonaparte, first Consul of France, prov. ing that his anti-republican measures would bring sudden and certain ruin on himself and the French republic.

Notwithstanding the great literary imperfection of this work, it met the approbation of the first-rate politicians, particularly Mr. Jefferson, then President of the United States, who wrote a letter to his friend Dr. George Logan, then senator from Pennsylvania, expressing the same in the most friendly terms, and requesting him to read it to me, which he did, and became from that time my most generous patron.

Having read the most popular ancient, authors, particularly Homer and Virgil in my youth, with great delight, I thought if the second greatest and most popular poet that ever lived, was tolerated by the vicious Romans in writing an epic poem in imitation of his master and model, the Grecian Bard, and avowedly to gratify the imperial pride and vanity of the de.

stroyer of the Roman republic-I flattered myself the virtu ous Americans would tolerate an unpretending citizen to write a tragic poem, in order to point out the fatal rocks on which all the republics on earth have been shipwrecked; to guard the last remains of republicanism from the attacks of apostate and prostitute politicians; to consolidate, perpetuate, and hand down to posterity as a most sacred deposit, untarnished and unadulterated, the liberty and independence their forefathers fought, and sweat, and bled, and died to purchase for them: and last, though not least, to remove a bone of contention which I saw then would produce (as we all feel now) a bitter spirit of partyism, which has already endangered the integrity of the union; and I now clearly see and say, without a speedy remedy will, without any manner of doubt, destroy that glorious palladium of our independence. With these views, motives, and intentions, I wrote " Avenia," or a Tragical Poem, on the oppression of the human species, written in imitation of Homer's Iliad, with notes explanatory and miscellaneous, &c, 368 pages, published by the booksellers.

I then published myself, "Serious Remonstrances," addressed to the citizens of the northern states and their representatives, on the propriety, utility, and humanity of appropriating a few millions of acres of our useless fertile public lands, in a distant and salubrious part of our national domains, as a state exclusively for the coloured people, who have already or may hereafter emigrate from the south; 150 pages, &c.

Before the all-important Missouri question was decided in Congress, which eventuated in establishing slavery in the new states, instead of curtailing it in the old ones, a new edition of "The Penitential Tyrant, or, Slave Trader Reformed," 300 pages, was published by one of the best and brightest booksellers in America, Samuel Wood, Senr., a second Anthony Benezet. But, alas! it all proved abortive -the act was passed that gave the fatal blow at the root of the tree of liberty! that stabbed the vitals of the body politic -that applied an odium and stain to the reputation of the enlightened American republic, which time nor even eternity will never, can never obliterate! and at the very time the British parliament were making arrangements for the abolition of slavery in their colonies.

Although I hate all fighting, even between dogs, much more between men, and still more between father and sonstill, when the late war was declared, before the Guerriere frigate was captured by the American frigate Constitution, when clouds and darkness rested on our political prospects, owing to the opposition of very many of our citizens to that measure; in that eventful period I took up my pen, (with as much patriotic ardour as any hero ever drew his sword to defend his injured country, or Mr. Paine grasped his herculean and patriotic pen to write his Common Sense and Rights of Man,) and compiled the most powerful arguments to vindicate the rights, justify the cause, and stimulate the courage of the American people. The work is entitled "The Pride of Britannia Humbled; or, the Queen of the Ocean Unqueened, by the American Cock Boats, or the fir-built things with bits of striped bunting at their masts head," as the Right Hon. M. Canning called the American frigates in the British parliament. To which is added, "A Persuasive to political moderation," 270 pages. This work was patronised by the first men in the country. The first edition of 2000 copies sold so rapidly, that another edition of 4000 was put to press by the booksellers in two weeks.

After publishing on my own account, independent of the booksellers, 50,000 volumes, chiefly between 300 and 400 pages each, and seeing moral and political corruption slyly and securely gaining ground in the republic, I resolved therefore, at all hazards, to "speak out" before it was for ever too late: I therefore published what I then considered a small edition (1500 copies) of "The Rights of God, written for the benefit of mankind, or the Impartiality of Jehovah Vindicated," 368 pages. I did not think the work would sell, so pointed were my animadversions; yet three editions were put to press the same year.

"The Pleasures of Contemplation," being an investigation of the harmonies, benefits, and beauties of nature, a justification of the ways of God to man, and a vindication of the uniformity of eternal truth, contrasted with the deformity of popular error," 272 pages; 7000 copies were published in one year, 1818. In this work I mention the persecution and injustice of my enemies.

To counteract the political and moral poison of the press,

I published, myself, two editions of the "Beauties of Philanthropy, or the Moral Likeness of God, Delineated, in miniature," 368 pages; and five editions of "The Charms of Benevolence and Patriotic Mentor," or "the Rights and Privileges of Republicanism, contrasted with the wrongs and usurpations of monarchy," 360 pages. About the same time the booksellers of Philadelphia and New York, published "The Excellency of the Female Character Vindicated," 324 pages, to guard innocent and unguarded females from the arts of seduction.

The following works were published partly by myself, and partly by the booksellers, namely, "The Pleasures of Death, contrasted with the miseries of Human Life," 300 pages; "The Flowers of Literature," 324 pages; "The Celestial Comforter," 268 pages; "A Concise View of the Different Religious Denominations in the United States," 324 pages; "A Beam of Celestial Light," 216 pages; "The Curse of Christendom, or Bigotry and Bitterness Exposed," 120 pages; "Political and Theological Disquisitions on the Signs of the Times, relative to the present conquests of France," &c, 216 pages; “The Intellectual Telescope; being a Brief Display of the Wonderful Works of God in the Starry Heavens and the Great Deep," 216 pages; "The Excellency of Virtue, contrasted with the Deformity of Vice," 228 pages. In 1832 I published two pamphlets of 30 pages, on Seduction, Slavery, and Intemperance, and in 1837, the "Pleasures of Paradise, or a Glimpse of the Sovereign Beauty," with "The Guardian Genius of the Federal Union, and Patriotic Propositions and Admonitions appended," 216 pages.

While vanity, ostentation, and ambition, manufacture their scores, and mercenary motives their hundreds of scribblers, the influence of philanthropy and moral obligation compelled me, reluctantly, to allow myself to add to the number, and espouse the cause of suffering humanity. I, therefore, appear in the capacity of a philanthropic, a sympathetic, and not a scientific and systematic writer. I feel ambitious of deserving the first appellation, but would not give a particle of dust for the others. What is the approbation of poor perishing mortals, who will shortly be the food of worms, in the subterraneous caverns of the grave, to the approbation of the Almighty Searcher of all hearts? What are the plaudits of