Page:Noted Negro Women (1893) HathiTrust scan.pdf/23

Rh In the summer of 1773 her health gave way, and a sea voyage was recommended. She accompanied a son of Mr. Wheatley to England, and there she was cordially received by Lady Huntingdon, Lord Dartmouth and other people of distinction. While there her poems, which had been collected and dedicated to the Countess of Huntingdon, were published, and attracted great attention. The book was embellished with a portrait of her, from which our picture was copied. She was persuaded to remain in London until the return of the Court, so as to be presented to the king, but, hearing of the declining health of her mistress, she hastened home. That kind friend was soon laid in the grave, and Phillis grieved as deeply as any of her children. Mr. Wheatley died soon after, and then his excellent daughter was laid by the side of her parents. Phillis was left destitute, and the sun of her earthly happiness went down. A highly intelligent colored man of Boston, named John Peters, offered himself in marriage to the poor orphan, and was accepted. He proved utterly unworthy of the excellent woman he had wedded, and her lot became a bitter one indeed. Misfortune seems to have expelled her muse, for we have no production of her pen bearing a later date than those in her volume published in 1773, except a poetical epistle to General George Washington, in 1775, and a few scraps written about that time. Washington replied to her letter on the 28th of February, 1776. His letter was written at his headquarters at Cambridge:


 * Your favor of the 26th of October did not reach my hands till the middle of December, time enough you will say to have given an answer ere this. Granted. But a variety of important occurrences continually interposing to distract the mind and withdraw the attention, I hope will apologize for the delay, and plead my excuse for the seeming, but not real neglect. I thank you most sincerely for your polite notice of me, in the elegant lines you enclosed, and however undeserving I may be of such encomium and panegyric, the style and manner exhibit a striking proof of your poetical talents, in honor of which as a tribute justly due to