Page:Poems written during the progress of the abolition question in the United States.djvu/38

, a sail was discovered. It was the Spanish slaver, Leon. The same disease had been there; and horrible to tell, all the crew had become blind! Unable to assist each other, the vessels parted. The Spanish ship has never since been heard of. The Rodeur reached Guadaloupe on the 21st of June; the only man who had escaped the disease, and had thus been enabled to steer the slaver into port, caught it in three days after its arrival—(Bibliothe Opthalmologique, for November, 1819.)

' ready?' cried the captain; 'Ay, Ay!' the seamen said— 'Heave up the worthless lubbers, The dying and the dead.' Up from the slave-ship's prison Fierce, bearded heads were thrust— 'Now let the sharks look to it— Toss up the dead ones first! Corpse after corpse came up,— Death had been busy there. Where every blow is mercy, Why should the spoiler spare? Corpse after corpse they cast Sullenly from the ship, Yet bloody with the traces Of fetter-link and whip. Gloomily stood the captain, With his arms upon his breast, With his cold brow sternly knotted, And his iron lip compress'd.