Page:The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African.pdf/166

 help myself. While my mind was in this situation, the fleet sailed on, and in one day's time I lost sight of the wished-for land. In the first expressions of my grief I reproached my fate, and wished I had never been born. I was ready to curse the tide that bore us, the gale that wafted my prison, and even the ship that conducted us; and I called on death to relieve me from the horrors I felt and dreaded, that I might be in that place

""Where slaves are free, and men oppress no more. "Fool that I was, inur'd so long to pain, "To trust to hope, or dream of joy again. " * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "Now dragg'd once more beyond the western main, "To groan beneath some dastard planter's chain; "Where my poor countrymen in bondage wait "The long enfranchisement of a ling'ring fate: "Hard lingering fate! while ere the dawn of day, "Rous'd by the lash, they go their cheerless way; "And as their soul with shame and anguish burn, "Salute with groans unwelcome morn's return, "And, chiding ev'ry hour the slow-paced sun, "Pursue their toils till all his race is run. "No eye to mark their sufferings with a tear; "No friend to comfort, and no hope to cheer: "Then, like the dull unpity'd brutes, repair "To stalls as wretched, and as coarse a fare; "Thank heaven one day of mis'ry was o'er, "Then sink to sleep, and wish to wake no more.""