"We cursed the dire disease that spread,
And crossed our golden dream;

Those godless men did quake with dread,
To hear us thus blaspheme.

"And so we drank, and drank the more,
And each man pledged his mate;
Here's better luck from Gambia's shore,
When next we load our freight.

"Another morn, but one the bark Lurched heavy on her way

The steersman shrieked, 'Hell's not so dark As this dull murky day.'

"We looked and red through films of blood
Glared forth his angry eye;
Another, as he manned the shroud,
Came toppling from on high.

"Then each alone his hammock made,

As the wild beast his lair,

Nor friend his nearest friend would aid,
In dread his doom to share.

"Yet every eve some eyes did close,

Upon the sunset bright,

And when the glorious morn arose,
It bore to them no light.

"Till I, the only man, the last
Of that dark brotherhood,
To guide the helm, to rig the mast,
To tend the daily food.

"I felt it film, I felt it grow,
The dim and misty scale,
I could not see the compass now
I could not see the sail.

"The sea was all a wavering fog,
The sun a hazy lamp,
As on some pestilential bog,

The wandering wild-fire damp.

"And there we lay, and on we drove,
Heaved up, and pitching down ;

Oh! cruel grace of Him above,
That would not let us drown.

"And some began to pray for fear,
And some began to swear;
Methought it was most dread to hear
Upon such lips the prayer.

"And some would fondly speak of home, The wife's, the infant's kiss;

Great God! that parents e'er should come On such a trade as this!

'And some I heard plunge down beneath,
And drown that could not I:

Oh! how my spirit yearned for death,
Yet how I feared to die.

"We heard the wild and frantic shriek

Of starving men below,

We heard them strive their bonds to break, And burst the hatches now.

"We thought we heard them on the stair, And trampling on the deck,

I almost felt their blind despair,
Wild grappling at my neck.

Again I woke, and yet again,
With throat as dry as dust,
And famine in my heart and brain,
And, speak it out I must,

"A lawless, execrable thought,
That scarce could be withstood,
Before my loathing fancy brought
Unutterable food.

"No more,

- my brain can bear no more,-
Nor more my tongue can tell ;
I know I breathed no air, but bore
A sickening grave-like smell.

"And all, save I alone, could die

Thus on death's verge and brink All thoughtless, feelingless, could lie

I still must feel and think.

"At length, when ages had passed o'er
Ages, it seemed of night,

There came a shock, and then a roar
Of billows in their mght.

"I know not how, when next I woke,
The cold waves wrapped me round,
And in my loaded ears there broke
A dizzy, bubbling sound.

"Again I woke, and living men

Stood round a Christian crew; The first, the last, of joy was then, That since those days I knew.

"I've been, I know, since that black tide, Where raving madmen lay,

Above, beneath, on ev'ry side,

And I as mad as they.

"And I shall be where never dies

The worm, nor slakes the flame, When those two hundred souls shall rise, The Judge's wrath to claim.

"I'd rather rave in that wild room, Than see what I have seen;

I'd rather meet my final doom,

Than be where I have been.

"Priest, I've not seen thy loathing face, I've heard thy gasps of fear;

Away no word of hope or grace

I may not

will not hear! "

THOSE EVENING BELLS.

BY THOMAS MOORE.

THOSE evening bells! those evening bells!
How many a tale their music tells

Of youth, and home, and that sweet time
When last I heard their soothing chime!

Those joyous hours are past away!
And many a heart that then was gay,
Within the tomb now darkly dwells,
And hears no more those evening bells!

And so 't will be when I am gone;
That tuneful peal will still ring on,
While other bards shall walk these dells,
And sing your praise, sweet evening bells!