We have selected the following Tale from the London "Forget me not," of 1828, in the belief that it will attract the attention and gratify the taste of our readers, while it affords correct representations of African scenery, characters, and habits, and faithfully (though very imperfectly) describes the horrors of the Slave-trade. The author, Mrs. BOWDICH, (relict of the accomplished English officer who visited Ashantee) is a lady of rare talents and acquirements, who accompanied her husband on his second voyage to Africa, where death deprived her of his love and protection.

Mrs. Bowdich is about to publish a very beautiful work on the Fishes of England, all the drawings of which have been made from life, and are in all the copies to be coloured by her own hand. We hope that such an honourable specimen of her skill and perseverance, will not fail of its merited reward.

A few words in the succeeding story, we have ventured to omit; but we have not broken the continuity or taken any thing from the value of the narrative. Alas! this picture is but faint; nor is the human imagination capable of bringing before us horrors dark and dreadful as the realities of the Slave-trade.

THE village of Melli, in the country of Booroom, stood close to an immense forest; and almost within the forest was the dwelling of Amanqua, the chief. At the back were plantations of various kinds; maize, rice, yams,

tobacco, &c. On the one side were poultry-yards and pens for sheep and cattle; and these, as well as the plantations, were fenced round with high bamboo stakes, to prevent the approach of panthers, lions, and other wild beasts: on the other side was the forest. The residence itself was an assemblage of white buildings, thatched with palm-leaves, ranged round a square court. The hall of audience fronted the street, the chief's own sleepingroom stood opposite; the rest of the quadrangle was occupied by the apart ments of the women, children, and slaves, mingled with offices for cooking, store-rooms, and the like.

None but Amanqua, his favourite wife, and his visiters, were permitted to enter through the great hall, but there were three other means of ingress and egress; one led into the plantations, and was always fastened to prevent depredations; a second opened upon the village, and through this came the provisions. With them came all the gossips of the place, who, under pretence of bartering goods, curing disorders, shaving children's heads, and procuring charms, retailed all the scandal they could pick up, or, in the dearth of realities, invented all the falsehoods which they thought might amuse the wives of Amanqua, or wheedle them out of a few beads, a little snuff, a looking-glass, or a share of the delicacies destined only for the table of the chief. The third door opened into the forest, and through this was conveyed the refuse thrown to the hyenas and vultures. It was a forbidden pass to the women and children; but there the slaves stole out with their own secret little hoards, to sell them in the market-place; there they assembled at night, to indulge in the noisy and mirthful sports denied them within the quadrangle; and many a peal of laughter, ringing through the forest, finished the narrative of the light-hearted negro, enjoying only the present and careless of the morrow.

The interdiction placed on the above door, only made the children more desirous of profiting by it, and they slipped through it at every opportunity, to practise their gambols in the forest, or to listen to the marvellous tales related by their father's followers. Two of these children were distinguished above the rest by their personal beauty and the affection of Amanqua.— They were the only offspring of his darling wife Zabirma, who was sister to a neighbouring chief, herself superior in person and disposition to the generality of Booroom women. Kobara, the eldest, was sixteen, and, according to the line of succession in that country, was heir to his maternal uncle. Early impressed with the importance of his prospects, in comparison with the rest of his father's children, he was grave and thoughtful: but being kind and generous in his nature, instead of assuming any airs of consequence, his principal aim was to afford assistance and protection to his youthful companions; and he only used his influence with his father to obtain indulgences for others, or forgiveness for an offending culprit. His sister, Inna, resembled him in the sweetness of her disposition, but was a complete contrast in manner and habits. While he formed his brethren and friends in

to a little army, and commanded it with becoming dignity, or called his little council around him to settle the affairs of his tiny state, Inna would be laughing and romping with her companions, clambering over the stakes in order to race through the plantations, or riding on the shoulders of a slave through the village. Not a hut was there at which she was not known: not a child who had not gambolled with her; not a sport at which she was not an adept: mirth and gladness danced in her eyes, archness lurked in the dimples of her cheek, and, more graceful than the antelope which bounded past her door, she alike disarmed both gravity and reproof. One thing alone seemed to tame this laughter-loving spirit. Sickness she knew not from personal experience, but the sight of it in others transformed this wild gazelle into a gentle, soothing being, unwearied with long watching, meekly bearing the petulance of suffering; whose light, airy step was unheard by the patient, and whose activity was solely directed to the contrivance of means for affording relief. Her father, her mother, even the slaves of the household, had benefitted by her gentle cares; but when her dear Kobara was stretched on the bed of sickness, no hand but hers placed his cushions, no fingers but hers bathed his burning temples with limejuice; motionless she watched his slumbers, and the moment of his waking was the moment of her alacrity.

"It will never do, Inna: you must not leave us," said Kobara, one day, raising his languid head from his pillow.

"Leave you, Kobara,—what mean you?" exclaimed Inna.

"Know you not, Inna, that old Amoo, the Caboceer of Moisin, seeks you in marriage?"

Kobara's information was correct. The fame of Inna's beauty, and the knowledge that Amanqua was too rich to exact a large sum for his daughter, and generous enough to make her handsome presents, had attracted many suitors, most of whom retreated before the wealthy and powerful Amoo, who, notwithstanding the burden of years and infirmities, sought this youthful prize, and by his offers and consequence had tempted Amanqua at least to deliberate. This was the first intimation of it to Inna, who for an instant stared with astonishment; but the person and decrepitude of her lover started into her imagination, so much alive to the ridiculous, and instantly hobbling up to Kobara's side with a perfect imitation of Amoo's walk and gestures, she threw herself upon the mat near his cushions, and burst into an excessive fit of laughter. In spite of his better reason, Inna's mirth was contagious, and her brother joined in the laugh for a few moments; but reflection restored him to seriousness, and commanding composure on her part, he told her, that, independent of his unwillingness to lose her, he could not bear that she should be given to Amoo, who was so aged, that in all probability he could not live long, and it was very likely that she might be one of those selected to accompany him to the next world, and be put to death on his grave: "but," added he, to these representations, which

did not fail to make a strong impression upon Inna, "if my father will betroth you to my friend Miensa, who is heir to the stool (throne) of Berrakoo, we shall retain you near us, and you may be as happy as your mother, for he loves you." The giddy Inna assented to this proposal, and sought her father, whom she brought to Kobara's side to settle her fate; while she took that opportunity of seeking her favourites within the quadrangle, from whom she had absented herself during her brother's illness.

Kobara prevailed upon his father to act according to his wishes; and to prevent all further trouble from the old chief, Miensa was summoned, and Inna formally consawed (betrothed) to him, he giving Amanqua four ounces of gold, and leaving the rest of the marriage fee to be paid when Inna should be thought old enough to leave her home. Amoo's deputation was dismissed, and, on the recovery of Kobara, all things resumed their former position, even to the continuance of Inna's sports, her late seclusion giving double zest to the enjoyment of freedom. The forest was again the scene of her wild pranks, and frequent trophies of her prowess did she bring home; such as a basketful of guavas gathered by herself from the top of a lofty tree, a deer caught in the snare she herself had contrived, or a serpent, the neck of which was pierced by her own javelin. One day, when she had wandered far from her followers, she perceived Miensa returning from a hunting excursion, and hiding herself in the thick branches of a tree, as he passed underneath she suddenly let fall upon his head a large plantainleaf, which flapped in his eyes and arrested his progress; and judging from the rustling noise that some monkey had blinded him, he put an arrow to his bow, and aimed it in the direction of Inna's hiding-place. "Stop! Miensa, stop! It is I! it is Inna!" exclaimed the wily girl, suddenly dropping from the bough. Astonishment and alarm silenced her intended husband for an instant, when he uttered, in an angry tone, "You here, Inna, and alone too! What can have induced you to wander thus far!" "I came out to play, as I often do," was the reply; "and have run away from the boys, who, I dare say, are now looking for me in the bush." "Will you never be tamed, Inna?" said Miensa; "I shall join your father's and brother's authority to mine, to put a stop to these tricks. You must be mad, to expose yourself to the danger of the slave-catchers, who are incessantly prowling about; and I command you never again to venture beyond the walls of the quadrangle without a proper escort." The word command did not accord with the free and daring temper of Inna; "This," thought she, "is the good of being betrothed!" and as she silently walked home by the side of Miensa, she resolved in her own mind, not to heed what he had said: however, when Amanqua and Kobara laid their restrictions upon her, she was forced to obey, and till the novelty wore off, she strung beads, sewed Kobara's charms* in silk

Scraps of the Koran, which are esteemed as charms by many of the Pagan nations in Africa.

cases, and danced and sung so close by her mother's side, that all suspicion vanished, and she was no longer watched. Happy for her would it have been had she then subdued her love of wandering; but by degrees she passed beyond the limits of the quadrangle, and that alone too, as she dared not take any of the slaves with her, for fear of bringing punishment upon them if found out. One evening, about sunset, as she strolled along, she heard the birds singing their last song before they settled for the night; and the three which always perch on the same bough, and fly off again as they utter their melody of Too Hoo! in three descending notes, attracted her attention. "Now," thought she, "if I creep softly I may be able to see these birds:" and she glided gently through the bushes, till she suddenly found herself seized by two men, who fastened a piece of stick across her mouth, to prevent the screams which she loudly uttered, and tied her ankles and wrists together; then slinging her across their shoulders, they bore her swiftly through the forest. The hanging down of her head, the tightness of the ligatures, the speed with which she was carried, the tearing of her flesh by the boughs against which she was rudely brushed, added to fright and horror, soon rendered her insensible, and she did not resume her consciousness, till a violent gushing of blood from her nose relieved her head, and she opened her eyes to see herself surrounded by a hundred other victims, alike bound hand and foot, and crowded together in a wretched shed, in readiness to start the next day for the coast, to be sold to the slave-shippers. A little dirty water was given her to drink; she was washed; her bonds were loosened, and she was then submitted to the inspection of the master of the kaffle. "Why, Zimbo," exclaimed he, "your last is your best prize: we must take care of this girl; for by my father's ghost, (turning her round) she will fetch two hundred dollars. Let her have something to eat directly-What, you won't eat!” he added, as Inna turned away her head, determining to die rather than be carried into slavery: "I think we shall make you," he continued, and applied a seventhonged whip smartly to her shoulders. She writhed with pain, but persisted in her refusal, when a voice in her own language exclaimed from among the crowd, "If you do not take it willingly, the food will be crammed with violence into your mouth, and you will be tortured till you swallow it." Inna looked round, and almost started with joy at perceiving that she had a companion whom she knew; for in the girl who had spoken she beheld a playmate from her own village, though a burst of tears showed that she commiserated her fate as much as she felt her own. Her comrade told her, while she now quietly took the proffered nourishment, that she herself had been snatched away some days before, as she was carrying a bundle of clothes to the pond to wash, and finished by lamenting the sufferings of her mother when thus deprived of her. These words recalled to Inna all she too had left: Zabirma, Amanqua, Miensa, and above all, her beloved Kobara, rushed into her memory; and hiding her face in her hands,