Charles V heard with remorse of this ruin of the native races. Indian slavery was at once and peremptorily forbidden. But laborers must be obtained, or those splendid' possessions would relapse into wilderness. Spanish merchants traded to the coasts of Africa, where they bought gold dust and ivory, for beads and ribbons and scarlet cloaks. They found there a harmless, idle people, whose simple wants were supplied without effort on their part; and who, in the absence of inducement, neither labored nor fought. The Spaniards bethought them of these men to cultivate their fields, to labor in their mines. They were gentle and tractable; they were heathens, and therefore the proper inheritance of good Catholics; by baptism and instruction in the faith, their souls would be saved from destruction. Motives of the most diverse kinds urged the introduction of the negro. At first the traffic extended no farther than to criminals. Thieves and murderers, who must otherwise have been put to death, enriched their chiefs by the purchase money which the Spaniards were eager to pay. But on all that coast no rigor of law could produce offenders in numbers sufficient to meet the demand. Soon the limitation ceased. Unoffending persons were systematically kidnapped and sold. The tribes went to war in the hope of taking prisoners whom they might dispose of to the Spaniards. England was not engaged in that traffic at the outset. Ere long her hands were as deeply tainted with its guilt as those of any other country. But for a time her intercourse with Africa was for blameless purposes of commerce; and while that continued, the English were regarded with confidence by the Africans. At length one John Lok, a shipmaster, stole five black men and brought them to London. The next Englishman who visited Africa found that the theft had damaged the good name of his countryHis voyage was unprofitable, for the natives feared him. When this was told in London the mercantile world was troubled, for the African trade was a gainful one. The five stolen men were conveyed safely home again. men. This was the opening of our African slave trade. Then, for the first time, did our fathers feel the dark temptation, and thus hesitatingly did they at first yield to its power. The traffic in ivory and gold dust continued. Every Englishman who visited the African coast had occasion to know how actively and how profitably Spain and Portugal, too, traded in slaves. He knew that on all that rich coast there was no merchandise so lucrative as the unfortunate people themselves. It was not an age when such seductions could be long withstood. The English traders of that day were not the men to be held back from a gainful trade by mere considerations of humanity. Sir John Hawkins made the first English venture in slave trading. He sailed with three vessels to Sierra Leone. There, by purchase, or by violence, he possessed himself of three hundred negroes. With this freight he crossed the Atlantic, and at St. Domingo he sold the whole at a great profit. The fame of his gains caused great sensation in England, and he was encouraged to undertake a second expedition. Queen Elizabeth and many of her courtiers took shares in the venture. After many difficulties Hawkins collected five hundred negroes. His voyage was a troublous one. He was beset with calms; water ran short, and it was feared that a portion of the cargo must have been flung overboard. "Almighty God, however," says this devout man-stealer, "who never suffers his elect to perish," brought him to the West Indies without the loss of a man. But there had arrived before him a rigorous interdict from the king of Spain against the admission of foreign vessels to any of his West Indian ports. Hawkins was too stout-hearted to suffer such frustration of his enterprise. After some useless negotiation he landed a hundred men with two pieces of cannon; landed and sold his negroes; paid the tax which he himself had fixed; and soon in quiet England divided his gains with his royal and noble patrons. Thus was the slave trade established in England. Three centuries after we look with horror and remorse upon the results which have followed. THE PLANTING OF THE APPLE TREE WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT Mr. Bryant was born at Cummington, Mass., in 1794. He was a precocious child, and began to write verse at the age of eight, at ten made contributions to the press, wrote a finished metrical essay at thirteen, and "Thanatopsis" at seventeen. He produced no poem later in life that excelled this. In his old age he wrote "The Flood of Years," which somewhat resembles it. He went to Williams College, but remained only seven months. He read law, and for eight years practiced in Plainfield and Great Barrington. In 1821 he published a volume containing "Thanatopsis," "The Age," and other poems. From a literary point of view, that year was a remarkable one. Cooper's "Spy," Irving's "Sketch-Book" and 1 BRYANT'S HOME AT ROSLYN "Bracebridge Hall," Channing's early essays, and Webster's Plymouth oration were all published that year. Bryant wrote many poems and published translations of the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey." For many years he edited the New York Evening Post, and largely influenced the public mind on literary and moral matters. He was in many ways greatly honored in his old In 1878 he died at Roslyn, N. Y., where he had lived for many age. years. NOME, let us plant the apple tree. COME, Cleave the tough greensward with the spade; Wide let its hollow bed be made; There gently lay the roots, and there What plant we in this apple tree? Buds, which the breath of summer days Shall lengthen into leafy sprays; Boughs where the thrush, with crimson breast, Shall haunt and sing and hide her nest; We plant, upon the sunny lea, What plant we in this apple tree? Sweets for a hundred flowery springs To load the May wind's restless wings, When, from the orchard row, he pours Its fragrance through our open doors; A world of blossoms for the bee, Flowers for the sick girl's silent room, For the glad infant sprigs of bloom, We plant with the apple tree. What plant we in this apple tree? While children come, with cries of glee, And when, above this apple tree, The winter stars are quivering bright And winds go howling through the night, Girls, whose young eyes o'erflow with mirth, Shall peel its fruit by cottage hearth, |