The Republic of Letters, [Ed.] by A. Whitelaw (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: A SCEXE IN CAFFERLAND. Bv THOMAS PRINOLE. A Rugged mountain, round whose summit proud The eagle sailed, or heaved the thunder cloud, Poured from its cloven breast a gushing brook, Which down the grassy glades its journey took; Oft bending round to lave the bowery pride Of groves of evergreens on either side. Fast by this stream where yet its course was young, And, stooping from the heights, the forest flung A grateful shadow o'er the narrow dell, An emigrant had built his hermit cell. Woven of wattled bougha, and thatched with leaves, The sweet wild jessamine clustering to its eaves, It stood, with its small casement gleaming through Between two ancient cedars. Round it grew Clumps of acacias and young orange bowers, Pomegranate hedges flushed with scarlet flowers, And pale-stemmed fig-trees with their fruit yet green, And apple blossoms waving light between. All musical it seemed with humming bees; And bright-plumed sugar-birds among the trees Fluttered like living blossoms. In the shade Of a dark rock, that midst the leafy glade Stood like a giant sentinel, we found The habitant of this fair spot of ground? A plain tall Scottish man, of thoughtful mein, Grave but not gloomy. By his side waa seen An ancient Chief ofAmakosa's race, With javelin arm'd for conflict or the chace. And seated at their feet upon the sod, A youth was reading from the Word of God, Of Him who came for sinful men to die, Of every race and tongue beneath the sky. Unnoticed to the rock we softly stept: The white man's eyes were shut; the warrior wept, Leaning upon his hand; the youth read on; And then we knew the group: the Chieftain's son Training to be his Country's Christian guide? And Brownlee and Old Zatzoe side by side. VIEW FROM A HALTING PLACE. A Stbetch of bleak December he...