Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.) in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1832/The African

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.) in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1832 (1831)
by Letitia Elizabeth Landon
The African
2355762Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.) in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1832 — The African1831Letitia Elizabeth Landon

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THE AFRICAN.

Artist: Henry Meyer - Engraved by: H. Meyer


THE AFRICAN.


It was a king in Africa,
    He had an only son;
And none of Europe's crowned kings
    Could have a dearer one.

With good cane arrows five feet long,
    And with a shining bow,
When but a boy, to the palm woods
    Would that young hunter go.

And home he brought white ivory,
    And many a spotted hide;
When leopards fierce and beautiful
    Beneath his arrows died.

Around his arms, around his brow,
    A shining bar was rolled;
It was to mark his royal blood,
    He wore that bar of gold.

And often at his father's feet,
    The evening he would pass;
When, weary of the hunt, he lay
    Upon the scented grass.

Alas! it was an evil day,
    When such a thing could be;
When strangers, pale and terrible,
    Came o'er the distant sea.

They found the young prince mid the woods,
    The palm woods deep and dark:
That day his lion hunt was done,
    They bore him to their bark.

They bound him in a narrow hold,
    With others of his kind;
For weeks did that accursed ship
    Sail on before the wind.

Now shame upon the cruel wind,
    And on the cruel sea,
That did not with some mighty storm,
    Set those poor captives free:

Or, shame to those weak thoughts, so fain
    To have their wilful way:
God knoweth what is best for all—
    The winds and seas obey.

At length a lovely island rose
    From out the ocean wave,
They took him to the market-place,
    And sold him for a slave.

Some built them homes, and in the shade
    Of flowered and fragrant trees,
They half forgot the palm-hid huts
    They left far o'er the seas.

But he was born of nobler blood,
    And was of nobler kind;
And even unto death, his heart
    For its own kindred pined.

There came to him a seraph child
    With eyes of gentlest blue:
If there are angels in high heaven,
    Earth has its angels too.

She cheered him with her holy words,
    She soothed him with her tears;
And pityingly she spoke with him
    Of home and early years.

And when his heart was all subdued
    By kindness into love,
She taught him from this weary earth
    To look in faith above.

She told him how the Saviour died
    For man upon the tree;
"He suffered," said the holy child,
    "For you as well as me."

Sorrow and death have need of faith—
    The African believed;
As rains fall fertile on the earth,
    Those words his soul received.

He died in hope, as only those
    Who die in Christ depart—
One blessed name within his lips,
    One hope within his heart.