nent of America, he had broken up his establishment, and converted his property into cash. Much time, and not a little of this property, had been spent in preparations for their voyage, and expected settlement in a strange country: but he found, to his cost, on his return, that it was much easier to unsettle than to establish. He was undetermined for a considerable time what mode of life was most eligible, for many projects appeared fair at a distance, which, on a nearer approach, eluded the grasp of his expectation; and others, if well-digested and cautiously and perseveringly pursued, promising honor and wealth, resembled the horizon which ever appears at the same distance to the traveller, though he have already passed over some thousands of miles in order to reach it. Thus,

"Disappointment laughed at hope's career,"

till his remaining property was expended, and alternately elated and depressed with promises and disappointments, he was obliged to begin the world anew, equally destitute of advantages and means. In this state of things, nothing presented itself to him but a choice of difficulties: friends and internal resources, had equally failed; and he went and settled in an obscure village called Moybeg, township of Cootinaglugg, in the parish of Kilchronaghan, in the barony of Loughinshallin, in the county of Londonderry. In this obscure district, the names of which almost bid defiance to enunciation, his second son ADAM, the subject of this Memoir, was born, either in the year 1760 or 1762, most probably the former, but neither the year nor the month can be ascertained. He was baptized in the parish church by his uncle, the Rev. John Tracy, the Rector, who had married his mother's sister. On application to the late worthy incumbent, the Rev. Mr. Bryan, to obtain a copy of the baptismal register, the following answer has been obtained:-"The archives of the church have been carefully searched, but no register during Mr. Tracy's incumbency has been found; none having been kept during that period; or if kept, since irrecoverably lost."

As Mr. Tracy died sometime between 1760 and 1762, and Adam Clarke was baptized by him, he must have been born within that period. The day and month are as uncertain as the year, only I have understood it was sometime in the spring.

At the request of his grandfather and grandmother Clarke, he was named Adam, in memory of a beloved son, who had died of the small pox, when only six years of age; and they engaged that, as soon as he could walk alone, they would take him as their own, and be at the whole charge of his education.

It may not be improper to say a few words here of his brother, who was born about three years before him. He was called Tracy, at the instance of his uncle the Rev. J. Tracy, already mentioned; who, having no child, promised to be at the

expense of his education, &c. Such promises are rarely fulfilled; but this pledge would probably have been redeemed, had Mr. Tracy lived, for he had already taken the child to his own house, but dying shortly after, the young lad, already spoiled by indulgence, was restored to his parents.

His father gave him a classical education, and when but a young man, he was appointed and licensed by the Consistorial Court of Derry, a schoolmaster, in a parish contiguous to that in which his father had a similar appointment, (see p. 45.) Getting weary of this mode of life, which held out but faint promises of comfort or emolument, he expressed a strong desire to study medicine, to which he had in some measure already directed his attention. His parents consented, and he was bound apprentice to Mr. Pollock, a surgeon and apothecary in the town of Magherafelt,-a gentleman equalled by few in his profession, for various and sound learning, much skill and deserved eminence in the practice of medicine; and a mind highly cultivated by his classical attainments, and by every solid principle of politeness or good breeding. Having terminated his apprenticeship with credit to himself and his master, he went to Dublin, and studied anatomy under the celebrated Dr. Cleghorne, who was professor of that science in Trinity College.

Having received letters of recommendation to some merchants in Liverpool, whose interest he hoped would obtain him an appointment in the Navy, he sailed for England.

This expectation however failed, and he went out surgeon in a Guinea ship, made their voyage, laid in 813 negroes, who were exchanged to them for guns, gunpowder, knives, and trinkets of different kinds, and sold in Tortola to the highest bidder, as sheep or oxen in the open market. He went a second voyage, kept a journal of the way, in which he made entries of all particulars relative to the mode of procuring, treating, and disposing of the slaves; with several other matters of high importance, relative to this inhuman and infernal traffic. The captain noticing this, pretended one day to have lost some plate, all the vessel must be searched, the seamen first, then all the officers were requested to give up their keys, with an apology that no suspicion attached to them, but merely for form's sake, lest there might be any ground left for the charge of partiality, &c. Surgeon Clarke immediately yielded his key, which was restored after some time; but when he next visited his chest he found that his Journal had been rifled, and every leaf and page that contained anything relative to the traffic, torn out, or mutilated, so that from this document, not one entry was left, nor could be produced in evidence against this infamous traffic, and the diabolical manner in which it was carried on. This mutilated Journal I have seen and examined; and was informed of se

veral curious particulars by the Writer, some of which I shall take the liberty to relate.

When at Bonny in Africa, Surgeon Clarke had gone a good deal on shore, and travelled some way into the country, and as he was a man of pleasing manners, and amiable carriage, he gained the confidence of the natives, accommodated himself to their mode of living, and thus had the opportunity of making several valuable remarks on their civil and religious customs. From observing the males to be universally circumcised, he was led to think that this people might be descendants of the ten lost Jewish Tribes. He observed farther, that each of their huts was divided into three apartments; one served to dress their food in, one as a place of repose, and the third was for the Juju, the serpent god, which was the object of their worship. Thus every hut had its Temple, and every Temple had its Altar and worshippers.

He has informed me that, from the bodies of many of the slaves that were brought from the interior to the coast, he was obliged to extract balls, as they had been wounded in the attempts to deprive them of their liberty; their kidnappers hunting them down like wild beasts, firing upon all they could not suddenly seize, no doubt killing many, and bringing those down to the coast, whose wounds were of such a nature as to promise an easy cure. In his excursions into the country, he has seen the wives of the chiefs, king Peppel, and king Norfolk, as they were called, going out to the plantations to labour, their young children, (princes and princesses,) on their naked backs, holding themselves on by their hands, grasping the shoulders of their mothers, and when arrived in the field, laid down on the bare ground naked, and when weary of lying on one side, turn on the other, without ever uttering a cry; their mothers giving them the breast at such intervals as they deemed proper. The following instances of inhumanity, from among many others, I shall select for the Reader's reflections. A stout young negress, with an infant at her breast, was brought on board, and presented to the captain by one of the black dealers, who by long trafficking in flesh and blood with the inhuman European slave-dealers, had acquired all their unfeeling brutality. The captain refused to purchase her, saying "He could not be troubled with children aboard." The dealer answered, "Why massa is she no good slave? is she no able work?" "Yes," answered the captain, "she would do well enough, but I cannot receive children." "Well massa, would massa buy slave if she no had child?" "Yes," said the captain, "I should have no objection to her." On this the black dealer stepped up to the woman, snatched the child out of her arms, and threw it overboard; on which the captain without expressing the least concern, purchased the mother. I should add, what will per

haps relieve the Reader's feelings, though it will not remove his honest indignation, that a negro seeing the child thrown overboard, paddled to the place with his canoe, jumped in after it, and brought it up apparently alive, and immediately made towards the shore.

This captain carried brutality and ferocity as far as they could go; even his own interest yielded to his cruelty. During this passage several of the negroes got into what is technically called the sulks; i. e. they refused to eat; and foreseeing their misery, chose to starve themselves to death, rather than encounter it: one in particular, could not be induced by any threats or inflicted punishments, to take his food. The captain beat him in the most inhuman manner with a small cutting whip; but without a sigh or a groan he obstinately persisted. Boiled beans were one day brought and they endeavoured to induce him to eat: he closed his teeth in determinate opposition. The captain got a piece of iron, prized open his jaws, and broke several of his teeth in the operation, he then stuffed his mouth full of the aliment, and with the butt end of his whip endeavoured to thrust it down his throat, he was instantly suffocated: and the fiend his murderer, said on perceiving it, "See, d them, they can die whenever they please."

He drove the second mate overboard, broke the arm of the cabin boy, with the stroke of an iron ladle, and committed all kinds of barbarous excesses.

One day when companies of the slaves were brought upon deck for the sake of fresh air, and an iron chain was passed through their fetters, and then bolted to the deck; it happened that a negro got his feet out of his fetters, and stealing softly till he got to the bowsprit, then, in order to attract the attention of his tormentors, he set up a wild loud laugh; as soon as he found he was observed, he leaped into the deep, and sunk to rise no more. The captain instantly seized his musket loaded with ball, and fired down in the place in which he sunk, that he might have the pleasure of killing him before he could be drowned. These were but parts of his ways, but I shall forbear to harrow up the blood of the Reader any longer: such cruelties are almost necessarily connected with a traffic cursed of God, and abhorred by man; and although the trade is abolished by our legislature, yet let them not suppose that the blood of it is purged away. As a nation, our reckoning is not yet settled for the wrongs of Africa.

It will not surprise the reader to hear that this captain lost his vessel in returning from the West Indies, and afterwards died in the workhouse in Liverpool.

Filled with horror at this inhuman traffic, Surgeon Clarke abandoned it after this second voyage: he married and established himself at a place called Maghull, about eight miles

from Liverpool, where for many years he had an extensive practice, and was remarkably successful. He died there in 1802, universally respected and regretted, leaving four sons and one daughter behind him. These young men were brought up principally under the direction of their uncle Adam; two embraced the medical profession, one of whom has been surgeon in his Majesty's navy for about twelve years, and has seen the most dangerous service. The oldest, a young man of singular habits, much learning and a comprehensive mind, is author of a work of deep research, entitled An Exposition of the False Prophet, and the Number of the Apocalyptic Beast. They are all worthy of their amiable father, and repay the pains taken in their education by their uncle.

But it is now time to return to the principal subject of these Memoirs, whom we have yet seen only on the threshold of life.

In the life of an infant there can be little of an interesting nature; yet there were a few things so singular as to be worthy of remark. His brother we have seen, by the manner of his education, was through the indulgence of a fond uncle nearly spoiled: and indeed he was so softened by this injudicious treatment, that it produced an unfavourable effect throughout life; being the first-born and a fine child he was the favourite, especially of his mother. Adam, on the other hand, met with little indulgence, was comparatively neglected, nursed with little care, and often left to make the best of his own course. He was no spoiled child, was always corrected when he deserved it; and sometimes when but a small degree of blame attached to his undirected conduct. Through this mode of bringing up, he became uncommonly hardy, was unusually patient of cold, took to his feet at eight months; and before he was nine months old, was accustomed to walk without guide or attendant in a field before his father's door! He was remarkably fond of snow; when he could little more than lisp he called it his brother, saw it fall with rapturous delight; and when he knew that much of it lay upon the ground, would steal out of his bed early in the morning, with nothing on but his shirt, get a little board, go out, and with it dig holes in the snow, call them rooms, and when he had finished his frozen apartments, sit down naked as he was, and thus most contentedly enjoy the fruit of his own labour!

Though by no means a lusty child, he had uncommon strength for his age, and his father often took pleasure in setting him to roll large stones, when neighbours or visitants came to the house.

Many of the relatives of A. C. on both sides the house, were remarkable for vast muscular powers. One of his maternal uncles, the Rev. I. M'Lean, a Clergyman, possessed incredible strength, which he often used, not in the best of causes.