An ever kind Providence has, however, made the griefs of children to be transient; and Samboe, the favourite of Mrs. Delaney, from his sweetness of disposition, great activity, and early intelligence, would probably have presented a pleasing exception to the unhappy lot of his enslaved countrymen--might justly have enjoyed the title of the happy negro--had his benefactress been spared to bless the sable dependants on her kindness. But life, at all times and in all situations transient and uncertain, may be said to be peculiarly so in the West Indies; the progress of disease being so rapid, and the excitements to it so many. That dreadful visitation, the yellow fever, broke out in the district of the Delaney plantation: numberless were the victims to the "pestilence that walketh in noon-day;" and among them were Mr. Delaney and his amiable wife. Those who were capable of appreciating their worth, who had felt their benevolence, had enjoyed the privileges they allowed, and knew how rarely they were found in the plantations, mourned them with unfeigned sorrow, their loss closing up the avenues of consolation and of hope; and those too young to feel how much they were deprived of, were quickly made sensible of a change from a system of Christian love and benevolence, to that built upon the mere hope of worldly gain. As it is not the custom in the English colonies, as in the French, for the negroes to be attached to the plantation, those of the Delaney estate were, upon the sale of it, dispersed amongst different purchasers; and the infant Samboe became the property of a cruel mercenary, who employed the poor child to wait upon him, when indulging in all the luxurious ease of an occidental despot. By those who have seen the various caprices of a temper altogether uncontrouled, the whims of a mind destitute of cultivation and obstinate in ignorance, the cruelty of a disposition formed by the possession of a precarious power over helpless individuals; by those, and those only, will the various species of suffering to which the innocent child was subjected be understood; and the terrors which were produced by the horrid imprecations, the unmanly abuse, and vulgar epithets of this brutal master, upon the gentle and timid character of the poor little Samboe. It was then he began to feel the loss, and to pine for the tenderness of his mother and his benefactress; and there is little doubt but he would have soon followed them to the tomb, had not an incident occurred, that emancipated him from the tyrannical controul by which he so acutely suffered. One day, while attending his master at breakfast, just as he handed the coffee his foot slipped, and it was thrown over a beautiful cimar, which the luxurious planter highly valued, as the gift of a lady to whom he was partial. He rose in haste and in anger, and aiming a blow at the now kneeling boy, missed the blow, and fell himself to the ground, striking his head by the fall against the edge of a sofa.