This Prince, such as I have describ’d him, whose Soul and Body were so
admirably adorned, was (while yet he was in the Court of his
Grandfather, as I said) as capable of Love, as ’twas possible for a
brave and gallant Man to be; and in saying that, I have named the
highest Degree of Love: for sure great Souls are most capable of that
Passion.
I have already said, the old General was kill’d by the Shot of an Arrow,
by the Side of this Prince, in Battle; and that _Oroonoko_ was made
General. This old dead Hero had one only Daughter left of his Race,
a Beauty, that to describe her truly, one need say only, she was Female
to the noble Male; the beautiful Black _Venus_ to our young _Mars_; as
charming in her Person as he, and of delicate Virtues. I have seen a
hundred White Men sighing after her, and making a thousand Vows at her
Feet, all in vain and unsuccessful. And she was indeed too great for any
but a Prince of her own Nation to adore.
_Oroonoko_ coming from the Wars (which were now ended) after he had made
his Court to his Grandfather, he thought in Honour he ought to make a
Visit to _Imoinda_, the Daughter of his Foster-father, the dead General;
and to make some Excuses to her, because his Preservation was the
Occasion of her Father’s Death; and to present her with those Slaves
that had been taken in this last Battle, as the Trophies of her Father’s
Victories. When he came, attended by all the young Soldiers of any
Merit, he was infinitely surpriz’d at the Beauty of this fair Queen of
Night, whose Face and Person were so exceeding all he had ever beheld,
that lovely Modesty with which she receiv’d him, that Softness in her
Look and Sighs, upon the melancholy Occasion of this Honour that was
done by so great a Man as _Oroonoko_, and a Prince of whom she had heard
such admirable Things; the Awfulness wherewith she receiv’d him, and the
Sweetness of her Words and Behaviour while he stay’d, gain’d a perfect
Conquest over his fierce Heart, and made him feel, the Victor could be
subdu’d. So that having made his first Compliments, and presented her an
hundred and fifty Slaves in Fetters, he told her with his Eyes, that he
was not insensible of her Charms; while _Imoinda_, who wish’d for
nothing more than so glorious a Conquest, was pleas’d to believe, she
understood that silent Language of new-born Love; and, from that Moment,
put on all her Additions to Beauty.
The Prince return’d to Court with quite another Humour than before; and
tho’ he did not speak much of the fair _Imoinda_, he had the Pleasure to
hear all his Followers speak of nothing but the Charms of that Maid,
insomuch, that, even in the Presence of the old King, they were
extolling her, and heightning, if possible, the Beauties they had found
in her: so that nothing else was talk’d of, no other Sound was heard in
every Corner where there were Whisperers, but _Imoinda! Imoinda!_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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