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Page 98
THE MURDERED TRAVELLER.
Some years since, in the month of May, the remains of a human body,
partly devoured by wild animals, were found in a woody ravine, near
a solitary road passing between the mountains west of the village of
Stockbridge. It was supposed that the person came to his death by
violence, but no traces could be discovered of his murderers. It was
only recollected that one evening, in the course of the previous
winter, a traveller had stopped at an inn in the village of West
Stockbridge; that he had inquired the way to Stockbridge; and that, in
paying the innkeeper for something he had ordered, it appeared that he
had a considerable sum of money in his possession. Two ill-looking
men were present, and went out about the same time that the traveller
proceeded on his journey. During the winter, also, two men of shabby
appearance, but plentifully supplied with money, had lingered for
awhile about the village of Stockbridge. Several years afterward,
a criminal, about to be executed for a capital offence in Canada,
confessed that he had been concerned in murdering a traveller in
Stockbridge for the sake of his money. Nothing was ever discovered
respecting the name or residence of the person murdered.
THE AFRICAN CHIEF.
_Chained in the market place he stood_, &c.
The story of the African Chief, related in this ballad, may be found
in the African Repository for April, 1825. The subject of it was a
warrior of majestic stature, the brother of Yarradee, king of the
Solima nation. He had been taken in battle, and was brought in
chains for sale to the Rio Pongas, where he was exhibited in the
market-place, his ankles still adorned with the massy rings of gold
which he wore when captured. The refusal of his captor to listen to
his offers of ransom drove him mad, and he died a maniac.
THE CONJUNCTION OF JUPITER AND VENUS.
This conjunction was said in the common calendars to have taken place
on the 2d of August, 1826. This, I believe, was an error, but the
apparent approach of the planets was sufficiently near for poetical
purposes.
THE HURRICANE.
This poem is nearly a translation from one by Jos� Maria de Heredia, a
native of the Island of Cuba, who published at New York, six or seven
years since, a volume of poems in the Spanish language.
SONNET--WILLIAM TELL.
Neither this, nor any of the other sonnets in the collection, with the
exception of the one from the Portuguese, is framed according to the
legitimate Italian model, which, in the author's opinion, possesses no
peculiar beauty for an ear accustomed only to the metrical forms of
our own language. The sonnets in this collection are rather poems in
fourteen lines than sonnets.
THE HUNTER'S SERENADE.
_The slim papaya ripens_, &c.
Papaya--papaw, custard-apple. Flint, in his excellent work on the
Geography and History of the Western States, thus describes this tree
and its fruit:--
"A papaw shrub, hanging full of fruits, of a size and weight so
disproportioned to the stem, and from under long and rich-looking
leaves, of the same yellow with the ripened fruit, and of an
African luxuriance of growth, is to us one of the richest
spectacles that we have ever contemplated in the array of the
woods. The fruit contains from two to six seeds, like those of the
tamarind, except that they are double the size. The pulp of the
fruit resembles egg-custard in consistence and appearance. It has
the same creamy feeling in the mouth, and unites the taste of
eggs, cream, sugar, and spice. It is a natural custard, too
luscious for the relish of most people."
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