INKLE AND YARICO.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume IV, Issue 96, 26 August 1852, Page 3

INKLE AND YARICO.

The following tale of unexampled treachery, and ingratitude has been treated in a great variety of shapes in the literature of Great Britain. The barbarous transaction which it details occurred upwards of 200 years since, and at a period when die, Slave Trade, which England has since expended so much money to abolish, was in full operation. The story is taken from Lignok's account of (ho Island of Rarbadoes. "Mr. Thomas Inkle, of Loudon, aged twenty years, embarked in the Downs, in the good ship called die Achilles, bound for the West li.dics, on the 10th June, 1017, in order to improve his fortune by trade and merchandize. Our adventurer was Ihn third son of an eminent cili/i-n, who had takcii particular care to instil into his inn id an early love of gain, by making him a perfect master of numbers, and consequently giving him a quick view of loss and advantage, and preventing llio natural impulses of his passions, by 'prepossession towards his interests. Willi a mind thus turned, young Inkle had a person every way agreeable, a ruddy vigour in his couiitt'iiai/ce, strength in his limbs, with ringlets of fair hair loosely Mowing on his shoulders. It happened in the course of the voyage, that the. Achilles, in some distress, put into a creek on Ihe main of America, in search of provisions. The youth, who is the hero of my story, among others went onshoreon this occasion. From Iheir lirst landing lliey were observed by a parly of Indians, who hid themselves in the woods for that purpose. Tim English unadvisedly marched a great distance from the shore into the country, and were intercepted by Ihe natives, who slew Ihe greatest number of litem. Our adventurer esraped among others, by living inlo a forest. Upon his coming into a remote and pathless pari of the wood, he. threw himself, tired and breathless on a little hillock, when an Indian maid rushed from a thicket behind him. "After the first surprise, they appeared mutually agreeable to each oilier. If the European was highly . charmed with the limbs, features, and wild graces of Ihe naked American ; Ihe American was no les s taken with the dress, complexion, and shape of an European, covered from head to foot. The Indian grew immediately enamoured o' him, and consequently solicitous for his preservation. Slie therefore conveyed liim to a cave, where, she. gave, him a delicious repast of fruits, and led liinl to a stream to slake his thirst. In Ihe midst of these good offices, she would sometimes play with his hair, and delight in the opposition of its colour Id that of her lingers: llien open his bosom, and laugh id him for covering it. "She was, it seems, a person of distinction, for. she every day came lo him in a dilVerenl dress, of ihe most heauliful shells, bugles, and heads. She likewise brought him a great many spoils, which her other lovers had presented lo her, so that thi s cave was richly adorned with all the spotted skins of beasts, and most party-coloured feathers of fowls, which that world afforded. To make his confinement more tolerable, she would carry him in the dusk of ihe evening, or by the favor of moonlight, lo unfrequented groves and solitudes, and show him where lo lie down in safely, and sleep amidst Ihe falls of waters and melody of nightingales. Iler part was to watch and hold liiiii awake in her arms, for fear of her countrymen, ilnd wake him on occasions lo consult his safety. " In this manner did Ihe lovers pass away their lime, till they had learned a language of Iheir own, in which Ihe voyager communicated lo his misircss how happy he should be lo have her in his country, where; she should lie clothed in such silks as his waistcoal was made of, and be carried in house 8 1

drawn l>v horses willinnl being exposed to wind or weather. All this ho promised her the enjoyment or, without siieh fears and alarms' as tliov were there tormented with. In this tender correspondence these lovers lived for several months, when Yarico, instructed by her lover, discovered a vessel on, the coast, to which she made signals; and in the night, with the utmost joy and satisfaction, accompanied him to a ship's crew of his countrymen hound to Harlmdoes. "When*a vessel from the main arrives in that island, ii seems the.planters come down to Hie. shore, where there is an immediate market of the Indians and other slaves, as with us of horses and oxen. "Tolie short .Mr.Thomasliikle, now coinin? into English territories, began seriously to'reflect upon his loss of lime, and to weigh with liimseiriiow many days interest of his money ho had lost dining his stay with Yarico. This thought made the young man pensive, and careful what account he should he able, to give his friends or his voyage. Upon which' consideration the prudent and frugal voung man sold Yarico lo a Barbadian merchant; notwithstanding that the poor girl, to iiiclinehim lo conunisscrate her condition, told him she was with child by him, but he only made use of that information lo rise in his "demands upon her purchaser,"