THE scenes of this story, as its title indicates, lie among
a race hitherto ignored by the associations of polite and re-
fined society; an exotic race, whose ancestors, born beneath
a tropic sun, brought with them, and perpetuated to their
descendants, a character so essentially unlike the hard and
dominant Anglo-Saxon race, as for many years to have won
from it only misunderstanding and contempt.

But, another and better day is dawning; every influence
of literature, of poetry, and of art, in our times, is becoming
more and more in unison with the great master chord of
Christianity, "good-will to man."

The poet, the painter, and the artist now seek out and em-
bellish the common and gentler humanities of life, and, under
the allurements of fiction, breathe a humanizing and subdu-
ing influence, favorable to the development of the great
principles of Christian brotherhood.

The hand of benevolence is everywhere stretched out,
searching into abuses, righting wrongs, alleviating dis-
tresses, and bringing to the knowledge and sympathies of
the world the lowly, the oppressed, and the forgotten.

In this general movement, unhappy Africa at last is re-
membered; Africa, who began the race of civilization and
human progress in the dim, gray dawn of early time, but
who, for centuries, has lain bound and bleeding at the foot
of civilized and Christianized humanity, imploring compas-
sion in vain.

But the heart of the dominant race, who have been her
conquerors, her hard masters, has at length been turned to-
wards her in mercy; and it has been seen how far nobler
it is in nations to protect the feeble than to oppress them.
Thanks be to God, the world has at last outlived the slave-
trade!

The object of these sketches is to awaken sympathy and

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