years, seven months, and seven days old? In a minute and a half
he answered the question. One of the company took a pen, and after a
long calculation, said Fuller had made the sum too large. "No," replied
the negro, "the error is on your side. You did not calculate the leap
years." These facts are mentioned in a letter from Doctor Rush,
published in the fifth volume of the American Museum.

In 1788, _Othello_, a negro, published at Baltimore an Essay against
Slavery. Addressing white men, he says, "Is not your conduct, compared
with your principles, a sacrilegious irony? When you dare to talk of
civilization and the gospel, you pronounce your own anathema. In you the
superiority of power produces nothing but a superiority of brutality and
barbarism. Your fine political systems are sullied by the outrages
committed against human nature and the divine majesty."

_Olandad Equiano_, better known by the name of Gustavus Vasa, was stolen
in Africa, at twelve years old, together with his sister. They were
torn from each other; and the brother, after a horrible passage in a
slave-ship, was sold at Barbadoes. Being purchased by a lieutenant, he
accompanied his new master to England, Guernsey, and the siege of
Louisbourg. He afterwards experienced great changes of fortune, and made
voyages to various parts of Europe and America. In all his wanderings,
he cherished an earnest desire for freedom. He hoped to obtain his
liberty by faithfulness and zeal in his master's service; but finding
avarice stronger than benevolence, he began trade with a capital of
three pence, and by rigid economy was at last able to purchase--_his own
body and soul_; this, however, was not effected, until he had endured
much oppression and insult. He was several times shipwrecked, and
finally, after thirty years of vicissitude and suffering, he settled in
London and published his Memoirs. The book is said to be written with
all the simplicity, and something of the roughness, of uneducated
nature. He gives a _naive_ description of his terror at an earthquake,
his surprise when he first saw snow, a picture, a watch, and a quadrant.

He always had an earnest desire to understand navigation, as a probable
means of one day escaping from slavery. Having persuaded a sea-captain
to give him lessons, he applied himself with great diligence, though
obliged to contend with many obstacles, and subject to frequent
interruptions. Doctor Irving, with whom he once lived