Olive Leaf And New York Weekly Messenger

For the Olive Leaf and Weekly Messenger.

LINES,

To a Female Friend about to Embark on a Mission to India.

Thou art bound to a land far away o'er the tide.
Where rolls the dark Ganges, with palm-trees beside-
Where the cocoa-nut strews its rich fruit on the ground,
And the odorous orange and lemon are found.
And yet, to "a land of the shadow of death."
"Of wasting destruction," and pestilent breath;
Where the "plague-spot" of guilt on the mind is portrayed,
And a garden, by sin, to a desert is made.
For this art thou leaving the place of thy birth,
The sweets and the friends that encircle thy hearth,
Religion's endearments long cherished by thee,
And the blessings that beam on this land of the free.
Yes, the cost has been counted, and all is resigned,
All, save what the Christian leaves never behind-
That Friend who will walk on the sea by thy side,
When from friends of thy youth the deep waters divide.
Go then, and may blessings go with thee afar;
There point to the heathen Religion's true star;
And there with the tears of a woman's deep love,
Show to woman degraded her rights from above.
Where'er thou art sent, may His kindness still be,
Whose presence controlleth the wind and the sea;
And if the soil of the heathen thy dust shall receive,
May thy name with the name of a Newell long live.

Cedar Brook, May, 1840.

E. C. S.