generality of the Nobility) than all other Nations can Boast; and the
Fruitfulness of your Virtues sufficiently make amends for the Barrenness
of your Soil: Which however cannot be incommode to your Lordship; since
your Quality and the Veneration that the Commonalty naturally pay their
Lords creates a flowing Plenty there . . . that makes you Happy. And to
compleat your Happiness, my Lord, Heaven has blest you with a Lady, to
whom it has given all the Graces, Beauties, and Virtues of her Sex; all
the Youth, Sweetness of Nature, of a most illustrious Family; and who is
a most rare Example to all Wives of Quality, for her eminent Piety,
Easiness, and Condescention; and as absolutely merits Respect from all
the World as she does that Passion and Resignation she receives from
your Lordship; and which is, on her part, with so much Tenderness
return'd. Methinks your tranquil Lives are an Image of the new Made and
Beautiful Pair in Paradise: And 'tis the Prayers and Wishes of all, who
have the Honour to know you, that it may Eternally so continue with
Additions of all the Blessings this World can give you.

My Lord, the Obligations I have to some of the Great Men of your Nation,
particularly to your Lordship, gives me an Ambition of making my
Acknowledgements by all the Opportunities I can; and such humble Fruits
as my Industry produces I lay at your Lordship's Feet. This is a true
Story, of a Man Gallant enough to merit your Protection, and, had he
always been so Fortunate, he had not made so Inglorious an end: The
Royal Slave I had the Honour to know in my Travels to the other World;
and though I had none above me in that Country yet I wanted power to
preserve this Great Man. If there be anything that seems Romantick I
beseech your Lordship to consider these Countries do, in all things, so
far differ from ours that they produce unconceivable Wonders, at least,
so they appear to us, because New and Strange. What I have mentioned I
have taken care shou'd be Truth, let the Critical Reader judge as he
pleases. 'Twill be no Commendation to the Book to assure your Lordship I
writ it in a few Hours, though it may serve to Excuse some of its Faults
of Connexion, for I never rested my Pen a Moment for Thought: 'Tis
purely the Merit of my Slave that must render it worthy of the Honour it
begs; and the Author of that of Subscribing herself,

My Lord
Your Lordship's most oblig'd
and obedient Servant
A. Behn.