(Aphra), a celebrated authoress, descended from a good family in the city of Canterbury, was born some time in Charles I.'s reign, but in what year is uncertain. Her father's name was Johnson, who through the interest of the Lord Willoughby, to whom he was related, being appointed lieutenant-general of Surinam and 36 islands, undertook a journey to the West-Indies, taking with him his whole family, among whom was our poetess, at that time very young. Mr Johnson died in the voyage; but his family reaching Surinam, settled there for some years. Here it was that she learned the history of, and acquired a personal intimacy with, the American prince Oroonoko and his beloved Imoinda, whose adventures she hath so pathetically related in her celebrated novel of that name, and which Mr Southerne afterwards made such an admirable use of in adopting it as the ground-work of one of the best tragedies in the English language.

On her return to London, she became the wife of one Mr Behn, a merchant, residing in that city, but of Dutch extraction. How long he lived after their marriage, is not very apparent, probably not very long; for her wit and abilities having brought her into high estimation at court, King Charles II. fixed on her as a proper person to transact some affairs of importance abroad during the course of the Dutch war. To this purpose she went over to Antwerp, where, by her intrigues and gallantries, she so far crept into the secrets of state, as to answer the ends proposed by sending her over. Nay, in the latter end of 1666, she, by means of the influence she had over one Vander Albert, a Dutchman of eminence, whose heart was warmly attached to her, she wormed out of him the design formed by De Ruyter, in conjunction with the family of the De Wits, of raising up the Thames and burning the English ships in their harbours, which they afterwards put in execution at Rochester. This she immediately communicated to the English court; but though the event proved her intelligence to be well grounded, yet it was at that time only laughed at; which, together probably with no great inclination shown to reward her for the pains she had been at, determined her to drop all further thoughts of political affairs, and during the remainder of her stay at Antwerp to give herself up entirely to the gaiety and gallantries of the place. Vander Albert continued his addresses, and after having made some unsuccessful attempts to obtain the possession of her person on easier terms than matrimony, at length consented to make her his wife; but while he was preparing, at Amsterdam for a journey to England with that intent, a fever carried him off, and left her free from any amorous engagements. In her voyage back to England, she was very near being lost, the vessel she was in being driven on