ing it from the shore, took the oars in his hand, and sailed along the lake by her, as she walked on the bank. At last she appeared so well reconciled to him and his boat, that she desired he would take her in. He did so, and they sailed a good way.

"Well, says she, I have sailed, as you call it, many a mile in my life-time, but never in such a thing as this. I own it will serve very well where one has a great many things to carry from place to place; but to be labouring thus at an oar, when one intends pleasure in sailing, is, in my mind, a most ridiculous piece of slavery.-Why, pray, madam, how would you have me sail? for getting into the boat only, will not carry us this way or that without using some force.But, says she, pray where did you get this boat, as you call it ?O, madam! says I, that is too long and fatal a story to begin upon now this boat was made many thousand miles from hence, among a people coal-black, a quite different sort from us; and when I first had it, I little thought of seeing this country: but I will make a faithful relation of all to you when we come home.-Indeed, I began to wish heartily we were there, for it grew into the night; and having strolled so far without my gun, I was afraid of what I had before seen and heard, and hinted our return; but I found was disagreeable to her, and so I dropped it.

my motion

"I now perceived, and wondered at it, that the later it grew, the more agreeable it seemed to her; and as I had now brought her into good humour again, by seeing and sailing in my boat, I was not willing to prevent its increase. I told her, if she pleased, we would land, and when I had docked my boat, I would accompany her where and as long as she liked. As we talked and walked by the lake, she made a little run before me, and sprung into it. Perceiving this, I cried out; whereupon she merrily called on me to follow her. The light was then so dim, as prevented my having more than a confused sight of her when she jumped in; and looking earnestly after her, I could discern nothing more than a small boat in the water, which skimmed along at so great a rate that I almost lost sight of it presently; but running along the shore for fear of losing her, I met her gravely walking to meet me; and then had entirely lost sight of the boat upon the lake. This, says she, accosting me with a smile, is my way of sailing, which, I perceive, by the fright you were in, you are altogether unacquainted with; and, as you tell me you came from so many thousand miles off, it is possible you may be made differently from me but, surely, we are the part of the creation which has had most care bestowed upon it; and I suspect, from all your discourse, to which I have been very attentive, it is possible you may no more be able to fly than to sail as I do.-No, charming creature, says I, that I cannot, I'll assure you.-She then, stepping to the edge of the lake, for the advantage of a descent before her, sprung up into the air, and away she went, farther than my eyes could follow her."

So, thought he, all is over!—a delusion after all! -a mere phantom! for it is plain she is no human composition. But

yet she felt like flesh too when I lifted her up at the door." Better had it been never to have seen her, than thus to lose her again! Thus ran he sorrowfully on, with the heavy heart and utter self-abandonment which the shades of evil men may be supposed to feel, when, as classic story tells, they chance to catch, through the open gate, a glimpse of Elysium-gay, smiling vallies, populous cities, cheerful and happy groups, and, by the closing of the door against them, are again left to solitude and the darkness of eternal night. And like that same unhappy ghost, unexpectedly admitted to the light of day, was he, when, in about ten minutes after she had left him, in this mixture of grief and amazement, she alighted just by him on her feet. The transport, with which her return fills his soul, he is unable to conceal:-" I was some moments in such an agitation of mind, from these unparalleled incidents, that I was like one thunderstruck; but coming presently to myself, and clasping her in my arms, with as much love and passion as I was capable of expressing-Are you returned again, kind angel, said I, to bless a wretch who can only be happy in adoring you! Can it be, that you who have so many advantages over me, should quit all the pleasures that nature has formed you for, and all your friends, to take an asylum in my arms? But I here make you a tender of all I am able to bestow-my love and constancy."

"All

my ambition will in you be crown'd;

And those white arms shall all my wishes bound.
Our life shall be but one long nuptial day,

And, like chaf'd odours, melt in sweets away :
Soft as the night our minutes shall be worn,

And cheerful as the birds that wake the morn.”

Need we add, that vows so feelingly tendered were kindly heard, and blushingly accepted ?-Or that the heart of Youwarkee-for so was this winged beauty called-the gentlest heart that ever beat in female bosom-was not insensible to the humanity that had preserved her life, the tenderness that had fostered her with even a mother's care, and the delicacy, that never in thought, word, or deed, had offended against her purity? So, like the first man and woman, in Eden's bowersin the presence of teeming and prolific nature-with the "evening song" of summer breeze for their nuptial chaunt, and the bright host of heaven to witness their espousals, they plighted simple, but most sacred and binding vows of mutual love, and constancy, and protection. " In this manner, exchanging mutual endearments, and soft speeches, hand in hand, we arrived at the grotto; after having entered into "those solemn en

gagements to each other, which are, in truth, the essence of marriage, and all that was there and then in our power.'

The account which Youwarkee gives of her country folks, and their occasional expeditions, in the dark season, to this remote island, set finally to rest the fears which Peter had so long entertained on the subject of the voices. He inquires of her, if she did not, by some accident, fall from the top of the rock, over his habitation, upon the roof of it.

"I'll tell you how it happened. A parcel of us, young people, were upon a merry swangean round this arkoe, which we usually divert ourselves with at set times of the year, chasing and pursuing one another, sometimes soaring to an extravagant height, and then shooting down with surprising precipitancy, till we even touch the trees; when of a sudden we mount again and away. I say, being of this party, and pursued by one of my comrades, I descended down to the very trees, and she after me; but as I mounted, she, over-shooting me, brushed so stiffly against the upper part of my graundee, that I lost my bearing; and being so near the branches before I could recover it again, I sunk into the tree, and rendered my graundee useless to me; so that down I came, and that with so much force, that I but just felt my fall, and lost my senses. Whether I cried out or no upon my coming to the ground, I cannot say; but if I did, my companion was too far gone by that time to hear or take notice of me; as she, probably, in so swift a flight, saw not my fall. As to the condition I was in, or what happened immediately afterwards, I must be obliged to you for a relation of that: but one thing I was quickly sensible of, and never can forget, viz. that I owe my life to your care and kindness to me."

After the winter had once more set in, the voices were heard again in the night, when Peter, notwithstanding what his wife had told him of her "country folk's swangeans in that place-being frightened a little, waked her; and she, hearing them too, cried out, There they are! It is ten to one but my sister, or some of our family are there. Hark! I believe I hear her voice. I myself hearkened very attentively; and by this time understanding a great deal of their language, I not only could distinguish several speeches, but knew the meaning of several words they pronounced." Peter would have had her call to them, but to this she objected; being afraid that her friends should incline to force her to desert with them, against her will. "This reason perfectly satisfying me, and endeared the loving creature to me ten times more, if possible, than ever."

Besides having in Youwarkee a kind, consoling friend, to lighten every labour, and share in every joy; and a most endearing wife, who annually presents him with " a yacom, as fair as alabaster," our hero finds her a winged minister,

"To answer [his] best pleasure; be't to fly,
To swim, to dive into the sea, to ride

On the curl'd clouds."

He had often regretted to her the want of that ship-load of all the necessaries of life, which was sticking on the outside of the bulk of rocks; usually ending his lamentation with the vain wish, that he had "been born with the graundee." On one of these occasions, she was mighty inquisitive to learn, what sort of things, in shape and appearance, those needles and other utensils were, of which he appeared so much to regret the want; and he "not then conceiving the secret purpose of her soul, answered all her questions to a scruple."

I

"About two days after this, having been out two or three hours in the morning, to cut wood, at coming home I found Pedro crying, ready to break his heart, and his little brother Tommy hanging to him, and crawling about the floor after him; the youngest pretty baby was fast asleep upon one of the beast-fish skins, in a corner of the room. I asked Pedro for his mother; but the poor infant had nothing farther to say to the matter, than Mammy run away, I cry! mammy run away, cry! I admired where she was gone, never before missing her from our habitation. However, I waited patiently till bed-time, but, no wife. I grew very uneasy then; yet, as my children were tired and sleepy, I thought I had best go to bed with them, and make quiet; so,giving all three their suppers, we lay down together. They slept; but my mind was too full to permit the closure of my eyes. A thousand different chimeras swam in my imagination relating to my wife. One while I fancied her carried away by her kinsfolks; then, that she was gone of her own accord to make peace with her father. But that thought would not fix, being put aside by the constant tenderness to her children, and regard to me; whom I am sure she would not have left without notice. But alas! says I, she may even now be near me, but taken so ill she cannot get home, or she may have died suddenly in the wood."

Thus he lay tumbling and tossing in great anxiety; and not being able to sleep, or lie still, he rose, intending to search all the woods about; when on opening the door he was agreeably surprised to meet her coming in, with something in her arms. He tells her how inconsolable he and the children have been in her absence.

"Winds murmur'd through the leaves, your long delay."

This, for the instant, blanks her smiling countenance,—but recovering, and kissing him and them ;-"Don't you remember what delight I took the other day, to hear you talk of your ship?—Yes, says I, you did so, but what of that? Nay, pray says she, forgive me, for I have been to see it." And, indeed, the faithful creature had been; and brought a collection of

those very things, which she had questioned him so particularly about. Peter afterwards instructs her how to find the gulf, down which he himself had been precipitated, "which she could not mistake by reason of the noise the fall of the water made," and, having filled the chests on board with all sorts of goods, to draw them by means of a line, into the draught, which of itself would suck them under the rock down the gulf. He hoped that the subterranean stream would carry them down into the lake, in like manner as it had conveyed him. This project is put successfully in execution, but had like to have terminated fatally. The chests made their appearance successively in the lake in due course of time, bringing with them all that the ship contained in any way serviceable to a domestic life. On the evening of the day on which they came to hand, as they were sitting together, after supper, in the grotto, Youwarkee looked very earnestly at him, with tears just glittering in her eyes, then, "setting free a sigh," broke out into these words:

"What should you have thought, Peter, to have seen me come sailing, drowned, through the cavern, tied to one of your chests?Heaven forbid such a thought, my charmer! says I. But, as you know I must have been rendered the most miserable of all living crea, tures by such a sight, or any thing else that would deprive me of you, pray tell me how you could possibly have such a thought in your head? -She saw she had raised my concern, and was very sorry for what she had said. Nothing, nothing, says she, my dear! it was only a fancy just come into my head.-My dear Youwee, says I, you must let me know what you mean: I am in great pain till you explain yourself; for I am sure there is something more in what you say than fancy: therefore, pray, if you love me, keep me on the rack no longer. -Ah, Peter! says she, there was but a span between me and death not many days ago; and when I saw the line of the last chest we took up just now, it gave me so much horror I could scarce keep upon my feet-My dear Youwee, proceed, says I; for I cannot bear my torment till I have heard the worst.- -Why, Peter, says she, now the danger is over, I shall tell you my escape with as much pleasure as I guess you will take in hearing it. You must know, my life, says she, that having cast that chest into the sea, as I was tugging it along by that very line, it being one of the heaviest, and moving but slowly, I twisted the string several times round my hand, one fold upon another, the easier to tow it; when, drawing it rather too quick into the eddy, it pulled so hard against me, towards the gulph, and so quick, that I could no way loosen or disengage the cord from my fingers, but was dragged thereby to the very rock, against which the chest struck violently. My last thought, as I supposed it, was of you, my dear, (on which she clasped me round the neck, in sense of her passed agony ;) when taking myself for lost, I forbore farther resistance; at which instaut the line, slackening by the rebound of the chest, fell from my hand of itself, and the chest returning to the rock, went down the current.

VOL. VII. PART I.

N