In Heath's Book of Beauty for 1839, is a very clever vancourt, who finds himself a political prisoner in the Thus ended the stranger, and rapidly rising left the In this pleasant abode Vevancourt underwent all the bank, before the horror stuck Baron was able to reply. proper formulary of fetters, black bread, dirty water, &c. A few days after, the stranger was found in his bed- according to the most approved receipts usual in such chamber in an apopleotic fit; he remained speechless till cases. His cell, which was situated under the platform his death, which followed in a few hours. His papers of the keep, was vaulted with solid masonry, the walls showed that, though he had called himself Baudisson, were of most desperate thickness, and the tower itself he was in reality no other than the unfortunate Cheva-hung apparently over a precipice. Escape seemed out of the question. lier Menais. SELECT MISCELLANY. THE EYE. BY DR. CHALMERS. One morning, the turnkey, whose office it was to bring the prisoner his daily miserable pittance, instead of leaving him after having deposited it on the wooden tabje, remained standing before him with his arms folded, and regarding him with a singular expression. Their conversation was in general confined to very few words and was never commenced by the keeper. Vevancourt was, therefore not a little surprised when the man said to him Sir, you, no doubt, have your reasons for calling yourself Mons. Laterer. I have nothing to do with that; it is not my business to verify your title; you may call yourself Paul, for all I care, but I know, (here he gave a most knowing wink with his left eye) that you are M. Theodore Ammadee Francois Chevalier de Vevancourt, and cousin of Madame la Duchess de Maille. Well!" added he, with an air of triumph, after a mo And," said Vevancourt, who thought that his position could not be made much worse than it was already by the avowal of his proper name, supposing that I am the Chevalier de Vevancourt-what good will it do you?' risk, but " Why, I don't know," drawled the jailer, with a stupid look, that may happen nevertheless." Vevancourt, in his joy at the prospect of escape, had no time to pay attention to this silly sounding remark of one who appeared to be a mere rustic boor. He immediately set to work, and spent the whole night in filing through the bar. Thinking, however, that the commander might pay a visit in person, he took care to conceal the effects of his labor by filling the incision with crumbs of bread rolled in the rust, so as to make it look like iron, and then he waited for a night to suit his purpose with concentrated impatience of mind. At length, during a dark and lurid autumnal night, he commenced his operations. The bar was sawn thro' and Vevancourt, having with some difficulty squeezed himself through the opening, waited, with his feet on a part of the masonry which projected beneath the window, and his hands grasping the end of the bar, which remained for the most obscure part of the night, till the hour at which your most watchful sentinel is generally fast asleep, that is to say, about two hours before day-break. Being well acquaintefi with the duration of the different watches, and the time at which the guards went their round-circumstances which prisoners even involuntarily chiefly occupy themselves in ascertaining, he watched the moment when about three quarters of the time of the sentinel had expired, and the man himself snug in his box to avoid the fog; then feeling certain he had united all the chances most favorable for his evasion, he began to descend, knot by knot, suspended between heaven and earth, but clutching his cord with the strength of a giant. All appeared to be going on prosperously; he had already arrived in safety at the last knot but one; when, just as he was about to let himself slide off to the earth, "All the good in the world," answered the turnkey he thought it would be more prudent to feel first for the in a low voice. "Hark ye, I have been handsomely ground with his feet, but no ground was to be felt. tipped to assist your escape. Stop a minute; I shall be This was not altogether encouraging, he was bathed shot if I am suspected of the least thing. I have de-in sweat, fatigued, perplexed, and in a situation where clared that I would not meddle with the business a jot further than just sufficient to gain my money. Look you, sir, here is the key." At these words he produced a small file. "With this," continued he, "you can cut through one of those bars. The door will not be over wide, to be sure. He pointed, as he spoke, to one of the narrow apertures by which the light was admitted to the dungeon. 'Now, you see, you must saw off one of those bars near enough to the bottom to allow you to pass through.” Of all the tracts of conveyance which God has been pleased to open between the mind of man and the theatre by which he is surrounded, there is none by which he so multiplies his acquaintances with the rich and varied creation on every side of him, as by the organ of the eye. It is the scenery of nature. It is this by which so broad a range of observation is submitted to him. This which enables him, by the act of a single moment, to send an exploring look over the surface of an ample territory, to crowd his mind with the whole assembly of its objects, and to fill its vision with those countless hues which diversify and adorn it. It is this which carries him abroad, over all that is in the immen-ment's silence, looking fixedly at his prisoner. sity of distance; which sets him as it were, upon an elevated platform, from whence he may cast a surveying glance over the arena of innumerable worlds; which spreads before him so mighty a province of contemplation that the earth he inhabits only appears to furnish him with a pedestal on which he may stand, and from which he may descry the wonders of that magnificence which the Divinity has poured so abundantly about him. It is by the narrow outlet of the eye that the mind of man takes its excursive flight over those golden tracks, where, in all the exhaustlessness of creative wealth, lie scattered the suns and systems of astronomy. But how good a thing it is, and how becoming well for the philosopher to be humble amid the proudest march of human discovery and the sublimest triumphs of the human understanding, when he thinks of that unscaled barrier beyond which no power, either of the eye or the telescope, shall ever carry him; when he thinks that on the other side of it there is a height and a depth, a length | and a breadth, in comparison to which the whole of this concave and visible firmament dwindles into the insignificance of an ntom-and, above all, how ready should he be to cast his every lofty imagination away from him, when he thinks of the God who, upon the simple foundation of the world, has reared the whole of this stately architecture, and by the force of His preserving mind, continues to uphold it. Ay, and should the world again come forth from him that this earth should pass away, and a portion of the heavens which are around it should fall into the annihilation from which he at first summoned them, what an impressive rebuke does it bring on the swelling vanity of science to think that the whole field of its ambitious researches may be swept altogether away, and there remains before the eye of Him who sitteth on the throne, an untravelled immensity, which he hath filled with innumerable splendors, and over the whole face of which he hath inscribed the evi-er you will choose a good dark night, and watch for dence of His high attributes. the moment when the soldier is napping; you run some 66 his life depended on a mere toss up; he was upon the point of taking all risks and leaping down, when a gust of wind blew off his hat; luckily he listened for the noise he expected it to make in falling, and hearing nothing, a vague suspicion of his situation struck him, and he began to think it possible that some snare had been laid for him, though why and wherefore, he was unable to conjecture. In this uncertainty he almost resolved to defer the attempt to some other night, and in the meantime deter"Oh, never mind," said Vevancourt, "I'll manage mined at least to wait for the first uncertain glimpse of to get through." light, which moment might perhaps be almost as favora"But you must leave enough of the iron to tie the ble for his flight as the present. His great strength enrope to." "Where is it?" abled him to climb back to his dungeon, but he was almost exhausted when he arrived at the projecting stone under his window, where he remained watching like a cat at the end of the gutter. In a short time the first dim beams o the morning broke, and he then perceived as he moved the floating cord backward and forwards, a trifling interval of some hundred and fifty feet between the last knot of it, and the pointed rocks of the precipice below. "Here," answered the turnkey, producing a rope knotted at intervals, "It is composed of linen, as you see, in order that it may be thought you made it yourself out of your sheets; it is of the proper length. When you get to the last knot, let yourself fall gently down. The rest is your own look out. I have some reason to believe that you will find near the spot a carriage with horses ready to convey you to friends who expect you. 'Oh, oh! M. le Commandant," said the chevalier, That I know nothing about, of course. By the by, I with the coolness that characterised him, "I have the forgot to mention that there is a sentinel just upon the honor of being your most obedient very humble servant." right of the tower, who will send a musket ball through Having reflected for some minutes on this adroitly plotyour head to a dead certainty, if he sees you. Howev-ted project for revenge, he thought it best to re-enter his cell. He placed all his clothes on his bed, left the cords outside attached to the bar, to encourage the idea of his fall, and quietly ensconsing himself behind the door, he waited the arrival of the treacherous jailer with one of the iron bars he had sawn off in his hand. The turnkey appeared in due season, rather sooner than was his usual custom, impatient to enter into possession of the property of the defunct. He opened the door with a careless whistle, but no sooner had he arrived at the proper distance than Vevancourt applied a tap of the iron bar with such anatomical precision and poetical justice to his organ of acquisitiveness, that the traitor fell to the ground as if shot dead, without uttering a word. The chevalier stripped his body with the skill of a lamp-settler, dressed himself in the clothes of his victim imitated his walk, and thanks to the carliness of the hour, and the drowsy inattention of the unsuspecting sentinels, effected his escape. The Mirror. FRANCIS L. HAGADORN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. well educated spirit, and most certainly adds to the hap- It is only necessary that we refer the reader to the All moral writers necessarily must follow in the same Guilt is the source of sorrow, 'tis the fiend We are told that "Money is the root of all evil," and For this we foolish over-careful fathers Our thighs packed with wax, our mouths with honey,' "Plate sin with gold- NEW BRIGHTON, N. Y. MARCH 16, 1839. MORAL UTILITY of FICTITIOUS WRITINGS. The best evidence of the utility of fictitious writing is that the most ignorant classes are ever arrayed as the opponents of literary fictions, while the more enlightened are ever to be found among their patrons. Moral essays have been written, and moral strictures have in some instances gained notoriety, but in such instances they will invariably be found combatting local and conspicuous vices or having for their object the abatement of particular irregularities. The great duke of Marlborough is said to have obtained his knowledge of English "Gold glitters most where virtue shines no more, As stars from absent suns have leave to shine." history from the plays of Shakspeare, and we have reason to believe that there are a host of others who, from "The connection between the want of religious printhe plot of one of these plays have imbibed a zest for his- ciple, and the want of poetical feeling is seen in Hume toric lore which has tended to enlarge their limits of re- and Gibbon; they had radically unpoetic minds. Research and extend their literary acquirements. vealed religion is especially poetical. While its discloDr. Johnson says, "whatever makes the past, the dis-sures have an originality which engages the intellect, tant or the future predominate over the present, advanc- they have a beauty to satisfy the moral nature. It prees us in the dignity of thinking beings." This is sub-sents us with those ideal forms of excellence in which a stantially true in all the relations of life. Whatever poetic mind delights, and with which all grace and haravocation destiny has marked out for us, we find that a mony are associated. It brings us into a new world-a diligent and exclusive prosecution of such pursuits as world of overpowering interest, of the sublimest views, only operate upon the senses and contribute solely to and of the tenderest and purest feelings. With Chrissensual gratification are debasing and merely animal in tians, a poetical view of things is a duty. We are retheir influence. The lore of by-gone days, piquant de- quired to color all things with views of faith: to see a velopements of the progressive sciences, or the contem- divine meaning in every event, and a superhuman tenplation of the truths of revelation, each and all relax the dency. Even our friends around are invested with unenergies of the mind by momentary abstraction from the earthly brightness; no longer imperfect men, but beings cares and vexations of our daily life. taken into divine favor, stamped with his seal, and in training for future happiness. The virtues peculiarly Christian are also essentially poetical. Meekness, gentleness, compassion, contentment, modesty, besides the devotional virtues; whereas the ruder and more ordinary feelings, anger, indignation, emulation, martial spirit, and love of independence, are the instruments of rhetoric more justly than of poetry." Russia, as it is well known, is a modern though gigantic power. Scarcely a century has transpired since the barbarian tribes who had inhabited the sterile plains and bleak wastes of the frozen North began to be of any account in the politics of Europe, Engaged in petty though devastating wars with each other, or with countries that now form integral portions of their vast empire, the Russians enjoyed nearly the same consideration in Paris, Vienna or London, that the savages of the Hudson's Bay and other far northern regions may be supposed to hold at Washington, Charleston or New Orleans. The genius of Peter the Great-aided by the mad hostility of Charles XII-moulded those thinly scattered barbarians into the lineaments of a great nation. The impulse thus given has never been arrested; and to this day it is said that Russia has never made war without conquest, or peace without securing a cession of conquered territory. By victory or policy, country after country has been added to her dominion, nation after nation absorbed within herself, until the northern half of two continents, Europe and Asia, acknowledges the absolute sway of her Emperor, anda large portion of America is also nominally his. From Tornea, at the head of the Gulf of Bothnia, in 20° east of London, to Mount St. Elias on the West Coast of America, in 140° West, her undisputed domain stretches more than half the circumference of the globe; while from the farthest north that it is either habitable or penetrable down to the 59th parallel of latitude, almost the whole eastern world is her own, and her territory south of it is at once vast and valuable. The Caspian Sea is now virtually a Russian lake, as the Black Sea is constituted by the treaty of Adrianople, while the Baltic is nearly enclosed by her own territory or that of her subservient states. Her vast armies, which have borne her standards in triumph through Warsaw, Berlin, Paris, and to the gates of Constantinople, are sufficient to annihilate any neighboring power, from Sweden to China, (Austria possibly excepted,) in a single campaign; and it is hardly hyperbolical to assert that her will is at this momen predominant over a full fourth of the globe. Considered merely in physical point of view, Russia is beyond comparison the strongest, most powerful, as she is probably the most ambitious power on the face of the earth. Not dissimilar in origin and growth, though utterly so in every other respect, is the British Empire in India which from humble beginnings as a mercantile adventure, has grown to a complete supremacy over the fertile and populous region stretching from the Himmaleh Mountains on the north to the Indian Ocean on the south, and from near the Indus on the west to the Irawaddy on the east-a country abounding in wealth and STATEN ISLAND FERRIES.-An alteration in the af- resources, and containing more than one hundred milternoon trips on the Quarantine ferry took place yester-lions of inhabitants. The country is now one of the most precious appendages of the British crown; and it is doubtful whether without it the financial capacities of the Empire could be made equal to the heavy burden of debt and expenditure which they are required to sustain. The loss of India to Great Britain would be the produce to revolution or national bankruptcy. The Rev. Sharon Turner in his "Sacred history of the world," remarks, "the peculiar susceptibility of the young mind to poetry, to works of feeling, to imaginative narrative, and to reading or hearing of romantic incidents, or of supernatural fictions, is striking; and this is so natural and so universal, and has in all countries created so many tales, which have been the delight of millions, and of all species of the human population that we cannot err in supposing it an effect which was intended to take place. But if so, if it be a part of the original plan of our nature, it must have a quality in it of ben-day. The boats now leave the island at three o'clock, eficial tendency; for nothing is a natural instinct or inclination within us, which is not of this character, My believe is that all romantie fiction which does not purposely and actually paint and praise vice and vicious characters, and seek to make them attractive or imitated, acts advantageously on the mind, and especially on the the seas," and the Whitehall dock at half-past four. On the northside line the steamboat Water Witch has taken the place of the Cinderella which is laid up for repairs. The hull of the Water Witch has been painted black, and she looks withal quite like "the skipper of It is only since the recent virtual subjucation of Tur THE SPIRIT'S HOME. New Yorker. key and Persia to the giant power of the northern Colos- hardly probable that Persia, unless stimulated by foreign | nothing more than their irrepressible sympathies and se sus, that England has felt any serious apprehension for ambition, will renew the attempt. But the seige of He- cret aid into the scale of the native powers. The enthe safety of her Oriential possessions. But the com- rat is regarded by England as solely of Russian instiga- trance of Shah Soojah at the head of a virtually British plete prostration of the Ottoman power by the last war tion, and undertaken solely to open to Russian arms the force into Afghanistan will mark the commencement of and the peace of Adrianople; the grasping conditions route to India. It is asserted by the British accounts, a struggle which will probably extend the British powimposed in the treaty by Russia; the further exactions, from that region that the seige was directed by Russian er in Asia to the frontiers of Persia, Thibet and China, especially with regard to the passage of the Dardanelles officers, some of whom fell before the walls of the be- or subvert it altogether. and the navigation of the Euxine, since or secretly at leaguered city. It is doubtless no less true that English that time imposed; the defection from his allegiance of officers aided in the defence; so that a prelimenary and the Pacha of Egypt; the vastly important alienation of casual collision between the two great powers now strugPersia from the interests of England, and her pres-gling for the mastery of Asia has already occurred, in the ent close alliance with Russia; and, finally, the constant aggressions and extension of power by Russia, especially on he south eastern frontier, have imposed upon the British nation, particularly upon all who have a deep interest in the preservation of her Indian Empire, a vivid | sense of impending and formidable danger. We shall not attempt, at this distance, to judge of the 1cality or the imminence of that danger. We prefer to detail facts rather than indulge in speculations. The Alienation of Persia-which is regarded as radical and determinate-removeshalf the barrier before exising between Russia and India. From his extreme port of Astrabad on the south east coast of the Caspian Sea, the Autocrat might now it is supposed march an army to Herat, on the eastern frontier of Persia, not only without opposition, but with every facility that might be required. There would it first encounter hostility. Let us consider its nature. very heart of the continent, at a point full 3,000 miles The line of policy determined on by the British, perhaps we should say, by the East India Company-is at once characteristic and remarkable. Instead of laboring to conciliate the ruling power of the barrier country, they are now intriguing to subvert it and establish one on its ruins not merely favorable but even subservient to their Persia, occupying the heart of the Asiatic continent, interests. They have endorsed the claims of Shah Soois known to every reader of history as subject to frequent jah, the expelled monarch of Afghanistan, and preparand desolating civil wars arising from disputed claims ed to back him with a powerful force. That he is weak to succeed to the throne. We believe no less than two and unqualified for the sovereignity would seem to be esof these have arisen within the last fifty years. The tablished by his exile; that he is unpopular is evinced tendency to these, it must be obvious, unsettles all calcu- by the fact that he has once or twice already been defeatlations of future aid to Russia based on the present tem-ed in attempts to recover his throne, though backed by per of her sovereign. But India is still separated from a respectable alien force. danger by intervention of another rude and rocky coun- But the British Company would doubtless prefer an try, nearly 500 miles in width, lately known by the gen- instrument to an ally; and the unpopularity of their proeral term of Afghanistan, though consisting of the sev-tege, if once restored to his throne, will but render him eral partially united and imperfectly defined states of the more subservient to those who direct the foreign bayprincipalities of Cabul, Candahar, Beloochistan, Herat, &c. This country is a victim to the same propensity for contested successions which for many centuries devastated its neighbor kingdom, Persia. By one of the last, its royal familily was driven into exile, leaving its government in the hands of a number of formerly subordinate though powerful chiefs, mainly of the warlike family of Barukyzes, who now govern its several states under a union not dissimilar to our own. They are chiefs of remarkable ability in peace and war, as well of popularity, as is evinced by their agrandizement, and by their signal discomfiture of two or three strenuous efforts, aided by foreign arms, to restore the the dynasty which they overthrew. A present manifesto from their court, exposing, denouncing and defying the restless machinations and boundless, insatiable rapacity of the E. I. Company, proves them acquainted with their own position and with the dangers which threaten them. They will doubtless be found equal to any emergency. The small mountainous province or state of Herat, in the north-west quarter of Afghanistan, is governed by an able chief known as Dost Mahomed, in close alliance with the Barukyze rulers of the rest of Afghanistan, though we believe not one of their family. This state is mainly important for the strength of its capital, Herat, commanding the principal, if not only practicable route from Persia, and which is therefore regarded as one of the most important of the keys of India. Herat, as is well known, was besieged last summer by a formidable Persian army, but gallantly resisted all their efforts and finally repulsed them from its territory with loss. It is onets by which he is placed and sustained there. Such Such is the present state of Oriental politics; though Spirit! where is thy resting place- And flowers blossom forth? Or where the young and thoughtless meet In pleasure's glittering hall; Oh no!-oh no!-the sun-lit earth But 'tis a changeful light, for clouds And birds and flowers must pass away- Is it upon the ocean's breast, Where tall ships win their way, Oh no-oh no!-the sailor dares But many a dauntless heart now sleeps And gallant ships have gone to wreck Where the tempest's wing alone might bear But would you know my blessed home, THE DRAMA, BY MRS. ELLET. Like the rich beams that light the ruin's breast, MEN AND MANNERS. MISSION TO ASHANTEE. A SKETCH OF AFRICAN CUSTOMS, DRES AND MANNERS. ceiving the vessel going on, the natives hurried after her, (the Moor protested, from their anxiety to save her from some sunken rocks with which the Quolla abounds,) but the white men mistaking, and thinking they pursued for a bad purpose, deterred them. The vessel soon struck; the men jumped into the water and tried to swim, The king's palace is an immense building, which but could not from the current, and were drowned."consists of a variety of oblong courts and regular Exactly the same account was also given by another squares, the former with arcades along the one side, some Moor, who, however, had not been an eye witness. of round arches symmetrically turned, having a skeleton These Moors alway affected to deplore the ignorance of of bamboo; the entablatures richly adorned with trellis the Ashantees. Baba drew a map of the world, encirand fan work of Egyptian fashion. There is a suit of rooms cling one large continent with sea, bounded by a girdle over them, with small windows of wooden lattice, of in- of rocks. Old Odumata's notion of geography was equaltricate regular carved work, and some have frames cased ly strange; he mentioned, that when on the coast above with gold. The sqares have a large apartment on each Apollonia, he had an idea of walking to England; for side, open in front, with two supporting pillars. They he was informed he should reach Santanee (Portugal) are lofty and regular. A drop curtain of curiously plait-in thirty days, and that after that the pats was very good. ed cane is suspended in front, and in each there were Apukoo (another Moor) was constant in his visits, and chairs and stools embossed with gold, and beds of silk. was very facetious and full of anecdote. He was very The residence of the women is the most ornamented desirous of learning tennis and sparring. He became part of the palace. The fronts of the apartments were very communicative of Ashantee politics, and asked why closed (except two open door-ways) by pannels of curi- the king of England did not send one of his own sons to ous open carving, resembling a Gothic screen; one was the king of Ashantee with the presents, and why so entirely closed, and had two curious doors of a low arch, great a king sent so small a force to Africa? The Spanand strengthened and battened with wood work carved ish campaign was gone through agpin and again, and in high relief, and painted red. Within the inmost never tired him. He gave excellent and frequent dinsquare is the council chamber. If there be much of Eu-ners to the mission, as did Odumata. Both were extraropean intrigue and knavery in the public palaces, there is much more popular honesty than would be found in more enlightened countries. We greatly doubt whether the following custom would be so strictly observed in England. A man was beheaded for transgressing the law, by picking up gold which he had dropped in the public market place, where all that falls is allowed to accumulate until the soil is washed on state emergencies. vagantly enraptured with the minature of an English female, and called all their wives to look at it. We fear that the residence of such men as these Moors at the court of Ashantee will present most formidable difficulties against the efforts of Christain missionaries. When the English women were represented not only to possess the advantage of enjoying the sole affections of a husband, but the more amicable privilege of choosing that Considerable difficulties and numerous palavers oc- husband, the effect was truly comic. "The women sicurred between the king and the mission, respecting the dled up to wipe the dust from our shoes; and, at the end three chief objects to be attained. The residency of a of every sentence, brushed off an insect, or picked a burr British envoy at the court of Ashantee-the education from our trowsers; the husbands, suppressing their disof the king's children at Cape Coast Castle-and lastly, like in a laugh, would put their hands before their and principally, the treaty. In the different palavers, mouths, declaring they did not want to hear that palaver the king and his privy council plead their cause with a any more, abruptly change the subject to war, and order diplomatic shrewdness not unworthy of an European the women to the harem." The king was much delightcongress. We shall not transcribe the letters which ed when Mr. Tedlie explained to him his surgical inpassed upon the subject, as we could have wished that struments and medicines. He could not help coveting Mr. Bowdich had rather abstracted than detailed this the greater part of the medicines. He expressed the portion of his volume. When Bowdich paid his first greatest astonishment at the botanical books. One of visit to Baba, the chief Moor, he found him contemplat- the king's sisters sent a message that she wanted to come ing a curiously intricate figure like a horoscopo, his MS. and see the white gentlemen. After exchanging comwas filled with them; he laid his finger on it, and said, pliments, she complained to Mr. Tedlie that her left hand "if you have any hard palaver, this can make me settle pained her very much. Just after the fashion of many it for you when no other person can; if you have any an English fair invalid, nothing material seemed the dear friend in England you wish to see, tell me the name, matter with it; and the courtesy of the white doctor, and this shall bring him to you." Some pens, paper, more than his skill, seemed the object of her invitation! ink, and pencils were presented to him; the paper and Many obstacles occurred in the discussion and decipencils were much esteemed, but he preferred his own sion of the treaty. On the terms being refused by the reed and vegetable ink. His disciples and pupils were king, the mission threatened to quit Comassie. At writing on wooden boards, like those which Mr. Park the moment of starting, a royal messenger ran up to say, describes. When a charm was applied for, one of the the king was waiting to see the mission. One being oldest wrote the body of it and gave it to Baba, who ad- admitted into the royal presence, the king demanded ded a sort of cabalistical mark, and gave it a mysterious why the mission had determined to quit him so suddenly. fold; the credulous native eagerly snatched it, paid the On its being represented that he had trfled with the obgold, and hurried away to enclose it in the richest case jects, and abused the liberality of the mission, he replied, he could afford. At Baba's house there was a Moor that what was told him was true; he liked the treaty vejust come from Timbuctoo, who related the following|ry well, but begged to be allowed a little longer till all his account of what we conceive can only refer to the fate of poor Park; "Some years ago, a vessel with masts suddenly appeared on the Quolla Niger, near Boussa, with three white men, and some black. The natives, encouraged by these strange men, took off some provisions for sale, were well paid, and received presents besides: it seems the vessel had anchored. The next day, per captains came. After much delay, the preliminaries through beautiful vistas, varied by gentle risings. After some conversation, the mission was conducted to a house prepared for its reception, where a relish was served (sufficient for an army) of soups, stews, plantains, yams, rice, &c. all excellently cooked, with wine, spirits, oranges, and other fruit. "Declining the offer of beds, we walked out into the town, and conversed and played drafts with the Moors, who were reclining under trees; the king joined us with cheerful affability, and seemed to forget his cares." About two o'clock dinner was announced. At the eastern side of the croom, a door of green reeds gave admittance through a short avenue to the king's garden, an arch equal to one of the largest squares in London. The breezes were strong and constant. In the centre, four large umbrellas of a new scarlet cloth were fixed, under which was the king's dining table, (heightened for the occasion,) and covered in the most imposing manner; his massy plate was well disposed; and silver forks, knives, and spoons, (Colofiel Torrane's) were plentifully laid. A large silver waiter supported a roasted pig in the centre; the other dishes of the table were roasted ducks, fowls, stews, pease-pudding, &c. On the ground, on one side of the table, were various soups, and every sort of vegetable; and on the other, oranges, pines, and other, fruits, sugar candy, Port and Maderia wine, spirits, and Dutch cordials, with glasses. We have heard of no aldermen in Ashantee, but such procedings as these must prove how fully worthy Ashantee appears to be both of a mansion-house and a corporation. At length the wished-for treaty was fully discussed, and formally sworn to by the king of Ashantee and the king of Dwabin. The king sent a handsome procession of flags, guns, and music, on the occasion, to conduct the mission to the palace. "The value of this treaty," says Mr. Bowdich, "is enchanced by the reflection, that the justice, dignity, and spirit, of the British government, have been preserved inviolate; and that it has been the result of the impression, and not of the abatement of these characteristics." The treaty consists of ten articles, the sum and substance of which is, that there shall be peace and commerce between the English government and king of Ashantee and Dwabin ; in the fifth article, the king of Ashantee agrees to permit a British officer to be resident at his capital. In the tenth article, the two kings promise that diligent inquiries shall be made respecting Major Peddie and Captain Campbell, (employed by the British government to proceed from Senegal into the interior, to trace the source of the River Niger,) and to oblige the neighboring kingdoms to befriend them. No law, it appears, has ever been enacted in this kingdom with equal solemnity, or an oath so serious been submitted to by the king, or imposed on the captains. After this, the mission expressed their wish to return to Cape Coast Castle; the king, however, seemed very unwilling that they should depart. After many delays, Mr. Bowdich was determined to quit even without his majesty's permission: an escape was not so easy. Before they had proceeded fifty yards, the gonggongs and drums beat to arms, and they were attacked by a crowd of swords and muskets headed by their housemaster Aboidwee, who, in the first rush, seized the luggage and the flag. This was, of course, resisted.— The Ashantees did not attempt to fire, but made their attack early with their heavy swords and large stones.— "We kept our ground,” says Mr. Bowdich, "nearly a quarter of an hour, though our caps and belts were torn away, and we frequently fell. Mr. Tedlie was stunned by a blow on the head, and as we were all much bruised we retired to a house, not expecting they they would follow us; but they did so, with a fury threatening destruction. The captain, Aboidwee, mad with fury and li served for this late period of African adventure, to make AGRICULTURE. From the Monthly Genesse Farmer. OF TERMS USEFUL IN THE SCIENCE OF AGRICULTURE. CONTINUED. glass at a high heat, weigh, and it gives the silicia contained in the soil. Let the water turned off settle clear, turn it off, dry at a high heat and weigh; this gives the alumine or clay. cent. To ascertain if earth contains iron, stir the muriatic acid and water with a strip of oak bark, and if iron is present in the liquid the bark will turn dark. To ascertain the quantity, put in prussiate of potash till it no longer forms a blue precipitate, let it settle, heat the deposit to redness, carefully weigh the remainder, which is oxide of iron. quor, made a cut at me as I held him from me, which would have been fatal but for the presence of me and of the soldiers." The king wished it to appear that all this happened without his countenance of the outrage. He even offered to give the heads of all those who had Put into a suitable glass or flask, one fourth of a gill led on this ruffian multitude. The king and the misof muriatic acid and water in equal proportions, and balsion eventually parted very excellent friends. The king ance the scales carefully. Put into this mixture, one supplied them with bearers; he would not hear of pay hundred grains of earth, let it stand until all effervesfor any of them, and persisted in appointing one of his cence has ceased; which will sometimes be an hour or captains to be an escort. The king and his captains more; carefully note the weight required to again balwere seated by torchlight, with all their insignia, without ance the scales, and that may be set down as the weight the palace, and the mission quitted the capital preceded Volatile alkali. It is a transparent, colorless gas, of of carbonic gas expelled, say six grains. Then as forby the king's banners, discharges of musketry, and eve- about half the weight of common water, with an ex-ty-five is to fifty-five, so is this weight to that of the base ry flattering distinction that could be thought of. His ceedingly pungent smell, extinguishes flame, and is fa- or the lime. In this case the lime would be 7 1-3 per majesty has provided one of the best houses for Mr. tal to life. Its old name was "spirits of hearts-horn."Hutchison as resident, and has anticipated every thing To the agriculturist, ammonia, is particularly interesting to make him comfortable and respected. Nothing could from the fact that these substances that contain the most be more considerate or kind than his speech on taking of it are the most efficient manures, and act with the leave. In his letter to the governor, after many expres- most certainty and promptness. Ammonia is produced sions of friendship, the king adds, " I will thank you to from soft or fluid animal substances while in the process impress on the king of England, that I have sworn not of decomposition, and this change is rapid in proportion to renew the war with the Fantees, out of respect to him. to the quantity of earthy salts they contain. "It is parI hope, therefore, he will, in return, consider if he can- ticularly to the developements of ammonial gas," says not renew the slave trade, which will be good for me." Chaptal, "which, combined with gelatine, passes into Thus it is, that as long as other nations deal in this abo- plants, that we can attribute the wonderful effect prominable traffic, there will always be a bar to English duced upon vegetation by certain animal substances."philanthropy. No reasoning of humanity-no prospect These substances are the animal manures, the urine, of future good, will be found to avoid against the greed-poudrette, the bones, horns, hair, &c. The urine of the iness of present avarice. Owing to the swollen state of animal contains in muriates and carbonate of ammonia the rivers from the heavy rains that had fallen, the re- about 20 per cent., besides 11 per cent. of phosphate of turn of the mission to Cape Coast Castle was attended lime and sulphate of potash, or 30 per cent. of the most with many disasters. A dreadful storm overtook the active manure yet discovered; and the saving and proparty, which obliged them to separate, and spend the per distribution of it forms an important item in Flemish night in the woods. The remainder of the journey husbandry. The larvæ left after the cocoons are reeled was more propitious. "At length," concludes Mr. Bow-in the extensive stilk manufactories of France and Italy, dich, "we climbed some very steep and rocky hills, ap- are considered invaluable as a manure. Their excelparently of iron stone, and descended into a flat country, lence is owing to the ammonia they contain, which in continuing until a small rising about two miles from them Chaptal found to exceed in quantity that of any Cape Coast Castle opened the sea to our view; as de- other animal substance. lightful to our sight as land would have been after a prolonged and perilous voyage. The shouts and greetings of the natives were a grateful introduction to the more congenial congratulations of our countrymen.”— Thus happily terminated the mission to Ashantee. Analysis. To determine the presence of gypsum, take four hundred grains of earth, mix one-third the quantity of powdered charcoal, keep it at a red heat in a crucible for half an hour. Then boil the earth in a pint of water for 30 minutes, filter the liquor and expose it for some days in an open vessel. A white deposit will be sulphate of lime and the weight will determine the proportion. These processes are all simple, and can be performed by any one. By them we obtain-first, the absorbent power-second, the amount of animal and vegetabie and animal matter-third, the silicia, or sand; 4th, the alumine or clay-fifth, the carbonate of lime-sixth, the oxides of iron-and seventh, the gypsum or plaster of Paris. The salts exercise a great influence on vegetation, but as they principally depend on the animal and vegetable matter in the soil, and as the determining of their qualities and varieties is too difficult for the analysis of the farmer, the processes are omitted. The above ingrediTo determine the value of any soil, or to be able to ents are all that exert a marked influence on the fertility correct any fault in the original constitution or any de- of soils, and on their proper proportion its goodness deficiency arising from improper cultivation, it necessary pends If soils contain too much silicia or gravel, they that the nature and portion of the substances compos- are porous; and if too much clay, retentive. The last ing it should be understood. In agriculture this examin- is usually the worst fault, and may be known by the waation is termed analysis; and in its simplest, yet still efter standing upon it after it rains, remaining unsettled fectual method, may be practised by every farmer. The for a long time, owing to the clay held in solution.— implements required are a pair of scales, accurate to the tenth part of a grain; a crucible; some muriatic acid, and a few small vessels of china or glass. The earth to be tested by the farmer should be taken from a few inches below the surface, and be an everage specimen of the field, or the soil to be cxamined. The quantity to be examined say 2 or 400 grains, is to be lightly pulverized or well mixed together. Put off this 200 grains in a crucible, and heat it to 3000° of Fahrenheit, or bake it in an oven heathed for bread for 15 minutes; cool and weigh. This will show the absorbent power of the soil, and as this is depending mainly on the animal and vegetable matter, if the loss is considerable it is a decissive proof in this respect of fertility. The absorbent power varies from 1 to 12 per cent. Wheat winter kills on such soils; on calcareous gravelly ones rarely. Good soils usually contain from sixtyfive to seventy-five of silicia; from ten to sixteen of alumine! from four to ten of lime, and a varying proportion of vegetable matters, animal and mineral salts, &c. The analysis of soils forms one of the decided steps in the improvement of agriculture, as it clearly points out what is wanting to remedy any defect and give ease of working and abundance in product. Every farmer should understand the nature and composition of his soil, and may do so with little time, and a mere trifle of expense. We shall take another opportunity of presenting our readers with an abstract of the various and curious information contained in the second part of the volume.In the meantime, we cannot conclude without repeating our acknowledgements of the great delight we have felt in contemplating so singular an addition to our knowledge of African men and manners. We are, perhaps, the more gratified, in having so recently perused so many journals of so different a complexion on the same subject. The naratives of Adams, Riley, and even of Tuckey, have furnished very scanty additions to what was already known, while the personal sufferings which they underwent, force upon us the regret, that such information was purchased at so dear a cost. They present a picture only of wretchedness, ignorance, and barbarism. But in Ashantee we appear to revisit Mexico at its first invasion. We had intended, indeed, to compare the two nations, but our limited space forbids it.The microscope has opened to the eye of man a race In one point of view this publication must be of singuof beings so small as to be utterly invisible to the naked lar use. It will tend to raise the character of the Afrieye, yet endowed with all the functions of vitality and can negro, so long and unjustly ranked and treated as perfectly organized animals. Some of these are called being incapable of improvement, and, therefore, unworInfusoriæ, from being always found in water in which thy. There is, indeed, one foul blot that marks the charplants are decaying, and some Diatonicle, but all incluacter of this people-human sacrifices and tortures. But ded under the term animalcule. They have long been their manual skill, their general courtesy, their regular Take 200 grains of the dried earth, mix it thoroughly regarded more as objects of mere curiosity than anything government, their powerful armies, their immense trea-with a gill of water by stirring it for several minutes.-- else; but recent discoveries seem to indicate that these sures, and their splendid habitations, render it a pheno- | Let it stand for three minutes, and turn off the muddy | minute insects have had an important influence in modimenon not easily to be explained, why should it be re- water into another glass. Dry the sediment in the first 'fying the crusts of the earth, and giving it the character After weighing, heat it again in the crucible to a red heat, and until the mass shows no bright or sparkling particles, stirring it a glass or iron rod; cool and weigh, and the loss will be the animal and vegetable matter in the soil. Animalculæ. |