REVIEW. THE SINFULNESS OF COLONIAL SLAVERY. By ROBERT HALLEY. London: Hamilton. pp. 28. THE rapid progress which the anti-slavery cause has recently made cannot fail to gratify every humane and Christian mind. The religious part of the community have been effectually aroused by the persecution of their missionaries; and an active, extensive, and systematic co-operation has thus been obtained. The previous supineness of religious men was a matter of deep regret to many friends of Christianity. It gave some appear ance of sanction to the impious appeal which the slave-holder made to revelation, and greatly weakened the hands of those philanthropists who were seeking to burst the bonds of colonial servitude. It has afforded us pleasure to see many of the ministers of religion, both in the Establishment and among Dissenters, exerting their influence for the promotion of this righteous cause. No labour of love can be more appropriate to their office; no work of mercy and justice can more cogently be enforced by the mild principles of their faith. They are thus following the example of their Master, in the promotion of human happiness; and cannot fail, by a patient continuance in such labours, to secure his approval. The publication before us was delivered as a lecture at the Monthly Meeting of Congregational Ministers and Churches in London, on the seventh of February last. It displays an extensive acquaintance with the subjectexposes the futility of the appeal which Colonial writers make to revelation in support of their system-and exhibits, in a luminous and impressive manner, the murderous character of Colonial Slavery. Mr. Halley has evidently acquainted himself with the details of the question which he undertakes to discuss, and the manner in which he has exhibited his information is alike creditable to his head and heart. He has committed a slight mistake in his statement of the case of Haiti. The emancipation of the negroes is represented as having already taken place previously to the civil war between the royalists and republicans. But the reverse of this was the case. The two parties took to arms in 1790; but the proclamation of Polverel, giving freedom to the slaves, was not issued till August, 1793; and the decree of the French Assembly, abolishing slavery throughout, was passed in February, 1794. This fact strengthens our case, by showing that slavery has been abolished with safety, even amid the carnage and brutality of a civil war. The following extract furnishes a fair specimen of the author's style: "I must confine myself to one most fearful charge, but that demonstrably true. It is a murderous system. Its victims are nigh unto death; they are ready to be slain. In ten years, the slave population of our colonies has been diminished by 50,000. What a tale of intense misery does that single fact un fold! That population should increase, is one of the most constant laws of nature; and when prudential arrangements do not impose a restraint upon early marriage, a consideration totally inapplicable to the state of the negroes, the increase proceeds with surprising rapidity. But we have here the very reverse of nature's laws. Let us hear no more of comparison with the growing population of Britain. Even the starving paupers of Ireland rapidly multiply, and spread over the world. If then the prolonged labour of our fac tories, or the scanty food of the Irish poor, is able "This decrease was, immediately on its discovery, "This diminution is taken upon the gross estimate of the registers. But, says Dr. Collins, in excuse of the system, domestic slaves, and workmen in towns, increase as rapidly as any other class in the West Indies. There must be, therefore, a proportionably greater decrease than 50,000 upon the smaller number of plantation slaves alone. Upon the examination of the registers of several large sugar plan'ations, the decrease in the ten years was as much as from twelve to twenty per cent, and even much more in the Mauritius. Indeed, where complete accuracy was obtained, in the neighbourhood of Port Louis, 12,000 slaves had, in seven years, decreased to less than 7,000. But, it may be said, why cite the Mauritius, which bears no resemblance to the West Indies? No, I trust it is like no spot on God's earth. Its horrid tales are unparelleled, of teeth torn away-eyes struck out-arms, legs, breasts, cut off and more horrid tortures, proved by indisputable evidence, judicial records, oaths of the military, and reports of Commissioners. I adduce it for the same reason as 1 refer to the Antilles; because the British colours wave over them both, elsewhere the favourite standard of liberty, but in the Indian Ocean and the Mexican Gulf, the emblem of bondage, oppression, and death. Let us tear down our flag; or wash away its stain, whether it be the scarlet of Jamaica, or the deeper crimson of the Mauritius. "But, to confi e ourselves to the West Indies, it when raging in Europe-nor the plague in Con- "The system is murderous through an exhausting and merciless exaction of labour. I need not go some against slave-life. During this protracted period, "Besides all this, the slave, not like an English- punishment is exhibited, and the culprits, stretched upon frames by ropes, are beaten with rattans, which tear the flesh from their bones." SINGULAR PROVIDENTIAL ESCAPE. THE journal of Mr. Kay, one of the Wesleyan Missionaries in South Africa, contains the following remarkable account of the deliverance of a poor sick Hottentot from the jaws of a lion. The account bears date December 2, 1829. (the Hottentot in question) went out on a "About three weeks or a month ago, he hunting excursion, accompanied by several other natives. Arriving on an extensive plain, where there was abundance of game, they discovered a number of lions also, which appeared to be disturbed by their approach. A prodigiously large male immediately separated himself from the troop, and began slowly whom were young, and altogether unaccusto advance towards the party, the majority of tomed to rencontres of so formidable a nature. When droves of timid antelopes, or springbocks only, came in their way, they made a great boast of their courage, but the very appearance of the forest's king made them tremble. While the animal was yet at a distance, they all dismounted to prepare for firing, and, according to the custom on such occasions, began tying their horses together, by means of the bridles, with the view of keeping the latter between them and the lion, as an object to attract his attention, until they were able to take deliberate aim. His move ments, however, were at length too swift for them. Before the horses were properly fastened to each other, the monster made a tremendous bound or two, and suddenly pounced upon the hind parts of one of them, which, in its fright, plunged forward, and knocked down the poor man in question, who was holding the reins in his hand. His comrades instantly took flight, and ranjoff with all speed; and he, of course, rose as quickly as possible, in order to follow them. But, no sooner had he regained his feet, than the majestic beast, with a seeming consciousness of his superior might, stretched forth his paw, and, striking him just behind the neck, immediately brought him to the ground again. He then rolled on his back, when the lion set his foot upon his breast, and laid down upon him. The poor man now became almost breathless, partly from fear, but principally from the intolerable pressure of his terrific load. He endeavoured to move a little to one side, in order to breathe; but, feeling this, the creature seized his left arm, close to the elbow; and, after once laying hold with his teeth, he continued to amuse himself with the limb for some time, biting it in sundry different places down to the hand, the thick part of which seemed to have been pierced entirely through. All this time the lion did not appear to be angry, but he merely caught at his prey, like a cat sporting with a mouse that is not quite dead; so that there was not a single bone fractured, as would, in all probability, have been the case had the creature been hungry or irritated. Whilst writhing in agony, gasping for breath, and expecting every moment to be torn limb from limb, the sufferer cried to his companions for assistance, but cried in vain. On raising his head a little, the beast opened his dreadful jaws to receive it, but providentially the hat, which I saw in its rent state, slipped off, so that the points of the teeth only just grazed the surface of the skull. The lion now set his foot upon the arm from which the blood was freely flowing; his fearful paw was soon covered therewith, and he again and again licked it clean! The idea verily makes me shudder while I write. But this was not the worst; for the animal then steadily fixed his flaming eyes upon those of the man, smelt on one side, and then on the other of his face, and, having tasted the blood, he appeared half inclined to devour his helpless victim. At this critical moment,' said the poor man, I recollected having heard that there is a God in the heavens, who is able to deliver at the very last extremity; and I began to pray that he would save me, and not allow the lion to eat my flesh, and drink my blood.' While thus engaged in calling upon God, the beast turned himself completely round. On perceiving this, the Hottentot made an effort to get from under him; but no sooner did the creature observe his movement, than he laid terrible hold of his right thigh. This wound was dreadfully deep, and evidently occasioned the sufferer most excruciating pain. He again sent up his cry to God for help; nor were his prayers in vain. The huge animal soon afterwards quietly relinquished his prey, though he had not been in the least interrupted. Having deliberately risen from his seat, he walked majestically off, to the distance of thirty or forty paces, and then laid down in the grass, as if for the purpose of watching the man. The latter, being happily relieved of his load, ventured to sit up, which circumstance immediately attracted the lion's attention; nevertheless, it did not induce another attack, as the poor fellow naturally expected; but, as if TOSH'S ELOQUENCE. all would indulge in that vapid violence against persons, which the spirit of party is rarely wanting to applaud. But as it is, the man of superior mind, standing upon his own strength, knows and feels that he is not speaking to the lolling, lounging, indolently listening individuals stretched on the benches around him: he feels and knows that he is speaking to, and will obtain the sympathy of, all the great and enlightened spirits of Europe; and this bears and buoys him up amidst any coldness, impatience, or indifference, in his immediate audience. When we perused the magnificent orations of Mr. Burke, which transported us in our cabinet, and were told that his rising was the dinner bell in the House of Commons; when we heard that some of Mr. Brougham's almost gigantic discourses were delivered amidst coughs and impatience; and when, returning from our travels, where we had heard of nothing but the genius and eloquence of Sir James Mackintosh, we encountered him ourselves in the House of Commons;―on_all these occasions we were sensible, not that Mr. Burke's, Mr. Brougham's, Sir James Mackintosh's eloquence was less, but that it was CHARACTER OF SIR JAMES MACKIN. addressed to another audience than that to which it was apparently delivered. Intended for the House of Commons only, the style SIR James Mackintosh never spoke on a would have been absurdly faulty: intended subject without displaying, not only all that for the public, it was august and correct. was peculiarly necessary to that subject, but There are two different modes of obtaining a all that a full mind, long gathering and con- parliamentary reputation; a man may rise in gesting, has to pour forth upon any subject. the country by what is said of him in the The language, without being antithetic, was House of Commons, or he may rise in the artificial and ornate. The action and voice House of Commous by what is thought and were vehement, but not passionate; the tone said of him in the country. Some debaters and conception of the argument of too lofty have the faculty, by varying their style and and philosophic a strain for those to whom, ge- their subjects, of alternately addressing both nerally speaking, it was directed. It was im- those without and within their walls, with efpossible not to feel that the person addressing fect and success. Mr. Fox, Mr. Pitt, Mr. Sheyou was a profound thinker, delivering a la-ridan, Mr. Canning were, and Lord Brougham boured composition. Sir James Mackintosh's is, of this number. Mr. Burke and Sir James character as a speaker, then, was of that sort Mackintosh spoke to the reason and the imaacquired in a thin house, where those who gination, rather than to the passions; and this, have stayed from their dinner have stayed for together with some faults of voice and manner, the purpose of hearing what is said, and can, rendered these great orators (for great orators therefore, deliver up their attention undis- they were) more powerful in the printed retractedly to any knowledge and ability, even if ports, than in the actual delivery of their somewhat prolixly put forth, which elucidates speeches. We ourselves heard Sir James Mackthe subject of discussion. We doubt if all intosh's great, almost wonderful, speech upon great speeches of a legislative kind would not Reform. We shall never forget the extensive require such an audience, if they never tra- range of ideas, the energetic grasp of thought, velled beyond the walls in which they were the sublime and soaring strain of legislative spoken. The passion, the action, the move- philosophy, with which he charmed and transment of oratory which animates and trans- ported us; but it was not so with the House ports a large assembly, can never lose their in general. His Scotch accent, his unceasing effect when passion, action, movement are in and laboured vehemence of voice and gesture, the orator's subject; when Philip is at the the refined and speculative elevation of his head of his Macedonians, or Catiline at the views, and the vast heaps of hoarded knowledge gates of Rome. The emotions of fear, revenge, he somewhat prolixly produced, displeased the horror, are emotions that all classes and de- taste and wearied the attention of men who scriptions of men, however lofty or low their were far more anxious to be amused and exintellect, may feel:-here, then, is the orator's cited, than to be instructed or convinced. We proper field. But again; there are subjects, see him now! his bald and singularly formed. such as many, if not most, of those discussed head working to and fro, as if to collect and in our House of Commons, the higher bearings then shake out his ideas; his arm violently of which are intelligible only to a certain or- vibrating, and his body thrown forward by der of understandings. The reasoning proper sudden quirks and starts, which, ungraceful as for these is not understood, and cannot there- they were, seemed rather premeditated than fore be sympathised with, by the mass. In inspired. This is not the picture which Deorder not to be insipid to the few, it is almost mosthenes would have drawn of a perfect oranecessary to be dull to the many. If our tor; and it contains some defects that we wonHouses of legislature sat with closed doors, der more care had not been applied to remedy. they would be the most improper assemblies -New Monthly Magazine. for the discussion of legislative questions that we can possibly conceive. They would have completely the tone of their own clique. No one would dare or wish to soar above the common-places which find a ready echoing cheer Printed by J. HADDON and Co.; and Published by J. CRISP, at No. 27, Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row, where all Advertisements and Communi......... cations for the Editor are to be addressed. THIS unrivalled edifice was founded by | the irresistible interest which it inspires Henry the Sixth, together with the princely is to be traced to the richness of decoraestablishment to which it is attached. By tion for which this style is distinguished. referring to his will we find that his de- "Let it be inquired," says an enthusiassigns in these undertakings have not been tic writer, referring to this edifice, "whereaccomplished by his successors, although, in doth the charm consist that so comwhen we regard the magnificence of the pletely takes possession of our senses in whole mass of buildings, and the pre-gazing from west to east on the whole eminence of the chapel over all other Gothic buildings, we can scarcely regret the deviation. With respect to the latter, it is of the order of architecture which has generally been termed florid Gothic; but it is difficult to say whether length of the interior? Is it from its present workmen in masonic power, their utter inability to raise a mighty standard in this way?" Whatever may be the cause, it is impossible for any one to approach it without a feeling of reverence. The architectural skill of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries is here displayed in its utmost perfection. Without, the prodigious stones of which it consists, the vast buttresses by which it is supported, the loftiness and extent of the building, the fine proportions of the towers and pinnacles; and, within, the grand extended view, the admirable arched roof, without the support of any pillars, displaying all the richness of its fine fan-work, and the matchless paintings on its windows, all combine to impress the beholder with emotions which can be better felt than described. The attention, moreover, is not withdrawn from these objects by any busts, statues, or inscriptions; but the whole furniture and decoration is highly calculated to perpetuate the effect of the first coup d'œil. An exception to this statement is taken by the learned historian of Cambridge. "It must be confessed," says he, "that some littlenesses and human weaknesses are too obvious-I mean those minute devices of the arms of York and Lancaster with roses, portcullises, fleurs de lis, and crowns. These little patches on greatness, these heterogeneous intermixtures, religiously considered, are quite out of place, and, architecturally, are quite opposite to sublimity and grandeur." The greatest curiosity connected with this edifice is the stone roof, a structure which some do not hesitate to say surpasses the ingenuity of modern architects to imitate. There is a tradition that Sir Christopher Wren went once a year to survey this roof, and said that if any man would show him where to place the first stone he would build such another. It was constructed in 1513, in consequence of a grant of £5000 to defray the expences of carrying on the building. It is in the form of a grand Gothic arch, without any pillar to uphold it (though of immense span), the buttresses and towers of the chapel being its only support. In the middle of this roof, and in the flattest part of it, are fixed perpendicularly, at equal distance from one another, stones adorned with roses and portcullises, every work of three succeeding kings-Henry | obsolete sports of the ancient Hoc-tide, an old ALL FOOLS' DAY. FIRST OF APRIL. "THE first of April, some do say, At last some tells them of the cheat, Poor Robin's Almanack, 1760. "Yet in the vulgar this weak humour's bred, April the first stands marked by custom's rules, A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine, for Another author "thinks that he clearly demonstrates its origin from the primitive Christians, who, by way of conciliating the Pagans to a better worship, humoured their prejudices by yielding to a conformity of names, and even of customs, where they did not essentially interfere with the fundamentals of the gospeldoctrine. Among these, in imitation of the Roman Saturnalia, was the Festum Fatuorum." A contributor to the Gentleman's Magazine conjectures that "the custom of imposing upon and ridiculing people on the first of April may have an allusion to the mockery of the Saviour of the world by the Jews. Something like this, which we call making April fools, is practised also abroad, in Catholic countries, on Innocents' Day." Dr. Pegge thinks the custom arose from the rejoicing at the commencement of the new "which formerly began, as to some puryear, poses, and in some respects, on the 25th of March, which was supposed to be the incarnation of our Lord; and it is certain that the commencement of the new year, at whatever time that was supposed to be, was always esteemed an high festival, and that both among the ancient Romans and with us. Now, great festivals were usually attended with an octave, that is, they were wont to continue eight days, whereof the first and last were the principal; and you will find the first of April is the octave of the 25th of March, and the close, or ending, consequently, of that feast, which was both the festival of the Annunciation, and of the new year." Mr. Donce says, "The making of April fools, after all the conjectures touching its origin, is certainly borrowed by us from the French, and may, I think, be deduced from this simple analogy. The French call their April fish, (Poissons d' Avril) i. e. simpletons; or, in other words, silly mackarel, who suffered themselves to be caught in this month. But, as with us April is not the season of that fish we have very properly substituted the word fools." A writer in 1708 derives the custom from one of which is no less than a ton weight. retain, took their rise whilst these kingdoms the time of Romulus, when the Romans carried off the Sabine women! The Romans, on the first day of April, abstained from pleading causes; and the Roman ladies performed ablutions under myrtle-trees, crowned themselves with leaves, and offered sacrifices to Venus. In the north of England, persons imposed upon are called April gowks. Each of these is upwards of a yard in were wholly Catholic." That the singular custhickness, and projects beyond the other gious observance is most probable, although tom of fool-making had its origin in some reliThe Jews are said to attribute the origin part of the carved work. There is a the researches of our antiquarians have estab- from the mistake of Noah in sending the dove curious passage in its praise in Fuller's lished little else than that the custom is very out of the ark before the waters had abated, on History of Cambridge, which, for its en- ancient and very general. Much has been the first day of the month among the Hebrews thusiasm, deserves to be quoted. "The written upon the subject, a good deal of learn-which answers to our first of April. chapel in this college," says he, "is one ing and diligence has been displayed, many very recondite theories have been formed; all of the rarest fabrics in Christendom, which, however, have not led to any very wherein the stone-work, wood-work, and satisfactory or plausible conclusion. Having glass-work, contend which most deserve none better to offer of our own, we will give admiration. Yet the first generally car- the various opinions of others, and leave our rieth away the credit (as being a Stone-readers to choose the one which may appear to henge, indeed), so geometrically contrived them the most reasonable. that voluminous stones mutually support each other in the arched roof, as if art had made them to forget nature, and weaned them from their fondness to descend to their centre. And yet, though there be so much of Minerva, there is nothing of Arachne in this building-I mean, not a spider appearing, or cobweb to be seen on the Irish wood or cedar beams thereof. No wonder, then, if this chapel, so rare a structure, was the Mr. Brand "is inclined to think the word . all here is a corruption of our northern The Feast of Old Fools is removed to this In a note, Mr. Brand suggests "that the In Scotland, upon April Day, they have a custom of "hunting the gowk," as it is termed. This is done by sending silly people upon fools' errands, from place to place, by means of a letter in which is written : : "On the first day of April Hunt the gowk another mile." It will be remarked, from the foregoing extracts, that writers are little agreed as to the prime origin of this almost universal custom, which, from its universality, must have been of a very general nature. The study of the customs, sports, and pastimes of the people is, by no means, either useless or unprofitable: some useful knowledge of mankind will be acquired, for wisdom may be extracted from the follies and superstitions of our forefathers. We have been chiefly indebted to Brand's interesting work on the antiquities, customs, habits, &c., of the people of England, in two vols. 4to. for the above remarks; and we cannot avoid recommending the interesting works of Mr. Hone, The Table Book, and Every Day Book, in which much that is novel and interesting will be found regarding our popular antiquities. SPELL-WORK. T. MANY of our readers have heard and read of the SPELL System on sugar plantations, yet few of them probably are aware of its fearfully oppressive character. For the information of such we insert the following description of this murderous system, taken from No. 104 of the Anti-Slavery Reporter. We have lately had an opportunity of obtaining the opinion of a gentleman thoroughly conversant with the economy of a sugar plantation, and he strongly confirms our previous conviction of its accuracy. "An intelligent person, who kept spell as a book-keeper for four years in Jamaica, is ready to testify, if called upon, to the uniform practice, in his time, to divide into two spells that part of the first and second gangs not occupied as coopers, in making casks, or as waggoners, or mule-drivers. "The following is a sketch of the working of those two spells, which we will call A and B, a white book-keeper being allowed to each, who had the same length of night-duty as the slaves :"On Sunday, at 6, P.M., the spell A went to the works and put the mill about, remaining there till midnight, when it went to rest as soon as relieved by spell B. At day-dawn, on Monday, spell A went to the field, and continued cutting canes there for the mill till noon. At noon it resumed its place at the works, and continued there till midnight on Monday, when it took rest till day-dawn on Tuesday, and was then again in the field cutting canes till noon; and thus it proceeded on each succeeding day of the week, except that on Saturday it did not always retire at midnight, but remained sometimes to two or three on Sunday morning, till all the cane-juice was boiled off. During the same week, the spell B came on duty at the works at midnight on Sunday night, and continued there till noon on Monday, when it went home; but, at two, P. M., it was again in the field, cutting canes for the mill from that time until dusk, when it went home to rest till called up again at midnight to relieve spell A. And so the work proceeded the whole week, only that at mid night on Saturday there was no call of spell B, however late might be the boiling. "The succeeding week, the spells were changed, so that the spell B began work on the Sunday evening at 6 P.M., and so had the very same tale and hours of labour, both at the works and in the field, which the spell A had had the week before, and A the same as B had had. Thus each spell, during every twenty-four hours, was twelve hours at the works, and six hours in the field, the whole of their sleep being taken from the six hours which then alone remained to them. And the same must of absolute necessity be the case still, if the manufacture of sugar be continuously carried on, on estates not having more than from two hundred to two hundred and fifty negroes, embracing a large majority of sugar estates. Is not this toil dreadful, and most wearing and exhausting? And it affects the women still more than the men. Can women, by any possibility, breed under such circumstances? It is altogether impossible." NOTES ON THE ISLAND OF CUBA. FROM THE UNPUBLISHED MEMORANDA OF A TRAVELLER. No. I. varied and shadowy, with all its inequalities contrasting their tints with the deep cerulean sky, which stretched now in serene and unclouded beauty over the wide sea we had lately left; it presented a picture more rich and more diversified than what the most splendid ima It was always my wish, when I should re.gination could paint or describe. The middle visit Jamaica, to spend some portion of my ground of this scene, a wide extent of forest, earliest leisure in a voyage to the Island of over which the evening mists were gathering, Cuba. Having arranged my affairs, that I showed, by occasional breaks, the spots where might have to myself the undisturbed enjoy the gentle hills and valleys undulated, or ment of a few months, I engaged, on the 5th where luxuriant pastures and extensive savanof January, 1821, a passage on board the brig nas stretched a wide undappled surface of Emerald, then about to sail for a cargo of grass. Nearer to the eye, the ocean lay, green timber. We set out from the harbour of and bright, flickering as it heaved with the M** * *, a north-side port, at ten at red glare of the setting sun-beam, while the night, the usual hour at which vessels quit giant trees upon its borders were seen growing that part of the coast. They so settle their within the very margin of the sea. There was departure as to wait till the land-breeze comes neither sand nor ooze between the forest and sweeping from the mountains strong and the ocean. All was as silent as death. Nosteady, in order that they may make a fair thing was heard but the occasional cry of the wind of it, and, having the advantage of run-sea-gull, or the drowsy wing of the pelican as ning before the breeze under the lea of the she lagged over the heaving waters, with her land, slip from one shore, through waters over-loaded gorge stored with provender for whose undulations, beneath the lambent pu- her clamorous and expectant young ones, in rity and resplendent skies of a West Indian their home on the earthy sea-cliffs. One cotnight, scarcely rise above the gentle ripples of tage and a few canoes on the main-land, and a summer tide, and arrive at the other coast a fisherman's hut and a pinnace among the just as the trade winds are freshening up with keys, were all the evidence that man was an the increasing brillianey of the opening day. inhabitant of these regions. As I gazed upon I loitered on deck till I saw the watch-fires on the quiet yet luxuriant scene, I could not help the Jamaica mountains grow dim and indis- recurring to the fate of the gentle race that tinct in the shadowy mistiness of the receding once owned these shores. The boundless shores. When I looked out again at sun-rise, wastes before me, which formerly saw them the bold and picturesque summit of the pico wandering amid the fragrant and flowery Torquino, one of the loftiest mountains of shades as "thick and numberless as the gay Cuba, was lifting its head before me, with the motes that people the sun-beam," scarce now vapours rolling in dense masses over the forest retain a vestige that any but the present posplains. By midday we were safely anchored sessors of the soil had awakened the echoes of within that range of sunken reefs that stretch the exhaustless forests. Friendly and gentle out from Cape Cruz some miles towards the in their dispositions, simple and artless in their straggling line of green islets, bounding the manners, living in the luxury of indolence and Bay of Bayamo. They are a part of that ease, they seemed, in their innocence, amid cluster of coral rocks and mangrove shoals to the bountiful land they occupied, to realize which, from their fresh beauty amid the bright the condition of our first parents and the early and placid waters, Columbus, when he first days of Paradise. They knew no wisdom like saw them, gave the poetical appellation of the knowledge of good and evil, and the curse "the gardens of the king." On account of the of labour and its attendant misery. But avamultiplicity of these rocks and reefs, it is cus- rice and ambition came among them; and the tomary for English vessels, proceeding thither, luxurious repose, that hung like a spell over to take with them a pilot from Jamaica. Ours the thickly-peopled shores and blissful groves was Ramon, a Spanish youth, of mixed Indian of the happy islanders, was reversed, and the descent, a native of Maracaibo, a man of un- fragrant bowers, the home of "the swarming commonly mild, handsome features, but with myriads of idle and light-hearted creatures," a temper which blended the contradiction of became the silent woodland wastes that I then cheerfulness, and a sullen habit of silence and beheld them. reserve, a peculiar trait in the Indian character. Under his guidance we were instructed and strong tides which prevail on the extento take advantage of the comparatively high sive bays of this island, to facilitate the navigation of its waters. We passed through the ship's channel, avoided the Canal de Bolandras, whose depth, as its name imports, only enables sloops to pass, and anchored for the night, just before sunset, in that wide sweeping curve of the coast called the Media Luna, with Martillo before us. With the first dawn of day-light we were again under sail, and by sun-set had anextremely shoal, so that we landed with some chored in Manzanilla Bay. The coast was difficulty at the Corbel - a temporary fort, the walls of which were constructed of the husky case which forms the footstalk of the Palmetto (areca oleracea). The fort itself, elevated about eight feet from the water's edge, was composed of the logs of the cedar and hard wood of the country. It was mounted with ten or a dozen pieces of cannon, of a Being now at that part of the shore where calibre sufficiently heavy to carry shot with the Torquino Mountains form the south-effect to a great distance-a necessary provieastern background of the landscape, the beau- sion, in consequence of the shallow waters of tiful peak, as it rose majestically over the conthe bay. This temporary defence has been tiguons hills, at the hour of sunset, became an since removed, and a substantial fortress object of peculiar grandeur. The volume of erected in its place; but, frail as it was at the fleecy clouds which all the afternoon had been period of my visit, it was not to be despised as gathering midway around its summit, illu- a protection to the coast. A few weeks premined by the intense rays of the setting sun, vious to my arrival, a Columbian brig of war, shone like a mantle of burnished gold. Through the Libertador, in company with a felucca, these arose, glowing in purple radiance, the having run up the coast, landed a party of mountain itself, looking out distinct, but armed seamen in the harbour, under cover of |