had been accepted before it; all these considerations must often perplex the editor of a magazine, and prevent his giving an instant reply to a correspondent, and also compel him to reject communications which would be otherwise desirable. But it was not for the purpose of saying these very obvious truths that we have noticed the Southern complaint in question. We are accused of not being American because we are Northern. The South, or at least that part of it which is embodied in the person of our particular friend in question, will not permit us to enjoy the common instincts of patriotism, but will cut us off from our inheritance, because we happen to live on the wrong side of Mason and Dixon's line. It was a son of New England who uttered the patriotic sentiment, "I know no North, no South; " but our Southern friends say they "know no North, only a South." There are numberless publications calling themselves after the South, to indicate their sectional character and their antagonism to the North. The Southern Quarterly, the Southern Literary Messenger, and so on; but if there be a single periodical or other institution north of Mason and Dixon, whose title breathes such an un-American and sectional spirit, we are ignorant of its existence. As to the particular charge against ourselves, nonsensical as it will sound to every body who has been in the habit of reading our Magazine, we have only to reply, that the present number of the Monthly contains four articles which were sent to us from as many slave States, and that every number of the work, from the beginning, has contained one or more articles from the pens of Southern writ

ers.

Our sole aim is to publish the best literary productions which the country can afford; and whether they come from Maine or Missouri, Vermont or Virginia, is a matter of not the slightest weight in deciding on their availability. As to our mere personal interests, we can very well afford to be perfectly independent of all sectional preferences, for at least seven eighths of our circulation is in the free States; and, if we could be influenced by any such paltry motives as the "somebody down South" imputes to us, the result

would not be to our pecuniary disadvantage. But our great aim in the conduct of this Magazine has been to make it, first, purely American and original; and, next, to render it as profitable to the public and ourselves as it could be done. We have, thus far, abundant cause for being satisfied with our exertions, and for entertaining increased hope in the literary resources and intellectual activity of our thriving nation. Wherein we may possibly have erred, has been in giving place to contributions from the far East, the far West, the far North, and the far South, that our Magazine might properly represent the whole Union, which, if written nearer our own door, might not have been accepted.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

THE AMERICAN PLANTER; or the Bound Labor Interest of the United States. By M. A. Juge. NewYork: Long & Brother. 1854.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF PHYSICS. By Andrew Brown. New-York: Redfield. 1854.

AN OUTLINE OF THE GEOLOGY OF THE GLOBE, and of the United States in particular. By Edward Hitcbcock. D. D. Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Co. 1858 THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF THOMAS CAMP BALL, with an Original Biography and Notes. Edited by Epes Sargent. Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Co. 1851.

OUTLINES OF A MECHANICAL THEORY OF STORMS By T. Bassuett. New-York: D. Appleton & Ca 1854.

HUMAN ANATOMY, PHYSIOLOGY, AND HYGIENE. By T. S. Lambert. Hartford: Brockett, Hutchinson & Co. 1854.

LINNY LOCKWOOD. A Novel By Catherine Crow.
New-York: D. Appleton & Co. 1854.
THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL QUARTERLY REVIEW.
Vol. I., No. I. New-York: H. Dyer. 1854.
HYDROPATHIC COOK-BOOK. By Dr. R. T. Tran.
New-York: Fowlers & Wells, 1851.

POEMS, SAORED, PASSIONATE, AND LEGENDARY. By Mary E. Hewett. New-York: Lamport, Blakeman & Law. 1854.

A SCHOOL COMPENDIUM OF NATURAL AND EXPERI MENTAL PHILOSOPHY. By Richard Green Parker. New-York: A. S. Barnes & Co. 1854.

BENEDICTIONS, OR THE BLESSED LIFE. By Rev. John Cumming, D. D., F.R.SE Boston: J. P. Jewett & Co. 1854,

POEMS, DESCRIPTIVE, DRAMATIC, LEGENDARY, AND CONTEMPLATIVE. By W. Gilmore Simms. 2 vols. Now-York: Redfield. 1854.

LITTLE BLOSSOM'S REWARD. A Christmas Book for Children. By Mrs. Emily Hare. Illustrated Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Co. 1851

SKETCH FIFTH.

THE FRIGATE, AND SHIP FLYAWAY.

"Looking far forth into the ocean wide,

A goodly ship with banners bravely dight,
And flag in her top-gallant I espide,
Through the main sea making her merry flight."

ERE

RE quitting Rodondo, it must not be omitted that here, in 1813, the U.S. frigate Essex, Captain David Porter, came near leaving her bones. Lying becalmed one morning with a strong current setting her rapidly towards the rock, a strange sail was descried, which-not out of keeping with alleged enchantments of the neighborhood-seemed to be staggering under a violent wind, while the frigate lay lifeless as if spell-bound. But a light air springing up, all sail was made by the frigate in chase of the enemy, as supposed

-he being deemed an English whale-ship -but the rapidity of the current was so great, that soon all sight was lost of him; and at meridian the Essex, spite of her drags, was driven so close under the foamlashed cliffs of Rodondo that for a time all hands gave her up. A smart breeze, however, at last helped her off, though the escape was so critical as to seem almost miraculous.

Thus saved from destruction herself, she now made use of that salvation to destroy the other vessel, if possible. Renewing the chase in the direction in which the stranger had disappeared, sight was caught of him the following morning. Upon being descried he hoisted American colors and stood away from the Essex. VOL. III. 23

A calm ensued; when, still confident that the stranger was an Englishman, Porter despatched a cutter, not to board the enemy, but drive back his boats engaged in towing him. The cutter succeeded. Cutters were subsequently sent to capture him; the stranger now showing English colors in place of American. But when the frigate's boats were within a short distance of their hoped-for prize, another sudden breeze sprang up; the stranger under all sail bore off to the westward, and ere night was hull down ahead of the Essex, which all this time lay perfectly becalmed.

This enigmatic craft-American in the morning, and English in the evening-her sails full of wind in a calm-was never again beheld. An enchanted ship no doubt. So at least the sailors swore.

This cruise of the Essex in the Pacific during the war of 1812, is perhaps the strangest and most stirring to be found in the history of the American navy. She captured the furthest wandering vessels; visited the remotest seas and isles; long hovered in the charmed vicinity of the enchanted group; and finally valiantly gave up the ghost fighting two English frigates in the harbor of Valparaiso. Mention is made of her here for the same reason that the buccaneers will likewise receive record; because, like them, by long cruising among the isles, tortoisehunting upon their shores, and generally exploring them; for these and other reasons, the Essex is peculiarly associated with the Encantadas.

Here be it said that you have but three eye-witness authorities worth men

NEAR two centuries ago Barrington Isle was the resort of that famous wing of the West Indian buccaneers, which, upon their repulse from the Cuban waters, crossing the Isthmus of Darien, ravaged the Pacific side of the Spanish colonies, and, with the regularity and timing of a modern mail, waylaid the royal treasure ships plying between Manilla and Acapulco. After the toils of piratic war, here they came to say their prayers, enjoy their free-and-easies, count their crackers from the cask, their doubloons from the keg, and measure their silks of Asia with long Toledos for their yard-sticks.

As a secure retreat, an undiscoverable hiding place, no spot in those days could have been better fitted. In the centre of a vast and silent sea, but very little traversed; surrounded by islands, whose inhospitable aspect might well drive away the chance navigator; and yet within a few days' sail of the opulent countries which they made their prey; the unmolested buccaneers found here that tranquillity which they fiercely denied to every civilized harbor in that part of the world. Here, after stress of weather, or a temporary drubbing at the hands of their vindictive foes, or in swift flight with golden booty, those old marauders came, and lay snugly out of all harm's reach. But not only was the place a harbor of safety, and a bower of ease, but for utility in other things it was most admirable.

Barrington Isle is in many respects singularly adapted to careening, refitting, refreshing, and other seamen's purposes. Not only has it good water, and good

anchorage, well sheltered from all winds by the high land of Albemarle, but it is the least unproductive isle of the group. Tortoises good for food, trees good for fuel, and long grass good for bedding, abound here, and there are pretty natural walks, and several landscapes to be seen. Indeed, though in its locality belonging to the Enchanted group, Barrington Isle is so unlike most of its neighbors, that it would hardly seem of kin to them.

"I once landed on its western side," says a sentimental voyager long ago, "where it faces the black buttress of Albemarle. I walked beneath groves of trees; not very lofty, and not palm trees, or orange trees, or peach trees, to be sure; but for all that, after long sea-faring very beautiful to walk under, even though they supplied no fruit. And here, in calm spaces at the heads of glades, and on the shaded tops of slopes commanding the most quiet scenery-what do you think I saw ? Seats which might have served Brahmins and presidents of peace societies. Fine old ruins of what had once been symmetric lounges of stone and turf; they bore every mark both of artificialness and age, and were undoubtedly made by the buccaneers. One had been a long sofa, with back and arms, just such a sofa as the poet Gray might have loved to throw himself upon, his Crebillon in hand.

"Though they sometimes tarried here for months at a time, and used the spot for a storing-place for spare spars, sails, and casks; yet it is highly improbable that the buccaneers ever erected dwellinghouses upon the isle. They never were here except their ships remained, and they would most likely have slept on board. I mention this, because I cannot avoid the thought, that it is hard to impute the construction of these romantic scats to any other motive than one of pure peacefulness and kindly fellowship with nature. That the buccaneers perpetrated the greatest outrages is very true; that some of them were mere cut-throats is not to be denied; but we know that here and there among their host was a Dampier, a Wafer, and a Cowley, and likewise other men, whose worst reproach was their desperate fortunes; whom persecution, or adversity, or secret and unavengeable wrongs, had driven from Christian society to seek the melancholy solitude or the guilty adventures of the At any rate, long as those ruins of seats on Barrington remain, the most singular monuments are furnished to the fact, that all of the buccaneers were not unmitigated monsters.

sea.

"But during my ramble on the isle I was not long in discovering other tokens, of things quite in accordance with those wild traits, popularly, and no doubt truly enough imputed to the freebooters at large. Had I picked up old sails and rusty hoops I would only have thought of the ship's carpenter and cooper. But I found old cutlasses and daggers reduced to mere threads of rust, which doubtless had stuck between Spanish ribs ere now. These were signs of the murderer and robber; the reveller likewise had left his trace. Mixed with shells, fragments of broken jars were lying here and there, high up upon the beach. They were precisely like the jars now used upon the Spanish coast for the wine and Pisco spirits of that country.

"With a rusty dagger-fragment in one hand, and a bit of a wine-jar in another, I sat me down on the ruinous green sofa I have spoken of, and bethought me long and deeply of these same buccaneers. Could it be possible, that they robbed and murdered one day, revelled the next, and rested themselves by turning meditative philosophers, rural poets, and seatbuilders on the third? Not very improbable, after all. For consider the vacillations of a man. Still, strange as it may seem, I must also abide by the more charitable thought; namely, that among these adventurers were some gentlemanly, companionable souls, capable of genuine tranquillity and virtue.”

Spanish provinces from Old Spain, there fought on behalf of Peru a certain Creole adventurer from Cuba, who by his bravery and good fortune at length advanced himself to high rank in the patriot army. The war being ended, Peru found herself like many valorous gentlemen, free and independent enough, but with few shot in the locker. In other words, she had not wherewithal to pay off her troops. But the Creole-I forget his name-volunteered to take his pay in lands. So they told him he might have his pick of the Enchanted Isles, which were then, as they still remain, the nominal appanage of Peru. The soldier straightway embarks thither, explores the group. returns to Callao, and says he will take a deed of Charles' Isle. Moreover, this deed must stipulate that thenceforth Charles' Isle is not only the sole property of the Creole, but is for ever free of Peru, even as Peru of Spain. To be short, this adventurer procures himself to be made in effect Supreme Lord of the Island, one of the princes of the powers of the earth.*

He now sends forth a proclamation inviting subjects to his as yet unpopulated kingdom. Some eighty souls, men and women, respond; and being provided by their leader with necessaries, and tools of various sorts, together with a few cattle and goats, take ship for the promised land; the last arrival on board, prior to sailing, being the Creole himself, accompanied, strange to say, by a disciplined cavalry company of large grim dogs. These, it was observed on the passage, refusing to consort with the emigrants, remained aristocratically grouped around their master on the elevated quarter-deck, casting disdainful glances forward upon the inferior rabble there; much as from the ramparts, the soldiers of a garrison thrown into a conquered town, eye the inglorious citizen-mob over which they are set to watch.

Now Charles' Isle not only resembles Barrington Isle in being much more inhabitable than other parts of the group; but it is double the size of Barrington; say forty or fifty miles in circuit.

Safely debarked at last, the company under direction of their lord and patron, forthwith proceeded to build their capital city. They make considerable advance in the way of walls of clinkers, and lava floors, nicely sanded with cinders. On