turn for the extraordinary favors they had done, and intended to do him. After slapping a part of his body, in defiance to them, (continues the author,) he put up the shrill war hoop, as his last salute, till some more convenient opportunity offered, and darted off in the manner of a beast broke loose from its torturing enemies. He continued his speed, so as to run by about midnight of the same day as far as his eager pursuers were two days in reaching. There he rested, till he happily discovered five of those Indians who had pursued him: he lay hid a little way off their camp, till they were sound asleep. Every circumstance of his situation occurred to him, and inspired him with heroism. He was naked, torn, and hungry, and his enraged enemies were come up with him; but there was now every thing to relieve his wants, and a fair opportunity to save his life, and get great honor and sweet revenge by cutting them off. Resolution, a convenient spot, and sudden surprise, would effect the main object of all his wishes and hopes. He accordingly crept, took one of their tomahawks, and killed them all on the spotclothed himself, took a choice gun, and as much ammunition and provisions as he could well carry in a running march. He set off afresh, with a light heart, and did not sleep for several successive nights, only when he reclined, as usual, a little before day, with his back to a tree. it were by instinct, when he found he was free from the pursuing enemy, he made directly to the very place where he had killed seven of his enemies, and where he had been taken by them to the fiery torture. He dug them up, burnt their bodies to ashes, and went home in safety with singular triumph. Other pursuing enemies came, on the evening of the second day, to the camp of their dead people, when the sight gave them a greater shock than they had ever known before. In their chilled war council they concluded, that as he had done such surprising things in his defence before he was captured, and since that in his naked condition, and now was well armed, if they continued the pursuit, he would kill them all, for he surely was an enemy wizard,-and therefore they returned home.

As

EXTRAORDINARY TRICK OF A VENTRILOQUIST.

FROM Brodeau, a learned critic of the sixteenth century, we have the following account of the feats of a capital ventriloquist and cheat, who was valet-de-chambre to Francis the First. This fellow, whose name was Louis Brabant, had fallen desperately in love with a young, handsome, and rich heiress; but was rejected by the parents as an unsuitable match for their daughter, on account of the lowness of his circumstances. The young lady's father dying, he made a visit to the widow, who was totally ignorant of his singular talent. Suddenly, on his first appearance in open day, in her own house, and in the presence of several persons who were with her, she heard herself accosted, in a voice perfectly resembling that of her dead husband, and which seemed to proceed from above, exclaiming, "Give my daughter in marriage to Louis Brabant; he is a man of great fortune, and of an excellent character. I now endure the inexpressible torments of purgatory, for having refused her to him. If you obey this admonition, I shall soon be delivered from this place of torment. You will at the same time provide a worthy husband for your daughter, and procure everlasting repose to the soul of your poor husband."

The widow could not for a moment resist this dread summons, which had not the most distant appearance of proceeding from Louis Brabant; whose countenance exhibited no visible change, and whose lips were close and motionless, during the delivery of it. Accordingly she consented immediately to receive him for her son-in-law. Louis' finances, however, were in a very low situation; and the formalities attending the marriage contract rendered it necessary for him to exhibit some show of riches, and not to give the ghost the lie direct. He accordingly went to work upon a fresh subject, one Cornu, an old and rich banker at Lyons, who had accumulated immense wealth by usury and extortion, and was known to be haunted by remorse of conscience on account of the manner in which he had acquired it.

Having contracted an intimate acquaintance with this

an, ne, one day, while they were sitting together in the usurer's little back parlor, artfully turned the conversation on religious subjects, on demons and spectres, the pains of purgatory, and the torments of hell. During an interval of silence between them, a voice was heard, which to the astonished banker, seemed to be that of his deceased father, complaining as in the former case, of his dreadful situation in purgatory, and calling upon him to deliver him instantly thence, by putting into the hands of Louis Bra bant, then with him, a large sum for the redemption of christians then in slavery with the Turks; and threatening him with eternal damnation if he did not take this method to expiate likewise his own sins. The reader will naturally suppose that Louis Brabant affected a due degree of astonishment on the occasion; and further promoted the deception, by acknowledging his having devoted himself to the prosecution of the charitable design imputed to him by the ghost. An old ususer is naturally suspicious. Accordingly, the wary banker made a second appointment with the ghost's delegate for the next day; and, to render any design of imposing upon him, utterly abortive, took him into the open fields, where not a house, or a tree or even a bush, or a pit, was in sight, capable of screening any supposed confederate. This extraordinary caution excited the ventriloquist to exert all the powers of his art. Wherever the banker conducted him, at every step his ears were saluted on all sides with the complaints and groans not only of his father, but of all his deceased relations; imploring him for the love of God, and in the name of every saint in the calender, to have mercy on his own soul and theirs, by effectually seconding with his purse the intentions of his worthy companion. Cornu could no longer resist the voice of heaven, and accordingly carried his guest home with him, and paid him down 10,000 crowns; with which the honest ventriloquist returned to Paris, and married his mistress. The catastrophe was fatal. The secret was afterwards blown, and reached the usurer's ears; who was so much affected by the loss of his money, and the mortifying railleries of his neighbors, that he soon took to his bed and died.

FRATERNAL AFFECTION.

In the year 1585, the Portuguese Caracks sailed from Lisbon to Goa, a very great, rich, and flourishing colony of that nation in the East Indies. There were no less than twelve hundred souls-mariners, passengers, priests and friars on board one of these vessels. The beginning of their voyage was prosperous; they had doubled the southern extremity of the great continent of Africa, called the Cape of Good Hope, and were steering their course northeast, to the great continent of India, when some gentlemen on board who had studied geography and navigation, (arts which reflect honor on the possessors,) found in the latitude in which they were then sailing, a large ridge of rocks laid down in their sea-charts. They no sooner made this discovery than they acquainted the captain of the ship with the affair, desiring him to communicate the same to the pilot; which request he immediately granted, recommending to him to lie by in the night, and slacken sail by day, until they should be past the danger. It is always a custom among the Portuguese, absolutely to commit the sailing part, or the navigation of the vessel, to the pilot, who is answerable with his head for the safe conduct or carriage of the king's ships, or those belonging to private traders: and he is under no manner of direction from the captain, who commands in every other respect.

The pilot being one of those self-sufficient men who think every hint given them from others, in the way of their profession, derogatory to their understandings, took it as an affront to be taught his art, and instead of complying with his captain's request, actually crowded more sail than the vessel had previously carried. They had not sailed many hours, when, just about the dawn of day, a terrible disaster befel them, which would have been prevented had they lain by. The ship struck upon a rock: I leave to the reader's imagination what a scene of horror this dreadful accident must have occasioned among twelve hundred persons, all in the same inevitable danger; and beholding, with fearful astonishment, that instantaneous death which now stared them full in the face!

In this distress, the captain ordered the pinnace be launched, into which having tossed a small quantity of biscuit and some boxes of marmalade, he jumped in himself, with nineteen others, who with their drawn swords, prevented any more coming into the boat, lest it should sink. In this condition they put off into the great Indian ocean, without a compass to steer by, or any fresh water but what might happen to fall from the heaven, whose mercy alone could deliver them. After rowing to and fro for four days in this miserable condition, the captain, who for some time had been very sickly and weak, died. This added, if possible, to their misery, for they now fell into confusion; every one would govern, and none would obey. This obliged them to elect one of their own company to command them, whose orders they agreed implicitly to follow. This person proposed to the company to draw lots, and to cast every fourth man overboard; as their small stock of provisions was so far spent, as not to be able, at a very short allowance, so sustain life above three days longer. They were now, nineteen persons in all: in this number were a friar and carpenter, both of whom they would exempt, as the one was useful to absolve and comfort them in their last extremity, and the other to repair the pinnace, in case of a leak, or any other accident. The same compliment they paid to their new captain, he being the odd man, and his life of much consequence. He refused their indulgence a great while, but at last they obliged him to acquiesce, so that there were four to die out of the sixteen remaining persons.

The three first, after having confessed and received absolution, submitted to their fate. The fourth whom fortune condemned, was a Portuguese gentleman that had a younger brother in the boat, who, seeing him about to be thrown overboard, most tenderly embraced him, and with tears besought him to let him die in his room, enforcing his arguments by telling him he was a married man, and had a wife and children at Goa, besides the care of three sisters, who absolutely depended upon him; that as for himself, he was single, and his life of no great importance: he therefore conjured him to supply his place. The elder brother, astonished, and melted with this generosity, re