than his own. With this in prospect, and long before his martyrdom, he committed his ideas to paper, in a style and character such as would be expected from his education, and disorder of his mind.

Scarcely was he able to support in his hand the weight of a book, when he took the prayer book, and read it all day long On the first days of August, all his wounds. were completely cured; and as he felt no pain or difficulty in moving his hands and feet, he expressed a wish to go out of the hospital, that he might not, as he said, eat the bread of idleness. This request being denied to him, he passed a whole day without taking any food, and finding that his clothes were kept from him, he set out one afternoon in his shirt, but was soon brought back by the servants. The board of police gave orders that he should be conveyed to the Lunatic Asylum, eatablished at St. Servolo, where he was placed on the 20th of August, 1805. After the first eight days he became taciturn, and refused every species of meat and drink. It was impossible to make him swallow even a drop of water during six successive days. Towards the morning of the 7th day, being importuned by another madman, he consented to take a little nourishment. He continued to eat about fifteen days, and then resumed his fast, which he prolonged during eleven.

These fasts were repeated and of longer or shorter duration, the most protracted, however, not exceeding twelve days.

In January, 1806, there appeared in him symptoms of consumption, and he would remain immovable, exposed to the heat of the sun, until the skin of his face began to peel off, and it was necessary to employ force to drag him into the shade.

In April, exhaustion proceeded rapidly, laboring in his breast was observed, the pulse was very low, and on the morning of the Sth, he expired after a short struggle.

MIRACULOUS ESCAPE FROM THE ROYAL SERPENT AT CEYLON.

"THE forests of Ceylon," says a recent Dutch traveller in that country, "have almost always something in them so inexpressibly great and majestic, that instantly fills the soul with astonishment and admiration.

"Trees are there of a prodigious height and thickness, that appear to have outlived several ages, and whose closely interwoven leaves form an impenetrable shade, and afford a pleasant and refreshing coolness.

"How beautiful is nature when she shows herself in all her magnificence, or in all her simplicity, and without the misplaced additions and changes of art! She has then something so attractive, something so perfectly congenial to the original state of our senses and our soul, that I have often felt an irresistible desire to spend my days in these terrestrial paradises the forests of Ceylon.

"I have travelled," says he, "in many forests, and traversed many woods in various countries, but I have never seen one that can in any degree be compared to those of this island; there, when the sun shoots his burning rays, only a trembling and colored light can be perceived. The loss of my companion," continues he, "who was killed by an alligator, induced me to think of returning to Chilaw. I did not long hesitate about the road I should take; to return through the wilderness by the way we had come, was, in my present forlorn situation, to expose myself to certain destruction: I shuddered at the recollection of the dangers we had encountered in our approach to the Bocaul mountains: I therefore resolved to proceed along the banks of a canal or ditch, upwards of thirty feet deep, in the hope of finding its source, as it was impossible to ford it, in consequence of the immense quantity of weeds, bushes and brambles: following the bed of the river, I continued my solitary way, much depressed in spirits at the unhappy fate of my too venturous companion, until I arived at the foot of a steep rock, about sixty feet high, and smooth as a wall, rising like an insurmountable barrier across my path. I looked anxiously about for some time, but no passage or opening appeared. At this

frightful prospect my strength gave way-I sunk down upon the earth; in this state I remained for some time, almost bereft of reason at my hopeless situation, until I began to reflect that this despair only exhausted my remaining strength, and rendered me incapable of any exertion to clamber over the rock. I then got up to examine the place more closely, and found my situation as dreadful as the mind can form an idea of: on the left was the canal, whose banks, from the elevation of the ground, had become extremely steep and high, and its bed still seemed one solid mass of weeds, thorns and brambles: before me was the rock, which on one side overhung a fearful abyss, and on the other extending far into an impenetrable wood, thus completely shutting in the small space that lay between them: there were, it is true, at distances, clefts or holes in the rock, but the idea of hanging over this gulf, into which the least false step would have plunged me, and dashed me in a moment to atoms! Besides, I should have been obliged to leave my gun and provisions (the only sources of existence at such a distance from any habitation) behind me, had I ventured upon the undertaking.

"There remained, therefore, no other alternative than to follow the direction of the rock into the forest, and get round it if possible, or find a place where it was less steep, or the summit more easily attainable; but the mass of thorns, &c. prevented an easy advance.

"Struggling with disappointment and vexation, I had proceeded about fifty yards along the edge of the wood, when I had the satisfaction to perceive an opening, through which with much difficulty I penetrated into the wood. Scarcely had I entered, when I heard a loud hissing and uncommon motion in a large tree that stood some paces from me; with all the speed terror would permit, I flew towards the rock dropping my gun and provisions in my fright: before I reached the base of the rock, my ears were again assailed with the same hissing, but louder. In dreadful anticipation of the worst, I looked round, when I saw a monstrous serpent, of enormous size, crawling slowly out of the opening I had entered but a few moments before. At this sight the earth seemed to open under my feet: I uttered a horrible yell, and my courage and hope instantly forsaking me, I stood as if