A STRANGE PROVIDENCE.

An account of two faithful lovers, who were united by the fury of an Earthquake.

[Eng. Mag.]

THE plains, in which Lima, the capital city of Peru is placed, are the most beautiful in the world. They are of vast extent, reaching from the foot of the Andes or Cordelier Mountains, to the sea; and are covered with groves of olive-trees, of oranges, and citrons, watered by many streams; one of the principal among which, washing the walls of Lima, falls into the ocean at Callao; in which latter place it laid the scene of this ensu ing history.

To this city, Don Juan de Mendoza had come over with his father from Old Spain, when an infant. The father, having borne many noble employments in Peru, died much esteemed and honoured rather than rich. This young gentleman had, in early youth, conceived a very strong passion for Donna Cornelia di Perez, daughter to a very wealthy merchant, who dwelt in the city of Callao, at that time the best port in the whole Western world.

But, although the young lady, who was reputed the most accomplished person in the Indies, returned his affection; yet he met with an insuperable difficulty in the avarice and inflexible temper of the father, who, prefering wealth to every other consideration, absolutely refused his consent. At length the unfortunate lover saw himself under the necessity of returning to his native country, the most miserable of all mankind, torn away for ever from all that he held most dear. He was now on board, in the port of Callao, and the ship ready to sail for Spain. The wind fair; the crew all employed; the passengers rejoicing in the expectation of seeing again the place of their nativity.

Amid the shouts and acclamations, with which the whole bay resounded, Mendoza sat upon deck alone, overwhelmed with sorrow, beholding those towers. in which he had left the only person who could have made him happy, whom he was never more to behold: a thousand tender, a thousand melancholy thoughts possessed his mind. In the mean time the serenity of the sky is disturbed; sudden flashes of lightning dart across which increasing fill the whole air with flame.

A noise is heard from the bowels of the earth, at first low and rumbling, but growing louder, and soon exceeding the roaring

of the most violent thunder. This was instantly followed by a trembling of the earth: the first shocks were of short continuance; but in a few minutes they became quicker, and of longer duration. The sea seemed to be thrown up into the sky, the arch of heaven to bend downwards. The Cordeliers, the highest mountains of the earth, shook, and roared with unutterable noises, sending forth from their bursting sides rivers of flame, and throwing up immense rocks. The houses, arsenals, and churches of Callao tottered from side to side, and at last tumbled upon the heads of the wretched inhabitants.

Those who had not perished in this manner, you might see of every age and sex, rushing into the streets and public roads, to escape from the like ruins. But even there was no safety: the whole earth was in motion; nor was the ocean less disturbed : some of the ships in the harbour were torn from their anchors, some of them swallowed up in the waves, some dashed on rocks, many thrown several miles up into the land. The whole town of Callao late so flourishing, filled with half the wealth of the Indies, disappeared, being partly ingulphed, partly carried away in explosion by minerals, bursting from the entrails of the earth. Vast quantities of rich spoils, of furniture, and precious goods, were afterwards taken up floating some leagues off at sea.

In the midst of this astonishing confusion, Mendoza was perhaps the sole human creature unconcerned for himself. He beheld the whole tremendous scene from the ship's deck, frighted only for the destruction falling on his beloved Cornelia. He saw, and mourned her fate as unavoidable, little rejoicing at his own safety, since life was now become a burthen.

After the space of an hour this terrible hurricane ended; the earth regained her stability, and the sky its calmness. He then beholdeth, close by the stern of his ship, floating upon an olivetree, to a bough of which she clung, one in the dress of a female. He was touched with compassion, and ran to her relief; he findeth her yet breathing, and raising her up, how unspeakable was his astonishment, when he beheld in his arms, his beloved, his lamented Cornelia! The manner of whose miracalous deliverance is thus recorded.

In this universal wreck as it were of nature, in which the elements of the earth and water had changed their places, fishes were borne up into the mid-land; trees, and houses, and men into the deep; it happened, that this fair one was hurried into the sea, together with the tree, to which in the beginning of the commotion she had clung, and was thrown up by the side of that vessel, wherein her faithful Mendoza was, which was one of the few that rode out the amazing tempest. I cannot paint to you the emotions of his mind, the joy, the amaze

ment, the gratitude, the tenderness-words cannot express them.

Happy pair! The interposition of Providence in your favour was too visible for any man to dispute your being at last united for ever. And O thrice happy Mendoza, how wonderfully was thy constancy crowned, and thy merit rewarded! Lo, the wind is fair! Haste, bear with thee to thy native Spain this inestimable prize. Return, no less justly triumphant, than did formerly the illustrious Cortes, loaded with the spoils of Montezuma, the reasures of a newly discovered world.

THE GARDEN OF EDEN.

An inquiry into the situation of the Terrestrial Paradise. [Meth. Mag.--Eng.]

THE change made in the appearance of countries and the course of rivers, by the violence of the deluge, cannot possibly prove an obstacle to our discovering the genuine place of the Terrestrial Paradise. Since it is not to be supposed that Moses, who wrote eight hundred and fifty years after the flood, would have given us such a minute and particular account of the garden of Eden, if there had been no marks and indications of it remaining. Besides, he does not in his account of Paradise, make use of antediluvian names; for the appellation of the rivers and countries adjacent, Cush, Havilah, and others, are of a later date than the flood. So that it appears to have been the intention of Moses to give us, according to the geography of his times, some account where the garden of Eden, or the Terrestrial Paradise was situated. Nor is it to be doubted, but it may still be found by a careful attention to his description.

Some eminent modern writers, misled by the affinity of words, have imagined that they found the names of Pison preserved in the Pasi Tigris; or rather (as they would have it to favour their hypothesis) the Piso Tigris; while others take it for granted, that it is the Phasis; as they conclude the Aras to be the Gilon, because both these terms are by the Persians used to signify any great river. But, if such conjectures as these are to be taken for solid reasons, Eden may he discovered any where, or every where; since a conformity of names, either in sound or signification, may be found in all countries. And if this childish method of proof be once admitted, unless under proper restrictions, it would be no difficult matter to prove,

that America was peopled by the immediate descendants of Noah.

The words Bdolah, and Soham, in the Mosaic description of Eden, which our translators have rendered Bdellium, and the Onyx stone, afford us but small light, being names of particular substances, as little known as Havilah, the land said to produce them. But that we may no longer grope in the dark, we shall canvass the three different opinions, which seem to deserve our greatest attention.

Some authors of distinction place the Terrestrial Paradise near Damascus in Syria: but this conjecture is entirely groundless; since it is certain the garden of Eden lies to the Eastward of the place where Moses wrote his history, which was probably Arabia Petræ; whereas Syria lies to the north of that country; besides, as this scheme is destitute of all the marks of the Mosaic description, it ought for that very reason to be rejected.

The second hypothesis places Eden in Arminia, between the sources of the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Araxes, and the Phasis; but this account is equally inconsistent with the former; since, according to the latest discoveries, the Phasis does not rise in the mountains of Arminia; but derives its origin from mount Caucasus, and flows from north to south; so that, according to this scheme, we want a whole river, except, instead of the Phasis, we substitute the Hur, which joins the Araxes before it disembogues itself in the Caspian Sea.

The third hypothesis, which appears the most consistent with truth, places Eden on the united stream of the Tigris, and Euphrates, called by the Arabs, Shat al Arab, that is, the river of the Arabs; which begins a little above Basora; and about fivemiles below it divides again into two channels, which empty themselves into the Persian gulph. According to this opinion first advanced by Calvin, and afterwards, with some little variation, espoused by Morinus, Bochart and Hued; the Shat al Arab is the river going out of Eden; which, if considered according to the disposition of its channel, and not the course of its stream, divides into four different branches, and by that means constitutes the four rivers mentioned by Moses, namely, two below Basora, which are the Pison and the Gihon; and the two above it, which are the Euphrates and the Tigris; the latter of which is by the modern Arabs called Digalt, and by the most learned Geographers supposed to be the Hiddekel of Moses: so that the western branch of the Shat must be the Pison; and the adjacent part of Arabia, bordering on the Persian gulph, Havilah: whereas the eastern branch must of course be Gihon, which encompasses the country of Cush.

This opinion seems exactly to coincide with the sacred text › which informs us that "A river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads." These words evidently imply, that in Eden the river had but one channel; but when it was gone out of Eden, divided itself into four, two upwards, and two downwards; for, supposing the Shat al Arab to be the common channel; we may by directing our view to Babylon, see the Tigris and Euphrates running into it; and by looking toward the Persian gulph, observe the Pison and Gihon flowing out of it.

This scheme, though incumbered with some minute geographical difficulties, is nevertheless of all the rest most consonant to the description of the sacred historian. And what seems to give it an additional force, is the surprising fertility of the adjacent country; for, as it would be absurd to suppose, that God should plant a garden in so barren a soil; so all ancient historians inform us, that Mesopotamia and Chaldea were not only blessed with uncommon fertility, but also adorned with the most enchanting rural beauties. Besides, though the accounts of the ancients were not to be depended on; yet modern travellers, of the most untainted candour and veracity, assure us that in all the spacious dominions of the Grand Seignor, there is not a finer and richer country, though in some parts uucultivated, than that between Bagdat and Basora, the very tract of ground which was anciently called the land of Eden.

If it should be asked, in what particular part of Eden this garden was situated? Moses answers the question, by inform ing us that it was eastward in Eden. If then the Terrestrial Paradise lay in the easterly part of this country; and the river, which watered it, ran through the said country, before it en tered the garden; we must necessarily conclude, that the memo rable spot of ground, destined for the primitive scenes of love and innocence, was situated on the east side of one of the turnings of the Shat al Arab. That is, the river formed by the conjunction of the Tigris and Euphrates; and probably at the lowest great turning mentioned by Ptolemy, not far from the place by modern geographers assigned to Arceca, in scripture called Erce.

Though our maps do not make the river answer exactly the description of Moses; yet, as that author wrote according to the best geography of his time; if the course or number of rivers about Babylon have since undergone great alterations, they have probably been occasioned by the ducts and canals made by order of the monarchs of that empire, of Alexander the Great, and even of Trajan, and Severus, with a view either of facilitating commerce, or to render the soil fruitful. But,