MAGNANIMITY OF PRINCE LEOPOLD, YOUNGEST SON OF CHARLES, DUKE OF BRUNSWICK.

"Unshaken therefore in his resolution, he immediately embarked with three watermen in a small boat, and crossed the river; the boat did not want three lengths of the bank, when it struck against a tree, and in an instant they all together, with the boat disappeared."-See page 25, Vol. I.

but the voice of humanity." Unshaken therefore in his resolution, he immediately embarked with three watermen in a small boat, and crossed the river; the boat did not want three lengths of the bank, when it struck against a tree, and in an instant they all together, with the boat, disappeared. A few minutes after, the prince rose again, and supported himself a short time by taking hold of a tree, but the violence of the current soon bore him down, and he never appeared more. The boatmen, more fortunate, were every one saved, and the prince alone became the victim of his own humanity. The whole city was in afflic tion for the loss of this truly amiable prince, whose humility, gentleness of manners, and compassionate disposition, endeared him to all ranks. He lived, indeed, as he died, in the highest exercise of humanity. Had not the current been so rapid, he would, without doubt, have been saved, as he was a remarkably good swimmer.

EXTRAORDINARY ESCAPE FROM DROWNING IN THE RAPIDS OF THE RIVER ST. LAWRENCE.

On the 22d of April, 1810, we set sail in a large schooner from Fort George, or Niagara town, and in two days crossed Lake Ontario, to Kingston, at the head of the river St. Lawrence, distant from Niagara, about 208 miles. Here we hired an American barge (a large flat-bottomed boat) to carry us to Montreal a further distance of 200 miles; then set out from Kingston on the 28th of April, and arrived the same evening at Ogdensburgh, a distance of 75 miles. The following evening we arrived at Cornwall, and the succeeding night at Ponte du Hac, on Lake St. Francis. Here our bargemen obtained our permission to return up the river; and we embarked in another barge, deeply laden with potashes, passengers, and luggage. Above Montreal, for nearly 100 miles, the river St. Lawrence is interrupted in its course by rapids, which are occasioned by the river being confined in comparatively narrow, shallow. and rocky channels; through them it rushes with great force and noise, and is agitated like the ocean in a storm.

Many people prefer these rapids, for grandeur of appear ance, to the Falls of the Niagara. They are from half a mile to nine miles long each, and require regular pilots. On the 30th of April, we arrived at the village of the Cedars, immediately below which are three sets of dangerous rapids, (the Cedars, the Split-rock, and the Cascades,) distant from each other about one mile. On the morning of the 1st of May we set out from the Cedars, the barge very deep, and very leaky. The captain, a daring rash man, refused to take a pilot. After we passed the Cedar rapid, not without danger, the captain called for some rum, swearing at the same time, that God Almighty could not steer the barge better than he did! Soon after this we entered the Split-rock-rapids by a wrong channel, and found ourselves advancing rapidly towards a dreadful watery precipice, down which we went. The barge slightly grazed her bottom against the rock, and the fall was so great as nearly to take away the breath. We here took in a great deal of water, which was mostly baled out again before we were hurried on to what the Canadians call the "grand bouillon," or great boiling. In approaching this place the captain let go the helm, saying, "By God! here we fill!" The barge was almost immediately overwhelmed in the midst of immense foaming breakers, which rushed over the bows, carrying away planks, oars, &c. About half a minute elapsed between the filling and going down of the barge, during which I had sufficient presence of mind to strip off my three coats, and was loosening my suspenders, when the barge sunk, and I found myself floating in the midst of people, baggage, &c. Each man caught hold of something; one of the crew caught hold of me, and kept me down under water, but, contrary to my expectation, let me go again. On rising to the surface, I got hold of a trunk, on which two other men were then holding. Just at this spot, where the Split-rock rapids terminate, the banks of the river are well inhabited; and we could see women on shore running about much agitated. A canoe put off, and picked up three of our number, who had gained the bottom of the barge, which had upset and got rid of its cargo; these they landed on an island. The canoe put

off again, and was approaching near to where I was, with two others, holding on the trunk; when, terrified with the vicinity of the Cascades, to which we were approaching, it put back, notwithstanding my exhortations, in French and English, to induce the two men on board to advance. The bad hold which one man had of the trunk to which we were adhering, subjected him to constant immersion; and, in order to escape his seizing hold of me, I let go the trunk, and, in conjunction with another man, got hold of the boom (which, with the gaff, sails, &c., had been detached from the mast to make room for the cargo,) and floated off. I had just time to grasp this boom, when we were hurried into the Cascades; in these I was instantly buried, and nearly suffocated. On rising to the surface, I found one of my hands still on the boom, and my companion also adhering to the gaff. Shortly after descending the Cascades, I perceived the barge bottom upwards floating near me. I succeeded in getting near to it, and held by a crack in one end of it; the violence of the water, and the falling out of the casks of ashes, had quite wrecked it. For a long time I contented myself with this hold, not daring to endeavor to get upon the bottom, which I at length effected; and from this, my new situation, I called out to my companion, who still preserved his hold of the gaff. He shook his head; and, when the waves suffered me to look up again, he was gone. He made no attempt to come near me, being unable or unwilling to let go his hold, and trust himself to the waves, which were then rolling over his head.

The Cascades are a kind of fall or rapid descent in the river, over a rocky channel below: going down is called by the French "Sauter," to leap or shove the Cascades. For two miles below, the channel continues in uproar, just like a storm at sea; and I was frequently nearly washed off the barge by the waves which rolled over. I now entertained no hope whatever of escaping; and although I continued to exert myself to hold on, such was the state to which I was reduced by cold, that I wished only for speedy death, and frequently thought of giving up the contest as useless. I felt as if compressed into the size of a monkey; my hands appeared diminished in size

one half; and I certainly should (after I became very cold and much exhausted,) have fallen asleep, but for the waves that were passing over, and obliged me to attend to my situation. I had never descended the St. Lawrence before, but I knew there were more rapids ahead, perhaps another set of cascades; but, at all events, the La Chinese rapids, whose situation I did not exactly know. I was in hourly expectation of these putting an end to me, and often fancied some points of ice extended from the shore to be the head of foaming rapids. At one of the moments in which the succession of waves permitted me to look up, I saw at a distance a canoe with four men coming towards me, and waited in confidence to hear the sound of their paddles; but in this I was disappointed: the men, as I afterwards learned, were Indians, (genuine descendants of the Tartars,) who, happening to fall in with one of the passengers' trunks, picked it up, and returned to the shore for the purpose of pillaging it, leaving, as they since acknowledged, the man on the boat to his fate. Indeed, I am certain I should have had more to fear from their avarice than to hope from their humanity; and it is more than probable that my life would have been taken, to secure them in the possession of my watch and several half-eagles which I had about me.

The accident happened at eight o'clock in the morning. In the course of some hours, as the day advanced, the sun grew warmer, the wind blew from the south, and the water became calmer. I got upon my knees, and found myself in the small lake of St. Louis, about from three to five miles wide; with some difficulty I got upon my feet, but was soon convinced, by cramps and spasms in all my sinews, that I was incapable of swimming any distance, and I was then two miles from shore. I was now going with wind and current to destruction; and cold, hungry, and fatigued, was obliged again to sit down in the water to rest, when an extraordinary circumstance greatly relieved me. On examining the wreck, to see if it were possible to detach any part thereof to steer by, I perceived something loose, entangled in a fork of the wreck, and so carried along. This I found to be a small trunk, bottom upwards, which, with some difficulty, I dragged upon the