Frankfort. Before the entrance door are two immense bronze statues of stags, and almost every article of furniture and of ornament observed in the interior of the building was composed of buck horn; the hall and stair case were also hung with huge antlers.

Having gained the town of Wiesbaden, the author took lodgings there. He found that the spring was what is called a thermal or hot one, and that its temperature was of such an elevation as to break the glasses into which it was given out from the well. The water seems to be celebrated for its virtues in every part of the world; but for consumptive patients it is said to be highly injurious. Horses have a bath appropriated to them in this place, and it was one of our traveller's amusement to see them at their recreation. His account of the scene is thus given :

"Three or four times a-day horses, lame or chest-foundered, were brought to this spot. As the water was hot, the animals, on first being led into it, seemed much frightened, splashing, and violently pawing with their fore feet as if to cool it, but being at last more accustomed to the strange sensation, they very quickly seemed exceedingly to enjoy it. Their bodies being entirely covered, the halter was then tied to a post, and they were thus left to soak for half or three quarters of an hour. The heat seemed to heighten the circulation of their blood, and nothing could look more animated than their heads, as, peeping out of the hot fluid, they shook their dripping manes and snorted at every carriage and horse, which they heard passing.

"The price paid for each bathing of each horse is eighteen kreuzers, and this trifling fact always appeared to me to be the most satisfactory proof I could meet with, of the curative properties of the Weisbaden baths for though it is, of course, the interest of the inhabitants to insist on their efficacy, yet the poor peasant would never, I think, continue for a fortnight to pay sixpence a-day, unless he knew, by experience of some sort or other, that the animal would really derive benefit.

"One must not, however carry the moral too far, for even if it be admitted, that these baths cure in horses strains and other effects of overwork, it does not follow that they are to be equally beneficial in gout, and other human complaints which we all know are the effects of under-work, or want of exercise."-pp. 363, 364.

One day, whilst engaged in contemplation of the bathing spectacle, who should pay him a visit but a Russian prince. His royal highness had heard that an Englishman was at the inn, and he came to consult him as to the best road to select in a journey which he meditated to England. The map was appealed to, and when the invalid directed his finger on the map to Paris, as a particular point in the way, the prince looked at him with surprise, and told him, that much as he wished to visit Paris, yet, that not even one of his rank could enter that capital without a written permission from the Emperor.

We must here part with our very amusing companion, who, stricken with age as he either is or pretends to be, yet has so far re

covered his buoyancy as to present himself in all the hey-day of youth. Rarely has it been our lot to spend a couple of hours of more rational and genuine recreation than in perusing this very spirited and varied collection of curious facts, interesting observations, and highly instructive reflections.

ART. VII.-Journal of a West India Proprietor kept during a residence in the Island of Jamaica. By the late M. G. Lewis, Esq., M. P.; Author of "The Monk," "Castle Spectre," &c. London: Murray. 1834. THIS book has no great claims to attention, beyond its simple character of having been written by a man, some years ago recommended to public cousideration by his literary powers. It is a record of two periods, 1815, 1816 and 1817, during which Mr. Lewis resided in the island of Jamaica as a planter. The book is written in a very happy vein, and as it is a sort of novelty, we are induced to give an account of it to our readers, not pledging ourselves however for the consequences.

In November 1815, Mr. Lewis sailed from Gravesend in the Sir Godfrey Webster for the West Indies; and after many varieties of fortune, and of adverse winds, arrived safely at Jamaica. He seems to have been quite delighted with the aspect which the island presented, and he speaks warmly of the beauty of the atmosphere, the dark purple mountains, the shores covered with mangroves of the liveliest green down to the very edge of the water. Nor were the anticipations which he indulged in at this first sight disappointed: for it appears that he acted with great kindness to his slaves influenced to a considerable extent by the climate. Mr. Lewis arrived just at the commencement of the year 1816, when, he remarks, his property was presented to him in the most favourable point of view the crop was then occupying the negroes, who were all, of course, merry and healthy. He passed the whole of the day after his arrival in driving round the estate: he says his house was frightful to look at, but that still it was very clean and comfortable inside. The scenery around was very picturesque from the lively green of the trees and shrubs, and the hermitage-like appearance of the negro buildings, all situated in little gardens, and embosomed in sweet smelling shrubberies. Every thing he confesses was much superior to what he expected; and he seems at one time to have made up his mind to spend the remainder of his life on the estate. A few days after he had taken possession of his house, he gave a festival to the negroes on his estate. He gives a full description of the scene of festivity, and he speaks highly of the temperance shown by the negroes on the occasion. It appears that the ancestors of Mr. Lewis held this plantation before him, and he seems to have been greatly beloved by the senior negroes, many of whom were born on the estate. He gives some historical anecdotes, from which we

select the following account of a run-away negro, named Plato. This was a bold adventurous fellow, who, some years before, had his keep in the mountains, and headed a troop of bandits: he had an establishment, which literally contained a harem, as well furnished, says Mr. Lewis, as that of Constantinople. There was not a handsome negress anywhere in the neighbourhood, who had cause to complain of her master, but took an early opportunity of flying to Plato, with whom she found perfect freedom and unbounded generosity, together with protection. One of the principal occupations of his marauding life was to seize bandboxes, and articles of luxurious apparel, to bring them home as presents to his sultanas; and Mr. Lewis adds, that when he met a maid with a bandbox, she was sure to be carried off, with the bandbox, if she were handsome. A price was put on his head by the authorities, but he defied all hostility. He was indebted for his security not only to a reverence universally entertained for his personal strength and bravery, but also, because he was a professor of the god Obi, and was empowered to perform Obeah, whereby he consigned a person whom he hated, to inevitable destruction within any period he pleased. The subsequent account is in Lewis's best style.

"Unluckily for Plato, rum was an article with him of the first necessity; the look-out, which was kept for him, was too vigilant to admit of his purchasing spirituous liquors for himself; and once, when for that purpose he had ventured into the neighbourhood of Montego Bay, he was recognised by a slave, who immediately gave the alarm. Unfortunately for this poor fellow, whose name was Taffy, at that moment all his companions happened to be out of hearing; and, after the first moment's alarm, finding that no one approached, the exasperated robber rushed upon him, and lifted the bill-hook, with which he was armed, for the purpose of cleaving his skull. Taffy fled for it; but Plato was the younger, the stronger, and the swifter of the two, and gained upon him every moment. Taffy, however, on the other hand, possessed that one quality by which, according to the fable, the cat was enabled to save herself from the hounds, when the fox, with his thousand tricks, was caught by them. He was an admirable climber, an art in which Plato possessed no skill; and a bread-nut tree, which is remarkably difficult of ascent, presenting itself before him, in a few moments Taffy was bawling for help from the very top of it. To reach him was impossible for his enemy; but still his destruction was hard at hand; for Plato began to hack the tree with his bill, and it was evident that a very short space of time would be sufficient to level it with the ground. In this dilemma, Taffy had nothing for it but to break off the branches near him; and he contrived to pelt these so dexterously at the head of his assailant, that he fairly kept him at bay till his cries at length reached the ears of his companions, and their approach compelled the banditti-captain once more to seek safety among the mountains."

Plato, in those circumstances, was under the necessity of seeking out some other method of procuring the rum, for now he was farther

than ever from being able to obtain it himself. On the outskirts of an estate, near Montego Bay, was an old watchman, with whom Plato was acquainted, and who, merely to conciliate the bold brigand, professed the greatest veneration for him. Plato resolved to trust him, so giving the watchman some money to get the spirits, he appointed a day when he would return for them. The watchman knew the amount of the reward offered for Plato, and he could not stand proof against its attractions, so he told two of his friends how they might earn the reward. Mr. Lewis continues the narrative:—

"The two negroes posted themselves in proper time near the watchman's hut. Most unwisely, instead of sending down some of his gang, they saw Plato, in his full confidence in the friendship of his confidant, arrive himself and enter the cabin; but so great was their alarm at seeing this dreadful personage, that they remained in their concealment, nor dared to make an attempt at seizing him. The spirits were delivered to the robber: he might have retired with them unmolested; but in his rashness and his eagerness to taste the liquor, of which he had so long been deprived, he opened the flagon, and swallowed draught after draught, till he sunk upon the ground in a state of complete insensibility. The watchman then summoned the two negroes from their concealment, who bound his arms, and conveyed him to Montego Bay, where he was immediately sentenced to execution. He died most heroically; kept up the terrors of his imposture to the last moment; told the magistrates, who condemned him, that his death should be revenged by a storm, which would lay waste the whole island, that year; and, when his negro gaoler was binding him to the stake at which he was destined to suffer, he assured him that he should not live long to triumph in his death, for that he had taken good care to Obeah him before his quitting the prison. It certainly did happen, strangely enough, that, before the year was over, the most violent storm took place ever known in Jamaica; and as to the gaoler, his imagination was so forcibly struck by the threats of the dying man, that, although every care was taken of him, the power of medicine exhausted, and even a voyage to America undertaken, in hopes that a change of scene might change the course of his ideas, still, from the moment of Plato's death, he gradually pined and withered away, and finally expired before the completion of the twelvemonth.

"The belief in Obeah is now greatly weakened, but still exists in some degree. Not above ten months ago, my agent was informed that a negro of very suspicious manners and appearance was harboured by some of my people on the mountain lands. He found means to have him surprised, and on examination there was found upon him a bag containing a great variety of strange materials for incantations; such as thunder-stones, cat's ears, the feet of various animals, human hair, fish bones, the teeth of alligators, &c. he was conveyed to Montego Bay; and no sooner was it understood that this old African was in prison, than depositions were poured in from all quarters from negroes who deposed to having seen him exercise his magical arts, and, in particular, to his having sold such and such slaves medicines and charms to deliver them from their enemies; being, in plain English, nothing else than rank poisons. He was convicted of Obeah upon the most indubitable evidence. The good old

practice of burning has fallen into disrepute; so he was sentenced to be transported, and was shipped off the island, to the great satisfaction of persons of all colours-white, black, and yellow."-pp. 93–95.

Very many traits of negro character and habits are related by Mr. Lewis, which tend to raise our opinion of their natural dispositions, and in those little anecdotes we have not been inattentive to the evidences indirectly given, very often of the kind and paternal attention which he paid to their wants. They were always greatly delighted when he stood godfather to their children, and he never hesitated to comply with every request for this purpose, which had been made to him. He felt that the ignorance and bad habits of the negroes induced them to maintain many practices which were hurtful, and even this objection extended to several domestic matters, and particularly to the way in which they brought up their children. He states one case, where a mother most affectionately attached to her infant, found one day that it was particularly prone to be sleepy. Children are very subject in the West Indies to attacks in the brain, and the mothers usually dread the symptom of drowsiness. In the case just alluded to, the mother acted in the most foolish way, still, with the best intentions, she danced it about, and shook it, in the hope of rousing the infant, until she produced a copious perspiration over its body; she then put it before a open window, into which a strong north wind was blowing, and the consequence was, that next morning the child had the lock-jaw. We notice this, principally to show, what a deep interest he took in the concerns of these negroes.

Mr. Lewis's next fete was given to his white people, for so the book-keepers and clerks are called; and after enumerating the dishes which formed the chief dainties of the dinner, he declares that Jamaica is the only spot in the world where an alderman ought to live; there were on the table land and sea turtle, quails, snipes, plovers, pigeons and doves of all descriptions, amongst which pre-eminently towered the ring-tailed species, and surrounding and intermingling amid the feathered race, were seen pork, barbicued pigs, pepper-pots, &c.; there the tarts were made of pine apples, and the dessert was beyond all description. The author states, in returning to his favourite subject, the negroes, that he never witnessed even in a theatre any scene so truly picturesque as a negro village. He says:—

"I walked through my own to-day, and visited the houses of the drivers and other principal persons; and if I were to decide according to my own taste, I should infinitely have preferred their habitations to my own. Each house is surrounded by a separate garden, and the whole village is intersected by lanes, bordered with all kinds of sweet-smelling and flowering plants; but not such gardens as those belonging to our English cottages, where a few cabbages and carrots just peep up and grovel upon the earth between