ever,

infant? I have not by any means stolen it, I found it left behind in haste; you want it, but you shall not have it.' In reply to all that I could urge with regard to the uselessness of his prisoner, and its certain death for want of the nourishment proper for its tender age, he produced some fat wherewith to feed it; adding, that after all he could find, in case of its death, some corner of ground in which to bury it, and that then I should be free to give it my blessing. I replied to his speech by the offer to give him a sufficiently large sum in silver, if he would surrender up his little captive, but he persisted in his refusal. He finally lowered his terms to the demand of another English captive in exchange. If he had made no farther diminution in his requirements, it would have been settled with regard to the infant's life. I thought indeed that its sentence of death was pronounced, when I saw the Huron holding consultation with his friends; for until then the conversation had been carried on in French, which he understood. This parley disclosed a ray of hope to my eyes, nor was I disappointed. The result was, that the infant should be given to me, if I would deliver to him in return the scalp of an enemy. The proposition, how، It shall be forthcoming shortly,' did not at all embarrass me. I replied to him rising, 'if you are a man of honour.' Departing with haste to the camp of the Abnakis, I demanded of the first person I met, whether he had any scalps, and whether he wished to do a favour to gratify me. I had every reason to be pleased with his complaisance, for he untied his pouch and gave me my choice. Provided with one of these barbarous trophies, I carried it off in triumph, followed by a crowd of French and Canadians, curious to know the issue of the adventure. Joy seemed to furnish me with wings, and in a moment I had rejoined my Huron. 'See,' said I in meeting him, see your payment.' You are right,' he replied, it is indeed an English scalp, for it is red.' This is in truth the colour which ordinarily distinguishes the English colonists in these countries. ، Well ! there is the infant, carry it away, it belongs to you.' I did not give him time to retract, but immediately took the unfortunate little being in my hands. As it was almost naked I wrapped it in my robe, but it was not accustomed to be carried by hands as little used to this business as mine, and the poor infant uttered its cries, which taught me as much my own awkwardness as its sufferings. I consoled myself, however, with the hope of presently placing it in more tender hands."-p. 182.

The good Jesuit had the satisfaction of discovering in a few days the parents of the child, and of restoring it once more to the bosom of its disconsolate mother.

"The massacre by the Natchez," which forms one of the concluding chapters of the work, is a detail of tragic horrors. At the period of its occurrence, the banks of the

Mississippi were far from presenting the appearance which they have at the present day. Instead of the many flourishing towns, loud with the hum of busy industry, which stud these banks, and that meet the eye of the traveller as he ascends the river from New Orleans, there were then only a few straggling villages, the inhabitants of which led a fearful and precarious life, and struggled for subsistence with the powerful tribes in their vicinity; and where the steamer, foaming and snorting like a racehorse panting for the goal, now dashes onward with impetuous speed amid the curling waters, the frail canoe then crept timidly along, resting from the burning heat of noon beneath the branches of some shady tree, and seeking refuge and security at night in some secluded nook, where safety was best ensured by silence and obscurity. The symptoms of prosperity which the settlements on the river had manifested during the financial administration of the celebrated Law, had disappeared in the bursting of the far-famed Mississippi bubble, and they depended, in great measure, for existence, on the maintenance of their amicable relations with the neighbouring Indians. Of these the most powerful were the Natchez, whose name is preserved and perpetuated in the city of that name. The political constitution, religious practices, and social organization of this people bore a striking resemblance in many respects to the neighbouring Aztics. These had viewed with a jealous eye the progress of European enterprise along the river, and deemed the several factories as so many encroachments upon themselves. The temporary depression, consequent upon the failure of Law's colonization scheme, seemed to afford a favourable opportunity of recovering the territory that they had been compelled to yield to persuasion, backed as it usually was by military force. They conspired to destroy the French towns, and kill the inhabitants by falling upon them unawares, and before they had time to prepare for their defence. They succeeded in several instances, massacred great numbers of the colonists, and, as may be easily conjectured, levelled the churches to the ground. But they were soon visited with a terrible vengeance. Their villages were attacked by the French garrison from New Orleans. The greater number were scattered among the other American tribes, and soon ceased to have a separate national existence; while the chief, who was arrogantly denominated "The

Great Sun," and his principal followers, were shipped to Hispaniola, and sold as slaves. From this massacre some of the missionaries had most miraculous escapes, while others of their brethren fell victims to the fury of the barbarians. Such an escape is that of Father Doutreleau, described in the following extract:

"This missionary had availed himself of the time when the Indians were engaged in their winter occupations, to come and see us, for the purpose of regulating some matters relating to his mission. He set out on the first day of this year 1730, and not expecting to arrive at the residence of Father Souel, of whose fate he was ignorant, in time to say mass, he determined to say it at the mouth of the little river of the Yazous, where his party had cabined. As he was preparing for this office, he saw a boat full of Indians landing. They demanded of them of what nation they were? Yazous, comrades of the French,' they replied, making a thousand friendly demonstrations to the voyagers who accompanied the missionary, and presenting them with provisions. While the Father was preparing his altar, a flock of bustards passed, and the voyagers fired at them the only two guns they had, without thinking of reloading, as mass had already commenced. The Indians noted this, and placed themselves behind the voyagers, as if it was their intention to hear mass, although they were not Christians. As the Father was saying the Kyrie Eleison, the Indians made their discharge. The missionary perceiving himself wounded in his right arm, and seeing one of the voyagers killed at his feet, and the four others fled, threw himself on his knees to receive the fatal blow which he regarded as inevitable. In this posture he received two or three discharges. But although the Indians fired whilst almost touching him, yet they did not inflict on him any new wounds. Finding himself then as it were, miraculously escaped so many mortal blows, he took to flight, having on still his priestly garments, and without any other defence than an entire confidence in God, whose particular protection was given him, as the event proved. He threw himself into the water, and after advancing some steps, gained the boat in which two of the voyagers were making their escape. They had supposed him to be killed by some of the many balls which they heard fired at him. In climbing up into the boat, and turning his head to see whether any of his pursuers was following him too closely, he received in the mouth a discharge of small shot, the greater part of which were flattened against his teeth, though some of them entered his gums, and remained there a long time. I have myself seen two of them. Father Doutreleau, all wounded as he was, undertook the duty of steering the boat, while his two companions placed themselves at the oars. Unfortunately one of them at setting out had his

thigh broken by a musket-ball, from the effects of which he has since remained a cripple. You may well imagine that the missionary and his companions had no thoughts of ascending the river. They descended the Mississippi with all the speed possible, and at last lost sight of the boat of their enemies, who had pursued them for more than an hour, keeping up a continual fire upon them, and who boasted at the village that they had killed them. The two rowers were often tempted to give themselves up, but encouraged by the missionary, they in their turn made the enemy fear. An old gun which was not loaded, nor in a condition to be, which they pointed at them from time to time, made them often dodge in their boat, and at last retire. As soon as they found themselves freed from their enemies, they dressed their wounds as well as they could, and for the purpose of aiding their flight from that fatal shore, they threw into the river every thing they had in their boat, preserving only some pieces of raw bacon for their nourishment."-p. 291.

With this extract we must conclude our notice. It has rarely been our good fortune to peruse a work that has afforded us more unmingled satisfaction. The notes which the translator has added, although of no great length, are yet of value. We recommend it to our readers as eminently deserving an honoured place in their libraries. It is one which, we doubt not, will be read by them with as much pleasure and profit as it has been by ourselves. May we again express our hope, that the treasures of romantic adventure and edifying narrative stored up in the “Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses"-many of them even more interesting than the volumes before us-will, in their own time, be thus presented to the public?

ART. VI.-A Scholastical History of the Canon of Holy Scripture, or the certain and indubitate Books thereof, as they are received in the Church of England. By JOHN COSIN, D. D., late Lord Bishop of Durham: Collected Works, New Edition, 2 vols. 8vo. Reprinted from 4to. Ed., 1672. Talboys: Oxford, 1843-45.

ECENT events have shown that the antiquated cries and catchwords of Puritanism, have lost but little of their power with a large portion of the Protestants of England. "The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing

but the Bible," has in some instances again been made an election cry, and although the results as regards the general public have not been so marked as on former occasions, yet it is still true, that there is hardly a parish, village, town, or city, which may not be thrown at any time into ecclesiastical convulsions, by a reference to the "mutilation of the word of God," or even by hinting at a proposal that selections from the Scriptures should be used. in schools and seminaries. It would be worse than death to Lord Roden, could he foresee that a day may come, when the peasant children upon his Essex estate, will be assimilated to those in the neighbourhood of Tollymore, in the county of Down, and no longer, as a matter of course, be initiated into the typical mysteries of Leviticus. In parliament, Mr. Plumptre would probably sigh for martyrdom on the floor of the House of Commons, rather than submit to what he and Mr. Finch call "a mutilated word of God;" by which they mean the omission of any page or paragraph whatsoever from writings never designed, and therefore not at all calculated, for popular instruction.

We are much mistaken, however, if these gentlemen do not act practically in their own families, upon the very system which they denounce elsewhere. They exercise common sense and discretion, when their children and servants assemble for their regular scripture reading at morning or evening domestic prayers; or in other words, no one of them is to be found, who will dare to read out aloud certain passages from Genesis, Judges, and the books of Kings and Paralipomenon; yet the dulness of intellect, which leads them to overlook this inconsistency, also conducts them into another still more important. It never occurs to them to inquire, whether or not the handsomely bound Bibles, glittering in every room of their houses, really comprise the entire canon of Scripture. Neither they, nor their pastors, have ever looked into the work of St. Augustine, De Doctrina Christiana: nor can they conceive it possible, that this eminent Father, whose name they perpetually quote, but whose volumes they never read, would charge themselves with the real guilt of scriptural mutilation, in despising those sacred books, which they are pleased, without solid or sufficient reason, to term Apocryphal.

The recent re-publication of Bishop Cosin's treatise on this subject in the new edition of his works, may well fur