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the relaxing frame, and the pale blue lips and cheeks now became perceptibly less rigid, and assumed a less death-like hue. Susanna murmured, with unspeakable delight, "O gracious God! I thank thee! He lives!-he lives!" and, with the reverence of pure and holy love-a reverence only to be comprehended by those with whom affection is indeed a sacred sentiment-the enamoured girl fervently kissed those reddening lips, secure that they could now neither return, nor after a while reproach her, perhaps, for bestowing this pledge of true and holiest tenderness.

Upon raising her head, the countenance of her father, burning with the anger which he found it impossible to vent in words, met the affrighted eyes of the gentle girl. "O father! father!" exclaimed she, in a piteous and deprecating tone, "the gallant Syren was the vessel wrecked! Know you not poor Frederic-Frederic Fergusson ?-See! he is alive!-Yes! yes, father! he lives, thank God, he lives!" The aspect of Sawyer was, at this moment, that of an absolute dæmon; beneath his basilisk-glance his daughter cowered, and clasped her beloved charge more fondly and firmly in her arms. Ben slowly turning, peered around him; a projecting rock hid from his view the many, who, at no great distance, were still busily employed in collecting the wealth wafted to them by the cruel sea: he resumed his former position, and the devilish thought which possessed his black heart found vent in words, uttered in a measured and hollow tone:-" He lives!-Ay, girl, he does indeed live! and if suffered so to do, we and our hard-earned wealth are lost-entirely lost! Nobody sees; and one for the many-this is not too much!"

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As he spoke, he drew from his hempen girdle the hatchet, and raised it aloft. Susanna then, and not till then, comprehending his diabolical design, shrieked, in inexpressible agony, as she embraced her reviving Frederic more closely. O no! no! no! no! you will not-you cannot-." The weighty hatchet fell with a blow almost sufficient to have severed the stem of a stout oak; torrents of blood spouted forth, and something bounded down into the water below the fatal spot, so rapidly as not at first to allow Sawyer to distinguish what it was. He knew, however, that his aim had proved true, and the next moment he beheld, with a horror that harrowed up every feeling of his guilty spirit, two bleeding headless bodies quivering at his feet! Rooted to the spot, and scarcely sensible that the current of life yet flowed in his own veins, the wretched murderer was found by the civil authorities of the place, and some revenue officers, whom reports of the wreck had brought hastily to the scene of action.

Of some of the wreckers just examples were made: Ben Sawyer, as the most guilty, was drawn to the place of execution on a hurdle, and hung in chains. The shock which he received from the unintentional catastrophe of his last appalling crime had, to all appearance, bereft him of reason. Upon his trial, however, he was sufficiently sensible to assert his sanity (nor were witnesses lacking to prove it) at the period of committing that atrocious deed, for which his own life was required; but he died—an idiot!

TO THE THAMES.

BY JAMES BIRD, ESQ.

Old Thames !-thou babbler!-noisy tyrant! proud
Thou art, and mighty in thy devious course!
Methinks thou need'st not be so rudely loud—
Look to the tiny dribbling of thy source!
But thou art like the wild and noisy crowd,
Vain and tumultous-rushing on with force,
Regardless of the mud from which, forlorn,
A puny thing, thy rivership was born!

Not that we deem an humble birth a crime

Blest are the poor, the humble, and the meekBut thou goest wallowing on, o'er weed and slime, Swelling, all pompous, arrogant, and weak, Thou only roar'st a short and fitful time:

What doth thy long, yet futile history speak? Thy waters still to flow-those flowed before, Have been, or will be, swallowed at the Nore! And after all thy tumult and thy strife,

What are thy waters to the boundless sea? A viewless drop!-Can Neptune and his Wife Extend their empire by the help of thee, Thou slight humidity?-Upon my life,

Thou scarce wouldst fill the kettle for their tea,
When to a pic-nic party they invite
Their green-eyed sea-nymphs on a gala night.
Yet, let the Muse no more comtemn thy waters,
On whose rich banks in days of old were seen
Struggles for empire, and the strife of slaughters,
That dyed with tyrants' blood thy valleys green;
And there have dwelt, and dwell, thy peerless daughters
Of grace and beauty while thou flow'st, the Queen
Of Albion's Rivers-by the glorious city,

Which holds the fair, the rich, the gay, the witty.
Yes! thou art London's boast!-sufficient praise
To give a wild and rambling stream, like thee—
That huge metropolis!-her vitals raise

A race of heroes, bold of heart, and free.
What wondrous men are in her crowded ways,
Rare imps of science and philosophy!
There are heads too, which never dare aspire,
With all their brains, to-set the Thames on fire.

Flow on, fair stream! and, as thy waters speed
To Ocean's bosom, nor return again,

In this we may a timely lesson read,

And think how swiftly to that troublous main,

Where our frail bark will a true pilot need,

Time bears us on, through pleasure and through pain,

And, as the waves pass rapidly away,

We pass as certain and as swift as they!

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THIS spirited and characteristic representation belongs to a work as pleasing and entertaining as ever was extracted from the journal of a traveller*. It is the production of Sir Edmond Temple, who won his honours in the Peninsular campaigns, and who, in these "piping times of peace," exchanging the sword for the pen, accepted the office of secretary to the Peruvian Mining Association, and as such travelled through various parts of Peru, and resided upwards of a year at Potosi-a city proverbial for the richness of its mines. It would be difficult to point out to the lovers of light reading a more attractive and interesting book than that which these circumstances have enabled him to furnish. His narrative abounds with amusing subjects, and even the most trivial are delineated with a light, easy, and natural liveliness of humour, that is irresistibly diverting. To those who, on the other hand, pursue a higher object in reading than mere amusement, and are desirous of acquainting themselves with the present state of the most interesting portion of South America, we

* Travels in Various Parts of Peru, including a Year's Residence in Potosi. By EDMOND TEMPLE, Knight of the Royal and Distinguished Order of Charles III. In 2 vols. 8vo. with numerous plates and vignettes. Colburn and Bentley, New Burlington street.

cannot too strongly recommend the perusal of these Travels. From the official situation of the author, he was enabled to collect much authentic information relative to the celebrated mines of Potosi and of Peru in general, which has already been pronounced by competent judges to be "very valuable." Persons of large or small capital, purposing to emigrate from the overstocked hives of the Old World, will find in these volumes many useful hints: the future geographer will be indebted to them for the account of a province (Tarija) not hitherto described; and the historian for the first authentic details of the insurrection of the Peruvian Indians, about fifty years ago-the circumstances of which had ever since been most carefully concealed from the public by the Spanish government. It is to the author's account of the Indians just mentioned that we have now to call the attention of our readers.

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"The Peruvians," says Sir Edmond Temple, are generally middle-sized, muscular men; I have seldom seen one who would be admitted into any of our grenadier companies. They live chiefly on vegetables, of which the Indian corn and potato are the principal. They are not so abstemious with respect to drink, being very fond of fermented liquors of every sort. They are extremely humble, and although they have given proofs of desperate courage and ferocity when roused to vengeance, they are nevertheless of a timid disposition, and as peaceably inclined as they are represented to have been, when Pizarro, their murderous conqueror, invaded them three hundred years ago. Their dress, excepting the hat, which is precisely the shape of Don Quixote's helmet without the niche in it, reminded me of that of the peasantry of Connaught. They wear coarse brown frieze cloth breeches, with the waistband very low, and always open at the knees, the buttons being for ornament, not for use. Shirts are seldom worn; the legs are bare, with the exception of pieces of hide under the soles of the feet, tied sandal-fashion round the instep and

toes.

"An Englishman, and indeed every impartial traveller, of whatever country he may be, must admit, in spite of poetry, that the most beautiful women in the world are the English; compared with them, the female Indians are far from handsome, but I have seen some very finely formed. They become mothers at an age which in England is considered little more than that of childhood, but here it is rather unusual to see an Indian girl, who has passed her fifteenth year, without her waw-waw (child) upon her back. Their decay, however, is equally premature; women may be seen old at twenty.

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The dress of the female Indians consists of a petticoat, worn much shorter by the unmarried than by those that are married, and a scarf of sundry colours round the shoulders, which is pinned on one side of the chest with a topa, a large silver pin, occasionally of handsome workmanship; but sometimes they use a spoon, the handle of which being pointed serves as a pin, in a manner similar to that in which the ancient Britons used bodkins of bone and ivory to fasten their garments.

"The primitive inhabitants of South America, improperly called 'Indians,' are of a tawny colour, inclining to red of different shades

of brightness; the difference in the shades arising probably, in a great degree, from the varying temperature of the climate of the country which they inhabit. The Indians of Peru are a strong, healthy race, and generally laborious, for every kind of labour is performed by them. In Potosi, however, the miners, all Indians, have acquired a character for habits of idleness and a propensity to defraud their employers, which it must be admitted is not altogether without foundation, though I think the causes of the evils complained of may be traced to harsh treatment, or to unwarrantable exactions of some sort, aggression being as frequent on one side as delinquency on the other.

"Those who have been so long accustomed to treat this oppressed people as slaves, and have been taught to consider them below the scale of humanity, do not on all occasions recollect, that the severe struggle they have so successfully sustained, in shaking off a galling yoke from their own necks, has also relieved the Indians from theirs, and that, in the eye of the newly-established laws, for which both classes have equally shed their blood, they are now, for the first time, on an equality. The knowledge of these facts has not yet thoroughly subdued old prejudices, and therefore the poor Indians are occasionally exposed to the haughtiness, tyranny, and injustice, of ungracious

masters.

"I know from experience that, by proper management, their faults and the disadvantages arising from them may be guarded against, and in a great degree corrected. A worm, or if it be thought more applicable, the adder, will turn when trod upon, and will then resent the injury: so has it been with these Indians before now; but, with kind usage, fair remuneration for their services, and impartial conduct towards them, they are perfectly tractable, and become good, faithful, and willing, servants. During my residence at Potosi, I have had occasion to employ many Indians, as well miners as those of other trades and occupations-there is no want of hands as it has been generally supposed-and I cannot say that I have any cause of complaint against them; they performed the work for which they were engaged to the best of their abilities, and at the completion of it I paid them their hire. Sunday, after the hour of early mass, is the customary time of paying the miners and all persons employed in the ingenios; this practice I did not adhere to, having preferred settling all such matters, so far as I had control, on Saturday.

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"At the appointed hour they assembled in the court before my office, accompanied sometimes by their wives and children, and, if I happened to be engaged in business, (dispatching the couriers, for instance, when in the absence or illness of my companions I have been employed many hours in the day writing against time,') these people would remain, without evincing the slightest impatience, and never approach to ask to be settled with, till called by name as they stood upon the list of the major-domo. They always expressed their thanks when they received their wages, upon which subject we never had the most trifling misunderstanding, and only once upon another, namely, upon the subject of a pick-axe that had been stolen out of our ingenio. It was worth fifteen shillings at Potosi, and might

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