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newspapers, which, as it turned out, might have proved to be by far the most dangerous topic I could have hit upon. He had laid them aside, having taken them out of the locker when he was rumaging for the linen. "What have we here- Kingston Chronicle, Montego Bay Gazette, Falmouth Advertiser. A great newsmonger you must be. What arrivals?-let me see;-you know I am a week from head quarters. Let me see."

At first he made a motion as if he would have snatched them out of my hands, but speedily appeared to give up the idea, merely murmuring-" What can it signify now?"

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I continued to read-"Chanticleer from a cruise-Tonant from Barbadoes -Pique from Port-au Prince. Oh, the next interests me- -the Firebrand is daily expected from Havanna; she is to come through the gulf, round Cape Antonio, and beat up the haunts of the pirates all along the Cuba shore.' I was certain now that at the mention of this corvette mine host winced in earnest. This made me anxious to probe him farther. "Why, what means this pencil mark-'Firebrand's number off the Chesapeake was 1022?' How the deuce, my fine fellow, do you know that?"

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He shook his head, but said nothing, and I went on reading the pencil memoranda-"But this is most probably changed; she now carries a red cross in the head of her foresail, and has very short lower masts, like the Hornet.'" Still he made me no answer. I proceeded-"Stop, let me see what merchant ships are about sailing. 'Loading for Liverpool, the Jolin Gladstone, Peter Ponderous, master and after it, again in pencil-Only sugar; goes through the gulf.'-Only sugar," said I, still fishing; " too bulky, I suppose. 'Ariel, Jenkins, Whitehaven ;' mark sugar, coffee, and logwood. Nuestra Senora de los Dolores, to sail for Chagres on 7th proximo;"" remark "rich cargo of bale goods, but no chance of overtaking her.'-El Rayo to sail for St. Jago de Cuba on the 10th proximo ;'" remark ""sails fast; armed with a long gun, and musketry; thirty hands; about ten Spanish passengers; valuable cargo of dry goods; main-mast rakes well aft; new cloth in the foresail about half way up; will be off the Moro about the 13th.' And what is this written in ink under the above? The San Pedro from Chagres, and Marianita from Santa Martha, al

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though rich, have both got convoy.' Ah, too strong for your friends, ObedI see, I see. 'Francis Baring, Loan French, master-an odd name, rather, for a skipper;" remark 'forty seroons of cochineal and some specie; is to sail from Morant Bay on 5th proximo, to go through the windward passage; may be expected off Cape St. Nicolas on the 12th or thereby."" I laid down the paper, and looked him full in the face. "Nicolas is an ominous name. I fear the good ship Francis Baring will find it so. Some of the worthy saint's clerks to be fallen in with off the Mole, eh? Don't you think as I do, Obed?” Still silent.

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Why, you seem to take great delight in noting the intended departures and expected arrivals, my friend-merely to satisfy your curiosity, of course; but, to come to close quarters with you, captain, I now know pretty well the object of your visiting Jamaica now and then, you are indeed no vulgar smuggler."

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"It is well for you, and good for myself, Mr. Cringle, that something weighs heavy at my heart at this moment, and that there is that about you which, notwithstanding your ill-timed jesting, commands my respect, and engages my good-will I had it not been so, you would have been alongside of poor Paul at this moment. He leant his arms upon the table, and gazed intensely on my face as he continued in a solemn tremulous tone-" Do you believe in auguries, Mr. Cringle? Do you believe that coming events cast their shadows before?"-Oh, that little Wiggy Campbell had been beside me to have seen the figure and face of the man who now quoted him!-"Yes, do, it is part of the creed of every sailor to do so; I do believe that people have had forewarnings of peril to themselves or their friends."

"Then what do you think of the mate beckoning me with his dead hand to follow him?"

"Why, you are raving, Obed; you saw that he had been much convulsed, and that the limb, from the contraction of the sinews, was forcibly kept down in the position it broke loose from-the spunyarn gave way, and of course it started up-nothing wonderful in all this, although it did at the same time somewhat startle me, I confess."

"It may be so, it may be so. I don't know," rejoined he, "but taken along with what I saw before"

Here his voice sank into so hollow and sepulchral a tone as to be almost

unintelligible.

"But there is no use in arguing on the subject. Answer me this, Lieutenant Cringle, and truly, so help you God, at your utmost need, did the mate leave the cabin at auy moment after I was wounded by the splinter?" And he seized one of my hands convulsively with his iron paw while he pointed up through the open scuttle towards heaven with the other, which trembled like a reed. The moon shone strong on the upper part of his countenance, while the yellow smoky glare of the candle over which he bent, blending harshly and unharmoniously with the pale silver light, fell full on his uncouth figure, and on his long scraggy bare neck and chin and cheeks, giving altogether a most unearthly expression to his savage features, from the conflicting tints and changing shadows cast by the flickering moonbeams streaming fitfully through the skylight, as the vessel rolled to and fro, and by the large torchlike candle as it wavered in the night wind. The Prince of the Powers of the Air might have sat for his picture by proxy. It was just such a face as one has dreamed of after a hot snpper and cold ale, when the whisky had been forgotten-horrible, changing vague, glimmering, and undefined; and as if something was still wanting to complete the utter frightfulness of his aspect, the splinter wound in his head burst out afresh from his violent agitation, and streamed down in heavy drops from his forehead, falling warm on my hand. I was much shaken at being adjured in this tremendous way, with the hot blood glewing our hands together, but I returned his grasp as steadily as I could, while I replied with all the composure he had left me, and that would not have quite filled a Winchester bushel,

"He never left my side from the time he offered to take your place after you had been wounded." He fell back against the locker as if he had been shot through the heart. His grasp relaxed, he drew his breath very hard, and I thought he had fainted.

"Then it was not him that stood by me; I thought it might have been him, but I was a fool, it was impossible."

He made a desperate effort to recover his composure, and succeeded." And, pray, Master Obediah," quoth I, "what did you see?" He answered me sharply-"Never mind, never mindhere, Potomac, lend us a hand to sling a cot for this gentleman; there now, see the lanyard is sound, and the lacing

all tight and snug-now put that mattrass into it, and there is linen in the chest." In a trice my couch was rigged, all comfortable, snow-white linen, nice pillow, soft mattrass, &c., and Obed, filling me another tumbler, helped himself also; he then drank to my health, wished me a sound sleep, promised to call me at day-light, and as he left the cabin he said, "Mr. Cringle, had it been my object to have injured you, I would not have waited until now. You are quite safe so far as depends on me, so take your rest-good night, once more." I tumbled into bed, and never once opened my eyes until Obed called me at day-light, that is, at five in the morning, according to his promise. To be continued.

Table Talk.

BIOGRAPHY OF GOETHE.-This great man had his Boswell. Falk, a writer well known in the literary world of Germany, has left an account of his conversations with Goethe. The work has been for more than four years in the hands of a bookseller, who, with with becoming delicacy, refrained from publishing it during the life of Goethe.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JEREMY BENTHAM.-Doctor Bowring, it is said, is making great progress in the preparation of the autobiography of the late It is now nearly Jeremy Bentham. will contain copious extracts from his ready for the press, and the volumes correspondence with the most eminent men of the age, with the opinions of the great utilitarian philosopher, both as to the persons, event, and publications, which have most excited the pnblic attention in the last century.

LEGEND OF WAMBA, KING OF SPAIN.

As this was the age of miracles (672), we need not be surprised that one is recorded relating to this prince. His elevation is said by some chroniclers to be the work of Heaven. The legend is that when St. Leo, in compliance with the earnest wishes of the Goths, prayed that they might be divinely directed in the choice they were about to make; he was admonished that they must seek a labourer who resided in the west, named Wamba, and whom they must crown. Soldiers were accordingly despatched in search of the man. They found him at plough on the confines of Portugal, and acquainted him with his elevation. Considering their solemnity as a studied joke, he replied, that they would doubt

ess make him a king, when the pole which he held in his hand should again flourish. To the astonishment of all present, the reply was scarcely returned when the dry wood was clothed with verdure! Of course they took him away to Toledo, and there crowned him.

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IRISH FAITH.-In one of my rambles, says Wilderspin, a fine young woman, about twenty-two years of age, in a very dirty and ragged plight, came out of a wretched hovel, and with intense emotion said, “O, for the love of God and of the holy virgin, y'er honour, give me a penny! On bestowing what I thought proper, I observed her enter a neighbouring cabin, where various articles were sold, and bring from thence two candles. Anxious to watch her still farther, I followed her to her dwelling, built of earth, in which were four posts driven in the ground; on them an oblong block was placed, measuring about four yards by two, which, I supposed, served for a bed; and on this, some straw or rushes appeared beneath a rug. Observing her gazing with great intentness on it, and not noticing me, though standing at the door, I was led to intrude, by asking what was there? "Och! sure," was the reply, "and is'nt it my own dear, dear darlint?" and, lifting up the rug, she exposed to my view the corpse of her babe. Affected by the sight and the emotion of the mother, I entered into conversation with her, and at length ventured to speak of a future state, on which, though she had paid marked attention to all I said as to her own circumstances, she stared, and exclaimed, with mingled anxiety and apprehension, "And is it you that talk about these things? Hav'nt we, now, our own priest to do this? Does'nt he come very often here?-and does'nt he, sure, know more than you a great dale? What is it, now, that he has not told me? Och! ye need not be saying any thing at all, at all!" Nor would she allow me to resume the subject. I then naturally inquired,-if she had such great faith in Father O'Reilly, why she did not ask him to relieve her? “Och," said she, "now I know that ye know nothing at all! Has he not often relaved me? and sure did he not say, the last time he was here, that if I put my trust in God, somebody would come and help me, and, faith! has'nt he sent you? and so no thanks to you."

ORIGIN OF CELEBRATED MEN.-Euripides was the son of a fruitwoman;

Demosthenes, of a blacksmith; Virgil, of a baker; Horace, of a freed-man; Terence, of a slave; Amyot, of a currier; Voiture, of a publican; Lamothe, of a hatter; Flechier, of a chandler; Sixtus Quintus, of a swine-herd; Tamerlane, of a shepherd; Romilly, of a baker; Rollin, of a cutler; Moliere, of goldsmith; Quinault, of a journeyman an upholsterer; Massillon, of a turner; J. B. Rousseau, of a shoemaker; J. J. Rousseau, of a watchmaker; Galland, maker; Ben Jonson, of a of a cobler; Beaumarchais, of a watchShakspeare, of a butcher; Rembrandt, of a miller; Sir T. Lawrence, of a publican; Collins, of a hatter; Gray, of a scrivener; Beattie, of a farmer; Tom Moore, of a grocer.

Varieties.

mason;

ITALIAN SLOTH.-It is common in Italy as in France, for men to have their shoes shined in the street, and the shoe-blacks go about the streets carrying a little box, and brushes, and as a stool to put the which serves both to carry the blacking

foot on.

An Englishman happening one day to see a boy who was in the habit of cleaning his boots, lying asleep in the street against the wall of a house, his box serving him for a pillow, he gave the fellow a shove with his foot, and told him he wanted his boots blacklitan, turning round and recognising his No, Signore," said the Neapoemployer with half open eyes, No, Signore: ho gia mangiato."-("No, Sir; I have had my dinner!") P. C..

ed. "

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CURIOUS EXperiment. Place a wine glass upon the edge of a table, and another wine-glass upon the edge of another table, at the distance of three or four feet; a pine stick, of one-half or three-fourths of an inch square, being then laid across the two glasses, so that its two ends may rest upon the two contigious edges of the glasses, strike the stick at right angles, in the middle, with a heavy cane, and it will break in two without breaking the glasses. The two pieces of the broken stick fly up to the ceiling, while the glasses remain, not only uninjured, but I have often, succesfully, repeated this are not even moved from their places. curious experiment; when, however, the glasses are thin, and the stick is too strong, they will break; and they will break in any event, if the stick does not.-Silliman's Journal.

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By this time we were well in with the Cuba shore; the land might be two miles from us, as we could see the white surf. Out at sea, although all around was clear as crystal, there was nothing to be seen of the Gleam or Firebrand, but there were ten or twelve fishing canoes, each manned with from four to six hands, close aboard of us; we seemed to have got becalmed in the middle of a small fleet of them. The nearest to us hailed in Spanish, in a very friendly way, "Como estamos Capitan, que hay de nuevo; hay algo de bueno, para los pobres Pescadores?" and the fellow who had spoken laughed loudly. The Capitan desired him to come on board, and then drew him aside, conversing earnestly with him. The Spanish fisherman was a very powerful man; he was equipped in a blue cotton shirt, Osnaburg trowsers, sandals of untanned bullock's hide, a. VOL. X.

See page 34.

straw hat, and wore the eternal greasy red sash and long knife. He was a bold, daring-looking fellow, and frequently looked frowningly on me, and shook his head impatiently, while the Capitan, as it seemed, was explaining to him who I was. Just in this nick of time my friend Potonac handed up my uniform coat. I had previously been performing my ablutions on deck in my shirt and trowsers, which I put on, swab and all, thinking no harm. But there must have been mighty great offence nevertheless, for the fisherman, in a twinkling, casting a fierce look at me, jumped overboard like a feather, clearing the rail like a flying fish, and swam to his canoe, that had shoved off a few paces.

When he got on board he stood up and shook his clenched fist at Obed, shouting, "Picaro, Traider, Ingleses hay abordo, quieres enganarnos!" He then held up the blade of his paddle, a signal which all the canoes answered in a moment in the same manner, and then pulled towards the land, from whence a felucca, invisible until that

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moment, now swept out, as if she had floated up the surface by magic, for I could see neither creek, nor indentation on the shore, nor the smallest symptom of any entrance to a port or cove. For a few minutes the canoes clustered round this necromantic craft, and I could notice that two or three hands from each of them jumped on board; they then paddled off in a string, and. vanished one by one amongst the mangrove bushes as suddenly as the felucca had appeared. All this puzzled me exceedingly-I looked at Obed-he was evidently sorely perplexed. "I had thought to have put you on board a British vessel before this, or failing that, to have run down, and landed you at St. Jago, Mr. Cringle, as I promised, but you see I am prevented by these honest men there; get below, and as you value your life, and I may say, mine, keep your temper, and be civil." 1 did as he suggested, but peeped out of the cabin sky-light to see what was going on, notwithstanding. The felucca I could see was armed with a heavy carronade on a pivot, and as full of men as she could hold, fierce, half-naked, savage-looking fellows, as one could desire to seeshe swept rapidly up to us, and closing on our larboard quarter, threw about five-and-twenty of her genteel young people on board, who immediately secured the crew, and seized Obed. However, they, that is, the common sailors, seemed to have no great stomach for the job, and had it not been for the fellow I had frightened overboard, I don't think one of them would have touched him. Obed bore all this with great equanimity.

"Why, Francisco," he said, to this personage, in good Spanish, "why, what madness is this? your suspicions are groundless; it is as I tell you, he is my prisoner, and whatever he may have been to me, he can be no spy on you."

"Cuchillo entonces," was the savage reply.

ed to his ragamuffins, "Comrades, we are betrayed; there is an English officer on board, who can be nothing but a spy-follow me."

"No, no," persisted Obediah, "get cool man, get cool, I am pledged that no harm shall come to him; and farther, I have promised to put him ashore at St. Jago, and I will be as good as my word."

"You can't if you would," rejoined Francisco; "the Snake is at anchor under the Moro."

"Then he must go with us."

"We shall see as to that," said the other; then raising his voice, he shout

And he dashed down the companion ladder, knife in hand, while I sprung through the small scuttle, like a rat out of one hole when a ferret is put in at the other, and crept as close to Obed as I could; Francisco, when he missed me, came on deck again. The captain had now seized a cutlass in one hand, and held a cocked pistol in the other. It appeared he had greater control, the nature of which I now began to comprehend, over the felucca's people, than Francisco bargained for, as the moment the latter went below, they released him, and went forward in a body. My persecutor again advanced close up to me, and seized me by the collar with one hand, and tried to drag me forward, brandishing his naked knife aloft in the other.

Obed promptly caught his swordarm,-" Francisco!" he exclaimed, still in Spanish, "fool, madman, let go your hold, let go, or by the heaven above us, and the hell we are both hastening to, I will strike you dead."

The man paused, and looked round to his own people, and seeing one or two encouraging glances and gestures amongst them, he again attempted to drag me away from my hold on the tafferel. Something flashed in the sun, and the man fell! His left arm, the hand of which still clutched my throat, while mine grasped its wrist, had been shred from his body by Obed's cutlass, like a twig, and, oh God, my blood curdles to my heart, even now, when I think of it, the dead fingers kept the grasp sufficiently long to allow the arm to fall heavily against my side, where it hung for some seconds, until the muscles relaxed and it dropped on the deck. The instant that Obed struck the blow, he caught hold of my hand, threw away his cutlass, and advanced towards the group of the felucca's men, pistol in hand.

"Am I not your captain, ye cowards -have I ever deceived you yet-have I ever flinched from heading you where the danger was greatest-have you not all that I am worth in your hands, and will you murder me now?"

"Viva, el noble Capitan, viva!"

And the tide turned as rapidly in our favour as it had lately ebbed against

us.

"As for that scoundrel, he has got no more than he deserves," said he,

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