Perhaps, it could only give the imagination of a child the intense kind of pleasure the writer has felt, to listen to the description of his receiving the oaths of allegiance from these wild but grateful beings, tendered, with all the ceremonials usual amongst them, by a deputation of twelve chiefs, who were selected to offer him the highest dignity they could bestow. The White Chief, in his fantastic costume-consisting of a loose open robe, reaching nearly to the ankles, confined at the waist by a bright-coloured woollen belt, the ends, touching the instep, elaborately interwoven with beads of every description and beautifully polished fishes' teeth, as were those of the garters, worn below the knees, met by the rude mocassins their primitive idea of shoe-making enabled them to contrive, his singular head-dress of skins decorated with varicoloured feathers, and his formidable weapons-might, with some show of reason, seem to a child the most picturesque and imposing of objects; and it is a question of some doubt, if any degree of personal grandeur could be really greater than this simple but striking costume is capable of bestowing on a well-made, vigorous form, or how far older and wiser heads than the writer's was when she saw it on her father, could withstand its dazzling effect.

It was an office of some danger and difficulty to discipline and lead such a number of men, wholly unacquainted with even the rudiments of what is called the civilised mode of warfare, or with our estimate of right and wrong; but he set forward, with a contempt for life as compared with duty, and with a firm determination to win their love and confidence by treating them as brethren; and he succeeded; for "the Little White Captain," as they called him, though he was nearly six feet high, never found his will disputed, or his life in danger from treachery, amongst the wild Sons of the Forest. He led them on so

effectually against their enemies, whom he harassed so much by continual skirmishes, that a reward of five thousand dollars was offered by General Jackson for his head; but a Judas was wanting amongst them to take the pieces and betray their master.

It would be incompatible with the space to which this notice of a beloved and honoured father must be confined, to attempt to follow him through all the dangers and privations he had to encounter during his sojourn amongst them, sharing every vicissitude as an equal though burthened with the superior cares of authority; nor would it be expedient to linger on the many romantic incidents which befel him, as condensation is the chief consideration in the present sketch, or memory would supply various points of interest in this respect: an American moonlight ambush and its frustration; his midnight expeditions to their strongholds; his Sabbath forest homilies and camp worship; his mechanical and lingual school, for he taught them more and better things than the use of fire-arms; his bounty-days, when his stores were divided amongst them; his Indian nurse, who, breaking through all her native terror of the contagious fever with which he was stricken, brought him his daily mess of rice and herb beverage; with her wild gestures of delight at his recovery-all these things must be left untouched. Long and rugged marches, hunger, thirst, and sickness-all, by turns, he endured, and (still more difficult) had to teach others to endure, who, newly initiated into the luxuries of regular rations, were somewhat difficult to convince of the possibility of the source from which they were supplied becoming occasionally exhausted. In their simple faith, they regarded him as a kind of necromancer, to whom everything was possible; and his greatest difficulty with them, was, at times, to convince them they were in error in ascribing to him the power to work miracles.

xvi

MEMOIR OF LIEUT. SAMUEL SMITH.

At the conclusion of the Peace, he returned to England, after having been joined by Lieutenant-Colonel Nicholls, of the Royal Marines, who undertook to forward his commission to England for confirmation. On his arrival, however, he was told that his rank would be recognised and eventually confirmed should his services be required again; but, in the mean time, he was advised to retire on a pension of forty pounds per annum, payable at Somerset House, "for particular services."

In 1831, he volunteered to join the expedition going out, under Lieutenant-Colonel Nicholls, from the Colonial Department, on the understanding that he was to hold his former rank as lieutenant, and, doubtless, in the hope that it would lead to its ultimate confirmation to him. His outfit was prepared accordingly, at a heavy expense, much straitening the circumstances in which he left a wife and three surviving children, all young. He sailed in the Britomart, from Spithead, July 6, 1831, never to return.

From passages in his letters, it is feared he experienced disappointment as to the situation he found himself in on his arrival at Fernando Po, which, working on a highly sensitive spirit (feeling it had earned the right to consideration) along with the effects of the climate, brought on fever, which ended in death, two or three months after his landing.

Thus died a brave soldier, a good and kind husband and father, and a Christian whose hand and heart were

"Open as day to melting charity."

Though his country wrote his services in sand, and left his widow and children wholly unprovided for, on his child's heart his worth is graven deeply, proudly, affectionately, and gratefully; for he was her playmate, her tutor, her fireside pastor, and will ever be her model for manly excellence.

POEMS.

AN INVITATION TO THE REALMS OF POESY.

TO THE READER.

Oн, come! shall we wander where Fancy is rife

With dreamy revealments of glory,

Where airy creations have sprung into life

To figure in song or in story,

And watch the bright pageant, as gliding along

In shadowy dimness it fadeth,

To single the fair and the pure from the throng,
Ere darkness the vision o'ershadeth ?

B

We'll peer through the motley, fantastic, and wild,

That gambol to catch the unwary

Who, willingly dazzled, are led and beguiled
By the wandering lights of a fairy-

To look for the simple; the truthful, the pure,
Though calmly their splendour is glowing-
Theirs, theirs is the light, will for ever endure,
No fitful refulgence out-throwing!

Lo! Fancy unfetters her progeny fair:

From cavern'd recesses they're streaming;

And hither and thither they're borne on the air
To spots where the poet lies dreaming.

Come, come, and we'll glide o'er his magic-born world, His mountains, and vales, and seas roaring

With high-crested billows, in proud grandeur curl'd, And streamlets in soft murmurs pouring,—