through the very apex of which has been cut a passage, the rocks overhanging it on either side. I was in the act of passing through this ditch, when a bullet whizzed by, close to my head; I saw no one, and had scarcely time to think when another was fired some short distance in advance; I could yet see no one; the janissary was beneath the brow of the hill, in his descent; I looked back, but my servant was not yet within sight. I looked up, and within a few inches of my head were three muskets, and three men taking aim at me. Escape or resistance were alike impossible. I got off my horse. Eight men jumped down from the rocks, and commenced a scramble for me; I observed also a party running towards Nicholai. At this moment the janissary gallopped in among us with his sword drawn; I knew that if blood were spilt I should be sacrificed, and I called upon him to fly. He wounded one man that had hold of me; I received two violent blows, intended I believe for him; from the effect of one I was protected by my turban I was not armed the janissary cut down another Arab, and all the rest scrambled up the rocks, the janissary turned his horse and rode off at full gallop, calling on me to follow him, which I did on foot: in the mean time the Arabs prepared their matchlocks, and opened a fire upon us, but only a few of their shots came very near. We had advanced about a league, when two of the banditti made a show of cutting us off. A sudden panic seized the janissary, he cried on the name of the Prophet, and gallopped away. I called out to him that there were but two- that with his sword and pistols, if we stopped behind a stone, we could kill them both; he rode back towards the Arabs, they had guns, and the poor fellow returned full speed. As he passed I caught at a rope hanging from his saddle-I had hoped to leap upon his horse, but found myself unable; my feet were dreadfully lacerated by the honey-combed rocks nature would support me no longer I fell, but still clung to the rope; in this manner I was drawn some few yards; till, bleeding from my ancle to my shoulder, I resigned myself to my fate. As soon as I stood up, one of my pursuers took aim at me, but the other casually advancing between us, prevented his firing, he then ran up, and with his sword aimed such a blow as would not have required a second; his companion prevented its full effect, so that it merely cut my ear in halves and laid open one side of my face; they then stripped me naked. These two could not have known that their friends were wounded, or they would certainly have killed me; they had heard me vote their death, and which we should in all probability have effected, had the janissary, a Turk, understood me. I had spoken to him in Arabic. It was now past mid-day, and burning hot; I bled profusely; and two vultures, whose business it is to consume corpses, were hovering over me. I could scarcely have had strengh to resist, had they chosen to attack me. In about twenty minutes Nicholai came up; his only sorrow was for my wound, and the loss of the sword, which was his own. "You cannot live, Sir, you cannot -- live! they have taken away my sword; I asked them to give it back to me, but they would not." He then related his part of the adventure ten men had beset him his horse was not to be depended upon -the gun was not loaded; and there were many Arabs on every side, so that retreat was impossible. The janissary now came to our assistance, and put me on his horse; we passed by a rivulet of tempting water, but they would not allow me to drink, though I was almost choked with blood. At length we arrived about three, P. M., at Jericho. The "walls of Jericho" are of mud; at a corner of the town stands a small stone building, the residence of the governor: within the walls of it is the town reservoir of water, and horses for eight Turks. My servant was unable to lift me to the ground; the janissary was lighting his pipe, and the soldiers were making preparations to pursue the robbers; not one person would assist a half-dead Christian; after some minutes a few Arabs came up, and placed me by the side of the horse-pond, just so that I could not dip my finger into the water; one of the soldiers, as he went forth, took the rug from his horse, and threw it to me as a covering. The governor armed himself, and the whole garrison sallied forth in pursuit of the banditti. This pool is resorted to by every one in search of water, and that employment falls exclusively upon females they surrounded me, and seemed so earnest in their sorrow, that, notwithstanding their veils, I almost felt pleasure at my wound; one of them in particular held her pitcher to my lips, till she was sent away by the Chous. I called her, she returned, and was sent away again; and the third time she was turned out of the yard; she wore a red veil, and therefore there was something unpardonable in her attention to any man, especially to a Christian: she, however, returned with her mother, and brought me a lemon and some milk. I believe that Mungo Park, on some dangerous occasion during his travels, received considerable assistance from the compassionate sex. About sunset, the secretary of the governor provided me with a shirt. I was then put into a mat, and deposited in a small dark cell, but even there I was not at rest, for a cat made two pulls at my ear during the night-it was a very Mohammedan cat. Early on the following morning, the governor informed me, that he had scoured the roads of the banditti; and that as there was no doctor in Jericho, every thing was ready to convey me to Jerusalem. He had furnished me with some of his own cavalry, and had added a few pedestrians from the town; I was then tied on a camel, like a dead sheep, the Turkish horsemen preceded me, and, scouting over the rocks, afforded, I doubt not, a very pretty scene; but I was complaining of the motion of the camel, of the ropes that bound me, and the want of covering, while at every step my wound opened and shut like a quivering door. I begged to be transposed to a horse, but my guides refused to stop under pretence of danger.' In consequence of this melancholy accident, Sir F. H, kept his bed twenty days: when, impatient of the penance of so long long a sojourn in the Latin convent, it was with no little pleasure that he at length took leave of "the blessed city." His homeward journey was by Nazareth, Acre, Ephesus, Smyrna, Constantinople, and Vienna. We must now also take leave, but a more reluctant leave, of this agreeable traveller; heartily thanking him for the "broad grins" into which he has so frequently distorted our melancholy visages. A professed joker cannot, indeed, be always successful, for his wit will occasionally burn dimly: but that of Sir Frederick rarely goes out, and he is never absolutely dull. We must, however, be pardoned for reminding him that the derivation of the word devil from Typhon, through the medium of the German word Tyfel, is but a poor attempt; and that he might as well have omitted his intrigue with a native woman, and the adventure of his escape through a mud-wall. Like our old friend Strap in Roderick Random, Sir Frederick seems to be of an amorous complexion but he ought at least to have had the delicacy to conceal his amours. He is, moreover, rather too much addicted to find fault, and gives us an undue share of English grumbling at annoyances to which every traveller in Egypt must submit: viz. dogs-hard-bumping camels-JewsArabs, &c. &c. &c. Yet, as it is not often that our labors are recreated by so sprightly and pleasing a companion, we cannot but offer to him our sincere good will and "hearty commendations" at parting. This volume is illustrated by a number of engravings, from drawings by the author which do credit to his pencil. ART. III. Memoirs of a Captivity among the Indians, &c. By John D. Hunter. TH [Article concluded from p. 256.] THE Indians are very thinly dispersed over the temperate and more fertile parts of the country which Mr. Hunter describes, and where we might, apparently with great reason, have expected the contrary: but abundance and variety of game, the spontaneous production of esculent plants, softness of climate, and facilities for satisfying all the wants of Indian life, render the possession of these regions a subject for perpetual contention, and are the proximate causes of what Mr. H. calls this unnatural reversion.' No: the earth in its uncultivated state is the common property of the human race; and that which is common to all being therefore peculiar to none, it is perfectly natural that man should fight for the most most productive spots; although, by the repetition of these contests, they are left untenanted. War seems to be a state natural to man in every condition, from the rudest societies to the most artificial, from savage life to the most perfect systems of political union. War is the matter of which history has been formed, from the times of the kings of Babylon, Assyria, and Egypt, to that of the kings in congress at Leybach and Verona. It is an incontestible truth, said a celebrated author of the last century, that there is more havoc made in one year by men of men, than has been made by all the lions, tygers, panthers, ounces, leopards, hyænas, rhinoceroses, elephants, bears, and wolves, on their several species, since the beginning of the world; though these agree ill enough with each other. We who live in a civilized and highly refined state of society are apt to think that the physical and moral condition of the roving Indians must be most wretched; and when Mr. Hunter first saw the large, and to his view magnificent houses at New Orleans, the numerous ships in the harbour, and the bustle of business among a multitude of people, he was impressed with the grandeur of civilization, as well as with its comforts and conveniences. Soon, however, disgusted with the tumultuous debauchery and intemperance of some of the lower classes, and the filth, rags, and squalid looks of others, he tells us that he sighed for the woody retreats and uncontaminated manners of the tawny children of the wilderness.' That state which is proudly denominated Civilized is not pure gain. Mr. Hunter first cast his eye on it as an inhabitant of some other world might be supposed to cast his eyes on this; and he was dazzled by the glare and glitter of the scene on one side, but shocked by the extremes of wretchedness on the other. In civilized countries, the most luxurious and the most miserable of the human race are to be found: but, among the Indians of North America, those extremes are unknown which poverty and affluence exhibit in every city and town of Europe. Poverty, then, is the creature of civilized life degenerate and unhappy offspring! the Indians know nothing of it; and their existence, somebody has said, is a continual holiday compared with the state of the poor of Europe. If civilization, therefore, has heightened the enjoyments of some, it has aggravated the miseries of others, by giving to their feelings a keener sensibility; and by presenting to them the painful contrast of their own forlorn condition, with the repose and indulgence which they see others enjoying around them. "Though poor the Indian's hut, his feasts though small, He sees his little lot the lot of all, REV. DEC. 1823. Bb Sees Sees no contiguous palace rear its head, To shade the meanness of his humble shed; 4 The Whites, the civilized Whites, are making rapid encroachments on the Indian tribes, and driving them from their native territories; and Mr. H. apprehends that they will continue to do so till their career is terminated by the total destruction of all the Indians on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains.' Yes. Civilization has opened to man destructive views, and given him the means of indulging them. "From the earliest dawnings of policy to this day," says the writer before quoted, "the inventions of men have been sharpening and improving the mystery of murder, from the first rude essays of clubs and stones to the present perfection of gunnery, cannoneering, bombardment, mining, and all those species of artificial and refined. cruelty in which we are now so expert." The Whites civilize the Indians as settlers clear a forest by felling all before them! As the Indian nations speak different languages, and not different dialects of the same language, they are often obliged, in order to make themselves understood by each other, to adopt pantomimic signs, in which they are extremely dexterous. Having no alphabetic characters in writing, they make use altogether of hieroglyphics. They inscribe their correspondence, and such subjects as require to be recorded, on the inner bark of the white birch (Betula papyracea), or on skins prepared for the purpose. " Styles of iron, wood, or stone, and brushes made of hair, feathers, or the fibres of wood, are used to delineate or paint the most prominent objects embraced in their subjects; the remainder is to be supplied by the imagination of the reader. If, for instance, they wished to describe the surprize of a party of their hunters by their enemies, and their rescue by white people, they would first imprint the tracks of the buffalo in advance; next, as many footsteps as there were hunters, provided the number was small, if not, they would draw as many large footsteps as there were tens, and smaller ones for those of the fraction of that number, the whole arranged in disorder; then the number of the assailing party would be imprinted in the same manner, and the nation to which they belonged be pointed out by some emblem of its chief, as that of a wolf for a Pawnee chief; finally, in the rear of the Pawnees, which should also be represented in disorder, the number of the rescuing party would be drawn as before, and their national character distinguished by the representation of its flag. The number of their own, and that of their friends slain, would be indicated by the number of footsteps painted |