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and ungainly in their appearance. This day was the 4th of July, and the captain thereupon fired a salute of four guns, which was the whole number of cartridges we could muster. The anchorage for the shipping is about one mile from the town, where they are loaded or unloaded by lighters called Bungos, large canoes scooped out of a single log, and manned by blacks, who perform all the hard labour here. The whole shipping in the harbour when we came to anchor was four schooners, one of them a French cruiser. We were boarded by the custom-house boat, having on board the Collector, Captain of the Port, Doctor, Inspector, Interpreter, and half-a-dozen officers more of various grades; for it seems they all turn out on such occasions:-rowed by eight negroes fancifully dressed. They were very fearful of the cholera, and kept the boat off at oar's length, until they had read the bill of health, seen the list of the crew, and had the Jacks called to the side to see if all was right, and nothing choleric in their phizes. Being satisfied, they at length ventured on board, took the letter-bags, sealed down the hatches, drank some wine, for which they seemed to have a particular gusto, and left us. I was not allowed to go ashore that night, as it was necessary to have a permit to land, and it was too late to get one. All their forms of business are most perplexing and tedious.

In the morning I went on shore with the captain who introduced me to Mr. D, Mr. B's agent, and with whom I am to take up my residence. He is a man whose manners and appearance I like very much. * I found him in great perplexity for want of assistance. He has always employed two clerks, and had sufficient for them to do in this climate, where a man is expected to do very little.

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the horizon, the blue sky being seen between them at regular intervals, and five or six of them occupying the whole field.

There is at the back of the town, across the river, a citadel called Fort San Philip, an immense mass of stone and brick work, having a circumference of nearly a mile, and towering far above the city, which it commands completely. The building of this must have required as much time and labour as the city walls. These massive and vast fortifications are said to have cost the lives of more than fifty thousand Indians, who were compelled by the old Spaniards to perform all the labour, and who died by thousands, in building up the strong holds of their enslavers.

It is impossible to describe, so as to make you understand, the great difference between a Spanish town in S. America, and New York. The streets are very narrow and have no side-walks. The houses are all built of stone or brick, with tiled roofs, the walls covered with stucco. The best houses are two or three stories high. I believe our house is a very good specimen of the whole, though as yet I have been out but little, and therefore am not very well qualified to judge of the internal arrangements of others. I will however describe ours as near as I can. It is built in the shape of an E, having an inner paved court; the lower story is used as store-rooms, stable, &c. and the upper for dwelling rooms; all the floors are paved with brick, dining, sitting, sleeping, and all. They have of course no glazed sashes, but their windows have bars running across them like prison-grates. There is generally a balcony built from the second or third story, which is a favourite sitting place of the ladies; you may see them there at all times of day except siesta time, which is from 12 to 2 o'clock, busily engaged in sewing and talking with Spanish fluency, or in dressing their hair, of which they are very proud, and which is generally long, fine, and black as the "raven's wing."

Carthagena is said to be more strongly fortified than any other city in the two Americas. The wall which surrounds it has a circumference of nearly three miles; The streets present a singular spectacle to a northit is on an average 30 feet high and 30 feet wide the erner. You see priests with their long, flowing, black whole distance, i. e. along its plain extent; but wher- dresses, and black hats with a low crown, a trim turned ever there are bastions, portals, angles, (I don't know up over the crown at the sides, and extending out the terms,) the walls in these places are sometimes 100 nearly a foot before and behind, in shape the same as or 200 feet wide. One is absolutely astonished at the the sombrero of Doctor Bartolo, but exceeding that vastness and strength of these fortifications. There is worthy's in dimensions. Donkeys but little larger than one at the N. and N. W. part where the wall is nearly a six month's calf, with a load of grass, Indian corn, 100 feet wide for an extent of about 2000 feet, and dyewood, hides, charcoal, or some other country promust be at least 40 feet high; with a bastion at the duction, apparently as large as themselves, placed upon angle extending out into the sea more than 150 feet. their backs, and above this a great negro or wench -Underneath a part of this wall are said to be 7 or 800 with legs crossed over the animal's neck, guiding rooms, where the galley prisoners are confined, and over or urging him along with a pointed stick. Children these cells, on the top of the wall, there is an oblong running about entirely naked,-this is a universal prac space of about 700 feet long and nearly 100 wide, paved tice; all children from infancy to four or five years, and with large bricks, which was used by the old Span- the majority to ten, twelve, and fifteen, never have a ards, and is still used on some occasions, as a ball- vestige of clothing. Then there are volantes, a kind room, or rather a ball-floor, there being no room in the of chaise drawn by one horse, the negro driver riding question-and I cannot conceive a more magnificent on the horse's back. Water is peddled about the streets one, when we consider the size and the prospect it by negroes, crying out el aqua, (the Spanish for water.) commands;-over head the starry vault of heaven; Rain-water is alone used here-they have no other; on one side the city with its living thousands, and on this is caught in large cisterns or tanks, and in the dry the other the vast expanse of ocean, with the surf driv-season when it becomes old it is boiled to purify it. en by the eternal trades foaming and thundering against the rocks, and dashing its spray half way up the wall. It is a beautiful promenade just at sunset, which is seen in all its splendour from this place. One must see in order to appreciate all the splendour of a Tropical sunset. The tints are far more glowing and delicate, and the clouds assume the most fantastic shapes. At sea I used to watch with the greatest pleasure the gradual change of colours which the heavens put on ere they all faded from the horizon. There was one peculiarity I noticed that I had never seen before. After the sun had sunk apparently to his bed in the ocean, the heavens in that quarter became coloured with the most delicate vermillion, in separate radii, diverging from the sun-and these were not pencils of light, but large fields converging to a point at

The market is held on a level space of ground outside of the wall. This is quite a fashionable promenade in the morning, and is a most animating scene; such a confusion of tongues! to a stranger they all seem to be quarrelling, and just on the point of coming to blows. Such rapidity of utterance-such animated gesticulation-such a perfect bedlam I never before heard or saw in my life. And then the manner of doing things. Here you see a bevy of black women from the country with a little fruit, a few guanas or cocoanuts, the whole stock in trade perhaps not amounting to 3 rials (3 shillings) which they have come five or six miles to sell. There again stands a lusty negro at a little table with a cleaver in his hand, before him a lot of livid looking stuff in strings, that would puzzle any one to guess what it consists of; but that man is the butcher, and

that questionable heap before him is the meat that he is vending by the measure.--His customer puts down his rial, and the fellow measures off the yard or half yard of meat, throws it into the basket, each abusing the other most volubly, the one for charging so much, and the other for being obliged to sell so cheap. But I have not time to tell you half the singularities or peculiarities I saw.

The most important article of a lady's dress, that which at once decides the ton of an individual, is the comb. The fashions in these are watched with the greatest attention. At the least change of form or ornament, every one must be exchanged for the new mode. Even the poorest class will sacrifice almost any thing else for the sake of a comb in the fashion. They wear them very large, with a margin or top extending up and around the head, like one of our fashionable ladies' bonnet fronts; and this is all carved and worked beautifully. Of course they never wear hats, their combs precluding the possibility of that, even if the cli. mate required it.

be the only effectual safeguard. But mental or moral cultivation is very limited among both men and women. The young Senoritas of some families are even kept from the society of the other sex, with all the jealous watchfulness peculiar to the old hidalgos of Spain. An amusing instance of this we have next door to us, in the dwelling of a rich old Senior, who has three or four very handsome daughters, who are kept most strictly secluded. To one of these a young Columbian is strongly attached, and I believe the attachment is reciprocated; but he cannot muster courage to face the pride of the old man, and pop the question, or indeed he dares not enter the house, but is obliged to resort to an expedient to carry on his courtship, and obtain his interviews. The balconies of the house of the old Spaniard and ours are upon the same level; and though the space of some 10 or 12 feet apart, he has by some means obtained Mr. ****** acquaintance, and every day after business hours he is our never-failing visitor. He takes his station on our balcony and his inamorata on theirs; and there day after day, month after month, The eating hours are about ten in the morning, and and year after year, for this liason has been kept up in six in the afternoon-only twice a day. So far I like this way these three years, is the poor swain tantalized, the living very much-their coffee is excellent. We by seeing happiness within his reach, yet not having have fowls, which are very plentiful, eggs, fish, a kind the courage to stretch forth his arm lest it might escape of sausage, beef, pork, (beef is very poor,) kid's meat-him for ever-Poor fellow! I don't know whether he this is preferable to mutton or lamb; and then for ve- will ever succeed, but most certainly his perseverance getables we have the plantain, which I like exceeding- deserves success. ly; it is generally fried; yams, and many others. Bread is very dear here, the duties being at present $4 per barrel for flour, to be raised on the first of October to $8, with a city duty of $4 more, making in all, after the 1st October, $12 per barrel, duties. The land here is said to be well adapted to the cultivation of wheat, as they have in the interior all the various temperatures of the different latitudes, from the Torrid to the Frigid zone—but none is raised at present. The government is in hopes that the high duty will encourage the people to commence its cultivation. Among the Yankees this would be done as quick as the season would let them; but here, even with this immense premium before them, it will be a long time ere much will be done. There is nothing that I have yet seen like cultivation any where around Carthagena. Every thing that does grow is spontaneous. Indian corn, of which there is a great deal here, is sowed over the ground without any preparation, before the rainy season, and left to take its chance; the rain washes it in, and they are sure of a crop; nothing more is done till they gather it. Indolence in the very extreme is the order of the day.

For fruits they have bananas, the cocoanut, oranges, water and musk melons, papaya, a kind of melon, guanas, alligator pears, having the appearance of a pear, with a large stone inside, eaten with pepper and salt. There are many kinds more of which as yet I do not know the names. You know I was always very fond of fruit. Well, ever since I have been here, I have been anxious to have a good feast. So yesterday I sent out the negro, and he bought a fine lot of bananas, melons, and other things. Although I was cautioned, I helped myself freely, and the consequence was such that I shall be very careful how I eat fruit here again. They were delicious certainly, but it does not answer for one not used to the climate to eat them; he cannot digest them. I was soon seized with dizziness of the head, and sickness of the stomach; vomiting relieved me; I arose this morning well as ever, but with a firm determination to eat no more fruit.

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When I first arrived, I asked if there were any scientific men here, but was told such things were unknown.

The city of Carthagena contains about ten or twelve thousand inhabitants: mostly or by far the greater part are blacks, who have several times attempted a rising, but the conspiracies were discovered in time to prevent them. For this reason a garrison of 500 men is constantly kept in the city. There are a few slaves, though the greater part of the blacks are free, and entitled to all the privileges of citizens, some of them being magistrates, and officers in the army. General Lucas, the former governor of Carthagena, is said to be a black man, or at least a mulatto. The old Spaniards kept up constantly a garrison of 15000 men. The barracks and buildings for their accommodation are still standing. There was an Inquisition here, which was abolished at the revolution. It is said that all the instruments of torture &c. are still preserved in the old church of St. Domingo. A gentleman has promised to go with me to see them. If we go before the Medina sails, I will send you an account of them; if not, the next time. Their soldiery have been very well disciplined, but the men are all small, scarcely any, I should think, exceeding five feet. They are dressed in white cotton, very coarse, made entirely plain, black leathern belts, and low bell-crowned caps, covered with white muslin : all go barefooted. They are continually parading about the streets, with fife and drum, which at scarcely any time are unheard.

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There is an interesting problem for the moralist to solve in the state of this country. The question is very natural which asks, why there is so much of misery and degradation, why there is so little of mental cultivation, and so much of ignorance and imbecility and vice, among a people so blessed with a soil that produces every thing spontaneously, and a climate that varies in the whole year only from 86 to 92 degrees, and where one might think so little time and labour is required for the production of every thing necessary for life, that mental and moral improvement might go on with rapid strides. But I can spin on no longer.

A. K.

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THE STATUE OF MOSES, BY MICHAEL ANGELO BUONAROTTI.

The statue, of which we give an engraving above, is | unsidered as the master-piece of Michael Angelo, and one of the most beautiful pieces of sculpture in the world. The inspired law-giver of the Jews is represented sitting, and seems severely reproving the people for their idolatry. In his countenance is a dignified

sternness of expression, marking a vigorous intellect, and not inconsistent with.the character given of him in Scripture: "Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth." Besides the grandeur of air and attitude of this figure, its anatomical truth has been highly praised and admired

The "twin beams," which, in some pictures of Moses, are represented as rays of light, appear in this and in some other representations of the prophet as horns; a strange error, which no doubt arose from the Latin Vulgate translation of that passage in the Pentateuch (Exodus xxxiv. 29,) in which it is said that Moses's face shone when he came down from the mount; the Hebrew word, used in the original, which signifies to shine, or to emit rays, as it were horns; and the ancient translator took the expression in the latter, though certainly not intended sense.* Hence it is, that Christian painters have often represented Moses as horned.

Michael Angelo Buonarotti, illustrious as a painter, a sculptor, and an architect, was born in Tuscany in 1474, and descended from a noble family. Invited to the court of Pope Julius the Second, an early and warm admirer of his talents, he received from him an unlimited condition to build a mausoleum. As soon as his design was completed, he was desired to go into St. Peter's at Rome, to see where it could be conveniently placed; but the church being old, and ill-adapted for so superb a mausoleum, the Pope determined to rebuild St. Peter's; and this is the origin of that magnificent structure which took a hundred and fifty years to complete, and which now affords a grand display of architectural splendour! |

After the death of Julius the Second, Michael Angelo, in pursuance of an order, began to construct a monument to his memory; but he was frequently interrupted in his task by his great patrons, the successive Popes, whose regard for the artist was mixed with *The Latin Vulgate translation is, Quod cornuta esset facies sua. I

a caprice and jealousy which were often extremely vexatious. At last, after much negotiation, and after changing his design three times, he was permitted to finish his work, and to have it placed, not in the great and famous church of St. Peter's, as originally intended, but in the ancient and curious Church of S. Pietro in Vincoli. This monument of Julius the Second is indifferent in itself, but it is ennobled by the figure of Moses, which, had it not been for Michael Angelo's other masterly productions in painting, sculpture, and architecture, would have been sufficient to stamp his fame as an extraordinary genius.

In the discourse which the late Mr. West delivered from the Chair of the Royal Academy, in 1811, are the following remarks on this statue.

"Now let us see what works there are, since the revival of art in the modern world, which rest on the same basis of appropriate character, and correctness of outline, with those of the ancient Greeks. The MOSES, which the powers of Michael Angelo's mind has presented to our view, claims our first attention. In this statue the points of character, in every mode of precise, determinate, and elevated expression, have been carried to a pitch of grandeur which modern art has not since excelled. In this figure of Moses, Michael Angelo has fixed the unalterable standard of the Jewish lawgiver, a character delineated and justified by the text in inspired Scripture. The character of Moses was well suited to the grandeur of the artist's conceptions, and to the dreadful energy of his feelings. Accordingly, in mental character, this figure holds the first station in modern art, and, I believe we may venture to say, had no competitor in ancient, except those of the Jupiter and Minerva by Phidias."

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"The noblest conquest which was ever made by man shares with him the fatigues of war and the glory of is that of this spirited and haughty animal, which the combat. He feels pleasure also in the chase, in

tournaments, in the course; he is all fire, but, equally tractable as courageous, does not give way to his impetuosity, and knows how to check his inclinations; he not only submits to the arm which guides him, but even seems to consult the desires of his rider; and, always obedient to the impressions which he receives from him, presses on, moves gently, or stops, and only acts as his rider pleases. The Horse is a creature which renounces his being, to exist only by the will of another, which he knows how to anticipate, and even express, and execute by the promptitude and exactness of his movements: he feels as much as we desire, does only what we wish, giving himself up without reserve, and refuses nothing, makes all use of his strength, exerts himself beyond it, and even dies, the better to obey

us.

"Such is the Horse, whose natural qualities art has improved. His education commences with the loss of his liberty, and by constraint it is finished. The slavery or servitude of these creatures is universal, and so ancient that we rarely see them in their natural state: they are never wholly free from all their bands, not even at the time of rest; and if they are sometimes suffered to range at liberty in the fields, they always bear about them tokens of servitude, and frequently the cruel marks of servitude and of pain: the mouth is deformed by the wrinkles occasioned by the bit, the flanks scarred with wounds inflicted by the spur, the hoofs are pierced by nails, the attitude of the body constrained, from the subsisting impression of habitual shackles, from which they would be delivered in vain, as they would not be the more at liberty for it. Even those whose slavery is the most gentle, who are only fed and broken for luxury and magnificence, and whose golden chains serve less to decorate them, than to satisfy the vanity of their master, are still more dishonoured by the elegance of their trappings, by the tresses of their manes, by the gold and silk with which they are covered, than by the iron shoes on their feet.

"Nature is more delightful than art; and, in an animated being, the freedom of its movements makes nature beautiful: observe the Horses in Spanish America, which live wild; their gait, their running, or their leaping, seem neither constrained nor regular. Proud of their independence, they fly the presence of man, and disdain his care; they seek and find for themselves proper nourishment; they wander about in liberty in immense meads, where they feed on the fresh productions of an eternal spring: destitute of any fixed habitation, without any other shelter than a mild sky, they breathe a purer air than those which are confined in vaulted palaces. "Wild Horses," says a recent writer, "are smaller, weaker, and more timid, than domesticated Horses; their heads are clumsy, large, ignoble, with great ears, which prove their near relationship to the rustic ass; their hair, too, is long, harsh, or frizzled."

"The natural disposition of these animals is not ferocious, they are only high spirited and wild; and though superior in strength to the greatest part of animals, they yet never attack them; and if they are attacked by others, either disdain them or trample them under their feet. They go also in bodies, and unite themselves into troops, merely for the pleasure of being together, for they are not fearful of, but have an attachment to each other. As herbs and vegetables are sufficient for their nourishment, they have quite enough to satisfy their appetite; and as they have no relish for the flesh of animals, they never make war with them nor with each other; they never quarrel about their food, they have no occasion to ravish the prey of another, the ordinary source of contentions and quarrels among carnivorous animals. They live in peace because their appetite is simple and moderate; and as they have enough, there is no room for envy.

(To be concluded in our next.)

MYTHOLOGY.

THE CYCLOPS.

"The Cyclops were the workmen of Vulcan; they were probably very strong men, employed in the most laborious services of society. In Peloponnesus, some of the first edifices were constructed of vast stones, which still remain. The arrangement of these stones, before the machines existed which have since been invented to assist labour, must have required immensely strong men. This is therefore called, from the Cyclops the Cyclopean architecture.

"Vulcan had many Cyclops: the chief were Brontes, Steropes, and Pyracmon. The Cyclops were of prodigious stature, and had each but one eye placed in the middle of their foreheads. They lived on such fruits as the earth spontaneously affords, and had no laws. All this only describes rude men, living by hard labour in a state of poverty.

"The fiction of the Cyclops being one-eyed arose from the fact that when they were exposed to the most violent action of the fire with which they wrought, they were forced to shield their faces with a piece of stiff leather, that had in the middle of it a single perforation through which they looked.

Virgil thus describes the Cyclops at their work.
Amid the Hesperian and Sicilian flood,

All black with smoke, a rocky island stood,
The dark Vulcanian land, the regions of the god.
Here the grim Cyclops ply, in vaults profound,
The huge Eolian forge that thunders round.
Th' eternal anvils ring, the dungeon o'er;
From side to side the fiery caverns roar.

Loud groans the mass beneath their ponderous blows,
Fierce burns the flame, and the full furnace glows.

Th' alternate blows the brawny brethren deal;
Thick burst the sparkles from the tortured steel.
Huge strokes rough Steropes and Brontes gave,
And strong Pyracmon shook the gloomy cave.
Before their sovereign came, the Cyclops strove
With eager speed to forge a bolt for Jove,
Such as by heaven's almighty lord are hurl'd,
All charged with vengeance on a guilty world.
Beneath their hands, tremendous to survey!
Half rough, half form'd, the dreadful engine lay
Three points of rain, three forks of hail conspire,
Three arm'd with wind; and three were barb'd with fire.
The mass they temper'd thick with livid rays,
Fear, Wrath, and Terror, and the lightning's blaze.

PANDORA.

"The name of Pandora signifies all gifts. Pandora was originally a beautiful female image, formed by the skill of Vulcan, and carried to heaven. There Jupiter endowed her with life, Venus gave her beauty, Pallas wisdom, and Juno riches; Mercury taught her eloquence, and Apollo music.

"With these accomplishments Pandora was a perfect woman, and she was sent by Jupiter in a box to Prometheus. Jupiter, it is said, was angry at Prometheus for the manifold blessings which the latter had bestowed on mankind, because Jupiter himself chose to be regarded as the supreme benefactor of the human

race.

"To revenge himself upon Prometheus, Jupiter sent him the gifted Pandora for a bride. She was enclosed in a box with disease, war, pestilence, famine, discord, envy, calumny, and all the evils which Prometheus had endeavoured to banish from the earth. Prometheus, dreading some concealed evil, refused the present of Jupiter; but Epimetheus, the brother of Prometheus, felt greater curiosity, and opened the box. The beautiful Pandora instantly appeared, and with her came forth all the train of calamities which were concealed in the box.

"Epimetheus perceiving the dangerous contents of the box, immediately closed it, but alas! it was too late. All the evils had escaped, and nothing remained in it but Hope, which, according to Jupiter's decree, should, in due time, afford the unhappy mortals some consolation."

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