tiful than oaks. He illustrated every thing by comparisons taken from things with which I was acquainted: the palm-tree was like a great cabbage, the dress of an Indian like that of my grandmother, the camel resembled a hunch-backed ass; and all the people of the East, and especially the Chinese, he described as poltroons and thieves. Villeneuve was from Brittany, and we never failed to conclude our conversation by praising the incomparable beauty of our own country.

The bell generally interrupted us in our conferences; it announced the quarters, the hour for dressing, for the review of the crew, for meals. Every morning, at a certain signal, the crew, ranged in line on the deck, exchanged the blue shirt they each wore for others which were hanging to dry among the shrouds. The shirts they took off were instantly washed in tubs, in which this troop of Phocæ also soaped their brown faces and tarry hands.

At their mid-day and evening meal, the sailors, seated in circles, with a bowl in the centre of each, dipped their pewter spoons, in regular and equal turns, into the soup it contained, which was kept in perpetual motion by the rolling of the vessel. Those who were not hungry sold their allowance of biscuit and salt meat to their comrades for a quid of tobacco or a glass of brandy. The passengers took their meals in the captain's cabin. When the weather was fine, an awning was spread over the quarter-deck, and we dined in view of the blue expanse of sea, speckled here and there with the light foam raised by the breeze.

Wrapped in my cloak, I lay down at night on the deck, and gazed up at the stars. The swelling sail sent back upon me the freshness of the breeze which was rocking me beneath the celestial dome; I lay in a dreamy, half-slumbering state, with the wind blowing upon me, and the sky appeared to change with my dreams.

The passengers on board a vessel form a society of an entirely different stamp from that of the officers and crew; they belong to another element; their destinies belong to the land. Some are hastening to seek fortune, others repose; some are returning to their country, some quitting it; others are voyaging for the purpose of becoming acquainted with the manners and customs of different nations, or of studying science or art. There is leisure enough while they are thrown together in this wandering hostelry, which travels with the traveller, to become acquainted, to hear many a story and adventure, to conceive antipathies, to contract friendships. When among this temporary society there are

any of those young women, partly of English, partly of Indian race, who unite the beauty of Clarissa to the delicacy of Sacontala -then chains are wreathed, united and disjoined by the perfumed breezes of Ceylon, sweet and fleeting as they.

London, from April till September, 1822.

FRANCIS TULLOCH-CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS-CAMOENS.

AMONG my fellow-passengers was an Englishman, named Francis Tulloch; he had served in the artillery, was a painter, a musician, a mathematician, and spoke several languages. The Abbé Nagault, Superior of the Sulpicians, having met with the English officer, converted him; and was now taking his neophyte to Baltimore.

I made acquaintance with Tulloch; and as I was then a profound philosopher, urged him to return to his relations. The sight constantly before our eyes filled him with boundless admiration; we rose in the night, when the deck was abandoned to the officer of the watch, and a few sailors silently smoking their pipes. Tuta æquore silent. The vessel rolled and heaved at the will of the slow heavy billows, while sparks of fire seemed to be emitted from the white line of foam which ran along her sides; myriads of stars, beaming in the deep azure of the heavenly vault above us, a shoreless ocean, the infinite in the heavens and in the waters. Never did the idea of the greatness of God so weigh upon my soul as during these nights, when I had immensity above me, immensity at my feet. West winds and calms delayed our progress. On the 4th of May we were only as far north as the Azores. On the 6th, towards eight in the morning, we were in sight of the Peak of Pico. This volcano long reared its fiery head above unnavigated seas; a useless beacon by night, an unseen signal by day.

There is something magical in seeing land thus rise from the depths of the sea. Christopher Columbus, amidst his mutinous crew, on the point of returning to Europe without having attained the object of his voyage, saw a distant light gleaming on a shore which was hidden from him by the darkness of night; the flight of birds had guided him towards America- the light

on the hearth of a savage revealed a new universe to him. Columbus must have experienced something of the feeling attributed in scripture to the Creator, when after having drawn the world from the realm of chaos, He saw that His work was good: vidit Deus quod esset bonum. Columbus created a world. One of the first biographies of the Genoese navigator was that which Giustiniani, when publishing a Hebrew psalter, placed in the form of a note below the psalm: Cali enarrant gloriam Dei. Vasco de Gama could not have been less amazed when, in the year 1498, he touched the coast of Malabar. The whole globe then appeared changed; a new Nature opened to view; the veil which for thousands of centuries had concealed a part of the universe was lifted; the country of the Sun was revealed, the place whence he daily comes forth like a bridegroom or a giant--tanquam sponsus, ut gigas; other nations came face to face with the wise and brilliant East, whose mysterious history was mingled with the travels of Pythagoras, the conquests of Alexander, and the recollections of the crusades; and whose perfumes were conveyed to us across the fields of Arabia and the seas of Greece. Europe sent a poet to salute it; the swan of the Tagus raised its sad sweet song on the banks of the Indus; Camoëns borrowed from them their lustre, their renown, and their misfortune, he left them but their riches.

THE AZORES-GRACIOSA ISLAND.

WHEN Gonzalo Villo, the maternal grandfather of Camoëns, discovered a part of the archipelago of the Azores, he ought, had he foreseen the future, to have reserved to himself the possession of six feet of land, to cover the bones of his grand

son.

We anchored in bad roads, a rocky bottom, covered by forty-five fathoms of water. The swelling hills of Graciosa Island, before which we had moored, presented outlines somewhat resembling the curves of an Etruscan vase; they were clothed with the verdure of the corn-fields, from which an agreeable frumentacious odour, peculiar to the harvests of the Azores, was wafted on the breeze. At intervals through this verdant expanse ran the divisions of the fields, formed of volcanic stones, half black, half white, heaped irregularly together. An abbey, a monument of

an old world on a new soil, stood at the summit of a low hill, and at the foot of this hill, on a pebbly beach, appeared the red roofs of the town of Santa Cruz. The whole island, with its features of bay, cape, creek and promontory, was reflected inverted in the sea. Rocks rising perpendicularly from the waves formed its outer enclosure. Beyond Graciosa, in the background, appeared the cone of the volcano, rising from a cupola of clouds, and terminating the aërial perspective.

us.

It was decided that I should land, in company with Tulloch and the first lieutenant; the chaloupe was launched, and soon brought us to the shore, a distance of about two miles. We perceived some movement on the coast, and a barge came towards As soon as it came within hearing, we saw that it contained a number of monks; they hailed us in Portuguese, Italian, English, and French, and we replied in the same languages. Alarm reigned on shore, for ours was the first vessel of large tonnage which had ventured to moor in the dangerous roads where we were waiting for wind and tide. And besides, it was the first time that these islanders had seen the tricolor ensign; they did not know whether we might not have come from Algiers or Tunis; Neptune had not recognised the flag so gloriously borne by Cybele. When they saw, however, that we looked like human beings, and that we understood what was said, their joy was extreme. The monks took us into their barge, and we rowed gaily towards Santa Cruz; there we landed, after some difficulty, as the surf was very high.

The whole island flocked to see us. Four or five alguazils, armed with rusty pikes, took possession of us. His majesty's uniform attracted honours to me, and I passed for the important man of the deputation. We were taken to the governor's apartment, a paltry little room, where his excellency, dressed in a shabby green coat which had formerly been laced with gold, gave us solemn audience, and permission to re-victual.

Our monks conducted us to their monastery, an edifice surrounded by balconies, commodious and well lighted. Tulloch had found a fellow-countryman; the principal monk, who arranged all our proceedings, and took most of the trouble on himself, was a Jersey sailor, whose vessel and its whole cargo had been wrecked off Graciosa. He was the only one of the crew who escaped with life, and as he was not wanting in intelligence, showed great docility in receiving the instruction of the catechists; he learned Portuguese and a few words of Latin; his

being an Englishman tended to his favour at the monastery, and they converted and made a monk of him. The Jersey sailor, lodged, clothed, and fed in peace beside the altar, found this sort of life much easier than being sent aloft to furl the mizen topsail. He still remembered his old trade, however, and having been so long deprived of the pleasure of speaking his own language, was delighted to meet with any one who understood it, and laughed and swore like any pilot. He was our guide through the island.

The village houses, built of planks and stones, were embellished with exterior galleries, which gave a clean air to these huts, as they introduced a good deal of light. The peasants, who were almost all vine-dressers, were half-naked, and bronzed by the sun; the women were small, and dark as mulattoes, but sprightly, and naively coquettish, with their nosegays of seringa, and chaplets adorning their heads or necks.

The slopes of the hills were thickly covered with vines, the wine produced from which resembled that of Fayal. Water was rare, but wherever a fountain bubbled, there grew a fig-tree with a little oratory beside it, its porch painted in fresco. Through the arches of the porch were to be seen, set as it were in a frame, views of parts of the island and glimpses of the sea. On one of these fig-trees I saw a flock of teals settle; they were blue, but not web-footed. The tree had no leaves, but a quantity of red fruit set like crystals; when it was covered with these cerulean birds, each hanging its wings, its fruit appeared to be of a splendid purple colour, and itself to have suddenly put forth an azure foliage.

The Azores were probably known to the Carthaginians; it is certain that Phenician coins have been dug up in the island of Corvo. The first modern navigators who landed on this island found, it is said, an equestrian statue, its right arm extended, and pointing towards the west; this statue may, however, very possibly belong to the class of inventions which embellish the old marine descriptions.

In "Natchez," I have supposed that Chactas, on his return to Europe, landed at the island of Corvo, and here met with the mysterious statue. He thus expresses the ideas which occupied my mind at Graciosa, and revived the tradition in my memory: “I approached this extraordinary monument; on its base, perpetually washed by the sea-foam, were graven unknown characters; moss and sea-salt were gradually eating away the surface of