rants, but even make them repent the day on which we were cast ashore on their coast.

Having thus distantly sounded all who I thought were likely to concur, upon the practicability of the attempt, and found them, as I conceived, disposed to take share in it, it yet remained to consider of the quomodoand, after having formed the general outlines of a plan, to lick it into shape. The first of these was a critical consideration: the second required address and management, and was likely to be împeded by the vigilance of the people about, who would not fail to remark, and take the alarm, from any unusual intercourse or discourse between us; and without a mutual communication of thoughts, and full deliberation by all parties concerned, as well as knowledge of the fort and its different gates, nothing could, with any prospect of success, be determined-nothing, without the most imminent hazard be attempted. I therefore held various councils with my own mind, and with Mr. Hall, on the subject-most of which were abortive, without at all discouraging us.

At last I began to think of sounding the Bidanore prisoner, ci-devant governor of the place; and determined, if possible, to bring him into our consultations, as I had before hoped to make him a party in the execution of the project but while I was settling all this much to my own satisfaction, an event occurred which extinguished all my hopes in that way of which you shall have an account in my next letter.

LETTER LIII.

W HETHER the plan which I mentioned in my last was discovered or not, or from what other motive it arose, I have not to this day been able to decide; but so it was, that while my sanguine mind was overflowing with the hope of carrying my project for an escape into effect, Mr. Hall and I were one day unexpectedly loaded with irons, and fastened together, leg by leg, by one bolt. This, as nearly as I can compute, was four or five months before my release. Of all the circumstances of my life, it has made the strongest impression upon my mind it unexpectedly and suddenly broke down the most pleasing fabric my imagination had ever built. The surprise occasioned by the appearance of the irons, and the precautionary manner in which it was undertaken, was indeed great still more was I surprised to observe, that the person who was employed to see this put in execution, manifested unusual emotions, seemed much affected, and even shed tears as he looked on and while the suddenness and cautionary mode of doing it convin⚫ced me that some resistance on our part was apprehended, the sorrow which the officer who superintended it disclosed, portended in my mind a fatal, or at least a very serious issue.

Unfortunately, poor Mr. Hall had for some time been afflicted with a return of his dreadful disorder, the dysentery; and our being shackled together increased an unconquerable mortification of feelings which we had before undergone, from a delicacy of nature that would have done honor to the most modest virgin, be her sensibility ever so extreme-And here, my dear FREDERICK! Ï cannot let slip this opportunity of remarking to you, that the man, as well as the woman, who would render himself amiable in the eyes of his fellow-creatures, should cultivate delicacy and modesty, as the most captivating of all the moral virtues from them, heroism derives

additional lustre-wit, ten-fold force-religion and morality, the charms of persuasion-and every personal action of the man, irreistible dignity and winning grace. From this unlucky event, I received a temporary depression; and the rapidly increasing illness of poor Hall, rendered my situation more than ever calamitous; when, again, my spirits, eagerly prone to grasp at every thing that gave a mometary hope of support, were a little recruited by confused rumors of the English army having made a descent on the Malabar coast and so powerful is the influence of mind on the animal system, that Mr. Hall enjoyed from the report a momentary alleviation of his malady; but, having no medical assistance, nor even sufficient sustenance to further the favorable operations of nature, he relapsed again; the disease fell upon him with redoubled fury: a very scanty portion of boiled rice, with a more scanty morsel of stinking salt fish or putrid flesh, was a very inadequate support for me, who, though emaciated, was in health-and very improper medicine for a person laboring under a malady such as Mr. Hall's, which required comfort, good medical skill, and delicate nutritious food. The tea which Hyat Sahib had given me was expended; and we were not allowed to be shayed from the hour we were put in irons, an indulgence of that kind being forbidden by the barbarous rules of the prison and, to refine upon our tortures sleep, "the balm of hurt minds," was not allowed us uninterrupted; for, in conformity to another regulation, we were disturbed every half hour by a noise something resembling a watchman's rattle, and a fellow who, striking every part of our irons with a kind of hammer, and examining them lest they should be cut, broke in upon that kind restorative, and awoke our souls to fresh horrors.

As it must be much more naturally matter of astonishment that any bodily strength could support itself under such complicated calamities, than that infirmity should sink beneath them, you will be rather grieved than surprised to hear that poor Mr. Hall was now approaching to his end with hourly accelerated steps. Every application that I made in his favor was refused, or

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rather treated with cruel neglect and contemptuous silence; and I foresaw, with inexpressible anguish and indignation, that the barbarians would not abate him in his last minutes one jot of misery, and that my most amiable friend was fated to expire under every attendant horror that mere, sublunary circumstances could But that pity which the mighty, the powerful and enlightened denied, natural benevolence operating upon an uninformed mind, and scanty means afforded us. Hyat Sahib, the powerful, the wealthy, the governor of a great opulent province, refused to an expiring fellowcreature a little cheap relief-while a poor sepoy taxed his little means to supply it: one who guarded us, of his own accord, at hazard of imminent punishment, purchased us a lamp and a little oil, which we burned for the few last nights.

Philosophers and divines have declaimed upon the advantages of a well spent life, as felt in articulo mortis; and their efforts have had, I hope, some effect upon the lives of many. To witness one example such as Mr. Hall held forth, would be worth volumes of precepts on this subject. The unfeigned resignation with which he met his dissolution, and the majestic fortitude with which he looked in the face the various circumstances of horror that surrounded him, rendered him the most dignified object I ever beheld or conceived, and the most glorious instance of conscious virtue triumphing over the terrors of death, and the cunning barbarity of mankind. Were the progress of virtue attended with pain, and the practice of vice with pleasure, the adoption of the former would be amply repaid by its soothings in the dreadful moment, even if it were to accompany us no further. About a quarter of an hour before he died, Mr. Hall broached a most tender subject of conversation, which he followed up with a series of observations, so truly refined, so exquisitely turned, so delicate and so pathetic, that it seemed almost the language of inspiration, as if, in proportion to the decay of the body, intellect increased, and the dying man had become all mind. Such a conversation I never remembered to have heard, or heard of. Its effects upon me were wonder

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ful; for, though the combination of melancholy circumstances attending my now critical situation had almost raised my mind to frenzy, the salutary influence of his words and example controled the excesses of my sensa tions; and I met the afflicting moment of his departure with a degree of tranquility, which, though not to be compared to his, has on reflection appeared to me astonishing. This conversation continued to the very instant of his death; during which time he held my hand clasped in his, frequently enforcing his kind expressions to me with a squeeze-while my sorrow, taking its most easy channel, bedewed my face with tears. As he proceeded, my voice was choaked with my feelings; and I attempted once or twice in vain to speak. His hand grew cold he said his lower limbs were all lifeless, and that he felt death coming over him with slow creeping steps He again moralized, thanking God with pathetic fervor for his great mercy in leaving him his intellects unclouded, and the organ of communication (the tongue) unenfeebled, that, to the last, he might solace his friend and fellow-sufferer" Ah! Campbell!" continued he, "to what a series of miseries am I now leaving you! death in such circumstances is a blessing-I view mine, as such; and should think it more so, if it contributed, by awakening those people to a sense of their cruelty, to soften their rigor to you: but cruelty like their's is systematic, and stoops not to the control of the feelings. Could I hope that you would yet escape from their clutches, and that you would once more press your family to your bosom, the thought would brighten still the moment of our separation: and, oh! my friend! could I still further hope that you would one day see my beloved and honored parents, and tell them of my death without wringing their hearts with its horrid circumstances, offer them my last duties, and tell how I revered them-If, too, you could see my and tell her how far, far more dear than!" Here he turned his eyes toward the lamp, then faintly on me-made a convulsive effort to squeeze my hand-cried out, Campbell! oh, Campbell the lamp is going out!" and expired without a groan.