accustomed to compel the young ones to leave the nest; that is, when the young have acquired so much strength that they are no longer entitled to all her care. But they still claim some of her care. Their flights are awkward, and soon broken by fatigue: they fall to the ground, when they are frequently exposed to the attacks of the serpent, which attempts to devour them. In this situation of affairs, the mother will place herself upon a branch of a tree, or bush, in the vicinity of the serpent. She will dart upon the serpent, in order to prevent the destruction of her young; but fear, the instinct of self-preservation, will compel her to retire. She leaves the serpent, however, but for short time, and then returns again. Oftentimes she prevents the destruction of her young, attacking the suake with her wing, her beak, or her claws. Should the reptile succeed in capturing the young, the mother is exposed to less danger. For, whilst engaged in swallowing them, he has neither inclination nor power to seize upon the old one. But the appetite of the serpent tribe is great: the capacity of their stomachs is not less so. The danger of the mother is at hand when the young are devoured: the snake scizes upon her; and this is the catastrophe which crowns the tale of fascination!

"Some years since, Mr. Rittenhouse, an accurate observer, was induced to suppose, from the peculiar melancholy cry of a red-winged maize-thief, that a snake was at no great distance from it, and that the bird was in distress. He threw a stone at the place from which the cry proceeded, which had the effect of driving the bird away. The poor animal, however, immediately returned to the same spot. Mr. Rittenhouse now went to the place where the bird alighted, and, to his great astonishment, he found it perched upon the back of a large black snake, which it was pecking with its beak. At this very time the serpent was in the act of swallowing a young bird, and from the enlarged size of the reptile's belly it was evident that it had already swallowed two or three other young birds. After the snake was killed the old bird flew away. Mr. R. says, that the cry and actions of this bird had been precisely similar to those of a bird which is said to be under the influence of a serpent. The maize-thief builds its nest in low bushes, the bottoms of which are the usual haunts of the black snake. The reptile found no difficulty in gliding up to the nest, from which most probably, in the absence of the mother, it had taken the young ones; or it had seized the young ones after they had been forced from the nest by the mother. In either case the mother had come to prevent them from being devoured."

DUELS.

Duelling in England was carried to its greatest possible excess in the reigns of James I. and of the two Charleses. In the reign of the latter Charles, the seconds always fought as well as their principals; and as they were chosen for their courage and adroitness, their combats were generally the most fatal. Lord Howard, of Carlisle, in the reign of Charles II., gave a grand fête champêtre at Spring Gardens, near the village of Charing, the Vauxhall of that day. This fête was to facilitate an intrigue between lord Howard and the profligate dutchess of Shrewsbury: but the gay and insinuating Sidney flirted with the dutchess, abstracted her attention from Howard, and ridiculed the fête The next

day his lordship sent a challenge to Sidney, who chose as his second a tall, 'furious, adroit swordsman, named Dillon; Howard selected a young gentleman, named Rawlings, just come into possession of an estate of 10,000l. a year. Sidney was wounded in two or three places, whilst his second was run through the heart, and left dead on the field. The duke of Shrewsbury became afterwards so irritated as to challenge the infamous Buckingham for intriguing with his wife. The dutchess of Shrewsbury, in the disguise of a page, attended Buckingham to the field, and held his horse whilst he fought and killed her husband. The profligate king, in spite of every remonstrance from the queen, received the duke of Buckingham with open arms, after this brutal murder.

In 172 duels fought during the last sixty years, 69 persons were killed; (in three of these duels, neither of the combatants survived;) 96 persons were wounded, 48 desperately and 48 slightly; and 188 escaped unhurt. Thus, rather more than onefifth lost their lives, and nearly one-half received the bullets of their antagonists. It appears also, that out of this number of duels, eighteen trials took place; six of the arraigned were acquitted, seven found guilty of man-slaughter, and three of murder; two were executed, and eight imprisoned for different periods.

About forty years ago, there was a duelling society held in Charleston, South Carolina, where each "gentleman" took precedence according to the numbers he had killed or wounded in duels. The president and deputy had killed many. It happened that an old weather-beaten lieutenant of the English navy arrived at Charleston, to see after some property which had devolved upon him, in right of a Charleston lady, whom he had married; and on going into a coffee house, engaged in conversation with a native, whose insults against England were resented, and the English lieutenant received a challenge. As soon as the affair was known, some gentlemen waited upon the stranger to inform him, that the man who had called him out was a duellist, a "dead shot," the president of the duellist club; they added, that the society and all its members, though among the wealthiest people of the place, were considered so infamous by really respectable persons, that he would not be held in disesteem by not meeting the challenger. The lieutenant replied, that he was not afraid of any duellist; he had accepted the challenge, and would meet his man. They accordingly did meet, and at the first fire the lieutenant mortally wounded his antagonist. In great agony, and conscience-stricken, he invoked the aid of several divines, and calling the "duellist society " to his bedside, lectured them upon the atrocity of their conduct, and begged, as his dying request, that the club might be broken up The death of this individual suppressed a society which the sense of the community did not possess sufficient influence to subdue.

In Virginia, a Mr. Powell, a notorious duellist, purposely met and insulted an English traveller, for having said, that "the Virginians were of no use to the American Union, it requiring one half of the Virginians to keep the other half in order;" the newspapers took it up as a national quarrel, and anticipated the meeting, without the interference of the magistracy to prevent its taking place. The Englishman, therefore, got an American duellist as his second, went into training and practice, and met his adversary amidst a mob of many thousands

to witness the fight. Mr. Powell was killed on the first shot, and the Englishman remained unhurt. The brother of general Delancey, English barrack-master general, having high words with a "gentleman" in a coffee-house at New-York, the American immediately called for pistols, and insisted upon fighting in the public coffee-room, across one of the tables. None of the "gentlemen present interfered; they fought across the table, and the American's shot taking effect, the Englishman was killed upon the spot. Lately, at Nashville, a gentleman was shot dead before his own door, in a duel, in the principal square of the city. In 1763, the secretary of the English treasury, Mr. Martin, notoriously trained himself as a duellist, for the avowed purpose of shooting Mr. Wilkes, whom he first insulted in the House of Commons, and afterwards wounded in the park.

This gave

rise to Churchill's poem of "The Duellist;" the House of Commons ordered his majesty's sergeant surgeon to attend Mr. Wilkes, and Mr. Martin was considered to "have done the state some service."

At that period duels were frequent among clergymen. In 1764, the Rev. Mr. Hill was killed in a duel by cornet Gardener, of the carabineer. The Reverend Mr. Bate fought two duels, and was subsequently created a baronet, and preferred to a deanery after he had fought another duel. The Reverend Mr. Allen killed a Mr. Delany in a duel, in Hyde Park, without incurring any ecclesiastical censure, though judge Buller, on account of his extremely bad conduct, strongly charged his guilt upon the jury.

In 1765, occurred a celebrated duel between the father of the late lord Byron and Mr. Chaworth, a famous duellist. They quarrelled at a club-dinner at the Star and Garter, Pall Mall, about game; Chaworth was a great game preserver, and lord Byron had argued upon the cruelty and impolicy of the game laws. They agreed to fight in an adjoining room, by the light of only one candle. Lord Byron entered first; and, as Chaworth was shutting the door, turning his head round, he beheld lord Byron's sword half undrawn; he immediately whipped his own weapon out, and making a lunge at his lordship, ran it through his waistcoat, conceiving that his sword had gone through his body: lord. Byron closed, and, shortening his sword, stabbed Mr. Chaworth in the belly. The challenge had proceeded from Chaworth. Lord Byron read his defence to the House of Lords, and was found guilty of manslaughter; and, upon the privilege of his peerage, was discharged on paying his fees.

In 1772, a Mr. M'Lean was challenged and killed by a Mr. Cameron; and the mother of Mr. M'Lean, on hearing of the shocking event, instantly lost her senses, whilst a Miss M'Leod, who was to have been married to the deceased, was seized with fits, and died in three days.

In Mr. Sheridan's duel with Mr. Mathews, the parties cut and slashed at each other, à la mode de théâtre, until Mr. Mathews left a part of his sword sticking in Mr. Sheridan's ear.

In a famous duel in which Mr. Riddell was killed, and Mr. Cunningham very severely wounded, the challenge, by mistake, had fallen in the first instance into the hands of sir James Riddell, father to Mr Riddell, who, on having it delivered to him, did no more than provide surgeons for the

event.

In 1789, colonel Lennox conceived himself to

have been insulted by the late duke of York having told him, before all the officers on the parade of St. James's, "that he desired to derive no protection from his rank of prince." The colonel accordingly fought his royal highness, it was said, with cork bullets; but be that as it may, he contrived to disturb one of the huge rows of curls which it was then the fashion to wear on the side of the head.

In 1790, a captain Macrae fought and killed sir George Ramsay, for refusing to dismiss a faithful old servant who had insulted captain Macrae. Sir George urged, that even if the servant were guilty, he had been sufficiently punished by the cruel beating that captain Macrae had given him. As soon as the servant heard that his master had been killed on his account, he fell into strong convulsions, and died in a few hours. Captain Macrae fled, and was outlawed.

In 1797, colonel Fitzgerald, a married man, cloped from Windsor with his cousin, the daughter of lord Kingston. Colonel King, the brother, fought colonel Fitzgerald in Hyde Park. They fired six shots each without effect; and the powder being exhausted, colonel King called his opponent "a villain," and they resolved to fight again next day. They were, however, put under an arrest, when colonel Fitzgerald had the audacity to follow lord Kingston's family to Ireland, to obtain the object of his seduction from her parents. Colonel King hearing of this, repaired to the inn where colonel Fitzgerald put up. Colonel Fitzgerald had locked himself in his room, and refused admission to colonel King, who broke open the door, and running to a case of pistols, seized one, and desired colonel Fitzgerald to take the other. The parties grappled, and were fighting, when lord Kingston entered the room; and perceiving, from the position of the parties, that his son must lose his life, instantly shot Fitzgerald dead on the spot.

In 1803, a very singular duel took place in Hyde Park, London, between a lieutenant W. of the navy, and a captain I., of the army. Captain I. had seduced the lieutenant's sister. Lieutenant W. seemed impressed with a deep sense of melancholy: he insisted that the distance should be only six paces. At this distance they fired, and the shot of captain I. struck the guard of lieutenant W.'s pistol, and tore off two fingers of his right hand. The lieutenant deliberately wrapped his handkerchief round the wound, and looking solemnly to heaven, exclaimed, "I have a left hand, which never failed me." They again took their ground. Lieutenant W. looked steadfastly at captain I., and casting his eyes up to heaven, was heard to utter "forgive me. They fired, and both fell. Captain I. received the ball in his head, and died instantly: the lieutenant was shot through the breast. He inquired if captain I.'s wound was mortal. Being answered in the affirmative, he thanked heaven that he had lived so long. He then took his mourning ring off his finger, and said to his second, "Give this to my sister, and tell her it is the happiest moment I ever knew." He had scarcely uttered the last word, when a quantity of blood gushed from his wound, and he instantly expired.

These are practices in a Christian country!

Five dwelling houses and ten barns in the township of Little Britain, Lancaster Co. Pa. were prostrated and demolished by a violent tornado on the 2d inst. Much other damage was done, but no lives were lost.

DEATH OF JOHN RANDOLPH.

The Hon. John Randolph of Roanoke died at the City Hotel in Philadelphia, on Friday morning, May 25th, at a quarter past 12 o'clock. He was born on the 2nd June, 1773, and was, therefore, at the time of his death, 59 years, 11 months and 21 days old. He was a lineal descendant, in the sixth degree, from Pocahontas, the Virginian Indian princess of the seventeenth century. He preserved the singular power and brilliancy of his intellect to a very late hour. The evening before his death his physician is said to have informed him frankly of his approaching departure. The communication was received without surprise and without disappointment. The invalid spoke of his life as a protracted illness; and expressed a conviction that it was well that the scene of suffering should close. He regarded the past without reproach, and the future without apprehension. Unul his mind was closed by the shade of the tomb, he presented the same intellectual elevation of character. He was emaciated to such a degree that his frame was a prodigy of leanness and general debility-a mere anatomy. He gave directions that his corpse should be transported to Roanoke, and buried under a particular tree. Mr. Randolph, it is said, has provided for the emancipation of all his slaves. He has also made provision for the support of such of them as are children, until they are able to take care of themselves-and for the aged and infirm through life. The property, left by him to his heirs, is handsome, probably amounting nearly to $500,000 in tobacco plantations on the Roanoke, negroes, race horses, dogs, bank stock, &c.

Mr. Randolph was on his way to New York to embark for Europe, with the hope that a sea voyage would improve his health, when he was so suddenly arrested by death."

A Sea Bull.-An Irishman, who served on board a man of war in the capacity of a waiter, was selected by one of the officers to haul in a tow-line of considerable length, which was towing over the tafrail. After rowsing in forty or fifty fathoms, which had put his patience severely to proof, as well as every muscle of his arms, he muttered to himself, "Sure, it's as long as to day and to-morrow! It's a good week's work for any five in the ship!-Bad luck to the arm or leg it'll leave me at last!-What! more of it yet!-Och, murder; the sa's mighty deep to be sure!"-After continuing in a similar strain, and conceiving there was little probability of the completion of his labor, he suddenly stopped short, and addressing the officer of the watch, exclaimed, "Bad manners to me, sir, if I don't think somebody's cut off the other end of it!"

Lead Mincs of Missouri.-Recent valuable discoveries of lead ore have been made upon the East Bank of the Mississippi river, between the Platte and Grant rivers, in Iowa county, Missouri. The ore is said to be of the best quality, found in large bodies, and over an extensive tract of country. Among the most valuable discoveries, is a horizontal cave, the entrance of which is about 150 feet above the level of the river. It is from two to four feet wide, and from six to nine feet high. From this cave, about 400,000 pounds of lead ore have been taken, with little labor; and the operation was still continued. The land is of the best quality, and covered with timber. A town, called Van Buren, (which name has also been given to the mines and cave adjacent,) has been laid out, and that part of the country is rapidly increasing in population

Fraud and Ingenuity of the Chinese.-An Armenian merchant brought a pearl of great size and value to Canton, in the expectation of making his fortune. Its size and beauty soon became known, and attracted the attention of the officers and the merchants, who paid their daily visits to the Armenian, offering him prices far inadequate to its value. At length, however, after minute and repeated examinations, a price was agreed upon, and a deposit made, but the Armenian was to keep possession of the pearl till the remaining part of the purchase-money should be ready; and in order to obviate any possibility of trick, the box in which it was kept was sealed with the purchaser's seal. Several days elapsed without his hearing any thing further from the Chinese; and at length the time approached when all foreign merchants are ordered down to Macao. The Armenian in vain endeavored to find out the people who had purchased his pearl; but he contented himself with the reflection that, although he had been disappointed in the main object of his journey, he still had his property, and that the deposit was more than sufficient to defray his expenses. On reaching his home he had no longer any scruple in breaking open the seal; but his riorti

pearl had been exchanged for an artificial one, so very like 18 not to be detected but by the most critical examination. The daily visits of these people, it seems, were for no other purpose than to enable them to forge an accurate imitation, which they had dexterously substituted for the real one, when they proposed the cunning expedient of sealing the box in which it was inclosed.-This is only one proof among many of the extraordinary talent for imitating whatever may be put before them, possessed by the Chinese. The same kind of fraud, except as far as the imitation, was lately practiced on a jeweller in England.

Bunker Hill Monument.-A large meeting was held at Faneuil Hall on the 25th of May, to hear the Report of the Officers of the Massachusetts Mechanic Association, relative to the completion of the Bunker Hill Monument. An Address to the people of Massachusetts was reported, in which it is stated that the work of the Monument is already two-thirds completed; that the expense of raising it to the height of 220 feet, of enclosing and planting the field with trees. &c. will be $30,000-that the Ladies Fund on interest, $3000, and property of the Association, to be disposed of after the Monument shall be completed, will amount to $7,500, leaving a sum of $22,500 requisite to complete the Monument. This, added to the debt of the corporation, $2,000, for which the land is pledged, and which it is desirable to liberate from incumbrance, makes the whole sum requisite to be raised, $50,500.

Round Robin. It was customary among the ancients to write names, whether of the gods, or of their friends, in a circle, that none might take offence at seeing another's name preferred to his own. The Cordeliers have formerly been known to have paid the same attention to delicacy, and when a pope has demanded the names of some priests of their order, that one might be raised to the purple, they have sent those names written circularly, that they night not seem to recommend one more than another. The race of sailors are the only people who preserve this very ancient custom in its purity, for when any remonstrance is on foot among them, they sign it in a circle, and call it a round robin.

VARIETIES.

The New Jersey Eagle says, that the population of Newark, which in 1830, was 11,000, is now at least 15,000-that extensive improvements are going on, the value of real estate rapidly improving, and business of every kind uncommonly active and flourishing.

Two hundred tons of ice were recently sent out to Calcutta, in the ship Tuscany, from Boston. The ice was stowed in the lower hold, and completely surrounded by tan, which is a non-conductor of heat. Should it reach Calcutta, it will doubtless command a high price.

The cholera is again on the advance. Vicksburgh, a flourishing town in the State of Mississippi, and situated on the river, has been revisited by this dreadful scourge, by which seven out of twenty cases proved fatal, between the 20th and 29th of April. Two deaths had taken place at Nashville, from the 8th to the 10th inst.

The militia of the United States, according to the returns of 1832, comprising an aggregate of 1,286,813 men. Many of the returns are imperfect. The actual number is probably not less than 1,500,000.

The emigration to Michigan is considerable. In one week 2610 emigrants arrived at Detroit.

Price one dollar a year, in adrance. Six cents single, 50 cents a dozen. Each number being stereotyped, the back numbers can be supplied in any quantities. All orders post paid, promptly attended to.

The postage on this Magazine is three quarters of a cent for 100 miles, and one cent and a quarter only, the greatest distance.

Published every other Saturday, by LILLY, WAIT, & CO. 121 Washington Street, BOSTON. COLMAN, HOLDEN, & CO, Portland. WILLIAM, & JOSEPH NEAL, Baltimore. ADAM WALDIE, Philadelphia.

MAHLON DAY, New York.

COLLINS & HANNAY, New York

MARSHALL & BROWN, Providence.

Over the arid and thirsty deserts of Asia and Africa, the camel affords to man the only means of intercourse between one country and another. The camel has been created with an especial adaptation to the regions wherein it has contributed to the comfort, and even to the very existence, of man, from the earliest ages. It is constituted to endure the severest hardships with little physical inconvenience. Its feet are formed to tread lightly upon a dry and shifting soil; its nostrils have the capacity of closing, so as to shut out the driving sand, when the whirlwind scatters it over the desert; it is provided with a peculiar apparatus for retaining water in its stomach, so that it can march from well to well without great inconvenience, although they be several hundred miles apart. And thus, when a company of eastern merchants cross from Aleppo to Bussora, over a plain of sand which offers no refreshment to the exhausted senses, the whole journey being about eight hundred miles, the camel of the heavy caravan moves cheerfully along, with a burden of six or seven hundred weight, at the rate of twenty miles a day; while those of greater speed, that carry a man, without much other load, go forward at double that pace and daily distance. Patient under his duties, he kneels down at the comand of his driver, and rises up cheerfully with his load; he requires no whip or spur during his monotonous march; but, like many other ani

mals, he feels an evident pleasure in musical sounds. and therefore, when fatigue comes upon him, the driver sings some cheering snatch of his Arabian melodies, and the delighted creature toils forward with a brisker step, till the hour of rest arrives, when he again kneels down, to have his load removed for a little while; and if the stock of food be not exhausted, he is further rewarded with a few mouthfuls of the cake of barley, which he carries for the sustenance of his master and himself Under a burning sun, upon an arid soil, enduring great fatigue, sometimes entirely without food for days, and seldom completely slaking his thirst more than once during a progress of several hundred miles, the camel is patient, and apparently happy. He ordinarily lives to a great age, and is seldom visited by any disease.

Camels are of two species. That with one hump, which is represented with his ordinary pack-saddle in the wood-cut, is the Arabian camel, and is usually called the dromedary. The species with two humps is the Bactrian camel. The Asiatics and Africans distinguish as dromedaries those camels which are used for riding. There is no essential difference in the species, but only in the breed The camel of the heavy caravan, the baggage camel, may be compared to the dray-horse; the dromedary to the hunter, and, in some instances to the race-horse. Messengers on dromedarier

according to Burckhardt, have gone from Daraou to Berber in eight days, while he was twenty-two days with the caravan on the same journey. Mr. Jackson, in his account of the Empire of Morocco, tells a romantic story of a swift dromedary, whose natural pace was accelerated in an extraordinary manner by the enthusiasm of his rider: "Talking with an Arab of Suse, on the subject of these fleet camels, and the desert horse, he assured me that he knew a young man who was passionately fond of a lovely girl, whom nothing would satisfy but some oranges; these were not to be procured at Mogadore, and, as the lady wanted the best fruit, nothing less than Marocco oranges would satisfy her. The Arab mounted his heirie at dawn of day, went to Marocco (about one hundred miles from Mogadore,) purchased the oranges, and returned that night after the gates were shut, but sent the oranges to the lady by a guard of one of the batteries."

The training of the camels to bear burdens, in the countries of the East, has not been minutely described by any traveller. M. Brue, who, at the latter part of the seventeenth century, had the management of the affairs of a French commercial company at Senegal, says, "soon after a camel is born, the Moors tie his feet under his belly, and having thrown a large cloth over his back, put heavy stones at each corner of the cloth, which rests on the ground. They in this manner accustom him to receive the heaviest loads."

Both

ancient and modern authors agree tolerably well in their accounts of the load which a camel can carry. Sandys, in his Travels, in the Holy Land, says, "six hundred weight is his ordinary load, yet will he carry a thousand." The caravans are distinguished as light or heavy, according to the load which the camels bear. The average load of the heavy, or slow-going camel, as stated by Major Rennell, who investigated their rate of travelling with great accuracy, is from 500 to 600 lbs.

Burck

hardt says, that his luggage and provisions weighing only two cwt., and his camel being capable of carrying six cwt., he sold him, contracting for the transport of his luggage across the desert. The camel sometimes carries large panniers, filled with heavy goods; sometimes bales are strapped on his back, fastened either with cordage made of the palm-tree, or leathern thongs; and sometimes two, or more, will bear a sort of litter, in which women and children ride with considerable ease.

The expense of maintaining these valuable creatures is remarkably little: a cake of barley, a few dates, a handful of beans, will suffice, in addition to the hard and prickly shrubs which they find in every district but the very wildest of the desert. They are particularly fond of those vegetable productions which other animals would never touch, such as plants which are like spears and daggers, in comparison with the needles of the thistle, and which often pierce the incautious traveller's boot. He might wish such thorns eradicated from the earth, if he did not behold the camel contentedly browsing upon them; for he thus learns that Providence has made nothing in vain. Their teeth are peculiarly adapted for such a diet. Differing from all other ruminating tribes, they have two strong cutting teeth in the upper jaw; and of the six grinding teeth, one on each side, in the same jaw, has a crooked form: their canine teeth, of which they have two in each jaw, are very strong; and in the lower jaw the two external cutting teeth have a

pointed form, and the foremost of the grinders is also pointed and crooked. They are thus provided with a most formidable apparatus for cutting and tearing the hardest vegetable substance. But the camel is, at the same time, organized so as to graze upon the finest herbage, and browse upon the most delicate leaves; for his upper lip being divided, he is enabled to nip off the tender shoots, and turn them into his mouth with the greatest facility. Whether the sustenance, therefore, which he finds, be of the coarsest or the softest kind, he is equally prepared to be satisfied with and to enjoy it.

JOURNAL OF A TOUR FROM THE PACIFIC TO THE ATLAN TIC OCEAN, THROUGH THE INTERIOR OF MEXICO, IN 1827, BY WM. R. BOWERS OF PROVIDENCE.

(Concluded from the last number.)

March 19th. At 5 A. M. we commenced our journey over a poor and stony road and through an uninteresting tract of country. We passed several hundred mules loaded with cargoes for Geratea, and two very fine regiments of soldiers, who appeared well equipped. In the afternoon, we arrived at the village of San Juan del Rio, which has a population of 5 or 6000 inhabitants. It is situated on the border of a river called St. John, and the inhabitants are dependent on agriculture and trade, for their support. Distance travelled this day, thirty-six

miles.

We commenced our journey at daylight on a road leading over very extensive plains, and through a tract of country but very little cultivated. We passed through two or three small villages, and met several carriages from Mexico, bound to Geratea, At 12 o'clock, we arrived at the village of Arrorje Zarco, a small place, hardly worth describing. Distance travelled this day, forty-two miles. Early the next day we started on our journey over an unpleasant and stony road, but through a fine tract of country. We passed several small villages and some fields under excellent cultivation, and arrived at the village Tepege del Rio, containing 100 buildings and 7 or 800 inhabitants. Distance travelled this day forty-two miles.

March 22d. At daylight, as usual, we continued our route. We travelled over a causeway, several miles in length, and noticed a beautiful aqueduct, which supplies the city of Mexico with water. We passed through several small towns, and at 2 P. M., after having my trunks ransacked by an insignificant, dark-colored officer at the gates, we entered the great metropolis of Mexico. We had travelled forty-two miles this day. The distance from Guadalaxara is 465 miles and from San Blas, 735 miles: height above the sea, 9500 feet. My stay in the city of Mexico was so short, that I will not venture to give a description of the place. I confess that I was disappointed in its appearance. The flattering accounts of its situation, its floating gardens (which I could not find,) and magnificent squares, would lead a person to suppose it a second paradise. It certainly falls short of its description in the accounts of most travellers. It is true that it is a large city, containing a number of handsome streets, public and private buildings, and, I suppose, about 130,000 inhabitants.

March 24th. Having, in company with three other gentlemen, engaged a coach, with a double team of mules and four drivers, I left Mexico for Vera Cruz. Our road led, for some distance, over a causeway extending through the lake of Teoma The surface of this lake appeared rov