The voice of hope to absent Beauty given (19),
Through gushing grief; and blessings called from heaven;
To heaven submission; and the fortitude
That lights up danger in her darkest mood,
All hoping all sustaining: and the prayer
Of meek devotion, all are mingling there.
He may no more: night wanes; his beckoned guide
Awaits his parting mandate at his side.

"These to the first slatee whom chance may bring
To Sego's stately mosques, or Sansanding:
Bid him the sacred tribute to convey
To vessel anchored in the quiet bay,
Beneath the Lion Mounts, or at Goree,

Whose chief will well reward his trust: for thee
The plighted meed receive; I may not dwell
On all my mind presages: fare thee well!
Yet stay! hast thou one dear, confiding heart,
Life of thy life, and of thy being part-
Whose lip will chide the tardy hours, till thou
Art given again to her impassioned vow?
And hast thou cherub forms, young, innocent,
Who beam a beauty round their mother's tent?
Whose little hearts will overflow with bliss,
When thou return'st to greet them with a kiss?
By these I do adjure thee; in their track

Speed thou these letters - angels guard thee back!"

XXXIV.

"Tell me, mild priestess of the solemn night,
Why speed so fast the footsteps of thy flight?
Thy bright pursuer lingers far behind,
His car unharnessed, his dull temples twined
With wreath of poppy-lightly twinkle yet
Those costly gems which grace thy coronet;
Calm falls thy canopy of light beneath

On woods that stir not-flowers that fear to breathe:
And many a dreamer, lulled in deep repose,

Would bless thy spell that robs him of his woes.
Each tender cloud that flits before thy shrine,

Dims but to make thy beauty more divine;

'Then wherefore wilt thou flee? does pain, too, steep Thy heart, and leave thee but the wish to weep? Are thy fair sisters fallen from their sphere,

They who rejoiced thee in thy young career?

Yes, they are fallen from heaven; and thou, mild power!
Dost oft retire to mourn them in thy bower;
The secret cell, where Joy is doomed to pay
A long reversion for that yesterday,

Which, deeply shrouded in Oblivion's pall,
Nor Morn awakens, nor can Heaven recall.
Yes, fleeting messenger! by Fate's decree,
Sick, care, and sadness, rule the night with thee;
And mine the lot to watch thy stately head
O'er the hushed living and unconscious dead,
Till to the vigilance of Grief they break
Their heavy bonds, and other semblance take
Than what the grave permits. Brave spirits!-ye
Who trod the thorny wilderness with me,
In painful pilgrimage, and braved the worst
Of ills, the lion's rage, the fever's thirst,-
What had ye done that, perish'd, ye should have
A garland only to adorn your grave (20)?
The bitterness of life ye know not now;

Each

pang that racks the heart, and stamps the brow.
In the proud lap of high adventure cast,
Your first of storms and labours was your last;
Whilst I, by toil and pain unwasted, stand
On the far frontiers of an unknown land,
Launching on unpathed waters, where no sail
E'er in its ample canvass wooed the gale;
Where never Science shot one brightening ray,
And tribes lurk round to ambush and to slay.
Haply the woes which sunk you to the tomb
Were but the shadow of my woes to come!
Yet will I on;-though the hot Simoom's breath
Burn round my path, and blight the clime with death,
Still the light blossoms of the date behold,

Bowers whose ripe fruits are brightening into gold;
Still from these rocks their summer foliage break,
Though curls amid the boughs the gazing snake;
Trace by the sparkling river, or deep dell,
The airy fleetness of the dear gazelle;
Still on the morning wave the Lotos view,
Or white as snow, or purpling with its hue
The sunny stream; o'er which the west winds sigh,
And the wave worships as it glideth by.

Noon's silent radiance, eve-tide's murmuring horn,
Night's dewy march, and twilight-cinctured Morn,
Each in its train some charm to feeling bring;
The hum of bees, the wild bird's crimson wing,
Or passionate breath of winds, whose redolence

Seems borrowed from the white musk-rose which scents
Tunisian valleys; or the rich perfumes

Jurjura gales waft from the orange blooms (21).
Still may my keel along the Niger glide,

Till all uncurtained be the expansive tide;

Though there the angry Spirit of the Cape
Transfer his curse, and rear his threatening shape-
Though on its fatal wave, my latest groan,

I heave in death, unheard, unwept, unknown (22) :
Enough! that I can bear, and brave the weight
Of peril, doubt, and dread, and can create
In darkest hours some joy, however brief,
To quell the active tyranny of grief."

NOTES.

Note (17) Page 400, Line 11, 12.
"Grateful as seem those verdant isles to lie,
Girt by the burning sands of Araby."

The Oases of the Desert.

Note (18) Page 400, Line 26, 27.

"Here, spread from many a cliff, 'twixt earth and sky,
The broad banana's leafy canopy."

The pisango, or banana, flourishes more generally in the regions of the western coast, than in the interior of the country; but I do not know that it is not indigenous in these parts. It was said by Mungo Park, that the cocoa-nut was not a native of the interior; yet the Narrative afterwards published of Adams's captivity at Tombuctoo, would induce the belief, that in some situations beyond the point which the former traveller reached in his first expedition, it has planted itself, and flourishes; as does, probably, also the banana. The licentia poetica will, at least, authorize its introduction here.

Note (19) Page 402, Line 1.

"The voice of hope to absent Beauty given."

I need offer no apology for inserting here a letter which this enterprising, but unfortunate, traveller addressed to his wife, previous to his leaving Sansanding. It is an interesting composition, and was the last which she received from him. It is supposed, that immediately after writing it, he set sail for the interior; since which time no tidings of him, from his own hand, have reached England. There is a tone of tender, yet subdued, melancholy in it, indicating somewhat of a mind weighed down by sadness, from the loss of his companions; and, perhaps, with discouragements, which he would not should be known; mingled with an amiable solicitude, "lest that his look of grief should reach her heart," which must endear him to our affections, and touch every heart of sensibility:

66 TO MRS. PARK.

·1

"Sansanding, 19th November, 1805. "IT grieves me to the heart to write any thing that may give you uneasiness; but such is the will of Him who doeth all things well! Your brother Alexander, my dear friend, is no more! He died of the fever at Sansanding, on the morning of the 28th of October; for particulars I must refer you to your father.

"I am afraid that, impressed with a woman's fears, and the anxieties of a wife, you may be led to consider my situation as a great deal worse than it really is. It is true my dear friends, Mr. Anderson and George Scott, have both bid adieu to the things of this world; and the greater part of the soldiers have died on the march during the rainy season: but, you may believe me, I am in good health. The rains are completely over; another healthy season has commenced, so that there is no danger of sickness; and I have still a sufficient force to protect ine from any insult in sailing down the river to the sea.

"We have already embarked all our things, and shall sail the moment I have finished this letter. I do not intend to stop or land any where, till we reach the coast; which, I suppose, will be some time in the end of January. We shall then embark in the first vessel for England. If we have to go round by the West Indies, the voyage will occupy three months longer; so that we expect to be in England on the 1st of May. The reason of our delay since we left the coast was the rainy season, which came on us during the journey; and almost all the soldiers became affected with the

fever.

“I think it not unlikely but I shall be in England before you receive this. You may be sure that I feel happy at turning my face towards home. We this morning have done with all intercourse with the natives, and the sails are now hoisting for our departure to the coast."

Note (20) Page 403, Line 13, 14.

"What had ye done that, perished, ye should have

A garland only to adorn your grave?"

Speaking of the death of Walters, one of the party who accompanied him in his overland journey to the Niger, Mungo Park pathetically says: "We dug his grave with our swords in the howling wilderness, and a few withered branches were the only laurels that covered the tomb of the brave."

Note (21) Page 403, Line 42-46.

"The wild bird's crimson wing,

Or passionate breath of winds, whose redolence

Seems borrowed from the white musk-rose which scents
Tunisian valleys, or the rich perfumes

Jurjura winds breathe from her orange blooms."

The Musophaga, or plantain eater, is a beautiful and rare bird, found near the borders of the African rivers. It is of a fine violet colour, with a large patch of deep crimson on each wing. It is said to live chiefly on the fruit of the genus Musa, or plantain tree. "The valleys in North Africa are profuse of beauty and fragrance; besides the bay, the myrtle, the pomegranate, the olive, the jasmine, and oleander, which are common both to Africa and the south of Europe, we find here, in a truly wild state, the Aleppo pine, the red juniper, the date palm, the pistachia, the crange, and, superior even to the orange blossom in odour, the white musk-rose." (PINKERTON, vol. ii. p. 737.) Jurjura is the name of a chain of mountains, the loftiest in Barbary, running in a south-west direction in the province of Algiers, and connecting with Mount Atlas.

"Though all the Europeans who are with me should die, and though I were myself half dead, I would still persevere; and if I could not succeed in the object of my journey, I would, at last, die on the Niger."-Letter tó Earl CAMDEN.

[To be continued.]

PHILOSOPHICAL AND LITERARY
INTELLIGENCE.

The Unicorn discovered.-Major Latter, commanding in the rajah of Sikkim's territories, in the hilly country east of Nepaul, has addressed to adjutant-general Nicol a letter, in which he states that the unicorn, so long considered as a fabulous animal, actually exists at this moment in the interior of Thibet, where it is well known to the inhabitants. "This," says the major, " is a very curious fact, and it may be necessary to mention how the circumstance became known to me. In a Thibetian manuscript, containing the names of different animals, which I procured the other day from the hills, the unicorn is classed under the head of those whose hoofs are divided; it is called the one-horned tso'po. Upon inquiring what kind of animal it was, to our astonishment the person who brought me the manuscript described exactly the unicorn of the ancients; saying, that it was a native of the interior of Thibet, about the size of a tattoo, (a horse from twelve to thirteen hands high,) fierce and extremely wild; seldom, if ever, caught alive, but frequently shot; and that the flesh was used for food. The person who gave me this information, has repeatedly seen these animals, and eaten the flesh of them. They go together in herds, like our wild buffaloes, and are very frequently to be met with on the borders of the great Desert, about a month's journey from Lassa, in that part of the country inhabited by the wandering Tartars." This communication is accompanied by a drawing made by the messenger from recollection; it bears some resemblance to a horse, but has cloven hoofs, a long curved horn growing out of the forehead, and a boar-shaped tail, like that of the "fera monoceros," described by Pliny. From its herding together, as the unicorn of the Scriptures is said to do, as well as from the rest of the description, it is evident that it cannot be the rhinoceros, which is a solitary animal; besides, major Latter states, that in the Thibetian manuscript, the rhinoceros is described under the name of Servo, aud classed with the "elephant: "Neither," says he, " is it the wild horse, (well known in Thibet,) for that has also a different name, and is classed in the MS. with the animals which have the hoofs undivided. I have written," he subjoins, to the Sachia Lama, requesting him to procure me a perfect skin of the animal, with the head, horn, and hoofs; but it will be a long time before I can get it down, for they are not to be met with nearer than a month's journey from Lassa."

Etna and Vesuvius.--A letter from Palermo says, that the academy of that city has sent some persons to Mount Etna, who affirm, that while they stood on the crater of that volcano, they heard from it the thundering of the late eruption of Mount Vesuvius; which gives room to conjecture, that these two volcanoes have some subterraneous connexion with each other.

Sagacity of a Dog.-A farmer near Albany, (in America) was lately attacked with insanity; and, in a fit of this dreadful malady, attempted to