the body of Benjie Spedlands. He was shunned by the old, and loathed by the young; and the selfish cruelty of his nature met with the singular punishment of a mental alienation, dead to all other feeling, save that of agony for the death of the eight children. He wandered into all lonesome places, and sought to escape from the company of all living things. His favourite seat was on a little hill top which overlooks the head of the Ladye's Lowe. There he sat watching the water, with an intensity of gaze which nothing could interrupt. Sometimes he was observed to descend with the swiftness of a bird in its flight, and dash into the lake, and snatch and struggle in the water like one saving a creature from drowning.

One winter evening, a twelvemonth from the day of the fatal catastrophe on the lake, he was seen to run round its bank like one in agony, stretching out his hands, and shouting to something he imagined he saw in the water. The night grew dark and stormy-the sleet fell, and thick hail came, and the winds augmented. Still his voice was heard at times far shriller than the tempest-old men shuddered at the sound; about midnight it ceased, and was never heard more. His hat was found floating by the side of the water, but he was never more seen nor heard of— his death-lights, glimmering for a season on the lake, told to many that he had found, perhaps sought, a grave in the deepest part of the Ladye's Lowe."

SIR,

EARLY TRAVELLERS---MOCQUET.

Wherein I spoke of most disastrous chances,~
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders.

A GOOD deal of amusement is, in

my opinion, derived from the perusal of old books of travels. To mark the surprise which attended the first discovery of places and objects which habit has familiarized; and to observe the web of deceit in which the traveller often involves his narrative, either through vanity, or a desire to levy a tax upon the simplicity of his readers, are productive of no small entertain

ment.

thirty years became poison." Perhaps it may mitigate that gentleman's cen

sure to state, that the traveller's informant very probably spoke not of the article extracted from the sugar cane, but the concrete saccharine substance found in the bamboo. Humboldt says that the juice of the bamboo-cane in South America (Tabasheer, as it is termed) kept for five months, exhales a strong fetid animal smell; and Dr. Russel observed the same property in the salt of the Asiatic bamboo; and it may acquire, by longer keeping, a putrescent quality equal in effect to strong poison.

These remarks may serve as preface to the account of the travels and voyages of John Mocquet. The narrative of this traveller is so exquisite a specimen of the style called the marvellous, that, were not the details oftentimes outrageously indecent, its largest portion would fall under the first division mentioned in the beginning of my letter, namely, the amusing. It must be re

The reproach of credulity and falsehood which attaches to early travellers, however just in most cases, should not always dispose us to discredit what they report merely because it may not have been confirmed by later authorities. No traveller has laboured under a greater share of this reproach than Marco Polo; yet some of his fables have been discovered to be facts, with a little colouring and exaggeration, which circumstances might well be considered to excuse. A correspondent in your journal has referred to the fab-membered, in extenuation of his want rications met with in Tavernier's Trav- of sincerity, that John Mocquet was els, where the author states he was as not only a traveller, but a courtier and sured in India, that "sugar kept for a Frenchman. He was "keeper of

"where had happened some years since the most strange and prodigious thing in the world: some sorcerers and witches so ordered the matter with the King of Pegu, that he took such a hatred against his subjects,that he was resolved utterly to root out and extirpate them; to bring this to pass, he expressly commanded that none on pain of death should either plough or sow the land for the space of two or three years. The ground having thus continued to be uncultivated for some years, without reaping any thing, there fell out such scarcity and necessity amongst these poor people of Pegu, that having consumed all their victuals and all other things fit to be eaten, they were forced, after the manner of the Anthropophages, to eat one another; and, what was most prodigious and terrible, and never before heard of, to keep public shambles of the flesh of those they could catch about the fields, the strongest killing and massacring their companions to have a share of them: insomuch that they went to hunt after men as some savage beasts, and made parties and assemblies for this end. During this horrible famine, the people of the kingdoms round about being advertised of this extream necessity, equipped a quantity of vessels laden with rice, &c. which they brought to Pegu, and sold it there for what they pleased: amongst the rest there was a merchant of Goa, who arriving there with a boat laden with rice, as he went from house to house to put off his merchandize, taking for payment money, slaves, or other things they could give him; he happened upon a house where they had not wherewithal to buy so much as a measure of rice, and yet ready to die with rage and hunger, but they shewed this merchant an exceedingly beautiful woman, whom her brethren and sisters had a mind to sell for a slave for certain measures of rice; the merchant offered two measures, or bushels, and they would have three, remonstrating, that if they killed this girl, the flesh would last them and nourish them much longer than his rice; at last, when they could not agree, the merchant went his way, but no sooner was he gone, than they killed this young

woman, and cut her to pieces: but the merchant being not a little enamoured with this maid, and besides having compassion on her, soon returned again to give them what they demanded; but he was mightily astonished and sorry when they shewed him the young woman in pieces,telling him that not thinking he would return, they did it to satisfie hunger. Such was the end of this Peguan damsel; and many others had the same fate."

Speaking afterwards of China, he says, that at Canton, "one of the greatest cities in all China, where they go through a great river, much bigger than the Sene at Roan, and is joyned with the sea," are three or four thousand boats, wherein a great number of birds of the river retire, leaving them in the morning to go into the fields. "When night comes, the Chinese sound a little horn, which is heard at a great distance, and then these ducks return every one to his boat, where they have their nests, and hatch their young ones." He adds, "a man who shall have a boat garnished with these ducks is rich." I have no doubt that these ducks, which the traveller supposed to be intended to "rost for sale,” were the fishing cormorants (Pelicanus simensis,) which are employed in great numbers in China, and trained to dive for fish. These birds, not much larger than the common duck, seize and hold fast fishes equal to their own weight. Several thousand boats and bamboo rafts were observed to be occupied in this mode of fishing, by Lord Macartney's suite.

The mention of roast ducks seems to have reminded the traveller of an instance of the "guile and deceits of the Chineses :"A Portugal told me at Goa, that going from Macao to Canton he had been cozened after this manner; for having bought a roasted duck at a cook's shop, seeing it look well, and appearing to be very fat, he carried it with him on board his vessel to eat it; but when he had put his knife upon it to cut it up, he found nothing but the skin which was upon some paper, ingeniously fitted up with little sticks, which made the body of the duck." They also made, it seems,

gammons of hogs for sale to those who belong to the sea, especially the Portugals," filled with black earth, and rubbed over with fat, so that it seemed the flesh itself; selling it by weight. Some of the tricks of these people upon the Portuguese were fairly deserved. An instance I shall insert, not only for the ingenuity of the contrivance, but on account of its resemblance to that which Shakspeare has employed to punish that amusing compound of fat, fun, and wickedness, Sir John Falstaff. "In the Isle of Macao, where the Chineses and Portugals inhabit together, there was a Portugal merchant very rich, who being in love with a Chineses woman that was married, used all the solicitation and courtship he could to oblige her to condescend to his will, but not being able to bring his designs to pass, he continued to importune her, insomuch that she declared it all to her husband, who prudently told her that she should permit him to come at an hour appointed, and that he would make shew of going abroad, and then presently return and would knock at the door. Having thus agreed betwixt them, it was put in execution, and the Portugal had assignation of the lady, who failed not to come at the time appointed, not a little joyful of this good fortune at last; but no sooner was our

gentleman entered the house, the door shut, than the husband knocks at the door, at which the good wife, seeming to be mightily astonished, prayed the Portugal to hide himself in an open tub of pourcelain fat, and having caused him to enter therein, and locked it fast, opened the door to her husband, who without making shew of knowing any thing, let him there soak till the next morning, when he ordered this tub to be carried to the market, or lainan, as they call it, saying that there was some of the finest sort of porcelain, therein to sell, and that there were so many courges or dozen, and carried a sample thereof in his hand. When he had agreed with some one for the price, they opened the fat; and then appeared the poor Portugal, ashamed and almost starved, and every one mightily astonished to see him there in that condition, and the Chinese himself pretending great wonder, and the Portugal had his belly full of jearing and hissing at."

With regard to the want of success attending the religious missions of the Portuguese, Mocquet says, “I have found out in the Indies, that the whoredoms,ambition, avarice,and greedinesse of the Portugals has been one of the chiefest causes why the Indians become not Christians so easily."

ACCOUNT OF THE FEMALE SPIES IN THE SERVICE OF BONAPARTE.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH.

ONE
NE of the greatest faults commit-
ted by Napoleon, on his accession
to the throne, was that of doubting the
stability of his reign,and in having pur-
sued exactly the contrary measures to
those which were necessary for the
consolidation of his newly-acquired
power. Jealous and suspicious, he
wished to shackle all private opinion,
to know all secrets, and thus to render
one half of his subjects spies upon the
other.

Even the profligate principles of Machiavel, shrink into nothingness, when contrasted with the institution of The Imperial Espionage.

Placemen and characters of distinc

tion, pamphleteers, mountebanks, mechanics and husbandmen, were secret members of this association. In short, every description of people, and of both sexes, from infancy to decrepitude, were comprehended in the list of spies.

Snares were set by the supreme police, which were very difficult to avoid, because no one could ever suspect them. A number of persons of both sexes whom Bonaparte jestingly called his Cytherian Cohort, all that was most seductive in youth, beauty, grace, and pleasing acquirements, was united and trained in this society. Men of engaging address and fascinating manners, and women of superior beauty and