"I favour Whang-see-heou in regard to the nature of his punishment. He shall not be cut in pieces, and shall only have his head cut off! I forgive his relatives. As to his sons, let them be reserved for the great execution in autumn. Let the sentence be executed in its other points: such is my pleasure."

NAPOLEON ON SUICIDE.

In the journal of Dr. Warden, English Surgeon on board the Northumberland frigate, which conveyed Bonaparte to St. Helena, we find recorded the following remarkable sentiments of the imperial prisoner, as expressed to Warden.

ment. Accordingly he prepared a pan of black-strap, set it in the cellar, and waited the event. The next morning he found fourteen large RATS lying helpless around the pan. It is needless to add, he pursued this device until his house was cleared of rats and mice.

A. B. N.

Vermont Chronicle,

A farmer's corn was much annoyed by a bear, which he was not able to destroy until he thought of RUM. He procured a vessel of well sweetened rum, and the next morning bruin was too rich and happy to go or stand. A few have found that corn, strongly saturated with rum, will take away the use of leg and wing from crows. One old farmer told me last summer that grasshoppers loved it too. Now I say, neither throw away nor burn ardent spirits, nor for conscience' In one paper I am called a liar, in another a Ty-sake murder human beings with it—but destroy grassrant, in a third a monster, and in one of them, which hoppers, bears, and crows. Foxes, I presume, are too I really did not expect, I am described as a coward; cunning to drink it. but it turned out, after all, that the writer did not accuse me of avoiding danger in the field of battle, or flying from an enemy, or fearing to look at the menaces of fate and fortune; he did not charge me with wanting presence of mind in the field of battle, and in the suspense of conflicting armies no such thing. I wanted courage, it seems, because I did not coolly take a dose of poison, or throw myself into the sea, or blow out my brains. The editor most certainly misunderstands me; I have at least too much courage for that." On another occasion he expressed himself on suicide in the following terms :-"Suicide is a crime the most revolting to my feelings; nor does any reason suggest itself to my understanding by which it can be justified. It certainly originates in that species of fear which we denominate poltroonery. For what claim can that man have to courage who trembles at the frowns of fortune? True heroism consists in being superior to the ills of life, in whatever shape they may challenge him to the combat."

Autumn is dark on the mountains: gray mist rests on the hills. The whirlwind is heard on the heath. Dark rolls the river through the narrow plain. A tree stands alone on the hill, and marks the slumbering Connal. The leaves whirl round with the wind, and strew the grave of the dead. At times are seen here the ghosts of the departed, when the musing hunter alone stalks slowly over the heath.

Who can reach the source of thy race, O Connal: who recount thy fathers? Thy family grew like an oak, on the mountain, which meeteth the wind with its lofty head. But now it is torn from the earth. Who shall supply the place of Connal? Here was the din of arms; here the groans of the dying. Bloody are the wars of Fingal, O Connal! It was here thou didst fall. Thine arm was like a storm: thy sword a beam of the sky; thy height a rock on the plain; thine eyes a furnace of fire. Louder than a storm was thy voice, in the battles of thy steel. Warriors fell by thy sword, as the thistle by the staff of a boy. Dargo the mighty came on, darkening in his rage. His brows were gathered into wrath. His eyes like two caves in a rock. Bright rose their swords on each side: loud was the clang of their steel.

An ingenious, and valuable statistical work published a few years since, states that the number of inhabitants who have lived on the earth, amount to about 36,627,843,275,075,846. The sum, the writer says, when divided by 3,096,000, the number of square leagues of land on the surface of the globe, leaves 11,320,698,732 persons to each square league. There are 27,864,000 square miles of land, which being divided as above, gives about 1,314,522,076 persons to each square mile. Let the miles be reduced to square rods, and the number, he says, will be 1,853,173,600,000, which being divided as above, gives 1283 inhabitants to each square rod, which rod being reduced to feet and divided as above, it will give about five persons to each square foot of terra firma on the globe. Let the earth be supposed to be one vast burying ground, and according to the above statement, there will be 1283 persons to be buried on each square rod, capable of being divided into 12 graves, it appears that each grave contained 110 persons, and the whole earth has been one hundred times dug over to bury its in- And soft be their rest, said Utha, hapless children of habitants! supposing they had been equally distribu-streamy Lotha! I will remember them with tears, and ted.

The daughter of Rinval was near; Crimora, bright in the armour of man; her yellow hair is loose behind, her bow is in her hand. She followed the youth to the war, Connal her much beloved. She drew the string on Dargo, but erring she pierced her Connal. He falls like an oak on the plain; like a rock from the shaggy hill. What shall she do, hapless maid? He bleeds; her Connal dies! All the night long she cries, and all the day, "O Connal! my love, and my friend!" With grief the sad mourner dies! earth here encloses the loveliest pair on the hill. The grass grows between the stones of the tomb; I often sit in the mournful shade. The wind sighs through the grass; their memory rushes on my mind. Undisturbed you now sleep together; in the tomb of the mountain you rest alone.

my secret song shall rise; when the wind is in the groves of Tora, when the stream is roaring near, Then shall they come on my soul, with all their lovely grief.-Ossian.

As a specimen of the Indian mode of thinking on the subject of religion we give a paragraph from the speech of the famous chief, Red Jacket. When the missionary mentioned the crucifixion, Red Jacket replied-"Brother, if you white men murdered the son of the Great Spirit, we Indians had nothing to do with it, and it is none of our affair. If he had come among us, we would not have killed him, we would have treated him better. You must make amends for that crime yourselves!"

Red Jacket took part with the Americans in the war

SECTION XI.

HISTORY.

CANAAN.-Continued.

make it a point to reject, against all evidence, whatever claims to be supernatural. But, like the events just alluded to, the one under consideration does not depend solely on the Bible for proof. It is expressly attested by Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Solinus, Tacitus, Pliny, and Josephus; whose accounts agree in the main with tha of Moses.*

At an early period of their history, the Canaanites fell into the grossest vices and abominations. The first notice we have of Sodom is, that the men of that place "were wicked, and sinners before the Lord exNor is this all. The present appearance of the ceedingly." And it appears that the Amorites were Dead Sea, whose waters now roll o'er that former vale at that period an iniquitous race, although their iniquity of sin, confirms the voice of history in this particular. was not then full. There were indeed exceptions. "The water," says a late visitant, "looks remarkably. Melchizedek, king of Salem, was a priest of the most clear and pure; but on taking it into my mouth, I high God. And it is altogether probable that his sub- found it nauseous and bitter, I think beyond any thing jects at least were kept under salutary moral restraint. I ever tasted. It has been said, that these waters are But notwithstanding these exceptions, the general so heavy, that the most impetuous winds can scarcely state of society appears to have been deplorable. And ruffle their surface. Nothing could be more entirely especially was this the fact in regard to the cities of the without foundation. The waves ran so high, that I plain, Sodom and Gomorrah. These cities, which found difficulty in filling some bottles with the water. will be proverbial through all time as sinks of iniquity My clothes were wet by the waves, and as they dried, and abomination, stood pre-eminent in wickedness I found them covered with salt." In addition to this where all was wickedness, like Satan among the infer- testimony it may be observed, that quantities of bitunels. "And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom men are gathered in the vicinity, which in appearanc and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very resembles pitch, but which may be distinguished from grievous, I will go down now, and see whether they it by its sulphureous smell and taste. Pebbles also have done altogether according to the cry of it, which are found which burn when held in a blaze, producing is come unto me; and if not I will know." Abraham, a very disagreeable smell; but what is particularly reto whom this divine determination was announced, in-markable is, that these pebbles remain undiminished terceded with God in behalf of the devoted cities, and in size by burning. obtained a promise that if ten righteous persons could be found in all Sodom, it should be spared. But alas for the guilty city! not even that small number could be found. Two angels of God made a visit to the place, and took up their night's sojourn with Lot, who who was then residing there. But before they lay down, the house was surrounded by the citizens, old and young, from every quarter, who called to Lot, saying, "Where are the men which came in to thee this night? Bring them out unto us that we may know them." The expostulations of Lot were in vain. Bent on their abominable purpose, they spurned his remonstrance, and came near to break the door. But the angels smote them with blindness, insomuch that they wearied themselves to find it.

It was enough. Nature revolted at the spectacle. Heaven and earth were witness to the damning sin, and combined in one general and united cry for the extermination of so vile a people from the face of day. The cry went up to heaven. It found audience in the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Lot, forewarned of the coming ruin, made his escape from the city, and fled to Zoar.

"The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord. And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and lo! the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace."

This event, like that of the Deluge, and many others recorded in scripture, has been denied by those who VOL. II.-11

Nothing but the most determined scepticism could induce men to doubt a fact so well attested as that of the destruction of Sodom. To reject it under the circumstances of the case, is to destroy the credibility of all historical testimony, and to lay the foundation for universal uncertainty in relation to the past. That Almighty Power could destroy a city in the manner here described, none can deny. That he did thus destroy certain cities of Canaan, all history declares, and all circumstances show. Those therefore who doubt under these circumstances, are but poorly entitled to the name of reasonable men. And moreover, they should be apprised that they have something to do besides standing and doubting. It is incumbent on them to account for the circumstance, that the current of history in the case has set in a direction contrary to fact, and that there is no counter current in favour of the reality :-incumbent on them to name what species of evidence is requisite to the proof of an historical fact; and then to adduce that evidence in favour of the facts which they themselves receive as history.

We learn but few additional particulars of the Canaanites during this period. It seems there was another famine in their country in the time of Isaac, and another still in the time of Jacob, the latter of which was extremely oppressive, and of great extent. The principal event worthy of note besides, was that of the massacre of the Shechemites by the sons of Jacob, in revenge for the dishonour of their sister Dinah by Shechem, the son of Hamor, who was prince of that country. The account of this event is detailed at some length in the 34th chapter of Genesis.

Diod. Sic. lib. xix. c. 98, tom. viii. pp. 418-421, edit. Bipont. Strabo, lib. xvi. pp. 1087, 1088, edit. Oxon. Solinus, c. 26. Talib. xxxv. c. 15. Josephus, de Bell. Jud. lib. iv. c. viii. § 4. Facitus, Hist. lib. v. c. 6, (al. 7.) Pliny, Hist. Nat. lib. v. c. 16; ber, vol. i. pp. 171-174.

NATURAL HISTORY.

THE BUFFALO, THE AUROCHS, THE BISON, AND
THE ZEBU.

Good Hope, we find, I may say, nothing but hunched oxen; and it even appears, that this breed, which has prevailed in all the hot countries, has many advantages over the others. These hunched oxen, like the Bison, of which they are the issue, have the hair much softer and more glossy than our oxen, who, like the Aurochs, are furnished but with little hair, which is of a harsh nature. These hunched oxen are also swifter, and more proper to supply the place of a horse; at the same time, that they have a less brutal nature, and are not so clumsy and stupid as our oxen, they are more tractable, and sensible which way you would lead them. The regard the Indians have for these animals is so great, as to have almost degenerated into superstition. The ox as the most useful animal, has appeared to them the most worthy of being revered; for this purpose, they have made an idol of the object of their vereration, a kind of beneficent and powerful divinity; for we are desirous of rendering all we respect great, and capable of doing much good or much harm.

Although the Buffalo is, at this present time, common in Greece, and tame in Italy, it was neither known by the Greeks nor Romans; for it never had a name in the language of these people. The word buffalo even indicates a strange origin, not to be derived either from the Greek or Latin tongues. In effect, this animal is originally a native of the hottest countries of Africa and India, and was not transported and naturalized in Italy till towards the seventh century. It is true, the ancients have spoken of an animal, as of a different species from the ox, under the name of bubalus; and Aristotle has mentioned the wild ox of Paonia, which he has called bonasus. Both the ancients and moderns, however, have multiplied the species unnecessarily; and from attentive observations, I am clearly of opinion that there are but two species which "These hunched oxen, perhaps, vary again more are essentially different, viz. the Ox and the Buffalo. than ours, in the colour of the hair and the figure of the "We may observe, throughout the different regions horns. The handsomest are all white, like the oxen of the world, the breed of oxen differing from each of Lombardy; there are also some that are without other in all external appearances, according to the na-horns; there are others who have them much elevated, ture of the climate, or other circumstances; but the and others so bent down that they are almost pendent; most remarkable difference is that which divides them it even appears that we must divide this first kind of into two classes, viz. the Aurochs, or ox without a Bisons or hunched oxen into two secondary kinds; hunch on its back, and the Bison, or hunched ox. the one very large, and the other very small; and this From indubitable facts, however, we have the utmost last is that of the Zebu; both have soft hair, and a reason to conclude, that these are no other than varie- hunch on the back. This hunch does not depend on ties of the same species. The hunch, the length and the conformation of the spine, nor on the bones of the quality of the hair, and the form of the horns, are the shoulder; it is nothing but an excrescence, a kind of sole characters by which the Bison is distinguished wen, a piece of tender flesh, as good to eat as the tongue from the Aurochs; but the hunched oxen couple and of an ox. The wens of some oxen weigh about forty produce with our oxen; and we likewise know, that or fifty pounds; others have them much smaller; some the length and quality of the hair in all animals de- of these oxen have also prodigious horns for their size: pends on the nature of the climate; and that, in oxen, there is one in the French King's cabinet, which is goats, and sheep, the form of the horns is various and three feet and a half in length, and seven inches in fluctuating. These differences, therefore, do not suf- diameter at the base. Many travellers affirm, that they fice to establish two distinct species; and since our have seen them of a capacity sufficient to contain fiftame ox of Europe couples with the hunched ox of teen and even twenty pints of water. India, we have the greatest reason to think that it would also couple with the Bison, or hunched ox of Europe. Notwithstanding this, however, we are not to be surprised, that the two kinds have not melted or coalesced into a mongrel breed, since many circumstances may have occurred to keep them asunder; and, in fact, we actually find that these kinds have subsisted till this present time, either in a free and wild, or in a tame state; and are scattered, or rather have been transported into all the climates of the earth. All the tame oxen without hunches have proceeded from the Aurochs, and all with hunches are issues of the Bison. In order to give a just idea of the varieties, we shall make a short enumeration of these animals, such as they are found actually to be in the different parts of the earth.

"To begin with the north of Europe, the few oxen and cows which subsist in Iceland are without horns, although they are of the same kind as our oxen. The size of these animals is rather relative to the plenty and quality of pasture, than to the nature of the climate. The Dutch have often brought lean cows from Denmark, which fatten prodigiously in their meadows, and which give plenty of milk. These Danish cows are longer than ours. The oxen and cows of Ukraine, where there is excellent pasture, are said to be the largest in Europe; they are also of the same kind as

our oxen.

"The breed of Aurochs, or ox without a hunch, inhabits the cold and temperate zones. It is not very much dispersed towards the southern countries; on the contrary, the breed of the Bison, or hunched ox, fills all the southern provinces at this present time. In the whole continent of India; the islands of the South Seas; in all Africa, from Mount Atlas to the Cape of

"Thus all the southern parts of Africa and Asia are inhabited with hunched oxen or Bisons, among which a great variety is to be met with in respect to size, colour, shape of the horns, &c. On the contrary, all the northern countries of these two parts of the world, and Europe entirely, comprehending even the adjacent islands, to the Azores, are only inhabited by oxen without a hunch, who derive their origin from the Aurochs. The Bison, or wild hunched ox, is stronger, and much larger than the tame ox of India; it is also sometimes smaller; but that depends only on the quantity of food. At Malabar, at Abyssinia, at Madagascar, where the meadows are naturally spacious and fertile, the Bisons are all of prodigious size. In Africa and Arabia Petræa, where the land is dry, the Zebus or Bisons are of the smallest stature.

"Every part of South America is inhabited by oxen without hunches, which the Spaniards and other Europeans have successfully transported. These oxen are multiplied, and are only become smaller in these countries. In all the northern parts, as far as Florida, Louisiana, and even as far as Mexico, the Bisons, or hunched oxen, are to be found in great numbers. These Bisons, which formerly inhabited the woods of Germany, Scotland, and other northern countries, have probably passed from one continent to the other, and are become, like other animals, smaller in this new world; and as they are habituated to climates more or less cold, they have preserved their coat more or less warm; their hair is longer and thicker; the beard is longer at Hudson's Bay than at Mexico; and, in general, this hair is softer than the finest wool.

"Thus the wild and the tame ox, the European, the Asian, the American, and the African ox, the Bonasus, the Aurochs, the Bison, and the Zebu, are all animals

of one and the same species, who, according to the climates food, and different usage they have met with, have undergone all the variations we have before explained. The ox, as the most useful animal, is also the most universally dispersed. He appears ancient in every climate, tame among civilized nations, and wild in desert or unpolished countries; he supports himself by his own strength when in a state of nature, and has never lost the qualities which are useful to the service of man. The young wild calves which are taken from their mothers in India and Africa, have, in a short time, become as tractable as those which are the issue of the tame kind; and this natural conformity is another striking proof of the identity of the spe

cles.

ing, would extend and remain upon every one of this mixed breed. What confirms and proves still more the identity of the species of Bison and Aurochs, is, that the Bisons, or hunch-backed oxen, in the north of America, have so strong a smell, that they have been called Musk Oxen by the greatest number of travellers; and, at the same time, we find, by the accounts of observing people, that the Aurochs, or wild ox of Prussia and Livonia, has the smell of musk, like the | Bison of America.

"There remain, therefore, but two species, the BurFALO and the Ox, out of all the names placed at the head of this section; to each of which the ancient and modern naturalists have given a separate and distinct species. These two animals, although greatly "If it be asked, Which of the two kinds, the Aurochs resembling each other, both tame, and often living or the Bison, claims the first place? It appears to me, under the same roof, and fed in the same meadows, that a satisfactory answer may be drawn from the facts yet, when brought together, and even excited by their we have just laid down. The hunch or wen of the keepers, have ever refused to unite and couple togeBison is probably no other than an accidental charac- ther; their nature is more distant than that of the ass ter, which is defaced and lost in the mixture of the from the horse; there even appears to be a strong two kinds. The Auroch, or ox without a hunch, then, antipathy between them; for it is affirmed, that cows is the most powerful and predominant of the two; for, will not suckle the young Buffaloes; and the female if it were the contrary, the hunch instead of disappear-Buffalo refuses the same kindness to the other's calves "

tain, the limestone and sandstone formations lying between the Great Rocky Mountain ridge and the lower eastern chain of primitive rocks, are the only districts in the fur-countries that are frequented by the Bison.

In these comparatively level tracts, there is much prairie land, on which they find good grass in summer; and also, many marshes overgrown with bulrushes and carices, which supply them with winter food. Salt springs and lakes also abound on the confines of the limestone, and there are several well-known salt-licks, where Bisons are sure to be found at all seasons of the year. They do not frequent any of the districts formed of primitive rocks. Their migrations to the westward were formerly limited by the Rocky Mountain range, and they are still unknown in New Caledonia, and on the shores of the Pacific to the north of the Columbia River; but of late years they have found out a passage across the mountains near the sources of the Saskatchewan, and their numbers to the westward are said to be annually increasing. In 1806, when Lewis and Clark crossed the mountains at the head of the Missouri, Bison skins were an important article of traffic between the inhabitants on the east side, and the natives to the westward. Further to the south