côté opposé aux cheveux, le portrait de celui à qui ils l'ont enlevée at la suspendent au bout d'une perche et la portent ainsi en triomphe. Ce qu'il y a de surprenant, c'est que tous ceux à qui l'on fait cette cruelle opération de leur enlever la chevelure, n'en meurent point, non plus que du coup de casse-tête, dont on a crû les avoir assommés à n'en plus revenir. Plusieurs en sont réchappés et j'ai vu une femme dans notre mission, à qui après un semblable accident, les François avoient donnée le nom de la Tête-pelée, et qui se portoit fort bien. Elle étoit mariée à un François Iroquoisé, dont elle avoit des enfans." Lafitau does not omit to notice the striking similarity between Indian and Scythian barbarity; he cites the following passage from Herodotus as a support and illustration of his own peculiar theory: "Un Scythe boit du sang du premier prisonnier qu'il fait, et il présente au roi les têtes de tous ceux qu'il a tués dans le combat; car en portant une tête il a part au butier, auquel il n'a nul droit sans cette condition. Il coupe la tête de cette manière. Il la cerne autour les oreilles et ayant séparé le test d'avec le reste, il en arrache la peau, qu'il a soin de ramollir avec ses mains, et d'apprêter comme un apprête une peau de bœuf. Il en fait ensuite un ornement, et l'attache au harnois de son cheval en guise de trophèe. Plus un particulier a de ces sortes de dépouilles, plus il est considéré et estimé."-Lafitau, tom. ii., 258; Herodotus, lib. iv., n. 64.

"The scalping is an operation not calculated of itself to take life, as it only removes the skin, without injuring the bone of the head, and necessarily, to be a genuine scalp, must contain and show the crown and center of the head-that part of the skin which lies directly over what the phrenologists call 'self-esteem,' where the hair divides and radiates from the center, of which they all profess to be strict judges, and able to decide whether an effort has been made to produce two or more scalps from one head. Besides taking the scalp, the victor generally, if he has time to do it without endangering his own scalp, cuts off and brings home the rest of the hair, which his knife will divide into a great many small locks, and with them fringe the seams of his shirt and leggins, which also are worn as trophies and ornaments to the dress, and these are familiarly called 'scalp-locks.' As the scalp is taken in evidence of a death, it will easily be seen that an Indian has no business or inclination to take it from the head of the living, which I venture to say is never done in North America, unless it be, as has sometimes happened, when a man falls in the heat of battle, and the Indian, rushing over his body, snatches off his scalp, supposing him dead, who afterward rises from the field of battle, and easily recovers from this superficial wound of the knife, wearing a bald spot on his head during the remainder of his life.”—Catlin, vol. i., p. 238.

No. LIX.

Charlevoix gives the following account of some of the games of chance in use among the red Indians :

"Le Jeu de Pailles.-Ces pailles sont de petits joncs de la grosseur des tuyaux de froment et de la longueur de deux doigts. On en prend un paquet, qui est ordinairement de deux cent un, et toujours en nombre impair. Après qu'on les a bien remués, en faisant mille contortions, et en invoquant les génies, on les sépare avec une espèce d'aliene, ou un os pointee, en paquets de dix; chacun prend le sien à l'aventure, et celui, à qui échoit le paquet de onze, gagne un certain nombre de points, dont on est convenu: les parties sont en soixante ou en quatre vingt. On m'a dit qu'il y avoit autant d'addresse que de hazarde dans ce jeu, et que les sauvages y sont extremement fripons, comme dans tous les autres; qu'ils s'y acharnent souvent jusqu'à y passer les jours et les nuits.

Le Jeu de la Crosse.—On y joue avec une bale et des bâtons, recourbés et terminés par une espèce de raquette. On dresse deux poteaux qui servent des bornes, et qui sont éloignés l'un de l'autre, à proportion du nombre des joueurs. Par exemple s'ils sont quatre vingt, il y a entre los poteaux une demie lieue de distance. Les joueurs sont partagés en deux bandes, qui ont chacune leur poteau, et il s'agit de faire aller la bale jusqu'à celui de la partie adverse, sans qu'elle tombe à terre, et sans qu'elle soit touchée avec la main; car si l'un ou l'autre arrive on perd la partie, à moins que celui qui a fait la faute ne la répare, en faisant aller la bale d'un seul trait au but, ce qui est souvent impossible. Ces sauvages sont si adroits à prendre la bale avec leurs crosses, que quelquefois ces parties durent plusieurs jours de suite. "Le Jeu du Plat, appellé aussi le Jeu des Osselets. Il ne se joue qu'entre deux personnes. Chacun a six ou huit osselets, que je pris d'abord pour des noyaux d'abricots; els en ont la figure et sont de meme grandeur, mais en les regardant de près je m'aperçus qu'ils étoient à six faces inégales, dont les deux principales sont peintes, l'une en noir, l'autre en blanc tirant sur le jaune. On les fait sauter en l'air, en frappant la terre, ou la table, avec un plat rond et creux, où ils sont, et qu'ils font pirouetter auparavant. Si tous en tombant présentent la même couleur, celui qui a joué gagne cinq points, la partie est en quarante, et on défalque les points gagnés, à mesure que l'adversaire en gagne de son côté. Cinq osselets d'une même couleur ne donnent qu'un point pour la première fois, mais à la seconde on fait rafle de tout. En moindre nombre on ne gagne rien. Celui, qui gagne la partie, continue de jouer; le perdant cède sa place à un autre, qui est nommé par les marqueurs de sa partie. Car on se partage d'abord, et souvent tout le village s'intéresse au jeu : quelquefois même un village joue contre un autre. Chaque partie choisit son marqueur, mais il se retire quand il veut, ce qui n'arrive que lorsque la chose tourne mal pour les siens. A chaque coup que l'on joue, surtout si c'est un coup décisif, il s'élève de grands cris: les joueurs paroissent comme des VOL. II. P

fascinés, et les spectateurs ne sont pas plus tranquils."-Charlevoix, vol. v., p. 386; vol. vi., p. 26.

No. LX.

"The action in which Sir Richard met with his death is so extraordinary that it well merits recital: its object was to surprise the Spanish fleet when it rendezvoused at the Azores, on its return from America. For this purpose, Lord Thomas Howard sailed from England with six of the queen's ships, six vietualers, and some pinnaces, Sir Richard Grenville being vice admiral in the Revenge. Having set out in the spring, 1591, they waited six months at Flores in expectation of their prize. Philip, however, obtaining intelligence of their design, dispatched Don Alphonso Barcau with fifty-three ships of war to act as convoy. So secure had the English become by protracted delay, that this armament was bearing down upon them before they had the least suspicion of its approach. Most of the crews were on shore, providing water, ballast, and other necessaries, and many were disabled by sickness. To hurry on board, weigh anchor, and leave the place with the utmost speed, was their only safety; and Grenville, upon whom the charge of the details at this pressing crisis was imposed, was the last upon the spot, superintending the embarkation, and receiving his men on board, of whom ninety were on the sick-list, and only one hundred able for duty. Thus detained, he found it impossible to recover the wind, and there was no alternative but either to cut his mainsail, tack about, and fly with all speed, or remain and fight it out single handed. It was to this desperate resolution that he adhered. 'From the greatness of his spirit,' says Raleigh, 'he utterly refused to turn from the enemy, protesting he would rather die than be guilty of such dishonor to himself, his country, and her majesty's ship.' His design was to force the squadron of Seville, which was on his weather bow, to give way; and such was the impetuosity of his attack, that it was on the point of being successful. Divers of the Spaniards, springing their loof, as the sailors of those times termed it, fell under his lee; when the San Philip, a galleon of 1500 tons, gained the wind, and coming down on the Revenge, becalmed her sails so completely that she could neither make way nor obey the helm. The enemy carried three tier of guns on each side, and discharged eight foreright from her chase, besides those of her stern ports. At the moment Sir Richard was thus entangled, four other galleons loofed up and boarded him, two on his larboard and two on his starboard. The close fight began at three in the afternoon, and continued, with some slight intermission, for fifteen hours, during which time, Grenville, unsupported, sustained the reiterated attacks of fifteen Spanish ships, the rest not being able to engage in close fire. The unwieldy San Philip, having received a broadside from the lower tier of the Revenge, shifted with all speed, and avoided the repetition of such a salute; but still, as one was beaten

off, another supplied the vacant space.

Al

Two galleons were sunk, and two others so handled as to lie complete wrecks upon the water; yet it was evident no human power could save Sir Richard's vessel. though wounded in the beginning of the action, its brave commander refused, for eight hours, to leave the upper deck. He was then shot through the body, and as his wound was dressing he received another musket ball, and saw the surgeon slain at his side. Such was the state of things during the night; but the darkness concealed the full extent of the calamity. As the day broke, a melancholy spectacle presented itself. 'Now,' says Raleigh, was to be seen nothing but the naked hull of a ship, and that almost a skeleton, having received eight hundred shot of great artillery, and some under water; her deck covered with the limbs and carcasses of forty valiant men, the rest all wounded, and painted with their own blood; her masts beat overboard; all her tackle cut asunder; her upper works raised and level with the water, and she herself incapable of receiving any direction or motion except that given her by the heaving billows.' At this moment Grenville proposed to sink the vessel, and trust to the mercy of God rather than fall into the hands of the Spaniards-a resolution in which he was joined by the master gunner and a part of the crew; but the rest refused to consent, and compelled their captain to surrender. Faint with the loss of blood, and, like his ship, shattered with repeated wounds, this brave man soon after expired, with these remarkable words: 'Here die I, Richard Grenville, with a joyful and quiet mind, for that I have ended my life as a true soldier ought to do, fighting for his country, queen, religion, and honor.'". ·Report of the Truth of the Fight about the Isles of the Azores, 4to, 1501, quoted in Tytler's "Life of Raleigh."

66

No. LXI.

Pocahontas, before her marriage, was instructed in the principles of the Christian religion, which she cordially embraced, and was baptized by the name of Rebecca. Soon after, she set sail to visit England. As soon as Smith heard of her arrival, he sent a letter to the queen, recounting all her services to himself and to the nation, assuring her majesty that she had a great spirit, though a low stature, and earnestly soliciting her majesty's kindness and courtesy. Mrs. Rolfe was accordingly introduced, and well received at court. At first James fancied that Rolfe, in marrying her, might be advancing a claim to the crown of Virginia; however, by great pains, this idea was at last driven out of his brains. Mrs. Rolfe was for some time, as a novelty, the favorite object in the circles of fashion and nobility. On her introduction into these, she deported herself with a grace and propriety which, it is said, many ladies, bred with every advantage of education and society, could not equal. Purchas mentions meeting her at the table of his patron, Dr. King, bishop of London, where she was entertained with festival state and pomp,' beyond what, at his hospitable board,

was shown to other ladies. She carried herself as the daughter of a king, and was respected as such. She was accompanied by Vitamokomakkin, an Indian chief and priest, who had married one of her sisters, and had been sent to attend her. Purchas saw him repeatedly 'sing and dance his diabolical measures.' He endeavored to persuade this chief to follow the example of his sister-in-law, and embrace Christianity, but found him 'a blasphemer of what he knew not, preferring his God to ours.' He insisted that their Okee, having taught them to plant, sow, and wear a cork twisted round their left ear, was entitled to their undivided homage. Powhatan had instructed him to bring back every information respecting England, and particularly to count the number of people, furnishing him for that purpose with a bundle of sticks, that he might make a notch for every man. Vitamokomakkin, the moment he landed at Plymouth, was appalled at the magnitude of the task before him; however, he continued notching most indefatigably all the way to London; but the instant that he entered Piccadilly, he threw away the sticks, and on returning, desired Powhatan to count the leaves on the trees, and the sand on the sea-shore. He also told Smith that he had special instructions to see the English god, their king, their queen, and their prince. Smith could do nothing for him as to the first particular; but he was taken to the levee, and saw the other three, when he complained bitterly that none of them had made him any present. As soon as Smith learned that Pocahontas was settled in a house at Brentford, which she had chosen in order to be out of the smoke of London, he hastened to wait upon her. His reception was very painful. The princess turned from him, hid her face, and for two hours could by no effort be induced to utter a word. A certain degree of mystery appears to hang on the origin of this deadly offense. actual reproaches, when she found her speech, rested on having heard nothing of him since he left Virginia, and on having been assured there that he was dead. Prevost has taken upon him to say that the breach of plighted love was the ground of this resentment, and that it was only on believing that death had dissolved the connection between them that she had been induced to marry another. I can not in any of the original writers meet with the least trace of this alleged vow, and should be sorry to find in Smith the false lover of the fair Pocahontas. would not also have been much in unison with her applauded discretion to have resented a wrong of this nature in such a time and manner. I am persuaded that this love was a creation of the romantic brain of Prevost, and that the real ground of her displeasure was, that during the two years when she was so shamefully kept in durance, she had heard nothing of any intercession made in her favor by one whom she had laid under such deep obligation, and really the thing seems to require some explanation. It appears that when Smith at last was able to draw speech from the indignant fair one, he succeeded in satisfying her that there had been no such neglect as she apprehended, and she insisted on calling him by the name of father.

Her

It

"It is said that Pocahontas departed from London with the most