: Near the upper end of the lake, a lit It is tle chapel appears upon the left. erected upon the very spot, says Tradition, where Tell escaped from his Persecutors, when they were conveying him to prison. As the boat coasted the shore, to avoid a rising tempest, the hero jumped out upon the rocks, at a desperate leap, and mocked the tardy pursuit of his Conductors. We landed to contemplate the venerated spot, and found the walls of the chapel rudely painted with the real or imaginary exploits of the Patron of Switzerland-recollecting with patriotic sensations the reception of William Penn, at Shackamaxon, in the wig-wam of king Tammany. We We disembarked at Fluellen, the port of communication between Switzerland and Italy, for the exchange of cattle and cheese, against rice, silk stuffs, &c. and walked a mile or two, to Altdorf, the capital of Uri, a place that was burnt by the French, when they retreated before the Russians, in 1799. It is now rapidly rebuilding, in a good modern stile, which gives it the lively air of an American town new houses rising on all sides, beneath thick groves, preserved as a security from falling Avalanches. The venerable tree was long preserved, in the market-place of Altdorf, to which the Son of the Hero of Switzerland was bound with thongs, when the Father shot the apple from the head of his Son and told the inquiring Tyrant, for whose head, he intended another arrow-if he had missed his aim. From hence we sent forward our baggage to Andermat, in the valley of Urseren, being resolved to ascend St. Gothard, at our leisure-on foot. A walk of seven miles, through a pleasant valley, watered by the Reuss, brought us to the foot of the mountain, from whence it is near twenty miles to the hermitage, on its summit. We dined at a rural Inn, and in the afternoon began to ascend the elevated spine of the Alps, by a winding road, that skirts the precipices, which overhang a roaring torrent, as it descends from the crown crown-level, and forms one of the sources of the Rhine. It is frequently concealed from the sight by dark firs, among which, in alternate shade and sunshine, we met long trains of mules, loaded with Italian luxuries, tracing a zig-zag course-in opposite directions. At the end of five or six miles, we reached Wasen, a wretched village, situated among savage rocks. The Inn was already taken up by French Soldiers. There was therefore no alternative, but to beg a night's lodging, in the neighbourhood-A hopeless errand, you'll say, without the language of the country, to explain our wants. But the first door I knocked at was opened with an accommodating air; and I have since been pleased that the occasion had once occurred, to to prove the native hospitality of a Swiss cottage. Next morning, before we pursued our journey, I followed the Peasants of the village to a little chapel, where an artless Priest was celebrating the morning mass. I was there shocked for the first time with a sight very common in Catholic countries, I mean an open charnel-house, in which gaping skulls are indecently exposed to view, for the purpose of exciting commiseration for the Souls in purgatory. A horrid custom, peculiarly to be regretted in these Alpine vallies, where the ceremonies of Religion are the principal amusements of the secluded Inhabitants, and the knolling bell is the only sound that interrupts the monotony of silence and solitude. K We |