and being thus shut out from all human society. The Editor has, we know not why, omitted the narrative of Alexander Selkirk, which is known to have formed the basis of the celebrated romance of Robinson Crusoe. He has given another, however, of a similar description and less generally known. It is found in the adventures of Philip Ashton, who, falling into the hands of pirates, contrived to make his escape from them, on occasion of their landing at an island in the Gulph of Mexico. He there ran into the woods, and his shipmates, after some ineffectual search, returned to their vessel. He thus describes his situation:

'Thus I was left on a desolate island, destitute of all help, and remote from the track of navigators; but, compared with the state and society I had quitted, I considered the wilderness hospitable, and the solitude interesting.

"When I thought the whole were gone, I emerged from my thicket, and came down to a small run of water, about a mile from the place where our casks were filled, and there sat down to observe the proceedings of the pirates. To my great joy, in five days their vessels sailed, and I saw the schooner part from them to shape a different course.

'I then began to reflect on myself and my present condition: I was on an island which I had no means of leaving; I knew of no human being within many miles; my clothing was scanty, and it was impossible to procure a supply. I was altogether destitute of provision, nor could tell how my life was to be supported. This melancholy prospect drew a copious flood of tears from my eyes; but as it had pleased God to grant my wishes in being liberated from those whose occupation was devising mischief against their neighbours, I resolved to account every hardship light. Yet

Low would never suffer his men to work on the Sabbath, which was more devoted to play; and I have even seen some of them sit down to read in a good book,

In order to ascertain how I was to live in time to come, I began to range over the island, which proved ten or eleven leagues long, and lay in about 16° 30' north latitude. But I soon found that my only companions would be the beasts of the earth, and fowls of the air; for there were no indications of any habitations on the island, though every now and then I found some shreds of earthen ware scattered in a lime walk, said by some to be the remains of Indians formerly dwelling here.

The island was well watered, full of high hills and deep vallies. Numerous fruit trees, such as figs, vines, and cocoa-nuts, are found in the latter; and I found a kind larger than an orange, oval-shaped, of a brownish colour without, and red within. Though many of these had fallen under the trees, I could not venture to take them, until I saw the wild hogs feeding with safety, and then I found them very delicious fruit.

'Store of provisions abounded here, though I could avail myself of nothing but the fruit; for I had no knife or iron implement, either to cut up a tortoise on turning it, or weapons wherewith to kill animals; nor had I any means of making a fire to cook my capture, even if I were successful

Sometimes I entertained thoughts of digging pits, and covering them over with small branches of trees, for the purpose of taking hogs or deer; but I wanted a shovel and every substitute for the purpose, and I was soon convinced that my hands were insufficient to make a cavity deep enough to retain what should fall into it. Thus I was forced to rest satisfied with fruit, which was to be esteemed very good provision for any one in my condition.

In process of time, while poking among the sand with a stick, in quest of tortoise eggs, which I had heard were laid in the sand, part of one came up adhering to it; and, on removing the sand, I found nearly an hundred and fifty, which had not lain long enough to spoil. Therefore, taking some, I ate them, and strung others on a strip of palmeto, which being hung up in the sun, became thick and somewhat hard; so that they were more palatable. After all, they were not very savoury food, though one, who had nothing but what fell from the trees, behoved to be content. Tortoises lay their eggs in the sand, in holes about a foot or a foot and a half deep, and smooth the surface over them, so that there is no discovering where they lie. According to the best of my observation, the young are hatched in eighteen or twenty days, and then immediately take to the water.

Many serpents are on this and the the adjacent islands; one, about twelve or fourteen feet long, is as large as a man's waist, but not poisonous. When lying at length, they look like old trunks of trees, covered with short moss, though they more usually assume a circular position. The first time I saw one of these serpents, I had approached very near before discovering it to be a living creature; it opened its mouth wide enough to have received a hat, and breathed on me. A small black fly creates such annoyance, that even if a person possessed ever so many comforts, his life would be oppressive to him, unless for the possibility of retiring to some small quay, destitute of wood and bushes, where multitudes are dispersed by the wind.

To this place then was I confined during nine months, without seeing a human being.'

Our limits will not permitus to pursue the narrative any farther; and we

shall conclude with the account given of the shipwreck of King James VII. (II. of England) while Duke of York. It is contained in a letter from Sir James Dick of Prestonfield, dated the 9th May 1682, and is the most particular hitherto known to have been written.

"Upon Sunday last, at eight o' clock at night, his Royal Highness (the Duke of York,) and his retinue that were alive, arrived here, there being a most sad disaster upon the Saturday before. At seven o'clock in the morning, the man-of-war called the Gloucester, Sir John Berry captain, wherein his Highness was, and a great retinue of noblemen and gentlemen, whereof I was one, did strike in pieces, and wholly sink, upon the bank of sand called the Lemon and Oar, about twelve leagues from Yarmouth. This accident was occasioned by the wrong calculation and ignorance of a pilot, which put us all in such consternation that we knew not what to do. The Duke and the whole that accompanied him were in bed when she struck; and the helm of the ship having broke, the helmsman was killed by the force of it. When the Duke had got on his clothes, he inquired how matters stood, the vessel having nine feet water in the hold, and the sea running in at the gun-ports. All the seamen and pas sengers were not under command, from every one studying his own safety, whence the Duke was forced to go out at the large window of the cabin, where his little boat was secretly ordered to attend him, lest the passengers and seamen should have so thronged in upon him as to drown the boat. It was accordingly conveyed in such a way that none but the Earl of Winton and the Lord President of the Court of Session, with two of his bedchamber men, (of whom one was afterwards Duke of Marlborough,) went with him, but were forced to

draw

draw their swords to keep the people off. We, seeing his Highness gone, did cause tackle out with great difficulty the ship's boat, whereinto the Earl of Perth got, and then myself, by leaping off the shrouds into her : the Earl of Marchmont, after me, jumped in upon my shoulders, and then the laird of Touch, with several others that were to row. Thus we thought the number sufficient for her loading, considering the sea run so bigh by a wind from north-east, and because we saw another boat close by the one containing the Duke overset by the waves, and the whole people in her drowned, except two who were observed riding on the keel.

This made us desire to be gone; but before we were aware, twenty or twenty-four seamen leapt in upon us from the shrouds, which induced all the spectators and ourselves to think we were sinking; but having got out of reach, and being so crowded, prevented an hundred more from doing the like.

6

Among those that were left were my Lord Roxburgh and Laird Hopetoun, and Mr Littledale, Roxburgh's servant, and Dr Livingston, the President of the Court of Session's man all these being at the place where I jumped from, would not follow, since it seems they concluded that it was safer to stay in the vessel than to expose themselves to any other hazard. But all were in an instant washed off or drowned.

"There perished in this disaster above two hundred persons; for I reckoned there were above two hundred and fifty seamen, and I am sure there were eighty noblemen and gentlemen, their servants being excluded. My computation was, we were about three hundred and thirty in all, of which I cannot understand one hundred and thirty to be saved.

The difficulties and hazards of us that were in the boat rendered it wonderful that we should all be preserved :

had it not been thought that our whole number should have been dead men, I am sure many more would have jumped into the boat above us, where we were so thronged we had no room to stand. Therefore, while forcing off from the ship, as she was sinking by degrees all the time, she had like to have drawn the boat down; and, besides, the waves were so boisterous, as to endanger our striking in pieces against the wreck while thus sinking; and it was not without very great difficulty that we got away.

• When about to row to the nearest yacht, the waves were such, and we overloaded, that every moment we thought to have been drowned; and, being about midway to the yachts, there were a great many swimming for their lives, who caught firm hold of the boat, and held up their heads above water, crying for help. This hinderance we kept off, and loosed their hands, telling them, they would both be our destruction and their own. This, however, would not always force them off, until several joined together against them; but I was glad to get one taken into the boat, lest I should have been pulled out of it. Then it pleased God to bring us wonderfully to one of the yacht's sides, being less than a quarter of a mile distant; but

she durst come no nearer on account of the bank of sand where our ship was lost. If it had not been that there were guns shot from our ship, showing them our distress by that sign, the other men-of-war that were immediately following would have come into that same disaster: but they immediately bore off, and the four yachts came up as near as they durst, and sent off their boats to help; but all that could be done could not prevent this great loss of two hundred men, as I have said. I was in my gown and slippers, lying in bed, when the ship first struck, and escaped in that condition.

When unexpectedly and wonderfully

fully we came to the yacht's side, called Captain Saunders, we were like to be crushed to pieces by her, for by the greatness of the sea she almost run us down. At length a rope was cast, which was so managed that we came to the lee side, and there every man climbed for his life; and I, following their example, seized hold of a rope, and so made shift upon the sides until I came within man's reach, when at last I was hauled in.

'When I looked back, I could not see one bit of the whole great ship above water, but about a Scots ell of the staff upon which the royal standard stood; for with her striking she came off the sand bank, which was but three fathom, and her draught was eighteen feet, so there was eighteen fathom water on each side where she struck, for she broke in the deepest place. Now, if she had continued on the three fathom, and broke to pieces there, all would have had time to save themselves but such was the misfortune, that she wholly overwhelmed, and washed all into the sea that were upon her decks expecting relief by boats, which certainly would have been if she had but staid half an hour more. So that, to conclude this melancholy account, besides all the above persons of respect, our countrymen, whom I have enumerated, there perished of English, of respect, my Lord Obrien, and my Lord Hyde's brother, who was a lieutenant of the ship.'

New Works published in Edinburgh.

G ENERAL View of the Agriculture of the county of Banff, with observations on the means of its improvement. By David Souter, Farmer. 8vo. 10s. 6d.

General View of the Agriculture of the county of Sutherland: to which is annexed, a particular account of

the most recent improvements in that county. 8vo. 12s.

General view of the Agriculture of the county of Caithness; with an ac count of the improvements carried on by Sir John Sinclair, Bart. on his estates in Scotland. By Captain John Henderson. 8vo. 15s.

General View of the Agriculture of Renfrewshire; with an account of its commerce and manufactures.By John Wilson. 8vo. 10s. 6d.

Literary Intelligence.

THE African Institution announce

their intention to publish the last Journals received from Mr Park, with the narrative of Isaac, for the benefit of Mr Park's widow.

Mr John Barnard Trotter, Author of the Memoirs of the late Mr Fox, purposes to publish an account of a Tour through Ireland, which he has performed during the present summer.

Mr Thomas Ashe, the noted Author of the fable called the Spirit of the Book, threatens another work of similar character, under the title of the "Claustral Palace, or Memoirs of the Family!" He is so sanguine of great success that he demands ten thousand pounds for his manuscript.

Messrs. Longman and Co. have nearly ready for publication, Engravings from Specimens of Morbid Parts, preserved in Mr Charles Bell's collection, Windmill-street, and selected from the divisions inscribed, Urethra, Vesica, Ren, Morbosa et Læsa; containing specimens of every disease which is attended with change of structure in these parts; and exhibiting the injuries from the bougie, catheter, caustic, trocher, and thotomy knife incautiously used.

Dr Cogan's first volume of Theological Disquisitions, treating of the characteristic excellencies of the Jew

ish Dispensation, is in the press, and will be published in November.

The Travels of Professor Lichtenstein, in Southern Africa, during the Years 1803, 4, 5, and 6, are nearly ready for publication. They are translating from the German by Miss Anne Plumptre, and will form one volume in quarto, accompanied by engravings from drawings taken on the spot.

Our readers will lament to learn that two of the proudest ornaments of modern literature have, for some time, been afflicted with total blindness. We allude to Mr Arthur Young, a philosopher and patriot, whose useful

ness has never been exceeded, and never can be exceeded in the annals of Britain; and Dr John Wolcot, the most original poet of the age of George the Third.

Messrs. Setchel and Son have purchased a few copies of the Plates to D'Ohsson's splendid French edition of the History of the Ottoman Empire, containing forty subjects, beautifully engraved, illustrative of the manners and customs of the Turks; and they intend to publish them as a suitable companion to the various tours which have of late years been made through the East.

HORRIBILIA.

WHILE shades of night in dark'ning hor

ror creep

O'er ruined tower, and ivy-mantled pile,
Of Gothie mould; while melancholy sighs
Th' autumnal breeze, among the waving
grass

That springs from human dust in some lone vale,

Where lie forgotten bones of heroes old;
While all is sad and wild, I love to stray
Where hollow sounding surges, heard afar,
Laving their rocky bed, rise on my ear,
And die in echoes on their haunted shore.
Pausing beneath the shade of deathful yew,
That spreads its dark green boughs o'er some
low grave,

To hear the Spirit of the storm pour forth His dreadful voice, and warn the shudd'ring world,

Upborne upon the black'ning clouds that

sweep

The horrid front of Night, my fancy flies From pole to pole, and sees the daring wretch Fetter'd in icy chains 'mid Northern seas Where frost eternal dwells-views his despair

Views him with famine pinch'd; his stiff'ning limbs,

And curdling blood, o'ercome by cold intense, Freezing in hideous death, far, far from home.

Upon the tempest's raven wing I fly

O'er boundless desarts, where the lion grim, And nimble tiger, with their blood-stain'd fangs,

Await the hapless Pilgrim's trembling steps. Imagination paints th' eternal fires

That dwell within Sicilia's sea-girt bounds; Where deep within th' unfathomable mount, On waves of molten rock hell's spirits sail, And dismal light streams to the pitchy sky, From the wide crater's sulphurous abyss. Stretch'd at the Mount's broad base, the villages,

And marble domes by fitful gleams appear, In slumber deep the helpless victims lie, Unconscious of their dreadful doom-Down rush

O'erwhelming all the mineral cascades. Wide spreads the conflagration dire, while Death,

With rapid strides, marks out his certain prey.

The smoking ruins sink with hideous crash. Hark! to that fearful cry!-chill hopeless horror

Each nerveless limb enchains. The mighty flood

Its deathful course pursues, and swallows up In glassy grave each dead and living thingAcross the Alps, whose hoary summits

pierce

The cloudy robe of Night, swift fancy speeds, And sees, on rapid wing, in distance deep, Strange hordes of midnight robbers-gaunt and tall,