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LONDON, the largest city in the world, and the capital of Great Britian, contains nearly as many people as the six New England States. It is about thirty miles in circuit. The river Thames runs through it; and across this river there are seven or eight bridges. That called London Bridge is pictured at the head of this article.

There are a multitude of interesting things in this vast city. There are the Zoological Gardens, in which may be seen quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, and fishes, all living somewhat according to their natural habits. Among these creatures, there are two giraffes, elephants, a rhinoceros, antelopes, tigers, lions, leopards, panthers, monkeys, &c., &c.

In London there are several beautiful parks, which are fine grassy fields with groups of shrubbery and trees, and paths winding about, and in them you see thousands of people taking the air in fine weather.

In London there are splendid edifices, called palaces, in which the royal family resides.

The museums of London are nume

rous and on a scale of great magnificence. It would take a large volume to describe the curiosities of this mighty city. There are many people living in it, who have never been out of it, and who seem to think that having seen London, they have seen enough.

AURELIA AND THE SPIDER.

The muslin torn, from tears of grief
In vain Aurelia sought relief;
In sighs and tears she passed the day,
The tattered robe neglected lay.
When, busy at his spinning trade,
A spider thus addressed the maid:
"Turn, little girl, behold in me
A stimulus to industry.

This morning, e'er you left your room,
The chambermaid's relentless broom

In one sad moment had destroyed,

To build which, thousands were employ'd.

By constant work a day or more,
My little mansion may restore;
And, if each tear that you have shed
Had been a needleful of thread,

And every sigh of sad despair,
Had been a stitch with proper care,
Closed would have been the luckless rent,
Nor thus the day have been mispent."

Exotic Fruits and Flowers in Eng. ful is the affection which children return

land.

THE damask rose was first introduced into England by the learned Linacre, on his return from Italy, about 1500. Thomas, Lord Cromwell, in the reign of Henry VIII., enriched the fruit-gardens there with three different kinds of

plums, introduced from foreign lands. The first orange tree appears to have been taken into England by one of the Carew family; for a century afterwards they flourished at the family seat in Surrey. The cherry orchards of Kent were first planted by a gardener of Henry VIII., and the currant bush was introduced when the commerce with Zante was first opened, in the same reign.

Sir Walter Raleigh introduced the potato and the tobacco-plant from America, where they were first found. Sir Anthony Ashly first reared cabbages in England, and in his monument a cabbage is carved at his feet. The figs planted by Cardinal Pole, at Lambeth, in the reign of Henry VIII., are said to be still remaining there. Spilman, who set up the first paper-mill in England, in 1590, is said to have brought over from the continent, in his portmanteau, the two first lime-trees, which he planted at Dartford, and which are still growing there. The first mulberry trees planted in England are yet standing.

Benevolence of the Deity.

LET us consider the faculties of man, and see how many and how exquisite the pleasures are which we derive from them. What enjoyment do parents find in the love and care they bestow upon their children! How sweet and bliss

to parents! How pleasant is the love of brothers and sisters-of relations and friends!

And then, let us reflect upon the beauty that is spread over the face of nature. Why are flowers so beautiful, and so infinitely varied, if not to bestow pleasure upon man? Why, if God is not benevolent, has he made hills and valleys, and rolling waves, and rushing waters, so beautiful? Why has he made the forms and motions of birds so charming, if not to give pleasure? If the Creator did not intend to delight us, why did he spread sublimity over the mountains, and teach man to feel it? Why did he robe the heavens in azure, and make a myriad race of beings to feel their mingled majesty and beauty? Why did he clothe all vegetable nature in green, and make human beings with eyes to relish it above all other hues? Why did he teach the birds to sing, the waters to murmur forth melody, the trees to bend in beauty and grace to the pressure of the breeze? Why, if God is not a beneficent Being, did he make this world so pleasant-endow it with light, and color, and music, and perfumes, and place beings here adapted to the appreciation and enjoyment of these things?

THE HEART.-Every time the heart beats, the blood is sent through the arteries as water gushes through a syringe, and at the same time an equal amount is received from the veins. Thus two hundred and fifty pounds of blood pass through the body every hour.

In the whale, the tube through which the blood is emptied into the arteries is a foot in diameter, and at every stroke of the heart the blood rushes with a velocity like that through the sluice of a mill!

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THE conquest of Peru by Francis Pizarro, has been already recorded. Among the officers who assisted in the conquest, was Diego Almagro-a chosen friend and fit companion for the ruthless Pizarro. But the friendships of the wicked are easily set aside whenever self-interest operates. Pizarro wanted all the gold of Peru; and he persuaded Almagro to attempt the conquest of Chili.

The Spaniards had heard that Chili was a country rich in gold and silver; and Almagro, flattered with having such a field of wealth entirely to himself, was induced to undertake the conquest.

Filled with these sanguine expectations of great booty, he began his march for Chili near the end of the year 1535. He had an army composed of five hundred and seventy Spaniards and fifteen thousand Peruvians.

Two roads lead from Peru to Chili; one is by the sea-coast, and destitute of water or provisions; the other, for the distance of one hundred and twenty miles, passes over the Andes. This last Almagro took, for no other reason but because it was shortest, and he was impatient to reach his golden har

vest.

But he paid dearly for his folly; his army, having been exposed to infinite fatigue and many conflicts with the adjoining savages, reached the Cordilleras just at the commencement of winter, destitute of food, and almost of clothing.

In this season the snow falls almost con

tinually, and completely covers the few paths that are passable in summer.

The soldiers, encouraged by their general, who had no idea of the dangers of the passage, arrived at the tops of the mountains, but could go no farther. One hundred and fifty Spaniards, and ten thousand Peruvians, there died by cold and hunger.

The whole army would have perished, had not Almagro resolutely pushed forward with a few horsemen and reached the plains of Copiapo, and then sent back provisions to the exhausted and dying soldiers. Those of the more robust constitutions were, by this means, saved.

The inhabitants of Copiapo, which is the first province in Chili, received these worn and hungry strangers with all the rites of friendly hospitality. The Peruvians had been long held in respect by the Chilians of that province; and the Spaniards, as incorporated with the soldiers of Peru, were welcomed by the Ulmen or governor of Copiapo.

He was probably a vain man, and wished to impress the Spaniards with a high idea of his wealth and power: we cannot otherwise account for the infatuation of his conduct. Had he been a wise man, he would have know that avarice is never satisfied—that to feed is only to increase it.

Be that as it may, he had, it seems, learned the prevailing passion of the Spaniards for gold, and he collected from his people a sum equal to 500,000 ducats, and presented them to Almagro. One would think such a rich present deserved to be gratefully remembered.

But those who worship mammon allow no feelings of friendship or gratitude to interfere with their selfish propensities. Under the pretext that the Ulmen had usurped the government which be longed to his nephew, Almagro arrested

the chief of Copiapo, and kept him a prisoner.

About the same time two Spanish soldiers, having separated from the rest of the army, proceeded to Guasco, where they were at first well received, but were afterwards put to death by the inhabitants, in consequence, no doubt, of some acts of violence, which soldiers, freed from the control of their officers, are very apt to commit.

This was the first European blood spilt in Chili,-a country afterwards so copiously sprinkled with it.

Had Almagro wished to preserve peace, and impartially examined the whole transaction, he would, undoubt edly, have found the Chilians justified by the laws of nations and of nature, in the act they had committed. True, it was rash, and it afforded him a pretext, which was all he wanted, to begin his cruel oppressions.

Almagro seized the Ulmen of the dis-trict in which his soldiers were put to death, his brother and twenty of the principal inhabitants, and without even accusing them of being concerned in the murder, indeed without assigning any reason at all for his conduct, he ordered them to be burnt. At the same time he also consigned the Ulmen of Copiapo to the flames.

Who will say that the savage crime, even allowing the two soldiers were murdered without provocation, was to be compared in iniquity to that retaliation in which the civilized Christian indulged? But the savage never made gold his god.

The cruelty of the Spanish general, and the intentions he now manifested of enslaving the Chilians, instead of terrifying, at once roused that brave people to resistance.

It is a melancholy task to record the murders and cruelties of war, but we cannot blame a people for resisting the

progress of an invading army, especially when they come, as the Spaniards did, to plunder the country, and make the inhabitants slaves.

Almagro, however, was so elated with his success, and felt so secure of conquering all Chili as easily as he had obtained the command of Copiapo, that he would not hearken at all to his Peruvian allies, who represented to him that the Chilians in the other provinces were numerous and warlike. He advanced into the province of the Promancians.

At the first sight of the Spaniards, their horses, and the thundering arms of Europe, these valiant people were almost petrified with astonishment. But they soon recovered from their surprise, and prepared to defend themselves. They met the Spaniards on the shore of the Rio Claro. Almagro despised their force; he knew that the red men had never been a match for Spanish valor, and so he placed his Peruvian auxiliaries in front, intending, with his Spaniards, to appear merely as spectators of the fight.

The Chilians soon routed these allies, or rather slaves of the Spaniards, and then, nothing daunted by the horses, guns and swords of the white men, they rushed on with a courage which the superior discipline of the Spaniards could not resist. The battle was furious, and continued till night separated the combatants.

The Promancians had lost many warriors, but they had also destroyed many of their foes; and they encamped in sight of the enemy, determined to renew the fight on the following morning. The Spaniards, however, though they, had kept the field, had no inclination to dispute another such day. They had been accustomed to subdue immense provinces with little or no resistance; but now they had met with a bold and

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