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jectures of our better instructed westerns, on a like subject.

Linneus, in his Dissertation, Mundum invisibilem breviter delineatura, 1767, announced to the world, that the mealy dust, produced by the puff-balls [lycoperdons] agaricks, and other champignons, was the true seed of those plants; but that if this seed was placed in lukewarm water during several days, minute worms, visible by the microscope, would issue from them, which speedily congregated into a small mass, in which they remained without further motion, and from which, at length, grew champignons of the very same species as that which had furnished the seed.

In 1768, Mr. Wilkes, in England, published accounts of another experiment made on the mealy dust of mushrooms. Having taken off the inferiour pellicle of the meadow mushroom, which is eaten, he placed a quantity of it in water, which became of a reddish colour. A drop of this water, examined by the microscope, appeared to contain a great quantity of seeds of those champignons, in

the form of reddish globules, each of which had a black speck. Three days afterwards these globules assumed a very lively, spontaneous motion, and Mr. Wilkes conceived that he saw several of these animalcules, being assembled together and united, shoot out a kind of roots from whence he concludes that there are many similarities between the mushrooms and zoophites, or animal plants.

We cannot help wishing that this experiment had been completed; and that these roots had been traced to their entire conversion into mushrooms of the several species submitted to this process. Certainly, the observations of Mr. Wilkes support those of Linneus. Spontaneous motion is not ascribed to the Chinese article; but under the hands of our European naturalists, we should long ago have had dissections of the worm; and have watched its return to its plant state, as we now do the transformations of caterpillars, moths, &c. from the state of grubs and worms, to that of flying insects.

A RECEIPT TO MAKE A THIS dish is of a miscellaneous kind, something between a Yorkshire Pie and Salmagundi. Take two young lovers, tender and soft, that have been bred in an old castle; let the one be a philosopher of the new school without morals, and the other a girl of infinite sensibility without a grain of discretion or common sense. Stuff them with the minced meat of stale sentiment, and season them with box lobby repartees, and bon mots from modern comedies and farces. Then you may put them in the stewing-pan of persecution, and keep them a long time in the hot water of distress. Instead of sour crout and elder vinegar, mix them up with a couple of crusty fathers

NOVEL, BY MRS. GLASSE. and mothers, and a tough aunt or two; if you put a parson, or a justice of peace, into this olio, be sure to pepper them well. To improve the richness of the flavour, mix a good deal of French or German cabbage, and you may throw in a few mushrooms of poetry. When ready to be served up, put the whole, like maintenon cutlets, in hot-pressed wirewove or foolscap paper. This dish will appear to most advantage upon the table if garnished, like, a twelfth cake, with devices, in paste, of a setting sun, a rising moon, a few cooing doves, a cascade, a troop of banditti, a grotto, and a ghost. Although the cook sometimes forgets to put in both the sage of sound ob

servation, and the salt of genuine wit, this dish is the ton at Bath, Ramsgate, Margate, and all other watering-places. Like flummery or trifle, it will keep only a few days, though the cook may take great pains to set it off with the puff paste of advertisements.

N. B. This is the receipt, according to which many novels in the last fifty years have been cooked up; and it has been found to succeed much better than spinning jennies, or the famous mill to grind verses.

ACCOUNT OF THE FEJEE ISLANDS.

[From the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser.}

ON the 7th of October, 1809, which was shortly after the arrival at the Fejees of the Favourite, capt. Campbell, Mr. Thomas Smith, his second officer, was unexpectedly made prisoner by the natives, with seven others of the ship's company, and remained nine days in captivity; during which interval he experienced and witnessed horrours, from his narrative of which the following account is accurately deduced.

It begins with stating, that on the 7th of October he went from Sandalwood Bay round to the Bay of Highlea, with three boats, in quest of Sandal-wood, one of which, the ship's long-boat, he commanded; another, a whale-boat, was under the command of a Mr. Lockerby, formerly chief officer of the American ship, Jenny; and the third, under Mr. Graham, who fortunately returned laden to the vessel in time to escape the calamities that fell upon the former two. At Highlea he heard that Bullandam, the chief of the district of Buya, was expected with a force to make war upon the island of Taffere or Taffeia, and that it was the intention of the Highleans to aid his enterprise. The next morning the two boats prepared to return to the vessel, but were cut off by Bullandam's fleet of canoes, 140 in number, orderly advancing in a semicircle; and finding it impossible to pass them, it was considered as advisable to bear up to the fleet, ho

ping by such display of confidence to preserve the lives of the crews. When within hail they were ordered to advance; but the whaleboat was prevented by a large canoe bearing down and running aboard, cutting her in two. Mr. Lockerby and the crew were picked up and made prisoners, and Mr. Smith and the long boat's people were made prisoners likewise. The captors were about to despatch some of the people with their spears and clubs, but were prevented by the chief commanding the canoe, until the superiour chief should be consulted. When presented to Bullandam, he proposed to employ them in his intended assault against Taffere, in which he proposed to himself much assistance from their muskets; and seemed much disappointed when informed that the powder was spoilt, and the guns useless. He had no wish, however, to commit any personal injury on his prisoners; but, on the contrary, showed some attention to Mr. Smith, whom he respected as an officer, and generally invited to accompany him when he went on shore, always endeavouring to sooth his apprehensions, and quiet his solicitude of returning with his companions to the ship, by an assurance that as soon as the island of Taffere was subjugated, and its inhabitants destroyed, he would employ all his subjects in procuring wood for the vessel, to which they should be returned in safety.

On the 11th of October, the junction of forces being thoroughly arranged, an immense fleet of canoes sailed from Highlea for the expedition, and having a fresh head-wind, "the canoes were set to windward by poles, at the rate of three knots an hour. At night the formidable armament came to, round the northeast part of the island; and Bullandam took Mr. Smith on shore, to pass the night with him; his night guard consisting of ten men armed with spears and arrows.

Early in the morning of the 12th the whole of the army returned to their canoes, which, on a signal from Bullandam, set forward in complete order; and in about three in the afternoon the fleet anchored abreast of a village in Taffere, the van coming to close action with a fleet belonging to the island.

The attack was made with arrows at a distance; and as the canoes of Taffere maintained their position, they soon closed, when a desperate and stubborn conflict with spears commenced. The islanders, however, at length gave way to numbers very far superiour, and, to escape an otherwise certain destiny, all leaped into the water, and swam towards the shore, from which a division of Bullandam's fleet was endeavouring to cut them off. The canoes were taken possession of, with only one captive, an unfortunate boy, who being presented to the relentless chief, was ordered to be slaughtered, as it was his determination that not a single life should be spared. This ruthless sentence was immediately executed with a club, three blows from which the youthful sufferer endured, and then expired. The body was afterwards given into the charge of an attendant, to be roasted for the chief and his principal associates. The horrours that immediately succeed ed the defeat, the most sensible imagination can but faintly represent. A massacre was determined on; and as the men had escaped the fury of

their conquerors by flight, the women and children became the chief object of search; on which mission a canoe was despatched, and unhappily the fatal discovery was very soon made. On a signal from the shore, numbers landed, and a hut was set fire to, probably as a signal for the work of destruction to commence. Within a cluster of mangroves the devoted wretches had taken sanctuary. Many might undoubtedly have secured themselves by accompanying the flight of their vanquished husbands and relatives, could they have consented to a separation from their helpless children, who were no less devoted than themselves. A dreadful yell was the forerunner of the assault. The ferocious monsters rushed upon them with their clubs, and without regard to sex or infancy, promiscuously butchered all. Some who still had life and motion were treated as dead bodies, which were mostly dragged to the beach by one of their limbs, and through the water into the canoes. Their groans were disregarded, and their unheeded, protracted sufferings were still more hurtful to the feelings of humanity than even the general massacre itself had been. Among the slaughtered were some few men whose age, perhaps, had prevented their flight;, but, in fact, so sudden and so dreadful was the consternation that succeeded the defeat of the unhappy natives of Taffere, as no doubt to paralyse the minds of the wretched creatures, when prompt consideration could alone be serviceable to their deplorable condition. The conquerors appeared to anticipate, with inordinate delight, the festival with which this sad event had gratified their horrible expectation. Forty-two bodies were extended on one platform in Bullandam's canoe; and one of these, a young female, appearing most to attract his attention, he desired that his second in command would have it laid by for themselves,

The Tafferians being wholly defeated and dispersed, the island was taken possession of by Bullandam's forces, which were very numerous. This principal chief invited Mr. Smith on shore, as he seemed inclined to show him favour; and Mr. Smith declares it to be one of the most beautiful places he had ever seen. The houses, in number about a hundred, ranged on the declivity of a hill, interspersed with cocoa-nut, bread-fruit, and other trees, and each house defended with a wall of piled stone. The buildings were, however, all set fire to by Bullandam's order; and Mr. Smith becoming solicitous for his release, was informed by the chief, that as soon as all the victims were devoured, he should be set at liberty with his companions. The dead bodies were got into the canoes, and the whole fleet left Taffere on their return to the main island, where many others joined in the horrible festivity, which was conducted with rude peals of acclamation. Mr. Smith was, on this occasion, also taken on shore by the great chief, and here had again to experience a detestable spectacle. The bodies had been dismembered of their limbs, which were suspended on the boughs of trees in readiness for cookery; and afterwards part of a human leg was offered to Mr. Smith, who had never broke his fast for five days. The offer he rejected with abhorrence; and upon his captors appearing astonished at the refusal, he gave them to understand, that if he ate of human flesh he would instantly die. They were satisfied with this excuse, and continued their abominable festivity the whole night.

On the 15th, the chief in the canoe that captured Mr. Smith's boat, applied to Bullandam for the prisoners, and the long boat, in order to return them to their ship, declaring his intention to demand three whale teeth and twelve hatchets for their ransom; but this proposal was not then at

tended to. Twenty or thirty men then arrived at the place of rendezvous, each bringing a basket of human flesh half roasted; which mode, Mr. Smith learnt, they took to preserve it. The day of deliverance at length approached from a captivity the most afflicting, from a diversity of causes, that man could be exposed to; and after enduring it nine days, and totally fasting, he was at length turned over to the charge of the chief of Niri, with orders to demand the ransom for himself, and six of his companions. But previous to quitting the voracious party, a new incident of cruelty occurred.One of the unfortunate inhabitants of Taffere had swum from his distressed island to the main, but was perceived as soon as he gained the shore, and was in consequence pursued by a multitude, armed with bows and arrows, spears and clubs. The pursuit terminated with the life of the wretched fugitive, whose body presented a new source of exultation and cannibal festivity.

On the 16th, Mr. Smith was restored to his overjoyed shipmates, with all his companions except two, one of whom was Mr. Lockerby, who were afterwards indebted for their rescue to a determined perseverance in the captain, his officers, and people, which was highly credi table and meritorious. Mr. Smith, Mr. Lockerby, and all the others, had been repeatedly on the very point of asassination, to which these people seem to possess no kind of repugnance whatsoever; but on the contrary, it appears their chief object of delight. Their determined obstinacy in effecting every thing they attempt, can alone be equalled by the extraordinary precision of their arrangements, which are planned methodically, and executed with an energy and calmness that surprise even a European; with strength of body they possess a thorough contempt of danger, and a heedlessness of pain. Their present

conqueror, Bullandam, has already become terrible, and bids fair to possess himself of the sole sovereignty of the islands. But though implacable and sanguinary in his

resentments, yet we are assured that in his disposition, strong traces of kindness were perceivable towards all except the enemies of his arms.

SIR,

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MONTHLY MAGAZINE. AMONG the numerous superstitious absurdities which, at no very remote period, prevailed, even among the learned, but which reason and good sense have now happily banished, none was more ridiculous than that of the scrofula, or king's evil, being cured by the royal touch. Whether our monarchs themselves believed they possessed this miraculous power of healing, or whether they spread this deception to dupe the people into a belief of their divine right, they universally laid claim to it, from Edward the confessor, down to the last of the race of Stuart. It does not appear that any of the house of Brunswick have asserted this royal function; at least, it has never been publickly announced, as was formerly the practice; but were his present majesty to resume it, such faith is yet put in the assertion of a king, that all the courtiers, and the great body of the ignorant multitude, would not hesitate to believe its infallibility. The last sovereign who appears to have exercised this miraculous gift, was queen Anne. In the Royal Gazette of March 12, 1712, appears the following publick notice:

"It being her majesty's royal intention to touch publickly for the evil the 17th of this instant, March, and so to continue for some time, it is her majesty's command, that tickets be delivered the day before, at Whitehall, and that all persons bring a certificate, signed by the minister and church-wardens of their respective parishes, that they never received the royal touch."

Wiseman, serjeant-surgeon to VOL. IV.

2 Y

Charles II. gives, in a most reputable work on surgery, a treatise on the king's evil, in which he speaks of the royal touch in the following terms: "I have myself been a frequent eye-witness of many hundreds of cures performed by his majesty's touch alone, without the assistance of chirurgery, and those, many of them, such as had tired out the endeavours of able chirurgeons before they came thither. It were endless to relate what I myself have seen, and what I have received acknowledgments of by letter, not only from the several parts of this nation, but also from Ireland, Scotland, Jersey, and Germany." It was the office of Mr. Wiseman, as serjeant-surgeon, to select such afflicted objects as were proper to be presented for the royal touch. In the history of the disease, when describing its various states and appearance, he says: "Those which we present to his majesty are chiefly such as have this sort of tumour about the musculus mastoideus, or neck, with whatever circumstances they are accompanied; nor are we difficult in admitting the thick-chapped upper lips, and eyes afflicted with a lippitudo. In other cases we give our judgments more warily." Serjeantsurgeon Wiseman says, elsewhere: "In case of the king's touch, the resolution doth often happen where our endeavours have signified nothing; yea, the very gummata; insomuch that I am cautious in predicting concerning them, although they appear never so bad, until fourteen days be over."

Scepticks deny their belief to mi

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