through water. Meat, vegetables, money, all undergo this purifying process, and letters or papers are received by a long pair of iron tongs, and fumigated before being touched by the hand. Well were it for the natives of the country if they could be prevailed upon to submit to the same measures of precaution-the disease would then be robbed of half its terrors, and its victims greatly reduced in numbers; but indolence and indifference, combined with a dim belief in predestination, prevent them from effectual exertions; although the fact that thousands fly from the city in hopes of escaping the pestilence which had penetrated into their dwellings, proves indisputably that their faith in fatalism is by no means firm or complete.

"In some cases this flight was made in time, and the fugitives escaped, though too often only to perish at another period and in another place. In others, they carried the disease along with them, spreading its poison, and dying miserably in the desert. Even all the care observed by Europeans has sometimes been insufficient to preserve them from contagion. The virus is so subtle that the smallest possible contact suffices for communicating it, and the smallest animal serves to convey it. Cats, mice, and rats are, for this reason, dangerous inmates or visiters; and cats in particular, as being more familiar with man, become more dreaded, and consequently are destroyed whenever they are seen by those who have faith in the value of seclusion. An instance of the fatal consequence of contact with such animals occurred in the house of a native Christian attached to the British Residency, who had the good sense to follow the Resident's example in shutting up his house on a former occasion. A cat belonging to the family was touched by his eldest child, a girl of fourteen or fifteen. The animal had either been abroad itself, or had received the visit of a neighbour, for the contact brought the plague--the child took it and died of it. Poor thing! from the first moment she was aware of her danger and fate. I have got the plague,' she said, ' and I shall die. The fatal spots and swellings soon proved the justice of her apprehensions, and in four days she was dead.

"It was probably by some such casual means that the disease was brought into Colonel Taylor's house, although he and all its inmates conceived it to be almost hermetically sealed from its approaches. On. the 10th of April, a Sepoy died of it, and four of his servants were attacked. By this time the disease had made such progress, that seven thousand persons had died of it in the eastern half of the city, which contains the residence of the Pashah, the British Mission, and all the principal inhabitants. From the other side, the accounts were not less disastrous, and the distress of the inhabitants was further aggravated by the rise of the waters of the Tigris, which, having burst or overleaped the dams made upon its banks higher up, had inundated the low country to the westward, and even entered the town, where two thousand houses were already said to have been destroyed. Many who would have fled, were prevented from doing so, not only by this spread of the waters, but by the Arabs, who had now congregated around the city, and who robbed and stripped naked all who came out of it. "Thus pent up, the pestilence had full play, and the people fell beneath it with incredible rapidity; and Colonel Taylor, finding his own house infected, had nothing left but to use the means in his power of flying, while a possibility remained of so doing. His own boats, in which he and his family had come from Bussora, remained always moored beneath the walls of the Residency, and in a state of readiness for immediate service. In these he resolved to embark; and one great advantage was, that being in a manner confined to the precincts of the Residency, and so much raised by the heightened waters that the deck of the yacht was on a level with the postern-door of the house, its inmates could make their preparations and get on board without being subjected to any foreign intercourse whatever. Matters being thus arranged, Colonel Taylor invited the Reverend Mr. Groves, a missionary, whose name is familiar to you, with his family, to accompany his party to Bussora, where, in a house in the country, sanguine hopes were entertained that they might avoid the contagion.

"Mr. Groves, however, on mature deliberation, declined availing himself of Colonel Taylor's offer. The reverend gentleman had undertaken the care of a certain number of young persons, the children of Christian families of Baghdad; and motives of duty prevented him from taking a step which appeared to him like a desertion of his duty. He resolved to remain at his post; and, putting his trust in that Almighty Power which had sent the dreadful affliction, and who, he well knew, could save as well as destroy, he shut up his house, in which were twelve persons, including an Armenian schoolmaster and his family, and calmly awaited the issue. It is from this gentleman's journal that the

best accounts of this dreadful period are to be collected; and from it therefore, so far as the plague and inundation are concerned, I shall take the liberty of quoting occasionally in the following short account of the condition of Baghdad.

"Colonel Taylor left Baghdad on the 12th of April. On the previous day the number of deaths was understood to amount to twelve hundred, and on that day it was ascertained that one thou. sand and forty deaths had actually taken place on the east side of the river alone. Next day, Mr. Groves had the pain of becoming aware that the disease had entered the house of his next-door neighbour, where thirty persons had congregated, as if for the very purpose of supplying it with victims. That same day, the report of deaths varied from one thousand to fifteen hundred, and that exclusive of the multitudes who died beyond the walls. On the succeeding day, the deaths increased to eighteen hundred ; and so terrified were the survivors, that they scarcely could be prevailed on to stay and bury their dead. Many prepared for the fate they anticipated, by providing winding-sheets for themselves and family, before the increased demand should consume the whole supply. Water also became scarce; for every water-carrier, when stopped, replied that he was taking his load to wash the body of some dead person. An Armenian girl told Mr. Groves, that she had counted fifty bodies being carried for interment within the space of six hundred yards. Not a single effort was made by the inhabitants, who appeared utterly confounded. They sat at home waiting for death, as if stunned by what was passing; and scarcely a soul was to be seen at this time in the streets except the bearers of the dead, or persons carrying grave-clothes, and watercarriers bearing water to wash the bodies.

"For several days together about this time, that is, from the 16th to the 20th or 21st of April, the mortality, so far as could be known, remained stationary at about two thousand a day; but many singularly distressing cases of individual distress occurred. In the family of one of Mr. Groves's little pupils, consisting of six persons, four were ill with the plague the father and mother, a son and a daughter, leaving but one son and a daughter untouched. Of the Pashah's regiments of seven hundred men each, some had already lost five hundred; and the report from the neighbourhood was still worse than in town. The water, too, in the swollen river was fast increasing, and the danger of a total inundation became every day more imminent.

"On the 21st, the water burst into the cellars of the Residency, and reached to within a foot of the embankments around the city; and Mr. Groves, in hopes of being able to render assistance, went to the Residency. The scenes he witnessed on the way were most distressing, nor was help to be obtained for the sufferers on any terms. One had a wife, another a mother, in the agonies of death; a third was himself forced to carry water to wash a dead child: for now no regular water-carrier was to be found; or if seen, he was accompanied by some servant, driving him to a place of death. The yard of the mosque was already full of fresh graves, and they were burying in the public roads. Death,' says Mr. Groves, has now become so familiar, that people seem to bury their nearest relatives with as much indifference as if they were going about some ordinary business!'

"Nor were the prospects nearer home less painful and depressing. Opposite the windows of Mr. Groves's house there was a narrow passage leading to eight houses, and from this small spot day after day they saw dead bodies carried out until the number amounted to seventeen. On the 23d, the mother of the Seyed, who was Mr. Groves's landlord, died in her own house, and no other help being to be had, she was there buried by the hands of her two female servants, who themselves soon after died; and no one being aware of their fate, there they lay, their bodies tainting the air, until the house being soon after plundered and the door broken open, the fact became known.

"On this same day, a little girl of twelve years old was seen passing by with an infant in her arms; and on being asked whose it was, she said she did not know-she had found it in the road and heard that its parents were dead. This was a very common effort of charity, especially on the part of the females, and not unfrequently proved fatal to them. An Armenian woman, who had come to beg for some sugar for an infant thus found, mentioned that a neighbour of hers had, in the same manner, rescued two, which she discovered thus abandoned in the street. Both these infants died, and were followed by their charitable protectress. Of all the painful incidents that attended the benevolent expeditions which Mr. Groves occasionally made from home, the sight of the number of infants thus exposed was the most distressing. When parents found themselves infected, they would take the

6

future orphans and lay them at the doors of the houses in the neighbourhood, exposing them,' as Mr. Groves says, 'to the tender mercies of strangers at a time when every feeling of nature was deadened by personal misery. Many,' continues he, of the hundreds of infants thus exposed were not more than ten days old; and I have seen in my walks to the Residency as many as eight or ten in this condition. Nor was there any help or human hope for them, save that those who laid them there might again return and pick them up when they saw no stranger would do so. All my efforts, and they were earnest and anxious, failed in providing any effectual relief for these little innocents, which my own family were not in a condition to afford, even had I dared to hazard the risk of bringing infection within my doors.'

"By the 24th almost all the cloth for winding-sheets was consumed; so that the survivors were forced to bury the dead in the clothes they had worn. Water was not to be had at any price, though the river was so close, and the mortality was estimated at thirty thousand souls within the walls-yet still there was no diminution in the number of daily deaths. Not one in twenty of those attacked are thought to have recovered.

"On the 25th the fall of a wall in the Residency from the sapping of the water induced Mr. Groves again to visit that place. Not a soul did he meet in the streets, except those who carried dead bodies and persons infected with the pestilence. Bundles of clothes, the reliques of the dead, were thrust out at many doors. The yard of the great mosque was shut up-there was no more room to bury them, and they were digging graves in the waysides, in the roads themselves, and in any vacant spot. While conversing with the only servant of Colonel Taylor remaining alive in the Residency, information was brought to the man that his aunt, the eighth of his near relatives who had been seized by the contagion, had just died like the rest. One of the principal sellers of cotton for burying-clothes (who had taken advantage of the times to raise his price exorbitantly) this day died himself. There was then no more of the stuff in the city. The price of rope, too, had become quadruple. Instead of formal burial, the bodies, even of persons of considerable wealth, were now just laid across the back of a mule or ass, and taken to a hole, attended, perhaps, by a single servant. Mr. Groves mentions the gesticulations of the few Arab women whom he met in the way as particularly striking -they seemed to demand of Heaven why Franks and Infidels like him were suffered to live, while so many of the faithful died. The effect upon his mind was peculiarly startling and painful; surrounded as he was by the dead and the dying, the growling of the dogs that were mangling the bodies (scarcely waiting till life was fled to begin their horrid feast), united with the cries of the exposed miserable infants, formed a scene of horror which he aversand no wonder-can never be erased from his memory.

"The mortality, meantime, increased. On the 26th, it was affirmed at the Serai, that the deaths had reached five thousand in one day!-there seems no doubt that they exceeded four thousand, and this out of a population which at that time did not exceed fifty or sixty thousand; for at least one-third of the late inhabitants had, first and last, quitted the city. The water, too, had risen frightfully, and the anticipations in case of its breaking into the city were terrible. Dreadful as they were, however, they were more than realised on the two following days. That night a large portion of the wall fell, and the water rushed in full tide into the city. The quarter of the Jews was speedily inundated, and two hundred houses fell at once. A part also of the wall of the citadel fell; nor was there much hope that any house or wall which the water had reached could stand, owing to the very dissolvable nature of the cement with which the greater part was built. By the following night the whole lower part of the city was under water; and seven thousand houses are said to have fallen at one crash, burying the sick, the dying, and the dead, with those still in health, all in one common grave. It is said, and upon no mean authority, that not less than fifteen thousand persons, sick and well, were overwhelmed on this occasion alone; nor, when the crowded state of the yet habitable part of the city is considered, -the people prevented from flying by the inundation without,-is the calculation at all incredible. The few who escaped from the ruins brought the shattered reliques of their families to the houses yet remaining in the higher parts of the city, emptied by plague or desertion, and thus furnished fresh food for the pestilence that lurked in the infected habitations which they occupied. 'Nothing,' says Mr. Groves, can give a more impressive idea of the intensity of individual misery at this period, than the fact that this fearful event which at another time would not only have occupied every tongue, but called forth the most active exertions in favour of the

sufferers, passed off almost without remark, and without an effort to relieve them.'

"The difficulty of obtaining provisions had now become extreme. Very respectable persons would now present themselves at the door to beg for some of the commonest necessaries. The number of the dead, too, left in the streets, had increased to a frightful degree; nor was there a possibility of removing them. This extremity of distress was shared to the full by the ruler of the smitten city. The Serai of the Pashah was by this time like the dwellings of most of his subjects-a heap of ruins, where he himself remained in the utmost terror and perplexity. He declared to a servant of Mr. Groves's that he knew not where to sleep in safety. He dreaded every night being buried in the ruins of the remaining portion of his dwelling. He sent to request the Resident's remaining boat, that he might fly from the place; but of its crew only one man was to be found alive; and even the Pashah could not procure men to man her. "Fear of him is passed,' says Mr. Groves, and love for him there is none.' Even in his own palace he was without power: death had been full as busy there as elsewhere; and that authority which was absolute in times of mere human agency, had shrunk into nothing before the effects of an Almighty mandate. Out of one hundred Georgians that were about him, four only remained alive. All that could be done was to throw the dead out of the windows into the river, that they might not shock or infect the living. The stables of the palace, like the palace itself, fell in pieces, and all the Pashah's beautiful horses were running wild about the streets, where they were caught by any one who could, and most of them were sold to the Arabs. If the Pashah were thus destitute of help,' observes Mr. Groves,' what must have been the misery of the great mass who were left to die alone!'

"During this frightful mortality around, the home prospects of Mr. Groves and his family, although they had hitherto been providentially exempted from actual disease, were sufficiently gloomy and distressing. From the little passage opposite they had seen twenty-five bodies carried out, and they knew of several persons being ill. In one of the houses, which had contained eight inmates, one only remained alive; and in like manner of another household of thirteen, but one solitary individual survived. Nor were these by any means uncommon or singular cases of eighteen servants and sepoys left by Colonel Taylor in charge of the Residency, by the end of the month only four remained; and of these two were affected, and afterwards died. There were five teachers of Arabic and Armenian connected with Mr. Groves's establishment, and every one of these died. Nor, with all this continued mortality, did the virulence of the disease abate, nor the number of daily deaths decrease. The remaining population, crowded into smaller and smaller compass by the increasing inundation, presented. as it were, a more sure and deadly aim to the shafts of the pestilence. The influx of new inhabitants into infected houses supplied fresh objects, and their dead remained poisoning the air in all the court-yards and areas, and literally encumbered the streets. "Nor was this fearful destruction of human life confined to the city. A large caravan for Damascus had left Baghdad at the commencement of the mortality; but it carried the deadly contagion along with it, and met, moreover, with an enemy scarcely less destructive, in the inundation. They gained a comparatively elevated spot, where they remained pent up for three weeks, the water constantly gaining on them, and their numbers daily thinning, the kafilahbashee (or leader of the caravan) being among the number who died. Many tried to return and take their chance at home; but boats were rarely to be had, and the few to be procured were held at so high a price that few could avail themselves of them.

"In the same manner a caravan of two thousand persons, who left Baghdad for Hamadan, in Persia, carried the pestilence along with them, and lost more than half their number on the road. At each resting-place from sixty to seventy carcases were left upon the ground, and numbers died during the march upon their horses and mules, or were knocked off them when taken ill, and left to die by the road-side, while their effects were plundered by the survivors.

"Worse even than theirs was the situation of thousands who attempted too late to fly, and were caught by the inundation. Retreating to the highest ground they could find, they remained watching the water as it rose, till it got half a yard high in the very tents. They had neither food nor the means of making a fire. Neither sick nor well could lie down, and worse than all, they had no means of burying their dead, who rapidly increased among them. Some, half frantic with despair, attempted to return, that

they might die at home; but the waters left no way, and boats were not procurable at any price. To aggravate the miseries of these fugitives, those who did escape the waters were almost certain to fall into the hands of the plundering Arabs, who stripped all they caught, women and men indiscriminately.

During all this accumulation of human misery, nothing was more remarkable than the death-like stillness which reigned throughout the city. The Moolahs ceased to call to prayer-the mourners to lament for the dead. It was so striking,' says Mr. Groves, that a sickness came over the heart when one thought of the cause.'

"The first glimpse of relief in this complication of suffering was the subsiding of the waters, which occurred about the beginning of May. Soon afterwards a little rice was brought from the other side of the river. The monopolists of fire-wood, who had made their harvest of the necessities of the poor inhabitants, had by this time themselves fallen victims to the pestilence, so that fuel was to be had for the taking; and wretches who for a long while had not tasted wholesome food were enabled to cook a decent meal. Soon afterwards, namely, on the 4th of May, some prospect appeared of mitigation in the plague itself. The previous days had been beautifully fine and clear, and the increasing heat gave promise of a check to its virulence. On that day, the number of new cases, as well as that of deaths, decreased; while the list of recoveries augmented. Our eyes,' says Mr. Groves,' were gladdened by the sight of three or four water-carriers, the first we had seen these ten days; and many more people have been seen passing and repassing; and this night, for the first time these three weeks, I have heard the Moolahs call to prayers.'

"From this time the accounts of the city gradually improved; but, unhappily, on the 7th, the disease, which hitherto had spared the house of Mr. Groves, made its appearance there, and, as is well known, that excellent man and devoted Christian had to endure the heavy affliction of the loss of his wife and child. Only two other persons were there attacked, and these died also -one of them was the schoolmaster, who had already lost forty relatives out of forty-four.

"It would be endless to relate the instances of sweeping mortality that marked the course of the pestilence. Hundreds of families were carried wholly off; and of others of twenty to thirty persons, only one or two survived. An Armenian told Mr. Groves that in his quarter, out of one hundred and thirty houses, only twenty-seven of the inhabitants were left alive. The son of Mr. Groves's Moolah declared, that in the quarter where he resided not one remained — all were dead; Seyed Ibrahim, the only surviving servant of Colonel Taylor, remained alone out of a family of fourteen; and as a single instance of the mortality in other quarters of the pashalic, I may mention that scarcely an individual was left in the town of Hillah, which before the pestilence possessed a population of ten thousand souls. From all I have been able to collect, as well as from the opinion of Mr. Groves, it appears but too probable, that of the population of Baghdad, not less than two-thirds were carried off by this awful plague, and that the number of dead fell little short of, if it did not exceed, one hundred thousand persons. Assuredly, the mortality was greatly increased by the unfortunate coincidence of the inundation, first in the country, which prevented flight and hemmed the great mass of the population within the walls, and afterwards by the entrance of the waters into the town itself, whereby not only were thousands drowned, or buried in the ruins of houses, but the remainder became huddled up together into greatly diminished space upon the dry spots, and forced into infected houses in twenties and thirties, surrounded by corruption, and without clothes or provisions, or the means of making a fire. The multitude of unburied dead, too, added greatly to the effects of the pestilence, by tainting the air and rendering it still more noxious.

"Yet even in the absence of such contingent causes, such a pestilence as this must have an effect upon an Eastern town which in a European city, in our days at least, it could not exercise under the operation of a regular police. The benefit of shutting up and insulating houses from contagion has been proved beyond dispute. Few of the Europeans in Constantinople, or elsewhere, who adopt this precaution suffer; and were it possible to persuade the natives to adopt similar measures, assuredly the fatality, and probably the duration also, of the disease would be greatly diminished.

"I have spoken of the plague of Baghdad in particular, because its effects have been pressed more home upon my observation than that in other places; but there is scarcely a city of Persia of which nearly the same tale, with the exception of what refers to the

inundation, might not be told, and where misery in the same ratio was not experienced. Kermanshah, Hamadan, the whole of Koordistan, lost even in a greater proportion. So did Mazunderan and Asterabad. The population of the whole province of Gheelan was reduced to one-fifth-its own people say to one-tenth. The city of Resht was utterly depopulated; so were the towns of Lahajan, Fomen, Teregorâm, &c. Conceive this sweep of human life!-this awful mass of human suffering, chiefly attributable to ignorance and mal-administration! and think of the blessings of civilization that by a well-organised system of government, and enforcing the measures dictated by sense and experience, the weight of this fearful visitation might, by God's blessing, be diminished, if not totally averted. Would to Heaven that even this were the full extent of calamity entailed upon our brethren of the East by tyranny and mal-administration !

"As for Baghdad, the plague at length fled before the increasing heat of summer; by the 26th of May cases had ceased to appear. Mr. Groves opened his house soon after, and the few remaining inhabitants issued forth to gaze upon the wreck of their city. Melancholy enough was the scene of all the buildings of Baghdad there remained standing but a small knot upon the banks of the river where the ground was highest, with a mosque or two, the walls and foundations of which had been more securely built than those of the others; and even of those that did remain scarce one had escaped damage. Even after the waters had subsided, houses continued to fall from the effect produced upon the materials, and from the sinking of the ground. Beyond this cluster stretched on all sides a vacant space up to the very walls, marked with vestiges of broken walls, and the ruins of more than twothirds of the city; and here and there lay a great lake, left by the receding waters in the lower parts of the ground. Of the long lines of bazaars, many had shared the general wreck; and long it was before those that remained began to fill, and shops to re-open in any numbers. Most of the merchants, and almost all the artificers, were dead. Even now, if you require some article of manufacture for which the place was formerly celebrated, the answer is, Ah! you can't get that now, for all those who made it are dead of the plague.' Whole trades were swept away; and it was some time before the common necessaries of life, food and clothing, were to be had for the surviving population.

"Then came the foul fiend Famine, who carried off a portion of those whom the pestilence had left, but on which we need not dwell. The ruin of the surrounding villages, and effects of war and rapacity in driving away the inhabitants of the vicinity to seek shelter in the town, by degrees reanimated the skeleton of Baghdad with a population, small indeed compared with what it had been, but sufficient, with occasional supplies, to afford objects within the three succeeding years for two more attacks of the plague, and the loss of five thousand and seven thousand souls thereby.

"By the plague, the military power of Daood Pashah was utterly annihilated: some idea of the complete destruction of his army may be formed from the fact, that out of the corps of one thousand men disciplined on the English model, and at one time under the command of Colonel Taylor, one man only was found surviving. The Pashah was actually left alone in a house to which he had retired when his palace fell, and from whence, as you will see hereafter, he was taken by one Saleh Beg, a man connected by blood with some of the former Pashahs, and who entertained at the time a notion of becoming Pashah himself."

Then followed the siege of Baghdad by the partisans of Allee, Pashah of Aleppo, who had been nominated Daood's successor. The city was taken, and Daood Pashah sent a prisoner to Constantinople, where, however, he was treated with considerable respect.

Mr. Fraser is undoubtedly right in stating the number of deaths at about two-thirds of the entire population: but that this twothirds amounted to 100,000 is surely an error of excess. The entire population of Baghdad, before the plague appeared, could hardly have exceeded 80,000, two-thirds of whom may be concluded to have perished. This reduces the destruction to nearly one-half the amount stated by Mr. Fraser.

"The population of Baghdad," he says, was estimated by Mr. Buckingham, when there, at from fifty to one hundred thousand souls. He considers it as less than that of Aleppo, yet greater than that of Damascus ; so that he fixes on eighty thousand as being probably near the mark. Assuredly, however, in the time of Daood Pashah, it experienced a great increase, and previous to the plague of 1830, could not have been less than one hundred and

fifty thousand souls. The greater number of these were Turks and Arabs, but there were also many true Baghdadees; a somewhat peculiar race, having a mixture of Persian and Indian blood infused into the principal stocks. Most of the merchants are of Arab descent, and at that time there was a number of Jews, Armenians, and Christians of the Catholic and Syrian churches. Koords, Persians, and Bedoueens, are to be seen in abundance in the bazaars; but the last do not like to pass the night within the walls; and the greater number of Persians, who for the most part are pilgrims to the shrines of Kerbelah and Meshed-Allee, either repair at once to Kâzemeen, a village and shrine about four miles distant on the western bank of the river, or encamp without the walls on the north side of the city."

THE GRANADA SMUGGLER.

On the morning of the 22d of April, 1830, a brother officer and myself passed out of the Land-port Gate of Gibraltar, with the intention of occupying a three weeks' leave of absence in an excursion into the neighbouring country. We were mounted on our own horses-two very serviceable long-tailed Andalusian nags; a hired mule, carrying our guide and baggage, accompanied us. A peep at the Alhambra at Granada was our main object. The road thither from Gibraltar has been often described-it is, perhaps, the most wild and picturesque in Europe. We travelled slowly and leisurely, sometimes passing the night at a rude venta by the road-side, and at others finding accommodation in tolerable inns as at the Fonda de los tres Reyes (the Three Kings) in Malaga, and La Corona (the Crown) at Alhama. In the afternoon of the 27th, we were in full view of that magnificent verge of mountains of Sierra Nevada, and approaching Granada. We had performed a long journey on that day, and were looking forward with some desire to its termination, when we overtook a single horseman, apparently proceeding on the same route as ourselves; he was a handsome young man, dressed en majo (a Spanish dandy); that is to say, he wore a short round jacket of brown cloth, tastefully braided, a white waistcoat, breeches of the same material as the jacket, ornamented with gilt buttons in a continued double row on the outer seam, and which were left open about the middle of the thigh, to give an additional swell to the limb, to admit air, or to show the fineness and whiteness of the linen underneath (a point in which the Andalusians particularly pride themselves); a broad red sash was bound around his waist; and a low, round-crowned hat, the rim turned up all round, placed smartly on one side. His horse was a powerful black, gaily caparisoned. I addressed him with the usual salutation of the country, which he acknowledged with courtesy, and we entered into conversation. "You are for Granada, probably?” said he.

I informed him we were Englishmen, from Gibraltar, on our way to view to view the far-famed Alhambra.

From Gibraltar!" exclaimed he with animation; "that is indeed a fine place. What tobacco one finds there!-what cotton goods!"

These remarks at once informed me of the occupation of our new companion. "You are a contrabandista (smuggler) then?" said I.

He unhesitatingly assented.

your ex

"How I envy you such a wild life!" I continued ; 46 citement must be greater than can be imagined." "Sometimes," replied he, "it is well enough, but occasionally nothing can be more tame; of late, however, I cannot complain. I am now on my return to Granada, after a rather long absence. I have deposited my small venture of good tobacco in a hut near the spot where you joined company. In Granada I shall find my uncle, and with his aid I hope to carry the cigarros safely through the shoals of custom-house officers with which the gates are infested. I am now more wary than formerly. The last time I was here an accident occurred to me. We have still a long league before us, and perhaps you may be amused if I relate my adventure."

I expressed, what I really felt, a great desire to hear it; and I give the story in his own words, as nearly as a free translation will allow :

“About six weeks since, I was on my way back to Granada, my native city, with a good cargo, accompanied by several comrades, also well laden. The narrowness of these mountain-paths, of course, obliged us to ride in a train, the one following the other. I was leading, when we suddenly fell in with a party of guardos (custom-house officers), accompanied by a military detachment. Had there been guardos only, we should have fought, but against

'los militares-no, señor-el nombre del rey tiene mucha fuerza.' (Against the soldiers-no, sir-the king's name is a tower of strength.) I saw at once that if I hesitated I was lost; so leaving my companions to do the best for themselves, I dashed at the goat-path which leads up to the mountain, resolved, if possible, to escape a prison and five years' hard labour at Ceuta-the fate which I knew awaited me, if taken. I had scarcely got off the road, when I heard my name (Diego Salazar it is) called out in a voice which was familiar to me. I looked round, and saw the basest of all custom-house officers, my own unworthy brother-in-law, Antonio Perez. Pity that my beloved Maria Dolores should be sister to such a villain! Diego,' said he, 'come back, or there is a ball in this gun which will oblige you. The gun you know well, and that my aim is not bad.' Of course, I did not cease urging on my good horse with these well-pointed spurs. The faithful animal struggled forward, heavily laden as he was; but as he turned into the path through the thick brushwood, the bullet from Antonio's unerring musket struck me in the shoulder. I did not fall; I retained my seat, and before another shot could be fired I was out of danger. I continued my journey, bleeding and faint; travelled during the remainder of the day, and at nightfall reached the hamlet of Pinos, where a pious priest dressed my wound, gave me shelter and his holy benediction. By the following evening I was in the town of Alcala-la-Real. Here I parted with my fine horse and his trappings, and deposited my gay clothes with an acquaintance, equipped myself in a common dress, and purchased a mule, on which I placed my two bales. After this, I avoided all towns, and pursued my journey by mule-tracks in the mountains, so that on the twelfth day I was within half a league of Madrid. I then looked about for a place to deposit my bales, and which I did in a snuglooking cave, a short distance from the road. This done, I boldly rode into the city through the Atocha gate, and had little difficulty in meeting with a daring spirit, ready, for a small reward, to assist an honest man in his need. We sallied out in the evening, and ere morning my cargo was safely stowed in a quiet lodging I had taken in the Calle de San Pablo. I had a capital market. My tobacco produced me exactly double the sum I should have procured for it in Granada; but the other bale-los generos!'the English cottons, shawls, and gown-pieces of brilliant colours! it was a mine of gold! four times the Granada price was eagerly given. I paid my assistant liberally, and dismissed him. My wound was fast healing, and I was again dressed like a gentleman, with plenty of doubloons in my purse, enjoying the pleasures of the capital. But I was not happy; I longed to be once more among my native snow-capped mountains; to be on the back of a trust-worthy horse; to see my wife, my Dolores-to receive her warm greeting in my little dwelling, which stands near yon Alhambra. But this I dared not attempt under present circumstances; my vile brother-in-law, whom I had made mine enemy by refusing to give him half the profits of every cargo, would soon cause me to be apprehended. A thought struck me one morning, as I was leaning idly against the fountain of the Plaza del Sol-I would endeavour to obtain a pardon from the king! I had, in common with all Madrid, seen Ferdinand [the late king, father of the young queen of Spain] in his daily rides through the streets. Echamas un memorial!' (Let us try a memorial!) said I; and immediately directed my steps to the post-office. Behind one of the pillars of the inner court I soon found a writer seated at his small portable table. A large handsome sheet of paper lay ready before him, and I observed that he carefully nibbed a pen as I approached him. Write me a petition,' said I, 'to the king.' He flourished rapidly the heading. Now for your story.' I told him my case in a few words. And you want a pardon?' I nodded assent. In a short time the paper was filled. He read it to me, and it appeared impossible that such an appeal could fail. I have,' said he, as you must have remarked, dwelt very strongly upon the circumstance of your never having meddled with the smuggling of tobacco; that, you know, is a royal monopoly, and you never could be forgiven had you been engaged in it. But the shawls is another matter;-here, sign the paper.' I am no great penman, and my large scrawled signature only showed to greater advantage the neat characters of the scribe. I paid him the usual peseta (the fifth of a dollar), and retired to my lodging. The next morning I was at the palace betimes, to watch my opportunity. There were four or five others lurking about, apparently with the same design as my own, and we were soon addressed by some of the officials, who seemed well acquainted with our views. I liberally paid these worthies, and was consequently permitted to enter the truly outer court of the royal mansion. After a time, three horses were led to the front gate, and Ferdinand himself descended the broad

I

marble staircase which leads from his apartments. I dropped on my knees, and held out my memorial- Pardon, my liege,' said I in a loud voice, pardon for one single act of disobedience of your royal proclamation against smuggling-but not of tobacco; quickly added, of cottons only.' The king took my paper, bade me rise, and glanced his eye over the writing. And you were wounded,' said his Majesty. Sire, my hurt was severe,' I replied, 'it is not yet healed.' 'Well,' continued the king, 'it is good that you are not a tobacco smuggler: go in a few days to the secretary's office, and we will see what can be done.' He passed on, mounted his charger, and rode away. I stood for some minutes as if entranced. I was aroused by one of the men to whom I had given money: 'You have managed your affair well, my friend,' said he, with a smile, 'you have gained your suit, whatever it may be. I know by the king's glance, as he handed your paper to Don Luis, that he has directed your prayer to be granted.' I went off in joyful mood, to lounge in the squares and on the Prado. At the expiration of a few days I attended at the secretary's office. I entered a room, in which I found an old man seated at a table, and two others at a desk. 'I come for my pardon,' said I boldly -'the pardon of Diego Salazar.' The two men at the desk looked astonishment at my assurance, and the old one, turning his dull eye coldly upon me, drawled out, I never heard of that name before;' and he quietly lighted his cigar. I knew, however, somewhat of these gentry. I produced a leather bag, containing a respectable sum in silver dollars, and, without further explanation, deliberately emptied the contents, and proceeded to spread it on the table. I divided the money into three equal portions. During this operation the two clerks had also lighted their cigars, and the three looked on with becoming gravity, and in perfect silence. At length I had completed the division. 'This,' said I, pointing to the largest heap, will, I believe, belong to the Señor Secretario, who is charged with delivering to me the king's written pardon, which his Majesty (may he live a thousand years!) promised to me some days since; and these other two sums must of course appertain to any two gentlemen who may witness the regular entry of the document.' No reply was made, and I seated myself before the heaps of money, selected a cigar from my case, and commenced smoking. In a few minutes the old fellow spoke-'Vamos,' said he, 'Come, let us understand each other. Is this all you mean to offer?' I protested I had not another dollar in the world. Well,' continued he, addressing himself to one of the scribes; Francisco, look if there is any such paper as this gentleman describes.' A pretended search was made, and I soon held in my hand this writing: here it is, carefully folded in a leather cover. My money, of course, was soon in the possession of these sharks. I did not loiter in Madrid. I am now returning with a bold front to Granada. I yesterday left Alcala, and, although the pardon has cost money, yet you see I retained enough to repurchase my faithful horse, as well as to procure a small lot of fine tobacco. You must almost have seen me deposit the package in the hut near the spot where you joined company. To-night I shall be again with my Dolores -but her villain brother-let him beware!"

The narration of this story brought us very near the city. We heard the tolling of the numerous church and convent bells. The smuggler, however, begged me, ere we parted, to read his pardon, and handing it to me, he particularly pointed out to my observation the word "gratis," written in large characters on one corner of the paper. It was a curious enough document: it sets forth that, whereas Diego Salazar had undoubtedly been guilty of the serious crime of smuggling; but as he had expressed the deepest contrition at the king's feet, had promised to abstain in future from any breach of the laws, and had moreover suffered great bodily pain from a wound inflicted by one of his Majesty's faithful guards, the king granted him his gracious pardon, and commanded him to return to his house at Granada, where he was to be permitted to reside without molestation, and carry on his lawful trade of platero (silversmith).

I returned him the document. "And this latter injunction," said I, with a smile, "you mean implicitly to obey!

"Sin duda," he replied, with a significant glance; "without doubt; but my horse has not lately had exercise-I must first give him a snuff of the sea-air. I shall ride towards Estepona in a few days,"

We separated under the trees of the beautiful Alameda; and although I remained in Granada some days, and looked searchingly round among the throng in the streets and public walks, I did not encounter Diego. He was doubtless again on his horse, and perhaps returning with a new venture of the forbidden weed and the seducing cotton shawls.-United Service Journal.

The noise of this fish, on being dragged out of the water, resembles the grunting of a hog. When the male is pursued by the sea-wolf, or other ravenous fish, he shuns the danger by stratagem; he squirts his black liquor, sometimes to the quantity of a drachm, by which the water becomes black as ink, under shelter of which he baffles the pursuit of his enemy. This ink, or black liquor, has been denominated by M. le Cat, ethiops animal, and is reserved in a particular gland. It may serve either for writing or printing; in the former of which ways the Romans used it. It is said to be a principal ingredient in the composition of Indian ink, mixed with rice.