necessary to pour on water, to prevent the friction of the rope on the post, from generating' flame.

4. If the line becomes entangled while the whale is sinking, the boat sometimes rears one end aloft, and makes a majestic dive into the deep. In the contest the boat is sometimes dashed to shivers, and the men experience no pleasant immersion, if they are fortunate enough to escape without broken limbs.

5. The whale, stung with the fatal wound, sometimes dashes along the surface with a deathlike energy; and the little boat, almost under water, flies with the velocity of the wind. If he escape, he escapes with a prize on which he has no cause of congratulation; for he carries, deeply buried in his body, one or more of the sharp instruments, and drags off several hundred fathoms of rope.

6. Our whalemen have found irons in the carcass of a whale, known to have been planted there several years before, on another ocean. As the warp flies, it sometimes throws its coils around the body of a man, and dragging him over in a moment, carries him into the ocean depths, from which he never more emerges. Sometimes it only dislocates or breaks the legs and arms of the unfortunate men who become entangled in the folds.

7. A captain of a New London ship was caught by two coils of the warp, one around his body, and another around his leg. He had the presence of mind immediately to seize his knife, and after a while succeeded in cutting himself loose. He was carried, however, to a great depth, and when he returned to the surface, was almost exhausted.

8. The whale, when roused to desperation, makes an onset with his mouth only. Then he crushes a boat to atoms. A sperm whale once destroyed two boats of a Nantucket ship, and then attacked the ship; rushing with tremendous force against her side, he crushed in her planks, and thus made a breach from which she soon sunk.

9. The whaler sometimes roams for months without finding his prey; but he is buoyed up by the expectation of finally reaping the profits of a great voyage. To some minds the pursuit of such gigantic game has a tinge of the romantic. There must be a thrilling excitement in the adventurous chase.

"The blood more stirs

To rouse a lion than to start a hare."

10. Many become passionately attached to the business, notwithstanding its privations, and reluctantly leave it at last. They have moments of most pleasing anxiety, and meet with some incidents of the most enlivening

cast.

11. On the south-east coast of Africa is Delego Bay, a calm, smooth place, frequented by vessels from various parts of the world. In this bay, a few years since,* a whale was observed almost equally distant from an American and an English ship. From both, the boats were lowered, manned, and pushed off in an instant. They sped with the velocity of the wind. The English, at first ahead, perceiving their rivals gaining on them, bore wide off" to keep them out of reach of the whale.

8

12. When the two boats were nearly abreast, one of the American sailors leaped from his seat, and with extraordinary agility hurled the ponderous harpoon over the English boat. It struck the monster in the vital part; the English boat shrunk back under the warp; the waves were crimsoned with blood; and the American took possession, while the whole bay echoed and reëchoed with repeated shouts of applause.

1 HÄR-PÔÔN'. A lance with a long shank, and a broad, triangular, flat head, sharpened at both ends.

2

BARBS. Points turned backwards in

strument for piercing, to prevent its being extracted.

3 SU-PER-IN-CUM'BENT. Lying over or upon.

an arrow, fish-hook, or other in- 4 GEN'ER-AT-ING. Producing.

*Written in 1834.

5 IM-MER'SION. Act of putting wholly | under water or other fluid, or the state of being wholly under water; 7 a ducking.

whale from which spermaceti is extracted.

BEAR WIDE OFF. To keep away at a distance from any thing.

6 SPERM WHALE. A blunt-headed 8 PŎN'DER-OUS. Heavy.

XXXVII. — THE SOLITUDE OF ALEXANDER

SELKIRK.

COWPER.

[In 1704, Alexander Selkirk, a Scotchman, who was sailing-master of an English privateer, in consequence of a quarrel with the captain, was put ashore, at his own request, on the uninhabited island of Juan Fernandez, which lies about four hundred miles from the coast of Chili. He was well supplied with clothing, instruments, and arms, and remained on the island in solitude over four years, when he was taken off by an English vessel. His story is supposed to have suggested the well-known romance of Robinson Crusoe. This poem expresses the sentiments Selkirk may be imagined to have felt while on his solitary island.]

1. I AM monarch of all I survey;

My right there is none to dispute;
From the centre all round to the sea,
I am lord of the fowl and the brute.
O Solitude! where are the charms

That sages have seen in thy face?
Better dwell in the midst of alarms

Than reign in this horrible place.

2. I am out of humanity's' reach;

I must finish my journey alone;
Never hear the sweet music of speech;
I start at the sound of my own.
The beasts that roam over the plain
My form with indifference see:
They are so unacquainted with man,
Their tameness is shocking to me.

3. Society, friendship, and love,
Divinely bestowed upon man,
O, had I the wings of a dove,
How soon would I taste you again!
My sorrows I then might assuage*

In the ways of religion and truth;
Might learn from the wisdom of age,
And be cheered by the sallies3 of youth.

4. Religion! what treasure untold
Resides in that heavenly word!
More precious than silver and gold,
Or all that this earth can afford.
But the sound of the church-going bell
These valleys and rocks never heard,
Ne'er sighed at the sound of a knell1,

Or smiled when a Sabbath appeared.

5. Ye winds, that have made me your sport
Convey to this desolate shore
Some cordial, endearing report

Of a land I shall visit no more:
My friends, do they now and then send
A wish or a thought after me?
O, tell me I yet have a friend,
Though a friend I am never to see.

6. How fleet is a glance of the mind! Compared with the speed of its flight. The tempest itself lags behind,

And the swift-wingéd arrows of light.
When I think of my own native land,
In a moment I seem to be there;
But, alas! recollection at hand
Soon hurries me back to despair.

7. But the sea-fowl is gone to her nest,
The beast is laid down in his lair7;
Even here is a season of rest,

And I to my cabin repair.
There's mercy in every place;
And mercy, encouraging thought!
Gives even affliction a grace,

And reconciles man to his lot.

1 HỤ-MAN'1-TY. The nature of man; | KNĚLL. Sound of a bell rung at a the human race; mankind.

funeral, or announcing a death.

2 AŞ-SUĀĢE' (-swāj'). Soften; allay; 5 CÖRD'IAL. Comforting; hearty. moderate; soothe.

3 SĂL'LIES. Quick or sprightly exertions or sayings; frolics.

6 REC-OL-LEC'TION. Act of recalling

to mind things once known.

7 LAIR. Bed or couch of a wild beast.

XXXVIII.—THE AMERICAN INDIAN.

CHARLES SPRAGUE.

[Charles Sprague was born in Boston, October 25, 1791, and has constantly resided here. His longer poems are fervid and brilliant, and polished in their versification. He has written many charming small pieces. The following extract is taken from a fourth of July oration.]

1. Not many generations ago, where you now sit, circled with all that exalts and embellishes civilized life, the rank thistle nodded in the wind, and the wild fox dug his hole unscared. Here lived and loved another race of beings. Beneath the same sun that rolls over your heads, the Indian hunter pursued the panting deer; gazing on the same moon that smiles for you, the Indian lover wooed his dusky' mate.

2. Here the wigwam 2 blaze beamed on the tender and helpless, the council fire glared on the wise and daring. Now they dipped their noble limbs in your sedgy3 lakes, and now they paddled the light canoe along your rocky shores. Here they warred; the echoing whoop, the