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sions. There were numerous groups of pale-visaged artisans and operative manufacturers, from London and other large towns, for the most part squalid in their aspect, slovenly in their attire and domestic arrangements, and discontented and uncourteous in their demeanour. Lastly there were parties of pauper agricultural labourers sent out by the aid of their respective parishes, healthier perhaps in body than the class just mentioned, but not apparently happier in mind, nor less generally demoralized by the untoward influence of their former social condition. On the whole they formed a motley and unprepossessing collection of people. Guessing vaguely from my cursory observations on this and subsequent rambles through their camp, I should say that probably about a third part were persons of real respectability in character and worldly substance; but that the remaining two-thirds were for the most part composed of individuals of a very unpromising description—persons who had hung loose upon society—low in morals and desperate in circumstances. Enterprise and audacity many of these doubtlessly possessed in an eminent degree; but they appeared to be idle, insolent, and drunken, and mutinously disposed to their masters and superiors. And with such qualities, it was not possible to augur very favourably of their future conduct or destiny, or of the welfare of those who had collected them in England and whose success in occupying the country depended chiefly on their labours.

Having cursorily surveyed all that seemed worthy of immediate attention at the Bay, I procured, with some difficulty, a horse, and set out on an excursion to Bethelsdorp, a well-known Hottentot village, about nine miles from the coast. A Hottentot boy, whose only dress consisted of a pair of leather trousers and a loose mantle of sheep-skin with the wool upon it, acted as my guide, and trotted along at a goodly pace by the side of my pony.

The country in the vicinity of Algoa Bay has an extremely uninviting aspect. Extensive undulating plains, scantily covered with a brown shrubby herbage resembling heath, stretch into the interior, unenlivened (at least such was then the case, after passing the little hamlet of Cradockstown,) with a single farmhouse, or any manifestation of being occupied by human inhabitants, except such as was afforded by a few herds of cattle and straggling flocks of sheep, tended by Hottentot herdsmen. These dreary downs were bounded on the west by low sterile-looking hills, and on the east by the banks of the Zwartkops River, covered with dense jungle. The lofty and picturesque mountains, however, already mentioned, which bound the view far to the northward, somewhat relieved the otherwise monotonous landscape; and, as I proceeded, the strange aspect of one or two small lakes of salt, and the exotic appearance of many of the plants, agreeably occupied my attention. These salt lakes I shall pass without further notice, for I have a more remarkable one to describe on our journey into the interior; and on the botany I shall not venture to expatiate, knowing well how tiresome to all but botanists are minute descriptions of this sort, and an array of barbarous technical names of plants which add really nothing to the reader's knowledge. Suffice it to say, that as we approached Bethelsdorp, the naked downs gave place here and there to patches of natural shrubbery, consisting chiefly of various species of evergreens. Among the shrubs, I noticed the spekboom (portulacaria afra), the taaibosch (a species of rhus), the wild olive (olea similis), the mimosa (acacia capensis), two species of protea, and a great variety of other plants equally rare in Europe. The aloe, in several varieties, and in great profusion, was scattered about in all directions, and, with its broad verdant leaves and bright scarlet blossoms, richly embellished even the most sterile tracts of the wilderness.

I came in sight of the village just as the sun was setting. The shadows of the barren hills which rise above it to the westward, were falling quietly over the far-stretching plain. The smoke of the fires just lighted to cook the evening meal of the home-coming herdsmen, was curling calmly in the serene evening air. The bleating of flocks returning to the fold, the lowing of the kine to meet

their young, and other pleasant rural sounds, recalling to my recollection all the pastoral associations of a Scottish glen, gave a very agreeable effect to my first view of this missionary village. When I entered the place, however, all associations connected with the rural scenery of Europe were at once dispelled. The groups of woolly-haired, swarthy-complexioned natives, many of them still dressed in the old sheep-skin mantle or caross; the swarms of naked or half-naked children; the wigwam hovels of mud or reeds; the queer-shaped, low, thatched church, erected by old Vanderkemp; the long-legged, largehorned cattle; the big-tailed African sheep, with hair instead of wool; the strange words of the evening salutation (goede avond-good evening') courteously given, as I passed, by old and young; the uncouth clucking sounds of the Hottentot language, spoken by some of them to each other; these and a hundred other traits of wild and foreign character, made me feel that I was indeed far from the glens of Cheviot, or the pastoral groups of a Scottish hamlet-that I was at length in the heart of savage Africa.

The missionary, who had been informed of a stranger's approach, now came forth from his decent brick-built dwelling, and welcomed me in. I had a letter of introduction to him, which, though it was not requisite to ensure me hospitable accommodation, did not fail, of course, to increase cordiality and confidence.

While tea was preparing, and before the twilight had yet closed in, my host was called out to speak to another stranger. This was a Caffer woman, accompanied by a little girl of eight or ten years of age, and having an infant strapped on her back, under her mantle of tanned bullock's hide. She had come from the drostdy, or district town of Uitenhage, under the custody of a black constable, who stated that she was one of a number of Caffer females who had been made prisoners by order of the commandant on the frontier, for crossing the line of prescribed demarkation without permission; and that they were now to be given out in servitude among the white inhabitants of this district. The woman before us, he added, was to be forwarded by the missionary, under the charge of one of his people, to the residence of a certain colonist, about forty miles to the westward. Such were the orders of the landdrost.

While the constable was delivering his message, the Caffer woman looked at him and at us with keen and intelligent glances, and though she understood not his language, she evidently appeared to guess its import. When he had finished, she stepped forward, drew up her figure to its full height, extended her right arm, and commenced a speech in her native tongue-the Amakosa dialect. Though I did not understand a single word she uttered, I have seldom been more struck with surprise and admiration at any exhibition of oratorical powers. The language, to which she appeared to give full and forcible intonation, was highly musical and sonorous; her gestures were graceful, natural, and impressive, and her dark eyes and handsome bronze countenance were full of eloquent expression. Sometimes she pointed back towards her own country, sometimes to her children. Sometimes she raised her tones aloud, and shook her clenched hand indignantly, as if she denounced our injustice, and threatened us with the vengeance of her warlike tribe. Then again she would melt into softness and tears, as if imploring clemency, and mourning for her helpless little ones. Some of the villagers who had gathered round being whole or half Caffers, understood her speech, and interpreted it in Dutch to the missionary; but he could do nothing to alter her destination, and could only return kind words and fair promises to console her. For my own part I was not a little struck by the scene, and could not help beginning to suspect that my European countrymen who thus made captives of harmless women and children, were in truth and reality greater barbarians than the wild woollyhaired natives of Caffraria.

THE AUTOCRAT'S PRAYER, *

EUROPE! hear the voice that rose
From the chief of Freedom's foes-
When he bade war's thunders roll
O'er the country of the Pole-
To his Cossacks on parade

Thus the Calmuck robber said—

"Mine the might, and mine the right,
Stir ye, spur ye to the fight-
Bare the blade and strike the blow
To the heart's core of the foe-

Slaughter all the rebel bands

Found with weapons in their hands—
On!—the holy work of fate
Russia's God will consecrate!

""Tis decreed that they shall bleed
For their dark and trait'rous deed-
Poles! to us by conquest given!
Ye provoke the wrath of Heaven-
Therefore purging sword and shot
Use we must, and spare you not—
Guardian of our Northern faith,
Guide us to the field of death!

"Ere we've done, many a one

Shall weep they ever saw the sun-
Rouse the noble in his hall

To a fiery festival—

Dash the stubborn peasant's mirth—
Drown in blood his alien hearth—
Babe, or mother, never falter-
Spear the priest before the altar-
Onward and avenge our wrong!-
God is good and Russia strong."

* Vide the blasphemous Manifesto of Nicholas I. in January last.

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PROGRESS OF THE INDIAN CHOLERA.

"The city lies sleeping;

The morn to deplore it,
May dawn on it weeping;
Sullenly, slowly,

The black plague flew o'er it-
Thousands lie lowly;

Tens of thousands shall perish-
The living shall fly from
The sick they should cherish."

BYRON.

POETS are not the only persons who have personified the Plague. In early youth, before the professional mantle had descended upon us, we beheld in the union of the portentous letters P.L.A.G.U.E. the verbal representative of some shapeless monster endued with homoniverous propensities. To strip the Typhon of the unearthly exterior, to reduce it to tame reality, was the necessary result of later experience. Touching this subject, we shall make a few remarks for the benefit of general readers; also, to clear their vision for the more facile impression of facts, the mysteries of a medical nomenclature shall be, as far as possible, omitted.

*

The family of diseases commonly called plagues or pestilences, are neither more nor less than a variety of fevers, with or without eruptions on the skin, which have from time to time, by spreading epidemically, thinned the ranks of mankind. These fevers appear under different types, or degrees of immediate severity. The inflammatory type is indicated by a strong pulse and highly excited system; the typhoid, by a weak pulse and great debility. There is an intermediate type, partaking of both these extremes. They have received different names often educed from some peculiarity in the symptoms of each particular disease; but occasionally suggested by the caprice or the peculiar views of the author who may have descanted upon them.

Europe, though less favourable than other quarters of the globe to the generating of the elements of contagion in the first instance, or to the induction of an epidemic state of the atmosphere, has been frequently visited by pestilential diseases.

In 1348, during the reign of Edward III., a plague called the “Black Death" raged in England. It had originated in China, and travelling westward, it committed great havock throughout Asia, and the whole of Europe. In addition to violent fever, the disease was at first remarkable for a strong disposition to destroy the lungs. After a time, it assumed the common aspect of the Egyptian plague, which, to a low debilitating fever, adds swellings in the groins and armpits, leading, when

*

Any disease affecting numbers of people in or about the same time and place, if not dependent upon local and limited circumstances, is called an epidemic, or is said to act epidemically.

favourably disposed, to suppuration. In London 50,000 persons died of this disease. In Florence* the mortality amounted to 60,000.

In 1486, our island was traversed by another species of pestilence, the Sweating Sickness. Believing it to be of English growth, and not of foreign introduction, authors gave it the name of Sudor Anglicus. With occasional intermissions, the malady remained with us forty years. In 1525, it extended to the continent, and passed, in five years, over nearly all Europe. The more prominent features were a low or typhus fever, and profuse perspirations which continued to the end of the disease. It was unaccompanied by swellings, or spots on the skin.

In

In 1665, began the "Plague of London," the last instance in which England was subject to epidemic pestilence in the Egyptian form. the autumn of that year its violence was greatest, 8000 persons having died in one week within the bills of mortality.

The origin of some plagues is so ancient, or their history is so obscure, that we are totally in the dark with respect to their earlier career. Of this class is the small-pox, supposed to have sprung up in Eastern Asia, and which has since ravaged almost every region on earth. Many pestilences, moreover, that formerly triumphed in desolation, have ceased to terrify mankind, leaving nothing, save meagre description, to supply their places; others again are comparatively modern productions, as the Syphilitic Virus and Yellow Fever, shewing that even diseases themselves are subject to a progressive cycle of maturation and decay.

Indian or Spasmodic Cholera, which gives a name to, and forms the immediate object of this paper, is also a plague of modern origin. This disease is in its principal symptoms altogether unlike the English Cholera, yet many persons, not acquainted with the nature of both species, have confounded them. In Hindostan, Spasmodic Cholera has probably always existed as a comparatively mild climatic disease, affecting at certain seasons of the year a small number of individuals in various parts of the country. This opinion is countenanced by Hindoo authority. But there is no evidence to shew that it ever bore the epidemic character until the year 1817, unless we admit the statements of Mr. Scott, who considered the cases that occurred towards the close of the last century sufficiently numerous, and the sweep of country travelled by the malady sufficiently large, to warrant the conclusion. However this question may be disposed of, it is at least certain that the Indian Cholera was not entitled to be classed with pestilential scourges of the worst description, previous to the beginning of August, 1817, when it suddenly broke out with unprecedented malignity.

Commencing among the inhabitants of Jessore, a town 100 miles N. E. of Calcutta, in less than a month it travelled along the course of the river to that city, having desolated the intervening villages. Before the expiration of August, the native population of Calcutta were attacked,

• Antoninus.

† Ancient medical work ascribed to Dhanwantari. On the Epidemic Cholera. Madras, 1821.

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