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little else. The Americans had incorporated the Indians into their ranks, and had made them useful in a species of war to which their habits of life had peculiarly fitted them. They sallied out of their impenetrable forests and jungles, and, with their arrows and tomahawks, committed daily waste upon the British army, surprising their centinels, cutting off their stragglers, and even, when the alarm was given, and pursuit commenced, they fled with a swiftness that the speed of cavalry could not overtake, into rocks and fastnesses whither it was dangerous to follow them.

In order to limit as far as possible this species of war in which there was so much loss and so little honour, it was the custom with every regiment to extend its outposts to a great distance beyond the encampments; to station centinels some miles in the woods, and keep a constant guard round the main body.

A regiment of foot was, at this time, stationed upon the confines of a boundless Savannah. Its particular office was to guard every avenue of approach to the main body; the centinels, whose posts penetrated into the woods, were supplied from the ranks, and the service of this regiment was thus more hazardous than that of any other. Its loss was likewise great. The centinels were perpetually surprised upon their posts by the Indians, and, what was most astonishing, they were borne off their stations without communicating any alarm, or being heard of after.

|| searched round the post, but no traces could be found of his disappearance. It was necessary that the station, from a stronger motive than ever, should not remain unoccupied; they were compelled to leave another man, and returned, ruminating upon this strange circumstance, to the guard-house. The superstition of the soldiers was awakened, and the terror ran through the regiment. The Colonel being apprised of the occurrence, signified his intention to accompany the guard when they relieved the centinel they had left. At the appointed time, they all marched together; and again, to their unutterable wonder, they found the post vacant, and the man gone!

Under these circumstances, the Colonel hesitated whether he should station a whole company here, or whether he should again submit the post to a single centinel. The cause of these repeated disappearances of men whose courage and honesty were never suspected must be discovered; and it seemed not likely that this discovery could be obtained by persisting in the old method. Three brave men were now lost to the regiment, and to assign the post to a fourth, seemed nothing less than giving him up to destruction. The poor fellow whose turn it was to take the station, though a man in other respects of incomparable resolution, trembled from head to foot. "I must do my duty," said he to the officer, "I know that; but I should like to lose my life with more credit."

"I will leave no man," said the Colonel," against

his will."

A man immediately stept from the ranks, and desired to take the post. Every mouth com

Not a trace was left of the manner in which they had been conveyed away, except that, upon one or two occasions, a few drops of blood had appeared upon the leaves which covered the ground. Many imputed this unaccountable dis.mended his resolution. "I will not be taken appearance to treachery, and suggested as an unanswerable argument, that the men thus surprised might at least have fired their muskets, and communicated the alarm to the contiguous posts. Others, however, who could not be brought to consider it as treachery, were content to receive it as a mystery which time would explain.

One morning, the centinels having been stationed as usual over night, the guard went at sunrise to relieve a post which extended a considerable distance into the wood. The centinel was gone! The surprise was great; but the circumstance had occurred before. They left another man, and departed, wishing him better luck. "You need not be afraid," said the man with warmth, "I shall not desert."

alive," said he, "and you shall hear of me on the least alarm. At all events I will fire my piece if I hear the least noise. If a crow chatters, or a leaf falls, you shall hear my musket. You may be alarmed when nothing is the matter; but you must take the chance of that, as the condition of my making the discovery"

The Colonel applauded his courage, and told him he would be right to fire upon the least noise which was ambiguous. His comrades shook hands with him, and left him with a melancholy foreboding. The company marched back, and waited the event in the guard-house with the most anxious curiosity.

An hour had elapsed, and every ear was upon the rack for the discharge of the musket, when, upon a sudden, the report was heard. The

The relief-company returned to the guard- guard immediately marched, accompanied, as house.

The centinels were replaced every four hours, and, at the appointed time, the guard again

before, by the Colonel, and some of the most experienced officers of the regiment. As they approached the pos., they saw the man advan

marched to relieve the post. To their inexpres-cing towards them, dragging another man on the sible astonishment the man was gone! They ground by the hair of his head. When they No. XXIII. Vol. III.

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came up to him, it appeared to be an Indian I took my aim; discharged my piece; and the whom he had shot. An explanation was imme- || animal was instantly stretched before me with a diately required. "I told your honour," said the groan which I conceived to be that of a human man, "that I should fire if I heard the least noise. creature. I went up to it, and judge my astonishThe resolution I had taken has saved my life, and ment, when I found that I had killed an Indian! led to the discovery. I had not been long on my He had enveloped himself with the skin of one post, when I heard a rustling at some short dis- of these wild hogs so artfully and completely; tance; I looked, and saw an American hog, such his hands and feet were so entirely concealed in as are common in the woods, crawling along the it, and his gait and appearance were so exactly ground, and seemingly looking for nuts under correspondent to that of the animal's, that, imthe trees and amongst the leaves. As these perfectly as they were always seen through the animals are so very common, I ceased to consider trees and jungles, the disguise could not be peneit for some minutes; but being on the constant trated at a distance, and scarcely discovered upon alarm and expectation of attack, and scarcely the nearest aspect. He was armed with a dagger knowing what was to be considered a real cause and a tomahawk.” of apprehension, or what was not, I kept my eyes vigilantly fixed upon it, and marked its progress among the trees; still there was no need to give the alarm, and my thoughts were, notwithstanding, directed to danger from another quarter. It struck me, however, as somewhat singular, to see this animal making, by a circuitous passage, for a thick coppice immediately behind my post. I therefore kept my eye more constantly fixed upon it, and as it was now within a few yards of the coppice, hesitated whether I should not fire. My comrades, thought I, will laugh at me for alarming them by shooting a pig! I had almost resolved to let it alone, when, just as it approached the thicket, I thought I observed it give an unusual spring. I no longer hesitated:

Such was the substance of this man's relation. The cause of the disappearance of the other centinels was now apparent. The Indians, sheltered in this disguise, secreted themselves in the coppice; watched the moment when they could throw it off; burst upon the centinels without previous alarm, and, too quick to give them an opportunity to discharge their pieces, either stabbed or scalped them, and bore their bodies away, which they concealed at some distance in the leaves. The Americans gave them rewards for every scalp of an enemy which they brought. Whatever circumstances of wonder may appear in the present relation, there are many now alive who can attest its authenticity.

THE TWO APOTHECARIES

ABOUT the year 1712, there lived in a country town near Canterbury, a private gentleman named Turner. He had an only son, who, having attained the age of fifteen, was very desirous of qualifying himself to follow the professions of apothecary and surgeon. Accordingly his father had him bound apprentice for seven years to an eminent surgeon of the same place, whose name was Steevens. The young man was so attentive to his business that before he was out of his time, he was universally allowed to be as great a proficient in medical and surgical matters as his master.

His apprenticeship being concluded, the friends and acquaintance of young Mr. Turner came to maké merry and spend the evening with him, as was at that time customary, and among the rest his father; who entering into conversation with Mr. Steevens relative to his son's capacity and inclination for his profession, at last thus addressed him :

"Sir, I should grieve to find any thing left undone that might prevent or lessen his perfect qualification in his art." The apothecary replied, "Sir, I believe him to be as capable in it as myself, barring that he cannot have had so much experience. I have neglected no part of his instruction, and have communicated all I know, except one single point, which is a secret I discovered myself, and having experienced its truth and its value, I am not willing to impart it to any one without an adequate compensation."

Mr. Turner was unwilling his son should be deficient in any point which might be wanting to complete him for his profession, and therefore demanded the price of his secret. "Sir," answered Mr. Steevens, "if your son makes a proper use of it, it may bring in thousands look upon it as infallible, and to a man of prudence, and in great practice, it may be invaluable; but as your son has served his time with me, and has behaved well and attended diligently to

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his business, I will make him master of this useful and excellent nostrum for thirty guineas.' After a little consideration, and debating the matter with his son, Mr. Steevens agreed to take twenty guineas, which were paid immediately, and he gave in return a slip of paper on which seven words were written, being the recipe of his great and precious nostrum.

The old gentleman, after reading the recipe,|| burst out into a violent passion, saying he had been defrauded, and had parted with his money without an equivalent compensation, and that he would appeal to the laws for redress. The surgeon being in possession of the money remained quiet, and permitted him to vent his rage at leisure; when this had somewhat subsided he said calmly to Mr. Turner, "Why, Sir, although you now make so slight of this secret because you know it, yet, insignificant as it may seem to you, it has put many hundred pounds into my pocket, and if your son will always bear it in mind, and make a proper use of it, he may turn it to as good an account as I have done."

Still this did not satisfy old Mr. Turner; at length his son interposed, and said to his father, "Do not, Sir, make yourself uneasy about the purchase of this seeming trifle; my master has treated me kindly and honourably during the whole time of my apprenticeship, and I have no reason to suppose he wishes to impose on either of us. You, Sir, do not understand our business; there are secrets in all trades, and I have no doubt but I shall, as Mr. Steevens says, profit greatly by this valuable arcanum, so that I beg you will be contented, and leave the rest to me; I shall take care the money shall not be thrown away."

By this interposition of the son, his father became at last easy, and when the company broke up took him home.

the character of a mountebank Doctor, which profession was at that time in great esteem both in Germany and in Italy.

This he accordingly began to do with great success and applause, and having completed his tour in about a year, he at last contrived to arrive at the little town where he had served his time. His long absence had made such an alteration in his person and features that he was under no apprehension of being known, so that assuming the name of the Baron de Retourgnac, and announcing himself as a famous foreign physician, on his travels throughout Europe, he advertised that he purposed remaining some time in Canterbury, and in its vicinity. Accordingly he began by making a figure with his carriage and servants, and in a short time acquired great reputation as well as emolument from a number of cures which he performed.

It so happened that one day whilst he was mounted on his stage in this town, attended by his servants, who dealt out his medicines to the numerous purchasers, his old master, Steevens, approached as near as he could, in order to hear this learned Doctor harangue.

As soon as the Doctor saw him he knew him, and a pleasant fancy that moment striking him, he began to address the attentive spectators as follows:-"Ladies and gentlemen, it is notorious that the medical practitioners and professors in this country almost entirely neglect the study of those sciences which do not immediately relate to physic; so that they remain unacquainted with many curious facts and observations which tend to elucidate numberless cases in their professional line. These observations are generally known to the most celebrated physicians on the Continent, and are of the utmost consequence to thousands of people, who are afflicted with grievous disorders and maladies. When I was at Rome I learnt of a very eminent Italian professor, a certain arcanum, nostrum, or secret, which for real use and value can scarcely be paralleled in the known world, and which I have often experienced without ever having been deceived; it is an art of such a nature that millions of gold are not to be compared to, its intrinsic value, and which I am bold to say no one besides myself this day in England has the least knowledge or

A few days after he wanted his son to set up in business for himself immediately, in opposition to his old master, whom he still considered as having cheated him. The young gentleman however had a mind to travel, and endeavoured to convince his father how necessary it was to go to Paris for further experience in the practice of surgery, and that in that city surgeons had the opportunities of perfecting themselves in their profession. At length the old gentleman, how-conception of. ever reluctantly, gave his consent, and his son set out for Paris.

After his arrival there he attended the hospitals during a year, and then continued his travels through Italy and Germany. After having thus employed seven or eight years, and being greatly improved in his person, learning, and professional skill in both physic and surgery, he returned to England, with a resolution to travel all over it in

"You may observe, ladies and gentlemen, that it is a maxim among the learned, that unless the texture or combination of parts of the blood be already formed into a particular state, which is vulgarly called a vitious habit of body, it is incapable of contracting or receiving certain malignancies which affect and distemper it, and which malignancies will prevail in a greater or less degree, and become more or less virulent

according to its vitiated state, all which I grant to be true. But I have now further to observe, that as the face is a palpable index to the mind, wherein we may read tokens of the inward passions, so there are likewise certain signs to be observed in the face only, wherein we may perceive many prognostics and symptoms of various approaching diseases, which are then breeding and engendering in the blood; and which by thus being discovered, if they are skilfully attacked in time, that is, before they get to the height and gain the mastery, may by proper methods be easily removed; and if they are not so found out and treated, they may, and often do, occasion the certain death of the patient. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the art and mystery which I studied; and if I can discover among the vast concourse of people who now surround me, any such person whose present necessity requires my assistance, and by whom. I may prove the truth of what I have been advancing, I will instantly point him out publicly before you all."

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am sorry to see you so grave; I hope you do not feel the disease coming upon you already; I should think you are the best judge whether the Doctor could perceive any symptoms of illness in you; but if I might advise you, you should for prevention and security take something which you may think serviceable directly." Aye," replied the husband, "but he also told me that nobody but himself could tell what to give me that would do me any good, and therefore if I find myself attacked according to his prediction, it will be in vain for me to attempt any remedy from my own presumption, or from any person but from him.”

From this moment he began to be very uneasy in mind, and consequently his disorder commenced; and as about seven or eight o'clock was the time the Doctor had fixed for his lowness of spirits to begin, he was very impatient te see what alteration would appear at that time; when it came he could not avoid fancying him. self worse and worse every moment; and very So, having spent some time in surveying the soon after he was so extremely ill that he could throng, and affecting a very grave and penetrat not sit up any longer, so that to bed he went; ing look, he at last pitched upon his old master, and his distemper increasing the next day, as and pointing to him,-" There," said he," is a Doctor de Retourgnac had foretold, his appetite gentleman who, I am certain, without my assist- was totally lost, and the noise of his illness spread ance, in ten days' time will be no longer living; over the whole town, to the great credit and and no other person in this kingdom except my honour of the mountebank Baron. And although self can possibly administer any thing that will Mr. Steevens was very unwilling to send for him, cure him And so well do I know the nature fearing it might tend to lessen his own reputation and cause of the distemper which is now invading in future, yet he was persuaded that all the mehis animal fluids, that I would have you, gentle-dicines in the world, without his assistance, would men, particularly notice, that I assure you, at be unavailing. seven or eight o'clock this evening he will be first seized with a lowness of spirits, restless all night, to-morrow he loses his appetite, then a fever will succeed, after which it will fall upon his nerves, and in a short time it will carry him off.

"Thus, Sir, be pleased to remember," continued he, addressing himself to the apothecary, "that I have told you the different stages and changes of this your new disorder; and seek the best advice and assistance you may, you will find all I have advanced exactly true.'

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Here the people were all amazed at this strange prognostication of the foreign mountebank about their own town Doctor, and were impatient for its issue. The learned orator having finished all he intended to say on that subject, immediately proceeded in his harangue on other matters.

The poor apothecary could think of nothing but what the stranger had prophesied concerning his approaching illness. He went home directly and related to his wife all he had heard. And some little time after, the good woman perceiving her husband pausing, melancholy, and apparently concerned at it, could not help sympathizing a little with him, saying,-"My dear, I

So that on the next day, a fever ensuing (which was inevitable with a man of such notions), by the advice of his wife and some friends, he at last sent for Doctor de Retourgnac; who, being come, took no notice of ever having seen his patient before, felt his pulse, asked such questions as he thought proper, told that his disease was of a very dangerous nature, that he had not found any physician in England who knew how to manage it properly, but that still he had hopes of being able to recover him in a few days as he had been called in time; that if he cured him he would have forty guineas for his medicines and attendance; and that if he did not succeed he was willing to forfeit a thousand.

To these terms the apothecary gladly consented, and the Doctor went home to prepare something to relieve him; we may suppose any simple thing would do, for the cure was to be effected not by the medicine but by the physician.

From this moment he began to mend apace, so that, in short, the cure was perfected in four or five days, and the Doctor not only received his stipulated reward, but was extolled in an extraordinary manner.

contained nothing but the identical nostrum in his own hand-writing, which he had formerly sold to Mr. Turner, being only-CONCEIT CAN KILL, AND CONCEIT CAN CURE.

After Mr. Steevens was quite well again, he was very anxious to know by what rule or method an approaching distemper could be found out, and how the cure was to be worked. He thought if he could by any means obtain this secret he should be happy, and then be able to vie with any of his professional competitors in England. So after he had made a proposal to the Doctor for the purchase of this secret, and had taken a great deal of pains about it, he at last agreed with him to be taught this occult science for a hundred guineas. And when, to his great joy, the bargain was struck and the money paid, the mountebank Baron gave him a paper neatly folded and sealed,cipal, but four times as much in addition, besides which, as he said, contained the whole art and mystery.

The apothecary, with great impatience, broke the seal, and to his great surprise found the paper

He remained some time as if stunned, till the Doctor burst into a fit of laughing, and discovering himself, asked him whether he did not approve of the secret? The apothecary was obliged to be satisfied, finding that by his own documents he had been diseased and restored. And Monsieur le Baron de Retourgnac, now Dr. Turner, by following his master's advice when his father purchased the secret, not only recovered the prin

his fee, and had the pleasure of returning the compliment to his old master, by properly trying this most excellent nostrum, and experimentally proving it to be infallible.

MY NIGHT-CAP."

I HAVE Contracted a habit of putting down. in writing every night, the impressions which remain on my mind, occasioned by the various occurrences of the day. My pen is at hand, and all that I have felt, thought, heard, in short, the result of my studies and my conversations, all is laid down on my paper.

As I am very fond of this kind of writing, I take pleasure in continuing it. An author must reimburse himself before hand if he would not be reduced to the character of a deceived creditor ; for we sometimes receive nothing from that capricious public who judge us so arbitrarily, and who, whether they praise or condemn us, are never on a footing with us; it is well to be satis

even the title given to a book.

How sweet it is to meditate alone, with our eyes bent on the end of our pen, and a night-fied with the form, the manner, the style, and cap on our head! It is then that we are com pletely master of our ideas and our expressions, and can catch the fleeting thought without flecting on the critic's lash.

Following these rules, we cannot exclaim re-against the ingratitude and injustice of the century who does not comprehend us; we are not envied, we disdain the abuse of hired reviewers, and write what we please without fear or reserve. After this the public may pronounce whatever sentence it pleases; each have been free, and each may consider themselves recompensed; I maintain that the author is to compose according to his mind; he would be a grea dupe if he gave up his right of serving the world according to his own taste, and not as they would imperiously exact.

What can be more useful than to recall to our remembrance all that we have experienced, to pass sentence on the various events, and, what more closely concerns the self-love of an author, the opinions which are in circulation? Learned critics, only permit me the use of my pen for one hour before I resign myself to the soothing arms of sleep.

Sometimes the most amusing incidents arise in my mind; then, like Democritus, I laugh at the follies of human nature, judge for myself, and distribute praise and blame where I think it is due, saying, those that have spoken aloud in figurative language had better have held their tongue, and those that have not been listened to, have spoken the truth.

In short, during the silence of the night my pen has prepared me on my awaking a new enjoyment of the past day; and that day lost to so many people is not quite anihilated for me.

How sweet it is, the head reposing on the pillow, to be able to say, I have done my duty, and if I give the public much more than they bestow on me, they are my debtors, and I am not theirs. I have supplied them with agreeable sensations, and what can be added to those I have experienced while writing them!

E. R.

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