TESTAMENTS.

A countryman going into the probate office where the wills are kept in huge volumes on the shelves, asked if they were all bibles? "No, Sir," replied one of the clerks, "they are testa

ments.

QUIETING CONSCIENCE.

In a town, not many miles off, the sober part of it, in imitation of their neighbors of other towns, resolved to call a meeting for the purpose of considering the expediency of adopting the best measures for the suppression of Intemperance. Accordingly notice to this effect was given, and a meeting was convened, The meeting being organized, and the objects of it stated, by a venerable and very good sort of man, various resolutions were adopted. Among them was one which seemed to embrace the whole subject, as it would, it was supposed, put an entire veto upon the crying sin of intemperance. It is well known to the "wool growing" part of the community, that their sheep must be effectually washed, in order to cleanse the wool for the manufacturer, once a year. Now this is a laborious business; not only so, but a very wet and cold business, as the sheep should be washed early in the season, before the wool begins to fall. In consequence, the good people of the town resolved, under heavy penalties, that they would, in no case whatever, drink any ardent spirits, save at the laborious, cold and wet business of washing sheep. Not many days after it was observed that one of those who composed the aforesaid meeting was a "little the worse for liquor." He was charged with the fact; but he protested he had lived up to the very spirit and letter of the resolution. He was asked how that could be.--Why, said he, I have a sheep in that pen which I regularly wash seven times a day!

STUTTERING LETTER.

A certain old woman took from the post office in the town of G——, a letter. Not knowing how to read, and being anxious to know the contents, supposing it to be from one of her absent sons, she called on a person near, to read the letter to her. He accordingly began and read:

"Charleston, June 23d, 1821. "Dear mother, "---then making a stop to find out what followed (as the writing was rather bad), the old lady exclaimed, "O 't is from poor Jerry; he always stuttered."

CROSSING THE CORDILLERAS.

The passage of the Cordilleras, in the winter, is not so dangerous as that of the Alps, as avalanches are unknown, nor are there any glaciers formed in the Andes; but the traveller often suffers from the sudden gusts of wind, which are both common and violent. In crossing the Cordilleras, the traveller has his legs and thighs rolled round with sheep skins, and his feet

swathed with bandages, so as to exclude the snow; armed with a long pole to sound his way, and accompanied by guides, carrying charcoal and provisions, he enters on this perilous and fatiguing journey, and must, at all hazards, gain every night a casucha; all who wish to pass, at that season, either wait for a courier, or join some other passenger who is well accompanied. After toiling all day on foot, sometimes slipping on the hard frozen snow, and obliged to hew stones to ascend by, and at other times plunging up to the middle in loose drift, they are obliged to pack themselves up in a casucha, seated, for there is seldom room enough to lie down: in this manner they pass the night, warming themselves by charcoal fires.

The American Judge Prevost, who, some few years ago, made a journey across the continent of South America, from Buenos Ayres to Santiago de Chili, gives the following account of his passage across the Cordilleras. "The dangers and difficulties attendant on this undertaking," he says, were represented insurmountable, and I armed myself at all points, to encounter them." He procured a Spanish coach, with four horses, and a postillion to each. He was also accompanied by two servants and two dragoons. "Arrived at Mendoza," he says, "I hired a muleteer, who engaged to transport me and my baggage to Santiago, and to furnish the neces sary number of mules, for eight dollars each mule. Two mules were loaded with provisions for eight days, the time usually consumed in passing these mountains; and the whole train consisted of ten mules. My servants left town early in the morning, and I followed in the afternoon, to avoid the heat of the day. Some of the principal inhabitants of Mendoza accompanied me a few miles from the town, a mark of respect generally shown to a stranger. On leaving them, I proceeded with my guide through a barren tract of country, the soil generally covered with low shrubs. Night soon overtook us, but still the heat continued to be excessive; I felt the air which had passed over the parched plains south of us, like the blast of a furnace. After travelling eight leagues, we turned off the road to a small spring of water, the only one to be found west of Mendoza, for twelve leagues. We found the whole cavalcade encamped round a large fire, which proved a useful precaution; the air, towards morning, became very cold and piercing, and was more sensibly felt, after the heat of the day. After suffering very much from the heat, we encamped under the shelter of the rocks, and lighted our fire with the roots of the prickly shrub, which spread along and near the surface of the earth: the shrub is the only sign of vegetation at this height. Our mules descended into the valley, and browsed on the moss and scanty herbage on the banks of the river. In the morning we entered the passes called Las Galeras, a narrow path along the edge of a precipice of five hundred feet, at the bottom of which rolls a torrent. The loaded mules scrape one side against the rocks, and the soil on which they tread is a loose gravel, which constantly

rolls beneath their feet; a man would find it next to impossible to keep his footing. Accidents are very rare, but are faithfully recorded by the muleteers, who entertain the traveller, while he is on his dangerous path, with long accounts of unlucky mules missing their footing,|| and being precipitated into the torrent; how the rest of the drove started and stopped, and how they dreaded that some of them would have attempted to turn, which would have been the certain perdition of them all. Before entering these passages, it is necessary to ascertain whether they be entirely free from obstructions, as the consequence of meeting a troop of mules would prove the sacrifice of one party. To turn is impossible, and to pass a mule is equally so. The muleteers warn each other by shouting, or send forward one of their party to station himself at the opposite entrance.

and as elegant a mall. Well, replied the Englishman, have you as good roads in America as are to be found in England? The Yankee immediately answered, that the road leading from Saratoga, on one occasion, was considered peculiarly good and useful to the army of George the Third.

ANCIENT NEW ENGLAND CUSTOMS.

It appears by the following extract from the records of Springfield, that the mode of calling people to church, adopted by the ancient settlers of that town, was similar to that which prevailed in Cambridge. We believe that the earliest records of Salem refer to the use of a bell for this purpose.

January 8, 1646. "It is agreed by the plantation with John Matthews to beat the drum for the

Another traveller describes the dangers of this journey more circumstantially, particularly in the descent on the western side; he says, "Picture to yourself a path about a foot wide, broken and disjointed by the force of descending currents, whose rapidity is such as to baffle all description, for it is impossible for the eye to look at them for a moment without being giddy. On the right hand a wall of rugged rocks, with ever and anon projecting pieces, which, if the traveller should chance to strike against, both man and beast must embrace instant death, by being hurried headlong over a precipice of horrid rocks, into a deep and rapid river, rolling at the bottom, and rushing on with such indescribable impetuosity, as to startle and confound the most resolute and determined mind."

THE ADVANTAGE.

Two gentlemen, Mr. D. and Mr. L. stood candidates for a seat in the legislature of New York---They were violently opposed to each other. By some artifice Mr. D. gained the election. When he was returning home much elated with success, he met a gentleman, an acquaintance of his "Well," says D. "I have got the election-L. was no match for me-I'll tell you how I flung him-if there happened any Dutch voters, I could talk Dutch with them, and there I had the advantage of him. If there were any Frenchmen, I could talk French with them, and there I had the advantage of him. But as to L. he was a clever, honest, sensible little fellow." ---"Yes, sir," replies the gentleman, "and there he had the advantage of you."

A GOOD ROAD.

A Bostonian meeting a British officer at a coffee-house in London, was told that nothing equalled St. James' Park. The Yankee replied, that in Boston there was as fine a common,

on the lecture days, and at 9 o'clock on the Lord's days, in the afternoons only, and he is to beat it from Mr. Moxon's to R. Stebbins' house, and ye meetings to begin within half an houre after, for which his payns, he is to have 4d. in wampum of every family in the town, or a peck of Indian corn, if they have no wampum."

WILLIAM PENN, AND THE INDIANS.

The treaty which William Penn made with the Indians in America, is the only treaty between those people and the Christians that was not ratified by an oath, and was never infringed. Mr. Penn endeavored to settle his new colony upon the most equitable principles, and took great pains to conciliate the good will of the natives. He appointed commissioners to treat with them, and purchased from them the land of the province, acknowledging them to be the original proprie tors. As the land was of little value to the na. tives, he obtained his purchase at a moderate rate; but by his equitable conduct, he gave them so high an opinion of him, and by his kind and humane behavior so ingratiated himself in their favor, that the American Indians have ever since expressed a great veneration for his memory, and styled the governor of Pennsylvania, onas, which in their language signifies a pen. At the renewal of the treaties with Sir William Keith, the governor, in 1722, the Indians, as the highest compliment they could pay him, said, "We esteem, and love you, as if you were William Penn himself."

The integrity of the Indians has been no less remarkable; while they have often attempted reprisals on land that had been wrested from them, they have always respected such as has been purchased from their ancestors.

MARQUESS DE BOUILLE.

A poor man having freighted a small vessel with some goods at St. Lucie, and intending to dispose of them at St. Kitt's, hired a few sailors to navigate her. During the voyage, they formed a plot to carry the vessel to Martinique,

where they expected to have the vessel and cargo given them. The Marquess de Bouille was at that time governor of Martinique, and refused to permit such a robbery to be committed, even on an enemy. He ordered the sailors to be detained as prisoners of war; and sent the vessel and owner, with a flag of truce, to Lord Hood, who was then cruizing off the island, and with permission to go unmolested to the original place of destination.

INDIAN TRADITIONS.

The Dog-rib Indians, who, derived from the same stock with the Chippewayans, say that, according to the tradition of their fathers, the first man was named Chapewee. He found the world well stocked with food, and he created children, to whom he gave two kinds of fruit, the black and the white, but forbade them to eat the black. Having thus issued his commands for the guidance of his family, he took leave of them for a time, and made a long excursion for the purpose of conducting the sun to the world. During this first absence, his children were obedient, and ate only the white fruit, but they consumed it all: the consequence was, that when he a second time absented himself to bring the moon, and longed for fruit, they forgot the orders of their father, and ate of the black, which was the only kind remaining. He was much displeased on his return, and told them that in future the earth would produce bad fruits, and that they would be tormented by sickness and death; penalties which have attached to his descendants to the present day. Chapewee himself lived so long that his throat was worn out, and he could no longer enjoy life: but he was unable to die, until, at his own request, one of his people drove a beaver tooth into his head.

A

AMERICAN RUSTIC HOSPITALITY. Returning from one of these excursions, I was overtaken by the night, and found my path obstructed by a deep inlet from the river, which, being choked with logs and brush, could not be crossed by swimming. Observing a house on the opposite side, I called for assistance. half naked, ill-looking fellow came down, and after dragging a canoe round from the river, with some trouble, ferried me over, and I followed him to his habitation, near to which our boat was moored for the night. His cabin was of the meanest kind, consisting of a single apartment, constructed of logs, which contained a family of seven or eight souls, and everything seemed to designate him as a new and unthrifty settler. After drinking a bowl of milk, which I really called for by way of excuse for paying him a little more for his trouble, I asked to know his charge for ferrying me over the water, to which he good-humoredly replied, that he "never took money for helping a traveller on his way." "Then let me pay you for your milk." never sell milk." "But," said I, urging him, "I would rather pay you, I have money enough."

"Well," said he, "I have milk enough, so we 're even; I have as good a right to give you milk as you have to give me money."

A GOOD ANSWER.

A clergyman in the cupola of the State House in Boston, observing Captain W- at work upon the outside of the dome, said to him, "Sir, you are now in a dangerous situation-I trust you have made your peace with your Heavenly Father?" "I never was at war with Him," responded the gallant captain.

GUSTAVUS 111.

When Gustavus the Third, King of Sweden, was in France, he was frequently solicited to visit Dr. Franklin, which he always declined. One of the French guards, who could use a little freedom with his majesty, begged to know why he denied himself an honor which every crowned head in Europe would be proud to embrace? "No man," said the monarch, "regards the doctor's scientific accomplishments more than I do; but the king, who affects to like an enthusiast for liberty, is a hypocrite. As a philosopher, I love and admire the doctor; but as a politician, I hate him; and nothing shall ever induce me to appear on terms of friendship and personal esteem, with a man whom my habits and situation oblige me to detest."

BULL FIGHTING IN SOUTH AMERICA. Lord Cochrane was blockading the port of Callao, and the inhabitants both of that town and of Lima were in great agitation: the latter in a state bordering upon want, from the sterility of the immediate neighborhood, and the impossibility of getting provisions from the more fertile parts of the country. The ships in the harbor of Callao were huddled into a corner, and the people, both there and at Lima, surrounded as they were by revolutionized colonies, and pressed by the revolutionary forces, both by sea and land, were in a state of great agitation. The Royalists were quarrelling with and changing their leaders; but amid all this, they did not neglect their favorite bull fights-a part of the description of one of which cannot be so well given, as in Captain Hall's own energetic lan

guage:-" After one of the bulls had been repeatedly speared, and tormented by darts and fireworks, and was streaming with blood, the matador, on a signal from the viceroy, proceeded to dispatch him. Not being, however, sufficiently expert, he merely sheathed his sword in the animal's neck, without the intended effect. The bull instantly took his revenge, by tossing the matador to a great height in the air, and he fell apparently dead in the arena. The audience applauded the bull, while the attendants carried off the matador. The bull next attacked a horseman, dismounted him, ripped up the horse's belly, and bore both him and his rider to the ground: the horse was not suffered to die in peace, but being raised on his legs was urged, by whipping and goading, to move round the ring in a state too horrible to be described, but which afforded the spectators the greatest delight. The noble bull had thus succeeded in baffling his tormentors as long as fair means were used, when a cruel device was thought of to subdue him. A large curved instrument called a luna, was thrown at him, in such a way as to divide the hamstrings of the hind legs: such, however, were his strength and spirit, that he did not fall, but actually travelled along at a tolerable pace on his stumps-a most horrible sight! This was not all; for a man armed with a dagger now mounted the bull's back, and rode about for some minutes to the infinite delight of the spectators, who were thrown into ecstasies, and laughed and clapped their hands at every stab given to the miserable animal, not for the purpose of killing him, but to stimulate him to accelerate his pace; at length, the poor beast, exhausted by loss of blood, fell down and died."

FORCE OF CUSTOM.

In a certain town not more than fifty miles from Boston, as the clergyman was holding forth in his usual drowsy manner, one of the deacons, probably influenced by the narcotic qualities of the discourse, fell into a doze. The preacher happening to use the words, "What is the price of all earthly pleasures?" The good deacon, who kept a small store, thinking the inquiry respecting some kind of merchandise, immediately answered, "seven and sixpence a dozen."

"S. P. Q. A."

"SPQA," was the motto over the stage doors of the Federal Street Theatre, [Boston] during the management of Snelling Powell, who seldom appeared on the boards. Mr. Caulfield, when rehearsing a part with him, approached the stage door, and pointing to the motto, explained it thus: "Snelling Powell Quarterly Actor."

A YANKEE TRICK.

An eastern pedlar lately desired accommodation for the night, at a tavern in the south part of Virginia; but from the prejudice frequently existing against this class, our host for a long time

refused. At last, he consented, on condition that the pedlar should play him a Yankee trick before he left him. The offer was accepted. On rising in the morning, Jonathan carefully secured the coverlet of the bed, which, among other articles, he pressed the landlady to purchase. The low price of the coverlet operated at once upon the latter, who insisted that her husband should buy it, adding, that it would match her's exactly. Jonathan took his money, mounted his cart, and had got fairly under way, when our host called to him that he had forgotten the Yankee trick he was to play him. "O never mind," says Jonathan, "you will find it out soon enough."

THE WOODPECKER.

An Irishman who was employed on the canal last spring, was observed one day attentively watching a red headed woodpecker, while it was tapping a beech tree. On being asked what attracted his attention, he said, "I'm speering at the strange baste upon yonder tree-for sure enough the silly crathur has knocked his face against it, till his head is a gore of bluid."

CAPTAIN HALL IN SOUTH AMERICA.

On the 23d of March, 1821, Captain Hall returned a second time, for Santiago, Chili; and thence, he, in company with some others, took an excursion into the interior. In the course of their journey, they had to cross the river Maypo, by one of those singular suspension bridges which are occasionally found in South America. As these bridges, though of a very different material, are constructed on precisely the same plan and principle as the English chain bridges, it is by no means improbable that the hint of these may have been taken from them. The Maypo is, at all times, a considerable stream; and during the rainy season it is a torrent of much rapidity. The one abutment of the bridge is a rock thirty feet high; and at the other side there is a framework of twelve. The sustaining chains are three on each side; the road-way, which is composed of planks, is hung to these by smaller ones; and the whole of the chains are of hide-rope, twisted and dried in the sun,-a substance which appears to be more durable, in that country, than even iron is in England. The span of the bridge of Maypo is about one hundred and twentythree feet; and from the great elasticity of the materials it vibrates much in passing.

After crossing the Maypo by this singular bridge, the captain and his friends proceeded onward, highly delighted with the scenery of the Andes. They found much hospitality in the honses of the country Chilians, and there was a very agreeable freshness and fragrance in the air. The morning is, however, spent in occupation or solitary rambling, and the family do not assemble till dinner-time.

A singular instance of the effect of religious vows, occurred in a guest at the chacra or farmhouse which they were visiting. The first dish,