for a duellist. Swimkin's position was neither so pleasant nor so convenient. Being on the mainyard, the main-topsail was between him and the purser, without he went out at the extreme end of the yard; and then he had nothing to hold on by but the leach of the main-topsail, and thus, in some measure, to take aim over his left arm. But these were found to be but trifling impediments when the parties were so much in earnest. All the preliminaries having been arranged, and each of the combatants having given their honour that they would compromise no one, and that they would, or the survivor of them, protest that he or they stole up to their respective stations without the concurrence or connivance of any one, the sagacious Mr. Flintstones laid down two loaded ship's pistols on the fore-bits, so that it might not be said he either lent or gave the combatants the instruments of war. They then tossed for the first fire, which was won by the purser.

All this was so quietly managed, that I do not think the seamen on deck comprehended what was going on,-certainly they seemed to pay no attention to it. Each of the belligerents, placing his pistol in his bosom, mounted the rigging, and lay out by the horses upon the yards. The purser had some difficulty in getting his footing upon the yard itself from off the horses; but he accomplished it in less time than we had anticipated.

66

Behold them each at their stations, waiting for the purser to begin. "Keep her full; on no account lift a cloth," said Darever to the man at the wheel. Give my messmate fair play. The sails draw beautifully: they are as steady as a humming-top asleep. Now for it." "Are you ready?" said the purser, taking a deliberate aim at the master's mate, who was standing at the extremity of the yard.

"Ready," was the subdued answer of the youth of much obesity, adjusting the aim of his pistol at his opponent's head.

"Take that," squeaked Saveounce, in his discordant tones. "My compliments with that," replied Cymon, almost good-humouredly.

Smack! smack!-The sharp reports of the pistols, at the height at which they were discharged, sounded strangely inconsequential, and hardly sufficiently loud to excite attention on deck. The gunner and Mr. Darever watched, however, very silently for the consequences. The fat master's mate stood firmly as a statue; but with the purser it was far otherwise. After he had discharged his shot-firstly, his pistol fell into the water; he next staggered, and had just time, with his disengaged hands, to wind the loosened rope in many coils around them, when, no longer able to keep his precarious footing, he fairly dropped from the yard, but not into the sea. The ball from the weapon of Mr. Swimkin had cut the clew-line by which he had held on, a little above his head, and his support thus giving way above him, and he not being able to carry his sea-legs with him to the yard-arm, falling, he enacted a very good representation of a naval hanging.

Swimkin, seeing his adversary thus sus. per. man., gave the full extent of his orbs to the inspection of the moon, by opening them more widely than did any man since the time of Regulus. Hung, by jinky! The gipsy's a witch, and I shall be rear-admiral of the red!" he exclaimed, all gladness: but, immediately after, he was all sorrow; for no passion or hatred could effectually squeeze the mother's milk out of his large heart. He was on deck in a moment.

But what was to be done with the purser, who was swinging between sky and ocean, and making most pathetical lamentation? The middy, who was keeping the watch, had a great disinclination to back the main-yard, lest he should excite the attention of the captain and the officers below; so he and the hard-hearted gunner told the dangling sufferer to hold on like a grappling-iron, and not to stand snivelling there like a whipped schoolboy. They promised to lower him down into the water, and then fish him in by the means of a boat-hook, or by some other expedient. So they cast off the fall of the clew-line from the belaying-pin, and began to veer away, until the dependency was fairly in the sea. Now, as the devil would have it, who, it appears, has a great affection for pursers who fight duels, just when our friend, or his, was fairly immersed, there sprang up a sharp breeze, so sharp, indeed, that they were immediately forced to take in the royals. The brig heeled over; and, instead of going only about three knots an hour, began to gallop off at the rate of seven. There was poor Saveounce, towed along like a bait for a shark, or a dirty blanket, in order to have its foulness washed away. We trust that this towing had, morally, a similar effect to that of the blanket upon this sinner, and that this period of towage was a period of repentance, so that he arose, in the language of cant, a wiser and a better man."

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But the dashing of the waters about his ears confounded him: it seemed to him as if he were careering through the boiling seas with the expedition of a shooting-star; and, anon, he fancied that he was a sword-fish racing with a whale. Then he let go his hold of the rope; and, before the brig could be hove to, he was a good mile astern.

Nobody on board cared much about this: it was only the purserand such a purser! The gunner was thinking chiefly of the manner in which he should expend the pistol, and whether he could pass his accounts with an item like the following-"One ship's pistol lost overboard, with one purser ditto." Mr. Darever, having backed the mainyard with four men jumped into the gig astern, and was lowered away immediately. The captain, officers, and most of the ship's company, at the cry of "A man overboard!" were on deck in an instant.

But where was Swimkin? Only a few yards from Saveounce, blowing, and almost swimming, like a porpoise. When the boat reached him, he had hold of his former enemy by the back of the neck, and was shaking him as a huge Newfoundland dog may be supposed to shake a sprawling little puppy; for the purser, in the insanity of fear, was flinging his arms and legs about, as if resolved to die with a splash. Had it not been for the master's mate, he would have drowned himself by his own exertions.

He was brought on board in a state of insensibility. Swimkin was pardoned by the captain for his heroic conduct; the drunken men were forgiven, because their officer had escaped; and it was not till long after that the skipper knew in what manner Mr. Saveounce got into the water, and then it became only a subject for laughter. The fore-topsail clew-line was spliced, and everything went well; for the purser became grateful, made dead men chew less tobacco, had more respect for old women, and even once paid the reckoning at Malta, when Swimkin and he had regaled themselves at a tavern,-all of which may be ascribed to the "Yard-arm Duel."

VIVE LE DUELLO!

ST. VALENTINE'S DAY

BY LEIGH HUNT.

RECREATIONS IN NATURAL HISTORY. NO. II.

-Man, cursed man, on turkeys preys,
And Christmas shortens all our days.
Sometimes with oysters we combine,
Sometimes assist the sav'ry chine,
From the low peasant to the lord
The turkey smokes on evey board.

Gay's Fables.

MERCY on us! turkey again!-We grant the infliction. All the world has supped full of turkey. We are aware that the martyr who reads these lines may have been very recently and very intimately acquainted with the bird plain roasted, boiled, grilled, devilled-aux truffes et à la broche,-en daube-as a galantine, as a blanquette, and as a marinade ;—that he has probably not omitted to amuse himself with the cuisses et ailes à la sauce Robert, and with the ailerons piqués et glacés, en haricots, en fricassée de poulets, à la SainteMenehould, en chipolata ou à la financière, and en matelotle-to say nothing of playing with the remains of the goodly fowl served as a hachis à la reine. One word more only on this part of the subject, as advice for the future to neophytes: it is given with all the oracular gravity that distinguishes a high priest of Comus. "Quand il est gras et dans la nouveauté, on le sert à la broche, piqué ou bardé. Quand il est vieux, on ne l'emploie que pour daube ou galantine à la gelée. La dinde est plus délicate que le dindon." All this we devoutly admit -to this amiable dictation of Le Cuisinier des Cuisiniers we bow; but when the great gastronomer asserts, e cathedrâ, that we owe this bird to the Jesuits, qui l'ont apporté de l'Inde en Europe, we, with all humility, but with modest firmness, demur to his natural history. The eloquent and learned author of Tabella cibaria, though he leaves their origin in doubt, says that turkeys were known in Europe before the institution of Loyola's order.

But, whence was the turkey imported into Britain-into Europeand thence spread over a great portion of the globe? "Ceux qui pensent que les Cocs d'Inde n'ayent ésté cogneuz des anciens sont trompéz. Car Varro, Columelle, et Pline monstrent evidemment qu'ils estoyent des leurs temps aussi communs es mestairies Romaines, qu'ils sont maintenant es nostres: lesquels ils nommoyent de nom Grec Meleagrides, et de nom Latin Gibberas, &c. Varro dit en ceste sorte, Gibberæ quas Meleagrides Græci appellant, &c. Ceste chose est conforme à ce que Pline en éscrit au vingt-sixièsme chapitre du dixièsme livre de l'histoire naturelle. Meleagrides (dit il), hoc est Gallinarum genus Gibberum variis sparsum plumis, &c. Pourquoy il est facile à prouver que nostre Coc d'Inde est Gibbera Gallina, ou Meleagris." These be bold words: they come, too, from that father of ornithology, Pierre Belon du Mans, and he who wrote them was a man who saw through more than one fable that had passed current down to his time. Moreover, Aldrovandi and others speak, if possible, still more determinedly. But, as we once heard an advocate compendiously say, when hard pressed by a host of adverse cases, which

were not very good law-they are all wrong together. Take our word for it, reader, Apicius never tasted a turkey: that excellent bird never graced the Apollo chamber of Lucullus; nor could all the wealth, nor all the power of the Cæsars place one on the Imperial board. The Meleagris of the ancients was the guinea-hen of our poultry-yards"Simple Susan's" guinea-hen.

If any one doubt this, let him read the description of Athenæus, and give us his attention for a few minutes. Taking Clitus Milesius, a disciple of Aristotle, as his guide, Athenæus notices the small and naked head, the hard crest surmounting it like a peg or nail, the small gills hanging from the cheeks, the peculiarly spotted plumage, the spurless legs, and the similarity of the sexes.* The descriptions of Varrot and Pliny are equally conclusive. To go into a detail of all the worthies who drew their pens upon each side of this question, which has caused so much ink-shed, would be tedious; the notice of one or two will suffice. "That these birds," says Willughby, 66 were the Meleagrides of the ancients, as also their Gallina Africanæ, and Numidicæ guttatæ, Aldrovandus takes much pains to prove. In England they are called Turkeys, because they are thought to have been first brought to us out of Turkey."§ Ray knew better, and, in his Synopsis, indicated the native country of the bird. But the progress of a debate which has long been settled is not very entertaining and those who would wish to see the case well argued are referred to Pennant, who, bringing much learning, and an ample knowledge of natural history to the discussion, may be considered as having given the coup de grace to the antiquarian theory. Daines Barrington was the last writer of any note who supported that theory; and though he makes a tolerably good fight, it is, after all, a paradoxical fight, and he seems to be arguing for victory, not truth. The Indian bird mentioned by Ælian was most probably one of the peacocks. The question is now set at rest. The turkey is one of the many good things that we owe to America.

In the "Perfect Description of Virginia," a small pamphlet in quarto, the date of which, 1649, is worthy of note, as relating to what follows, -"With the manner how the Emperor Nichotowance came to Sir William Berckley, attended with five petty kings, to doe homage, and bring tribute to King CHARLES. With his solemne protestation, that the sun and moon should lose their lights, before he (or his people in that country) should prove disloyall, but ever to keepe faith and allegiance to King CHARLES."-It is certified that they (the colonists) have "for poultry, hens, turkeys, ducks, geese, without number ;" and in the catalogue of "Beasts, Birds, Fish, and Trees" at the end of the book, we find "Wilde turkies, some weighing sixtie pound weight." The pamphlet was evidently written to encourage emigration and loyalty, and the writer may have put the weight of his turkeys rather high; but that the wild turkey grows to a large size there is no doubt.

Lawson set out on his voyage to Carolina in 1700. Soon after starting from Charlestown we find the following paragraph:

"Tuesday morning we set towards the Congerees, leaving the Indian guide Scipio," not Africanus,-" drunk among the Santee Indians," jolly fellow!" We went ten miles out of our way, to head a great * Deipn. 655. Hist. Mund. Lib. x. c. 26.

Lib. iii. c. 9.

§ Ornithology, p. 158.