Indian, he held the prize he had so nobly won before him, and as he gazed upon it, thus replied:-'This brings rest to my heart. I feel like the leaf, after a storm, and when the wind is still. I have listened to you. I am glad. I love the pale-faces more than ever I did, and will open my ears wider when they speak. I am glad you heard of what I did. I did not know the act was so good. It came from my heart. I was ignorant of its value. I now know how good it was. You make me know it, by giving me this medal.'

"The rescue of the Itean girl might, if a solitary act, be looked upon as the result of impulse, and not as proceeding from a generous nature. It happens, however, not to stand alone, as the only instance of the sort, in the life of Petalesharro. One of his brother warriors had brought in a captive boy. He was a Spaniard. The captor resolved to offer him as a sacrifice to the Great Star. The chief, Letalashahou, had been for some time opposed to these barbarous rites. He sent for the warrior, and told him he did not wish him to make the sacrifice. The warrior claimed his right, under the immemorial usages of the tribe. They parted. Letalashahou sent for his son, and asked what was to be done to divert the captor from his purpose? Petalesharro replied promptly, 'I will take the boy, like a brave, by force.' The father thought, no doubt, that danger would attend upon the act, and resolved on a more pacific mode. It was to buy the boy. This intention was made known, when those who had any goods of any kind brought them to the chief's lodge, and laid them down, as an offering, on the pile which the chief had supplied from his own limited stores. The captor was again sent for, and in the authoritative tone of the chief thus addressed: -Take these goods, and give me the boy.' He refused, when the chief seized his war-club, and flourished it over the head of the captor. At the moment, Petalesharro sprang forward, and said, —' STRIKE! and let the wrath of his friends fall upon me.'

"The captor, making a merit of necessity, agreed, if a few more articles were added, to give up the boy to the chief; they were added, and the boy was saved. The goods were sacrificed instead of the boy. The cloth was cut into shreds, and suspended on poles, at the spot upon which the blood of the victim had been proposed to be shed, and the remainder of the articles were burned. No subsequent attempt to immolate a victim was made." - Vol. 11., pp. 93-97.

The plan which Col. M'Kenney proposes for the permanent benefit of the Indians, and in behalf of which he is diligently manufacturing public opinion, is, for the United States to convey to the Indian races the unconditional fee of the

lands west of the Mississippi, to which the principal tribes have been removed, and to give these tribes a territorial government, with a view to their ultimately taking their place as an independent state in the confederacy. By this arrangement, a stimulus would be given to all institutions and enterprises for the general good, and to all forms and modes of self-improvement, which now languish on account of the doubtful tenure on which the Indians hold their soil and their rights, and the large experience of Punic faith vouchsafed to them by the American republic. For our own peace, as well as for their good, ought the fee of their soil and the permanence of their political condition to be guarantied to them. As they are now situated, should any new invasions of their rights rouse a vindictive spirit, there is hardly a limit to the mischief which they might do to the States on their eastern frontier, before they could be successfully resisted, or to the extent to which, if driven back among the fastnesses of the Rocky mountains, they might prolong a desperate guerilla warfare. Let our government arrest too well merited retribution by a timely return to justice and mercy.

We rejoice in the bold and eloquent appeal made to our countrymen in the volume before us. We trust that it will find a free and rapid sale in all parts of the country. Except that it is a larger book than the devourers of cheap literature like, it is admirably adapted to win its way into general circulation. Its typography is large, clear, and tasteful. It is embellished by numerous and well designed lithographs. It contains a fac simile of the venerable Mrs. Madison's letter, accepting the dedication of the first volume. It bears for its frontispiece the author's own intellectual and benevolent face; and to the second volume is prefixed a strikingly beautiful colored engraving from Sully's copy of the original portrait of Pocahontas, with a characteristic anecdote of one of whose illustrious descendants we close our critical labors, and earnestly commend the book, on which we have bestowed them, to all who admire the native nobleness of the Indian character, who sympathize with the sufferings of this persecuted. race, or rejoice in the aspirations and impulses which are now urging some of these tribes rapidly on in a career of selfimprovement.

"I was present in the hall of the House of Representatives at Washington, during an exciting debate; on the one side of which

was Mr. Randolph, and on the other, Mr. Jackson, of Virginia. Mr. Randolph had spoken, when Mr. Jackson rose in reply. He had not proceeded far, when, having occasion to refer to some part of Mr. Randolph's speech, he addressed him as - My friend from Virginia.' He had scarcely given utterance to the word friend,' when Mr. Randolph sprang to his feet, and throwing his lustrous eyes first on Mr. Jackson, and then on the speaker, keeping his arm extended, meantime, and his long, bony finger pointing at Mr. Jackson, said, in that peculiar voice of his,

"Mr. Speaker! — I am not that gentleman's FRIEND, sir. I have never been his friend, sir; nor do I ever mean to be his friend, sir!'-when he took his seat.

"Mr. Jackson, meantime, keeping his position on the floor, look. ing first upon Mr. Randolph, and then at the speaker, replied,"Mr. Speaker, I am at a loss to know by what title to address the honorable member from Virginia';-then pausing awhile, with his finger beside his nose, he said,—' I have it, sir, — I have it, — it shall be' — looking Mr. Randolph full in the faceTHE RIGHT HONORABLE DESCENDANT OF HER MAJESTY, QUEEN POCAHONTAS!'

"The entire countenance of Mr. Randolph changed instantly; and, from a look of mingled aversion and contempt, to a smile the most complaisant and gracious. The storm-cloud was dissi pated, and the rainbow seemed to reflect all its hues upon his countenance, in one glow of heart-felt reconciliation, when he bowed most courteously, giving evidence that of all the honors he had ever coveted, that of having descended from that heaven-inspired woman was the one he most highly prized. And who would not be proud of such a descent ?"-Vol. 11., pp. 64, 65.

ART. X. The Koran, commonly called the Alcoran, of Mohammed; translated into English, with Explanatory Notes, and a Preliminary Discourse. By GEORGE SALE. London. 1838. 8vo.

SISMONDI and Carlyle have done something, of late years, to make us believe that the old orthodox notion of Mahomet's, or Mohammed's, power and success is not as well founded as might be. They have tried to convince the world that naked, selfish, mean imposition never could have done what

the spirit of the founder of Islam did. God, according to their doctrine, has not endowed shallow craft and unlimited lying with such mighty control over human souls as that which the great Arabian possessed. But the mass of those who write on the prophet still write in the tone of the Crusaders; they buckle on their armor to do battle with the false leader of the infidel host, in place of opening their eyes and purging their minds, to see and understand aright one of the great phenomena of history, that is to say, one of the great facts in God's government of the world. And is it not truly a great fact, that a wild, illiterate, unregenerate Arab was able to breathe a spirit of advancement, of daring, of enterprise, of civilization even, into those desert children, which has lasted for so many centuries, and swept clean so many countries? Count over your great men, your Alexanders, Solons, Platos, Homers, how many of them have influenced human destinies, moulded human laws, ruled in palaces, judged in courts, led in battles, taken the child in the cradle and guided it even to the tomb, as this rude Ishmaelite has done? Let us not, even if we can, shut our eyes to the fact, that in the success of Mohammed God has placed before us a riddle worthy our reading; and let us not forget, that, when he places before us a lesson to be learned, we are little better than blasphemers, if we fail at least to study it. It is in the hope that we may do something for some minds toward reading this riddle, that we write the few following pages.

He

And, in the first place, it should be clearly understood that we know very little with certainty respecting the prophet. Neither Saracens nor Christians are to be believed. that reads must read as Niebuhr did. He must question every statement, weigh every intimation, compare friend and enemy on every point of praise and dispraise. The Koran alone may be trusted, and to the study of that more than all else the inquirer should turn, and strive to find the needle which shall guide him in that vast stack of mingled weeds, flowers, and food.

In the next place, the different periods of Mohammed's life must be distinguished, and each one made to throw light upon the others. And this must be done with a constant prayer that God will enable us to set aside prejudice, and judge of this man as we should judge of another. With these

two thoughts to aid us, let us enter upon the inquiry, What was Mohammed, and how came he to play so great a part in the world's history? His life consisted of three periods; the first extending from his birth to the commencement of his mission, at about the age of forty; the second including his years of trial and suffering, and closing with his flight to Medina, in the fifty-third year of his age; the third, his period of triumph, ending with his death, ten years after his flight. What was this man in these three periods?

In a narrow valley, hemmed in by barren mountains, a valley without pastures, or grain-fields, or even springs of sweet water, stood the holy city of Mecca. Many tribes of the keen, nervous Arab race lived there, but none of them was so noble as the Koreish, and of that tribe no house was so powerful as the house of Hashem, who kept the key of the Caaba, the holy temple, where the sevenfold stone bound with silver, which the archangel Gabriel brought from heaven when God made the world, stood for the reverential kiss of the sons of Ishmael. Gabriel brought it milk-white from above, but the sins of man had in early ages changed its color to black. Of the house of Hashem, in the year of our Lord 569, there were living Abdol Motalleb, his thirteen sons, and six daughters. Among these sons was Abdallah, the light of the East, whose smile no maiden could withstand. Flashing eyes followed his stately person, wherever he moved; warm Arab hearts beat quicker, whenever his noble countenance was seen; and when the rumor spread through the Holy City, and sped out on swift coursers even to the daughters of the desert, that Amina was the chosen bride of the beautiful grandson of Hashem, many a bosom felt that void which nothing can fill. Amina, like her husband, was of the tribe of the Koreish, and of a noble house of that tribe. We may be sure it was a princely wedding. Grand old men with flowing beards, and stately women, and free-moving youths in their light Eastern costume, and wondering children with their open eyes, we may feel certain graced the ceremony; the youngest of them died twelve hundred years ago, and yet is that wedding memorable, for from the union sprang Mohammed.

The little boy, who inherited his father's beauty, and whose mind and temper were from the cradle noticeable, was but just beginning to climb that father's knee, and to