resembling a nippah or fortified place, in New Zealand; and, from some circumstances which transpired, Dixon was tempted also to believe they were also like the New Zealanders, cannibals. Proceeding to the eastward, eleven canoes came alongside on the 24th with one hundred and eighty persons; but curiosity was the prevailing motive, as they had nothing to sell; and, five days after, no less than two hundred men, women, and children, in eighteen canoes, came off to indulge their curiosity; a number that, on this coast, is rarely found in one community. Their chief had the most savage aspect of any yet seen, his whole appearance sufficiently marking him as the leader of a tribe of cannibals. His stature was above the common size, his body spare and thin, and, though seemingly lank and emaciated, his step was bold and firm, his limbs strong and muscular; his eyes, which were large and goggling, seemed ready to start from their sockets; his forehead deeply wrinkled, as well by age as an habitual frown, which, joined to a long visage, hollow cheeks, high cheek-bones, and natural ferocity of temper, rendered him a most formidable figure.

August 8th, made sail for the Sandwich Islands. September 2d made Owhyhee, and, after procuring refreshments, stood on for Whahoo, being visited the next day by Abbenooe and the king by whose commands they received abundant supplies of wood, water, and provisions, of which they were in extreme want, several of the crew being nearly dead with the scurvy. Attoui was their next destination, where the chiefs inquired particularly after their friend Po-pote (Captain Portlocke,) and were desirous of contributing all in their power to the assistance of the ship, every one supplying the Captain with a liberality as unbounded as it was unexpected, but which did not go unrewarded; saws, hatchets, nails, and other iron instruments being given to the men, and buttons, beads, and a variety of ornaments to the women.

September 18th made sail for China, and anchored in Macao Roads the 9th November, where being joined as already noticed, by the King George, their meeting was extremely agreeable. Captain Portlock was very much surprised in Canton with his old friend Tiaana, from the Sandwhich Islands, who was no less pleased at seeing him, embracing the Captain in the most cordial and affectionate manner.

During his stay, Tiaana was introduced to every place worthy of notice; he was usually dressed in a cloak and fine feather cap, and, to show that he was a person of consequence, carried a spear in his hand. Afterwards, at the persuasion of Mr. Ross, he wore a light satin waistcoat and a pair of trousers. He frequently attended places of public worship, behaving with the greatest decorum, and joining the congregation in the ceremonies of kneeling or standing, as if he had been all his life regularly accustomed to them. Some of the customs of the Chinese displeased him ex

ceedingly, and, during the voyage, was nearly throwing the pilot overboard for some real or imaginary offence; he was, however, of a kind disposition, displaying frequent instances of humanity as well as generosity. Being once at an entertainment, given by one of the Captains at Macao, his compassion was strongly excited after dinner by seeing a number of poor people, in Sampans, crowding round the vessel and asking alms; he solicited his host's permission to give them some food, remarking it was a great shame to let poor people want victuals, and that in his country there were no beggars. In compliance with his importunities, the broken meat was collected under his care, and he distributed it in the most equal and impartial manner. Tiaana was six feet two inches high, exceedingly well-made, but inclined to corpulency; he had a pleasing animated countenance, fine eyes, and otherwise expressive as well as agreeable features. He was universally liked, and, previous to his departure for Attoui, the gentlemen at Canton furnished him with bulls, cows, sheep, goats, rabbits, turkeys, &c. &c. besides all kinds of seeds which could be useful in his island, with directions how to rear and propagate them. The best skins of their cargoes were disposed of to the East India Company for fifty thousand dollars, while the inferior ones were sold to the Chinese, both vessels receiving in return cargoes of tea. February, 6th, 1788, weighed and made sail down the river, quitting Macao finally a day or two afterwards. On the 20th saw the island of Pulo Sapata, four leagues distant; and, 25th, the islands of Aramba; three days afterwards Mr. Lander, surgeon of the Queen Charlotte, died, having been ill for some time, and attended by his brother surgeon, Mr. Hoggan, of the King George. On the 30th of March the ships agreed to separate, and make the best of their way to St. Helena, where the King George arrived the 13th June, and the Queen Charlotte on the 18th. The former at length reached England, without any occurrence worthy of remark, on the 22d August; and the latter the 17th September. Nor was the voyage unfortunate; for though no great gain was made, yet nothing was lost, which, in a new commercial speculation, is not an uncommon occurrence.

CURIOSITY BAFFLED.

Brook Watson was born of humble parentage, in the province of Maine, and in that part of it more appropriately known as Sagadahoc. History has not conveyed to us the incidents of his childhood. As he met with extraordinary success in life, we presume he was pretty soundly drubbed by the schoolmaster and

the older boys. He probably ran about bare-footed in summer, and in winter, wore old woollen stockings, with the feet cut off, under the name of leggins, to keep out snow-water. We imagine he got on the rafts of the lumber-men, and learned to swim, by being knocked off, as a mischief-maker, into the river. We think it likely he occasionally set up, of a moonshiny night, to watch the bears, as they came down, to reconnoitre the pig-stye; and we have little doubt that, before he was eleven years old, he had gone cabin-boy to Jamaica, with a cargo of pine boards and timber. But of all this we know nothing. It is enough for our story, that, at the age of twenty, Brook Watson was a stout athletic young man, sailing out of the port of New York to the West Indies.

The Yankees knew the way to the West Indies a good while ago; they knew more ways than one. Their coasting vessels knew the way, without quadrant or Practical Navigator. Their skippers kept their reckoning with chalk, on a shingle, which they stowed away in the binacle; and, by way of observation, they held up a hand to the sun. When they got him over four fingers, they knew they were straight for the Hole-in-the-wall; three fingers gave them their course to the Double-headed-shot Keys, and two carried them down to Barbadoes. This was one

way; and when the Monsieurs and the Dons at Martinico and the Havana heard the old New England drums, thumping away under the very teeth of their batteries, they understood to their cost, that the Yankees had another way of working their passage. But Brook Watson went to the Havana in the way of trade. He went as second mate of the Royal Consort, a fine topsail schooner of one hundred and fifteen tons; and whether he had any personal venture in the mules, butter, cheese, codfish, and shooks, which she took out, is more than history has recorded.

Captain Basil Hall says the Americans are too apt to talk about the weather. But in the tropics, in the month of July, aboard a small ship, without a breath stirring, captain, it is hot; -you have been a sailor yourself, and you ought to know it. It was very hot on board the Royal Consort, about four o'clock in the afternoon of the 14th of July, 1755. There was not the slightest movement in the air; the rays of the sun seemed to burn down into the water. Silence took hold of the animated creation. It was too hot to talk, whistle, or sing; to bark, to crow, or to bray. Every thing crept under cover, but Sambo and Cuffee, two fine looking blacks, who sat sunning themselves on the quay, and thought "him berry pleasant weather," and glistened like a new Bristol bottle.

Brook Watson was fond of the water; he was not web-footed, nor was he branchioustegous; (there's for you, see Noah Webster;) but were he asked whether he felt most at home on land or in the water, he would have found it hard to tell. He had

probably swum the Kennebec, where it is as wide and deep as the Hellespont between Sestos and Abydos, at least once a day, for five months in the year, ever since he was eleven years old, without Lord Byron's precaution of a boat in company, to pick him up, in case of need. As his Lordship seemed desirous of imitating Leander, honesty ought, we think, to have suggested to him, to go without the boat. At all events, that was Brook Watson's way; and we have no doubt, had he been in a boat, with a head wind, he would have sprung into the river, in order to get across the sooner. With this taste for the water, and with the weather so oppressive as we have described it on the present occasion, it is not to be wondered at, that Brook Watson should have turned his thoughts for refreshment, to a change of element; in other words, that he should have resolved to bathe himself in the sea.

Such was the fact. About six o'clock in the afternoon, and when every other being on board the vessel had crept away into the cabin or the forecastle, to enjoy a siesta, Brook, who had been sweltering, and panting, and thinking of the banks of the Kennebec, till his stout gay heart felt like a great ball of lead within him, tripped up on deck, dropped his loose clothing, and in an instant was over the side of the vessel. This was Brook's first voyage to the West Indies, since he had grown up; and the first day after his arrival. He was one of that class of mankind not bred up to books; and, consequently, in the way of learning wisdom only by experience. What you learn by experience, you learn pretty thoroughly, but at the same time, occasionally, much to your cost. Thus by chopping off a couple of fingers with a broad axe, you learn, by experience, not to play with edge-tools. Brook Watson's experience in bathing had hitherto been confined to the Kennebec; a noble, broad, civil stream, harboring nothing within its gentle waters more terrible than a porpoise. The seaserpent had not yet appeared. Brook Watson had certainly heard of sharks, but at the moment of forming the resolution to bathe, it had entirely escaped his mind, if it had ever entered it, that the West India seas were full of them; and so over he went, with a fearless plunge

Sambo and Cuffee as we have said, were sitting on the quay, enjoying the pleasant sunshine, and making their evening repast of banana, when they heard the plunge into the water by the side of the Royal Consort, and presently saw Brook Watson emerging from the deep, his hands to his eyes, to free them from the brine, balancing up and down, sputtering the water from his mouth, and then throwing himself forward, hand over hand, as if at length he really felt himself in his element.

Oh, Massa Bacra," roared out Sambo, as soon as he could recover his astonishment enough to speak, "O Senor; he white man neber go to swim; O, de tiburon; he berry bad bite, come

llamar-de shark; he hab berry big mouth; he eatee a Senor all up down!"

Such was the exclamation of Sambo, in the best English he had been able to pick up, in a few years service, in unlading the American vessels, that came to the Havana. It was intended to apprise the bold but inexperienced stranger, that the waters were filled with sharks, and that it was dangerous to swim in them. The words were scarcely uttered, and, even if they were heard, had not time to produce their effect, when Cuffee responded to the exclamation of his sable colleague, with

"O, Madre de Dios, see, see, de tiburon, de shark;-ah San Salvador; ah pobre joven! matar, todo comer, he eat him all down, berry soon!"

This second cry had been drawn from the kind-hearted negro, by seeing, at a distance, in the water, a smooth shooting streak, which an inexperienced eye would not have noticed; but which Sambo and Cuffee knew full well. It was the wake of a shark. At a distance of a mile or two, the shark had perceived his prey; and with the rapidity of sound he had shot across the intervening space, scarcely disturbing the surface with a ripple. Cuffee's practised eye alone had seen a flash of his tail, at the distance of a mile and a half; and raising his voice to the utmost of his strength, he had endeavored to apprise the incautious swimmer of his danger. Brook heard the shout, and turned his eye in the direction, in which the negro pointed; and well skilled in all the appearances of the water, under which he could see almost as well as in the open air, he perceived the sharp forehead of the fearful animal rushing towards him, head on, with a rapidity which bade defiance to flight. Had he been armed with a knife, or even a stick, he would not have feared the encounter; but would have coolly waited his chance, like the negroes of the West Indies and the Spanish Main, and plunged his weapon into the opening maw of the ravenous animal. But he was wholly naked and defenceless. Every one on board the Royal Consort was asleep; and it was in vain to look for aid from that quarter. He cast a glance, in his extremity, to Sambo and Cuffee; and saw them, with prompt benevolence, throw themselves into a boat, to rescue him; but meantime the hungry enemy was rushing on.

Brook thought of the Kennebec; he thought of its green banks, and its pleasant islands. He thought of the tall trunks of the pine trees, scathed with fire, which stood the grim sentinels of the forest, over the roof where he was born. He thought of the log school-house. He thought of his little brothers and sisters, and of his mother; and there was another image that passed through his mind, and almost melted into cowardice his manly throbbing heart. He thought of Mary Atwood, and-but he had to think of himself. For though these tumultuous emotions and a thousand others rushed through his mind in a moment, crowding that one