After the rupture of the negotiations, one Mestivier, a Frenchman, was appointed civil and military commandant of the Falkland Islands and their dependances in the Atlantic Ocean; on the tenth of September, the appointment was promulgated by a decree, signed by Rosas, the governor, and Balcarse, the minister of war and marine. The whole naval force of this maritime republic, which claimed to hold so many remote islands as colonies, being the Sarandi, a schooner of six or eight guns, was put in requisition to convey the governor, his suite, garrison, and colony, to the islands. A bloody mutiny broke out soon after his arrival, and the governor was assassinated. Notwithstanding the form, parade, and publicity which attended this new demonstration of the claim of sovereignty, the settlement was again broken up by Captain Onslow, of the British ship-ofwar Clio, who rivalled Duncan in deeds of violence. John Bull had ships, and seamen, and commerce, and had no greater love for pirates than Jonathan. The wrath of the Argentine government was turned against that respectable nation, which had been represented by them, in their correspondence with Mr. Baylies, as incapable of such acts. The captain of the Clio resumed the possession of the islands in the name of William IV. No regular military garrison has as yet been placed there by Great Britain. Some of the settlers were left, among whom was Brisbane, the Scotchman, the agent of Vernet. To complete the melodrame, or rather the mingled farce and tragedy of the Falkland Island settlement, Brisbane has been murdered. Though a person by the name of Smith, of whose office or character nothing is known, has lately warned sealers not to visit these islands, still it is presumed they can do so with perfect safety. If they are molested, it is an easy sail for one of our sloops-of war on the Brazil station to run down there and break up Mr. Smith. Buenos Ayres has been in trouble too. Rosas, the governor, * In January, eighteen hundred and thirty-three, Captain Onslow took possession of these islands, and hoisted the British colours under a salute; hauling down at the same time the Buenos Ayrean flag, and sending it on board the schooner Sarandi, with a message, that it was a foreign flag, found on British soil. The Buenos Ayrean government, through an agent at London, has protested against this occupation, without having, as yet, received any assurance, on the part of Great Britain, of her intentions to abandon the islands. k k resigned, not long after the rupture of the negotiations, and took the command of the army of the interior, as it is called. The office of governor was conferred on Don Juan Ramon Balcarse. A revolution was enacted. Balcarse was overthrown and exiled, and escaped to the Banda Oriental. Viamonte, who is the locum tenens in all changes, was appointed governor. The people were not satisfied, and three times was the government tendered to the real Cæsar, Don Juan Manuel de Rosas, "which he did thrice refuse." Twice has it been offered to Don Tomas Manuel de Ancherona and refused. It was finally accepted by De Maza, the former minister of grace and justice. The civil government has the mere shadow of authority: the treasury is empty-feuds and factions distract this unhappy country. Good men-enlightened and patriotic men, there are in this country, but they have no affinity with the moral elements which surround them. The seminal principle of free institutions is there, but it is like the roots of the trees in the Pampas, as soon as it shoots above the earth, the pamparo of a revolution stops its growth, the hopes of the better people are constantly blasted; time alone can bring a remedy! The government of Buenos Ayres have repeatedly assured the government of the United States that they would send a minister to this country, but none has appeared. It is not probable that any new outrages will be committed on our commerce or citizens. Should any be attempted, the cannon of our ships will negotiate a settlement more effectually than the most accomplished diplomatist. If Great Britain should advance any pretensions to the exclusive use of the fisheries at the Falklands, it is to be hoped that such pretensions will be as strenuously resisted as were those of the Argentine Republic-indeed, more strenuouslyfor we could afford to laugh at the empty bluster and sounding bravadoes of the Argentines, and smile at the pompous pretensions of a province with a population of less than two hundred thousand-but should the empress of islands come into the field of controversy with the same pretensions, she must be met as an equal in the family of nations; and while we carefully abstain from all encroachments on her rights, our own should be defended with unflinching vigour and firmness. CHAPTER XXX. Passage north of the Falkland Islands-Icebergs-Perilous situation of the Potomac -Arrival at Rio-Naval etiquette-Excursion up the Bay-Island of PaquetaNational festival-Sa for the United States-Arrival at Boston-Public despatches-Splendid ball on board-End of the voyage. AFTER passing the Falkland Islands we stood on to the north, shaping our course for Rio de Janeiro. On the morning of the seventeenth of March, at an early hour, land was reported from the look-out aloft. The commodore was on deck, and though the outlines of the object ahead could be clearly seen, in despite of the mist, no one believed that an island was to be met with north of the Falklands, which had for centuries remained undiscovered, in the common highway of nations. A short time removed all uncertainty; as we bore down under a heavy press of sail, a towering iceberg, shrouded in a cold mist and fog, was moving slowly on, by the power of deep currents, from the gloomy and cheerless regions of the south. "Thus in the Atlantic, oft the sailor eyes, It moved along with awful, but not solitary grandeur, being but one of a squadron which successively rose to the view; so that in sailing more than two degrees, we occasionally encountered these floating pyramids-now clothed in vapour, and again showing forth in a pure, cold, and silvery brightness. On the morning of the nineteenth the Potomac was for a moment in imminent peril, as she dashed through between two of these crystal towers, the large hummucks grating along her sides with a force that showed the power of their resistance. "Hard down the helm !" resounded on deck, and the order was instantly obeyed, followed again by the harsh grating of the ice along the sides and copper of the vessel. For a moment, the frigate bore off in perfect obedience to her helm; when an iceberg on the other bow required the counter order, "hard up the helm! steady! steady! she will now go clear!" and our noble ship passed out unscathed!— To manage a vessel under such circumstances requires the highest exertion of nautical skill. It is not easy to do justice to the profession of the sailor. His noblest efforts are witnessed only by the few hardy spirits who are themselves actors along with him. Not so in other professions. The persuasive accents of the pulpit orator fall upon the ears of an attentive and tranquil audience, and by the numerous chords of human sympathies are preserved and extended to a crowded circle; the resistless advocate, while in the courts of justice he pleads the cause of injured innocence, or stays the strong arm of the proud oppressor, is surrounded by multitudes, who can pay homage to his eloquence; the erudite judge records his opinions, and his name will be referred to in the coming time; while the venerable senator, it may be said, by means of the press, speaks to a listening nation, and not unfrequently to an admiring world; the artist, whose pencil imparts life to the "glowing canvass," leaves the impress of his genius to mellow and improve with time; the writer of romance creates and peoples realms of his own, and keeps alive a world of ideal sympathy and passion in the human heart! Not so the sailor. Much of the grandeur, we might say sublimity, of his profession, is lost to the rest of the world: nor can any language breathe into description the imbodied spirit of his experience! While we admire the noble bark, that breasts the billows, and moves on battling with the elements until she reaches the point of her destination, though it be the farthermost port in the known world, yet how much more sublime to our contemplation is the intelligence which directs her movements with such unerring certainty! And how often, amid the wide waste of ocean, is that intelligence brought to contend with the wild spirit of the storm, the goodly ship writhing beneath the angry tempest, while a single error in command, or the mind unpoised for an instant, would be fatal to all on board. How the good ship, among the proudest monuments of the genius of man, still rides on, till the very elements have wasted their strength, and wearied themselves into repose, in vain attempts for the mastery! But of this mighty |