ary; nor, when I loved the all-perfect Annabella, did I know that she ought to have added to that name the additional one of Ilar

court.'

However this discovery might affect the general with surprize, it by no means excited his anger; a passion of another kind was predominant in his mind. He paused for a few moments; and having then soothed the anguish of the afflicted Mandeville, by the tenderest assurances of unabated friendship, and undiminished esteem, he raised him from the floor, and besought him to leave him, that he might endeavour to calm the perturbation of his mind, and collect fortitude enough to reveal to him another secret, no less interesting to both than that which had just escaped his bosom.

But he did not keep the tortured Mandeville long in suspence; he soon summoned him to return to the cabin, and desired him to prepare for a communication, which would do violence to his love, but afford him an opportunity of contributing to the happiness of the object of his affection, by the performance of his duty in a very different capacity.

of

6

My dear Mandeville,' says the general, you may remember my hinting to you my suspicion, that the offspring of my unfortunate connection, with my first and indeed only love, had survived his unhappy mother. Though all my endeavours to ascertain this fact had proved fruitless, the moment I first saw you at Petersfield, a resemblance my adored Charlotte struck me so forcibly, that it has been impossible for me to divest myself of the idea that you (tremble not, my beloved Mandeville!) are the son of whom I have so long been in search. Your manners, your disposition, strengthen the likeness; for, like her, you are mild, gentle, and inoffensive. Yet one difficulty remains, which I am unable to get over: that son, if alive, would be now twenty. and, according to your account of your age, it does not exceed twenty-two. Besides, you have mentioned an uncle on the side of your father-can you lend any assistance to unravel this mysterious and important business?'

six;

If the first discovery had agonized the gentle mind of Mandeville, this last had almost deprived him of his senses. He had probably exchanged a protector for a father; but he had lost what the dearest relationship could never replace: he had escaped from a crime, at the bare recollection of which he shuddered with horror; but he felt that the ties of consanguinity, and the affection of a sister, could never equal that ardency of love which had been inspired by the fair Annabella, unknown to him by any other name, and claiming from him only

respect and admiration.

As soon as he could recover the powers of speech, which were suspended by so violent a shock, he repeated to the general the story he had often related; to which he declared he could only add, that he had been informed his father was in the army; and that from every account which he had received, both from his uncle and aunt, and from his own recollection of his progress to manhood, he was well assured that he had not misrepresented his age, which he could very confidently assert was no more than twenty-two.

As it seemed impossible to solve this palpable incongruity, they were both under the necessity of remaining in suspense till the completion of

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the voyage, which now drew towards a conclusion. In a very few days they made the land; and arriving happily at Portsmouth, they proceed. ed immediately to the metropolis.

General Harcourt now determined to set on foot an enquiry after the brother of his Charlotte, who, for obvious reasons, he had hitherto avoided; and having learnt that he had long been settled on a parsonage in a distant part of the kingdom, he addressed a letter to him, explanatory of his whole history, and earnestly intreating him to give him information concerning the pledge of the sacred affection which had subsisted between him and his excellent sister, whose fate he had never ceased to deplore, and was now more than ever anxious to discover whether there yet remained a possibility of bestowing his unabated love on the object which had derived its existence from his illfated passion.

The answer to this letter cleared up all the general's doubts. It informed him, that the same deceit had been practised on him and the partner of his heart-that about a year after his departure, an account of his death had been communicated to her by his father; and that this intelligence was accompanied with the payment of a considerable sum of money, as a pretended legacy left by his son-that the infant fell a sacrifice to the distress of its mother at the separation, and died before it saw the light-that, yielding to the importunities of her friends, she had some time after given her hand to a Captain Mandeville, a worthy officer, who had previously been made acquainted with her story, and who treated her with the utmost tenderness; but that her first impres sion had been too strong to yield either to time or the affection of her husband; and that she fell into a consumption, and died within two years after her marriage, leaving one son...that Captain Mandeville did not long survive his wife; and that his relations, who lived in a part of the kingdom very remote from the place of his residence, having taken upon themselves the care of the orphan, he was unable to give any other account of him, than that he had heard a few years before, that he was living; and, being grown to manhood, had been placed by his uncle to learn a genteel profession at N

If the general had by this intelligence lost the relation which, from the similitude now accounted for, and the other concurrent circumstances, he had supposed to exist between him and Mandeville, he however suffered but little by the disappointment. It was now in his power to make him actually his son, and to confer on him, and (by what he could gather from the distant and diffident hints which had from time to time dropped from him) on his daughter also, the most compleat happiness; he should gain companions for his advancing age, and in all probability see a progeny rise, which would be entitled to his parental and his friendly care and he determined to enjoy, without delay, the supreme satisfaction of communicating the blessings which Providence had impowered him to dispense.

But if such were the sensations of the worthy general, what were the emotions of the rapturous Mandeville, when he disclosed to him the secret of his birth, and the extent of his own generous intentions; Reason scarce maintained her empire at this burst of unexpected happiness ; and all was wonder, gratitude, and thankfulness.

General Harcourt now dispatched the favoured lover to pour out his whole soul to the object of his regards; and gave him, under his own hand, credentials which announced his high approbation. He soon followed himself; and, lest any accident should happen to dash the cup of felicity, he gave to the happy Mandeville a treasure of which kings night boast; an accomplished, amiable, beautiful, and affectionate wife.

Reader, the ways of Providence are frequently mysterious, and her paths difficult and obscure; but those who tread them in humble confidence, nor deviate into the less painful roads of vice and folly, will at length be surely conducted to the regions of happiness; and, though they may not always reach them in the short journey of an earthly pilgrimage, will have a prospect, beyond the grave, of more perfect and permanent felicity.

REMARKABLE ACCOUNT OF

A BATTLE BETWEEN TWO SNAKES.

By Mr. J. Ilector St. John.

SI was one day sitting solitary and pensive in my arbour, my at

Astros que dygaged by a strange sort of rustling noise at some

paces distance. I looked all around, without distinguishing any thing, until I climbed one of my great hemp stalks; when, to my astonishment, I beheld two snakes of considerable length, the one pursuing the other with great celerity through a hemp stubble-field. The aggressor was of the black kind, six feet long; the fugitive was a water-snake, nearly of equal dimensions. They soon met, and in the fury of their first encounter, they appeared in an instant firmly twisted together; and whilst their united tails beat the ground, they tried with open jaws to lacerate each other. What a fell aspect did they present! Their heads were compressed to a very small size; their eyes flashed fire; and after this conflict had lasted about five minutes, the second found means to disengage itself from the first, and hurried towards the ditch. Its antagonist instantly assumed a new posture, and half creeping and half erect, with a majestic mien, overtook and attacked the other again, which placed itself in the same attitude, and prepared to resist. The scene was un-. common and beautiful; for, thus opposed, they fought with their jaws, biting cach other with the utmost rage; but notwithstanding this ap→ pearance of mutual courage and fury, the water-snake still seemed desirous of retreating towards the ditch, its natural element. This was no sooner perceived by the keen-eyed black one, than twisting his tail twice round a stalk of hemp, and seizing its adversary by the throat,

not by means of its jaws, but by twisting its own neck twice round that of the water-snake, it pulled the latter back from the ditch. To prevent a defeat, the water-snake took hold likewise of a stalk on the bank, and by the acquisition of that point of resistance became a match for its fierce antagonist. Strange was this to behold; two great snakes, strongly adhering to the ground, fastened together, by means of the writhings which lashed them to each other, and stretched at their full length, they pulled, but pulled in vain; and in the moments of greatest exertions, that part of their bodies which was entwined, seemed extremely small, while the rest appeared inflated, and now and then convulsed with strong undulations, rapidly following each other. Their eyes seemed on fire, and ready to start out of their heads; at one time the conflict seemed decided; the water-snake bent itself into two great folds, and by that operation rendered the other more than commonly outstretched; the next minute the new struggles of the black one gained an unexpected superiority; it acquired two great folds likewise, which necessarily extended the body of its adversary in proportion as it had contracted its own. These efforts were alternate; victory seemed doubtful, inclining sometimes to the one side, and sometimes to the other: until at last the stalk, to which the black snake was fastened, suddenly gave way, and in consequence of this accident they both plunged into the ditch. The water did not extinguish their vindictive rage; for by their agitations I could trace, though not distinguish, their mutual attacks. They soon re-appeared on the surface, twisted together, as in their first onset; but the black snake seemed to retain its wonted superiority, for its head was exactly fixed above that of the other, which it incessantly pressed down under the water, until it was stifled, and sunk. The victor no sooner perceived its enemy incapable of farther resistance, than, abandoning it to the current, it returned on shore, and disappeared.

Anecdote of a Jewish Rabbi.

Terah the father of Abraham the patriarch, was an idolator, and likewise a maker of idols. During a journey, he left Abraham to take care, and dispose, of the idols. When any man came to purchase an idol, Abraham asked him his age. When the man answered him, Abraham replied, Can it be possible that a person of your years can be so stupid as to worship that which was made yesterday?' The man, overwhelmed with shame, hung down his head and departed. In this manner he served several. At length there came an old woman with a measure of fine flour, which she told him she brought as an offering to all the idols. Abraham at this was exceedingly wroth, and took a large stick and broke all the idols, except the largest, which he left whole, and put the stick in its hand. When Terah returned, and perceived all the idols broken, he asked Abraham how that came to pass? Abraham told him, that there had arrived an old woman with an offering of fine flour to the idol; upon which they immediately fell together by the cars for the prize, when the large one killed them all with the stick which he then held in his hand.'

A NARRATIVE

Of the Loss of the Honourable East India Company's Ship

WINTERTON.

BY AN OFFICER.

H

AVING compleated our water, and other necessaries in False Bay, August 1, 1792, we sailed at day-light with a fresh breeze at Ň. W. with which we shaped our course to the S. E. for two days, when the wind shifted, and became variable, between the south and east, blowing fresh till the ninth, when a S. W. wind succeeded, of short continuance, for it soon returned to the S. E. It was Captain Dundas's intention, on leaving the Cape of Good Hope, to take the outer passage for India, but the winds, as has been stated above, inclining so much from the S. E. obliged him to deviate from his original purpose; and on the 10th he accordingly bore away for the Mosambique Channel. Being baffled with light variable winds and calms, for some days our progress was inconsiderable, but on the 19th (Sunday) a S. W. sprung up, which we had reason to believe was the regular monsoons, being then to the best of my recollection (as no Journals were saved) in the 25 S. latitude.--Captain Dundas, before he stood to the northward, in order that he might avoid the shoal named the Bassas de Indias, so uncertainly laid down in our charts, wished to make the island of Madagascar, somewhere near St. Augustin's Bay; with a view to accomplish this end, we steered east by compass, from noon of the 12th till midnight, when I relieved the second officer, the captain was then upon deck, and altered the course to E. N. E. It may be proper here to observe, that Captain Dundas had two time-pieces, one of which had served him in a former voyage, and by it he had constantly made the land to the greatest degree of exactness; from these, and from several sets of Lunar observations, taken four days before, the whole of which was in coinci dence with the time-pieces, he at midnight concluded with confidence, that he was 80 miles form the nearest part of the coast. From 12 P. M. till 2 A. M. we steered. E. N. E. when the captain came again on deck, and observing the lower steering sail to lift, ordered me to keep the ship N. E. by E. the wind at that time was S. S. E. a moderate breeze, the ship going six knots, and a clear star-light night. Every attention posgible was paid to the look-out, captain Dundas with a night glass care