face should make me an apology; and the fellow, still however with the infernal grin upon his countenance, advanced and took me by the hand. I received the apology, but could not forbear asking him-why he had deceived me? "Deceived you, Mr. Middlerace! How did I deceive you?'—' Did you not tell me,' I said mildly, 'that we could not possibly make St. Helena?" "True,' replied he, and neither we, nor any navigators that ever sailed, have made it yet.' This, as I afterwards found, was a conun drum; and it was truly worthy of its addle-headed inventor." The Eurasian's diary proceeds to relate the mingled emotions of surprise and admiration that agitated him on his arrival in England. It describes his expectation of finding the shores of the river lined with Eurasians to hail his coming; the strange disappointment he witnessed when he first saw a director, having, as he mounted the steps of the India House, made his salams to a stout old man in a cocked-hat and scarlet cloak, with a pint of porter in his hand, whom he took for the chairman, but whom he afterwards found to be one of the porters in the dress worn by those personages on a courtday. Several minor perplexities happen to him, all attributable to too easy a faith in human assertions, a defect, of which a little London experience soon cured him. He waited upon a member of Parliament, who promised to present the Eurasian petition;-invited him, in the name of the Eurasians in England, to a grand dinner they gave him at the London Tavern, where he ate and drank heartily at their expense, made speeches in praise of the Eurasians and the dinner-and afterwards forgot to present their petition. We at length come to that part of his biography, wherein he appears to be on the look-out for a wife. "At the house of a friend, I sate at table near an interesting creature. My eyes wandered in the mazy ringlets of the brightest locks I ever saw, or fixed themselves immoveably on the dimpled softness of her fair and unsullied complexion. She encouraged my timid attempts at gallantry, and, as soon as I had proposed in due form, accepted me with the kindest promptitude. In short, the day was fixed for my marriage with Miss Bridget Arrowmark, the finest of eight unmarried daughters. She had, it is true, no fortune, but she was highly connected, for her father was an extra-clerk at the India House, and, to my untutored imagination, the house in Leadenhall Street was more august than that of Charlemagne or Clovis. This is the harbour, the port of refuge, after all my wanderings! I exclaimed, in the foolishness of my heart. But how shall I paint the beauteous being who stole me from myself! Burke's rapture, however, on the queen of France, surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision,-'would have been quite inapplicable, for touch it she did, and stood firm on it with the help of two muscular supporters. I pass over also the idle trash of love-making. It is enough to remark, that the novels I had read with so much avidity in India, gave me no directions on this head which I was inclined to follow. We had no rambles in sequestered shades, we whispered not our vows to the zephyrs, unless the heat of the sun obliged us to take the shady side of Fleet Street or Piccadilly,—and then they were not whispered, for the clatter of carriages obliged us to speak rather loudly. "Bridget, during these interesting walks, found great pleasure in making purchases. There was scarcely a shop, where any thing fashionable or elegant was to be seen, we did not visit, and my purse ministered liberally to her fancies. One morning, after a long tour of silks, and sarsnets, and gros de Naples, we had incautiously got into a crowd, for what reason or by what cause assembled I could not discover. Supposing, however, we might soon extricate ourselves, I continued to lead her onwards, till its increasing density rendered hopeless all means of egress, and we were fairly wedged into a fixed mass of human beings, each skull of which was upturned in one direction, though not an individual could tell what he gazed at. The pressure and sense of suffocation arising from a compound of villainous smells (it was in the month of August) were insupportable. A fellow with a wooden leg breathed in our faces fumes that whispered whence they stole their balmy spoils;' and so redolent were they of gin, that an experienced judge of that article might have ventured, without any other evidence, to guess the very distillery that supplied his morning draught. In vain did I struggle to rescue Bridget and myself from his vicinity. But perceiving my intention, the wretch contrived to fix the end of his timber leg on the most sensitive part of my foot, thus pinning me to the spot in a state of unutterable anguish. Having, however, released myself from the unmerciful monster, I succeeded in conducting Miss Arrowmark, as I thought, safely out of the rabble. She seemed to press my arm in mute acknowledgment of what I had suffered in her service, and to shew myself not insensible to that eloquent intimation, I peeped under her bonnet to congratulate her on her escape. How shall I express my horror, when, in place of the sunny smile wont to display a row of pearls whose whiteness was more than orient, I saw a yawning chasm, intended for a mouth, that intersected a wrinkled face of forty-five, and disclosed a chaos of jagged teeth that furnished a lively sketch of grave-stones that had felt the upheavings of an earthquake. Alarmed also at Bridget's disappearance, I strove to shake off her disgusting substitute. In vain; for the hag kept firm hold of my arm, and I was obliged to parade the streets with her, whilst she went on ogling in my face so ridiculously, that the passengers could not forbear stopping to look at us. In the mean time she called me her dear deliverer, her preserver, pouring forth, in short, a torrent of the most abominable nonsense. By a providential stumble, however, which I assisted with all my strength, and which rolled her in the mud, I effected my escape, and found that Bridget had arrived at her father's before me. A tall, well-dressed gentleman, of a military appearance, had rendered her his athletic assistance to conduct her out of the crowd. They had witnessed the scene with my old dowager, and Miss Arrowmark not having seen her hideous visage, but her exterior only, which was flauntingly fashionable, was in high dudgeon, seeming to think that I had deserted her for one who had a prior claim to my guardianship. The cloud, however, soon disappeared, and we were married. Nor should I have recorded the circumstance, but for some unpleasant results which it subsequently led to. "About four months after our marriage, we determined on a trip to the Continent, and intending to proceed through France, arrived at Havre de Grace. There was a table d'hôte at the inn, and as the scene was new to us, we proposed to stay a few weeks there. When the dinner was announced, I led Mrs. Middle race to the salon à manger. Nor was it without surprise, not to say emotions of a more mixed kind, that I remarked the tall handsome hussar, who had rescued Bridget from the crowd, taking his seat at the table close by her side. But conceive my horror and loathing, when I discerned my old female tormentor, the same accursed hag who, on the same occasion, had fixed her stump of an arm so tenaciously upon mine! With an expressive glance, that gave me a sickening foretaste of what was reserved for me, the creature leaped like a cat to the chair next to mine. There was no escape, and she began her abominable ravings-'Oh, Middlerace, Middlerace!' in a style that drew every eye upon us, and amongst others those of Bridget and the hussar-Oh, Ephraim, to leave me rolling in the mud-a new pelisse tarnished for ever!' the sorceress continued. Vainly did I protest that it was a clear case of insanity. Nobody was inclined to believe it; and what was most provoking, my wife and her Philander, who sate stroking his mustachios in seeming astonishment, were as incredulous as the rest. Luckily, the beldame having a keen appetite, the dinner interposed some pause to my sufferings. Nor was she sparing of her libations; but the inspiration of the cogniac, of which I plied her with successive bumpers, in the vain hope of rendering her rhapsodies inarticulate, made her still more insupportable. This was past endurance, so I removed to our own apartments, sending a message to Bridget to follow me. "And so she did; and her military friend with her. Mrs. Middlerace began to weep; the hussar to soothe her. Between the two, I cut an un enviable figure; for I could not convince her that my meeting the old devil in the crowd, and her recognition of me at the table d'hôte, being merely accidental, no foregone conclusion was fairly deducible from either. It is hateful to dwell on such incidents. The next day, the same farce was repeated. The morning after, I found my wife engaged in a game of chess with the well-looking fellow, who was eternally at her elbow. If at any time I ventured the hint, that it was improper to encourage his assiduities, I got nothing but an angry flood of tears, with pathetic allusions to the Sycorax, to whom she insinuated I had been for years and was still attached. So, to vary the scene, I strolled along the pier, where a number of persons were collected to see the packet bound to Southampton pass over the bar. In about half an hour, the packet came majestically along--and on the deck -sure it could not be?-I borrowed a glass and saw distinctly-Bridget herself leaning on the arm of her whiskered paramour! The matter, to do them justice, had been well-arranged. In a few minutes they were at sea, and the vessel a diminutive speck on the offing. "I returned in no enviable state of mind to the hotel. As I was hurrying Asiat.Journ.N.S.VOL.9.No.36. 2 X up to my apartment, the fiend, by whom I was hag-ridden, having the advantage of me by a stair or two, leapt frantically into my arms. It was no time for her execrable nonsense. With an effort of strength I scarcely deemed myself capable of, but which hate had maddened into fury, I whirled her round and flung her to the bottom. I found the room in the utmost disorder; and moreover, that in the hurry of their departure, they had packed up a bag of nearly a thousand louis d'ors, which my wife, with a laudable zeal for the preservation of my property, had kept under her own charge; leaving me with only the cash I happened to carry in my pocket. "Whilst I was brooding over these evils, a packet having arrived from England, a squabby tradesman-like sort of person stepped into the hotel, inquiring after and giving minute particulars of his wife, who had been for some time deranged, and whose particular caprice it was to imagine herself in love with any one whom at first sight she happened to fancy. She had escaped his vigilance, and having robbed his till of its contents, had proceeded to France, where my evil fate had contrived her meeting and recognizing me. "The landlord presented his bill, in which he had included the expenses of Monsieur l'officier Anglois. It was in vain to remonstrate; I remained there till my bills were returned honoured from England, and then, heartbroken and solitary, proceeded on my intended tour to the Continent, in order to dissipate the cloud of unavailing regrets which weighed down my spirits. Such was my first matrimonial essay. Poor Bridget! I found afterwards that her inamorato, having stripped her to her last trinket, deserted her for some new victim equally vain and credulous. My purse and heart were still open to her necessities. But she died in solitude, shame, and sorrow." TURKISH POETRY. FROM THE DIVAN-I-BAKI.* This is the ocean of love, and my tears burst like waves at the My head is the firmament of reproach, and my eye-brows are like anchors. The tiger of love agitates the forest of my grey hairs. My head is the barren desert of grief and despair. Though in the banquet I quaff the cup in memory of thy ruby lip, * Appendix to Mr. Davids' Turkish Grammar. (339) DR. SIEBOLD'S HISTORY OF JAPAN UNIVERSITY ད་མ་དབ་པག་ CALIFORNIA LESS is known in Europe of Japan than of any country in Asia. – The works of Kampfer and Thunberg are almost the only ones that can be mentioned which give any accurate description of it, for those published anterior to the works of these two travellers are not to be compared with theirs. In our time, however, a new avenue has been opened into the history of Japan. Dr. von Siebold, who resided a long time there, has returned to Europe, fortunately with the valuable collections of every kind which he made in that country, and which he is about to publish under the title of Archives of Nippon, or a Description of Japan and the adjacent Countries, namely, Yezo, the South Kurile Islands, Karafto (the Island of Tarrakai, improperly called Sakhalien), Koorae (or Corea), and the Lioo Kioo (or Loo Choo) Isles, compiled from Japanese and European works, and from observations made by the author himself. This work, which is in German, will contain memoirs, extracts, and illustrations of observations on the countries before-mentioned, arranged under the nine following heads: 1. Mathematical and physical geography, with an atlas containing maps, geographical, hydrographical, and geological; plans of cities, views, and synoptical tables. 2. A description of the inhabitants of Japan, their manners and customs; an account of the government and administration of the country. This portion of the work will be ornamented with portraits, representations of costumes, festivals, weapons, coats of arms,&c. In these two divisions are introduced the travels of the author by sea and land, 3. Mythology, history, antiquities, and numismatics, with appropriate plates. 4. Arts and sciences, the language and literature of Japan. The author proposes to give in this division a Japanese, Chinese, and Latin dictionary. 5. The Japanese Pantheon, containing the images, with brief descriptions, of the principal deities and deified monarchs. Plates will also be given representing the temples, convents, priests, monks, and nuns belonging to the different sects, as well of the Sintô religion as of that of Buddhô. 6. Agriculture, trade, commerce; with a description of the chief natural productions, the machines, utensils, &c. 7. A description of the countries adjoining Japan. 8. Extracts, translations or original texts of old and little known accounts of Japan, Yezo, &c.; with maps and figures. 9. Miscellaneous dissertations and memoirs. This important work will appear in parts, of from six to eight sheets, in large quarto, each accompanied by twenty lithographed prints. The whole will be comprized in from twenty to five-and-twenty parts, four of which will appear annually. Another work relating to Japan is now in the press, and will shortly be published at the expense of the Oriental Translation Fund, namely, the Japanese Annals entitled Nipon o dae itsi ran, or View of the Succession of the Emperors of Japan.' The original work consists of seven volumes, and contains the history of the daïris, or real emperors of Japan, |