as I should be, as I shall be hereafter. That was the ailment of your true heart, and it has found a cure. Is it so? Can it be so? Oh, say that it is so-say it now."

Under the young leaves, beside the old stream, which both had loved so long, she said it was.

"A boat! a boat!" said Elmer. "I must row you off before you can realize fully that I am not the fury, the monster, who periled his all-yes, even your life—in his determination to hold an unwon prize."

Gently he placed her, gently he seated himself before her, and he touched the silvered water with his oar. Again its patter was happy music, again the shores breathed pleasantness through all their waving, whispering leaves. Again the water smiled back the light that shone into its depths from happy eyes. Again the earth, the air, the sky, seemed listening for the answer of a noble girl, and this time their waiting ears were satisfied.

THE PERUVIAN AMAZON AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. NOTES FROM A JOURNAL OF TRAVEL.

NOT

III.

ON THE PACHITEA, May 15, 1874. OTWITHSTANDING the asseverations of our Indian friends as to the early arrival of the steamer Tambo, we had begun to think that it was something to be talked about only, and never to be realized; and were casting about in our minds as to whether we could kill time for the next two months, or whether that much time and mosquitoes would not kill us, when paddle-wheels were heard, and we were all revivified by seeing the Tambo slowly rounding a point a few miles down the river. Our little camp was instantaneously transformed from a drowsy, listless state of indifference into one of considerable excitement, although the various races represented in our small number took very different ways of expressing their pleasure. The Anglo-Saxon had to give vent to his feelings by yelling; the Peruvian by firing up and nervously smoking cigarettes at lightningspeed, only taking them from his lips to rattle out "Caramba!" to some stupid sailor; while the Indians of the settlement, who saw their bright visions of glittering needles, knives, and axes, Americáno, about to be realized, only looked more stupid and stolid than ever. Nothing on earth could force one of these Indians to change countenance, or in any way to express surprise. He would nonplus the greatest singer or musician in the world as to his appreciation or non-appreciation; and the miracles of the New Testament would have all been visibly lost upon him. The Tambo, being afraid to try our passage, ran around an island, and dropped anchor a few hundred yards above the mouth of the Pachitea. In a few moments we were aboard; and the pleasures of that evening and night will not soon be forgotten by the Mayro's party.

May 16th.-In the morning when I awoke

jumped up, determined to solve the mystery, and ran head foremost into a cage of parrots the first thing. However, continuing my researches, I found that the Tambo had been collecting birds and animals at every point between Yquitos and this place. I think there must have been a dozen varieties not included in the collection in the Garden of Eden. The exhibition of monkeys was particularly fine; and I have no doubt that Mr. Darwin could have spent several hours very agreeably in examining their respective phys iognomies. Even I imagined that I could detect race differences among them. There was the "heavy, burly " Englishman, with his side-whiskers; the nervous, active, little Latin, with his mustache; and the long, bony, ever-restless Yankee. In fine, there were monkeys with long tails, monkeys with short tails, and tails of every description; and some with a distorted, unhappy expression of countenance, as if suffering from diseased liver. These last had a chronic case of "bad temper;" and had they not, by sundry missiles (such as old slippers, chips of wood, etc., from their masters), been admonished to the contrary, would, in short order, have deprived their comrades in captivity of their caudal appendages. Upon entering the saloon, I was greeted by a host of parrots and other birds, in remarks doubtless very trite and choice; but, as they all spoke at once, I understood none of them. They were ranged along the backs of the sofas and chairs, and were not much more amiable in disposition than the monkeys. Such animals and birds as were of Mr. Patrick Henry's way of thinking, and preferred death to loss of liberty, ornamented the mirrors and ceiling with their heads, wings, and tails; and, if the old Tambo could have been run straight to the United States, she would have made the most interesting show in the country. At ten A. M. the launch got up steam, ran past the Tambo, and dropped anchor a few hundred feet in advance of her. The whole commission, in the two steamers belonging to them, now lay at anchor a few hundred feet above the mouth of the river they had been so long trying to reach; but so late in the season was it, and so rapid the fall of water, that it was determined not to take the vessels up the stream. Canoes, therefore, were ordered to be collected to carry the commission and provisions for four or five weeks up the Pachitea, and as far up the Pichis as might be deemed practicable, a distance estimated at some two or three hundred miles.

May 19th. This morning, the canoes, being all ready, were brought alongside the Tambo, and at nine A. M. we embarked. At 9.15 A. M. we shoved off, floated down to the mouth of the river, and the survey of the Pachitea began. For about half a mile we were escorted by the boats of the Tambo, bearing her officers, the officers of the launch, and numerous bottles of brandy; but, the

brandy being soon expended, they gave us three cheers, aud left us to pursue our weary way.

There are seven canoes in our party. Six of them belong to the Hydrographical Commission, and one to a gentleman who accompanies us to the mouth of the river Pichis. These canoes were obtained from the Conibo Indians, who live at the mouth of the Pachitea River. They are from thirty to thirty-five feet long, with three feet beam. Each is dug out of one tree, usually a tree called cedro, a soft wood, and very much resembling that of which cigar-boxes are generally made. I have seen, however, enormous canoes dug out of the mahogany-tree. In each one of our canoes there is, a little abaft of midships, a section of ten feet, fitted up with a thick thatch-roof of palm-leaves, which serves, in time of rain, as a protection for both crew and cargo. Each canoe has a man who stands on the extreme projection of the stern and steers with a huge paddle. He is the most important man in the crew, and the others are in complete subjection to him. He is called the popero, and is generally some very old Indian, all knots, scars, and bruises, with a face recording drunken debauches and revels without number, and with a superciliousness of bearing never yet attained by a steamboat-captain.

The next most important character is the puntero. He is generally an active young Indian, whose position is right in the bow, and whose duty it is to watch out for snags and bad passes. He, and his captain, the popero, communicate with each other by a system of whistles and signals. Our crews, varying from five to six Indians each, occupy the forward part of the boat, and are equipped with poles, paddles, and vegetable ropes, for hauling the canoes up over bad places. Just in front of the thatch-roof is the place apportioned to the members of the commission, there being from one to two of us in each canoe. We have a major and ten soldiers, also, taken from the column of marines at Yquitos. Besides this each member of the commission is armed with a Remington breech-loading army carbine and revolver. The canoe of the president of the commission flies a small Peruvian flag, so that we can show these savages to what country they belong. This is the order of sailing: In advance, the canoe of the president of the commission; next, the canoe of the engineers; the others, anywhere they can get, only preserving their proper intervals; and the surgeon in the rear canoe, acting as rear-guard, and to keep the provisioncanoes from running away.

In consequence of the late start, we did not go far this day, stopping for the night at the house of Pedro, brother of Clemente. Pedro is certainly a great chief, and a man of importance in this part of the country. His house is the finest I have seen among these Indians. It is seventy feet long by forty feet wide, and is thirty feet high. The roof is a beautiful, light frame-work of small poles and canes, braced in accordance with the most scientific principles, and covered with palmthatch, the rows being colored alternately black and white. The sides of this house are all open, though sometimes closed by vertical

canes. Here the number of mosquitoes was greater than any thing we had been called upon to endure in South America, it being impossible to converse without drawing them into the mouth. The Indians, however, did not seem to mind them at all. They sat flat upon the ground, with their feet drawn up under them; and, every two or three seconds, scooped around with their hands, and deposited in their mouths the mosquitoes thus caught. They say that, in this way, they get back the blood of which the mosquitoes have robbed them.

May 20th.-In consequence of having to wait for three Indians, whom Pedro had hired to accompany us on the expedition, we were prevented from starting until quite late in the day. We finally got off at nine A. M., and at four P. M. stopped for the night at a small deserted hut. To us this shelter was literally the ultima Thule of civilization, for it was the last approximation to a house that we were to see for a good many days. It was verily the crudest architectural germ imaginable. A clearing had been made here, by hacking down a dozen or so of trees, among whose tall stumps were growing a few stalks of maize and plantains. In the centre of this opening the leaves had been scraped away for a rectangular area of fifteen by seven feet.

At the four corners of this area, saplings had been driven vertically into the ground. These saplings, four feet from the ground, had been cut half through, and the tops of the end pairs brought together, and lashed with bark, so that they had the inclination of rafters. Horizontal poles and intermediate supports completed the framework of the roof, which was thinly thatched with palm-leaves. Upon inquiring, we found that the hut had belonged to the Indians Pedro had hired to us, and that they were Cashibos whom he had surprised and captured, and of whom he made slaves. After having landed, and prepared our respective couches and mosquito-bars, the canoes were examined; and, this being our first night in the enemy's country, our sentinels were carefully posted. The soldiers requested permission to be allowed to stick their bayonets against the trees, to keep each other awake, instead of wailing out their doleful "Centi nela!-a-ler-to!" Then came the grand event of the day-our evening's "hasty plate of soup," after which we crawled under our mosquito-bars, some to smoke, but all to be soon sung to sleep by innumerable bugs, beetles, and other forest insects.

May 21st.-At six A. M. we were under way, the river at every mile presenting a changed appearance. Large playas (flats) of gravel were now of frequent occurrence; and sharp curves and rapid currents were encountered more frequently in the river's course. At one P. M. we passed near the foot of a range of high and beautiful hills. We are now fairly in the country of the Cashibos, a cannibal tribe, for whom we keep a good lookout. At half-past four P. M. we stopped, for the night, on a small island known as Chonta Isla, and of which our Indians had a holy horror, in consequence of a sad event that occurred there not many months ago. The Peruvian Government had

sent a small steamer up the river, which in coming down was swept by the current high up on the point of this island. The Indians came down to the bank, and made signs of friendship. The captain and second commander got into a boat, and went ashore. While they were kneeling down to untie little bundles of beads and presents, they were fired on with arrows from all around. One was killed instantly, the other attempted to run to the boat with several arrows sticking in him. He was shot down again, and the men in the boat barely escaped. An expedition of three armed vessels was sent to punish them. The vessels anchored near the bank, and landed sixty men. These men penetrated for twelve miles into the forest without seeing an Indian. Then they came to an Indian village, and succeeded in making some captures. One, a woman, was observed to wear a remarkable necklace. Upon examination it was found to be composed of human teeth, which were recognized by an officer in the party as those of his brother, the late commander of the little steamer. The village was set on fire, when suddenly the woods seemed to be alive with Indians, who immediately commenced the attack, and, but for the retreat and embarkation of the troops being covered by the vessels shelling the woods, they would all have been killed. This woman said that the feet and a portion of the hands of the men killed were very delicate eating.

May 22d.-Last night, as soon as landed, we selected a sleeping-place on the hard gravel spit at the upper end of the little island, and made our Indians build a flattopped shelter out of saplings and palmleaves to keep off the dew. Notwithstanding the tragic event which had occurred here a few months previous, we were soon under our mosquito-bars; and cannibals and all the world beside had long been forgotten, when a cool drop drop! in the face, and a cold stream under the back, interrupted the tenor of our dreams. The falling in of half of the thatch to our roof brought us fully to consciousness; and we found that it was raining fearfully. This, however, was nothing new to us. We had all had four years' schooling in that sort of thing, on a former occasion, in the United States. So, after crawling out from under the wet palm-leaves, and drinking a little diluted water to keep out the cold, some of us went to sleep again in the wet, the rest walking about until morning.

At sharp six A. M. we left Chonta Isla, the rain still falling, and it being quite chilly. On turning a point just above the island, we came in sight of the first rocks we had seen on the Pachitea River, and for hours traveled under vertical walls of it, twenty to thirty feet high, and perfectly green with moss and immense ferns. At eleven A. M., the rain having abated, we stopped on a bare gravel island to cook breakfast and dry our clothing. While waiting for breakfast, an Indian raised the cry of "Grande bestia!" and we saw the head of a tapir out in the middle of the river. He was trying to gain the other bank, but the current washed him down toward us. Although a long way

off, three or four of the party were placing balls all around his head, when he dived, Two of us jumped into a canoe and paddled for the point on the opposite bank where we thought he would land. We reached the bank before him, and, as he came up out of the water, put two army-balls into his side, at the distance of only a few yards; but be trotted off into the woods, as if nothing had happened, though we tracked him for some distance by his blood.

May 23d.-To-day we saw many more signs of Cashibos. Passed one of their balsas, (A balsa is a kind of raft made from wood of that name very buoyant, being no heavier than cork.)

When our pilot (who is an Indian, and allowed to keep a little in advance or in rear of our party, in order to kill game) came into camp to-night, he reported having communicated with two Casbibos, who were perfectly naked, and who gave him a piece of sugar-cane, making signs that he was to present it to our chief. We stopped for the night at what was evidently a Cashibo plantation. It consisted of a clearing of onequarter of an acre set in plantains. There were several well-trodden paths diverging from it into the forest. Although we saw or heard nothing, it was deemed proper to detail a watch from the commission, besides the regular guard of soldiers.

May 24th.-This morning, at the usual hour, we got under way, nothing of particu lar interest having occurred during the night, except that some brandy, from the stores put under the charge of the watch detailed from the commission, was found missing. The watch seemed to think that the cannibals must have stolen it during the night; but the rest of the party thought differently. It was a glorious morning, and the canoes traveled in regular order near the bank, and under a dense, dark archway of overhanging boughs, festooned with enormous flowering creepers. At nine A. M. we round. ed a point, and came suddenly into view of abeautiful basin, interspersed with dark-green islands, and having a white, pebbly beach. At a distance, and towering up, with their peaks stuck through numerous white, feathery clouds, as if to get a look down into this ba sin, were seen the mountains of San Carlos. Many of these mountains seemed to have flat tops suitable for cultivation or grazing. On one of these islands there was a Cashibo settlement. They came down to the bank, and, like so many orang-outangs, barked and jabbered at us from behind the bushes, but would not let us see them. We stopped near this place for breakfast, and one fellow came out to take a look at us; but as soon as we went toward him he disappeared. About one P. M. we were proceeding in a very quiet manner close to the bank, when suddenly we heard two shots in rapid succession, from the pilot's canoe, and saw it dart out into the stream. Arrows were seen falling around it, and at the same time we heard the pilot calling to us to keep out, that we were attacked by Cashibos. All the canoes closed up, and we were ready with cocked rifles and revolvers to pour a volley into the first bush that shook, but nothing more occurred; and, as we made no

He was near the bank, when suddenly he heard the twang of a bow-string, and instantaneously four arrows struck around him. One wounded him in the arm, and another went entirely through the side of his canoe (of wood, and more than one inch thick). He immediately fired his gun, and jumped into the water to save himself, when many other arrows fell around him. I suppose the Indians were frightened off by seeing us close up so rapidly; and, though we saw many more signs during the evening, we saw no more Cashibos in the flesh. We stopped for the night at a most picturesque spot, about six miles from the scene of our late little encounter. Here we found an enormous hot spring, with a temperature of 113° Fahr. and a most sulphurous smell.

some

May 25th.This being Sunday, we laid over and took observations for latitude and longitude. Found that we were in latitude 9° 5' 52 south, longitude 74° 48′ 15′′ west of Greenwich. Distance from Brazilian frontier, 1,140 miles; elevation above sea, 169.773 metres. We had now gotten into a high, undulating country. The river's banks are steep and rocky. It runs parallel to the San Carlos Mountains, and near their base. It is contracted in width, and at points has a strong current, against which it is very laborious to pole the canoes; but, so far, our crews worked steadily and well. There is very little change in the vegetation, the trees being possibly not so tall, and appearing to be of harder grain and more durable. About twelve м. we heard a furious firing in the direction in which some men had gone hunting. Supposing them to be attacked by Cashibos, we were under arms in a minute, and a party sent to their support. The hunting-party soon came in, however, and solved the mystery by bringing with them four monkeys, weighing about forty pounds each.

May 26th.-Six A. M. found us on the way again; and the magnificent scenery through which we passed, and which surrounded us on every side, all day, amply rewarded us for all hardships endured. At this point the river breaks through a range of hills, and, for these children of hers, Nature has formed magnificent cliffs, and decorated them in the most superb manner. Walls of colored sandstone rise to the height of one hundred feet and more, with every degree of inclination some rising so beautifully straight and with such regular faces that you could hardly convince yourself that the hand of man had not been concerned in it; others with a gentle, regular slope from the water, like the front of some old fortress; others lean out over the water, presenting perfectly-formed Gothic arches and niches of every size, ornamented with beautiful basins, supplied with sparkling water from miniature cataracts above. Now and then a stream comes gushing out from a narrow gorge as dark as midnight; and over the whole face of this superb picture is hung, in graceful folds, a gorgeous lace-work of flowering vines and richest tropical foliage.

Upon a narrow ledge at the base of one

upon examination discovered that the whole face of the cliff, as high up as a man could reach, was covered with curious hieroglyphics. We had no time for investigation, but hoped to stop a day or so as we returned, when we would endeavor to gain the top of the rock and make further explorations. We supposed them to be traces of the Incas, and this is the farthest point east that they have been discovered.

May 30th.-Our canoe-life had become quite monotonous, and even a rain was hailed with pleasure by way of a change, when today we were entertained by another Cashibo excitement. Some five or six of them discovered us from the bank, and put up a howl. The canoes were stopped, and presents were held out and signs made for them to approach. They came trotting out into the water, like dogs, howling and bringing a few pieces of sugar-cane and plantains, which they held out to us in token of friendship. The men were perfectly naked. The women had a covering of bark about the loins. Their language, if it can be called such, only resembled the ravings of a man shot in the brain, which I once heard. They were the most miserable-looking devils I ever saw, and, except in that particular, presented no uniform appearance. Two had beard — something remarkable for Indians, but which we had beard was a peculiarity of these. We made them presents of knives, old clothes, and fish-hooks, and some of our Indians jumped overboard to show them how to put the clothes on. The garments suffered by the operation, and you could see an old Cashibo floundering about with only one breeches-leg on, and the other tied around his neck in imitation of a cravat. They coveted ornaments more than any thing else, and stripped their friends, who were assisting in their toilets, of every thing in that line. All small articles that were given them they would immediately hide under rocks and in holes scratched in the sand, and then run back for more. We shoved off, and, upon getting around on the other side of the island, found them collected in large numbers, with strung bows and arrows. passed we bargained with fish-hooks for two bows and arrows; but, after giving them the hooks, the bows had to be taken from them by force, and then they tried to pull our canoe ashore. Just here we heard a dip in the water, and found that they were firing on We soon silenced their batteries with our Remingtons, though they showed no fear of balls, possibly from ignorance! For a long time after we had ceased firing we could hear them beating logs together, in order to collect their tribe. Treachery is here, as in the United States, the distinctive characteristic of the Indian. They came down to the canoes to secure presents. Seeing no bows and arrows, they supposed us not armed, and therefore determined to capture us.

us.

As we

Attached to each of the bows were pieces of cane, about eight inches long, which, our Indians said, were knives, with which to cut our throats after shooting us. The weapons of these Indians, except that they are rougher in construction and larger in size, resemble

very much those of their neighbors, the Conibos. Each tribe seems to have adopted certain measurements and dimensions for bows and arrows; and whatever may have been selected as a unit of measure is certainly atcurately observed, as we always found implements of the same kind, and belonging to the same tribe, to be of the same dimensions, no matter how far apart the parties possessing them might have been separated.

The Conibo bow is made of chonta-wood(a variety of palm), and is six and a half feet long, very stiff, and neatly wrapped with cotton-thread, and then painted in an ornamental manner. The arrow is five and a half feet long, and consists of a piece of hard wood, a foot in length, barbed and brought to a fine point, and a piece of light cane four and a half feet long, to which the former is attached. About two inches from the butt are affixed two long feathers, put on spirally, so as to impart to the arrow a rotary motion, such as given to a rifle-ball by the grooves of the barrel. The bow of the Cashibo is made from the same material, but is longer, stiffer, and rougher, in manufacture. The arrows are of the same length as the bow, seven feet, consisting of a section of reed tipped with hard wood, but they have no feathers, and really are nothing more than short spears or javelins, propelled by the bow; and, as the undergrowth is so dense, have all the range desired.

NELSON B. NOLAND (Civil Engineer of the Hydrographical Commission of the Peruvian Amazon and its Tributaries).

A CURIOUS OLD BOOK.

THER

HERE is something very attractive in an old book, even supposing that you are not a collector. If you are, and have the mania, you might as well put fire to gunpowder, meat before a starving man, or a rare bit of cracked china before one of the ceramic lunatics, as to allow yourself to go into a certain deserted library from which I have just come. Such folios, bound in heavy calf; such fine old medieval clasps; such red-lettered title-pages; such splendid type; such rich yellow paper; and such gnawing of the tooth of Time!

These books were collected more than seventy years ago by a clergyman living in a very remote and thinly-populated place.

They must have been carried by ox-teams a greater portion of the way-say fifty miles supposing them to have been purchased at Albany. If they were bought in New York, then they were conveyed by sloop to Catskill, and thence west by ox-teams into the almost pathless wilderness which led to the town which is now their hiding-place. It is a pleasant picture, the refined and gentle clergyman, the man of culture, loving literature next to his wife and his church, spending his small overplus of money for books, which then must have been very expensive, and taking such pains to transport them to his distant field of labor. They were to him society, general conference, general convention, interchange of thought, and inspiration. With them he was never lonely:

"My days among the dead are passed;
Around me I behold,
Where'er these casual eyes are cast,
The mighty minds of old:
My never-failing friends are they,
With whom I converse day by day."

No matter how isolated his dwelling, how inferior his associates, he had but to step into his library to meet the best society. And, by the appearance of these well-thumbed volumes, he read his books. No doubt, in the long winter evening he called his family and humble neighbors about him, and read aloud to them. A keen, thinking, hard-working, Scotch Presbyterian immigrant population was all about him, all alive for information and subjects for discussion. Many a Davie Deans" came in to chop logic and crack hard theological nuts with the parson, and many a pale and poor Reuben Butler sought the congenial atmosphere of the minister's study. Many a woman of refined instincts whom poverty had fastened amid unkind and sordid duties came here to quench that thirst for knowledge which in some natures is insatiable.

douce

The old books have a history. The personality of the past is pressed into their yellow pages like faded flowers. Now they lie for the time neglected, doubtless, however holding their message for some future reader. Like good sentinels, they do not desert their post. The silent and thoughtful girl, the bright-eyed and thinking boy, will arise to receive that message, and carry it on to other and less fortunate people.

The first book we open is a massive folio, whose covers of solid leather are much the worse for wear. It has, however, a splendid title page in black and red, which reads thus: "An Institution of General History, or the History of the Ecclesiastical Affairs of the World, contemporary with the Second Part; containing that of the Roman Empire, its first countenancing and receiving the Christian Religion, from the Conversion of Constantine the Great to the Fall of Augustulus and the Ruine of the Empire in the West, with an Account of the Polity of the Church and the several Laws and Canons of Moment made during the Reign of the Emperours, both in East and West to this Period. By William Howel, LL. D., sometimes Fellow of Magdalen College, in Cambridge. London: printed for the Author's Widdow, by Miles Flefler, 1685."

There it is, delicious odd spelling, perfectly arbitrary disposition of capitals, and the long f for 8.

Why Augustulus, and why Emperour? Why widdow with two d's? No one knows. It comes from the seat of learning-Cambridge, in England-and is printed in London, centre of the world's learning and thought.

The dedication is a masterpiece, and runs as follows:

"The High and Mighty Prince James the 2d, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc. Great Sir: Among the crowds of Loyal Counties and Corporations that address themselves unto your MAJESTY, Vouchsafe to permit a DESOLATE WIDOW to approach unto your sacred Presence to congratulate Your Happy and Most

Just Possession of the Throne of these Kingdoms by laying a small Present at your Royal Feet.

"Which is due to Your MAJESTY by a double Title, both by Right of Succession to our Late Gracious Soveraign, by whose Royal Bounty this work was encouraged, and also by the Designment of the Author, who intended, had not his Death prevented it, to have Dedicated this Book to his Royal Highness JAMES the Duke of York, which I now offer to the sacred MAJESTY of KING JAMES the SECOND,

"Whom I beseech the King of Kings long to preserve, Beloved of all his subjects, Dreaded by all his Enemies, and Renowned to all Posterity in the History of future Ages.

66

So prayeth with due Reverence "Your Majesties

Most Loyal Subject

"MARY HOWEL."

Here is a fine, pompous loyalty for you! Mary Howel believed in the Stuarts, evidently. She wrote that preface on her knees,

one would think. She had no doubt who was her loyal soveraign, as she spells it.

It is curious that she spells widow with one d, while her printer on the title-page spells it with two. It shows how chaotic was the orthography of that day.

The preface covers quite ground enough for a lifetime's reading, and is a model of compact and definite writing. It is a gem in its way, and invites perusal by its frequent capitals and large, emphatic type:

"The Authour having all along in his first part intermixed the Ecclesiastical Affairs with the Secular, thought it would be most useful now to represent them by themselves, separately in a distinct Volume which is here presented to the Reader, wherein he hath brought down his account of them, to the Fall of Augustulus, and the Ruine of the Empire in the West, (where the Second Part ends,) setting forth how the Great Emperour Constantine was converted to the Faith, and what means and methods he took to propagate the Christian Religion and destroy by degrees the long practised Idolatry of the Pagan World. With an account of the Church Polity; what was its Government, who were its Governours, their several offices, Degrees, and Orders. The Affairs of the Church follow from the first General Council of Nice against the Arians to the Apostacy of Julian, thence to the SECOND General Council, summoned by Theodosius the First at Constantinople against the Haeresie of Macedonius: thence to the third called by Theodosius the Second to meet at Ephesus, against the Haeresie of NESTORIUS, and thence to the FOURTH, called by Martianus to Chalcedon, against the Haeresie of Eutyches and Dioscorus, and so down to the deposing of Augustulus and the Fall of the Empire in the West, with the division of the Church into the East and West. The Decrees and Canons of each Council are set down, both for the settling good order and Government, and for suppressing those Schisms and Haeresies which the Devil raised by his aspiring Agents that by sowing such Tares he might spoil Christs Husbandry."

But William Howel told his old, old story well. It is more interesting than any novel, this ponderous old tome, with its ponderous ecclesiastical title. The great story of Constantine is a romance, however told, and this writer had the narrative power. He tells us how "this year he also published a constitu tion against Witches, Inchanters, and such

|

as by Invocation of Devils raised Tempests or disturbed the Brains of Men;" also how he "purged his new city from all superstition and Idolatry, so that nowhere therein were statues of Idols in their Temples, nor Altars defiled by the Blood of Impure Sacrifices, nor Feasts of Devils celebrated." This work is full of allusions to his Satanic Majesty, which reminds us, by force of contrast, how the devil has disappeared from literature. In all old books he makes a great show, but in modern works he is scarcely alluded to. Does that betray respect or fear; or is it a mark of contempt and forgetfulness? The chronicler continues: "But not only at Constantinople, but in Italy, at Rome and throughout the Empire, great was his magnificence in the building and endowing of churches, concerning which a Book was written, which Anas tatius the Vatican Library keeper published out of it. He commanded one to be built in the very place where Our Saviour's Sepulchre was, which the Heathens endeavoring to deface, had there built a chappel to Venus."

He has chapters on the "Church Polity," which afford stuff for thousands of sermons, It would seem as if he had many lives, this prolific and indefatigable author; and he is never dull, always quaint and zealous; he has also a juicy style, and a wit and origi nality which is almost like that of Jeremy Taylor.

There is a little sarcasm in the following: "After Christianity was more diffused and settled, and that particular churches were assigned to Residentary Incumbents, a more certain way of Livelyhood was obtained, and the Maintenance of the Minister became the Burden of the Soil. When Kings once became Nursing Fathers, and Queens Nursing Mothers to the Church, Bishops were presently provided of a certain and ample Revenue!"

Such a writer, of course, was disposed to have his fling at poor Arius, whom he thus attacks, with much fine writing:

"Constantine having relieved the Church from Persecution and other external pressures, it began speedily to be more afflicted than usual by internal Evils. The pinching cold of Adversity makes us keep close and unite together, nipping the Passions of Strife and Aemulation in their Blossoms; but in the Sunshine of Prosperity we separate our selves, and the evil roots of Pride, Vainglory, Hatred, and Contention, then put forth and One Arius gave the occa sprout amaine. sion to these Distempers, a Man born (for publick Mischief), as most writers say, in Alexan dica, Educated at School in Antioch, where he obtained a Competency of Humane Learn ing," etc.

It would be curious to learn what such a scholar would call an affluence of learning, if Arius had but a competency.

Arius having gained over seven hundred women to what Mr. Howel would call his haerisie, he indulges in the following sar casm: For he had a smooth and flattering Tongue, was of a winning Behavior, though serious aspect, and indeed every way a goodly person, a very prevalent means to procure respect from ordinary capacities, es pecially those of the Weaker Sex."

William Howel did not believe in the equality of the sexes. Evidently he was not

a "woman's rights man," the good old Cambridge scholar.

But we must skip. Life is not so long as it was; we cannot linger over these details of Arius-we must omit the beautiful, sad story of Hypatia, which he tells well; we must omit the story of Leo the Great, and the royal admirer Eudocia, and stop but a moment at the story of the siege of Amida in the reign of Anastatius:

"The Persians entered the town a few at a time, and ascending the Turret killed the Monks as they lay asleep. Then did Cabades set scaling-ladders to the wall adjoining the turret and when day appeared the Besieged, who guarded the next Turret, perceiving the danger they were in, hasted to the Rescue. And after an hot Conflict, they had the better of it, for killing many men that had already got up they kept off those upon the Ladders, and were very near quit of the Danger. But Cabades drawing his scimitar, forced his men up the Ladders, threatening Death to the comers down, and thereby overpowering the Defendants, by numbers, took the town after eighty days' Siege. Great slaughter was made, till Ca- | bades, riding into the town, his fury was assuaged by an old Priest, of Amida, who told him that it was not Royally done to kill men at his mercy. Cabades yet angry demanded why then they should stand out against him? Because, sir, replied the Priest, God would give you Amida, not by our wills, but by your own valor. Cabades, pleased with this, reply, suffered no more execution to be done, but permitted his Souldiers to sack the city, and take Prisoners, of which he had the principle to himself. Then leaving in Garri son a thousand persons, under one Glones, and some wretched Citizens, to serve them with necessaries, with his Prisoners, he marched Home. Yet with the Prisoners he dealt very princely, for he let them all go home free, and gave out that they ran away. Anastatius also dealt kindly with them, remitting to their country their tribute for seven years, and conferring many Benefits both upon the City, and private men, so that they soon forgot the misery they had undergone."

Ladies who have bought at Tiffany's, of late years, those very pretty dog-inkstands, probably have very little idea of the antiquity of the notion, or of the classical history attached to them. Let us hear our old friend on that subject, also on the probable origin of monograms. It occurs first in the history of Justin:

"Justin having promoted this his nephew whether to the good liking of himself and the Senate or not, died of an old wound he had received in Battel by the shot of an arro (in his foot some say as others in his thigh) four months, after, abut the first of August, having Reigned nine years, one month, and three days, and lived seventy-seven. A mark of extraordinary fortune, which wrought so wonderfully that from a keeper of Cattel, he should rise to be a Commander of men, first of Souldiers, then of the Praetorian Guards; and at last of all men within the Roman world, having escaped two Imprisonments. Yet was he Analphabetus as the Greeks called him or one who could not read or knew no letters, which had not happened to the Romans before in the opinion of the Author of the secret history ascribed to Procopius. Whereas the Emperour, he faith, was wont, when he ordained anything to add to the paper the letters of his name, he could neither ordain nor was able to do business, but Proclus, who executed the office of Quaestor, and

was his Assessour, governed as he pleased; but that there might remain some shew of the Emperour's Hand, he that waited or the chief Secretary (who from that thing formed to the shape of a little Dog wherein the Ink was contained had the tittle of a Caniculo,) found out a way. They ingraved in a polished piece of wood the form of four Latin letters which being laid on a paper, a pen dipped in the purple ink, with which Emperours were wout to write, was put into Justin's Hand, which those about holding stirred it about, and drew the pen through those clifts of wood, or forms of letters, and so carried away their letters signed."

Old Mr. Howel is great on the subject of the Roman empresses. He tells their varied story with an evident gusto. He is especially pleased to dilate on Theodora, who went from a circus to a throne, and he is astonished at the infatuation of Justinian for her. One would suppose that the affair had just happened in London, in the year 1680, and that Mr. Howel was in some way mixed up in it. It is this freshness, this delightful interest in his old stories, which makes his style so piquant and readable. Of Justinian he says: "He was of middle stature indifferent fat, of a Beautifull countenance, though something long visaged, his complexion being Ruddy, after he had fasted two days together." While of Theodora he gives us a careful lineage: "At Constantinople lived one Acacius, whose calling and employment it was to feed and look to the Beasts which belonged to the Faction of the Prasini and were wont to be baited in the Amphitheatre. He had three daughters, Comitona, Theodora and Anastasia, whereof the Eldest was scarcely then seven years old. Their Mother married (after the death of the Bearward) a second Husband, But Asterius Master of the Orchestra, who by virtue of his office had the disposal of the place, sold it to another, and so turned out the Mother, her second Husband and her daughters."

Being very handsome, these daughters were clothed with garlands in their heads and hands, and put on the stage. Comitona became very famous for talent and beauty, and Theodora waited upon her as a servant. On her arriving at woman's estate, she became an actress, and also so depraved that all persons esteemed it a matter of ill luck "if they met her in the morning," yet after several years of dissolute experience, in various countries, she met Justinian, at Constantinople, when he immediately fell passionately in love with her and married her. She continued to the end of her cruel and most wicked life to maintain her influence over the great, powerful, and law-making emperor.

"Indeed she had a lovely face, she was of little stature, and had a quick and rowling eye," says the faithful chronicler.

She must have been a very clever woman, skilled in all the arts of dissimulation. She and her husband had the art to appear to take different sides of a question, while in reality agreeing, which our chronicler thus curiously and ingeniously describes :

"In Law suits and matters of controversie, the one sided with the plaintiff and the other with the Defendant, and to be sure he that had the worst cause carried it, giving over one half or more, to gain the other.

Many persons he pretended to favor, and suffered them to pill the Commonwealth at their pleasure, whom she must accuse and prosecute, sore against his mind, as he pretended, who would seem to take their part, but in the end they must bleed out their wealth, into his coffers. By these arts they carried on their work with much ease and established their Tyranny so as it was not to be shaken."

Quoting from Procopius, Mr. Howel says: "Of Justinian He was absolutely ill-conditioned, and as apt to be deceived, being both Knave and Fool, equally with the other "which differs, rather, from Gibbon's opinion of the author of the "Codes and Pandects," or, at least, the ruler under whose authority they were compiled. The Justinian Code, forming now the common law of all nations, betrays the highest state of civilization; it is hard to believe that a "knave and a fool," and a depraved girl from the circus, ruled over that polished society, yet she and he are said to have utterly ruined the Roman state. Mr. Howel quotes largely from Procopius, never a trustworthy authority. Men wrote history then, as nowadays, largely to gratify their own prejudices, principally their religious prejudices.

Beautifully told, in our old book, is the story of Belisarius. Warriors and wars, and fine women, interested Mr. Howel. Dozens of good stories, cores of novelettes, embellish his fine, old-fashioned pages. He comes to his polemics unwillingly, but with strength and racy language; yet the reader sees where his heart is.

He covers an immensity of ground, going from the objections urged to the marrying of a deceased wife's sister, by Constantine, to the price of silk in the reign of Justinian. Here is a digression interesting to modern ladies:

"In times past the Manufacture of Silks was confined to two cities of Phoenicia, Berytus and Tyre, whence they were transported all the world over. Now the Merchants at Byzantium and other cities, who traded in this commodity, raised the price, pretending that they paid more than formerly had been usual in Persia, and were burthened with the tenth part, in the Roman Territories. He therefore made a Law, that a pound of Silk should be sold for eight Aurei, under pain of Confiscation of Goods, to any one that should offend against it, which burthen the Merchants not able, or not willing to bear, gave over the Trade, and what remained of their wares passed away privately, and by stealth of which Theodora getting an inkling, made them pay her down an hundred pounds of Gold, and beside that, to lose their goods.

'By this means, multitudes are undone, and all the Artificers of Tyre and Berytus, who had lived upon this Manufacture, were either compelled to starve, or to beg their Bread, and some of them fled into Persia. Gold and silk in the days of the Emperour were exchanged weight for weight (as was once Tobacco here for silver). Now, if a pound of silk was sold for a pound of gold, a pound of silk must have been worth an hundred Aurei. But silk was grown much cheaper in the days of Justinian, in whose time, as the reader may remember, we formerly told him that silk worms were brought by certain Monks out of India to Constantinople, and other parts of the Empire. But to what an height is the silk manufacture now advanced, and what difference is there betwixt our days