such hopes and sentiments as honourable ambition inspires. If I have not been lucky in the lottery of life, so neither do I think myself unfortunate. I owe no man a farthing; I can always command a clean shirt, a mutton-chop, and a truss of straw; and, when I die, I shall leave effects sufficient to defray the expense of my burial."

My uncle assured him he had no intention to give him the least offence by the observations he had made; but, on the contrary, spoke from a sentiment of friendly regard to his interest. The lieutenant thanked him with a stiffness of civility which nettled our old gentleman, who perceived that his moderation was all affected; for, whatsoever his tongue might declare, his whole appearance denoted dissatisfaction. In short, without pretending to judge of his military merit, I think I may affirm that this Caledonian is a self-conceited pedant, awkward, rude, and disputatious. He has had the benefit of a school education; seems to have read a good number of books; his memory is tenacious, and he pretends to speak several different languages; but he is so addicted to wrangling that he will cavil at the clearest truths, and, in the pride of argumentation, attempt to reconcile contradictions. Whether his address and qualifications are really of that stamp which is agree able to the taste of our aunt, Mrs. Tabitha, or that indefatigable maiden is determined to shoot at every sort of game, certain it is, she has begun to practise on the heart of the lieutenant, who favoured us with his company at supper.

I have many other things to say of this man of war, which I shall communicate in a post or two. Meanwhile it is but reasonable that you should be indulged with some respite from those weary lucubrations of yours, JER. MELFORD.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne, July 10.

TO SIR WATKIN PHILLIPS, OF JESUS COLLEGE, OXON. DEAR PHILLIPS,

In my last I treated you with a high-flavoured dish, in the character of the Scotch lieutenant, and I must present him once more for your entertainment. It was our fortune to feed on him the best part of three days;

and I do not doubt that he will start again in our way before we shall have finished our northern excursion. The day after our meeting with him at Durham proved so tempestuous that we did not choose to proceed on our journey; and my uncle persuaded him to stay till the weather should clear up, giving him, at the same time, a general invitation to our mess. The man has certainly gathered a whole budget of shrewd observations, but he brings them forth in such an ungracious manner as would be extremely disgusting, if it was not marked by that characteristic oddity which never fails to attract the attention. He and Mr. Bramble discoursed, and even disputed, on different subjects in war, policy, the belles lettres, law, and metaphysics; and sometimes they were warmed into such altercation as seemed to threaten an abrupt dissolution of their society but Mr. Bramble set a guard over his own irascibility, the more vigilantly as the officer was his guest; and when, in spite of all his efforts, he began to wax warm, the other prudently cooled in the same propor-` tion.

Mrs. Tabitha chancing to accost her brother by the familiar diminutive of Matt, "Pray, sir," said the lieutenant, "is your name Matthias?" You must know it is one of our uncle's foibles to be ashamed of his name, Matthew, because it is puritanical; and this question chagrined him so much, that he answered, “No, by G-d!" in a very abrupt tone of displeasure. The Scot took umbrage at the manner of his reply, and bristling up,-"If I had known," said he, "that you did not care to tell your name, I should not have asked the question. The leddy called you Matt, and I naturally thought it was Matthias; perhaps it may be Methuselah, or Metrodorus, or Metellus, or Mathurinus, or Malthinnus, or Matamorus, or "-"No," cried my uncle, laughing, "it is neither of those, captain. My name is Matthew Bramble, at your service. The truth is, I have a foolish pique at the name of Matthew, because it savours of those canting hypocrites, who, in Cromwell's time, christened all their children by names taken from the Scripture.""A foolish pique, indeed," cried Mrs. Tabby, "and even sinful, to fall out with your name because it is taken from holy writ. I would have you to know, you was called after great-uncle Matthew ap Madoc ap Meredith, esquire, of Llanwystin, in Mont

gomeryshire, justice of the quorum, and crusty rutileorum, a gentleman of great worth and property, descended in a straight line, by the female side, from Llewellyn, Prince of Wales."

This genealogical anecdote seemed to make some impression on the North Briton, who bowed very low to the descendants of Llewellyn, and observed, that he himself had the honour of a scriptural nomination. The lady expressing a desire of knowing his address, he said he designed himself Lieutenant Obadiah Lismahago: and, in order to assist her memory, he presented her with a slip of paper inscribed with these three words, which she repeated with great emphasis, declaring it was one of the most noble and sonorous names she had ever heard. He observed, that Obadiah was an adventitious appellation, derived from his great grandfather, who had been one of the original covenanters; but Lismahago was the family surname, taken from a place in Scotland so called. He likewise dropped some hints about the antiquity of his pedigree, adding, with a smile of self-denial, sed genus et proavos, et quæ non fecimus ipsi, vix ea nostra voco, which quotation he explained, in deference to the ladies; and Mrs. Tabitha did not fail to compliment him on his modesty, in waiving the merit of his ancestry; adding, that it was the less necessary to him, as he had such a considerable fund of his own. She now began to glue herself to his favour with the grossest adulation. She expatiated on the antiquity and virtues of the Scottish nation, on their valour, probity, learning, and politeness: she even descended to encomiums on his own personal address, his gallantry, good sense, and erudition: she appealed to her brother, whether the captain was not the very image of our cousin Governor Griffith. She discovered a surprising eagerness to know the particulars of his life, and asked a thousand questions concerning his achievements in war; all which Mr. Lismahago answered with a sort of jesuitical reserve, affecting a reluctance to satisfy her curiosity on a subject that concerned his own exploits.

By dint of her interrogations, however, we learned, that he and Ensign Murphy had made their escape from the French hospital at Montreal, and taken to the woods, in hopes of reaching some English settlement; but, mistaking their route, they fell in with a party of Miamis,

who carried them away in captivity. The intention of these Indians was to give one of them as an adopted son to a venerable sachem, who had lost his own in the course of the war, and to sacrifice the other, according to the custom of the country. Murphy, as being the younger and handsomer of the two, was designed to fill the place of the deceased, not only as the son of the sachem, but as the spouse of a beautiful squaw, to whom his predecessor had been betrothed; but, in passing through the different wigwams or villages of the Miamis, poor Murphy was so mangled by the women and children, who have the privilege of torturing all prisoners in their passage, that, by the time they arrived at the place of the sachem's residence, he was rendered altogether unfit for the purposes of marriage: it was determined, therefore, in the assembly of the warriors, that Ensign Murphy should be brought to the stake, and that the lady should be given to Lieutenant Lismahago, who had likewise received his share of torments, though they had not produced emasculation. A joint of one finger had been cut, or rather sawed off, with a rusty knife; one of his great toes was crushed into a mash between two stones; some of his teeth were drawn or dug out with a crooked nail; splintered reeds had been thrust up his nostrils, and other tender parts; and the calves of his legs had been blown up with mines of gunpowder, dug in the flesh with the sharp point of the tomahawk.

The Indians themselves allowed that Murphy died with great heroism, singing, as his death-song, the drimmendoo, in concert with Mr. Lismahago, who was present at the solemnity. After the warriors and matrons had made a hearty meal on the muscular flesh, which they pared from the victim, and had applied a great variety of tortures, which he bore without flinching, an old lady, with a sharp knife, scooped out one of his eyes, and put a burning coal in the socket. The pain of this operation was so exquisite that he could not help bellowing; on which the audience raised a shout of exultation, and one of the warriors, stealing behind him, gave him the coup de grace with a hatchet.

Lismahago's bride, the squaw Squinkinacoosta, distinguished herself on this occasion. She showed a great superiority of genius in the tortures which she contrived and executed with her own hands: she vied

with the stoutest warrior in eating the flesh of the sacrifice; and, after all the other females were fuddled with dram-drinking, she was not so intoxicated but that she was able to play the game of the platter with the conjuring sachem, and afterward go through the ceremony of her own wedding, which was consummated that same evening. The captain had lived very happily with this accomplished squaw for two years, during which she bore him a son, who is now the representative of his mother's tribe; but, at length, to his unspeakable grief, she died of a fever, occasioned by eating too much raw bear, which they had killed in a hunting excursion.

By this time Mr. Lismahago was elected sachem, acknowledged first warrior of the Badger tribe, and dignified with the name or epithet of Occacanastaogarora, which signifies nimble as a weasel; but all these advantages and honours he was obliged to resign, in consequence of being exchanged for the orator of the community, who had been taken prisoner by the Indians that were in alliance with the English. At the peace he had sold out on half-pay, and was returned to Britain, with a view to pass the rest of his life in his own country, where he hoped to find some retreat, where his slender finances would afford him a decent subsistence. Such are the outlines of Mr. Lismahago's history, to which Tabitha did "seriously incline her ear;" indeed, she seemed to be taken with the same charms that captivated the heart of Desdemona, who loved the Moor "for the dangers he had passed."

The description of poor Murphy's sufferings, which threw my sister Liddy into a swoon, extracted some sighs from the breast of Mrs. Tabby. When she understood he had been rendered unfit for marriage, she began to spit, and ejaculated, "Jesus, what cruel barbarians!" and she made wry faces at the lady's nuptial repast; but she was eagerly curious to know the particulars of her marriage-dress; whether she wore high-breasted stays or bodice, a robe of silk or velvet, and laces of Mechlin or minionette: she supposed, as they were connected with the French, she used rouge, and had her hair dressed in the Parisian fashion. The captain would have declined giving a categorical explanation of all these particulars, observing, in general, that the Indians were too tenacious of their own customs to adopt the modes of any nation whatsoever: he said, moreover,