stock of information, until the day of trial arrived, which was to bring his ingenuity to the test.

The young man was first arraigned; and, contrary to the expectation of his prosecutor and of most present, who had been informed of his penitence, pleaded not guilty. The evidences were then examined, and the facts were substantiated in the most unequivocal manner. The prisoner had no defence to make; and the only thing which was now wanting to ratify his doom, was the awful sentence of the Judge, which he every moment expected to hear pronounced.

At this eventful crisis, an unusual stir was heard among the prisoners who had not yet been brought to trial. On making inquiry into the cause of this disorder, one of them desired that the Court might be informed, that he had something of importance to communicate on the present occasion; and desired that he might be brought to the bar before sentence was pronounced on the prisoner then on his trial. The intelligence being communicated, he was ordered to appear, and to state what he knew relative to the affair then under consideration. This was just what he wanted; and, having obtained liberty, he addressed the Court in nearly the following language:

"It is with the utmost shame that I acknowledge myself to have been, through a considerable portion of my life, a most abandoned character. But my career of wickedness is now brought nearly to an end; for I expect, very shortly, to forfeit my life to the violated laws of my country. But, bad as I have been, I cannot think of permitting an innocent man to die for a crime of which I have been guilty. I am the person who committed the robbery, for which the prisoner is now arraigned; and am the only person who ought to suffer for it. And to prove to the satisfaction of the Court that my confession is true, I will relate all the circumstances connected with the robbery." Having said this, he began a history of the whole transaction, and entered into all the minute particulars of the time, place, manner, and conversation, &c. with which the prosecutor and his witnesses were well acquainted, and appealed to them in their turns respectively for the truth of his declarations. And finally, concluded his account, with a serious admonition to the witnesses,

and to all present, to be particularly careful how they swore away the life of an innocent person under a delusive train of appearances.

On hearing this unexpected statement, the Court was much confused; the witnesses looked upon each other with astonishment; the prosecutor was visibly agitated; and even the judge was confounded. Recovering, however, from their surprise, the Judge, after some observations, ordered the prisoner to be acquitted, and set at liberty. In the meanwhile, the selfconvicted felon was remanded, while his indictment was preparing, with orders to appear and take his trial on the ensuing day, for the offence which he had thus voluntarily acknowledged.

On being brought to the bar, when the usual question of Guilty or not Guilty, was put, to the utter amazement of all present, he pleaded not Guilty. The astonishment which this excited, was scarcely less than that which his previous confession had produced. He was then reminded of the transactions of yesterday, and admonished not to indulge fallacious hopes of escaping justice through the mere indulgence of pleading, which the lenity of the laws allowed to persons who were accused of offences.

Nothing, however, could intimidate him, or induce him to alter his resolution. He still persisted that he was not guilty; adding, when addressing himself to the Judge, "If you please, my Lord, your own gaoler shall prove my innocence." On being asked to explain himself, he replied, "If you order the gaol-keeper to look over his books, he will find that I was in gaol when this robbery was committed.” On searching the books, it was accordingly discovered that he had actually been lodged in gaol on the day preceding that of the robbery, and his acquittal was the inevitable consequence. Of the issue of his trial for his own offence, no account has been preserved.

LIVING MAMMOTH IN AMERICA.

IT appears, according to some accounts lately received from the interior of the United States, bordering on the Mississippi, that the whole of this gigantic race of quadrupeds is not yet extinct; one having been recently seen in the remote deserts stretching on the north

As the Catholic religion is that which has been established in the island, and which all professed to have embraced, prior to the arrival of the missionaries, many of those who attended their preaching were considered as apostates from the theology of their ancestors; while the men by whose doctrines they had been proselyted, were deemed the primary cause of that heresy which seemed to be rising among them. To check its progress, and to prevent it from spreading further, several artifices were invented, and many tales were thrown into circulation. Among others, it was whispered that the missionaries were spies, who held a secret correspondence with Christophe, transmitting to him occasional intelligence of such transactions as, it was well known, were best calculated to provoke irritation. They were also accused with instructing their followers, in case some signals should be made, to provide for their own safety, by retreating to the mountains. They were likewise reproached with preaching against the worship of saints,-against the profanation of the sabbath,-against concubinage, and of charging with criminality, all connexions which took place between the sexes, without mar riage.

These heterogeneous accusations were all blended together, without any dis crimination; and the result was, that the religion which was taught by the missionaries was thought, by nearly all, to be less expedient than that to which they had been long accustomed. Reports to their disadvantage soon spread throughout the city and its vicinity, so that they could not even pass the streets without being insulted: and to such an alarming height did this spirit of hos

The reports, which were at first circulated in whispers, soon became audible and general; and the malignant spirit which followed the missionaries in the streets, soon found its way into their places of worship. A favourable pretext, however, seemed wanting to call outrage into actual existence; and it was not long before the enemies of the Gospel discovered an instance, which, they conceived, would sanction their designs.

Among the people who had occasion-. ally attended the ministry of the missionaries, there happened to be a young man, who, in the former part of his life, had been deranged; and in whose family this affliction seems to have been hereditary; it being well known, that his mother was in a state of derangement during the time of her pregnancy of him. This unhappy wretch, in one of his wild paroxysms, seized an opportunity, and actually cut his mother's throat. For this crime he was taken into custody, tried, found guilty, and sentenced to be shot. To his state of insanity, no regard whatever was paid. In their penal code, the crime of matricide had been already determined; and no circumstance could mitigate the punishment of death. On the day of execution, the culprit was conducted to the spot, when three files of soldiers were directed to fire. They did, so; but the victim remained unhurt. A circumstance so singular, awakened the sympathy of the spectators, who be came clamorous for his liberation. But this could not be granted. Nearly fifty men rushed upon him, and, with balls and bayonets, soon hurried him into eternity.

This melancholy circumstance, with all its effects and consequences, was immediately carried to the account of the missionaries; who were not only accused with being the instruments of his derangement, but with being the primary cause of his death, and that of his mother. Even the singular incident of his being missed by three files of men, who discharged their pieces at him, was attributed to their incantations; and it was but fair to conclude, that men who could instigate to murder,

and half defeat the ends of justice, were too dangerous to be cherished in this land of freedom.

Assembling some time afterwards in their place of worship, the missionaries and their congregation were surrounded with a mob, who seemed to be instigated to some deed of outrageous violence, by that principle of ungovernable fury, by which they were actuated. They did not, however, enter the room; but waited without, for a favourable moment to begin the assault. After a few minutes, a person among them exclaimed,—“ Some person in the meeting has thrown a stone at us." This was the signal for attack. Vollies of stones, which had been previously collected, were instantly poured in among the people. Doors, windows, and partitions, were immediately assailed; so that nothing but confusion and disorder, accompanied with the shrieks of terror, and the menaces of brutality, could be distinguished in the blended tumult.

As the government of this department is perfectly military, they have no other method of dispersing a mob than by calling out the soldiers. Mr. Brown, who thought both himself, his house, and all who were within it, in a state of danger, repaired, in company with the president's secretary, to the commandant of the troops, stating his complaint, and imploring protection. He was received in a manner which was not calculated to cherish his hopes that the storm would soon subside. The commandant informed him, that he had been unwell, and had not been able to attend parade that day, and that he could not enter into the affair which he had stated. But, on turning to the secretary, he inquired somewhat into the nature and cause of the uproar; and from his representation, a few soldiers were ordered to repair to the spot. On their arrival, they found the mob in much the same state that has been described; but, instead of attempting to disperse them, they grounded their arms, and then joined them in their outrages. Scarcely had this portentous union been effected, before a small party of the guards arrived, who instantly beset the house, which was now closed, and demanded an entrance. The reason they assigned was, that information had been received, stating the people in the house to have been the aggressors, in consequence of which they were come to take them into custody: and No. I.-VOL. I.

it is highly probable, that this would have been accomplished, had not some respectable persons been present, who assured the officers, that the accusation was wholly unfounded. On receiving this assurance, the guards silently withdrew, without pretending to take any notice either of the mob that had been collected, or of the soldiers who had joined them. An officer, however, shortly afterwards arrived; and by his entreaties, rather than his authority, prevailed upon the multitude to disperse. A guard was some time afterward placed round their habitation, to protect them. But this tended more to increase than to diminish their danger; as it was gathered from their conversation, that they would much rather be employed in effecting their destruction, than in accomplishing their preservation.

It certainly would not be generous, without a sufficiency of reason, to trace this outrage to the instigation of any particular set of men. But the fact is unquestionable, that immediately after the dispersion of the mob, the principal aggressors were observed to repair to the houses of some priests; which suggests an idea, that their conduct was not viewed with disapprobation. And it is furthermore worthy of regard, that although the principal actors in this outrage were well known, and notwithstanding the evidence against them was unquestionable, yet no one was called to any account for the transactions of the day, or even threatened with the interposition of justice.

Mr. Brown and his colleague had now only one resource left; and this was, to make their appeal to the president, who was gone into the country. It was, however, impracticable for them to preach under existing circumstances; and they had nothing to do, but to make out a statement of their case, to await his return, and finally to act as events should determine. In the mean while, although no outrage of any consequence was repeated, because the missionaries had desisted from preaching, the same spirit was distinctly visible; and nothing but the avowed protection of the president could sanction them in the resumption of their labours, but at the risk of their lives. The moment, however, was at hand, that brought this affair to its final issue.

On the arrival of Boyer, Mr. Brown waited on him, and stated his busine

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