this man, I next day sold some shirts to some of the crew, and got one of the men belonging to the Ruby to buy me a pocket compass and four loaves of bread. -Being 6 or 8 days without getting any chance to make my escape, and our mess being short of provisions, I gave two of my loaves to the mess. The 24th of July being very stormy, and continuing so during the night, I thought it would be the best opportunity I could get of going off with the boat, and according ly watched for the favouring moment. About 11 o'clock P. M. a heavy squall of rain came on, and the sentry on the gang-way went under a shed that was built over the main hatchway, and the officer of the deck and quarter-master got under the forward part of the poop. Seeing the coast clear, I got my pocket compass and the remaining two loaves of bread, and called my companion. We got down on the lower deck, and unshipped one of the gratings of the lower deck port; I gave my bundle to my companion, and told him to remain there until I got the boat along side; I got out on the swinging boom and cut the painter and hauled the boat close in the side; but what was my astonishment when my companion, after handing me the bundle, said he would not go! In vain did I state that we would have fair wind one half of the way at least, owing to the trade winds prevailing in that latitude; he said it would be impossible to cross the gulf in an open boat, and mentioned the scantiness of our provisions; finding that I could not prevail on him to go, I shoved off, and let the boat drift astern of the ship. When about a hundred yards astern, they struck a bell, and the sentry cried all was well. I made sail as soon as possible, and at day light was 36 miles from the ship.-On missing the boat they sent several vessels in chase of me, as I have since been informed by one of the prisoners on board.

I had several squalls between Bermuda and the gulf stream. I suffered a good deal for want of sleep, and did every thing I could think of to keep myself awake. My lips were parched with the sun; I used to irritate them with my fingers to try if the pain would keep me awake; but all proved ineffectual; I often got asleep, and sometimes when I awoke, would find the boat with her sails aback and steering a different course. After being out four days, I tried to steer by tying my hand to the tiller, which proved to be very useful to me the rest of the passage. I suffered a good deal in the gulf, owing to the continual motion of the boat. I saw a brig, but thinking that she was an Englishman, I was fearful of approaching her. I made Cape Henry on the 2d of August, about 4 P.M. and on approaching the light house, discovered the British fleet lying in Lynnhaven bay. I hauled to the southward, and beached the boat about 12 o'clock at night, about ten miles to the southward of the Cape. I unbent the boat's jib, and carried it about a quarter of a mile from the boat, and went to sleep. I got up about sun-rise next morning, and got to Mr Whitehouse's dwelling, who treated me with every kindness that my situation required. I proceeded to Norfolk, after remaining with Mr. Whitehouse two days, when I reported myself to Capt. Cassin, who advanced me funds to go to Washington. I sold my boat for 30 dollars; the boat was about 22 feet long, 7 feet wide, and 3 deep, with a foresail, mainsail, and jib.-She was ballasted with fresh water in breakers."

From McLeod's Narrative of a Voyage to the Island of Lerchew.

> Notwithstanding the crowded state of the Caesar, two passengers, of rather a singular nature, were put

on board at Batavia, for a passage to England: the one, a snake of that species called Boa Constrictor; the other, an Ourang Outang. The former was somewhat small of his kind, being only about sixteen feet long, and of about eighteen inches of circumference; but his stomach was rather disproportionate to his size, as will presently appear. He was a native of Borneo, and was the property of a gentleman (now in England) who had two of the same sort; but, in their passage up to Batavia, one of them broke loose from his confinement, and very soon cleared the decks, as every body very civilly made way for him, and ran up the rigging, or to some other place of security. Not being used to a ship, however, or taking, perhaps, the sea for a green field, he sprawled over board, and was drowned. He is said not to have sunk immediately, but to have reared his head several times, and with it a considerable part of his body, out of the sea. His companion, lately our shipmate, was brought safely on shore, and lodged in the court-yard of Mr. Davidson's house at Ryswick; where he remained for some months, waiting for an opportunity of being conveyed home in some commodious ships sailing directly for England, in which he was likely to be carefully attended to. This opportunity offered in the Cæsar, and he was accordingly embarked on board of that ship with the rest of her numerous passengers.

During his stay at Ryswick he is said to have been usually entertained with a goat for dinner, once in every three or four weeks, with occasionally a duck or a fowl, by way of a desert. He was brought on board, shut up in a wooden crib or cage, the bars of which were sufficiently close to prevent his escape; and it had a sliding door, for the purpose of admitting the articles on which he was to subsist; the dimensions of the crib were about four feet high, and

five feet square; a space sufficiently large to allow him to coil himself round with ease. The live stock for his use during the passage, consisting of six goats of the ordinary size, were sent with him on board, five being considered as a fair allowance for as many months. At an early period of the voyage we had an exhibition of his talent in the way of eating, which was publicly performed on the quarter-deck, upon which he was brought. The sliding door being opened, one of the goats was thrust in, and the door of the cage shut. The poor goat, as if instantly aware of all the horrors of its perilous situation, immediately began to utter the most piercing and distressing cries, butting instinctively, at the same time, with its head towards the serpent, in self-defence.

The snake, which at first appeared scarcely to notice the poor animal, soon began to stir a little, and, turning his head in the direction of the goat, he at length fixed a deadly and malignant eye on the trembling victim, whose agony and terror seemed to in-. crease; for, previous to the snake seizing his prey, it. shook in every limb, but still continuing its unavailing show of attack, by butting at the serpent, which now became sufficiently animated to prepare for the banquet. The first operation was that of darting out his forked tongue, and at the same time, rearing a little his head; then suddenly seizing the goat by the fore leg with his mouth, and throwing it down, it was encircled in an instant in his horrid folds. So quick, indeed, and so instantaneous was the act, that it was impossible for the eye to follow the rapid convolution of his elongated body. It was not a regular screwlike turn that was formed, but resembling rather a knot,, one part of the body overlaying the other, as if to add weight to the muscular pressure, the more effectually to crush his object. During this

time he continued to grasp with his fangs, though it, appeared an unnecessary precaution, that part of the animal which he had first siezed. The poor goat, in the mean time, continued its feeble and half-stifted cries for some minutes, but they soon became more and more faint, and at last it expired. The snake, however, retained it for a considerable time in its grasp, after it was apparently motionless. He then slowly and cautiously unfolded himself till the goat fell dead from his monstrous embrace, when he began to prepare himself for swallowing it. Placing his mouth in front of the head of the dead animal, he commenced by lubricating with his salvia that part of the goat; and then taking its muzzle into his mouth, which had, and indeed always has, the appearance of a raw lacerated wound, he sucked it in, as far as the horns would allow. These protuberances appeared some little difficulty, not so much from their extent, as from their points; however, they also, in a very short time disappeared; that is to say, externally; but their progress was still to be traced very distinctly on the outside, threatening every moment to protrude through the skin. The victim had now descended as far as the shoulders; and as it was an astonishing sight to observe the extraordinary action of the snake's mus cles when stretched to such an unnatural extent-an extent which must have utterly destroyed all muscular power in any animal that was not, like himself, endowed with very peculiar faculties of expansion and action at the same time. When his head and neck had no other appearance than that of a serpent's skin, stuffed almost to bursting, still the workings of the muscles were evident, and his power of suction, as it is erroneously called, unabated; it was, in fact, the effect of a contractile muscular power, assisted by two rows of strong hooked teeth. With all this, he must be so formed as to be