the trumpeter-swan, the blue-heron, the wild-| getting a shot at them; but these creatures are goose, the crane, the snake-bird, the pelican, and the ibis; you may likewise see the osprey, and the white-headed eagle robbing him of his prey. These swamps and bayous produce abundantly fish, reptile, and insect, and are, consequently, the favorite resort of hundreds of birds which prey upon these creatures. In some places, the bayous form a complete net-work over the country, which you may traverse with a small boat in almost any direction; indeed, this is the means by which many settlements communicate with each other. As you approach southward toward the Gulf, you get clear of the timber; and within some fifty miles of the sea, there is not a tree to be seen. even more wary than the ibis; and as the islet was low, and altogether without cover, it was not likely they would allow me to come within range; nevertheless, I was determined to make the attempt. I rowed up the lake, occasionally turning my head to see if the game had taken the alarm. The sun was hot and dazzling; and as the bright scarlet was magnified by refraction, I fancied for a long time they were flamingoes. This fancy was dissipated as I drew near. The outlines of the bills, like the blade of a sabre, convinced me they were the ibis; besides, I now saw that they were only about three feet in height, while the flamingoes stand five. There were a dozen of them in all. These were bal one leg, apparently asleep, or buried in deep thought. They were on the upper extremity of the islet, while I was approaching it from below. It was not above sixty yards across; and could I only reach the point nearest me, I knew my gun would throw shot to kill at that distance. I feared the stroke of the sculls would start them, and I pulled slowly and cautiously. Per It was near the edge of this open country Iancing themselves, as is their usual habit, on went ibis-shooting. I had set out from a small French or Creole settlement, with no other company than my gun; even without a dog, as my favorite spaniel had the day before been bitten by an alligator while swimming across a bayou. I went of course in a boat, a light skiff, such as is commonly used by the inhabitants of the country. Occasionally using the paddles, I allowed my-haps the great heat-for it was as hot a day as self to float some four or five miles down the main bayou; but as the birds I was in search of did not appear, I struck into a "branch," and sculled myself up stream. This carried me through a solitary region, with marshes stretching as far as the eye could see, covered with tall reeds. There was no habitation, nor aught that betokened the presence of man. It was just possible that I was the first human being who had ever found a motive for propelling a❘ boat through the dark waters of this solitary stream. As I advanced, I fell in with my game; and I succeeded in bagging several, both of the great wood-ibis and the white species. I also shot a fine white-headed eagle (Falco leucocephalus), which came soaring over my boat, unconscious of danger. But the bird which I most wanted seemed that which could not be obtained. I wanted the scarlet ibis. I think I had rowed some three miles upstream, and was about to take in my oars and leave my boat to float back again, when I perceived that, a little further up, the bayou widened. Curiosity prompted me to continue; and after pulling a few hundred strokes further, I found myself at the end of an oblong lake, a mile or so in length. It was deep, dark, marshy around the shores, and full of alligators. I saw their ugly forms and long serrated backs, as they fisted about in all parts of it, hungrily hunting for fish, and eating one another; but a" his was nothing new, for I had witnessed similar scenes during the whole of my excurWhat drew my attention most, was a small islet near the middle of the lake, upon one end of which stood a row of upright forms of a bright scarlet color: these red creatures were the very objects I was in search of. They might be flamingoes: I could not tell at that distance. So much the better, if I could only succeed in VOL. VII.-No. 42.-3 C sion. I can remember-had rendered them torpid or lazy. Whether or not, they sat still until the cut-water of my skiff touched the bank of the islet. I drew my gun up cautiously, took aim, and fired both barrels almost simultaneously. When the smoke cleared out of my eyes, I saw that all the birds had flown off except one, that lay stretched out by the edge of the water. Gun in hand, I leaped out of the boat, and ran across the islet to bag my game. This occupied but a few minutes; and I was turning to go back to the skiff, when, to my consternation, I saw it out upon the lake, and rapidly floating downward! In my haste I had left it unfastened, and the bayou current had carried it off. It was still but a hundred yards off, but it might as well have been a hundred miles, for at that time I could not swim a stroke. My first impulse was to rush down to the lake, and after the boat; this impulse was checked on arriving at the water's edge, which I saw at a glance was fathoms in depth. Quick rcflection told me that the boat was gone-irrecoverably gone! I did not at first comprehend the full peril of my situation; nor will you. I was on an islet, in a lake, only half a mile from its shoresalone, it is true, and without a boat; but what of that! Many a man had been so before, with not an idea of danger. These were first thoughts, natural enough; but they rapidly gave place to others of a far different character. When I gazed after my boat, now beyond recoverywhen I looked around, and saw that the lake lay in the middle of an interminable swamp, the shores of which, even could I have reached them, did not seem to promise me footingwhen I reflected that, being unable to swim, I could not reach them-that upon the islet there was neither tree, nor log, nor bush; not a stick out of which I might make a raft-I say, when 1 reflected upon all these things, there arose in my mind a feeling of well-defined and absolute horror. It is true, I was only in a lake, a mile or so in width; but so far as the peril and helplessness of my situation were concerned, I might as well have been upon a rock in the middle of the Atlantic. I knew that there was no settlement within miles-miles of pathless swamp. I knew that no one could either see or hear me -no one was at all likely to come near the lake; indeed I felt satisfied that my faithless boat was the first keel that had ever cut its waters. The very tameness of the birds wheeling round my head was evidence of this. I felt satisfied, too, that without some one to help me, I should never go out from that lake: I must die on the islet, or drown in attempting to leave it. : These reflections rolled rapidly over my startled soul. The facts were clear, the hypothesis definite, the sequence certain; there was no ambiguity, no supposititious hinge upon which I could hang a hope; no, not one. I could not even expect that I should be missed and sought for there was no one to search for me. The simple habitans of the village I had left knew me not-I was a stranger among them; they only knew me as a stranger, and fancied me a strange individual; one who made lonely excursions, and brought home bunches of weeds, with birds, insects, and reptiles, which they had never before seen, although gathered at their own doors. My absence, besides, would be nothing new to them, even though it lasted for days: I had often been absent before, a week at a time. There was no hope of my being missed. I have said that these reflections came and passed quickly. In less than a minute my affrighted soul was in full possession of them, and almost yielded itself to despair. I shouted, but rather involuntarily than with any hope that I should be heard; I shouted loudly and fiercely my answer-the echoes of my own voice, the shriek of the osprey, and the maniac laugh of the white-headed cagle. I ceased to shout, threw my gun to the earth, and tottered down beside it. I have been in a gloomy prison, in the hands of a vengeful gueriila banditti, with carbines cocked to blow out my brains. No one will call that a pleasant situation-nor was it so to me. I have been lost upon the wide prairie-the land-sea-without bush, break, or star to guide me that was worse. There you look around; you see nothing; you hear nothing you are alone with God, and you tremble in his presence; your senses swim; your brain reels; you are afraid of yourself; you are afraid of your own mind. Deserted by every thing else, you dread lest it, too, may forsake you. There is horror in this it is very horrible-it is hard to bear; but I have borne it all, and would bear it again twenty tin.es over rather than endure once more the first hour I spent on that lonely islet in that lonely lake. Your prison may be dark and silent, but you feel that you are not utterly alone; beings like yourself are near, though they be your jailers. Lost on the prairie, you are alone; but you are free. In the islet, I felt that I was alone; that I was not free: in the islet, I experienced the feelings of the prairie and the prison combined. I lay in a state of stupor-almost unconscious; how long I know not, but many hours I am certain: I knew this by the sun-it was going down when I awoke, if I may so term the recovery of my stricken senses. I was aroused by a strange circumstance: I was surrounded by dark objects of hideous shape and hue-reptiles they were. They had been before my eyes for some time, but I had not seen them. I had only a sort of dreamy consciousness of their presence; but I heard them at length: my ear was in better tune, and the strange noises they uttered reached my intellect. It sounded like the blowing of great bellows, with now and then a note harsher and louder, like the roaring of a bull. This startled me, and I looked up and bent my eyes upon the objects: they were forms of the crocodilide, the giant lizards-they were alligators. Huge ones they were, many of them; and many were they in number-a hundred at least were crawling over the islet, before, behind, and on all sides around me. Their long gaunt jaws and channeled snouts projected forward so as almost to touch my body; and their eyes, usually leaden, seemed now to glare. Impelled by this new danger, I sprang to my feet, when, recognizing the upright form of man, the reptiles scuttled off, and plunging hurriedly into the lake, hid their hideous bodies under the water. The incident in some measure revived me. I saw that I was not alone: there was company even in the crocodiles. I gradually became more myself; and began to reflect with some degree of coolness on the circumstances that surrounded me. My eyes wandered over the islet; every inch of it came under my glance; every object upon it was scrutinized-the moulted feathers of wild-fowl, the pieces of mud, the fresh-water mussels (unios) strewed upon its beach-all were examined. Still the barren answer-no means of escape. The islet was but the head of a sand-bar, formed by the eddy-perhaps gathered together within the year. It was bare of herbage, with the exception of a few tufts of grass. There was neither tree nor bush upon it—not a stick. A raft indeed! There was not wood enough to make a raft that would have floated a frog. The idea of a raft was but briefly entertained; such a thought had certainly crossed my mind, but a single glance round the islet dispelled it before it had taken shape. I paced my prison from end to end; from side to side I walked it over. I tried the water's depth; on all sides I sounded it. wading reck lessly in; every where it deepened rapidly as I and slept in an instant. Nothing but the dread advanced. Three lengths of myself from the certainty of my peril kept me awake. Once islet's edge, and I was up to the neck. The again before morning, I was compelled to battle huge reptiles swam around, snorting and blow-with the hideous reptiles, and chase them away ing; they were bolder in this element. I could with a shot from my gun. not have waded safely ashore, even had the water been shallow. To swim it-no-even though I swam like a duck, they would have closed upon and quartered me before I could have made a dozen strokes. Horrified by their demonstrations, I hurried back upon dry ground, and paced the islet with dripping garments. I continued walking until night, which gathered around me dark and dismal. With night came new voices-the hideous voices of the nocturnal swamp; the qua-qua of the night-heron, the screech of the swamp-owl, the cry of the bittern, the el-l-uk of the great water-toad, the tinkling of the bell-frog, and the chirp of the savanna-cricket-all fell upon my ear. Sounds still harsher and more hideous were heard around me-the plashing of the alligator, and the roaring of his voice; these reminded me that I must not go to sleep. To sleep! I durst not have slept for a single instant. Even when I lay for a few minutes motionless, the dark reptiles came crawling round me-so close that I could have put forth my hand and touched them. At intervals, I sprang to my feet, shouted, swept my gun around, and chased them back to the water, into which they betook themselves with a sullen plunge, but with little semblance of fear. At each fresh demonstration on my part they showed less alarm, until I could no longer drive them either with shouts or threatening gestures. They only retreated a few feet, forming an irregular circle round me. Thus hemmed in, I became frightened in turn. I loaded my gun and fired: I killed none. They are impervious to a bullet, except in the eye, or under the forearm. It was too dark to aim at these parts; and my shots glanced harmlessly from the pyramidal scales of their bodies. The loud report, however, and the blaze frightened them, and they fled, to return again after a long interval. I was asleep when they returned; I had gone to sleep in spite of my efforts to keep awake. I was startled by the touch of something cold; and half-stifled by a strong musky odor that filled the air. I threw out my arms; my fingers rested upon an object slippery and clammy it was one of these monsters-one of gigantic size. He had crawled close alongside me, and was preparing to make his attack; as I saw that he was bent in the form of a bow, and I knew that these creatures assume that attitude when about to strike their victim. I was just in time to spring aside, and avoid the stroke of his powerful tail, that the next moment swept the ground where I had lain. Again I fired, and he with the rest once more retreated to the lake. All thoughts of going to sleep were at an end. Not that I felt wakeful; on the contrary, wearied with my day's exertion-for I had had a long pull under a hot tropical sun-I could have lain down upon the earth, in the mud, any where, Morning came at length, but with it no change in my perilous position. The light only showed me my island prison, but revealed no way of escape from it. Indeed, the change could not be called for the better, for the fervid rays of an almost vertica! sun burned down upon me until my skin blistered. I was already speckled by the bites of a thousand swamp-flies and musquitoes, that all night long had preyed upon me. There was not a cloud in the heavens to shade me; and the sunbeams smote the surface of the dead bayou with a double intensity. Toward evening, I began to hunger; no wonder at that: I had not eaten since leaving the village settlement. To assuage thirst, I drank the water of the lake, turbid and slimy as it was. I drank it in large quantities, for it was hot, and only moistened my palate without quenching the craving of my appetite. Of water there was enough; I had more to fear from want of food. What could I eat? The ibis. But how to cook it? There was nothing wherewith to make a fire-not a stick. No matter for that. Cooking is a modern invention, a luxury for pampered palates. I divested the ibis of its brilliant plumage, and ate it raw. I spoiled my specimen, but at the time there was little thought of that: there was not much of the naturalist left in me, I anathematized the hour I had ever imbibed such a taste; I wished Audubon, and Buffon, and Cuvier, up to their necks in a swamp. The ibis did not weigh above three pounds, bones and all. It served me for a second meal, a breakfast; but at this déjeuner sans fourchette I picked the bones. I What next! starve? No not yet. In the battles I had had with the alligators on the second night, one of them had received a shot that proved mortal. The hideous carcass of the reptile lay dead upon the beach. I need not starve; I could eat that. Such were my reflections. must hunger, though, before I could bring myself to touch the musky morsel. Two more days' fasting conquered my squeamishness. I drew out my knife, cut a steak from the alligator's tail, and ate it-not the one I had first killed, but a second; the other was now putrid, rapidly decomposing under the hot sun: its odor filled the islet. The stench had grown intolerable. There was not a breath of air stirring, otherwise I might have shunned it by keeping to windward. The whole atmosphere of the islet, as well as a large circle around it, was impregnated with the fearful effluvium. I could bear it no longer. With the aid of my gun, I pushed the half-decomposed carcass into the lake; perhaps the current might carry it away. It did I had the gratification to see it float off. This circumstance led me into a train of reflections. Why did the Ha! words which were uttered, are here registered. The scenes which transpired, and the body of the alligator float? inflated with gases. It was swollen- | his person, and who received his words from his own lips. An idea shot suddenly through my mind, one of the divorce, we act but as the scribe of hisIn recording the sublime tragedy of those brilliant ideas-the children of neces-tory. sity. I thought of the floating alligator, of its intestines-what if I inflated them? Yes, yes! buoys and bladders, floats and life-preservers! that was the thought. I would open the alligators, make a buoy of their intestines, and that would bear me from the islet! I did not lose a moment's time; I was full of energy: hope had given me new life. My gun was loaded-a huge crocodile that swam near the shore received the shot in his eye. I dragged him on the beach with my knife I laid open his entrails. Few they were, but enough for my purpose. A plume-quill from the wing of the ibis served me for a blow-pipe. I saw the bladder-like skin expand, until I was surrounded by objects like great sausages. These were tied together and fastened to my body, and then, with a plunge, I entered the waters of the lake, and floated downward. I had tied on my life-preservers in such a way that I sat in the water in an upright position, holding my gun with both hands. This I intended to have used as a club in case I should be attacked by the alligators; but I had chosen the hot hour of noon, when these creatures lie in a half-torpid state, and to my joy I was not molested. Half an hour's drifting with the current carried me to the end of the lake, and I found myself at the debouchure of the bayou. Here, to my great delight, I saw my boat in the swamp, where it had been caught and held fast by the sedges. A few minutes more, and I had swung myself over the gunwale, and was sculling with eager strokes down the smooth waters of the bayou. IT NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. BY JOHN S. C. ABBOTT. THE DIVORCE. is the duty of the historian of Napoleon faithfully to record what he has said and what he has done. His sayings are as remarkable as his doings. Both alike bear the impress of his wonderful genius. Fortunately respecting the deeds which he performed there is no room for controversy. They are admitted by all. The gaze of the world was upon him. Whether he had a right to do what he did, and what the motives were which impelled him, are questions upon which the world is divided. We are not aware that there is a single important fact stated in these pages, which is not admitted by Napoleon's most hostile biographers. The striking explanations of Napoleon, and his comments upon his career, are equally authentic. His words are presented in these pages as recorded by Count Pelet de Lozerne, Savary the Duke of Rovigo, Caulaincourt the Duke of Vicenza, the Baron Meneval, the Duchess of Abrantes, General Rapp, Louis Bonaparte, General Count Montholon, Dr. O'Meara, Count Las Cases, and others who were near was still, however, exposed to the greatest peril. Napoleon had again vanquished his foes. He No one saw this more clearly than himself. plications for peace, continued her assaults.* England, unrelenting and heedless of all supWith unrepressed zeal she endeavored to combine new coalitions of feudal Europe against the great advocate of popular rights. It was her open avowal that the triumph of democratic principles threatened the subversion of every European throne.t at Lobau, for the decisive battle of Wagram, While Napoleon was marshaling his forces an English fleet was hovering along the shores of Italy, watching for an opportunity to aid the Austrians there. All the sympathies of the Pope were evidently with the enemies of France. The fanatic peasantry of Spain and of the Tyrol were roused by the emissaries of the church. The danger was imminent that England, effecting a landing in Italy, and uniting with the Austrians and all the partisans of the old regime in that country, would crush the infant kingdoms of Italy and Naples. these circumstances, Napoleon wrote as follows Under to the Pope : "All the wars of the European continent," says the against the empire, were begun by England, and supEncyclopædia Americana, "against the revolution and ported by English gold. At last, the object was attained. Not only was the ancient family restored to the throne, but France was reduced to its original limits, its naval force destroyed, and its commerce almost annihilated. But victory brought bitter fruits even to England." In 1793, the public debt of Great Britain was estimated at 1,200,000,000 of dollars. It is now estimated at about 4,000,000,000. The most of this enormous increase was caused by the wars against Napoleon. "It is impossible," says the Encyclopædia Americana, "to prevent the burden of the taxation from falling directly or indirectly, in a very great degree, upon the laboring or active classes. And in Great Britain this has become so heavy will but just support, or will not support, himself and to the mere laborer, who has no capital, that his wages his family in the cheapest manner of living, and his life becomes one desperate struggle against want and starv ation." "The assumption," says Richard Cobden, member of Parliament, "put forth that we were engaged in a strictly defensive war is, I regret to say, historically unthe unchangeable public records, you will be satisfied true. If you will examine the proofs, as they exist in of this. And let us not forget that our history will ultimately be submitted to the judgment of a tribunal over which Englishmen will exercise no influence beyond their cause, and from whose decision there will be no that which is derived from the truth and the justice of appeal. I allude, of course, to the collective wisdom and moral sense of future generations of men. In the case evidence of facts to confess that we were engaged in an before us, however, not only are we constrained by the aggressive war, but the multiplied avowals and confessions of its authors and partisans themselves, leave no room to doubt that they entered upon it to put down opinions by physical force-one of the worst, if not the very worst, of motives with which a people can embark in war." struggling, almost single handed, against the combined sovereigns of Europe. In self-defense he was compelled to treat those with severity who were secretly assisting his foes. Solicitous for his good name, he announced to Europe, as the reason for this arbitrary measure, The sovereign of Rome has constantly refused to make war with the English, and to ally himself with the Kings of Italy and Naples for the defense of the peninsula of Italy. The welfare of the two kingdoms, and also that of the armies of Italy and of Naples, demand that their communication should not be interrupted by a hostile power."* "The Emperor expects that Italy, Rome. | trality, was aiding the enemies of France. NaNaples, and Milan should form a league, of poleon, in the midst of ten thousand perils, was fensive and defensive, to protect the Peninsula from the calamities of war. If the Holy Father assents to this proposition, all our difficulties are terminated. If he refuse, he announces, by that refusal, that he does not wish for any arrangement, any peace with the Emperor; and that he declares war against him. The first result of war is conquest; and the first result of conquest is a change of government; for if the Emperor is forced to engage in war with Rome, will it not be to make the conquest of Rome, and to establish another government, which will make common cause with Italy and Naples against their common enemies? What other guarantee can the Emperor have of the tranquillity and the safety of Italy, if the two realms are separated by a state in which their enemies continue to have a secure retreat? These changes, which will become necessary if the Holy Father persists in his refusal, will not deprive him of any of his spiritual rights. He will continue to be Bishop of Rome as his predecessors have been during the last eight turies." cen The continued refusal of the Pope to enter into an alliance with France, induced the Emperor to issue a decree uniting the States of the Church with the French empire. The only apology which can be offered for this act is its apparent necessity. The Pope, claiming neu The French troops immediately entered Rome, and drove from it the emissaries of England and "Have you any commands for France ?" said a Frenchman at Naples to an English friend, "I shall be there in two days."-" In France!" answered his friend, "I thought that you were setting off for Rome."-" True; lubly united to France." but Rome, by a decree of the Emperor, is now indisso "I have no news to burden you with," said his friend; "But can I do any thing for you in England? I shall be there in half an hour."-"In England," said the Frenchman," and in half an hour!"-"Yes!" was the reply. "Within that time I shall be at sea; and the sea has been indissolubly united to the British empire." She who arrogated to herself the dominion of the wide world of waters, ought to have some charity for him, to avert from himself destruction by reluctantly annexwho, when struggling against combined Europe, strove ing to France the feeble States of the Church. |