VARIOUS, that the mind

Of desultory man, studious of change

And pleased with novelty, may be indulged.-CoWPER.

VOL. II. [ie, vnt]

JULY, 1822.

No. 1.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF IVANHOE.

No. VI.-Rebecca at the Stake.

The Holy Order of the Temple of Zion having condemned Rebecca, the Jewess, to die as a Sorceress, by a slow, wretched and protracted course of torture, Brian de Bois-Guilbert, Knight Preceptor of the Order, appears to maintain the justice of the sentence, by wager of battle. This maiden, so high in mind, and so lovely in form, had already been driven to the brink of a dizzy battlement by the licentious passion of the knight, and when the sentence was passed upon her, he contrived to convey to her a suggestion that she was entitled to demand a champion. It was his intention to appear in this character, disguized as a roving knight, and avouch her innocence. He was, however, selected, by a mandate which he dared not disobey, to be the representative of his Order. The last moment being arrived, and the Grand Master having said that in this appeal to the judgment of Heaven, he should not prohibit parties from having that communication with each other, which might best tend to bring forth the truth of the quarrel, the desperate Templar made one more effort to save the innocent Jewess. He conjured her to fly from her fanatic persecutors.

"Mount thee," he eagerly whispered, behind me on my steedon Zamor, the gallant horse that never failed his rider. I won him in single fight from the Soldan of Trebizond-mount, I say, behind me-in one short hour is pursuit and inquiry far behinda new world of pleasure opens to thee-to me a new career of fame. Let them speak the doom I despise, and erase the name of Bois-Guilbert from their list of monastic slaves! I will wash out with blood whatever blot they may dare to cast on my escutcheon!"

"Tempter," said Rebecca, "begone!-Not in this last extremity canst thou move me one hair's-breadth from my resting placesurrounded as I am by foes, I hold thee as my worst and most deadly-avoid thee, in the name of God!" Vol. 2. p. 290.

See a review of Ivanhoe in our last number.

ART. I.—Travels in Brazil, in the years 1815, 1816, 1817. By Prince Maximilian, of Wied-Neuwied. Illustrated with Plates. Part I. 4to. pp. 335. 1l. 11s. 6d. Boards. Colburn and Co. 1820.

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WHEN the fugitive house of Braganza sailed down the Tagus for Rio de Janeiro, various amusing speculations were hazarded as to the causes and consequences of that remarkable event. Some persons contended that Bonaparte, with a view to the ultimate subjugation of Portugal and the prevention of England from seizing on her South American colonies, was an accomplice to the escape; being much too keen and sharp-sighted a politician not to have foreseen and prevented the measure, if he had not chosen to connive at it. Others as stoutly affirmed that the project was conceived and matured in the British cabinet; and some pains were taken to give our rulers the merit of an event in which they had no more concern than the man in the moon. One set of liticians prophecied that Brazil, from this momentous change in its political situation, would open a market of insatiable consumption for British goods; another beheld the distant prospect of long and ruinous wars, both in Europe and South America, in this transfer of the ancient seat of government from the parent-country to the colony; and, anticipating the successful intrigues of France to destroy our alliance, they wisely cautioned us against too sanguine speculations in commerce. Among these gay visions of advantage, and these gloomy vaticinations of misery and warfare, nobody seems to have bespoken that striking change of internal policy which actually took place, so beneficial in its consequences to science if not to commerce. This new plan led the court of Rio de Janeiro to abandon the jealous system of secrecy and concealment as to its American possessions that had before prevailed, almost to the exclusion of travellers; and to adopt the liberal determination of encouraging them, and even actively promoting their researches. Formerly, a traveller, on his landing in Brazil, was surrounded by soldiers, and narrowly watched, while every difficulty was thrown in the way of his pursuits. Confidence, however, succeeded to distrust on the arrival of the court. Mr. Mawe (of the Strand) traversed the province of Minas Geraes with a view to the study of its mineralogy, and obtained permission to examine the ancient gold mines of Jaragua, and the diamond mines of Villa Rica and Tejuco, of which he has given us a very interesting account; and many German and Prussian travellers have received the most liberal encouragement in the prosecution of their labours.

The journey, of which the volume now before us gives a detail, was performed by a man of a rank which seldom produces writing tourists, and cultivators of science amid scenes of hardship and danger. It extends along the east coast from the twentythird to the thirteenth degree of south latitude, a portion less known or described than many other parts of the continent of

South America. Several tribes of the aboriginal inhabitants yet live here in their primitive state, undisturbed by Europeans, who are gradually spreading themselves in all directions. Prince Maximilian complains of the total want of good maps: that of Arrowsmith, he says, is full of errors; considerable rivers on the east coast being omitted, and others marked which have no existence. The Portuguese government, however, has ordered an accurate survey of the whole coast, pointing out all the dangers which threaten the navigator, and the work is already in execution by two naval officers of competent ability. A map of the east coast between the fifteenth and twenty-third degree, corrected from Arrowsmith, and enlarged, accompanies this narrative.

After a very short stay at Rio de Janeiro, the traveller and his companions* prepared for their journey into the interior, with sixteen mules, each carrying two wooden chests; and ten men, well armed, to act as hunters: orders having been given by the government of Rio de Janeiro to the magistrates on the coast to furnish every assistance, to provide beasts of burden, and to grant the aid of soldiers if necessary. Of the capital itself, the author has declined to give any more than a very rapid sketch, the term of his residence being insufficient to obtain materials for a full and accurate description. Brazilian manners, style of dress, fashions, and amusements, have gradually given way to those of Europe; while ambassadors from the European powers, and a general influx of foreigners from England, Spain, Italy, Russia, Germany, &c. &c. have introduced a great degree of luxury among all classes of the community.

The village of St. Lourenzo is the only place in the neighbourhood of the capital which still possesses remains of the native Indians, a small strong limbed muscular race, of reddish or tawny colour; with thick, long, coal-black hair, broad faces, eyes placed rather obliquely, thick lips, small hands and feet, and the men having thin strong beards.

Having crossed the great bay of Rio to the village of Praya Grande, the travellers bent their course to Cape Frio; and in order to accustom themselves to the night-air, they bivouacked in an open meadow on the first night, although they found habitations in the neighbourhood. The author, who is rather prone to the picturesque and poetical in his descriptions, is delighted with the novelty of the scene: the Cabure, a small owl, hooted among the bushes, luminous insects glistened on the marshes, and the

* Two Germans, Messrs. Freyreiss and Sellow, who intend to travel several years in the Brazils: they are acquinted with the language and manners of the country, and are represented as being particularly qualified to penetrate into the interior, to collect scientific information, and to communicate the result of their researches to the public.

frogs gently croaked around us:-our blankets and baggage were wet through by the dew, but the early beams of the sun soon dried them." The continent of South America, from the great fecundity which every where prevails, exhibits a most extraordinary luxuriance of vegetation, and forms a striking contrast with the bare and arid plains of Africa; while the splendid plumage of many of its birds, the brilliancy of its insects, and the great variety of its animals, unknown to Europe, furnish the naturalist with a rich and rare repast.

A chain of mountains next rose before us, which bears the name of Serra de Inua. This wilderness surpassed every thing that my imagination had as yet conceived of the grand scenes of nature. On entering a deep hollow, we observed several large pools of limpid water, and a little beyond these an immense forest, of which no comparison can give an adequate idea. Palms and all the magnificent trees of the country, were throughout so interlaced with creeping and climbing plants, that it was impossible for the eye to penetrate through this species of verdant wall. All of them, even thin low stems, were covered with creeping plants, such as epidendron, cactus, bromelia, &c. many of which bear flowers of such beauty, that whoever beholds them for the first time cannot withhold his admiration. I mention only one kind of bromelia, with a deep coral-red flower, the leaves of which are tipped with violet; and the heliconia, a kind of banana resembling the strelitzia, with dark red calyx and white flowers. In these deep shades, near the cool mountain streams, the heated traveller, especially the native of northern regions, finds a temperature that is quite refreshing, and which increased the delight that the sublime scenes presented to our view in this magnificent wilderness incessantly excited. Every moment, each of us found something new that engaged his whole attention. Even the rocks are here covered with lichens and cryptogamous plants of a thousand various kinds: particularly the finest ferns, which in part hang like feathered ribbons in the most picturesque manner from the trees. A deep red horizontal fungus adorns the dry trunks; while a fine carmine-coloured lichen, on the properties of which, as a dyeing matter, some experiments have been made in England, covers the bark of the stronger trees with its round knobs. The colossal trees of the Brazilian woods are so lofty, that our fowling-pieces could not carry to the top of them, so that we often fired in vain at the finest birds; but we loaded ourselves with the most beautiful flowers of juicy plants, which we were unfortunately obliged to throw away afterwards, as they soon perish, and cannot be preserved in an herbal.'

The contributions here made to the science of natural history will be deemed extremely valuable, and constitute a principal and very interesting portion of this work. Indeed, to form an extensive and good collection of specimens in zoology and botany, and

to study the manners and customs of the native Indians, were the object of this laborious journey. At Cape Frio, the Prince obtained the skin of the great Boa Constrictor; which, instead of being confined to Africa, as many have erroneously supposed, is the most common of the Brazilian species of that genus; the varieties are generally known on the east coast by the name Jiboya. Many months afterward, as the author was in his canoe on the river Belmonte, he saw the living animal just as it had coiled round and killed a large Capybara (thick-nosed Tapir). His hunters shot at the animal, and placed an arrow in its body, when it quitted its prey, darted under water, and escaped. The shot had lost their force in the stream, and the arrow was found broken on the bank, where the serpent had rubbed it off.

This reptile, the sucuriuba of the river Belmonte, or the sucuriu, as it is called, in Minas Geraes, is the largest kind of serpent in Brazil, at least in the above-mentioned countries; there are many errors in the descriptions given of it by naturalists. Daudin has mention it by the name of boa anacondo. It is found all over South America, and attains the largest size of any species of this genus, in that part of the world. All the denominations alluding to the abode of the boa serpents in the water belong to this kind; for the others never dwell in the water, whereas the sucuriu or sucuriuba lives constantly in and near water, and is therefore really amphibious in the literal sense of the word. This serpent is by no means beautifully marked: its back is of a dark blackish olive, and down it run longitudinally two rows of round black spots, in pairs, which are for the most part pretty regularly disposed. In solitary places unfrequented by man, it attains the prodigious size of twenty or thirty feet, and even more, in length. Daudin, in his Natural History of Reptiles, considers the serpent which he assumes to be the genuine boa constrictor, as a native of Africa, but this species, if it is also found in Africa, inhabits every part of Brazil, is there the most common land boa, and every where known by the name of jiboya. The Belmonte is the southernmost of the rivers on the east coast, in which the sucuriuba occurs; farther to the north it is universally found. Very fabulous stories have been related concerning the way of life of these immense reptiles; and even in modern times, they have been copied out of old travellers. The accounts also which are given of its sleep in winter are not precise enough. It is said, indeed, that they certainly become torpid during the hot season, in the marshy pools of the deserts, but this does not happen in the woody valleys of Brazil, which always abound in water, where they do not live properly in marshes, but in great lakes, ponds that are never dry, rivers and streams, the banks of which are cooled by the shade of the ancient forests,'

The coral-snake, probably the coluber fulvius of Linne, the most beautiful of its species, is very common here. A brilliant