appointed to wait on him in his illness, and offer him such relief as should be in his power. Mr. Hamden went with him, accompanied by Hobomak, a faithful friend to the English, as guide and interpreter. Before they reached his seat, the melancholy intelligence was brought them that the royal patient is dead. While at Mallapuyst the report of his death was contradicted, and a messenger dispatched to apprise the inhabitants of their coming. He returned in a short time with information that he wass yet alive, but could hold out but a short time. Mr. Winslow hastened to the place where Masassoit then was, and although not dead, yet in a very low and hopeless condition. His sight had gone from him, and his appearance was that of one in the last struggles: his tongue was so much swollen and furred, that he had not been able to swallow any thing for two days. After giving him some cordials, and finally some broth after the English manner, he began to recover, and in a few days was beyond danger.*

In return for so friendly a service, Masassoit disclosed to Hobomak a dangerous conspiracy, then forming for the extermination of the colonists. The conspirators were principally of the Massachusetts Indians. Masassoit had been solicited to join with them, but had declined. On the return of Winslow to Plymouth, this information was communicated to the Governor, and measures adopted to quell it. The intrepid Capt. Standish with only eight men was dispatched to Wesagusset (Weymouth) with orders to fall on the foremost in the plot and put them to death. When he arrived among them, he endeavored to conceal the object of his errand, but the Indians suspecting their plans had been disclosed, resolved to put the best face on their affairs, and by that means fright the Captain away. Wituwamet and Pecksuot were among the most dangerous of the conspirators. The latter told Hobomak, "We know that Capt. Standish is come to kill us all; tell him that we know it, but fear him not, neither will we run away from him. Let him begin as soon as he will, he shall not come upon us unawares. At another time he rated the Captain to his face, about the smallness of stature. "You, says he, "though a great Captain, are but a little man; and though I am no Sachem, yet am a man of great strength and courage." Witte wamet used a freedom of speech not less annoying to the resolute Standish. Once praising the excellent qualities of his knife, on the handle of which was Belknap's Biog. Vol. 2, 196-7. + Winslow calls him a "notable insult

ing villain."

carved a woman's head, said, "I have a better than this at home, with a man's face carved on the handle, and these two knives I intend shall be married together. That knife at home has done many an execution on the English and French, and as for this, by and by it shall eat and devour, though without speaking a word." This was quite too much for the patience of the Plymouth Captain. Watching an opportunity when the number of the enemy should be the same as his, he shut the door and gave his men the signal to commence the assault. As Pecksuot had been most provoking, he took charge of him himself. The contest lasted for some time; at length Standish got him down, and taking his own long knife, cut his throat. Wituwamet shared the same fate.*

Mr. Winslow, in 1634, on returning from a trading expedition to the Dutch at New York, left his vessel in Narrhaganset Bay and thence went by land to Plymouth. He called on his old friend Masassoit, who promised to accompany him home. Before he set off, the sportive Sachem dispatched a messenger before them to Plymouth to tell the inhabitants that Winslow was dead. This report filled the whole colony with grief and lamentation. The sorrow and mourning of the people, however, were of but short duration; for the next day, Masassoit (or as he was now called Oosamequen) appeared conducting the lamented Winslow into the town. On being enquired of, why he sent such a message, he answered by saying, that he might be the more welcome when he come home.†

Besides selling some land to Roger Williams, for a plantation about Seekonk, nothing more is known of the noble Sachem until his appearance at the Court at Plymouth, in 1639, with his eldest son and successor, Mooanam or Wamsitta, (afterwards nicknamed Alexander by the English, in 1662,) renewing the ancient covenant and league with the Plymouth colony.||

Masassoit died at an advanced age, in 1656, § beloved by his subjects, respected and esteemed by the colonists. He was ever opposed to the conversion of his people to the Christian religion, and urged it as a condition in the sale of his lands that no exertions should be made to dissuade his followers from the practice of their ancient faith. In his person he was tall and robust: T His countenance indicated that gravity and reflection which in him were char

Hist. Col. Vol. Hutchinson, Vol. 1-252.

Neal, Vol. 1-110 and 11. Savage's Winthrop, 139. 1.-Holmes, Vol. 1,-369. || Morton, 148. Neal, Vol. 1--97-Prince, 103.

acteristic. As a warrior, his name carried terror among neighboring nations. The great Annawan, his prime captain, the fellow soldier of the celebrated Philip, was taught in his school. Of his qualities as an orator, history has left us but imperfect specimens. His voice in council was ever heard with attention and his opinions received by his subjects with unlimited confidence. To benefactors, he was grateful beyond all others; a dreadful enemy, a faithful ally and a warm friend.

B.

MISCELLANEOUS,

SELECTED FROM RUSSELL'S GERMANY.

WEIMAR.

As the traveller proceeds northward from Frankfort towards Saxony, the vine-covered hills of the Main disappear to give place to the Thuringian Forest, which still retains its name, though cultivation has stripped much of it of its honors. The country which it covered forms a succession of low rounded ridges, which inclose broad valleys swarming with a most industrious population. Except towards Cassel, where many summits still retain their covering of beeches, the corn-field and orchard have only allowed an occasional tuft to remain round the cottages for shelter, or to crown the brow of the hill to supply fuel. To the territory of Cassel succeeds part of the Grand Duchy of Weimar, for, between the Thuringian forest and the foot of the Erzgebirge, nestles a crowd of the small princes who, by family influence, or political services, have saved their insignificant independence. To a few miles of Weimar succeed a few miles of Gotha; these are followed by a slip of Prussia, and the Prussian fortress Erfurth; you are scarcely out of the reach of the cannon, when you are out of the territory, and find yourself again in the dominions of the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar.

Weimar, the capital of a state whose whole population does not exceed two hundred thousand souls, scarcely deserves the name of a town. The inhabitants, vain as they are of its well earned reputation as the German Athens, take a pride in having it considered merely as a large village. Neither nature nor art has done any thing to beautify it; there is scarcely a straight street, nor, excepting the palace, and the building in which parliament assembles, is there a large house in the whole town. In three minutes a person can be as completely in the country as if he were twenty miles re

moved. The palace is imposing only from its extent, and is still unfinished; for the Grand Duke, having made as much of it habitable as was required for his own court and the family of his eldest son, is too economical with the money of his subjects to hasten the completion of his palace, before his little territory shall have recovered from the misery and exhaustion which began with the battle of Jena, and terminated only after the victory at Leipzig.

Close by the town, the Ilm creeps along, a narrow, muddy stream, devoid of rural or picturesque beauty, and confining its boastings to what Schiller has put into its mouth, in "The Rivers;" Though poor my banks, my stream has borne along,

On its still waters, many a deathless song.

Along the river woods have been planted, walks laid out, rocks hewn into the perpendicular where they were to be found, and plastered up into monticules where they were not to be found, all to form a park, or, as they often style it, an English garden. In the detail of ornament, the wits of Weimar have fallen into some littlenesses, too trifling perhaps to be noticed, were it not that here. we expect to find every thing correct in matters of taste, because Weimar has been the nurse of the taste of Germany. It is quite allowable, for instance, to erect an altar in a shady corner, and inscribe it GENIO LOCI; but though a serpent came forth from beneath the altar on which Æneas was sacrificing to the manes of his father, and ate up the cakes, that is no good reason why a stone snake should wind himself round the altar of the Genius of the English garden of Weimar, and bite into a stone roll laid for him on the top.

It is not in Weimar that the gaiety, or the loud and loose pleasures of a capital are to be sought; there are too few idle people, and too little wealth, for frivolous dissipation. Without either spies or police, the smallness of the town and the mode of life place every one under the notice of the court, and the court has never allowed its literary elegance to be stained by extravagant parade, or licentiousness of conduct. The nobility, though sufficiently numerous for the population, are persons of but moderate fortunes; many of them would find it difficult to play their part, frugal and regular as the mode of life is, were they not engaged in the service of the government in some capacity or another, as ministers, counsellors, judges, or chamberlains. There is not much dissoluteness to be feared where it is necessary to climb an outside stair to the routs of a minister, and a lord of the bedchamber gives, in a third floor, parties which are honored with the pres

ence even of princes. The man of pleasure would find Weimar dull. The forenoon is devoted to business; even the straggling few who have nothing to do would be ashamed to show themselves idle, till the approach of an early dinner hour justifies a walk in the park, or a ride to Belvedere. At six o'clock every one hies to the theatre, which is just a large family meeting, excepting that the Grand Ducal personages sit in a separate box. The performance closes about nine o'clock, and it is expected that by ten, every household shall be sound asleep, or, at least, soberly within its own walls for the night. It is perhaps an evil that, in these small capitals, the court, like Aaron's serpent, swallows up every other species of society; but at Weimar this is less to be regretted, because the court parties have less parade and formality than are frequently to be found in those of private noblemen in London or Paris: it is merely the best bred, and best informed society of the place.

The Grand Duke* is the most popular prince in Europe, and no prince could better deserve the attachment which his people lavish upon him. We have long been accustomed to laugh at the pride and poverty of petty German princes; but nothing can give a higher idea of the respectability which so small a people may assume, and the quantity of happiness which one of these insignificant monarchs may diffuse around him, than the example of this little state, with a prince like the present Grand Duke at its head. The mere pride of sovereignty, frequently most prominent where there is only the title to justify it, is unknown to him; he is the most affable man in his dominions, not simply with the condescension which any prince can learn to practise as a useful quality, but from goodness of heart. His talents are far above mediocrity; no prince could be less attached to the practices of arbitrary power, while his activity, and the conscientiousness with which he holds himself bound to watch over the welfare of his handful of subjects, have never allowed him to be blindly guided by ministers. Much of his reign has fallen in evil times. He saw his principality overrun with greater devastation than had visited it since the Thirty Years' War; but in every vicissitude he knew how to command the respect even of the conqueror, and to strengthen himself more firmly in the affections of his subjects. During the whole of his long reign, the conscientious administration of the public money, *Father of the distinguished visitor, who travelled in the United States dur ing the last year,