clouds. Birds dropped dead from the boughs, and the foilage of the trees turned to a pale red. All seemed to prognosticate the approach of Death: and in a few minutes afterwards sure enough he came. He was, however, very different from all that the worthy couple had heard or fancied of him. He was certainly rather thin, and had very little color, but he was well dressed, and his deportment was that of a gentleman. Bowing very politely to the ancient pair, he told them he merely came to give notice that by right they should have belonged to him on that day, but a fifty year's respite was granted, and when that period had expired, he should visit them again. He then walked away, and the moon, and the stars, and the waters regained their natural appearance. For the next fifty years every thing passed on as quietly as before; but as the time drew nigh for the appointed advent of Death, Jan became thoughtful, and he felt no pleasure at the idea of the anticipated visit. The day arrived, and Death came preceeded by the same horrors as on the former occasion. "Well, good folks, (said he,) you now can have no objection to accompany me; for assuredly you have hitherto been highly privileged, and have lived long enough." The old dame wept and clung feebly to her husband, as if she feared they were to be divided after passing away from the earth on which they had dwelt so long and so happily together. Poor Schalken also looked very downcast, and moved after Death but slowly. As they passed by Jan's garden, he turned to take a last look at it, when a sudden thought struck him. He called to Death and said, Sir allow me to propose something to you. Our journey is a long one, and we have no provisions; I am too infirm, or I would climb yonder pear-tree, and take a stock of its best fruit with us; you are active and obliging, and will, I am sure, Sir, get it for us." Death, with great condescension, complied, and ascending the tree, gathered a great number of pears, which he threw down to old Schalken and his wife. At length he determined upon descending, but to his surprise and apparent consternation discovered that he was immoveable, nor would Jan allow him to leave the tree until he had given them a promise of living another half century.

They jogged on in the old way for fifty years more, and Death, came to the day. He was by no means so polite as he had formerly been, for the trick that Schalken had put upon him offended his dignity and hurt his pride not a little. "Come, Jan," said he, “you used me scurvily the other day, (Death thinks but very little of fifty years!) and I am now determined to loose no time-come."

Jan was sitting at his table, busily employed in writing, when Death entered. He raised his head sorrowfully, and the pen trembled in his hand as he thus addressed him, "I confess that my former conduct towards you merits blame, but I have done with such knaveries now, and have learnt to know that life is of little worth, and that 1 have seen enough of it. Still, before I quit this world I should like to do all the good I can, and was engaged when you arrived in making a will that a poor lad who had been always kind to us, may receive this hut and my boat. Suffer me but to finish what I have begun, and I shall cheerfully follow wherever you may lead. Pray sit down, in a few minutes my task will be ended." Death, thus appealed to, could refuse no longer, and seated himself in a chair from which he found it as difficult to rise as he had formerly to descend from the pear-tree. His liberation was bought at the expense of an additional fifty years, at the end of which period, and exactly on their birth-day, Jan Schalken and his wife died quietly in their bed, and the salt water flowed freely in the little village, in which they had lived long enough to be considered the father and mother of all its inhabitants.

AFRICA.

We have received accounts of a recent discovery in Central Africa, which will soon be laid before the public in greater detail; but of which the following outline is sufficiently curious:-Major Clapperton and Captain Denham, in the course of their late expedition in that quarter of the world, arrived in the territory, and subsequently resided for some weeks, in the capital of a nation, whose manners and history seem likely to occupy, to no trivial extent, the attention of the public of this country-we might safely say of the whole civilized world. They found a nation jet black in color, but not in our sense of the term negroes, having long hair and fine high features. This people was found to be in a state of very high civilization; and above all, the British travellers witnessed a review of 7000 cavalry, divided into regular regiments, and all clothed in complete armor. Six thousand wore the perfect hauberk mail of the early Norman knights; most strange by far of all, one thousand appeared in perfect Roman armor. The conjectures to which this has given rise are various. We confess, for ourselves, that, looking to the polished and voluptuous manners ascribed to these people, the elegance of their houses, &c. &c.; in a word, the total difference between them and any other race as yet discovered

in the interior of " Africa, the mother of monsters,” our own opinion is strongly that here we have a fragment of the old Numidian population; a specimen of the tribes who, after long contending and long co-operating with Imperial Rome, were at least fain to seek safety in the central desert, upon the dissolution of the empire. In these squadrons Messrs. Clapperton and Denham probably beheld the liveliest image that ever has been witnessed by modern eyes, of the legions of Jugurtha-may we not say of Hannibal? The armor, we understand, is fabricated in the most perfect style of the art; and the Roman suits might be mistaken for so many Herculanean or Pompeian discoveries, if it were possible for us to imagine the existence of genuine antiques possessing all the glossy finish of yesterday's workmanship. One of these travellers has a!ready set off on his return to this sable court. Lond. Pap.

THE MILITARY FORCE OF CHINA.

THE Russian traveller, M. Timbowsky, collected during his stay in China some remarkable data relative to the present state of the military force of that empire, which, expressed in numbers, seems very formidable, but is far from being so in reality. He thinks, however, that certain estimates, which make the Chinese army amount to a million of infantry and eight hundred thousand cavalry, are much exaggerated. The regular troops are divided into four corps, according to the several nations. The first corps, 67,800 strong, consists of Mantchous, the conquerors of the Empire, to which nation the family of the reigning Emperor belongs. These troops are the flower of the whole army, and enjoy extraordinary privileges. The second corps, of 21,000 men, consists of Mongols. The third, of 27,000 men, is composed of Chinese, whose ancestors joined the Mantchous, and assisted them in the conquest of the empire. The fourth corps, which is the least esteemed, though the most numerous, is also Chinese: it is stated to amount to 500,000 men; who are, however, dispersed in garrisons in the interior of the empire. If we add to these 125,000 Chinese militia, the whole Chinese army will make 740,000 men, of whom 175,000 are caralry. There is, besides, a Mongol cavalry, which, with respect to its organization and the nature of its service, may be compared to the Russian troops from the Don and the Ural. Its amount is not accurately known, but is stated by some at 500,000 men.

All the Chinese soldiers are married; and their children, who are entered in the lists of the army from their very birth, recruit

LOVE THAT SPRINGS IN TEARS.

the corps to which they belong. Besides arms, a horse, a house, and a quantity of rice, each soldier of the first, second, and third corps, receives a monthly pay of three to four lanes, (six to eight silver rubles,) but must provide himself with clothing, whence there is a most laughable variety and irregularity in the uniforms. The troops of the fourth corps are furnished by the government with lands, which they must cultivate for their subsistence. There is no army so easily recruited as the Chinese. Crowds flock to the standards to find a refuge from want and misery. Notwithstanding the immense sums which the maintenance of this force costs, and which is said to amount to 87,400,000 lanes, the spirit and discipline of the troops are at an inconceivably low ebb; so that the late Emperor Kia-King, issued, in the year 1800, a proclamation, in which, after reminding the Mantchous of the heroic deeds done by them in former times, he reproaches them with having become more unskilled in the military art, and more feeble than the Chinese themselves, so many thousands of whom were overcome by a handful of their ancestors.

FROM THE EUROPEAN MAGAZINE.

LOVE THAT SPRINGS IN TEARS.

I KNEW thee in thy cloudless day,

. But dared not breathe my love to thee;

It wore my youthful form away

And fill'd my heart with misery.
That love was hopeless, and I sought

To hide from all my soul's despair,
And die contented with the thought
That I had gazed on aught so fair!
A gloom was spread o'er me and mine,
For thee was naught but sunny weather,

And when I saw thy fortune shine,

I would not link our fates together.

When I have seen thee, gay at heart,
Through lighted halls with others rove,

I've stood in some deserted part,

And gazed on thee with speechless love.

And when I saw thy lovers press

Round thee, a fickle watch to keep;

I felt my utter loneliness

And turn'd from them and thee to weep

To weep, alas! o'er lost repose,

In anguish and unyielding sorrow,

To weep o'er wounds that would not close,
And hopes for which there seem'd no morrow.

But tempests came across the skies,

That shone on thee so bright before,
And then I hush'd my own vain sighs,

And lov'd thee in thy misery more.

I stole to thee when others fled,

And mingled wo brought mingled balm;
Our tears were in communion shed,

And grief was mute and sorrow calm.

When joy has bound two hearts for years,

A sudden storm those hearts may sever,

But, oh! the love that springs in tears,

Through change and time endures for ever.

VARIETY.

Indian Jurisprudence.-The Cherokees, it is said, have estab lished something like a judiciary system, and introduced into their society, many of the laws and usages of civilization. Some of their savage institutions are disappearing under the ameliorating influence of moral justice. Bigamy, we understand, is done away with, and prohibited by severe penalties. As a specimen of the manner in which they dispense justice in cases of trivial import, we relate the following anecdote said to be authentic.

An Indian assaulted another, of which regular information was made. The Judge ordered the Sheriff to bring the parties before him. The Sheriff went in pursuit of them, but returned without them. "Where are your prisoners," said the Judge. "I caught them," replied the Sheriff. "What did you do to them?” “I gave the defendant fifteen lashes." "What did you do with the plaintiff?" "Gave him fifteen too." "What with the informer, or witness? "Why I gave him twenty-five lashes-for had he held his tongue, there would have been none of this fuss and trouble."—It would be well if all the dispensations of justice could be so equally and promptly administered

Property Insured in England.—By an official report of the business of the various offices for fire insurances, in England, it appears there are forty-six offices or companies, and that the amount of duty they have paid to government for insurances effected by them, for the last year, amounts to £659,377. The duty being three shillings for every £100 insured, it follows that the total amount of property insured is, in round numbers, about £439,585,000.