venturous friend and country man, succeeded in evading their vi gilance and passed all their posts. He was received by the Mahrattas with the greatest favour, and, after giving numerous and ample proofs of his courage and abilities, soon gained their confidence, and attained high distinction among that gallant but unfortunate people. It is well known that the whole Indian peninsula has been for the last half century one scene of civil warfare and intestine broils. Those of the natives who were not sunk into the abject degeneracy of the timid and feeble Hindoos, were divided into various little principalities, whose chiefs, losing sight of every great abject of national safety and happiness, in pursuit of their own miserable schemes of petty aggrandizement, or of narrow jealousy, instead of uniting against the common enemies of their country, were content to array themselves against one another, under European standards, and to become the humble instruments of English or French intrigue. In the hazardous enterprises of these bloody but inglorious wars, Murray became conspicuous for his invincible courage, and his undaunted presence of mind, as well as for his personal prowess. I have no means of minutely tracing his history throughout this period; it is only known in general that he remained in the Mahratta service for fifteen years, during which he was actively engaged in every species of peril and hardship, traversing the peninsula from Cape Comorin to the borders of Persia. He first became known to the British government in India by an honourable act of humanity. He was at that time in the service of Holkar, the celebrated Mahratta chief, where, at the imminent risk of his own life, he preserved the lives of a number of British officers who had been taken prisoners by Holkar, and had been ordered to be instantly put to the sword by that ferocious chieftain. Soon after this, either disgusted with the service, or perhaps finding his influence with his prince lessened by this act of humanity, he quitted the service of Holkar, raised a large body of cavalry in his own name, and after many difficulties and reverses of fortune, finally succeeded in taking possession of a considerable district of country in his own name. At one period of this enterprise, so desperate were his fortunes that his whole force was reduced to eight badly armed followers; but though he at length VOL. V. New Series. 37 succeeded in firmly establishing himself, he was so little pleased with his new trade of sovereignty,* that when the war broke out between the British and Scindia, in which his old master Holkar took part with the latter, Murray proclaimed the British government in his little principality, and joined Lord Lake with an army of seven thousand native cavalry. He was received by the English general with the greatest respect, and the fullest confidence was reposed in him. He retained the independent command of the body of cavalry which he brought with him, and there was seldom a daring or dangerous enterprise in which he was not consulted and employed. "At the siege of Bhurtpore," says the anonymous author of a brief sketch of his life, in a foreign journal, "where the British army lost near ten thousand men in four several attempts to storm the place, Murray was in continual action, and obtained the character of the best partisan officer in the army. At the same time, Holkar was on the outside of the English army with an immense body of cavalry, and the signal of assault on the fortress by the British was also the signal for his attack on the outside." At the conclusion of the war, having acquired a very large fortune in the course of his military services, he determined to return to his native country, and end his days in luxury and tranquillity. The British military commanders in India, who, during the war, had courted him, now seemed to treat him with cold indifference; and his services, which had certainly been of high importance, were poorly rewarded by the nominal rank of major, and the permission to retire on half pay for life. He, therefore, remitted his funds to Calcutta, and shortly after repaired thither, with the intention of taking his passage from thence to the United States. Still in the prime of life and the vigour of health, he might reasonably promise to himself a long life of ease-perhaps of distinction in his native country. But all these fair prospects were interrupted by sudden death-a death perfectly in unison with the eccentric character of his life. A few days before the time fixed for sailing, he gave a splendid This may seem rather disrespectful language to use concerning the great business of royalty; there is, however, royal authority for it: Frederick the great used to talk about le metier d'un roi. entertainment to his acquaintance in Calcutta. After dinner, when elated with wine, he undertook to entertain his guests with some equestrian feats, and, among others, one which he frequently performed, that of leaping a favourite Arabian horse across the table at which they sat. Unfortunately the horse's feet became entangled in the carpet, and Major Murray was thrown against some article of furniture, and severely hurt. The fall was found to have occasioned an intestinal rupture, which being unskilfully. treated, ended in a mortification. He died a few days after, 1806. He is described as having been, in ordinary life, a mild and amiable man, but when once roused into anger, becoming ferocious and ungovernable. He was of a middling stature, of pleasing expression of countenance, a muscular, wellformed figure, and great bodily strength and agility. He was supposed to be the best horseman in India, and unrivalled in the use of the broad-sword. On one occasion he was attacked, when alone, by seven Mahratta horsemen, of whom he killed three, and effected his escape from the other four. Many were his wildly romantic adventures and hair-breadth escapes; but their history is but imperfectly known; for he was extremely modest on the subject of his own exploits, scarcely ever speaking of them, and when he did relate any of the scenes in which he had been engaged, he seemed carefully to avoid dwelling upon his own actions. Though he had been absent from his native land almost from his boyhood, he still retained a strong affection for it. The mere name of an American was a sufficient passport to his confidence, and many of his countrymen, though perfect strangers to him, frequently experienced his liberality in the loan of large sums of money, upon no other introduction or security. These are all the particulars which I have been able to collect concerning the life and character of this brave and extraordinary man-a man who seems to have had in his composition many of the elements of a great general, and, perhaps, of a great sovereign. To a mind a little accustomed to castle-building and visionary speculation, it requires no great stretch of imagination to picture to ourself what, under favouring circumstances, might have been the career of our adventurous countryman-to suppose him, like some former adventurers in India, rising from his little principality, to become the head of a great state-then collecting into one mass all the native power of Hindostan, and expelling the European invaders from the soil-afterwards dividing the attention of the whole civilized world with Napoleon-the Rhode-Islander filling the east with the dread of his power, as the Corsican does the West -nay, perhaps aspiring to yet higher glory, becoming the oriental Washington, and the founder of a free and great state. All this is indeed "such stuff as dreams are made of," and yet wilder dreams than these have been realized. I have started the thought, and if my readers think it worth any thing, they may amuse themselves by pursuing it for themselves. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF MAJOR GENERAL BROWN. GENERAL JACOB BROWN is now about forty-five years old. He was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a few miles below Trenton; his father was a respectable farmer of the society of Quakers, and in their religious principles and habits of life young Brown was educated. His early education was such as the youth of that sect commonly receive; accurate and useful so far as it went, without aspiring to elegant literature, or mere speculative science: but his mind was naturally too active and inquisitive to rest content with these humble rudiments, and by seizing upon every opportunity of improvement in the course of his very diversified life, he has gradually acquired a large fund of various and well-digested knowledge. During some period of his youth, he was employed as the teacher of a respectable Quaker school in New-Jersey. This he left at the age of twenty-one, when he removed to Cincinnati, in Ohio, where he resided about two years, and followed the busi |