wood and rúm, as a prefervative against contagion, As for Mrs. Tremble, her mind was in a state of never ceafing agitation at that time : A fpecimen of the common fituation of the family, is as follows :

10. Susy, your eyes look heavy, you don't feel a fore throat, do you? Hufband, I heard Tommy cough in the bed-room just now, I'm afraid the diftemper is beginning. in his vitals, let us get up and light a candle. You don't begin to feel any fore on your tongue or your mouth, do you, my dear little chicken ? It feems to me Molly did not eat her breakfast with so good a ftomach this morning as fhe ufed to do. I'm in diftrefs for fear fhe has got the diftemper coming on.

11. The house was one day a perfect Bedlam; for having heard that rue and rum was an excellent guard in their prefent danger, the good lady difpenfed the catholican fo liberally among her children one morning, that not a fout of them could eat all day; Tom vomited heartily. looked as red as fire, and Molly as pale as death.

Sue

12. O! What terrors, and heart achings, till the force, of the medicine was over! To be fhort, the child that had the dilemper died; and no other child was heard of, in thofe parts, to have it; fo that tranquility and fecurity was reftored to Mr. Tremble's family, and their children regarded as formerly, proof againft mortality.

13. Mrs. Foresight keeps her mind in a continual ftate of diftre fs and uneafinefs, from a profpect of awful difafters that he is forewarned of by dreams, figns, and omens. This, by the way, is affronting behaviour to common fenfe, and implies a greater reflection upon fome of the divine perfections, than fome well meaning people are aware of.

14. The good woman look'd exceedingly melancholy. at breakfaff, one day laft week, and appeared to have loft, ber appetite. After fome enquiry into the caufe of fe mournful a vifage, we were given to understand that the forefaw the death of fome one of the family; having had warning in the night by a certain noife that he never knew fail; and then the went on to tell how juft fuch a thing happened, before the death of her father, and mother, and fifter, &c.

15. I endeavoured to argue her out of this whimfical gloomy ftate of mind, but in vain: She infifted upon it," that though the noife lafted fearce a minute, it began like the dying fhriek of an infant, and went on like the tumbling clods upon a coffin, and ended in the ringing of the bell." 16. The poor woman wept bitterly for the lofs of the child that was to die; however, the found afterwards, occafion for uneafinefs on another account. The cat unluckily fhut up in the buttery, and diffatisfied with so long confinement, gave forth that dying fhriek, which first proe duced the good woman's confternation; and then by fome fudden effort to get out at a grate at the upper part of the room, overfat a large pewter platter; the platter in its way overfat a large wooden bowl full of milk; and both together in their way knock'd down a white ftone difh of falmon, which came with them into a great brafs kettle that flood: upon the floor.

17. The noife of the cat, might eafily be taken for that of a child, and the found of a falmon upon a board, for that of a clod; and any mortal may be excufed for thinking that a pewter platter, and a great earthen dish, broken" in fifty pieces, both tumbling into a brafs kettle, founds like a bell.

HISTORY OF COLUMBUS,

Eettlement of America, is an interefting object of

VERY circumstance relating to the discovery and

enquiry. Yet it is prefumed, from the prefent ftate of literature in this country, that many perfons are but flight-* ly acquainted with the character of that man, whofe ex-: traordinary genius led him to the difcovery of the continent, and whofe fingular fufferings ought to excite the indigna tion of the world.

2. The Spanifh hiftorians, who treat of the discovery and fettlement of South America, are very little known in the United States; and Dr. Robertson's history of that country, which, as is ufual in works of that judicious writer, contains all that is valuable on the fubject, is not yet reprinted in America, and therefore cannot be fuppofed to be in the hands of American readers, in general," and perhaps no other writer in the English language has given a fufficient account of the life of Columbus, to ena

ble them to gain a competent knowledge of the history of the difcovery of America.

3. Chriftopher Columbus was born in the Republic of Genoa, about the year 1447; at a time when the navigation of Europe was scarcely extended beyond the limits of the Mediterranean.

4. The Mariner's compafs had been invented, and in. common ufe, for more than a century; yet, with the help of this fure guide, prompted by the most ardent fpiric difcovery, encouraged by the patronage of princes, the mariners of thofe days, rarely ventured from the fight of land.

5. They acquired great applaufe by failing along the coaft of Africa, and difcovering fome of the neighbouring inlands; and after pufhing their refearches with the greateft industry and perfeverance for more than half a century, the Portuguefe, who were the most fortunate and enter prifing, extended their difcoveries fouthward no farther than the equator.

6. The rich commodities of the east had for feveral ages been brought into Europe by the way of the Red Sea and the Mediterranean; and it had now become the object of the Portuguese to find a paffage to India, by failing round the fouthern extremity of Africa, and then taking an eastern courfe,

7. This great object engaged the general attention of mankind, and drew into the Portuguese service, adventurers from every maritime nation of Europe. Every year added to their experience in navigation, and feemed to promise a reward to their industry.

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8. The profpect, however, of arriving in the Indies, was extremely diftant fifty years perfeverance in the fame track, had brought them only to the equator; and it was probable that as many more would elapfe before they could accomplish their purpofe: But Columbus, by an un common exertion of genius, formed a defign no lefs aftonifhing to the age in which he lived, than beneficial to pofterity.

9. This defign was to fail to India by taking a western direction. By the accounts of travellers who had visited India, that country feemed almoft without limits on the ealt; and by attending to the fpherical figure of the earth

Columbus drew this conclufion, that the Atlantic Ocean must be bounded on the west, either by India itself, or by fome great continent not far diftant from it.

10. This extraordinary man, who was now about twentyfeven years of age, appears to have united in his character every trait, and to have poffeffed every talent requifite to form and execute the greateft enterprifes."

11. He was educated in all the ufeful fciences that were taught in that day. He had made great proficiency in geography, aftronomy and drawing, as they were necef fary to his favorite purfuit of navigation. He had now been a number of years in the fervice of the Portuguefe, and had acquired all the experience that their voyages and difcoveries could afford.

12. His courage and perfeverance had been put to the fevereft teft, and the exercife of every amiable and heroic virtue rendered him-univerfally known and refpected. He had married a Portuguefe lady, by whom he had two fons, Diego and Ferdinand; the younger of whom is the hiftorian

of his life.

13. Such was the fituation of Columbus, when he formed and thoroughly digested a plan, which in its operation and confequences, unfolded to the view of mankind. one half of the globe, diffused wealth and dignity over the other, and extended commerce and civilization through the whole.

14. To corroborate the theory which he had formed of the existence of a weftern continent, his difcerning mind, which always knew the application of every circumstance that fell in his way, had obferved feveral facts, which by others would have paffed unnoticed. In his voyages to the African lands he had found floating afhore after a long western form, pieces of wood carved in a curious manner, canes of a fize unknown in that quarter of the world, and human bodies with very fingular features.

15. Fully confirmed in the opinion that a confiderable portion of the earth was ftill undiscovered, his genius was too vigorous and perfevering to fuffer an idea of this importance to reft merely in fpeculation, as it had done in the minds of Plato and Seneca, who appeared to have had conjectures of a fimilar nature.

16. He determined, therefore, to bring his favorite theory to the tek of actual experiment. But an object of

that magnitude required the patronage of a prince; and a defign fo extraordinary met with all the obftructions, delay and difappointments, which an age of fuperftition could invent, and which personal jealousy and inalice could magnify and encourage.

4. 17. Happily for mankind, in this inftance, a genius capable of devifing the greatest undertakings, affociated in itfelf a degree of patience and enterprife, modefty and confidence, which rendered him fuperior, not only to thefe misfortunes, but to all the future calamities of his life.

18. Prompted by the moft ardent enthufiafin to be the difcoverer of new continents; and fully fenfible of the advantages that would refust to mankind from fuch difcoveries, he had the mortification to waste away eighteen years of his life, after his fyftem was well established in his own mind, before he could obtain the means of executing his defigns.

19. The greatest part of this period was fpent in fucceflive and fruitlefs folicitations, at Genoa, Portugal and Spain. As a duty to his native country, he made his first propofal to the Senate of Genoa"; where it was foon rejected.

20. Confcious of the truth of his theory and of his own ability to execute his defign, he retired without dejection, from a body of men who were incapable of forming any juft ideas upon the fubject; and applied with fresh confi dence to John the fecond, King of Portugal, who had diftinguished himfelf as a great patren of navigation, and in whofe fervice Columbus had acquired a reputation which entitled him and his project to general confidence and approbation.

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21. But here he fuffered an infult much greater than a direct refufal. After referring an examination of his fcheme to the council who had the direction of naval affairs and drawing from him the general ideas of the length of the voyage and the courfe he meant to take, that great monarch had the means to confpire with the council to rob Columbus of the glory and advantage he expected tô, derive from his undertaking.

22. While Columbus was amufed with this negociation, in hopes of having his fcheme adopted and patronized, a veffel was fecretly difpatched by order of the King,