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moment to represent to him, with mild eloquence, that God, when justly irritated by the guilty conduct of princes, frequently suffered the punishment they had incurred, to fall in this world on their less faulty subjects, reserving, it might be fearfully apprehended, a severer one for the greater culprits in the world to come. This edifying reproof of the good father, which was extended beyond what it is here necessary to detail, made a sensible impression on the king, and particularly on the point which had principally instigated him to venture this exhortation. Of this, his majesty gave a solid proof, by instantly resolving to sacrifice to God the object that had so long diverted him from his duties. It required no small degree of manly fortitude to fulfil this laudable determination. His attachment to his mistress continued unabated, and her society was an unfailing source of pleasure and comfort to him after the cares and employments of the day. This he evinced by regularly repairing, at the fall of every evening, to the convent D'Oliveira, where she continued to reside, to pass it in her company. He was now to give up for ever an intercourse, from which he had for years derived his chief delight-an object that was still dear to him-and his majesty was nobly firm in prosecuting this painful reformation, for he did not even allow himself a last interview with his mistress. This lady acted with no less dignity and fortitude. Finding that the king did not visit her the day after the hurricane, she sent a messenger to inquire into the cause, who was at the same time commissioned to present the king with a couple of shirts, which she had made for him with her own hands. By the advice of father Govea, however, this present was not delivered. On the return of the messenger, the lady was fully informed of all that had passed, and the resolution which had in consequence been formed by his majesty respecting his future conduct in regard to her. So far from resenting this desertion, she appeared desirous of following his example, and obliterating, by a life of penance, the guilt she had incurred by their illicit commerce. She readily quitted the magnificent apartments which the king had with boundless generosity built and adorned purposely for her use returned all his costly presents-and, with an humble spirit, retired again to the lowly cell which she had occupied in the days of her innocence. The king consoled himself for her loss, by elevating and enriching those of her family whom he knew to be most dear to her. Thus ended this amour.

AN EXTRAORDINARY INSTANCE OF FEMALE

INTREPIDITY.

From L'Ermite en Province.

I made the journey from Agen to Montauban (says M. Jouy, whose recent essays under the above title have become rather too diffuse for our publication, toe political in

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their tendency, and not devoted with the same happiness as heretofore to the picture of manners) in company with a handsome young lady, whom I will call Madame D'Ettivale, in order to come near to her name, without naming her: she is a French woman in the whole force, in the whole extent, in the whole grace of the term: the words charme and entrainement would have been invented for her. I do not think that there exists a heart which beats higher at the ideas of glory, of misfortune, of country; and I veature to affirm, that if there are in France a hundred thousand men like that woman, we may be without uneasiness respecting the future. I do not know what this lady thinks of love, nor how she speaks of it, (it is a question upon which people do not. understand each other at the two extremities of life); but I do not hesitate to adduce her as a living refutation of the reproach which Montaigne, La Rochefoucault, and Beaumarchaise have cast upon women, that they do not know real friendship between themselves. Madame D'Ettivale has a female friend of her own age, several of whose letters she has shown me. If they should be one day published, I would not answer for their dispossessing Madame de Sevigné of the epistolary sceptre, which she holds by prescriptive admiration; but I am certain that people will find in them sentiments which are just and natural, even in their exaltation; and the expression of an ardent soul, which discharges itself into the bosom of a friend without thinking of the opinions of the great world, for which such letters are not written. The history of these two ladies, which is connected with the principat events of the revolution, would furnish an excellent chapter of manners; but independently of the secrecy which we owe to confidential communications, this narrative would throw me back into the whirlpool of the capital, which I have quitted for a time. I will confine myself to relating the travelling adventure which gave birth to a friendship of which few instances would be found among the men of any age or country.

Madame Eleonore de Monbrey (this is the name of Madame D'Ettivale's friend) had a mere general acquaintance with her when they made a journey together, some years ago, to Bagneres, where they were going to take the waters. Madame D'Ettivale had with her, her daughter, eight years old, whose beauty begins to be talked of in the world. A singular conformity of taste, of opinions, (which at that time were only sentiments) and which the intimacy of a few days developed, had already laid the foundation for an union between these two young ladies, which was soon to be cemented by a horrible event.

A few leagues on the way from Bagneres to Luchon, on seeing a steep road, which made it necessary to put a drag on the wheels of their carriage, Madame de Monbrey proposed to her companion to descend the mountain on foot. The latter fearing the

fatigue more than the danger of the road, entrusted her daughter to the care of a maid servant, and remained alone in the carriage. The road passed, for about a hundred toises, between two precipices, the depth of which was concealed by the hedges and brushwood which covered the edge. The little girl holding the servant by the hand, was walking in a path worn on the side of the road. Madame de Monbrey, who had taken the other side of the road, was a few steps before them: suddenly a piercing shriek is heard-she turns, and sees the servant stretched upon the ground, writhing in convulsions of despair. She runs up-the child is still rolling down a precipice above a hundred feet deep: without hesitating an instant-without reflecting on the dreadful danger which she braves-a young, weak, and delicate woman descends, or rather rushes down, this abyss; directing herself in her descent by the cries of the unfortunate little girl, who is hanging to the branches of an old willow, suspended over the pointed rocks which line the bottom of the abyss. The heroic Eleonore, to whom nature, at this moment, gives a degree of strength which she will perhaps never feel again, disengages the child, seizes with her teeth the collar of her frock, makes her ascend before her, and holding by the briars and thorns, which tear in vain her face and hands, she succeeds, after an hour's supernatural efforts, in restoring the child to her mother, whom the postillion, who held her in his arms, had alone prevented from throw ing herself down the precipice. I shall say nothing of the painful and transporting scene which followed the unhoped-for re-union. I was not witness to it; and there are, besides, situations in life, which it is sufficient to indicate in order to describe them.

From the Missouri Emigrant.

EXTRAORDINARY PERSEVERANCE.

Dr. Samuel Peters is now waiting at Prairie du Chien, the upper military post and settlement on the Mississippi, for the permission of the proper authorities to hold councils with Indians. His object is to gain their consent for him to settle the track of land at lake Pepin, given by them to the celebrated Capt. Jonathan Carver. Dr. P. is upwards of 81 years of age, he formerly lived at Hebron, Con. and is one of those who retired to England during the American revolutionary struggle, and for his loyalty received several appointments from the king. He was bishop of Connecticut and chaplain to one of the British commissioners at the first treaty of peace with America.

In London he met Capt. Carver, (with whom he was formerly acquainted,) after he had been disappointed in having his grant confirmed, and so frequently deceived by the ministry, that he had spent all his property and means of support in fruitless attendance upon them, and had at last given up his claim in despair. Dr. P. took him

home, and supported him through a long and expensive series of troubles, until by the influence of his friends, he brought the petition before the king in council, who was pleased to grant it. Capt. C. was soon after taken sick and died, but before his death, he assigned to Dr. P. all his rights to the land as a remuneration for his expense and trou ble, only requesting the Doctor to remember his children, and do for them as if they were his own. For this purpose, Dr. P. returned to America in 1807, and collected to gether the heirs of Capt. C. and offered to give them back his right to the land or do any thing else that they might suggest as meeting their wishes, and enable him to fulfil the injunctions of his friend; they concluded that it would be best for him to complete the title, as he was better qualified, &c. and they would be satisfied with a township of the lands after ards.

Dr. Peters returned to England, and before he was ready to return, war commenced, which kept him in England until the peace. Since this period he has been ardently employed to commence a settlement, and notwithstanding his age and infirmities, the extreme danger and almost insurmountable difficulties of the undertaking, he has undauntedly progressed as far as above stated, and so sanguine is he of ultimate success, that in a letter to the writer of this, for information, &c. he says, "I expect to build next summer, a saw and grist mills, dwelling house, &c. at Mount Lesoille,* township of, county of Munroe and territory of Petrysylvania, near lake Pepin."

S.

Henry, in our last.
Corrigenda in the review of Wirt's Life of

Page 413. For items of the hero or statesman-read, items in the hero's or stateman's reputation, &c.

Page 414. For, we acknowledge the ample assistance, &c.--read, he acknowledges, &c.

Same page. For, the intenseness of his reputation,-read extension, &c.

Same page. For, he would throw himself in all forms,-read into all forms.

Page 416. For, with boots-read with hurting boots, &c.

the treasury,-read an enormous deficit. Page 417. For, to hide an enormous defect in

Page 419. For, even remain a matter of opinion,-read, ever remain.

Page 423. For, this common error,-read, the common error.

Same page. For, perfect and entire here means-read, here mean.

Page 424. For, a much longer life than ever that, &c.-read, than even that. For, proper in language of the bar. the long since of the bar,-read, proper in the

Page 425. For, was almost death,-read, was almost instant death.

Pages 425 and 427. Exuvice is incorrectly spelt with the diphthong œ.

Page 426. For, few such can be found,read, few such instances can be found.

* Lesouille is the name of the principal chief of the Sioux, and I suppose the greatest comsellor of their nation.

THE

AMERICAN MONTHLY MAGAZINE

AND

CRITICAL REVIEW.

No. II......VOL. III.

JUNE, 1818.

A

ART. 1. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

BRIEF abstract of the remarkable facts, in regard to the power of fascination in serpents, related in the following letters, was made in our Magazine for November last, in the report of the Transactions of the Philosophical Society of New-York. But, from the nature of that department, the inferences drawn from those facts, by Mr. Garden, could not be given in detail, and they are so ingenious and interesting that we presume our readers will coincide with us in thinking them worthy of publication.

For the copy of the letters, we are indebted to the politeness of Dr. Francis, of this city.

To Dr. David Ramsay. DEAR SIR,

Before I read the Essay of Dr. Barton (so strongly recommended by you to my attention) on the Fascinating Power attributed to Serpents, it is my wish to deliver my own sentiments in writing, that I may more explicitly declare my reasons for believing that it proceeds from a power possessed by the snake, of emitting, at pleasure, from its body, a very subtile effluvium, which, acting on the delicate organs of the smaller animals, deprives them of every power of exertion, and renders them incapable of flight.

Nature has endowed every animal with an instinct, which at once points out the enemy it has cause to dread. The agitation of the mouse on the appearance of a cat, the confusion in a poultry yard if á hawk directs its flight towards it, will VOL. 111.-No. II,

11

sufficiently prove this. How then are we to account for it, that the rabbit, squirrel, or wood-rat, which, on the approach of a dog or fox, immediately flies to its lurking place for shelter, should, on the appearance of a serpent, lose every disposition to remove from it, and remain in a state of torpidity till it become its prey. It is my wish to prove the existence of this effluvium, and the power of the snake to communicate it at pleasure to the surrounding atmosphere, so as to extend it to the object it wishes to destroy. From the number of facts related to me, I shall select a few, giving the authority from which I received them.

The late colonel Thompson of Belleville, mentioned to me, many years ago, that riding on his estate in search of game, he came unexpectedly on a snake in coil, of so monstrous a size, that he believed it, in the first instance, a buck of the first magnitude; that, recovering from his surprise, he fired at, and killed the reptile; but, at the same instant, was assailed by an overpowering vapour, that so completely bewildered his senses, that it was not without the greatest difficulty that he could guide his horse and return to his dwelling,-that a deadly sickness at his stomach followed, and a puking more violent than he had ever experienced from the operation of the most powerful emetic.

By Mrs. Daniel Blake, of Newington, I was informed, that an overseer on one of her southern plantations, being missed and sought for by his family, was found

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in a state of perfect insensibility, in a field near his dwelling, who, on the recovery of his senses, declared, that waiting the approach of a deer that had been troublesome to his crop, he had heard the rattle of a snake, and that before it was in his power to remove from the threatened danger, he perceived a sickening effluvium, which deprived him instantaneously of sense.

From the president of our senate, Mr. John Lloyd, I received the following fact:-A negro working in his field, was seen suddenly to fall, uttering at the same instant a dreadful shriek. On approaching him it was found that he had struck off the head of a very large rattle snake, the body of which was still writhing with agony by his side. When restored to sense, which it took much pains to accomplish, he declared that he shrieked with horror as he struck the snake, and at the same instant fell, overpowered by a smell that took away all his senses.

From these instances I think it would appear, that, although at all times possessed of the power of throwing off this effluvium, that it is only occasionally used by the snake; had it been otherwise-if always perceptible, Renty, the overseer of Mrs. B. and the negro of Mr. L. would have been apprised of their danger, and had an opportunity of avoiding it. But of its actual existence I have still stronger proof, since it has been well ascertained that a negro belonging to Mr. Nathaniel Barnwell, of Beaufort, could, from the acuteness of his faculty of smelling, at all times discover the rattle snake, and, with unerring accuracy, trace its movements; and I have heard my friend colonel, Edward Barnwell frequently declare, that he had seen him quit his work, telling his companions that he smelt a rattle snake, and at a distance of two tasks, (210 feet) point out the animal fascinating, and always in the very act of seizing its prey. If such be the effects on the senses of man, may it not be supposed that the delicate organs of the smaller animals inay be operated upon with equal or still greater effect. We know full well that a profusion of odours will not only impair health, but in many instances occasion dcath. Life has been repeatedly destroyed by the confined air of a bed chamber being overcharged by the fragrance of the sweetest flowers; it will not, therefore, be deemed improbable that odours noxious and offensive in themselves, should be productive of as deadly effects.

In page 74 of Vaillant's Travels in Africa, vol. i. part 2, an interesting ac

count is introduced of a fascinated bird, which died in convulsions in sight of the author, although the distance betwixt it and its enemy was three and a half feet, and upon examination no trace could be found of the slightest wound or external injury. Another instance follows, where a small mouse expired in convulsions, although two yards distant from the snake which caused its destruction. In the same work the following interesting anecdote will be found, as related by a captain in Gordon's regiment, then quartered at the Cape:-"While in garrison at Ceylon, and amusing myself in hunting a marsh, I was suddenly seized with a convulsive and involuntary trembling, different from what I had ever experienced, and at the same time was strongly attracted, and in spite of myself, to a particular spot in the marsh. Directing my eye to the spot, I beheld, with feelings of horror, a serpent of an enormous size, whose look instantly pierced me. Having, however, not yet lost all power of motion, I embraced the opportunity before too late, and saluted the reptile with the contents of my fusee. The report was a talisman, and broke the charm -my convulsions ceased-I felt myself able to fly, and the only inconvenience was a cold sweat, which was doubtless the effect of fear, and the violent agitation that my senses had undergone."

It is evident that Vaillant, in the two first cases, believed that death was occasioned by fright; yet I cannot subscribe to his opinion, for the removal of the cause would necessarily destroy the effect; and he tells us, "that at his approach the snake glided off, and that it was not till some time afterwards that the mouse expired as he held it in his hand." In the case of the officer, fear could not have had the influence attributed to it, for his convulsions and tremblings took place before the serpent was discovered by him, and it would be the height of folly to suppose its existence where no cause appeared to excite it. Allow me then to say, that I consider these instances rather as confirmations of my opinions than militating against them; for as no external injury was received, no wound inflicted, and death the result of the fascinations, it is not unreasonable to conclude that the inhaling of the deadly effluvium, the existence of which I have endeavoured to prove, was the certain cause of it. That the officer escaped does not surprise me, for I cannot suppose the power given to every serpent in equal degree, and the quantity of effluvium

emitted, though sufficient to bewilder and stupify, was not in its nature so completely baneful as to produce death.

I shall now read Dr. Barton with attention, and having candidly stated my opinions, without a hesitation give them up, if I find (as you say I shall) his doctrines conclusive on the subject.

I am, Sir, with great respect,
&c. &c. &c.

ALEX. GARDEN.

To General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney.
DEAR SIR,

The opinions expressed in my letter to Dr. Ramsay, on "the existence of an effluvium, which enables the rattle snake, without any extraordinary exertion, to secure its prey," resulted from a candid consideration of the instances therein adduced in support of them. I had never read a line on the subject, nor imagined that similar ideas had been entertained by any other person; it is, therefore, particularly grateful to me, to find, from the perusal of the books you had the politeness to put into my hands, that so distinguished a naturalist as Monsieur La Cepede cherished such sentiments on the subject as give sanction to my own. He speaks with confidence "of the existence of the fetid effluvium emanating from the rattle snake, and ascribes to it the effect of suffocating or at least stupifying the animal on whose senses it is designed to operate." He even asserts" that it is so offensive, that it will occasion dizziness and head-ache in persons who continue long in the apartment in which the reptile is confined;" but although he believes it the foundation of all the stories which have been related with regard to the fascination of animals by the snake, he expresses his opinion, "that in most cases the animal which becomes a victim, has been previously bitten." I subscribe cheerfully to this opinion-though not in toto. Colonel Thompson was not bitten, yet his declaration proves, that his senses were thrown into such a state of confusion, by the effluvium emanating from the snake which he killed, that he was nearly deprived of ability to guide the horse which he rode, while his subsequent sickness evinces its injurious effects on his constitution, and that it threatened life, although it was not sufficiently powerful to destroy it. On Renty, Mrs. Blake's overseer, and the negro of Mr. Lloyd, no wound was inflicted, yet both from the effect of the effluvium were deprived of sense; in these instances, the strength of the organs on which it operated, may pro

bably have saved from destruction; and as the little bird and mouse mentioned by Vaillant, with organs of more delicate texture, perished in convulsions, though considerably removed from the snake, and never bitten, I think it reasonable to conclude, that death was occasioned by the noxious quality of the effluvium alone. Before I touch on the theory of Dr. Barton, permit me to remind you that in my opinion, "the power rests with the serpent to emit at pleasure the effluvium which secures to it its prey; that it is rarely perceptible but when the snake is either anxious to obtain food, or provoked to anger, and that the free possession of its health and strength is necessary to its being able to use it with effect.” “If,” says Dr. Barton, "the vapor emanating from the snake, had the effect attributed to it, it would be a kind of Avernus which animals would avoid,-but this is not the case, as frogs and birds are frequently found near them uninjured and undestroyed." Now their security in this case, is, in my opinion, owing to the snake's being previously sufficiently supplied with food; for-from its sluggish habits-its inability to make at any time great exertion, it is probable that Providence has caused it to be satisfied with little nourishment, an that it should never endeavour to paralize where it did not mean to destroy, and I am confirmed in this belief from the perfect recollection of one having been kept alive for upwards of twelve months at Glasgow College, which during that period never took any food whatever. But although Dr. Barton has little or no faith in the existence of the effluvium, yet he says " My friend Mr. Wm. Bartram assured me, that he had observed horses to be sensible of, and greatly agitated by it, showing their abhorrence, by snorting, whinnying, and starting from the road, and endeavouring to throw their riders in order to escape." To prove that the vapor, if it did exist, was not prejudicial, be put a snow bird into a cage with a rattlé snake;-the little animal exhibited no signs of fear, but hopped from the floor to the roost, and frequently sat on the back of the snake; it ate seeds which were put into the cage, and by all its acts demonstrated, that its situation was not uneasy. To account for this, it is of consequence to observe, that the rattle snake seldom eats when caged. Monsieur Bosc says, "when confined they for the most part suffer themselves to die of hunger;" an it is of still greater import to recollect, that when the experiment was made by Dr. Barton, the season was not arrived, when

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