Such a series of violent incidents of course created excitement beyond our own boundaries. There was a group of plantations upon the river lying side by side, and all having a frontage upon the water; they formed the 'settlement.' Through these ran the report, spreading like wildfire; and within the hour, white men could be seen coming from every direction. Some were on foot-poor hunters who dwelt on the skirts of the large plantations; others-the planters themselves, or their overseers-on horseback. All carried weapons-rifles and pistols. A stranger might have supposed it the rendezvous of a militia muster,' but the serious looks of those who assembled gave it a different aspect: it more resembled the gathering of the frontier upon the report of some Indian invasion. In one hour, more than fifty white men were upon the ground-nearly all who belonged to the settle

The trial was rapidly gone through with. The facts were fresh and clear; I was before their eyes with my arm in a sling, badly cut. The other circumstances which led to this result were all detailed. The chain of guilt was complete. The mulatto had attempted the lives of white people. Of course, death was the decree.

What mode of death? Some voted for hanging; but by most of these men, hanging was deemed too mild. Burning met the approbation of the majority. The judge himself cast his vote for the severer sentence.

My father pled mercy-at least so far as to spare the torture-but the stern jurors would not listen to him. They had all lost slaves of late-many runaways had been reported-the proximity of the Indians gave encouragement to defection. They charged my father with too much leniency-the settlement needed an example-they would make one of Yellow Jake, that would deter all who were disposed to imitate him. His sentence was, that he should be burnt alive!

Thus did they reason, and thus did they pronounce. It is a grand error to suppose that the Indians of North America have been peculiar in the habit of torturing their captive foes. In most well-authenticated cases, where cruelty has been practised by them, there has been a provocative deed of anterior datesome grievous wrong-and the torture was but a retaliation. Human nature has yielded to the temptings of revenge in all ages-and ferocity can be charged with as much justice against white skin as against red skin. Had the Indians written the story of border warfare, the world might have modified its belief in their so-called cruelty.

It is doubtful if, in all their history, instances of ferocity can be found that will parallel those often perpetrated by white men upon blacks-many of whom have suffered mutilation-torture-death-for the mere offence of a word! certainly often for a blow, since such is a written law!

Where the Indians have practised cruelty, it has almost always been in retaliation; but civilised tyrants have put men to the torture without even the palliating apology of vengeance. If there was revenge, it was not of that natural kind to which the human heart gives way, when it conceives deep wrong has been done; but rather a mean spite, such as is often

exhibited by the dastard despot towards some weak individual within his power.

No doubt, Yellow Jake deserved death. His crimes were capital ones; but to torture him was the will of his judges.

My father opposed it, and a few others. They were outvoted and overruled. The awful sentence was passed; and they who had decreed it at once set about carrying it into execution.

It was not a fit scene to be enacted upon a gentleman's premises; and a spot was selected at some distance from the house, further down the lake-edge. To this place the criminal was conducted-the crowd of course following.

Some two hundred yards from the bank, a tree was chosen as the place of execution. To this tree the condemned was to be bound, and a log-fire kindled around him.

My father would not witness the execution; I alone of our family followed to the scene. The mulatto saw me, and accosted me with words of rage. He even taunted me about the wound he had given, glorying in the deed. He was no doubt under the belief that I was one of his greatest foes. I had certainly been the innocent witness of his crime, and chiefly through my testimony he had been condemned; but I was not revengeful. I would have spared him the terrible fate he was about to undergo-at least its tortures.

We arrived upon the ground. Men were already before us, collecting the logs, and piling them up around the trunk of the tree; others were striking a fire. Some joked and laughed; a few were heard giving utterance to expressions of hate for the whole coloured race.

Young Ringgold was especially active. This was a wild youth-on the eve of manhood, of somewhat fierce, harsh temper-a family characteristic.

I knew that the young fellow affected my sister Virginia; I had often noticed his partiality for her; and he could scarcely conceal his jealousy of others who came near her. His father was the richest planter in the settlement; and the son, proud of this superiority, believed himself welcome everywhere. I did not think he was very welcome with Virgine, though I could not tell. It was too delicate a point upon which to question her, for the little dame already esteemed herself a woman.

Ringgold was neither handsome nor graceful. He was sufficiently intelligent, but overbearing to those beneath him in station-not an uncommon fault among the sons of rich men. He had already gained the character of being resentful. In addition to all, he was dissipated-too often found with low company in the forest cock-pit.

For my part, I did not like him. I never cared to be with him as a companion; he was older than myself, but it was not that-I did not like his disposition. Not so my father and mother. By both was he encouraged to frequent our house. Both probably desired him for a future son-in-law. They saw no faults in him. The glitter of gold has a blinding influence upon the moral eye.

This young man, then, was one of the most eager for the punishment of the mulatto, and active in the preparations. His activity arose partly from a natural disposition to be cruel. Both he and his father were noted as hard task-masters, and to be sold to Mass' Ringgold' was a fate dreaded by every slave in the settlement.

But young Ringgold had another motive for his conspicuous behaviour: he fancied he was playing the knight-errant, by this show of friendship for our family-for Virginia. He was mistaken. Such unnecessary cruelty to the criminal met the approbation of none of us. It was not likely to purchase a smile from my good sister.

The young half-blood, Powell, was also present. On hearing the hue and cry, he had returned, and now stood in the crowd looking on, but taking no part in the proceedings.

Just then the eye of Ringgold rested upon the Indian boy, and I could perceive that it was instantly lit up by a strange expression. He was already in possession of all the details. He saw in the darkskinned youth the gallant preserver of Virginia's life, but it was not with gratitude that he viewed him. Another feeling was working in his breast, as could plainly be perceived by the scornful curl that played upon his lips.

More plainly still by the rude speech that followed: Hilloa! redskin!' he cried out, addressing himself to the young Indian, 'you're sure you had no hand in this business? eh, redskin?'

'Redskin!' exclaimed the half-blood in a tone of indignation, at the same time fronting proudly to his insulter-Redskin you call me? My skin is of better colour than yours, you white-livered lout!'

Ringgold was rather of a sallow complexion. The blow hit home. Not quicker is the flash of powder than was its effect; but his astonishment at being thus accosted by an Indian, combined with his rage, hindered him for some moments from making reply. Others were before him, and cried out :

O Lordy! such talk from an Injun!' 'Say that again!' cried Ringgold, as soon as he had recovered himself.

'Again if you wish-white-livered lout!' cried the half-blood, giving full emphasis to the phrase.

The words were scarcely out before Ringgold's pistol cracked; but the bullet missed its aim; and next moment the two clinched, seizing each other by the throats. Both came to the ground, but the half-blood had the advantage. He was uppermost, and no doubt would quickly have despatched his white antagonist-for the ready blade was gleaming in his grasp-but the knife was struck out of his hand; and a crowd of men, rushing to the spot, pulled the combatants apart.

Some were loud against the Indian lad, and called for his life; but there were others with finer ideas of fairplay, who had witnessed the provocation, and, despite the power of the Ringgolds, would not suffer him to be sacrificed. I had resolved to protect him as far as I was able.

What would have been the result, it is difficult to guess; but, at that crisis a sudden diversion was produced by the cry-that Yellow Jake had escaped!

A CHRISTMAS BARREL OF OYSTERS. DID you ever hear that the London commissariat alone demands every year five hundred million oysters; and that Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, and other places take all they can get, and never get half enough? Are you further aware that there are numerous companies who cultivate, or grow, or nurse oysters for the market; who procure them in the seed, who place them in watery pits, and tend them with anxious care, for three long years, till they are ready to enter oyster street,' and make their début at the court of Billingsgate ? And are you further aware that poets have sung about oysters, that legislators have legislated about oysters, that naturalists have investigated their manners and habits; and that, after all, nothing is known about them? If you know all this, you will perhaps listen with some interest to our talk about oysters.

Nobody can tell how oysters reproduce themselves. All we know is, that, according to an anonymous authority, in spring-time and summer they sicken and spawn their gelatinous green-hued splashes, which the fishermen have baptised spat. The spawn looks like drops of tallow or greenish-coloured soup, and it

adheres to loose oyster-shells and stones. When examined with a magnifying-glass, there are seen in the spat numerous little eggs of a brilliant whiteness; which gradually become compressed, and approach more and more the shape of an oyster. Little hairs appear as the egg-cluster breaks up, and the thousands of the brother and sister ostrea swim off to seek their fortunes. When the steady age comes-rather say the steady hour-the settling-down epoch, the hairs give place to layers of rough shell, and a native of experience takes care to set up house where he can eat with least risk of being eaten. Microscopists reckon the eggs in one of these splashes of spat by hundreds of thousands. Leuwenhoek counted several hundred thousand eggs in the fecundating folds of the mantle of an oyster-spawner; and it has been said, but on whose authority we do not know, that when an oyster attains the fourth month of its age, it can reproduce its species. This remarkable fecundity is necessary to enable the species to survive the ravages which the spawn sustain from their numerous enemies. The spat is a tidbit for fish, crustacea, and worms. The feelers or tentacles of numberless cannibals are cast forth continually, to lay hold of the young and innocent natives. When their shells are sufficiently grown to protect them from such enemies, star-fishes and crabs watch continually to take them by surprise, and whip the soft and succulent bodies of the ostrea from their valves. Many a five-fingered star-fish loses a member in the attempt when the oyster is wide awake, and closes his valves upon it with a sudden and powerful snap. M. Corte informs us that a single shell contains from one to two millions of young oysters. In reference to the growth of this much-prized mollusk: 'Stakes fixed thirty months before in the Lake of Fusaro, when removed, were loaded with oysters; and, in spite of the numerous varieties of shape, they were found to be the produce of three distinct seasons. Those which were of the first year's spawning were ready for sale; those of the second year were quite small; and the third batch were only about the size of a lentil.'

Some of the London fish-salesmen do business in nothing but oysters, while others confine themselves entirely to the trade in lobsters. To meet the enormous demand for natives, and to fill the wonderful quantity of Christmas barrels which are travelling all over our southern railways during the month of December, cultivation and protection on a large scale is resorted to; and the more seaward parts of the Thames, on both the Kentish and Essex coasts, may be said to have been long ago converted into a series of oyster-farms or beds, of various sizes. In all these beds, we are informed by Sir Francis Head, 'there is a certain space devoted to natives. At Burnham, Essex, the spat, or fecundated sperm, is stored in large pits, and sold as native brood, which is afterwards "laid "in that portion of the different beds appropriated to privileged oysters. Here the young natives remain for three years, when they are generally brought to market. So far, their education is left, in a certain degree, to nature; but once in the possession of the fish-shopkeepers, art steps in to perfect their condition. They are now stored in large shallow vats, being carefully laid with their proper sides uppermost, and supplied daily with oatmeal-a process which is calculated rather to fatten than to flavour; and there are many who think that, like show-cattle, they are none the better for overfeeding.' Such is a brief outline of the organisation constantly at work to supply our markets with this one delicacy; and the tavern roysterer little thinks of the care and anxiety endured, or the multiplicity of operations which are performed before his dozen of natives reach the brilliantly lighted restaurant where he is enjoying at ease his pale ale or punch.

In these matters, we have been copying the ancient

Romans, who knew all the secrets of gastronomy, and who had fishponds and oyster-stews upon which vast sums of money were annually expended. The luxurious Romans preferred those oysters which were brought from the greatest distances, and gave the palm to those from Britain. They had them transplanted from the seas and rivers communicating with the Atlantic. Spawn or spat from our own shores was also carried in damp sand, it is supposed-to the Roman oysterstews by the slaves of the more wealthy, and there nursed and codled till it became individualised into fine, plump, well-flavoured specimens of the province mollusca. Even now, we have relics left of these achievements in Roman pisciculture; among which are the artificial oyster-banks on the Lake of Fusaro, near Naples, already referred to. These were organised by Sergius Orata, a wealthy Roman, who inhabited a splendid villa near the place. He erected artificial rocks, and had also stakes driven into the water, to which the oyster-fry adhered in countless quantities; in fact, some holding-on place must be erected in the beds, otherwise the progeny would be washed away by the tide. In the green oysters of Marennes, we have another instance of shell-fish cultivation. We are indebted to a communication from M. Corte, of the College of France, for the following notes on the oyster-beds of the river Gironde: "The reservoirs in which the fishermen of Marennes deposit the oysters, in order to make them turn green, are called claires. These differ from ponds and ordinary parks, inasmuch as they are not submerged by every tide, but only during the spring-tides, when the waves flow further inland than at other seasons. At the end of two or three months, the soil, which has been deposited by the inundations in the claires, becomes so firm as to prevent the oysters from sinking into it. In the month of September, when the spawning-season is over, the fishing commences. The whole population of Marennes are engaged in collecting the oysters, which they deposit in the ponds, where they increase in size before they are sold. They can be sent to any distance, but from time to time must be immersed in water. Five millions of oysters are annually furnished from the beds of Marennes. Their price varies from one to six francs per hundred-the average cost per hundred being equal to 2s. 6d. of British money.' These famed oysters are transported to all countries. From Bordeaux they are forwarded to Marseille, and from thence to all parts of the south of Italy, and also to Algiers. They have even been found on this side of the Channel. Long, long ago, when the monks of old' flourished in our monasteries, there were countless bushels of these fine foreign eysters devoured. Some years ago, when poking about the ruins of an old abbey, far enough from the sea, we came upon layers of shells, which vouched the fact. They testified to oysters of no common breed, for we recognised in them the outward features of the varieties used in the cuisine of Paris. They must have had dainty appetites, and have been well versed in the art of good living, these old monks, who sent so far for their oysters.

finer kinds of food than the inhabitants of the large sea-beds can obtain; but, in our opinion, the real saltwater natives are the best, although some people, who pretend to judgment in such matters, give the preference to the cultivated kinds. But to return to the dredging. Of course, on the common ground, there are no particular laws to be observed as to the filling the boats. The plan is, to get what you can as fast as you can, and carry them as quickly as possible to the nearest railway-station for immediate conveyance to the great metropolis. The steam-horse is preferred to the old fishing-smack, because it saves the oyster metage chargeable on all supplies landed from the river at Billingsgate. The regulations on the artificial beds of oysters belonging to private individuals or companies are stringently carried out, and the various properties are marked off by long poles firmly fixed in the different parts of the bed. When the dredges are hauled into the luggers, the contents are thrown into a heap, which is afterwards picked or assorted into 'roughs,' 'commons,' and 'natives,' and those that are under the natural size are again deposited in the particular part of the bed to which they properly belong. Amateurs in sea-ware and in natural history may obtain much enjoyment by taking a spell at oyster-dredging. By doing so, they are certain to become more familiar with the riches of the sea and the common objects of the shore. What hauls for naturalists, what collections for aquaria,' says a recent newspaper sketch, are brought up at every cast! Long stems of sponges, odoriferous bunches of weeds, old shells frosted with barnacles, and peppered with their broad, flower-headed tubulariæ, horny fronds of sertularida and other bryozon, the jelly-like spawn of the doris, the twisted cords of the eolis, and occasionally some of the nudibranchiates themselves; "dog whelks," "whelk tingles," "borers" and "burrs," "five fingers " and "twelve fingers," and dead and living things enough to give a zoologist years of work, if he would only make up his mind to know all about them.'

BABOOIS M.

IN Great Britain, the term respectability has been explained as something attaching to anybody who drives a gig. In British India, babooism may truly be said to signify any condition not involving manual labour. Baboo is, in fact, equivalent to our 'gentleman,' in the popular sense of the word. Whilst, however, the coolie or ryot applies the term 'baboo' to the Hindoo clerk upon eight rupees a month, the Mussulman trader would use it only for the overseers and heads of departments with whom he has dealings; the European, again, would apply the term to none below the capitalists or wealthy brokers who conduct the chief business of the principal commercial firms in the presidency towns of India. The signification of the word widens just in proportion as it descends in use, until its recipients may be said to be 'legion.' If, then, we treat this term 'babooism' in the wide sense to which it may be applied, we have before us by far the larger portion of the money-making native community of India, at any rate, so far as merchandise is concerned; the zemindars, or landholders, and the shroffs, or money-dealers, are distinct classes of moneymakers, and must in no way be confounded with the baboos.

and existence to European merchants. The baboos are perfectly well aware of this fact, and accordingly are well disposed to our rule; besides which, being Hindoos, they hate Mohammedanism, and have no sympathy whatever with the rebellious sepoys. They are quite satisfied that, in the event of Mussulman supremacy in India, the rich Hindoos would be the first victims offered up on the altar of Mohammedan rapacity. It is quite true that many of the revolted regiments contain a number of Hindoos; but they are nearly all Brahmins, or high-caste men, who dislike the European contempt for and disregard of caste. We have abolished suttee, we have legalised the re-marriage of widows, we have put down infanticide, above all, we are enlightening the people, and so sapping the foundations of caste; therefore does the Brahmin hate us with his whole heart, as thoroughly as the Mussulman despises us as 'dogs of Christians.' During the whole of the present rebellion, we may safely say, that wherever the populace of towns have joined the sepoys, it has been only the Mussulmans and Brahmins who have shewn real sympathy with them. Our fugitive countrymen have always been well cared for and protected in low-caste villages; whilst village Mussulmans and Brahimins have welcomed the unfortunates with the tulwar and the matchlock, the rope or the river.

The monster, Nana Sahib, has been called a baboo in some of our Indian journals. It is altogether an error: he is or was a zemindar-a landholder and pensioner of our government. The baboo is not a man of war: he hates fighting; and if he does sometimes retain about him a small regiment of armed men, it is only for ostentation, or at most as watchmen at night. The strife he is fitted for is not in the field, but in the office, the factory, the warehouse: there has he won many a subtle victory; there has he gathered all his golden laurels; there, and there only, he finds himself an overmatch for the European.

The wide ranks of babooism are open to all the world; it is a fair field, an open competition. Not the meanest hanger-on of a humble shipping-broker, not the poorest, well-kicked coolie of a sixth-rate banian, but may aspire, in all confidence, to the wealth and dignity of the highest of the class. Men have done this in years gone by, are doing it to-day, and will accomplish it to-morrow.

Baboo Futteyseer Bhangyloll, now one of our most influential men of business, a large speculator in upcountry produce, and a helper of many a British firm from their difficulties, commenced life as a bottledealer, and purchaser of odds and ends from ships' stewards. If he did not begin his transactions afloat very early in life, he must have made most rapid progress in his varied and shifting career, for he is still by no means an old man, and it is many years since he first began to be looked upon as a man of solid substance. Whatever his age may have been when he commenced his daily and hourly cruises to the shipping in the Hoogly, it is quite certain that the sole crew of his miserable little canoe consisted of himself and a diminutive boy, whose duty it was to steer the craft by means of a broken oar. He himself was at once oarsman, broker, and cashier; and by the aid of a very little indifferent English, he managed to get up a trade' with nearly every ship's steward to be found afloat on the Calcutta waters.

Bhangyloll was not long content with purchasing only; he soon tried his hand at a little barter, and in exchange for bottles, clothes, tin cases, &c., &c., gave cheroots, straw-hats, toys, monkeys, birds, fruit-it is hard to say what he did not carry in the capacious, gaudily painted dinghee, which now bore his colours and his fortune across the bosom of the muddy Hoogly. A brace of oarsmen now officiated, leaving our enterprising caterer to the undisturbed discharge of the

6

After such a careful and kindly preparation of the soil, after such a generous broadcast scattering of the seed, it cannot be matter for wonder that our friend reaped an abundant harvest. From the day when he drove down to the ghât, or landing-place, in a carriage drawn by a brace of ponies, and pushed off to the ships in a dinghee propelled by four boatmen, and mounted the ships' sides by the state-ladder, with white giltedged turban on his head, and flowing folds of muslin about him, when the captains shook him by the hand, and called him baboo, then his subtle Hindoo heart swelled within him, and he felt that his fortune was as good as made. He became a ship-broker and supplier of stores in a large way A huge anchor and chaincable threatened the unwary shins of passers-by at the door of his ample warehouse. If he dealt in bottles, and bartered real manillas' for left-off wardrobes, it was by deputy. His daily visits on shipboard were continued, but on more important matters than empty casks and canaries. In no other sense was he changed; he was still the same supple-minded, easy-tempered man-as pleasant with steward, cabin-boy, and cook, as when he pulled himself alongside in his frail canoe in days still well remembered. Did a sailor want a loan of ten rupees, or the skipper one of ten thousand, no one could have been more obliging in the matter than our baboo. How he obtained such a command of ready cash, for all occasions, is to this day a matter of deepest mystery. Whether he raised a succession of mortgages on the huge anchor and cable at his door; whether he drew bills at long dates on Vishnu and Brahma, and discounted them at the nearest temple; or whether he possessed a substantial sleeping-partner, who was able to stand so many pulls upon his purse, who can say? Money, however, as the saying has it, makes money, and with Bhangyloll it fructified amazingly; so much so, that in due time he took a country-house, drove a pair of horses, gave up provisioning together with the big anchor and the cable, in favour of a nephew, had an imposing-looking office and godowns, or warehouses, with a cotton screw, and went headlong into the produce-trade of the country. How many British and American ships he loads annually, I know not, but they must be counted by dozens. How many writers, sircars, cashiers, brokers,