ever with the republican party. An American resenting the defeat of the great Spanish Armada who was in Mexico, and who had a Mexican lady in 1588. I had the pleasure of recognising the for his wife, formed the rallying point for the republi- celebrated American painters, West and Copley, cans in that quarter. The town in which he lived, and some American ladies in the group-all rebels being in a state of insurrection, was overpowered by at heart-intermixed with many American royalists, the royalists; the American was thrown into prison, some of whom were my near relatives, with long and his wife condemned to die. She, with three dejected faces, and rage and despair depicted in hundred other prisoners, appealed to a higher tribu- every lineament of their features. How opposite nal at old Mexico. They were then sent under an were our feelings! After standing for two hours in escort of 140 royalists. While the guard were at painful suspense, the approach of the king was anbreakfast one morning, their mules broke away, and nounced by a tremendous roar of cannon. He enfled up the valley, and most of the guard imprudently tered the same small door on the left of the throne, went in pursuit, leaving their arms behind. This and immediately seated himself in the chair of state, intrepid Amazon, from a distance discovered the ad- decorated in his royal robes, in a graceful, formal vantage, ran among the captives, cut them loose, and and majestick posture, with his right foot resting on called on them, if they were men, to save themselves a stool. He was evidently agitated; and drew slowand her. She placed herself at their head, and ly from his pocket a scroll containing his humiliapressed forward in the retreat. The guard having ting speech. I was exactly in his front, six or armed and secured their horses, pressed the pursuit eight feet distant, with my left foot braced upon the so close, that she turned off among the Navahoes. last step of the throne, to sustain my position from She collected a small band of warriours, took posses- the pressure in my rear, and critically watched, sion of the pass in the mountain, and then cut with the eye of a Lavater, at that moment, every off the whole Spanish force. She returned to her emotion of his agitated countenance. He began:husband, who was also triumphant. They were living in 1825 at Tous, on the Del Norte; her husband was engaged in the fur-trade. N. O. Bulletin.

REVOLUTIONARY REMINISCENCES.

The following interesting passage from a private journal, never before published, has been communicated to the Platts burgh Republican. The author is a distinguished American traveller, who still lives to recall the proudly thrilling scene which he has so vividly sketched :-New Yorker.

EXTRACT FROM THE JOURNAL OF

My Lords and Gentlemen:" and in direct reference to our independence said "I lost no time in giving the necessary orders to prohibit the farther prosecution of offensive war upon the continent of North America.

Adopting as my inclination will always lead me to do, with decision and effect, whatever I collect to be the sense of my parliament, and my people; I have pointed all my views and measures in Europe, as in North America to an entire and cordial reconciliation with the Colonies. Finding it indispensable to the attainment of this object, I did not hesiLONDON, Thursday, Dec. 4, 1782.-The great, tate to go the full length of the power vested in me, the glorious day has arrived, when our uncondition- and therefore I now declare them"-(here he paused, al Independence will be solemnly recognised by and hesitated for a moment, and was in evident George III. in the presence of God and man. Such, agitation-the pill he had to swallow in the next at last, are the well-earned fruits of a sanguinary and breath was repugnant to his digestive organs. In eventful contest of eight long-long years, in which 1775, he repelled our humble petition with indignity period one hundred thousand brave Americans have but in 1782, he found himself prostrate at our cemented, on the altar of their country, with their feet;) he recovered himself by a strong convulsive precious blood, a prize which will bless unborn mill-effort and proceeded thus:-"I declare them free ions, and in its eventual effects produce a new era over the entire surface of this benighted world.

At an early hour, in conformity to previous arrangements, I had the honour to be conducted, by the earl of Ferers, to the very entrance of the house

of lords.

At the small door, he whispered softly into my ear: "Get as near the foot of the throne as possible -maintain your position-fear not." I did so with all the assurance of a travelled yankee, and found myself exactly in front of the throne, elbow to elbow with the celebrated admiral Lord Howe, who had just returned from a successful relief of Gibraltar.

and independent states. In thus admitting their separation from the crown of their kingdom, I have sacrificed every consideration of my own to the wishes and opinions of my people. I make it my humble and ardent prayer to Almighty God, that Great Britain may not feel the evils which might result from so great a dismemberment of the empire and that America may be free from the calamities which have formerly proved in the northern country how essential monarchy is to the enjoyment of constitutional liberty. Religion, language, interests, and affection may, and I hope will yet prove a bond of permament union between the two countries."

The ladies of the nobility occupied the lords' It is impossible to describe the sensations of my seats on the woolsacks, so called, as an emblem of rebellious mird, at the moment when the king hesithe power and wealth of Old England, because that tated to pronounce the words-free and independent! it has been mainly derived from wool. The lords and to notice with what a bad grace he had to swalwere standing here and there promiscuously as I low the dose: every artery was in full play, and entered. It was a dark foggy day-a proper En- beat high in unison with my proud American feclglish hanging day. To add to its gloomy effects, ings.-It was impossible not to revert my eyes the old Saxon windows stand high up, with leaden across the Atlantick and review in rapid succession, bars to contain the diamond cut panes of glass. the miseries and wretchedness I had witnessed in The walls were also hung with dark tapestry, rep-several stages of the war, prior to my leaving

tyrant George to yield with a bad grace to all our just demands, in my presence! Not to have been thus affected at that tremendous crisis, I should have been more or less than a man."

INDIANS IN THE UNITED STATES.

America-the wide-spread desolation, resulting from the obstinacy of this very man-turning a deaf ear to our humble appeals to his justice and mercy, as if a god-but now prostrate in his turn. In his speech he tells us in one breath that he has sacrificed every personal consideration, in other words, not yet satiated with innocent blood shed by his We have taken pains to make out alphabetically, Indian allies; and in the next, hypocritically invo- from official documents before us, a list of all the king high heaven to guard us against calamities, &c. tribes within the American territory. Italics, are The great drama is now closed-the ball was open-used in the names of tribes resident west of the ed at Lexington, where the British red-coats were taught to dance down to Charlestown, to the tune of Yankee-Doodle." On this occasion it fell also to my lot to march from Providence, R. I., with a company of seventy-five well-disciplined young men, all dressed in scarlet, on our way to Lexington, with packs on our backs; but they had fled before we could reach the scene of action.

From the house of lords, I proceeded to Mr. Copley's dwelling in Leicester-square, to dine; and, through my ardent solicitation, he mounted the American stripes on a large painting in his gallery the same day-the first which ever waved in triumph in England.

In leaving the house of lords, I jostled in side by side with West and Copley-enjoying the rich political repast of the day, and noticing, with silent gratification, the anguish and despair of the tories.

In the house of commons, the ensuing day, there was not much debate, but a good deal of acrimony. Commodore Johnston attacked Lord Howe's expedition to Gibralter, because he had not gained a decisive victory over the combined fleet of forty-five sail of the line, with thirty-seven ships. Burke then rose, indulging in a vein of satire and ridicule, a severe attack on the king's speech the day previous on the subject of American independence-saying it was a farrago of nonsense and hypocrisy. Young Pitt, the newly created chancellor of the exchequer, then rose, and handled Burke with dignified severity, charging him with buffoonery and levity.

I

Having received from Alderman Wood a card of admission to the gallery of the house of commons, as the house was about rising, the Alderman (who is a member) came into the gallery and invited me to descend with him to the floor of the house. met Mr. Burke, with whom I had breakfasted, who introduced me as a messenger of peace to Pitt, Conway, Fox, Sheridan, and two or three other members grouped on the floor. I never felt more elevated in my life. In describing this scene to a friend in France, in a moment of exultation, I subjoined :"Figure to yourself, my dear friend, a young American traveller of twenty-four, in the full gaudy dress of a Parisian, hailed in the publick papers, and standing on the floor of the British house of commons, (where the destiny of dear America in its infancy has been so often agitated,) as a messenger of peace, surrounded by a group, the brightest constellation of political men that ever graced the annals of English history!—and, what is more gratifying to my American pride, the very men, with one exception, who have recently compelled the

*NOTE-1833-Dining frequently at Copley's I noticed an uncommon smart lad, who is now the celebrated Lord Lyndhurst, Lord Chancellor of England-the son of an American painter. His mother was a Miss Clark of Boston; his father, one of the tea consignecs, a great tory-then residing with Copley.

Mississippi.-The number under the letter W., shows
how many of the tribe named, have emigrated to the
west of the river, and the number under the letter E.,
shows how many remains on the east-the whole
corrected to February last, since which time to the
present date, July 18th, 1836, not less than 5,000
have emigrated, or are in the act of doing so.
Names of tribes, &c.
Apalachicolas,

Arickaras, estimated not to exceed
Assinaboins,

Arepahas, Keawas, &c.
Black feet, along the upper Mis-
souri, &c.

Caddoes, estimated at

Choctaws, west of the state of Ar

kansas and between Red river and
the Canadian,

Chayennes, south of the Gros Ventres,
Camanches, on the confines of the
republick of Texas, but there are
supposed in the United States,
Cherokees, between lat. 30, and
lat. 37, west of the Arkansas, and
east of Texas lands,
Chicasaws, will have no lands allot-
ed them,
Chippewas,

Chippewas, Ottowas, and Potawat-
omies,

Crees, estimated at

Creeks, east of Texas, north of the
Canadian, and along the north
fork of the same,
Crow, estimated too high, we think
at,

Delawares, north of the Kansas
tribe,

Foxes, computed to be not exceed-
ing

Gros Ventres, or Big Bellies, be-
tween the south fork of the Platte
and Arkansas,

Indians of the state of New York,
Indians from New York, at Green-
bay, Michigan,

Ioways, near the Missouri, and in
the south of Wisconsin territory,
in lat. 40°,

Kansas, on Kansas river, in lat. 39°,
Kickapoos, between the Delawares
and the Missouri river, in lat. 39°
and lon. 18°,
Mandans, on the upper Missouri,
Menomonies, in Wisconsin terri-
tory,

Minetarees, estimated, too high, we
think, at

E.

W.

340

265

3,000

8,000

1,400

30,000

800

3,500

15,003

2,000

7,000

10,000 5,000

5,429 6,793

1,400

2,420

623

4,591

60 222

76,465 216,063

[A section of a piece of wood affected with the dry rot.] DRY ROT.

THE recent introduction into several of our large cities, of blocks of wood as a substitute for pavingstones, and the success with which the experiment of wooden pavement has been attended, renders the causes by which wood is liable to be destroyed, of peculiar importance at this time. In our well-wooded country, the abundance of this primitive material, has hitherto prevented much attention to the subject; but Americans are now becoming alive to the importance of planting new forests, and to the preservation of the wood already in existence.

The cut at the head of this article represents a piece of wood affected with the dry rot, one of the most powerful and insidious of those enemies to earthly perpetuity, and one that has hitherto walked in darkness. This vegetable plague is doing

far more mischief than is usually supposed. It is commonly regarded by the unobservant multitude as a rare curiosity, worthy of a place in that domestick museum the parlour mantlepiece. It is, nevertheless, as common as touchwood; and the very mantlepiece on which it reposes, is often at heart a victim to its ravages. It preys incessantly upon the solid framework of our houses.

Professor Burnett, in his admirable "Outlines of Botany," says: "I knew a house into which the dry rot gained admittance, and which, during the time we rented it, (only four years,) had the parlours twice wainscoted, and a new flight of stairs; the dry rot having rendered it unsafe to go from the ground floor to the bedrooms. Every care was taken to remove the decayed timbers when the new work was done; yet the dry rot so rapidly gained

strength, that the house was ultimately pulled down. Some of my books which suffered least, and which I still retain, bear mournful impressions of its ruthless hand; others were so much affected, that the leaves resembled tinder; and when the volumes were opened, fell out in dust or fragments."

If a

which they increase, and of which the oak, and any palm, may be taken as the representatives transverse slice of the former be examined, the following four things will be readily observed: 1, a central cellular substance or pith; 2, an external cellular and fibrous ring, or bark; 3, an intermediate woody mass; and 4, certain fine lines radiating from the pith to the bark, through the wood, and called medullary rays. This is called exogenous structure, a term which signifies an outside grower, or a plant whose stem increases, by additions to its outside. In the palm, contrary to these arrangements, it will be found in a section of the stem, that neither bark, nor pith, nor wood, nor medullary rays, are observable; the whole surface appears to be composed of hard cellular dots, caused by the section of bundles of woody tissue, and the mass of cellular substance, in which they lie imbedded. This mode of composition is called the endogenous, and denotes the inside growers, or those plants whose stems grow by the generation of new woody matter in the centre of the stem, which, as it is produced, gradually pushes the older layers outward."

In the Quarterly Reviews for 1812 and 1813, are some lamentable instances of its ravages among British shipping. The Queen Charlotte, a firstrate, which occupied seven years in building, was launched at Deptford in 1810, and sent round to Plymouth, under jury-masts in 1811; and in 1812, was found to be too rotten to be seaworthy, and was then undergoing a repair which at the lowest computation, would cost twenty thousand pounds! Another ship, the Rodney, which was launched in 1809, had scarcely put to sea, when all her fastenings became loose, and she was obliged to be brought home from the Mediterranean, in 1812, to be paid off. The Dublin, also, which was launched in February, 1812, and put into commission the following August, was sent on a cruise towards Madeira, in December of the same year, from which she returned to Plymouth, in 1813, in so dreadful a state, that she was ordered to be paid off. But these examples, terrible as they are in a financial point of view, sink into insignificance when we contemplate the frightful waste of life which is daily occasioned by this "undying worm" at sea. Many a gay vessel, as she "walks the ocean like a thing of life," is in reality a sepulchre to her brave inhabitants. She may be fair without, but she is rottenness within the dry rot is in her timbers; and with the first breeze, she springs a leak, and sinking, leaves no trace behind. "Doubtless," says Ralph Dodd, an early writer on this subject, "in many such cases, the external pressure of the water has forced itself in, and sent both ships and crews to the bottom. Nothing can exceed the helpless certainty of that death which awaits all those who sail with this foul passenger on board. Unlike the treacherous shoal, or the sunken rock, which bears a lighthouse on its shoulders, this great ship-eater can neither be 'buoyed or beaconed;' it lurks, a hidden poison; till in some quiet hour, far, far from helping hand or pitying eye, in the midst of a sunny ocean, it starts a tindery beam-and then-brown; in Brazil wood, green; and in ebony, black. farewell, ship."

:

These preliminary observations will enable our readers to appreciate the following account of a most invaluable discovery made by Mr. Howard Kyan, of England, for the prevention of dry rot-a discovery for which he merits the lasting gratitude of the humane, as certainly as he deserves the highest favours which the commercial and scientifick world may have to bestow. Before, however, we proceed, it will be necessary to describe the structure of wood; the vegetable elements and products; and then to explain the nature and appearance of the disease, with the means by which it is proposed to stay its further progress.

:

1. Structure of Wood. A log of wood is proverbially solid, but in reality it is no more so than a honeycomb a bundle of reeds, would, on an enlarged scale, very aptly represent its structure. The stems of trees are closely compacted assemblages of tubular vessels, in which a variety of fluids circulate. They have been divided by botanists into two great natural classes, according to the mode in

The pith, in an exogenous stem, is a collection of hexagonal cells, filled with a peculiar fluid, and is supposed to be a provision of the Creator for the support of young and weak buds. The bark immediately covers the wood, and forms an external coating to the stem. It consists of annual layers of cellular substance, and woody fibre: the former called the epidermis, and the latter, the liber, or inner bark. Every new layer is formed on the inside next the wood. The old ones are pushed outward, and perish in a variety of ways peculiar to the trees which bear them. The wood lies between the bark and the pith, and chiefly consists of ducts and woody fibre. Between the bark and the wood, is formed, in the spring, a mucous viscid layer, composed of delicate cells and granular atoms. This secretion, which is called the cambuim, is exuded by the bark and the wood, and is the foundation of a new ring of wood; it is at first quite white, but in the course of years becomes of a deeper teint, and assumes in various species a number of rich and variegated colours. In the mahogany, it is of a fine reddish

The new layers constitute what is called sap-wood, and the older ones, heart-wood, or duramen.

The first layer of wood differs from those which follow, inasmuch as it is composed of a great quantity of tubes, named from their structure spiral vessels, which enwrap the pith, and form what is called the medullary sheath. This continues through the life of the tree, to communicate by means of its tubes with the leaves, flowers, and fruits. The medullary rays are built up of an infinite number of oblong cells pressed into flat plates, which connect the pith with the bark.

These marvellously complicated structures form a grand machine, whose perpetual office it is, first to transmit the sap to the leaves, and afterward to convey some of the peculiar products of the tree to their destined resting-places. These joint processes are thus performed: a variety of aqueous solutions are absorbed by the roots, and converted by certain chymical changes into sap, a fluid which is chiefly compounded of water, mucilage, and sugar. This is then carried upward by the medullary sheath,