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The necessity of correct punctuation, expressing the force of sentiment, or the true meaning of the author, will be evident by an omission of the stops, or an improper collocation of them; as in the following sentences:

Again,

"My name is Norval on the Grampian hills:
"My father feeds his flock a frugal swain;
"Whose constant care," &c.

"We fought and conquer'd ere a sword was drawn.
"An arrow from my bow," &c.

Very closely connected with, and in some degree dependent upon, punctuation, is the proper use of tones, or the modulation and operation of the human voice in forming by its inflexions those many expressions of sentiment and passion which give energy to language, and efficacy to thought.

To this important topic I shall solicit your attention in my next lecture.

FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

AMERICAN SCENERY.

Westminster, Frederic County, Maryland, May 20th, 1809.

MR. OLDSCHOOL,

I VISITED a curiosity a few days since, which the pen of many a traveller has celebrated as among the most beautiful of nature's vagaries. The description of the scenery from the hand of Mr. Jefferson in his Notes, was among the strongest inducements which led me to undergo the fatigue of travelling over so rugged and cheerless a path as the road to Harper's Ferry: but when I arrived there, I found that the scenery and the objects of earth, rock and water, afforded a view, grand, magnificent and highly picturesque, yielding pleasure, surprise and food for speculation, fully compensating the exertion and labour of the jaunt; even when made by so sluggish and inert a crea

ture as myself. The theoretical account of the phenomena of this scene, which Mr. Jefferson gives, is highly beautiful, rich, and interesting; but it has more, in my eye, of the rich and luxurious exuberance of fancy, than the strength or face of probability. The idea of the conflicting land and water; of the rushing of the confluent currents of the Shenandoah and the Potomac against the mountain; and the victorious forcing of a passage, interest and please the “mind's eye,” with the splendid display of beautiful imagery and rich invention; but the talismanic touch of probability subvert the dazzling fiction, and leaves the mind of the traveller willing to gaze, with pleasure and delight, upon the gay and tasteful features of the scene, which nature, in a frolic mood, has scattered around Harper's Ferry; content with the ecstasy of seeing, without the vain wish of erecting theories, to account for the vagaires of so wild a prank.

The approach to the ferry is through a rugged, broken, and mountainous country; with all the bleak and verdant variety of hill and of valley. The passage is in many places narrowed by jutting approaches of the bold rocks on either side, whose protruded prows impend, with threatening destruction, over the head of the terrified traveller, and inspire him, with a fearful awe and admiration of the sublime works of nature's hand.

On arriving at the beach of the ferry, his eye is hailed with the view of two grand and noble streams, rushing with ardent velocity to a meeting of each other's currents; their wedding each other's waters, and gliding, after their union down the deep straits between the mountains, hurrying on their journey to the ocean. The confluence of the Shenandoah and the Potomac, forms a beautiful spectacle: in the union, the Shenandoah becomes immerged in the greater current, and loses its name; the aggrandized Potomac, with a force accelerated by its new auxiliary, proudly pursues its rapid, resistless race, down through the mountains, leaving on either side a bold and aspiring bluff of immense altitude: the western bank enriched with a luxuriant verdant garb; the eastern made grand by a rugged, terrific, perpendicular rock. Upon the headland, which the rivers leave between them, have been erected arsenals and public workshops for the structure of arms, which are well organized and conducted in their rear and retired a little distance from the angle of the headland, stands a lofty, extensive mountain, which from its projecting brow, seems as intended to protect the pigmy works of art, from the rude blast of the north wind: and to look down with super

* Planned and erected by Mr. John Mackie.

= intending guardianship upon the lilliputian efforts of its busy little protegées. Upon this mountain, the curious traveller clambers, and from the sublime observatory of its summit, commands a full and picturesque view of the grandeur and beauty of this fascinating prospect. He hears at a distance the anxious roarings of the Shenandoah, seeking, in its rapid course, the bosom of its noble spouse: he sees the meeting and the incorporation of these bold tributaries of the Atlantic; he sees the eager river god Potomac, encircle in his watery embrace, the yielding Shenandoah, and hurry, with his pure and precious burden, down to his grand and capacious reservoir. Nature has nowhere offered to the eye of the curious a more beautiful, enrapturing prospect, of her amusements and her pastime, than she presents in the scenery which surrounds Harper's Ferry; and it has well been said, "that a view of its beauties would afford full compensation for an Atlantic voyage."

MARCELLUS.

A draught of the confluence of the rivers Shenandoah and Potomac.

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FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

MEMOIRS OF HAYTI-LETTER VI.

The Cape, Island of Hayti, March, 1804.

Colonel Noailles Joysin is a young negro of about thirty years of age, of a savage and fierce physiognomy, and of a mind perfectly cor respondent with his countenance. On the departure of the general from town on the 21st of February, the command devolved upon him, and he consequently became from his authority, a person of magnitude. His cruelty and insolence are without moderation, and as his power is very extensive, he exercises it with all the severity of a tyrant. This man was formerly a slave; he was once a private in the same troop of dragoons, with Christophe, and by his bravery, assisted by his intimacy with his old comrade, has by degrees been promoted to his present rank; I was once in company with this officer at the house of a French lady, when in the course of conversation, he mentioned that he recol lected when his master used to visit her. He spoke of him with a degree of affection and respect, and in conclusion observed that he was un bon diable."

I mentioned in a former letter, that the French on the evacuation of the Cape had left the magazine replete with all kinds of military utensils and arms, and an immense number of bullets. These articles were ordered to be conveyed to the forts in the country; and as the soldiers were principally employed in the construction of those forts, guards were almost daily sent to scour the streets to take up every idle or mean looking person, white, yellow or black, they met with, to the arsenal to assist. Here they were drawn up rank and file and examinined by the colonel; very few were excused. If they could stand it was enough, and I have seen him set men at work, without regarding their petitions and solicitations, who were sick, lame or old, and so incapacitated for labour, that they seemed scarcely to be alive. They were compelled to draw heavy wagons loaded with cannon or other warlike apparatus, carry muskets, or convey utensils in wheelbarrows, into the country.

One morning I was informed that the steward of my vessel, who was a black man, had been taken up by the patrol and confined in a guard house. I went to the place, and found him locked up in a small shed with several others. He informed me that on his way to market he had been seized, and notwithstanding his repeated declarations that he was an American, they would not discharge him. I then applied to the officer of the guard for his release; he shrugged his shoulders, and answered il faut demander le colonel." I accordingly waited up

on his honour, and when the prisoners arrived, and were arranged for adjudication, I stated to him my business. He conducted himself in a haughty and insolent manner, and after muttering some things about foutres Americains, dismissed the steward. The fellow however was arrested again on the following day, and kept at hard work. Another negro also belonging to an American vessel, was seized in the same manner, and though his captain applied repeatedly for his enlargement, he was detained upwards of a month.

A few days previous to the fifth of the present month, a proclamation was issued by Joysin, commanding, under penalty of imprisonment, all the women, except those who were old, sick, or infirm, to meet at the arsenal on that day before sunrise, for the purpose of carrying bullets to a fort in the country. In consequence of this order, about five thousand of all colours from white to black assembled at the appointed place. During the preceding night there had been a violent rain, and in consideration of that circumstance, Christophe sent a request to the colonel to postpone the ceremony, as the roads were scarcely passable. The inhuman wretch excused himself by replying that" the women were all assembled, and it was hardly worth while to put them to the trouble of coming again." Accordingly at about 8 o'clock, the procession moved, accompanied to the edge of the town by a band of martial music, to keep up their spirits. Each one carried about eighteen pounds weight, the distance of the fort was fifteen miles, (two or three of which were up a steep mountain) the heat of the sun excessive, and the mud very deep. The consequences to some of the poor creatures might easily have been predicted, many of them dropped down upon the way, with fatigue, and others actually died in consequence of it. The great body arrived at the end of their journey early in the afternoon; they were obliged to stay there the remainder of the day, and at night to lie down upon the miry ground in the open air. During their absence from town, scarcely a person was to be seen in the street except the patroling guards, for those of the inhabitants who had neglected to obey the colonel's orders, shut up their houses, and kept themselves closely confined. On the following day, the women returned in a deplorable state, muddy, hungry, worn down with fatigue, and scarcely able to drag one foot after another. The sight was enough to have melted the most obdurate heart to pity; a brute would have relented; but our gallant colone! was not so effeminate as to suffer his feelings to be moved by the complaints and groans of females suffering under severe and insulting hardships. He resolved to try it again, but not upon quite so brutal a plan. He ordered all the inhabitants, both male and female, to attend at the magazine and receive a certain number of bullets, which they were to deliver at the fort. 3 с

VOL. II.

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