a plague would expose them, before any decided endeavours were made to remove the shocking encumbrance. For several days the bodies lay around, torn and mangled by packs of dogs that prowled about the carrion. It was at length necessary for the Marquis de Pombal to employ troops of soldiers in clearing away the corpses, since, after all his exertions, few of the inhabitants could be brought to engage in the terrible task. The bodies that lay near the river were put into boats, and being carried towards the sea, were flung into it with weights attached. Various spots were consecrated to receive the dead on land, where they were brought and cast into pits, with quicklime and other ingredients to destroy the putrid exhalation. In digging amongst the ruins, the odour was so overpowering that many of the labourers fainted, and others took fevers from which they ultimately perished. It therefore became necessary, in many places, to allow the bodies to remain, covering them up with earth, and pouring on chemical preparations to purify the atmosphere.

Whilst affairs were in this deplorable state, the coasts of Portugal and of Algarves were threatened with invasion by the corsair powers of Barbary. Their fleet was seen hovering off Lisbon shortly after the event which had so nearly destroyed it, and the prudence of Pombal was taxed to conceal the alarming intelligence from his dispirited countrymen, and to oppose a sufficient force to repel aggression. Troops were sent to line the shores, and an armament made ready, under pretence that they were required to guard against the exportation of provisions and the flight of the inhabitants. Fortunately, no descent was made by those piratical powers, and an evil of such magnitude was avoided, though the apprehension of it was sufficiently alarming and distracting, even to the iron-minded minister who was so happily for Portugal at the helm of affairs.

By all the Christian powers of Europe, the intelligence of the overthrow of the city of Lisbon was received with the deepest sympathy. Even the jealousy of Spain, the perpetual foe of Portugal, was lulled for the moment, whilst

its ancient ally, Great Britain, was forward in generous offers of assistance. The king of Great Britain sent a special message to parliament on the subject, and an immediate vote of credit was passed, to enable him to forward such supplies as the contingency merited.

Thus, owing much to his own talents and firmness, and much also to the aid afforded by foreign states, and to the active co-operation of many patriotic Portuguese, the Marquis of Pombal was enabled to bear up against the overwhelming evils which pressed upon his country, and out of the ruins and ashes of the former city to erect a new and yet more splendid Lisbon. The discovery of a cement, made from the refuse of burnt coal, by an Englishman of the name of Stephens, is commemorated as one of the happy circumstances which essentially contributed to the rebuilding of the desolated city. By the rigorous regulations enforced by the authority of government, the new houses were built upon a more uniform plan, and the streets considerably widened, so that in its outward aspect Lisbon was greatly improved by the misfortune which threatened to extinguish its existence. Infinite private misery was, however, the consequence of so wholesale a destruction of property, and, especially among the commercial class, a very general ruin and bankruptcy ensued. The traders of England, being extensively engaged in mercantile transactions with Portugal, suffered to a very great extent.

Although the earthquake which destroyed Lisbon committed its greatest ravages there, it was more or less felt in various parts of the world. At Madeira and Oporto, as also in different counties of England, it was sensibly felt. On the Lake of Windermere, in Cumberland, the waters were violently agitated, and for an instant rose seven feet, but almost immediately subsided. Two fishermen, who

were in a boat on the edge of the lake repairing their fishing-tackle, found themselves suddenly carried to a considerable distance from the shore, and were SO astonished, that they expected nothing less than that the consummation of all things was at hand.

THE THIMBLE CONJUROR OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

COLONEL CROCKETT, in his Exploits and Adventures in Texas, relates the following droll incident :

There was a considerable number of passengers on board the Mississippi steamer, and our assortment was like the Yankee merchant's cargo of notions-pretty particularly miscellaneous, I tell you. I moved through the crowd from stem to stern, to see if I could discover any face that was not altogether strange to me; but after a general survey, I concluded that I had never seen one of them before. There were merchants, and emigrants, and gamblers, but none who seemed to have embarked in the particular business that for the time being occupied my mind I could find none who were going to Texas. All seemed to have their hands full enough of their own affairs, without meddling with the cause of freedom. The greater share of glory will be mine, thought I; so go ahead, Crockett.

I saw a small cluster of passengers at one end of the boat, and hearing an occasional burst of laughter, thinks I, there's some sport started in that quarter; and having nothing better to do, I'll go in for my share of it. Accordingly, I drew nigh to the cluster, and seated on a chest was a tall lank sea-sarpent looking black-leg, who had crawled over from Natchez, and was amusing the passengers with his skill at thimblerig; at the same time he was picking up their shillings just about as expeditiously as a hungry gobbler would a pint of corn. He was doing what might be called an average business in a small way, and lost no time in gathering up the fragments. I watched the whole process for some time, and found that he had adopted the example set by the old Tempter himself, to get the weather-gage of us poor weak mortals. He made it a point to let his victims win always the first stake, that they might be tempted to go ahead; and then when

they least suspected it, he would come down upon them like a hurricane in a corn-field, sweeping all before it.

I stood looking on, seeing him pick up the feed from the greenhorns, and thought the men were fools to be cheated out of their hard earnings by a fellow who had just brains enough to pass a pea from one thimble to another, with such sleight of hand that you could not tell under which he had deposited it. The thimbleconjuror saw me looking on, and eyeing me as if he thought I would be a good subject, said carelessly : 'Come, stranger, won't you take a chance?' the whole time passing the pea from one thimble to the other, by way of throwing out a bait for the gudgeons to bite at.

I never gamble, stranger,' says I; 'principled against think it a slippery way of getting through the world at best.'

it;

Them are my sentiments to a notch,' says he; but this is not gambling by no means a little innocent pastime, nothing more. Better take a hack by way of trying your luck at guessing.' All this time he continued working with his thimbles; first putting the pea under one, which was plain to be seen, and then uncovering it, would shew that the pea was there; he would then put it under the second thimble, and do the same, and then under the third; all of which he did to shew how easy it would be to guess where the pea was deposited, if one would only keep a sharp look-out.

6 Come, stranger,' says he to me again, you had better take a chance. Stake a trifle, I don't care how small, just for the fun of the thing.'

I am principled against betting money,' says I; 'but I don't mind going in for drinks for the present company, for I'm as dry as one of little Isaac Hill's regular setspeeches.'

'I admire your principles,' says he; and to shew that I play with these here thimbles just for the sake of pastime, I will take that bet, though I'm a whole hog temperance man. Just say when, stranger.'

He continued all the time slipping the pea from one

thimble to another; my eye was as keen as a lizard's, and when he stopped, I cried out: 'Now, the pea is under the middle thimble.' He was going to raise it, to shew that it wasn't there, when I interfered, and said: 'Stop, if you please,' and raised it myself, and sure enough the pea was there; but it might have been otherwise if he had had the uncovering of it.

'Sure enough you've won the bet,' says he. You've a sharp eye, but I don't care if I give you another chance. Let us go fifty cents this bout; I'm sure you'll win.'

Then you're a fool to bet, stranger,' says I; 'and since that is the case, it would be little better than picking your pocket to bet with you; so I'll let it alone.' 'I don't mind running the risk,' said he.

'But I do,' says I; 'and since I always let well enough alone, and I have had just about glory enough for one day, let us all go to the bar and liquor.'

This called forth a loud laugh at the thimble conjuror's expense; and he tried hard to induce me to take just one chance more, but he might just as well have sung psalms to a dead horse, for my mind was made up; and I told him, that I looked upon gambling as about the dirtiest way a man could adopt to get through this dirty world; and that I would never bet anything beyond a quart of whisky upon a rifle-shot, which I considered a legal bet, and gentlemanly and rational amusement. 'But all this cackling,' says I, 'makes me very thirsty; so let us adjourn to the bar and liquor.'

He gathered up his thimbles, and the whole company followed us to the bar, laughing heartily at the conjuror; for, as he had won some of their money, they were a sort of delighted to see him beaten with his own cudgel. He tried to laugh too, but his laugh wasn't at all pleasant, and rather forced. The bar-keeper placed a big-bellied bottle before us; and after mixing our liquor, I was called on for a toast by one of the company, a chap just about as rough hewn as if he had been cut out of a gum log with a broad axe, and sent into the market without even being smoothed off with a jack-plane-one of them chaps