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virtue," does not, it must be confessed, leave upon the reader a very favorable impression of their character; yet in comparison with his remarks upon the people of New Mexico, his former expressions are quite faint:

"In their social state but one degree removed from the veriest savages, they might take a lesson even from these in morality and the conventional decencies of life. Imposing no restraint on their passions, a shameless and universal concubinage exists, and a total disregard of moral laws, to which it would be impossible to find a parallel in any country calling itself civilized. A want of honorable principle, and consummate duplicity and treachery, characterize all their dealings. Liars by nature, they are treacherous and faithless to their friends, cowardly and cringing to their enemies cruel, as all cowards are, they unite savage ferocity with their want of animal courage; as an example of which, their recent massacre of Governor Bent and other Americans may be given-one of a hundred in

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"The appearance of the town defies description, and I can compare it to nothing but a dilapidated brick-kiln or a prairie-dog town. The inhabitants are worthy of their city, and a more miserable, vicious-looking population it would be impossible to imagine. Neither was the town improved, at the time of my visit, by the addition to the population of some three thousand Americans, the dirtiest, rowdiest crew I have ever seen collected together.

"Crowds of drunken volunteers filled the streets, brawling and boasting, but never fighting; Mexicans, wrapped in sarape, scowled upon them as they passed; donkey-loads of hoja-corn-shucks-were hawking about for sale; and Pueblo Indians and priests jostled the rude crowds of brawlers at every step. Under the portales were numerous monté tables, surrounded by Mexicans and Americans. Every other house was a grocery, as they call a gin or whisky shop, continually disgorging, reeling, drunken men, and everywhere filth and dirt reigned triumphant."

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Although I had determined to remain some time in Santa Fe to recruit my animals, I was so disgusted with the filth of the town, and the disreputable society a stranger was forced into, that in a very few days I once more packed my mules, and proceeded to the north, through the valley of Taos."

From the valley of Taos the author crossed over to the head waters of the Colorado, thence back to the valley of the Red Fork of the Arkansas, where, with the exception of occasional visits to a small fort inhabited by a few hunters, he spent the winter in the region around the base of the Rocky Mountains. In May he started from this fort in company with some Americans, for Council Grove, Fort Leavenworth and St. Louis, from which city he came by the lake route to New York in July, and reached Liverpool in August-making a pleasant little excursion of somewhat over twelve months.

Near the conclusion of his book he favors us with his opinion in general respecting the war, and also with his views on slavery, neither of which, although his idea of the former is very correct, and all his marks conceived in a manly spirit, is worth quoting here. We do not think it necessary to look to foreigners for our political opinions, and it is only where he appears as an observer that his statements are of value; his eyes, his testimony as an unbiassed witness, are all that we can make

use of.

The incidental paragraphs bearing upon our Mexican relations, which we have given nearly all of, scarcely make a feature in the volume, which is simply a personal narrative of adventures. We should have

been better pleased, had it not been necessary to have given most attention to these paragraphs, to have extracted many more of the choice pieces of description in which the book abounds, and thus to have given our article a more agreeable direction. As it is we cannot bring ourselves to leave it without culling a few extracts which will give the reader some idea of its interest.

A VIEW IN THE MOUNTAINS." Before me lay the main chain of the Rocky Mountains, Pike's Peak lifting its snowy head far above the rest; and to the southeast the Spanish Peaks (Cumbres Españolas) towered like twin giants over the plains. Beneath the mountain on which I stood was a narrow valley, through which ran a streamlet bordered with dwarf-oak and pine, and looking like a thread of silver as it wound through the plain. Rugged peaks and ridges, snow-clad and covered with pine, and deep gorges filled with broken rocks, everywhere met the eye. To the eastward the

mountains gradually smoothed away into detached spurs and broken ground, until they met the vast prairies, which stretched far as the eye could reach, and hundreds of miles beyond-a sea of seeming barrenness, vast and dismal. A hurricane of wind was blowing at the time, and clouds of dust swept along the sandy prairies, like the smoke of a million bonfires. On the mountain-top it roared and raved through the pines, filling the air with snow and broken branches, and piling it in huge drifts against the trees. The perfect solitude of this vast wilderness was most appalling. From my position on the summit of the dividing ridge I had a bird's-eye view, as it were, over the rugged and chaotic masses of the stupendous chain of the Rocky Mountains, and the vast deserts which stretched away from their eastern bases; while, on all sides of me, broken ridges, and chasms and ravines, with masses of piled-up rocks and uprooted trees, with clouds of drifting snow flying through the air, and the hurricane's roar battling through the forest at my feet, added to the wildness of the scene, which was unrelieved by the slightest vestige of animal or human life. Not a sound, either of bird or beast, was heard-indeed, the hoarse and stunning rattle of the wind would have drowned them, so loud it roared and raved through the trees."

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if we halted for a short time to adjust the mulepacks or water the animals, he sat down quietly until we resumed our march. But when 1 killed an antelope, and was in the act of butchering it, he gravely looked on, or loped round and round, licking his jaws, and in a state of evident self-gratulation. I had him twenty times a day within reach of my rifle, but he became such an old friend that I never dreamed of molesting him.”

CONTENTMENT BETTER THAN RICHES.-"In the early part of the night, when the storm was at its height, I was attracted to a fire at the edge of the encampment by the sound of a man's voice perpetrating a song. Drawing near, I found a fire, or, rather, a few embers and an extinguished log, over which cowered a man sitting cross-legged in Indian fashion, holding his attenuated hands over the expiring ashes. His features, pinched with the cold, and lank and thin with disease, wore a comically serious expression, as the electric flashes lighted them up, the rain streaming off his nose and prominent chin, and his hunting-shirt hanging about him in a flabby and soaking embrace. He was quite alone, and sat watching a little pot, doubtless containing his supper, which refused to boil on the miserable fire. Spite of such a situation, which could be termed anything but cheering, he, like Mark Tapley, evidently thought that now was the very moment to be jolly, and was rapping out at the top of his voice a ditty, the chorus of which was, and which he gave with peculiar emphasis,

How happy am I!
From care I'm free:
Oh, why are not all

Contented like me?'

PIKE'S PEAK AT DAYBREAK.- "Daybreak in this wild spot was beautiful in the extreme. While the deep gorge in which I lay was still buried in perfect gloom, the mountain-tops loomed gray and indistinct from out the morning mist. A faint glow of light broke over the ridge which shut out the valley from the east, and, spreading over the sky, first displayed the snow-covered peak, a wreath of vapory mist encircling it, which gradually rose and disappeared. Suddenly the dull white of its summit glowed with light like burnished silver; and at the same moment the whole eastern sky blazed, as it were in gold, and ridge and peak, catching the refulgence, glittered with the beams of the rising sun, which at length, peeping over the crest, flooded at once the valley with its daz-ket, and raised my head to assure myself that zling light."

A TRAVELLING COMPANION.-"From Rio Colorado we had been constantly followed by a large gray wolf. Every evening, as soon as we got into camp, he made his appearance, squatting quietly down at a little distance, and after we had turned in for the night, helping himself to anything lying about. Our first acquaintance commenced on the prairie where I had killed the two antelopes, and the excellent dinner he then made, on the remains of the two carcasses, had evidently attached him to our society. In the morning, as soon as we left the camp, he took possession, and quickly ate up the remnants of our supper and some little extras I always took care to leave for him. Shortly after he would trot after us, and,

Not for an instant intending it as a satire upon himself, but singing away with perfect seriousness, raising his voice at the third line, ‘Oh, why are not all,' particularly at the 'Oh,' in a most serio-comical manner. During the night I occasionally shook the water out of my blan

the animals were safe, lying down to sleep again, perfectly satisfied that not even a Pawnee would face such a storm, even to steal horses. But I did that celebrated thieving nation gross injustice; for they, on that very night, carried off several mules belonging to the other train of wagons, notwithstanding that a strict guard was kept up all the night."

A NIGHT IN THE SNOW.-"The way the wind roared over the prairie that night-how the snow drove before it, covering me and the poor animals partly-and how I lay there, feeling the very blood freezing in my veins, and my bones petrifying with the icy blasts which seemed to penetrate them-how for hours I remained with my head on my knees, and the snow pressing it down like a weight of lead,

expecting every instant to drop into a sleep from which I knew it was impossible I should ever awake-how every now and then the mules would groan aloud and fall down upon the snow, and then again struggle on their legs-how all night long the piercing howl of wolves was borne upon the wind, which never for an instant abated its violence during the night-I would not attempt to describe. I have passed many nights alone in the wilderness, and in a solitary camp have listened to the roarings of the wind and the howling of wolves, and felt the rain or snow beating upon me, with perfect unconcern but this night threw all my former experiences into the shade, and is marked with the blackest of stones in the memoranda of my journeyings.

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Once, late in the night, by keeping my hands buried in the breast of my huntingshirt, I succeeded in restoring sufficient feeling into them to enable me to strike a light. Luckily my pipe, which was made out of a huge piece of cotton-wood bark, and capable of containing at least twelve ordinary pipefuls, was filled with tobacco to the brim; and this, I do believe, kept me alive during the night, for I smoked and smoked until the pipe itself caught fire, and burned completely to the stem.

"I was just sinking into a dreamy stupor, when the mules began to shake themselves, and sneeze and snort; which hailing as a good sign, and that they were still alive, I attempted to lift my head and take a view of the weather. When with great difficulty I raised my head, all appeared dark as pitch, and it did not at first occur to me that I was buried deep in snow; but when I thrust my arm above me, a hole was thus made, through which I saw the stars shining in the sky, and the clouds fast clearing away. Making a sudden attempt to straighten my almost petrified back and limbs, I rose, but unable to stand, fell forward in the snow, frightening the animals, which immediately started away. When I gained my legs I found that day was just breaking, a long, gray line of light appearing over the belt of timber on the creek, and the clouds gradually rising from the east, and allowing the stars to peep from patches of blue sky. Following the animals as soon as I gained the use of my limbs, and taking a last look at the perfect cave from which I had just risen, I found them in the timber, and, singular enough, under the very tree where we had cached our meat. However, I was unable to ascend the tree in my present state, and my frost-bitten fingers refused to perform their offices; so that I jumped upon my horse, and, followed by the mules, galloped back to the Arkansas, which I reached in the evening, half dead with hunger and cold."

HOW IT MAKES ONE FEEL.-" Apart from the feeling of loneliness which any one in my situation must naturally have experienced, sur

rounded by stupendous works of nature, which in all their solitary grandeur frowned upon me, and sinking into utter insignificance the miserable mortal who crept beneath their shadow, still there was something inexpressibly exhilarating in the sensation of positive freedom from all worldly care, and a consequent expansion of the sinews, as it were, of mind and body, which made me feel elastic as a ball of Indian rubber, and in a state of such perfect insouciance that no more dread of scalping Indians entered my mind than if I had been sitting in Broadway, in one of the windows of Astor House. A citizen of the world, I never found any difficulty in investing my resting-place, wherever it might be, with all the attributes of a home; and hailed, with delight equal to that which the artificial comforts of a civilized home would have caused, the, to me, domestic appearance of my hobbled animals, as they grazed around the camp, when I returned after a hard day's hunt."

COMFORTABLE LODGINGS.-"The night before reaching Caw River we encamped on a bare prairie, through which ran a small creek, fringed with timber. At sundown the wind, which had blown smartly the whole day, suddenly fell, and one of those unnatural calms succeeded, which so surely herald a storm in these regions. The sky became overcast with heavy inky clouds, and an intolerably sultry and oppressive heat pervaded the atmosphere. Myriads of fire-flies darted about, and legions of bugs and beetles, and invading hosts of sandflies and mosquitos, droned and hummed in the air, swooping like charging Cossacks on my unfortunate body. Beetles and bugs of easy squeezability, Brobdignag proportions, and intolerable odor, darted into my mouth as I gasped for breath; while sand-flies with their atomic stings probed my nose and ears, and mosquitos thrust their poisoned lances into every part of my body. Hoping for the coming storm, I lay without covering, exposed to all their attacks; but the agony of this merciless persecution was nothing to the thrill of horror which pervaded my very bones when a cold, clammy rattlesnake crawled over my naked ankles ; a flash of lightning at the moment revealing to me the reptile, as with raised head it dragged its scaly belly across my skin, during which time, to me an age, I feared to draw a breath lest the snake should strike me. Presently the storm broke upon us; a hurricane of wind squalled over the prairie, a flash of vivid lightning, followed by a clap of deafening thunder, and then down came the rain in torrents. I actually revelled in the shower-bath; for away on the instant were washed bugs and beetles; mosquitos were drowned in millions; and the rattlesnakes I knew would now retire to their holes, and leave me in peace and quiet."

G. W. P.

A WORD ON

TREACHERY.

comfort, to defend you against enemies from without, and traitors within-to urge you into a war that you hate, that brings no honor to yourself, and entails debt and tyranny upon your children; does he not stand in the shoes of a traitor? It is for himself only, and not for you, that he bestirs himself so briskly, and puffs so many fine speeches in your ears, stuffed with epithets of honor and fame.

Ten thousand brave, men and good sol

TREACHERY has always a mixture of duplicity and dishonesty, and no man can justly be styled a traitor, who maintains an open and steady opposition to any power. He, we think, is the real traitor who enters into a cause in order to betray it; or who vacillates in his duty and allows his affection to go over to the enemy. He, too, is a traitor of the blackest dye, who abuses his country's confidence, or employs its revenues or its power in unlawful enterprises his treachery is of a charac-diers are led into the field against a rabble ter more to be feared and abhorred than that of an Arnold, for it is more subtle, more difficult to detect and punish, and works evil on a grander scale. He, too, is a subtle traitor, who misrepresents the finances or the designs of the government in his official correspondence with the people: citizens do not vote men into office to give them an opportunity of carrying out their private schemes; they are there to do their duty, to work for the people, and not to manufacture false estimates, or hatch schemes of conquest.

It is a very common notion, that to be a traitor, one must have given up a fortress, or surrendered a body of troops, or sent information to the enemy, or the like overt acts; but this is only a vulgar and visible kind of treason: is not he also your enemy, who injures and insults you by false information of your affairs? and being in your confidence, and bound to tell you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; is he not a true and genuine betrayer of you, if he does otherwise? The information is necessary to you; you cannot exercise your prerogative as a freeman, to decide in your private thoughts, or give your public opinion upon the course government should take; you cannot vote correctly or do anything rightly as a citizen, without a true and full account of the condition of your government. He, then, to me is a traitor, who deceives me in particulars so important to me, and I write him down as such in my remembrance.

Or, to put another case, imagine that you know of a man, who, for the sake of a proconsulship over a conquered province, will make use of you and your free government, established for your benefit and

of thieves and Indians, to be swept down by grape-shot, or to die of fever and rheumatic cramps, and all to please the vile ambition of a few aspiring gentlemen. Was it for our good that all this ravage was committed? Or was it to satisfy a private ambition? But if to satisfy a private ambition, then of what character was that ambition? of a treacherous, or of a patriotic character? Do these ambitious gentlemen suffer any of the ills which they inflict? Did they lie down with our brave troops and spirited officers in the wet ditches, to die there-or rise from a feverish couch at beat of drum, to be swept down by the hateful shot of the Mexican? He, we think, is the real traitor, who deceives the people and betrays them to death; and he the true patriot, who, when his country is in danger, rushes to the front rank in her defence.

Never yet have this people endured so bitter an insult as that speech addressed to them by their President, when he stigmatized the opposers of this Mexican War with the name of traitor. His country will never forget nor forgive it-NEVER! Nor is this shuffling Report of the Treasurer a less disgraceful affair-a worthy fellow to the message that preceded it; yet it excites less indignation, because it discovers a cowardly fear of public opinion; the Treasury is afraid to tell how much money it has spent, and means to spend, and so gives the people an under estimate. This is like the proceedings of dishonest jobbers, who cheat a bargainer with underrating the cost; a proof that they respect neither themselves nor the man with whom they have to deal.

FOREIGN MISCELLANY.

By the arrival of the Hibernia we are in possession of news from London to the 29th January. Specie still continues to be received in England, and by the weekly account of the Bank, issued on the 27th January, we find the amount in its vaults has increased to the sum of £13,176,812, and its notes in active circulation to be £19,111,880. On the 27th, the Directors gave notice that their rate of discount would be reduced from five to four per cent. ; a measure supposed necessary to prevent their being excluded from the discount market, some large establishments in that line having intimated to their depositors that three per cent. was their maximum rate. Three per cent. consols had risen to 89. The prices of this stock during last year will show the fluctuations in Government securities. On the 1st January, 1847, the stock (which was then closed for the January dividend) was sold for the opening at 93 to 94, exclusive of the dividend. Soon after, the failure of the crops and the state of Ireland, caused a depression. In March, the loan of £8,000,000 was taken at 891; but on the 1st of April this loan fell to 1 discount. At the June shutting of consols, the price was 881, from which period it fell rapidly. On the 19th of October, some few bargains were done for money, at from 783 to 791. On the publication of the letter of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to which we have before referred, a rapid improvement of nearly 3 per cent. took place; and since that time, with some slight reactions, prices gradually advanced; and on the 1st of January last, consols for the opening were at 85 ex. div. The trade and commerce of the country show symptoms of improvement; accounts from the manufacturing districts show a gradual increase of the employment of operatives. Some few failures have taken place during the last fortnight; but they are stated to be of minor importance, and the demand for most articles of foreign and colonial produce has been extensive, and at improved prices. The cotton market was steady, but not active, and a slight depression had taken place in the price of bread stuffs.

A grave question affecting the Church of England, has arisen in consequence of the nomination of Dr. Hampden to the vacant See of Hereford. On the receipt of the congé d'élire, by the Dean and Chapter, the former and a portion of the Chapter commenced a strong opposition to the nominee, on account of some tenets professed by him; the election, however, was

formally completed, and Dr. Hampden was confirmed by the Vicar General of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who, on that occasion, refused to entertain an opposition which was then attempted. The objectors have since had recourse to the Court of Queen's Bench, and the question to be decided by that tribunal appears in fact to be, whether the nomination by the crown is imperative on the Dean and Chapter, and the election consequently a mere form; or whether the latter body have the right of rejection; in other words, whether, in the appointment of Bishops, the Church is or not under the entire control of the Sovereign. Considerable excitement has been raised on the subject of the national defences. The Duke of Wellington has written a letter setting forth their entire inadequacy in case of a war, and states, that from the use of steam navies, the country would be at the complete mercy of the French, who, in a few days from the announcement of hostilities, would be able to land such a force as could not be prevented from reaching London. This opinion appears to be entertained by several other military men, and the erection of defensive works, on the south and east coasts, is strongly urged; in consequence of which, surveys are being made, which will doubtless lead to the construction of some very costly works. This panic has crossed the Channel, and the French appear inclined to pursue a similar course, in order to protect themselves from invasion from England. There are numerous accounts of shipwrecks and disasters at sea. The British steam frigate " Avenger," a firstclass war-steamer, of 650 horse power, built in 1845, was wrecked on the Sorelli Rocks, near Tunis, and totally lost. A portion of her crew reached the latter place, but it is feared the greater part perished. Accounts have also been received, that the British brig of war "Snake" was wrecked, and became a total loss, on the 29th of August, on a reef near Mocambo, ten miles south of the island of Mozambique. The influenza has been for some time on the decline in England. From the official report, it appears that the deaths in the metropolitan districts, for the week ending 22d January, were 1401, being an excess of 294 over the winter average; only 89 deaths occurred that week from influenza. McQueen, in his" Statistics of the British Empire," states that in that kingdom "there are 2,250,000 horses, of the total value of £67,000,000, of which more than 1,500,000 are used in agricul

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