the amount pending on the result being considerably above five thousand pounds. The plan of this sport is, to send up two large kites, the strings of which are covered with the finest pounded glass and other cutting materials. The adversaries then endeavour to get their kites as high as possible, and crossing their cords, try to cut each other's string. The kite first severed from its flyer loses the wager. The shouts, the noise, the anxiety of the spectators can only be equalled by the dexterity of the players themselves. Ridiculous as it may appear in Europe, I never beheld a more exciting sport, one which, if ever introduced at home, I feel confident will become far more popular than many of our present amusements. I next visited the cock-pit. Here I found princes and private soldiers, chiefs and their dependants, all promiscuously mingled, screaming with delight as the cruel combat went forward, staking whole fortunes on the main. So prized is this sport in India that several persons have travelled two hundred and three hundred miles to be present. Many of the cocks had been brought from provinces at least one hundred and fifty miles off. At length the sound of tom-toms and gongs told us the Nawab was about to seat himself on the musnud, a ceremony to behold which I instantly rushed. It took place in a very large tent outside the palace. All the authorities were present. The high black men were absolutely covered, I may almost say, borne down, with jewels. The Nawab, a young man of about five-and-twenty, had a ruby on one of his arms fixed in a bracelet, and an emerald on the other, each worth some five or six thousand pounds. One of the diamonds which glittered in his turban (and he had at least fity) was valued at twelve thousand pounds. Every head shone with gems; every black foot was uncovered. Even the British resident, and other European civilians, had taken off their shoes, as a mark of respect. The military alone remained booted. Bedford read a proclamation in Hindostannee, which his highness answered. Then giving him his hand, he rose, and seated himself on the royal cushion; a volley from the troops outside announced the event. Every Indian instrument known took up the sound, and echoed it. The people shouted throughout every part of the city, while high native officers came round, and presented every one at the ceremonial with splendid gifts. These we were only allowed to touch, as a tantalizing, a false sign that we accepted them. They were instantly handed back to the Nawab's treasurer. A song was drawled forth in honour of the new sovereign, and we (the Europeans) adjourned to the palace, where a splendid repast was prepared for us. Nothing could exceed the splendour of this banquet. The resident presided, and in presence of the assembled native chiefs we drank his highness's health. After about two hours thus pleasantly occupied, we returned to the tent, where we found a large body of Nautch girls dancing before the prince, who seemed sinking under the fatigues of the day, overcome by the screeching of several persons who kept sing. ing around him. He, however, occasionally roused himself up, and threw presents to these strange posturers, whom I could not for the life of ine admire. The tent was so redolent of atar of rose, orangeflowers, and cajeput oil, that two European ladies were carried out fainting. Never was I more thoroughly delighted than when we were summoned back to the palace, to behold from its windows the fireworks which were to close the sights of the day

In the whole course of my life I never beheld anything so superb.

Illuminated palaces floated down the river, which almost washed the walls of the royal residence. In an instant these sank, and rose up again, having changed their form into a garden or forest of fire, through which blazing serpents meandered. Next a stupendous fortress came swimming down the stream, when suddenly a fleet of illuminated boats attacked it with rockets, and battered it to pieces. Fiery fish rose and sank in the stream. The air was filled with every-coloured flower. Dragons tore about in the air, while trees of fire rose from the waters. To describe or do justice to this magnificent scene would be impossible. It lasted half an hour, and cost above twelve thousand pounds. It was worth almost a trip to India to behold. The following week I received notice, together with my brother officers, that each of us were to have two shawls as a present. Our commandant reported the circumstance to head-quarters, and at the same time solicited permission to accept them. This the government peremptorily refused; why, or wherefore, I never could learn.

The business of the royal jewels was hushed up. Bedford eventually returned to Europe a poor man.

THE YOUTH'S DEATH."

BY MRS. HOWITT.

'OH! wander not into the gloomy wood!
'Twill cost thee, youth, thy dear heart's blood!'
'My God in heaven, my light alway,
In the gloomy wood will be my stay!'

He wandered down, and he heard anon
At his feet the wild stream brawling on;
The black wood whistled above his head,
And dark cloud over the sunset spread.

Then he came to the robber-house, wild and dim,
And a maiden mild looked forth on him-

'Oh woe! so young, so fair art thou!

To the valley of death what brings thee now?'

From the door the murderous rabble sprung;

A veil o'er her face the maiden flung

They struck him down, and they took his gold-
In his blood they left him lying cold.

'Oh woe! how dark! no sun, no star!

On whom shall I call?-is my God so far?

Ah! maiden, with heavenly beauty bland,
Receive my spirit into thy hand!'

* From the German of Ludwig Uhland.

HER FIRST VISIT AFLOAT.

A DIALOGUE OF THE DECK.

BY THE AUTHOR OF THE NAVAL SKETCH BOOK,' &c., &c. SCENE.-Malta Harbour. A group of Scamen seated round the fore-hatchway of the Vernon frigate.

Interlocutors.-BENJAMIN BUNTER, Captain of the Foretop, SAMUEL ROBERTS, Quarter-gunner, and ROBERT WILLIAMS, Main-topman.

BUNTER. Ah! I only wishes we had Her here: we should then have more of fun and less of fag.

WILLIAMS. And, in course, somet in the way of extra swizzle this hot weather, to make up for loss of leakage.

BUNTER. That you would-double allowance.

ROBERTS. 'Twas lucky, Ben, you were left behind sick at Hazlar hospital, or you wouldn't a seen the sight.

BUNTER. I rather ha' died than not a' seen it. And what's more, all the supernumeraries borne for a passage out on the books said the same, WILLIAMS. In course, Ben, she's like her pictur'?

BUNTER. Pictur! God help ye! Where's the pictur' as could give even the ghost of a notion of such flesh and blood? Did you ever see a pictur' as could show the sort o' sunset we sees on stations such as this? Moreover, where's the chap as could look patiently on, and paint the likes o' She? A boy may be brought to stare death full in the face; but where's the man as can fix a stedfast gaze on the eye of a reg'lar built angel? It's not in natur'!

་

ROBERTS. No more it isn't, Ben. Look here. We'll say I'm employed tarring down the main-stay. Well, Handsome Sue' or Coaxin' Kate' comes alongside in a wherry. Why, if either one or t'other on 'em threw a look aloft, the tar-brush would fall clean out of a fellow's fist, and the precious contents of the bucket come slap on the bleached kiver of the launch stowed on the booms. It's all fine talkin', but ye can't work agen human natur'.

WILLIAMS. Well, but try back for a bend. It wasn't her first visit afloat?

BUNTER. Sartinly not. The crew of the Emerald cutter could tell ye a different tale. But 'twas what the first-leaftenant of the Queen' called her first public 'spection afloat.

ROBERTS. The beginning o' March is no time for a frolic afloat. BUNTER. That it isn't. For the standin' part o' two days the wea ther was dirty, gusty, and terribly agen her. But, bless her heart! She braved it all, and behaved like a reg'lar Briton. 'Twas easy to see as She was a chip of the old block. She's none o' yer fine-weather birds, afeard of a bit o' a breeze, or a toppin' spray uncurlin' her locks or wettin' her corns. Some o' the young gemmen afloat might take pattern o' She-I'm blest if they mightn't! For the first day it was blowin' blunderbusses and rainin' bullets. Still, the ships at Spithead, as well as them in the harbour, was all titivated off to the nines,touched off in every way likely to tickle her eye. From the truck to the water's edge all were rigged out with flags, and dressed in colours

as never was seed afore. I'm blest if there wasn't buntin' enough flyin' afloat to soak up a month's rain in the wettest month of the year. At night the harbour was all of a blaze. Them as could see her, say as the flag-ship was the finest sight as was ever seed since the bringin' o' Boney into Plymouth Sound. All along her yards, low an' loft, glass signal-lanterns, not more nor two feet apart, were hung in reg'lar tiers. How they managed to muster so many is more nor Ben can tell; but we all knows where there's a will there's always a way. WILLIAMS. In course there is.

BUNTER. Well, when they mans the yards, an' all laid-out aloft, steadily placed, every man standin' upright in his station as stiff as a steeple, an' all facin' in full the spot ashore, as was fixed for her to see the sight; a blue-light was let off from every yard-arm in the ship, 'sides two from the folksel, two from the gangways, an' two from the poop. For more nor a minute an' a half four-an'-twenty beautiful blue blazes was seed all at once flarin' up the same dientical time; an' by the strong flexshun as fell full on the faces o' all aloft, She could see, they say, the very muscles of every mug on the highest yard as plainly, by Joe, as if she was lookin' at her own straight in the glass. But, bless yer hearts, all this was a flash in the pan compared to her comin' off to 'spect the ship at Spithead; for they say no breeze-no, not even the Breeze* of old, as made all the lords in the land shake in their shoes, would a' stopped She from comin' off to see the craft as was christened after herself!

ROBERTS. Did she christen her herself? In course she shied the bottle at her figure-head when she was launched.

BUNTER. How should I know when I wasn't there? But, howsomever, three or four days afore She comes afloat, an order was gived reg'larly out in writin', as when She went round the decks there wasn't to be as much as a breath breathed. A churchyard in commission wasn't to be silenter, no, nor the ship fore an' aft! The ship's company was to be all mum as monks, an' seated in their berths below. Whether this was to give every feller borne on the books a fair chance of throwing an eye at Her as She went her reg'lar rounds, or only a bit of a caper o' the skipper to shew off the kelter o' the ship and order o' the crew, is more nor Ben can say. But this I can tell ye, the order was stuck up in the bellfray; and, to make it clear as a pikestaff, the people was mustered at divisions, an' every man and boy borne on the books o' the barkey was told by the officers what they was to do, and what they wasn't to do. Well, the next day the clerk o'the weather gets better behaved, gives his bad humour a bit of a spell, and breaks out in a fit of open-hearted Natur' as claps a smile on the mug of all afloat. Out shines the sun, an' out comes the Steamer, with the Standard flying at the main. Then it was, my bose, as the barkey was all alive. Clearin' for action wasn't a more cheering thing. Fire was flashin' out of eyes as afore was duller nor purser's dips. Young gemmen was seed flyin' here an' scuddin' there, divin' down ladders, an' tumbling up hatchways. The admiral rubbin' his two-fisted flippers,† an' now an' again throwin' an eye on his new roast-beef coat, his laced trowsers, or the stars and crosses clingin' to his double-bank breast. The skipper strut

The Mutiny at Spithead was termed by the tars of that time The Breeze at Spithead!'

Whether Jack is correct in this particular we cannot say. But the gallant and distinguished officer in question is unquestionably a man of immense stature.

tin' like a lord o' the land; the boson lookin' bigger nor a bishop (for the thought o' pipin' the side to She well nigh turned the brain o' the man). Then the leaftenants were all on the tack o' touch-me-not. The passed midshipmen, and the passed mates ('ticklarly them as was stationed to tend the side,) pacin' the deck, as if every man Jack on 'em had his parchment in his pocket, an' his swab on his starboard shoulder. As soon as the smoker rounds the buoy of the Spit, then there was, Man yards, all the ships at the anchorage a-followin', in course the admiral's motions. The wind lullin', and the water turnin' as smooth as milk, the smoker runs slap alongside o' the ship, and up She comes the 'commodation-ladder, wanting no one to lend her a fist, and seemin' to care never nothin' for no one.

ROBERTS. That's Her! She's a trump.

BUNTER. Well, as soon as she sets her tiny, taperin' foot upon the deck (for, facin' aft from the foretaupsle-yard, I follows with my eye every step she takes, and every plank she paces,) bang goes the first gun o' the salute (all the ships openin' their fire with our second barker,) an' down in the thick o' the smoke comes the admiral's flag, an' up in lieu goes the Standard at the main. As soon, you know, as all the bisiness o' presentin' arms, rattlin' o' drums was over, the band done God-savin'-the-Queen, and all scrapers were clapped on, an' the big-wigs kivered agen, down she dives to the admiral's cabin on the middle-deck; whilst the people was piped down from aloft, and then piped to dinner below. To show ye, as She's a reg'lar-built chip'-o'the-old-block, She waits till they sarves the grog afore she axes to go below. Well, you might a hard a pin drop on the deck when She claps her foot on the first step o' the after-lower-deck ladder. At this dientical time, Big Bob, as they calls the chief boson's mate, takes up his station in front of the main hatchway ladder, holdin' up his hand like the arm of a telly-graff, as much as to say, the ship's company was to look at he! But who the devil wanted to look at he when all as we wanted was to look at She?

WILLIAMS. In course.

BUNTER. Well, the first thing She does was to taste the ship's soup -in course she didn't make much of a meal o' that; then she sends for a sample of the ship's company's three-water swizzle. This the skipper on a silver salver brings her in a clear crystal glass, as was never afore touched by mortal lip. Well, as soon as she tastes the tipple, an' shows as she likes it in her heart by takin' another swill, and tossin' it all off, Big Bob, as all the time was watchin' her, with his call* placed atwixt his two lips, gives the pipes 'stand by;' and then all seeing his drift, and struck by the one thought, up in less than the turn of a quid starts upon their pins more nor seven hundred souls, and out breaks (Bob leadin' with the call) three thunderin' cheers, as ye thought would a burst the very sides o' the ship! It was then, my bose, as She did look as if She liked us all the better for breakin' the admiral's order! God bless her! The weather spoilt my best mustrin-trowsers, to be sure. But, I'm blest if I wouldn't go without trowsers all the days o' my life could I only see her again afloat! I'm blest if I wouldn't! Come! spell oh!

And here the group broke up, all to a man delighted with 'Ben's' account of 'Her First Visit afloat!'

• Boatswain's whistle.