Respecting what has passed in former times, I can give no testimony, though every thing shows that many circumstances have been exaggerated, and represented in incredibly odious colours. I speak only of a later period of twelve years, and I have great satisfaction in saying, that in my long and repeated visits to the Mexican mines and smelting-houses, I never found a slave in them; and that many owners of mines do not even punish the almost daily embezzlement of rich gold and silver ore, but content themselves with taking back what is stolen, and letting the culprits go, though, when they are caught in the fact, it is allowed to confine them, but by no means to inflict on them corporal punishment. I even knew an instance in which a Spanish officer of justice, in the actual exercise of his functions, was pelted with stones by some rioters of the lower class of different casts: having obtained assistance, he caused corporal punishment to be inflicted on some of the ringleaders who were taken in the fact: for this he was not only deprived of his office, but sentenced to pay a considerable fine, because he was not authorised to act as he had done without the previous approbation of the royal government of the country (Real Audiencia;) and this respectable tribunal never authorises corporal punishment till the affair is inquired into, proved, and found to be a case calling for such remedy. I shall be happy if these few remarks should contribute to make people judge of nations, their character and relations, more favourably than has sometimes been the case; and intend, at a future time, to communicate farther observations on that country, which deserves, on many accounts, to be called the New World. TIFLIS. SONNESCHMID. From the journal of a German traveller who has recently visited Tiflis, we extract the following observations on that city, and the part of Russia in which it is situated: "Our caravan spent eight days in proceeding from Mosdak to Tiflis, a distance of about 250 wersts; but if due attention were paid to the state of the roads, the journey might certainly be accomplished in one half the time. Tiflis is accounted one of the finest cities in Asia, yet the streets are so extremely narrow, that it would be impossible to drive a carriage through the best of them The houses, which have no regular roofs, are built of the clay used for making bricks, mixed with gravel: the windows are small, and distributed without any attention to regularity. As the external walls of the houses are never plastered, the town presents a gloomy and even dirty appearance. The houses are generally two stories high, and earth huts are exceedingly numerous. There are many churches in Tiflis, but they are neither large nor splendid. The market, or bazaar, according to Asiatic custom, is held in one of the principal streets, which is covered over from one end to the other with a wooden roof, intended apparently to protect the shops from the scorching rays of the sun. At the bazaar, merchandise of every description is sold; fruit, vegetables, silks, shawls, and wine, are frequently displayed on the same stall. In one corner a smith has established his workshop, from which the sparks issue in every direction in the very faces of the passengers. Tailors, locksmiths, and goldsmiths, pursue their avocations in the open air, except when rainy or windy weather obliges them to take shelter beneath the roof with which the street is covered. It would be unjust to assert that the inhabitants of Tiflis are not inclined to receive the benefits of education, if proper means were adopted for that purpose. It is said that the present chief intends to establish public schools, and that the materials for building them are already provided. The breeding of cattle is likewise to be introduced here, and in furtherance of this design, the chief has purchased upwards of 7000 sheep from some Persian khans subject to the Russian government. I understand that measures have already been taken for drawing up a circumstantial statistical description of the whole country. This work cannot fail to prove interesting. The results of the wisely-directed labours of an active government are every where observable.” Even among the scientific and observing, a great diversity of opinion exists on the subject of the Water Spout, while among the majority of men, scarcely any thing accurate is known, either of the forms or the causes of this phenomenon. We have, therefore, extracted, for the benefit of our readers, the following paper on the subject, from that valuable work, the Philosophical Magazine, conducted by Alexander Tilloch. SIR, If you think the following remarks relative to whirlwinds, or water spouts, worthy of a place in your Journal, you will oblige me by their insertion; as the opinions of travellers, and also of philosophers, differ greatly concerning this natural phenomenon, and any information afforded, by attentive observation, may therefore be interesting, if not useful. An old stager, in the last number of the Naval Chronicle, seems to be of the opinion of Theophilus Lindsay, and some other philosophers; viz. that in the phenomenon called the water-spout, the water descends in columns from the clouds upon the earth or sea, and does not ascend from the sea upward to the clouds, which I believe to be the common opinion. To corroborate his opinion, this writer gives an extract from a Scotch newspaper, stating, that a water-spout had descended and done considerable damage in a part of that country. In stormy weather, when the barometer: is low, and the atmosphere light, if clouds, which contain much moisture, happen to impinge against any of the hills of an alpine country, they are certainly liable in such case to discharge their contents in heavy rains, which, descending rapidly from the summits of the hills, rush with irresistible force down the valleys, carrying every thing before them; and these local discharges of heavy rain are commonly called water spouts by the neighbouring inhabitants. The Hawkesbury river, in New South Wales, is sometimes subject to a rise of from twen ty to thirty feet above the natural level, by the sudden rupture of clouds on the summits of the Blue Mountains. About thirteen years ago a phenomenon of this kind happened at St. Helena, when a cloud suddenly broke upon the hill that forms the head of Rupert's valley; and although the bed of this valley is generally dry, the immense body of water that rushed through it at this time, bore down the strong line of stone ramparts, and carried some heavy pieces of artillery into the sea. I think (although the last number of the Naval Chronicle is not now before me) his correspondent considers the water-spout seen at sea to be a similar, if not the same phenomenon as this last mentioned, except. that the white column in the centre of the spout he considers to be a congregated mass, ar body of water descending from the clouds to the sea. Now, as many water-spouts are of great diameter, I am decidedly of opinion, that if the central white column were a body of falling water upon the surface of the sea, its noise would be heard many miles, if not many leagues, like the falls of Morency and Niagara, and would sink, or destroy any unfortunate ship which happened to come in contact with its vortex ; but, my experience compels me to think otherwise, as I never heard the noise of any waterspout until very close to it, and then, the noise resembled that of steam issuing through a small aperture of a boiler, occasioned by the whirlwind's rapid motion in disengaging water in the gaseous form from the surface of the sea: besides, if the central white column were a mass of falling water, its diameter ought to increase by the resistance of the atmosphere in descending, and consequently be greater near the sea than higher up towards the cloud; but this probably never happens, as the diameter of a water-spout, as well as the interior column, is greatest near the impending cloud, and converges towards the sea. That whirlwinds, or water-spouts, may often differ much in formation and appearance, I believe there can be little doubt; but I have certainly, more than once, both by ocular and tangible observation, been convinced, that a whirlwind and water-spout are sometimes one and the same phenomenon. At one time, when dense clouds, charged with electric matter, approached the ships in Canton river, a regular water-spout was formed by a tube descending from the cloud in the usual manner, and the whirlwind turned one of the ships round at her moorings. As this whirlwind passed over the island, close to the village of Whampoa, it unroofed several thatched houses, and tore the leaves from the trees, which were carried up a considerable way into the atmosphere by the whirlwind, and at this time it had a dense appearance; but as soon as it drifted over the land and came in contact with the water of the river, the white tube became very conspicuous in the centre of the whirlwind, and the water seemed to be torn from the surface of the river and carried upwards, in small particles, by the whirlwind. Had any light terrene bodies been floating in the rivver at this time, in the path of the whirlwind, they certainly would have been drawn upward like those which came into its vortex when it passed over the land. This was certainly an example of the unity of a whirlwind and water-spout. At another time a regular-formed water-spout was driven along by the wind till its exterior surface nearly touched the quarter of our ship, when I plainly saw the water disengaged from the surface of the sea with a hissing noise, and carried upward in the gaseous form by the ascending whirlwind, while the vacuum, or cavity, in its centre, was very distinct, with heavy drops of rain falling down both from the interior and exterior sides of the ascending spiral, where it was evident the power of the whirlwind was not capable of carrying all the gaseous particles up into the cloud. When we were close to this waterspout the white tube in the centre was not visible, but only a vacant column, as mentioned above; which column, had we been a quarter or half a mile off, would probably, by an optical illusion, have appeared, as usual, like a white column of water. In the straits of Malacca I bave sometimes seen upwards of a dozen water-spouts at the same time, and have been near to several. Once I passed through the vortex of a whirlpool produced by a water-spout beginning to form; it was directly under a dense cloud, from which an inverted conical tube was descending when we passed through the whirlpool in the ship: this was about twenty or twenty-five yards in diameter, and the water was carried round by the force of the whirlwind over it, with a velocity of about from three to four miles an hour, breaking in little waves with a hissing noise, by a portion of those waves being torn away in the form of white vapour. felt a pleasing sensation at the time, expecting, when passing through the vortex of an incipient water-spout, to be a close observer of it completely formed; but whether the communicating force was destroyed by the ship passing through the vortex, or from a deficiency of strength in the whirlwind, or from some other cause, a dispersion of the phenomenon soon followed. It would be needless to adduce more examples to exhibit the affinity of the common water-spout, as observed at sea, and the whirlwind; but I fully agree with the assertion, that there are various kinds of whirlwinds, and, perhaps, also of water-spouts; both the former and the latter, as has been observed, happen sometimes in this country. On the 27th June last, a remarkable case of the affinity of the water-spout, and whirlwind was observed by many persons in the vicinity of London, among whom was the editor of the Monthly Magazine, and a description of this phenomenon is recorded in the Philosophical Magazine, No. 232, vol. 50. When it happened, very dark clouds had collected over the adjoining country, and some stormy rain, accompanied by several strokes of lightning, followed this hurricane of wind. The correspondent of the Naval Chronicle says, whirlwinds occur very frequently when the clouds are high, the sun shining, and the wind light; but, although whirlwinds do certainly happen at these times, yet they seem more dangerous and terrific in their appearance when accompanied by dense and stormy clouds. I once observed a whirlwind upon the coast of Coromandel during a warm day, when there was little wind and no clouds, which carried up a column of sand a great way into the atmos phere; and if it had passed from the land to the surface of the sea, it no doubt would have carried the water upward in the gaseous form, and probably a cloud would have appeared over it. Whirlwinds of a minor kind may be perceived almost daily; but these are only eddies of wind produced from obstructions of hills, cliffs, buildings, &c. to its regular course, and similar to whirlpools or eddies in a river or strait, occasioned by the prominent parts of the land. Another kind of whirlwind like those last mentioned, is sometimes experienced to blow from valleys or over high cliffs, down upon the sea. Although this, as he remarks, may not happen in Gibraltar Bay, or in Table Bay, at the Cape of Good Hope, yet in sailing close to high cliffs among the Eastern Islands, I have several times seen whirling gusts of wind descend and rebound from the surface of the sea, carrying the water in their vortex several fathoms upward in the form of spray. Previous to concluding these remarks, it may not be irrelevant to advert to the opinions of some of those who have written in early times on meteorology. Pliny, in his Natural History, describing a sudden blast of wind or typhon, says, "there riseth also VOL. LII. No. II. 16 upon the sea a dark mist resembling a monstrous beast, and this is ever a terrible cloud to sailors. Another likewise called column or pillar, when the vapour and water engendered, is so thick and stiff congealed, that it standeth compact of itself. Of the same sort, also, is that cloud which draweth water to it, as it were into a long pipe." Aristotle, in his third book on meteors, describes some of the causes of whirlwinds or typhon, and mentions that there are both descending and ascending whirlwinds. Olympiodorus, his commentator, in reference to Aristotle's definition of these words, says," and thus through continued vibrations, a spiral and involution of the wind is formed, proceeding from the earth as to a cloud, and elevating any body with which it may happen to meet on the sea, indeed, ships, but on the earth animals or stones, or any thing else which the half blow again suffers to tend downward. This involution Homer calls thuella, but Aristotle typhon, in consequence of vehemently striking against, as it were, and breaking solid bodies. Sailors, however, call it syphon, because, like a sy phon, it draws upward the water of the sea. If, however, it is produced from a cloud, it originates as follows: the cloud being on all sides condensed and inwardly compressed, fuliginous exhalation becoming inwardly multiplied and evolved in a multiform manner, the cloud, from the violence, is suddenly burst, and the inwardly evolved fuliginous exhalation proceeds out of it, preserving the same form which it had within, viz. the spiral form. Afterwards the spiral thus tends to the earth like hairs that are curled, not from the imbecility of the secreting power, but from the pores being winding through which it proceeds, and from its being fashioned together with them. And these, indeed, are the causes why the spiral of the typhon at one time proceeds upward from beneath, and at another downward from on high. But the knowledge of these is two-fold; for we know whether the spiral is moved upward from beneath, or downward from on high, and in the first place, indeed, from the sight itself. For since the spiral, viz. the typhon, is evident to the sight from the density of its parts, when we see it at one time proceeding downward, and at another upward, we say that the beginning of the spiral is from be neath; but if it is alone moved downward from on high, then it must be said that the beginning of it is from on high. In the next place, we know this from the bodies which are hurried away and elevated by the spiral. For, if the body is first turned from its proper position, and afterwards is moved obliquely and then elevated, we say that the typhon originates from on high. Your obedient, &c. October 10, 1817. J. H. The following Narrative of the attempt made by the Confederates, on the night of the 3d of September, 1771, to Assassinate the King of Poland, is given by Nathaniel Wraxall. In the midst of these turbulent and disastrous scenes, the confederates (who ever considered the king as unlawfully elected, and who imputed to his fatal elevation, and direction or approbation, all the various ills under which the kingdom groaned from the Russian oppression) planned and executed one of the most daring enterprises of which modern history makes mention,-I mean the attempt to assassinate the king. It is somewhat remarkable, that in an age so humanised, so free from the enormous and flagitious crimes common in barbarous centuries, so enlightened as is the present, this is the third attempt on a crowned head in my remembrance: Louis XV. Joseph I. of Portugal, and Stanislaus Augustus, all narrowly escaped assassination.* As the attempt on his Polish majesty was perhaps the most atrocious, and his escape certainly the most extraordinary and incredible of the three, I shall be as minute as possible in the enumeration of all the principal circumstances which led to, and which attended this remarkable event. A Polish nobleman, named Pulaski, a general in the army of the confederates, was the person who planned the atrocious enterprise; and the conspirators who carried it into execution were about forty in num ber, and were headed by three chiefs, named Lukawski, Strawenski, and Kosinski. These three chiefs had been engaged and hired to that purpose by Pulaski, who in the town of Czetschokow, in Great Poland, obliged them to swear in the most solemn manner, by placing their hands between his, either to deliver the king alive into his hands, or, in case that was impossible, to put him to death. The three chiefs chose thirty-seven persons to accompany them. On the 2d of November, about a month after they had quitted Czetschokow, they obtained admission into Warsaw, unsuspected or undisco vered, by the following stratagem:They disguised themselves as peasants who came to sell hay, and artfully concealed their sad dles, arms, and clothes, under the loads of hay which they brought in wagons, the more effectually to escape detection. On Sunday night, the 3d of September, 1771, a few of these conspirators remained in the skirts of the town; and the others repaired to the place of rendezvous, the street of the Capuchins, where his majesty was expected to pass by about his usual hour of returning to the palace. The king had been to visit his uncle, prince Czartoriski, grand chancellor of Lithuania, and was on his return from thence to the palace, between nine and ten o'clock. He was in a *To these may be added George III. who narrowly escaped from the blow of Margaret Nicholson. coach, accompanied by at least fifteen or sixteen attendants, besides an aid-de-camp in the carriage. Scarce was he at the distance of two hundred paces from prince Czartoriski's palace, when he was attacked by the conspirators, who commanded the coachman to stop, on pain of instant death. They fired several shot into the carriage. one of which passed through the body of a heyduc, who endeavoured to defend his master from the violence of the assassins. Almost all the other persons* who preceded and accompanied his majesty were dispersed; the aid-de-camp abandoned him, and attempted to conceal himself by flight. Meanwhile the king had opened the door of his carriage, with the design of effecting his escape under shelter of the night, which was extremely dark. He had even alighted, when the assassins seized him by the hair, exclaiming in Polish, with horrible execrations, "We have thee now; thy hour is come." One of them discharged a pistol at him so very near that he felt the heat of the flash; while another cut him across the head with his sabre, which penetrated to the bone. They then laid hold of his majesty by the collar, and, mounting on horseback, dragged him along the ground between their horses, at full gallop, for near five hundred paces through the streets of Warsaw.t All was confusion and disorder during this time at the palace, where the attendants, who had deserted their master, had spread the alarm. The footguards ran immediately to the spot from whence the king had been conveyed, but they found only his hat all bloody, and his bag: this increased their apprehensions for his life. The whole city was in an uproar. The assassins profitted of the universal confusion, terror, and con sternation, to bear away their prize. Find ing, however, that he was incapable of fol * It is incredible, that such a number of persons as were with his Polish majesty on that memorable night, should all so basely abandon him, except the single heyduc who was killed, and who so bravely defended his master. This man was a protestant; he was not killed on the spot, king allows a pension to his widow and children. but expired next morning of his wound. The It is astonishing, that, in the number of balls which passed through the carriage, not one should hurt or wound the king. Several went through his pelisse, or fur great-coat. I have seen this cloak, and the holes made in it by the pistol bullets. Every part of the clothes which his majesty wore on that night is carefully preserved. It is no less wonderful, that when the assassins had seized on the king, they should carry him through such a number, of streets hail them; but, as they answered in Russian, without being stopped. A Russian centinel did he allowed them to pass, imagining them to be a patrole of his nation. This happened at some distance from the place where they had carried off the king. The night was exceedingly dark, and Warsaw has no lamps. All these circumistances contribute to account for this extraordi nary event. lowing them on foot, and that he had almost lost his respiration from the violence with which they had dragged him, they set him on horseback, and then redoubled their speed for fear of being overtaken. When they came to the ditch which surrounds Warsaw, they obliged him to leap his horse over. In the attempt the horse fell twice, and at the second fall broke its leg. They then mounted his majesty upon another, all covered as he was with dirt. The conspirators had no sooner crossed the ditch, than they began to rifle the king, tearing off the order of the Black Eagle of Prussia, which he wore round his neck, and the diamond cross hanging to it.* He requested them to leave him his handkerchief, which they consented to: his tablets escaped their rapacity. A great number of the assassins retired after having thus plundered him, probably with intent to notify to their respective leaders the success of their enterprise, and the king's arrival as a prisoner. Only seven remained with him, of whom Kosinski was the chief. The night was exceedingly dark; they were absolute ly ignorant of the way; and, as the horses could not keep their legs, they obliged his majesty to follow them on foot, with only one shoe, the other being lost in the dirt. They continued to wander through the open meadows, without following any certain path, and without getting to any distance from Warsaw. They again mounted the king on horseback, two of them holding him on each side by the hand, and a third leading his horse by the bridle. In this manner they were proceeding, when his majesty, finding they had taken the road which lead to a village called Burakow, warned them not to enter it, because there were some Russians stationed in that place, who might probably attempt to rescue him.t Finding himself, however, incapable of accompanying the assassins in the painful posture in which they held him kept down on the saddle, he requested them, since they were determined to oblige him to proceed, at least to give him another horse and a boot. This request they complied with; * It was Lukawski, one of the three chiefs of the band, who tore off the ribbon of the Black Eagle, which his Prussian majesty had conferred on the king when he was count Poniatowski. One of his motives for doing this, was by showing the order of the Black Eagle to Pulaski and the confederates, to prove to them incontest ably that the king was in their hands, and on his way. Lukawski was afterwards executed. This intimation, which the king gave to his assassins, may at first sight appear extraordinary and unaccountable, but was really dictated by the greatest address and judgment. He apprehended with reason, that, on the sight of a Russian guard, they would instantly put him to death with their sabres, and fly; whereas, by informing them of the danger they incurred, he in some measure gained their confidence in effect, this behaviour of the king seemed to soften them a little, and made them believe he did not mean to escape from them. and continuing their progress through almost impassable lands, without any road, and ignorant of their way, they at length found themselves in the wood of Bielany, only a league distant from Warsaw. From the time they had passed the ditch, they repeatedly demanded of Kosinski, their chief, if it was 'not yet time to put the king to death; and these demands were reiterated in proportion to the obstacles and difficulties they encountered.* Meanwhile the confusion and consternation increased at Warsaw. The guards were afraid to pursue the conspirators, lest terror of being overtaken should prompt them in the darkness to massacre the king; and on the other hand, by not pursuing they might give them time to escape with their prize, beyond the possibility of assistance. Several of the first nobility at length mounted on horseback, and following the track of the assassins, arrived at the place where his majesty passed the ditch. They there found his pelisse, which he had lost in the precipitation with which he was hurried away: it was bloody, and pierced with holes made by the balls or sabres. This convinced them that he was no more. The king was still in the hands of the seven remaining assassins, who advanced with him into the wood of Bielany, when they were suddenly alarmed by a Russian patrole or detachment. Instantly holding council, four of them disappeared, leaving him with the other three, who compelled him to walk on. Scarce a quarter of an hour after, a second Russian guard challenged them anew. Two of the assassins then fled, and the king remained alone with Kosinski, the chief, both on foot. His majesty, exhausted with the fatigue which he had undergone, implored his conductor to stop, and suffer him to take a moment's repose. Kosinski refused it, menacing him with his naked sabre; and at the same time informed him, that beyond the wood they should find a carriage. They continued their walk, till they came to the door of the convent of Bielany. Kosinski appeared lost in thought, and so much agitated by his reflections, that the king perceiving his disore der, and observing that he wandered without knowing the road, said to him, "I see * The king, in his speech to the diet on the trial of the conspirators, interceded strongly for Kosinski, or John Kutsma, to whom he gratefully expresses himself indebted for these favours in the following words: "As I was in the hands of the assassins, I heard them repeatedly ask John Kutsma, if they should not assassinate me, but he always prevented them. He was the first who persuaded them to behave to me with greater gentleness; and obliged them to confer upon me some services which I then greatly wanted; namely, one to give me a cap, and a second a boot, which at that time were no trifling presents: for the cold air greatly affected the wound in my head; and my foot, which was covered with blood, gave me inexpressible torture, which cons tinued every moment increasing." |
