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snakes. The melancholy muck-a-wiss, a bird that delights in the dusk, flickered about my head, a flight of bats flitted round my path, and a legion of mos. chettoes, a sort of tarantula, whose bite no music will cure, fastened on my face, hands and legs, raw as they were, and unprotected from their venom. After wandering an age of anxious minutes, groaning with my hurts, praying for some relief, and starting at the strange objects that perpetually danced in every possible shape of terror before my remaining eye, of a sudden I was roused from a momentary forgetfulness of all other fears by a shout bursting forth just beside me, as if a whole tribe of Mohawks were putting up their whoop of destruction. Rivetted to the spot, I never should have ventured to leave it, had I not gradually discovered that the cause of my immediate alarm was an innocent jack-ass, browsing close by, whose braying I had mistaken for an Indian war whoop. Reviving to something better than my former level of despondency, I determined to make this beast the instrument of my rescue. As I found he had a bridle on, though no saddle or pan. niers, I clambered on to his bare back, and jerking him into a jog, committed my fate to his superior knowledge of the city, suffering him to carry me which way he chose, and transported at even this change in my forlorn circumstances. The branches flapped me in the face; the briars and brushwood scratched my lacerated legs; but nevertheless I plodded on with my ass, trusting to his instinct for being brought to some human habitation. We had not travelled far, when, from the top of an eminence, I

saw a great light, towards which my ass seemed to direct his steps. Imagine my horror, as I approached, at hearing the most piercing shrieks and yells, proceeding from a multitude of voices, male and female. With all my might I endeavoured to check the ass, or make him change his direction, but to no purpose; he redoubled his speed, pressing on to the fire, which now blazed full in view, exhibiting the most dreadful spectacle that can be fancied. In spite of all my efforts I was hurried close upon the flames, and should have been carried into the midst of the cannibals that were dancing around them, had I not, finding all contest with my ass unavailing, thrown myself off his back, as he galloped in full charge, and, at the expense of a few more bruises, fallen behind a bush, that served to conceal me. There I lay, surveying the awful scene before me. Good God! thought I, quivering more than the leaves with the evening breezes, am I on earth or in hell? A huge fire of brushwood was crackling on the ground, round which stood a number of negroes, clapping their hands, beating their breasts, and uttering the most barbarous shouts, while a female lay at their feet in convulsions, but unresisting, and apparently in momentary expectation of being roasted and devoured. If my limbs had been uninjured, I could not have moved from the spot, such was the terror that overcame me. The incantations grew worse; men and women, dressed to be sure like the slaves in general of this country, and some of them with books in their hands, but in all other respects like ferocious and frantic savages, seemed to

vie with each other in contortions of the face, and fury of gesticulation. They writhed, bellowed, foamed at the mouth, hung over the wretch on the ground, and exhibited every sign of cannibals greedy for their prey. Just at the fatal moment, when they all huddled round the victim on the ground, and were about to begin their accursed meal, a flash of sharp lightning eclipsed their infernal light, followed by a peal of thunder that broke over their heads: and upon looking up, which I had not before ventured to do, I perceived a storm on the point of breaking loose. Never were the first streaks of a clear sky so welcome to the shipwrecked mariner, as was this tremendous storm to me, which soon came down in torrents of rain, with continued streams of lightning and peals of thunder; for it broke up the pandæmonium, and snatched me from the most dreadful destruction, as I had little hope of escaping being the next victim. As soon as the rain interrupted their orgies, the blacks ceased, though without any symp. toms of haste or trepidation. The woman on the ground sprang on to her feet; and the whole hell, some on jack-asses and mules, others on horseback, and most of them on foot, marched off to the measure of a kind of dirge, which they all joined in singing. After the last sounds died away amid the pelting of the shower and reverberations of the thunder, rolling from hill to hill around the amphitheatre that surrounds the city, I once more crept out, drenched with rain, but delighted; forgetting my injuries, blind and halt as I was, considering nothing but the dangers I had miraculously escaped, and how to fly as

far and as fast as possible, from this the most frightful purlieu in the whole city of Washington; and taking a direction opposite to that in which the cannibals departed, hobbled along, till, to my inexpressible joy, I heard a dog bark. Presently a little glimmering light twinkled from no great distance, such a one as I thought I might approach without risk, and in a few minutes more I was welcomed into a decent log farm-house, where a family of a man and three women were seated round a table, eating mush, another preparation of Indian corn; of which, after having the blood and dirt washed from my face, I was presented with a bowl. It was now late at night; and I found I was further from my lodgings than I could possibly walk in my maimed condition, in the dark, and without a guide. When, therefore the man and his wife and their three boys, went to bed in one of the beds there were in the room, and the two young women in the other, the house consisting of but one apartment, I took the liberty to stretch my aching limbs upon the floor, where all my cares were forgotten in a sound sleep till morning. But when I awoke, and attempted to get up, my bruises were so stiff, that I could scarcely stand, much less walk a mile and a half to my lodgings. In this emergency, my host, who was going to our hotel, with a cart load of potatoes, generously gave me a ride on the top of them; and shot me down at the inn door with the rest of his burthen. days I have not been out of my chamber. ting, fever, physic and aches, a cold room, and a hard bed, continually call to mind the perils of a ramble in

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For three Blood-let

the city of Washington; and I sigh once more, believe me, Selim, for the cheerful crowds and fragrant environs, the beautiful bay and beloved scenes of Smyrna.

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