Though I sympathized in the old man's misfortunes, I could not help smiling at his contemplated return to Granada, as if it had been his birthplace, or that he had ever seen the place for he admitted he had not; and it convinced me of what I had already suspected, that the old man's idiosyncrasies took the shape of hallucination. I could not help pondering, as he sat silent and thoughtful, his head sunk on his breast, on the influence which must have been brought to bear on his early education, to fill his mind with such thoughts and desires. Though the old and quaint-looking volumes on the shelves before me might have helped to strengthen them, still they could hardly have been their origin. On my hinting as much, in the course of conversation, he replied :

"My father, Señor, ever lamented having left Granada; but the quarrel with his superior officer was of too serious a character to permit of his return. My earliest impressions and first lessons were of his race, and its glorious history. Rapid as have been the strides which your country has made towards wealth and power, my race-I mean the Moors-has surpassed it in both. You think I exaggerate, Señor," continued he, with a confident smile, while he counted a moment on his fingers, and resumed: "From the death of Mahomet, in A. D. 622, to the invasion of Spain, in 710, is but 88 years. Shall I enumerate for you all these poor, halfnaked and hardy Arabs accomplished in that time? They extended their empire over the immense regions of Asia and Africa, subverted vast territories in India, overthrew the powerful Persian empire, established their power in Syria, seated themselves on the throne of the Pharaohs, from thence following down the whole coast of northern Africa to the waters of the Atlantic, scouring the Mediterranean with their fleets, from the seat of Constantine in one direction to the 'Pillars of Hercules' in the other; in fact,

once haughty Roman power, as well as trampling down all the old dynasties of the Orient. All this was accomplished, Señor, within the lifetime of many an aged Arab, who perchance in childhood had climbed on the knee of the great designer, Mahomet. What is your progress compared with this?" exclaimed he, his eye lighting up at the recital of the almost fabulous but truthful catalogue of the conquests of those from whom he claimed descent.

"If our free republic," replied I, "cannot at present display such evidence of power, she can show 'a brighter annal and a nobler fame.' All that vast power you have just enumerated, how has it been achieved? By bloodshed, violence, and misery; while here, on this Continent, peaceful industry, energy, and perseverance have accomplished what has been done. What man, with a spark of human feeling in his breast, would hesitate to decide between the two?"

"True-true, Señor," replied the old man, raising his head, which had fallen abstractedly on his breast as I spoke. "In the sense in which you put it, I cannot deny that yours presents the more pleasing picture. But ours was a glorious career, for all that.”

It was so evident nothing, in his estimation, could surpass the glory of the Moor, that I could not refrain from asking him if he were a Christian.

"I trust I am, Señor," was his reply. "How can any man ignore those principles which, however partially they may operate on the corruptibility of our nature, still lends us a share of those divine feelings called 'charity' and 'forgiveness,' which help to humanize and further separate us from the lower animals, which are, by the will of God, shut out from reason. But, however religious differences may interfere with the thoughts of and recollections of one's kindred and race, I do not permit them to interfere with mine. Religion should be between man and his God, and no other. Some of the noblest families of Spain are, as you must be

aware, of Moorish origin, and are proud of their descent. Many of the Arabs were, and are, Christians. Mahomet himself is said to have imbibed some of his early impressions from the teachings of a member of one of those early Christian orders then scattered over the East. The empire of the East, with its capital founded by Constantine, was once Christian. It is now the seat of the successor of Mahomet. The religion of Europe in all probability once depended on the result of a single battle, which, had it gone in favor of the Moors, they most likely would have overrun the continent. But I am rambling away into things that perhaps possess no interest for you, and forgetting the object for which I invited you in. I will now show you, Señor, a sword that came from another world."

Uttering these strange words, he withdrew to an adjoining room, from which he soon returned, carrying with him a sword of the true Turkish scimetar style, its curve being even greater than is generally seen represented in the drawings of such weapons. As he placed it in my hands, he said:

"What you now hold in your hand came from another world."

I looked at the old man, my mind now fully made up that I had been all this time talking with a madman. He certainly must have seen, in the expression of my countenance, that I must have thought so; it could not have been the first time he was so regarded, if he prefaced the introduction of this sword to others as he did to me.

"I see you think me mad; nevertheless, what I say is literally the fact. It is not of this earth-that is, the materials of which it is composed. I see you are still mystified," continued he, smiling; “but I will soon clear it up. The sword is made of iron once contained in a meteorite."

If the mystery was at once dispelled by the announcement, the interest was not lessened. The history of this weapon, manufactured out of such strange materials, was, after all, much more matter-of-fact than I had anticipated.

In the autumn of the year 1833,* an immense number of meteors were seen in Mexico, one of which fell in a field adjacent to the hacienda in which the old man resided with his father, who was then living. They were witnesses to its fall, which was accompanied by a rushing sound in the air, and a loud explosion. Whether the explosion proceeded from the falling meteor, or from some other, he could not tell, as the air he described as being full of themmost probably from the falling one. It buried itself some four feet in the soil, and was quite warm the following day, when it was dug up. It weighed eighty-four and a half pounds, and contained 95 per cent. of iron.t

The father conceived the idea-naturally enough-of converting a portion of the metal into a sword.‡

*This was the year of that grand meteoric display witnessed in America, extending from the lakes to the centre of Mexico. It was the most wonderful exhibition of the kind of which we have

any accurate record. It was harmless in its effects,

however, though it excited intense and widespread alarm. Many thought the Day of Judgment had come, and some are said to have died of fright. It was estimated, at Boston, that 10,000 made their appearance every quarter of an hour, making 280,000 for the seven hours this memorable display lasted. There are on record, nevertheless, many fatal accidents resulting from these visitations. M. Boit, in his catalogue of shooting-stars and other meteors observed in China, mentions the fact of a stone having fallen which broke some chariots and killed ten men. In 1647, Olaus Ericson Willman, a Swedish captain in the Dutch East India Company, reported the loss of two of his crew by a stone which descended on the deck of his vessel while in full sail. An aerolite killed a Franciscan monk in Milan about the same time. The French Academy of Science was presented with the fragment of an aerolite which is said to have fallen in Roquefort, in America, crushing in the roof of a cottage and killing two of the inmates, after which it buried itself in the ground, six feet deep. In Georgia, in 1826, there was loss of life by a similar incident; and an Indian named Alika perished in like manner in July, 1829. The fire which destroyed the great room of the Palais de Justice, at Paris, in 1618, is said to have originated with a meteorite which descended on the building a little after midnight, a foot in breadth and a cubit in height. Numberless other instances could be given of their dangerous character.

The aerolite brought by Humboldt from Mexico contained 96 per cent. of very malleable iron. Others found had not more than 2 per cent, and those of Ionzac and Inverness had none at all.

The Emperor Alexander the First of Russia had a sword presented to him produced from the iron of an African meteorite. In Siberia, Pallas

Nothing could convince my father," said the old man, smiling, "that it did not possess some peculiar virtue; and it did possess one which was some advantage to us, in the thinly-settled district in which we then lived, though not exactly the one he looked for. It served to keep off the robbers. The possession of the 'Lightning-Sword,' as the simple-minded natives called it, was enough."

The iron was in all respects, as far as he could determine, the same as that found in our planet, except that it was not as malleable as some he had worked; the quality and temper, therefore, of this weapon, made of such strange material, was nothing extraordinary. What it lacked in quality, however, was made up in embellishment-a considerable portion of the blade, which was highly polished, being ornamented with Arabic characters and figures. The hilt, too, was very curiously wrought. Yet it was wanting in that richness which is usually understood as belonging to the Turkish scimetar. This was evidently owing to the fact that no other material than the iron of the meteorite was used in its composition, handle and blade being made entirely of the celestial, but nevertheless gross, compound.

The tinkling of a little bell attached to his shop-door-a guard against thieves-now sounded, putting an abrupt termination to the interview. A customer having entered, he returned to the shop. I waited, however, until the person was served, as I did not like to leave without making a purchase of some kind to repay the old man for his time and trouble, though he did not once solicit me to buy.

Having purchased a pair of spurs, a

discovered a great mass highly malleable. In the reign of Jehangire, the Great Mogul, in the early part of the seventeenth century, a violent explosion was heard at a village in the Punjab, and a solid body fell to the earth, sinking deep into the ground. It was dug up and sent to the court, where it was weighed in presence of the Emperor, who ordered "the iron of the lightning" to be forged into warlike implements. The workmen reported that the iron was not malleable under the hammer; but when it was mixed with other iron, it made excellent blades.

curiosity in their way, I asked him—as much through inquisitiveness as any thing else, for I really did not want one-what time it would take to furnish me with a sword such as the one I first saw.

"Longer than you would be willing to wait, Señor," replied he. "If I had the material-that is, the steel tempered and prepared-I could furnish you one in a week, or ten days; but as it is, it would take twelve months to prepare the metal for such a blade."

An unlucky circumstance-I might say an accident-caused a disagreeable termination to my interview with this single-minded and intelligent though eccentric old man. I jestingly asked him what he would take for his secret in tempering steel. I laughed as I spoke; but whether it was he did not see me laugh, or that he misunderstood me, I know not. At all events, his manner changed at once.

"Caramba!" he muttered, "these people are like the English; they are all the same. They think money will buy any thing. And they are half right-half right, as the world goes. But there is no rule without an exception-ha, ha!-without an exception; and my secret is that exception-ha, ha! That can't be bought-no, no! No, no! it can't be bought-not for untold gold. I am the last of my name, and I shall be true to my trust. The secret must die with me! Good-day, Señor," cried he, turning from me. "I have business to attend to. You must excuse me."

Saying which, he retreated to his back room, leaving me standing alone in the shop. To attempt to explain, I saw would be useless. There was nothing for it but to take my departure. I felt annoyed that he should have misunderstood my meaning, for I had made up my mind to pass more than one evening in his little back room during my stay in Puebla, where I calculated on hearing many an interesting tale from the romantic history of the Moor.

As I did not like to leave behind me a bad impression on the old man's

Engineers, showing the military value. of these islands. The Boundary Survey had for astronomer, in running the 49th parallel, John G. Parke, then Lieutenant of Engineers, since distinguished as Major-General of Volunteers in every part of the field during the late war. The astronomer of the British Boundary Commission was Col. John S. Hawkins, of the Royal Engineers. The U. S. Coast Survey assisted materially in completing the survey and the excellent maps of the Archipelago de Haro.

We will endeavor to condense, into a few distinct heads, the principal points brought out in the argument on our side.

1st. The Canal de Haro is the shortest, deepest, and widest channel to connect the Gulf of Georgia with the Straits of Fuca. A glance at the cross-sections given in the plate referred to, will show that the main body of water goes through that channel to the ocean. It seems to be fair to assert that the treaty means that the line of deepest water (the filum aqua) shall be the boundaryline. The least depth in the Canal de Haro is greater than the maximum depth in the Rosario Straits (see p. 129 of the Senate Document). The average crosssection throughout of the former will show that its surface is about three times that of the Rosario Straits.

2d. It appears that Lord Aberdeen, on the 18th of May, 1846, wrote to the British minister in Washington that his Government was ready to enter into a negotiation on the basis of "a boundary along the 49th parallel to the seacoast, thence through the Straits of Fuca to the ocean, thus giving to Great Britain the whole of Vancouver's Island and its harbors." To interpret properly this language of Lord Aberdeen, the letter of Mr. Edward Everett to Mr. Campbell, of 29th May, 1858, should be read, which shows that, from the correspondence of Joshua Bates, there is evidence that Lord Aberdeen's attention had been called (by the pamphlet of William Sturgis) to the distinct proposition of yielding all the other islands, except Vancouver's Island, to

the United States. Mr. Sturgis, in his lecture delivered on 22d Jan., 1845, before the Mercantile Library Association in Boston, proposed "a continuation of the parallel of 49° across the Rocky Mountains to tide-water, say to the middle of the Gulf of Georgia; thence by the northernmost navigable passage (not north of 49°) to the Straits of Fuca, and down the middle of these Straits to the Pacific Ocean; the navigation of the Gulf of Georgia and the Straits of Juan de Fuca to be forever free to both parties, all the islands and other territory lying south and east of this line to belong to the United States, and all north and west to Great Britain. Will Great Britain accede to this? I think she will." Mr. Bates afterward wrote to Mr. Everett that Lord Aberdeen had said to him that he considered Mr. Sturgis' pamphlet "a fair, practicable, and sensible view of the subject," and that it had been read by all the ministers. We think it a very fair inference that Lord Aberdeen purposed in the treaty to carry out this identical programme.

3d. Hon. Louis McLane, our minister to England, on the 18th May, 1846, wrote to Mr. Buchanan that an arrangement could be made by making the boundary along the 49th parallel to the sea, and thence through the Canal de Haro and Straits of Fuca to the ocean.

4th. It appears plainly that our Senate, at the date of the confirmation of the treaty of 1846, understood distinctly that the Canal de Haro was the boundary-line. See the speeches of Mr. Benton and Mr. Cass, as quoted in this correspondence.

5th. Islands appertain rather to the continent than to another island. Such has been the principle of the Laws of Nations, and it has been recognized in discussions with some of the Governments of South America concerning islands near the coast.

6th. The Islands of the Archipelago de Haro are more important to us than they possibly can be to England—a fact very clearly set forth by General Totten in the report above referred to. Eng