our readers; for although there has hardly been a nation which has not practised similar sacrifices, it would be difficult to find one which has carried them to so great an excess as the Mexicans appear to have done.

We are ignorant what sort of sacrifices may have been practised by the ancient Toltecas. The Chechemecas continued long without using then, having at first neither idols, temples, nor priests, nor offering any thing to their gods, the Sun and Moon, but herbs, flowers, fruits, and copal. Those nations never thought of sacrificing human victims, until the example of the Mexicans banished the first impressions of nature from their miuds. What they report con erning the origin of such barbarous sacrifices, we have already explained; namely, that which appears in their history, concerning the first sacrifice of the four Xochimilcan prisoners, which they made when in Colhuacan. It is probable, that at the time when the Mexicans were insulated in the lake, and particularly while they remained subject to the Tepanceas, the sacrifice of human victims must have happened very seldom, as they neither had prisoners nor could purchase slaves for sacrifices. But when they had enlarged their dominions, and multiplied their victories, sacrifices became frequent and on some festivals the victims were numerous.

The sacrifices varied with respect to the number, place, and mode, according to the circumstances of the festival. In general the victims suffered death by having their breasts opened; but others were drowned in the lake, others died of bunger shut up in caverns of the mountains, and lastly, some fell in the giadiatorian sacrifice. The customary place was the temple, in the upper area of which stood the altar destined for ordinary sacrifices. The altar of the greater temple of Mexico was a green stone (probably Jasper) convex above, and about three feet high, and as many broad, and more than five feet long. The usual ministers of the sacrifice were six priests, the chief of whom was the Topiltzin, whose dignity was pre-eminent and hereditary; but at every sacrifice he assumed the name of the god to whom it was made. For the performance of this function. he was clothed in a red babit, similar in make to the scrapulary of the moderns, fringed with cotton; on his head he wore a crown of green and yellow feathers, at his ears heng golden ear-rings and green jewels, (perhaps emeralds.) and at his under lip a pendant of turquoise. The other five ministers were dressed in white habits of the same make, but embroidered with black; their hair was wrapped up, their heads were bound with leathern thongs, the foreheads armed with little shields of paper painted of various colours, and their bodies dyed all over black.

These barbarous ministers carried the victim entirely naked to the upper area of the temple, and after having pointed out to the idol to whom the sacrifice was made, that they might pay their adoration to it, extended him upon the altar; four priests held his legs and arms, and another kept his head firm with a wooden instrument made in form of a coiled serpent, which was put about his neck; and on account of the altar being convex, the body of the victim lay arched, the breast and belly being raised up and wholly prevented from the least movement.— The inhuman Topiltzin then approached, and with a cutting knife made of flint, dexterously opened his breast and tore out his heart, which, while yet palpitating, he offered to the sun, and afterwards threw it at the feet of the idol; then taking it up again he offered it to the idol itself, and afterwards burned it preserving the ashes with the utmost veneration. If the idol was gigantic and hollow, it was usual to introduce the heart of the victim into its mouth with a golden spoon. It was customary also to anoint the lips of the idol and the cornices of the door of the sanctuary with the victim's blood. If he was a prisoner of war as soon as he was sacrificed they cut off his head to preserve the skull, and threw the body down the stairs to the lower area, where it was taken up by the officer or soldier to whom the prisoner had belonged. and carried to his house to be boiled and dressed as an entertainment of his friends. If he was not a prisoner of war, but a slave purchased for a sacrifice, the proprietor carried off the carcase from the altar for the same purposeThey eat only the legs, thighs, and arms, and burned the rest, or preserved it for food to the wild beasts or birds of prey which were kept in the royal palaces. The Otomies, after bav ing killed the victim, tore the body in pieces, which they sold at market. The Zapotecas sacrificed men to their gods, women to their goddesses, and children to some other diminutive deities.

This was the most common mode of sacrifice, but often attended with some circumstances of still greater cruelty, as we shall see hereafter; other kinds of sacrifices which they used were much less frequent. At the festival of Teteoinan, the woman who represented this goddess was beheaded on the shoul ders of another woman. At the festival of the arrival of the gods, they put the victim to death by fire. At one of the festivals made in honour of Tlaloc, they sacrificed two children of both sexes by drowning them in a certain place of the lake.At another festival of the same god, they purchased three little boys of six or seven years of age, shut them up inhumanly in a cavern, and left them to die of fear and hunger.

The most celebrated sacrifice among the Mexicans was that

called by the Spaniards with much propriety the gladiatorian. This was a very honourable death, and only prisoners who were renowned for their bravery were permitted to die by it. Near to the greater temple of large cities, in an open space of ground sufficient to contain an immense crowd of people, was a round terrace, eight feet high upon which was placed a large round stone, resembling a mill-stone in figure, but greatly larger, and almost three feet high, well polished with figures cut upon it. On this stone, which was called the Temalacatl, the prisoner was placed, armed with a shield and a sharp sword, and tied by one foot. A Mexican officer or soldier, better accoutred in arms, mounted to combat with him.

.

Every one will be able to imagine the efforts made by the desperate victim to defend his life, and also those of the Mexican to save his honour and reputation, before the multitude of people that assembled at such a spectacle. If the prisoner remained vanquished, immediately a priest named Chalchiuhtepehua, carried him dead or alive to the altar of the common sacrifices, opened his breast, and took out his heart, whi e the victor was applauded by the assembly, and rewarded by the king with some military honour. But if the prisoner conquered six different combatants, who came successively to fight with him, agreeably to the account given by the conquerer Cortes, he was granted his life, his liberty, and all that had been taken from him, and returned with glory to his native country. The same author relates, that in a battle between the Cholulans and Huexotzincas, the principal lord of Cholula grew so warm in the contest, that having inadvertently removed to a great distance from his own people he was made prisoner in spite of his bravery, and conducted to Huexotzinco, where being put upon the gladiatorian stone, he conquered seven combatants which were opposed to him, and gained his liberty; but the Huexotzincas foreseeing, that on account of his singular courage he would become the cause of many disasters to them if they granted him his liberty, put him to death contrary to universal custom; by which act they rendered themselves eternally infamous among those nations.

EXTRACTS FROM BARTRAM'S TRAVELS. Mr. Bartram's researches and adventures in the wilds of the southern states before their general settlement.

[Meth. Mag. Eng.]

INTELLIGENT readers, who attend to the following extraordinary narrative, will naturally enquire into the degree of credit

which is due to the relator. It is necessary therefore to inform them, that Mr. JOHN BARTRAM, the father of our present author, of the profession called quakers, was botanist to the king of Great Britain, a fellow of the royal society, and a person of a very respectable character. His son WILLIAM BARTRAM at the request of Dr. Fothergill, of London, in 1773, undertook to search the Floridas, and the western parts of Carolina and Georgia, for the discovery of rare and useful productions of nature, chiefly in the vegetable kingdom. He not only manifests an inviolable regard to truth, for which the quakers have always been remarkable; but an uncommon degree of piety towards God, and philanthropy towards his fellow creatures; qualities rarely to be found among modern travellers. He acknowl edges, that while he was impelled by a restless spirit of curiosity, in pursuit of new productions of nature, his chief happiness consisted in tracing and admiring the infinite power, majesty, and perfections of the great Almighty CREATOR, and in the contemplation, that through the divine aid, and permission, he might be instrumental in discovering, and introducing into his native country, some original productions of nature, which might become useful to society. Animated with this laudable enthusiasm, Mr. Bartram urges his way through the howling wilds of America; sometimes alone, for days together, and sometimes in company, as opportunity offered. The following extract contains some occurrences which happened to him in his voyage up the river St. John, in East Florida.

"Being desirous of continuing my travels and observations higher up the river, and having an invitation from a person who was agent for, and resident at, a large plantation, the property of an English gentleman, about sixty miles higher up, resolved to pursue my researches to that place; and having engaged in my service a young Indian, he agreed to assist me in working my vessel up as high as a certain bluff, where I was to land him, on the west or Indian shore.

"Provisions and all necessaries being procured, and the morning pleasant, we went on board and stood up the river. We passed for several miles on the left, by the islands of high swamp land, exceedingly fertile. They consist of a loose black mould, with a mixture of sand, shells, and dissolved vegetables. The opposite Indian coast is a perpendicular bluff, ten or twelve feet high, consisting of a black sandy earth, mixed with a larger proportion of shells. Near the river, on this high shore, grew the beautiful evergreen shrub called wild lime or tallow nut. This shrub grows six or eight feet high, and produces a large oval fruit, of the shape and size of an ordinary plum, of a fine yellow colour when ripe: a soft sweet pulp

covers a nut which has a thin shell, enclosing a white kernel somewhat of the consistence and taste of the s

but more oily, and very much like hard tallow, which induced my father when he first observed it, to call it the tall w nut.

At the upper end of this bluff is a fine orange grove. Here my Indian companion requested me to set him on shore, being already tired of rowing under a fervid sun, and having for some time intimated a dislike to his situation. I readily complied with his desire, knowing the impossibility of compelling an Indian against his own inclinations, or even prevailing upon him by reasonable arguments, when labour is in the question. Before my vessel reached the shore, he sprang out of her, and landed, when uttering a shrill and terrible whoop, he bounded off like a roebuck, and I lost sight of him. I at first apprehended, that as he took his gun with him, he intended to hunt for some game and return to me in the evening. The day being excessively hot and sultry I concluded to take up my quarters here. until next morning.

"The Indian not returning, I set sail alone. The little lake, which is an expansion of the river, now appeared in view; on the east side are extensive marshes, and on the other, high forest and orange groves, and then a bay, lined with vast cypress swamps, both coasts gradually approaching each other, to the opening of the river again, which is in this place about 300 yards wide. Evening now drawing on, I was anxious to reach some high bank of the river, where I intended to lodge; and agreeably to my wishes, I soon after discovered on the west shore a little promontory, at the turning of the river, contracting it here to about one hundred and fifty yards in width. This promontory is a peninsula, containing about three acres of high ground, and is one entire orange grove, with a few live oaks, magnolias and palms. Upon doubling the point, I arrived at the1nding, which is a circular harbour, at the foot of the bluff, the top of which is about twelve feet high; the back of it is a large cypress swamp, that spreads each way, the right wing forming the west coast of the little lake, and the left stretching up the river many miles, and encompassing a vast space of low grassy marshes. From this promontory, locking eastward across the river, I beheld a landscape of low country, unparalleled as I think; on the left is the east coast of the little lake, which I had just passed; and from the orange bluff at the lower end, the high forests begin, and increase in breadth from the shore of the lake, making a circular sweep to the right, and contain many hundred thousand acres of meadow; and this grand sweep of high forests encircles, as I apprehend, at least twenty miles of these green fields, interspersed with hanimocks