"I GO-dear friends farewell- I leave my native land, Its rosy happy plains, For burning climes, to free mankind I seek not glittering wealth; I seek to lead mankind From darkness unto light, To bless their blinded darken'd eyes, What though with eager thirst What though nor health nor fame If men to God through Christ I lead, 'Go ye to all the world— To earth's remotest bound; There let my banners be unfurl'd, And nations flock around.' And ever whilst I live My earnest prayer will be, That God would lead all men to him And immortality;— And for that glorious time When all shall know the Lord; When war shall cease, and love and peace, Shall reign with one accord. Pray then for our success, All heathen darkness, and to bless He spoke the sails were spread- He watched his native land Till it faded from his view; But he's gone to join a noble band, ENDYMION. ALLIGATORS IN WESTERN AFRICA. DURING my residence at Mansu, about fifty miles from Cape Coast Castle, I was engaged in building a house. One morning I sent out the school-boys to collect some bamboos for the purpose of erecting a fence. In the course of their search for them, they discovered the nest of an alligator, which they robbed of its eggs. These eggs are thought to be a great delicacy, and are anxiously sought after by the rich. These, therefore, were distributed amongst the chiefs and principal people; and I, being thought a person of some consequence, had two given me as my share. On their being brought to me, my curiosity was excited to see this nest, and I asked the boys to show me the place where they had found it. They accordingly took me to the place. The alligators had chosen the root of a large tree, around which grew a number of the gigantic climbers so common in tropical countries. The nest was composed of loose vegetable matter, which they had collected together from the ground around the tree, and which was so carefully done, that one would have thought it had been swept. They had then drawn it so firmly together, that it resembled a piece of coarse felt; and it was with great difficulty that it could be separated in order to obtain the eggs. The heap thus formed consisted of at least a large waggon load of this vegetable matter, and the heat was so great, arising from the fermentation and gradual decay of the mass, that it was with difficulty that I could bear my hand in it for five minutes at a time. In this we see the goodness of God manifested towards even this portion of his creation, in directing their instinct to avail itself of the steady heat generated by the fermentation of a mass of decomposing vegetable matter, constructed by itself for the purposes of incubation. Alligators are very numerous in this part of the world, both in what are here called saltponds (which are small lakes separated from the sea by a sand-bank, through which the water runs) and in rivers. In size they vary according to their age. The longest are from ten to twelve feet long. They are not generally dangerous to man; for I have often seen scores of people for hours together in the water, fishing and bathing where these creatures are numerous, and have sometimes bathed myself in the same places. This animal seems to be endowed with a large share of cunning. When walking along the banks of these salt-ponds, I have frequently been amused to see the adroitness with which they endeavour to catch wild-fowl, which abound there. The birds of the wading tribe collect their food by going into the water; and while they are thus engaged, the alligators will keep just outside of them, in deep water, with only the tip of their nose, and their two eyes, which project beyond their head, just above the water, watching until they think it within their reach, when they suddenly seize their prey. Should the bird keep very close to the shore, the alligator will sink into the water very gently, and proceed under the water until it again becomes opposite the bird, when it will rise with the same imperceptible motion, and without causing the smallest ripple. I have seen as many as eight or ten of them thus watching one bird. At other times they get out of the water, and stretch themselves on a sunny bank, where they contrive to catch flies by opening their mouths, and causing a kind of saliva to exude from their tongues, which soon attracts great quantities of flies, and which they secure by suddenly shutting their mouths. I have often seen them thus engaged; and, on one occasion, I succeeded in getting within a few yards of one whose horrible jaws were thus open, and shot at it; but the gun being loaded with small shot only, I did not succeed in killing it. BROOKING. THE TARANTULA IN ITALY. ONE of the insects almost peculiar to the kingdom of Naples, in Italy, is the tarantula, or a kind of spider, with which it abounds. The persons bit by this insect are called by Italians tarantolati. Few of such unhappy persons can bear the sight of black or blue, but seem delighted with red and green objects. They are seized also with an aversion to eating fruit or vegetables. A melancholy silence, and a fixed eye, are the first symptoms by which the bite of the tarantula discovers itself; and then the music is immediately called in to rouse the patients to a violent motion, and by that means to produce perspiration and a copious sweat. The instruments chiefly used are the guitar, hautboy, trumpet, violin, and Sicilian kettle drum. The country people, who are more or less skilled in all these instruments, enforce the operation of their music by grimaces and odd gesticulations. The tarantolati, on their side, vigorously exert themselves, regulating their motions according to the music till the venom is quite expelled. This exercise and cure sometimes takes up five or six days; not that they are kept continually dancing all that time, but when nature seems to be exhausted, the music is suspended, and the patients put to bed, well covered, and a sodorific cordial is administered. It is remarkable that the patients, on recovery, remember nothing of what passed during the prevalence of the disorder; and that if the cure be not perfectly effected, and the poison entirely expelled, the same symptoms return the succeeding year, especially during the summer heats; and some have laboured under this terrible disorder, at intervals, for ten, twenty, or thirty years.-Bankes's Geography. ALAN DAY. WITHOUT much forbearance on the one side, and a great deal of docility on the other, "Old age and youth cannot dwell together." Age loves quietude and repose, while youth delights in noise and activity; yet many of the sunny seasons of boyhood are passed in the company of old people; and this is especially the case in the country. There is that in the time-worn countenance, the cut of the clothes, the quiet manner and general appearance of an old countryman that is very taking with boyhood. Not to know half a dozen or a dozen old people would be a sad trouble to most country boys. Old Roger, thrashing in the barn; old William |