derstand their own language, when the word personne means any body, every body, or nobody; when verser signifies to fill a glass, to empty a glass, to overturn a coach, to shed tears, and fifty things besides. For my part, I'm astonished they don't all take to speaking plain English, that they may have a chance of knowing what they are about. But did I ever tell you the hoax played off upon me by Dick Smart ?you know what a wag Dick is. Well, Sir, we came over in the Steam-boat together, and as he speaks the lingo a bit, I asked him to accompany us to Paris. Dick, says I, what's the meaning of P. A. C. I.* which one sees stuck upon so many of the houses? Why, says Dick, there are so many English travel this road now, that they are beginning to put up the inscriptions in our language, and you may observe upon most of the shop-windows-English spoked here,' or 'English spiked here;' though, when you` get inside, they can seldom go beyond- vairy goat an vairy sheep,' which they constantly repeat, however bad and dear their articles may be. The letters about which you inquire, are the initials of Pleasant and cheap Inn,' which every English traveller is presumed to understand, and I can assure you, upon my own experience, that you may get a very good and reasonable dinner wherever you see this notice. "I never thought Dick was running his rigs upon me, so one day, when I was too late for dinner at home, I stalked into a good-looking house of this sort, *The Fire-office plates," Pour Assurance Contre Incendie.” 6 6 walked up-stairs, and seeing a large party at table just going to attack the soup, I concluded it was an ordinary, took my seat, and began to handle the ladle, for there was nothing else but the cat'smeat bouilli, which I never touch. I shall never forget their astonished looks, and the exclamations that ran round the table of, 'Mon Dieu!''Grand Dieu Sacré Dieu!" Vrai nom de Dieu!' and Tonnerre de Dieu !' after which the master of the house made me a low bow, and a long speech of which I didn't understand a word; but just to let them see that I could parlez-vous a little, I gave him a nod with a Comment vous portez-vous, Mounsheer?" and thinking he might be wanting me to cash up before dinner, I took out my purse and asked him Combien ? Lord love you! I wish you had seen what a rage they all got into. One of them seized me by the collar, but I cried out- Paws off, Mounsheer!' and chucking him aside with such a jerk that he upset a little side-table, with all its bottles and glasses, I put myself in a boxing attitude. Squall! went the women; Peste!' and Diable!' cried the men, and one of them threw up the window and called to some body in the street; when presently two John d'Armes with long sabres made their appearance at the door, and civilly enough told me I was their prisoner. I don't like these John d'Armes-I never did; so I offered them five francs to let me off, but they wouldn't bite, and marched me off a prisoner; and if we hadn't met my landlord, who luckily speaks good English, and to whom I explained the whole matter, I don't know what would have become of me. Upon his representation they set me free, and an Englishman loves his liberty too much to put it a second time in jeopardy, so we started next morning for Dieppe ; to-morrow I hope to be at Brighton, and if ever you catch me in France again, why my name 's not Hodgskins, that's all I say!" SPECIMENS OF A TIMBUCTO0 "Nor ought a Genius less than his that writ DENHAM. Ar the very moment when repeated and painful failures seemed to have extinguished the last hope of ever penetrating to Timbuctoo, when the staunchest friends of African civilization and the extension of British commerce feel themselves bound to discourage the temerity of the fresh victims who are willing to sacrifice themselves in an enterprise of so hopeless and desperate a nature, accident has made us acquainted with an individual who has passed several months in the capital of this hitherto unexplored country, upon whose authority we mean to gratify the curiosity of our readers with a very brief and hasty notice of its manners and literature. In order that they may duly appreciate the authenticity of our narrative, we think it right to state the name of our informant, Captain Jonathan Washington Muggs, a citizen of Georgia in the United States, whose vessel, the Black-eyed Lass, as some of our readers may perhaps recollect, was surrounded and nearly crushed a few years ago by the terrible sea-serpent, until several shots from a twelve-pounder judiciously directed into the monster's left eye, induced him to uncoil himself and dart through the waters in search of a Collyrium. Mr. Muggs, it seems, is the son of a Timbuctoo slave, by an American residing on the banks of the Turtle River in Georgia; and, as his father was almost constantly at sea, his mother instructed him in her native tongue, a fortunate circumstance to which himself and the British public are equally indebted, the former for the preservation of his life, the latter for the invaluable information we are now about to communicate. Capt. Muggs was bound from Charlston to Liverpool with a cargo of cotton, when, in a violent storm from the South-west, which continued for several days, his vessel was driven ashore and wrecked on the coast of Africa, not far from the Island of Goree, and the whole of the crew were instantly made prisoners by the savage Mandingoes. Such as were able-bodied and capable of working were sold as slaves; two sick sailors, and an old American author, who happened to be on board as a passenger, being deemed inapplicable to any useful purpose, were confined, and treated with the utmost politeness until the feast of the great idol Mumbo-Jumbo, when a hope was expressed, that, in return for such hospitality, they would comply with the immemorial usages of the country, and suffer themselves to be quietly killed and eaten. The author stoutly pleaded his privilege of being cut up by none but reviewers, but they knocked down him and his argument by one blow, and his remains afforded a higher treat to the public of Mandingo, and appeared better adapted to the taste of the people, than those of any literary individual upon record. As to Captain Muggs, who swore by the magician Obi, that he was born at Timbuctoo, had been made a prisoner in his youth, and degraded into his present mulatto colour by a long residence abroad,-averments which he substantiated by a woolly head and a song in the language of the country,-they gave him a sort of passport, and left him at liberty to explore his way to the asserted place of his birth in the best manner he could. His adventures in this perilous enterprise are preparing for the press in four volumes quarto, all written by himself on the leaf of the chickachoo tree, and we can only gratify public curiosity by anticipating a very few of the more remarkable facts. Every one who has read Herodotus is aware that an expedition was fitted out by Necho, King of Egypt, of whom mention is made in the Second Book of Kings. The Phenician mariners employed in this daring enterprise completely circumnavigated Africa, but were discredited upon their return,. because they stated they had seen the setting sun on their right hand, an assertion which our present knowledge of |