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wanted to show you a live Mexican, who was good pluck to the very backbone. The only specimen of the kind, that I conjecture any of you ever saw." "The scoundrel!" said Hays, "I don't see that it required any great bravery to shoot a man from the bush. We'll take him off your hands. I'll have him disposed of." "That's just what I wanted, Jack, (so Hays was familiarly called); I spared the rascal once, because he made me laugh by his bold impudence, just as I was in the act of pulling trigger on him for the second time, and I don't feel disposed to kill him now-though I want you all to do it, for he deserves it a hundred times. Don't you remember him?" "I think I have seen him before," said Hays, "but where or when I can't recollect. It doesn't matter though-we'll relieve you of him." "You have not forgotten Gonzalez, the dextrous thief, who stole your sorrel horse last summer, and run him off across the Rio Grande ?" "Ha! this is the same fellow. Well we'll pay him off all scores this time." He understands perfectly what you say. By the way, have you seen or heard any thing of Littell? He went off in very singular style." Hays explained to him the circumstances the reader is already in possession of; and while we rode slowly toward a distant line of timber, indicating a stream on which we meant to camp for the night, the Bravo related his story of the day's events to

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"After leaving you in the street this morning, we continued at the best speed of our horses on the old Rio Grande trace for though we saw nothing of the Boy's trail on it at first, I felt convinced that we should find it after a while, for I knew he must have taken this route. Sure enough, within about five miles of town, we saw where it came in along with another horse. I suspected at once that this was a Mexican who was guiding and assisting him. We kept on very rapidly, and Littell had fallen several hundred yards behind me, when, after passing that point of timber some moments, I heard a gun behind me, and turning my head very quickly, I saw your horse just shying from the smoke, and wheeling on the back track-while the rifle of Littell dropped from his hands. I saw at once, from his manner, that he was hit, and expected to see him fall. The horse appeared to be greatly frightened and was clearly running without

any control. It at once occurred to me, that the man who fired would attempt to escape from the other side of the mott, and, thinking more of vengeance than any thing else, as soon as I could rein up and turn my horse, I galloped around it. I saw this fellow already in the saddle, making across the prairie, and instantly took after him. He had the start of me, and kept it for nearly two hours, through the hottest and hardest chace that ever I had. I thought at one time the wretch would beat me and get away, but the staunch bottom of my horse proved too much for his. Such doubles and turns and twists as he made among the motts you never saw." "Yes," interrupted Fitz., " we have a very perfect idea of them-haven't we been worried enough in following your trail?" "As his horse began to fail," continued the Bravo, "he doubled like a fox in the effort to lose me among the islands; but I had no notion of being thrown off, and after a while began to close rapidly upon him. When he became convinced that there was no chance for his escape, very greatly to my astonishment, he turned suddenly in the saddle, levelling a large pistol at me I bent forward over my horse's neck, and the ball whizzed above

me.

As I straightened up, I also fired, but missed, and at the same instant my horse came full tilt against his, and we went down together. I was on my feet first, and with my second pistol against his prostrate body, was in the act of firing into him, when with the utmost cool and comical expression conceivable, under the circumstances, he exclaimed, as he looked up grinning in my face, 'You missed and I missed-we are even.' 1 burst into a laugh and threw down my pistol, while the fellow rose and shook himself, and began to kick and curse his prostrate horse. • Garracho! you nasty brute; if I hadn't thought you were better bottom, I should not have gone to the trouble to steal you,' and turning to me, he observed, but he pushed you some, any how. I shall have to steal your bay next.' I was so tickled at this unprecedented impudence that I fairly roared, while the knave, finding he had got the right side of me, continued in the same strain. I let you pass, but it was an old grudge I had against Littell. had me whipped in Matamoras last spring, and I promised to be with him before the year was out, and you see I have been as good as my word. I hope

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he's done for.' There was something so funny and original in the rascal's saucy self-possession, that it was some little time before I could restrain my laughter sufficiently to address him. You can't expect any mercy from us, you scamp,' said I. Oh! no, I suppose you are going to have me shot. Muy bueno-1 think I've worked for it. I have stolen some half-dozen horses from you Rangers. Ha! you are Gonzalese? Yes.' Well, I pity you, if Hays or any of the boys get hold of you. I mean to tie you and take you into town.' Bueno,' he said, holding out his hands readily, and I tied them, and here he is. You may shoot the fellow if you can, but I'll be sworn that I neither can nor will have a hand in it. He's such an odd genius, that I think it would be a sin almost to shoot him-though it ought undoubtedly to be done, and I wish you all would do it." "Oh!" said Hays, dryly, "never fear, Bravo, we'll relieve you on that score very shortly. But here's the water-we'll draw lots for the six who shall shoot him, as soon as we get ready for camping."

I could not help feeling enlisted in the Bravo's sympathy for the man, who during this conversation-every syllable of which he fully understood-had maintained the same bearing of reckless and defiant coolness. We dismounted by the side of a clear rapid stream, under the narrow fringe of timber which bordered it, and after tying the Mexican to a tree, proceeded to strip our horses, stake them out to grass, kindle a fire, and make all the usual preparations for camping. This was all done in perfect silence, for the stern resolve which was about to be executed left, under any view of it, no room for frivolity of feeling. The Bravo had instantly, on dismounting, and in entire forgetfulness of his faithful horse, stretched himself upon the grass in front of Gonzalese, and continued to regard his face-which maintained unblenchingly its expression of perfect, calm indifference-with an intensely curious interest. Indeed, it was an awful trial his hardy nerve was subjected to-looking upon the silent progress of a preparation the consummation of which he well knew was to close his account with men and the world. There was, to me, something positively terrible in the mute activity of our men, and the sharp, fixed alertness of the regard of the prisoner.

When every thing had been arranged, we gathered around the fire in speechless

awe-feeling that the crisis had come, yet dreading its action. Not a word was spoken till Hays said, in a low voice as he pulled a pencil and some paper from his pocket-" The six men of the eleven, who draw the lowest numbers, will shoot him!" He proceeded to write them down, and handed them around to us in his hat. I drew my number with a degree of nervousness which surprised me; for, independent of my natural and invincible horror of a cold-blooded execution such as this I had partaken of the Bravo's liking for the singular and piquant traits he had exhibited, and was very lothe to be made an instrument of his death!My gratification was extreme, when 1 saw that my number was so high as to place me out of danger. Those who drew the low numbers, seemed to feel the most perfect indifference about the affair, and ranged themselves in front of Gonzalese with precisely the same air which would have characterized them, had it been a wooden target they were going to shoot at, instead of a fellow-being. The row of dark tubes was levelled at him, and Hays was opening his lips to enunciate the fatal word "fire "when the man, in a clear, petulant voice said

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Garralio! don't aim so low, you clumsy bunglars!" The Bravo, springing to his feet, exclaimed-" Jack! hear that! don't shoot this fellow! spare him for my sake-could the devil himself beat that?" Hays waved his hand, and the guns, greatly to my gratification, were lowered, and in another moment the Bravo had cut the thongs which bound the limbs of the Mexican, and he stood before us a free man.

With the same unmoved selfcollection and frankness which had characterized his whole bearing, he proceeded to explain to us his connection with the negro's escape. He told us, that, attracted by a human sympathy for the Boy, whom he had met accidentally in the shop of the Blacksmith, with his heavy chains on-he had furnished him with a file to cut them, and advised him to the utmost as to the manner of his escape, and guided and accompanied him in his flight to the thicket-where he had concealed himself while the Boy went on-and recognizing the Bravo, had let him go by-but the features of his old and sworn enemy had proved too much for his prudence, and he shot at him with the results we have seen.

Such as it was, this was my first day with the "Rangers," and we were soon afterward sound asleep on the grass.

IMITATED FROM GOËTHE.

WHILE the learned contend, and the doctors epilogise,
The wise of all time laugh their folly to scorn,
And say, as I say, 'tis a fool of the hugest size,
That strives of his folly a fool to reform:
Children of wisdom, leave folly to fools-
Let them be what they are-'tis the safest of rules.

Old Merlin the Wise, in his charnel of light,

(When a youth I beheld him), thus muttered to me"Tis only a fool strives to set a fool right;"

Then, children of wisdom, hear nature's decreeBe choice of your gifts, leave folly to fools;

Let them be what they are-'tis the safest of rules.

From the heights of aërial Ind, to the tombs

Where Thoth lies enwrapped in his mystical scrolls,
The word, to my asking, oracular comes;-
Children of wisdom, leave folly to fools;

Talk not to the blind of the colors of light;
"Tis a fool that would labor to set a fool right.

FROM GOETHE.

DEEP rest upon the ocean reigns,
Air sleeps upon the silent sea,
And, languid, on its glassy plains
The voyager gazes pensively.

HORUS.

Calm, fearful,-like the still of death;

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THE HINDOOS, THEIR LAWS, CUSTOMS, AND RELIGION.

BY JAMES D. WHELPLEY.

The people of India, whose history is sketched in the following pages, remain to this day a relic of the most ancient Heathenism: their Science and their Worship are the growth of a civilization older than the Pyramids. Their social and religious customs are founded upon laws which are doubtless an offshoot from the oldest of all codes, the Egyptian. Their modes of life are not essentially changed from the features of twenty centuries ago.

Since the social sentiments and legal constitutions of a slavish and feeble race, can have bnt little interest for the children of Europeans, it is only in their intellectual and religious character that the Hindoos are of much interest to the historian. For even the Greeks confessed them to be the wisest of mankind; and if wisdom is only an union of exquisite intelligence with the subtlest cunning, converted to the ends of intellectual and physical sensuality, the modern Hindoos have not lost the right to be called wise. They inhabit a region the most varied of the earth, in climate and in aspect; whose rivers are the meltings of perpetual snow, but flow through plains alternately torrid and inundated; under a sky subject to passionate extremes; where the season of rains is ushered in by terrible thunderstorms, and followed by heats which call out a rich and splendid vegetation, to be soon withered and burned by their intensity.

Every condition of human life has its representative in India, from rich and edu cated citizenship to the barbarism and cannibalism of the barren interior mountains; and there is no kind of animal or plant, which has not a species in its deserts, its forests, or its seas.

The effeminacy of its inhabitants, has made Hindostan in all ages the goal of conquest and the spoil of oppression. The Hindoo race were never their own masters; for even their native princes, were a caste set apart for idleness and violence— the descendants, probably, of their first conquerors.

To sketch the early history of this people from their own chronicle, to give a picture of what is universal and characteristic in them; in their customs, polity, and religion; and especially in that philosophy which they are supposed to have imparted to the Greeks, and which to this day prevails among them, is the object of the following chapters. A History of India might be extended through several volumes, and lose nothing of its interest by expansion; the present is an attempt to convey the idea and spirit of such a history.

ORIGIN OF THE HINDOO RACE.

THE author of the Zendavesta, which is believed to have been the Scripture of Persia, previous to the conversion of that country to the religion of Islam, enumerating the regions of Asia as they were occupied and civilized by his race, brings the first family of men out of Cashmere, or Little Thibet, it is uncertain which; and scattering their race by successive colonies, over Bactriana, Asia, and India, brings them finally into Media and Persia. The languages of this family of men bear out the tradition, that the nations who speak them had a common origin in Northern India, for they use a multitude of words in common, and resemble each other in their inflections and modes of composition.

The race of Noah, also, journeyed

from the East, and found a plain in Shinar on the Euphrates, where they built Babel; and this family, or the Semetic branch of it, occupied Syria, Arabia, Phoenicia, and Egypt. Their languages, of which Hebrew and Arabic are the types, have only a remote affinity with the Persian and Indian group of tongues. Excepting those of Eastern Asia, all the intellectual races who have built cities, or founded empires, speak languages and entertain traditions, which ally them either with the Indian or with the Semetic descent; but the characteristic people of both resemble each other too closely to permit a suggestion, even, that they are not of the same species, and descended of the same parents. The first seat of man may,

therefore, be sought, rather in the Caucasus of India, than in that western Caucasus, which borders on the Black Sea; and the Ararat of Moses is more plausibly to be looked for in Himmaleh, than in the Mount Taurus.

According to the account of Zoroaster, in the Zendavesta, India was inhabited and civilized by his race, before their occupation of Media and Persia. Such, at least, seems to be the meaning of his enumeration of countries "in the order in which they were blessed by the Supreme Good." The sacred books of the Hindoos place the beginning of their Earthen age, or Caliyug, since which they have suffered under the weakness of mortal sovereigns, about the year 3000 B. C. before that epoch, their kings are related to have been children of the sun and moon. All the history they possess, is a list of the dynasties of Delhi, which professes to begin with the first year of the Caliyug, (3000 B. C.) and descends unbroken to the conquest of Delhi by the Moslems. During the first thirty centuries of this period, the race of Yoodhisthiru reigned in Delhi, and were succeeded by that of Vicramaditya, who came out of Malwa about 56 B. C. This king, the Augustus of India, reigned during the brightest period of its literature, and is celebrated as the most enlightened and liberal of Hindoo sovereigns. At his court lived Calidas, the author of Sacontala, and the most accomplished poet of his language; but he is only one of many; for at this time, and for centuries previous, the Hindoos were distinguished among nations for the number and variety of their writings. The Sanscrit, their ancient tongue, has ceased to be a spoken language, having degenerated into Hindostannee, and other popular dialects, and is studied by a few only of the learned in India as the original of law and religion; the Institutes of Menu, and the Vedas, or Sacred writings, being composed in the most ancient form of it.

From B. C. 3000, according to the Hindoo chronicle, to the year 56 B. C., seventy kings succeeded each other on the throne of Delhi, and as their order is unbroken, and regularly divided into dynasties, the number is probably correct; but the periods of the reigns of all the

sovereigns of the earlier dynasties are greatly exaggerated, as if to bring their epoch to a coincidence with the first year of Cali-Yug, or Earthen Age; (for this present, or iron age of the Greek Mythologists, is the same with the Earthen Yug, or Age, of the Hindoos, and was preceded, in their Mythology by the Silver, or Heroic, and the Golden, or Divine ages.) If from the beginning of the reign of Yoodhisthiru to that of Vicramaditya (B. C. 56), only seventy kings reigned in Delhi, and the average of their reigns be one generation, or about twenty-two and a half years, their sum will be rather more than fifteen and a half centuries, or about 1575 years; which brings the time of the first sovereign of Delhi to agree with the time of the famous expedition of the Egyptian Sesostris, or Osymandyas, into India, where, we are told, he made conquests. This event happened between 1565 and 1500, B. C., according to the most probable chronology of the kings of Egypt; † but dates of this age can be only approximately determined. Taking twenty-two years to be the average of a king's reign in India, the first monarch of Delhi began to reign in the year 1540 B. C., twenty years before the death of Sesostris, while he was in the height of his power, and had made his second expedition into the East.

The conclusions suggested by this coincidence are remarkable enough, when we consider the close resemblance in every particular, between the Hindoo and Egyptian customs; for, while the laws and religion of the Egyptians may be traced, by the testimony of their existing monuments, to the twentyseventh century before Christ, and are carried by reasonable conjecture to at least the third century before that date, those of India cannot be traced deeper in antiquity than the epoch of Sesostris, or about 1500 B. C. That the enactments of the laws of Menu, and the Sacred Sanscrit volumes called Vedas, are only two or three centuries more recent than that period, is certain from the date of Fo, or Buddha, who founded a sect in opposition to the tenets of the Vedas. Buddha, whom the Chinese pagans worship under the name of Fo, and who is identified with the Woden, or Odin,

See Ward on the Hindoos, Vol. 1, where is given a translation of the Chronicle of Mrityoonjaya.

† Rossellini, in the Lectures of G. R. Gliddon, on Egypt. Chron.

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