savages by explaining its properties. He wrote a letter in their sight-to their infinite wonder. They spared him, and made a show of him in all the settlements round about. He was to them an

unfathomable mystery. He was plainly superhuman. Whether his power would bring to them good or evil, they were not able to determine.

After much hesitation they chose the course which prudence seemed to counsel. They resolved to extinguish powers so formidable, regarding whose use they could obtain no guarantee. Smith was bound and stretched upon the earth, his head resting upon a great stone. The mighty club was uplifted to dash out his brains. But Smith was a man who won golden opinions from all. The Indian chief had a daughter, Pocahontas, a child of ten or twelve years. She could not bear to see the pleasing Englishman destroyed. As Smith lay waiting the fatal stroke, she seized him in her arms and interposed herself between him and the club. Her inter

cession prevailed, and Smith was set free.

Five years later, "an honest and discreet" young Englishman called John Rolfe loved this young Indian girl. He had a sore mental struggle about uniting himself with "one of barbarous breeding and of a cursed race.' But love triumphed. He laboured for her conversion, and had the happiness of seeing her baptized in the little church of Jamestown. Then he married her.

Her

After a time he took her home to England. appearance was pleasing; her mind was acute; her piety was sincere; her manners bore picturesque

evidence of her forest upbringing. The English King and Court regarded her with lively interest as the first-fruits of the wilderness. Great hopes were founded on this union of the two races.

She is the brightest picture-this young Virginian wife and mother-which the history of the doomed native races presents to us. But she did not live to revisit her native land. Death parted her very early from her husband and her child.*

When Smith returned from captivity the colony was on the verge of extinction. Only thirty-eight persons were left, and they were preparing to depart. With Smith hope returned to the despairing settlers. They resumed their work, confident in the resources of their chief. Fresh arrivals from England cheered them.

The character of these reinforcements was no improvement upon that of their predecessors. "Vagabond gentlemen" formed still a large majority of the settlers many of them, we are told, "packed off to escape worse destinies at home." The colony, thus composed, had already earned a very bad reputation so bad that some, rather than be sent there, "chose to be hanged, and were."

Over these most undesirable subjects Smith ruled with an authority which no man dared or desired to question. But he was severely injured by an accidental explosion of gunpowder. Surgical aid

was not in the colony.

Smith required to go to England, and once more hungry ruin settled down In six months the five hundred men

upon Virginia.

whom Smith had left had dwindled to sixty.

These

5

were already embarked and departing when they were met by Lord Delaware, the new governor. Once more the colony was saved.

Emigrants

Years of quiet growth succeeded. not wholly now of the dissolute sort-flowed steadily in. In 1688 the population of Virginia had increased to 50,000; and within a few years of the settlement, the Virginians had a written Constitution, according to which they were ruled.

'Virgin'ia, the first British settlement in North America, was taken possession of by Raleigh in 1584, and named after the virgin queen, Elizabeth. Long captivity in the Tower— thirteen years. In 1603 he had been condemned on the charge of being accessory to a plot to place Arabella Stuart on the throne. He was reprieved, but remained a prisoner in the Tower till 1616. An expedition which he undertook to South America failed, and gave offence to Spain. his return, James, to please the Spanish minister, sent Raleigh to the block on the sentence passed fifteen years before -1618.

On

QUESTIONS.-Who first attempted to colonize Virginia? With what success? When was a company chartered to colonize it? What was the character of the emigrants? Who became the chief of the expedition? What was the first English town in America? How did Smith put down the vice of swearing? From what did the settlers suffer in their first summer? How many died before autumn? What brought them relief? What befell Smith when exploring the interior? How was his life saved? What subsequently became of Pocahontas? In what state was the colony when Smith returned from captivity? Why was he compelled to return to England? Whom did Lord Delaware meet on his arrival? What was the population of Virginia in 1688?

WATERLOO.

THERE was a sound of revelry by night,
And Belgium's capital1 had gathered then
Her beauty and her chivalry, and bright
The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men:
A thousand hearts beat happily; and when
Music arose with its voluptuous swell,

Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again,
And all went merry as a marriage bell;

But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell.

Did ye not hear it?—No; 'twas but the wind,
Or the car rattling o'er the stony street;

On with the dance! let joy be unconfined;

No sleep till morn, when youth and pleasure meet,
To chase the glowing hours with flying feet:-
But hark! that heavy sound breaks in once more,
As if the clouds its echo would repeat;

And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before!—
Arm! arm! it is-it is-the cannon's opening roar!

Within a windowed niche of that high hall
Sate Brunswick's fated chieftain:2 he did hear
That sound the first amidst the festival,
And caught its tone with death's prophetic ear;
And when they smiled because he deemed it near,
His heart more truly knew that peal too well
Which stretched his father on a bloody bier,
And roused the vengeance blood alone could quell:
He rushed into the field, and foremost fighting fell.
+

Ah! then and there was hurrying to and fro,
And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress,
And cheeks all pale, which but an hour ago
Blushed at the praise of their own loveliness;
And there were sudden partings, such as press
The life from out young hearts; and choking sighs
Which ne'er might be repeated;-who could guess

If ever more should meet those mutual eyes,3
Since upon night so sweet such awful morn could rise.

And there was mounting in hot haste: the steed,
The mustering squadron, and the clattering car
Went pouring forward with impetuous speed,
And swiftly forming in the ranks of war;
And the deep thunder, peal on peal afar;
And near, the beat of the alarming drum
Roused up the soldier ere the morning star;
While thronged the citizens with terror dumb,
Or whispering, with white lips-"The foe!
they come !"

They come !

rose!

And wild and high the "Camerons' gathering "4
The war-note of Lochiel, which Albyn's' hills
Have heard, and heard, too, have her Saxon foes.
How in the noon of night that pibroch thrills,
Savage and shrill! but with the breath which fills
Their mountain-pipe, so fill the mountaineers
With the fierce native daring which instils

The stirring memory of a thousand years:

6

And Evan's, Donald's fame, rings in each clansman's ears!

And Ardennes" waves above them her green leaves,
Dewy with Nature's tear-drops, as they pass,
Grieving, if aught inanimate e'er grieves,

Over the unreturning brave,-alas!

Ere evening to be trodden like the grass,

Which now beneath them, but above shall grow

In its next verdure, when this fiery mass

Of living valour, rolling on the foe,

And burning with high hope, shall moulder cold and low.

Last noon beheld them full of lusty life,

Last eve in beauty's circle proudly gay;

The midnight brought the signal-sound of strife;
The morn, the marshalling in arms; the day,
Battle's magnificently stern array!

8

The thunder-clouds close o'er it, which, when rent,
The earth is covered thick with other clay,