which makes a man a slave, takes away half his worth it seems to be still more infallibly and fatally true, that the master generally suffers a yet larger privation.

"Sometimes," says Mr. Irving, "they would hunt down a straggling Indian, and compel him, by torments, to betray the hiding-place of his companions, binding him and driving him before them as a guide. Wherever they discovered one of these places of refuge, filled with the aged and the infirm, with feeble women and helpless children, they massacred them without mercy. They wished to inspire terror throughout the land, and to frighten the whole tribe into submission. They cut off the hands of those whom they took roving at large, and sent them, as they said, to deliver them as letters to their friends, demanding their surrender. Numberless were those, says Las Casas, whose hands were amputated in this manner, and many of them sunk down and died by the way, through anguish and loss of blood.

"The conquerors delighted in exercising strange and ingenious cruelties. They mingled horrible levity with their bloodthirstiness. They erected gibbets long and low, so that the feet of the sufferers might reach the ground, and their death be lingering. They hanged thirteen together, in reverence, says the indignant Las Casas, of our blessed Saviour and the twelve apostles! While their victims were suspended, and still living, they hacked them with their swords, to prove the strength of their arms, and the edge of their weapons. They wrapped them in dry straw, and setting fire to it, terminated their existence by the fiercest agony.

"These are horrible details; yet a veil is drawn over others still more detestable. They are related by the venerable Las Casas, who was an eye-witness of the scenes he describes. He was young at the time, but records them in his advanced years. 'All these things,' says he, and others revolting to human nature, my own eyes beheld! and now I almost fear to repeat them, scarce believing myself, or whether I have not dreamt them."

"Such was the ruthless system which had been pursued, during the absence of the admiral, by the commander Ovando, this man of boasted prudence and moderation, who was sent to reform the abuses of the island, and, above all, to redress the wrongs of the natives. The system of Columbus may have borne hard upon the Indians, born and brought up in untasked freedom, but it was never cruel nor sanguinary. He inflicted no wanton massacres nor vindictive punishments; his desire was to cherish and civilize the Indians, and to render them useful subjects, not to oppress, and persecute, and destroy them."

The story now draws to a close. Columbus returned to Spain, broken down with age and affliction--and after two years spent in unavailing solicitations at the court of the

cold-blooded and ungrateful Ferdinand (life generous patroness, Isabella, having died immediately on his return), terminated with characteristic magnanimity a life of singular energy, splendour, and endurance. Independent of his actual achievements, he was undoubtedly a great and remarkable man; and Mr. Irving has summed up his general character in a very eloquent and judicious way.

"The ambition of Columbus was lofty and noble. He was full of high thoughts, and anxious to distinguish himself by great achievements. It has been said that a mercenary feeling mingled with his views, and that his stipulations with the Spanish court were selfish and avaricious. The charge is inconsiderate and unjust. He aimed at dignity and wealth in the same lofty spirit in which he sought renown; and the gains that promised to arise from his discoveries, he intended to appropriate in the same princely and pious spirit in which they were de manded. He contemplated works and achievements of benevolence and religion: vast contributions for the relief of the poor of his native city; the foundation of churches, where masses should be said for the souls of the departed; and armies for the recovery of the holy sepulchre in Palestine.

"In his testament, he enjoined on his son Diego, and whoever after him should inherit his estates, whatever dignities and titles might afterwards be granted by the king, always to sign himself simply the Admiral,' by way of perpetuating in the family its real source of greatness.

6

"He was devoutly pious; religion mingled with the whole course of his thoughts and actions, and shines forth in all his most private and unstudied writings. But his piety was darkened by the bigotry of the age. He evidently concurred in the opinion that all the nations who did not acknowledge the Christian faith were destitute of natural rights; that the sternest measures might be used for their conversion, and the severest punishment inflicted upon their obstinacy in unbelief. In this spirit of bigotry he considered himself justified in making captives of the Indians, and transporting them to, Spain to have them taught the doctrines of Christianity, and in selling them for slaves if they pretended to resist his invasions. He was countenanced in these views, no doubt, by the general opinion of the age. But it is not the intention of the author to justify Columbus on a point where it is inexcusable to err. Let it remain a blot on his illus trious name and let others derive a lesson from it."

He was a man, too, undoubtedly, as all truly great men have been, of an imaginative and sensitive temperament-something, as Mr. Irving has well remarked, even of a visionary but a visionary of a high and lofty order, controlling his ardent imagination

by a powerful judgment and great practical sagacity, and deriving not only a noble delight, but signal accessions of knowledge from this vigour and activity of his fancy.

"Yet with all this fervour of imagination,' as Mr. Irving has strikingly observed, "its fondest dreams fell short of the reality. He died in ignorance of the real grandeur of his discovery. Until his last breath he entertained the idea that he had merely opened a new way to the old resorts of opulent commerce, and had discovered some of the wild regions of the East. He supposed Hispaniola to be the ancient Ophir which had been visited by the ships of Solomon, and that Cuba and Terra Firma were but remote parts of Asia. What visions of glory would have broke upon his mind could he have known that he had indeed discovered a new continent, equal to the whole of the old world in magnitude, and separated by two vast oceans from all the earth hitherto known by civilized man! And how would his magnanimous spirit have been consoled, amidst the afflic tions of age and the cares of penury, the neglect of a fickle public, and the injustice of an ungrateful king, could he have anticipated the splendid empires which were to spread over the beautiful world he had discovered; and the nations, and tongues, and languages which were to fill its lands with his renown, and to revere and bless his name to the latest posterity!"

MALARIA.*

(From the South American Review.No. III.)

THE topic of Malaria is one of general interest. It comprises matters of the highest importance to the well-being of every community. If, as our author has stated, and we unhesitatingly believe, the one half, and more than one half of our race, are prematurely cut off by diseases, the product of malaria; then should this claim, of right, upon the gloomy catalogue of human maladies, the most conspicuous station.

This cause of disease, the appellation of which Malaria-we have accepted from the Italians, consists in some peculiar vitiation of the atmospheric air, by some substance of a specific nature, and peculiar qualities; and as we infer from the identity of the effects attributed to it every where, is universally identical, or analogous in nature, wheresoever, and howsoever produced. No test, however, has yet been discovered, by which we can know, previously to the development of its deleterious effects, the presence of this most

"Malaria; an Essay on the Production and Propagation of this Poison, &c. By John M'Cullough."

widely extended and most mortal of all the forms of noxious effluvia.

The odoriferous particles of musk and camphor, the delicate aroma exhaled by the flowers which scent the breath of spring, nay, the etherial atoms of which light itself is composed, are not probably more minute than the material elaborated from the several sources of malaria, to be mingled with the air by which we are enveloped. Neither chemical nor mechanical philosophy has attributed to these particles form, colour, bulk, weight, or any other property by which they can be made cognizable to our senses. Yet this extreme tenuity, although it places them beyond the scope of even our scientific investigations, does not in any measure detract from their malignant potency. Concerning the so much agitated question, the source and origin of malaria, it may be announced as á doctrine established by incontrovertible reasoning, and founded on a vast mass of facts, that the principal source of this deleterious agent is in the decomposition of vegetable substances. Wherever vegetables find their most luxuriant growth, there abounds most largely this invisible enemy. Heat and mois ture combined, not only favour the rapid production of vegetables, but hasten their maturity and decay, and promote their de composition. In hot and moist regions, then, we should perceive the greatest intensity of malaria, and its freest development upon the human system; and such is notoriously the fact. We need only refer for illustrations of this doctrine to the close and humid forests of Africa, uniformly fatal to the adventurous white man who penetrates their inhospitable recesses; and to the impervious jungles of India. It is thus that many of the finest portions of the globe, extended tracts of soil the most productive, and the best calculated for supplying food to man, are rendered almost entirely uninhabitable by our race, and the thick and matted vegetation so rankly thrown forth in such spots serves but as a den for wild beasts. From this well-ascertained cause, we derive the existence of many of our most dreadful forms of fever; and it it not yet absolutely decided, whether we may not ascribe to the same source the generation of the plague itself. To point out severally the states of disease thus occasioned would be an endless task, but we cannot omit to specify, as perhaps the most destructive of all the epidemics which, in ancient or modern times, have spread their ravages among men, the malignant colera of the East a disgusting and fatal malady, which, originating in Hindostan, and passing with unparalleled mortality and swiftness through the most populous districts of that country, has reached Persia, and now threatens to invade the Russian empire, having already Swept off millions in its course.

Marshes have been, from time immemo

rial, stigmatized as the storehouses of these deleterious effluvia, hence commonly denominated marsh miasmata. Under this head we would include, without hesitation, ponds and small lakes, low rich fields, wet meadows, canals, and even ditches and drains.

Our author, indeed, seems to look upon every thing with an eye of suspicion. Malaria is found in every gravel pit, in every fish pond. He neglects the bright stages of vegetable life and beauty, to dwell upon the withering of the leaf, and the fading of the flower. Water does not attract his notice in the rushing torrent, the sparkling dew-drop, or the glowing rainbow; he regards it only in the damp fog, and the misty cloud. Even "this most excellent canopy the air-this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fires, appears to him no other than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours." Far be it from us to speak with levity of such a subject, but we must be allowed to say, that if it be possible to exaggerate in this matter, our author is chargeable with doing so. He overlooks entirely many evil influences, such as alterations of temperature, scantiness and improper qualities of food, &c. easily proved to be of great consequence in the production of maladies, attributed by him to malaria exclusively. Yet it cannot be denied that malaria is a wide and universal external cause of disease and death.

If we are to trust the reports of travellers, not even Lapland and Norway can claim an exemption here; and our author is only one amongst many who bear testimony to the sway exercised by the same foul spirit over the vallies and fields even of Ireland and England. In that delightful land of meadows, and parks, and roads, and ponds, to take a pleasant evening walk by the banks of the river, or saunter among humid groves till the moon rises-these, and more of such rural amusements, he exclaims, "are the malaria and the fever." It is true, he observes, "the Thames is not the Congo, nor can we parallel Oetia or Terracina-our fevers do not slay in three days; but the disease is the same, the poison the same, and the same is the cause.

The neighbourhoods of mill-ponds are almost every where invariably sickly. These reservoirs are overflowed in winter, and dried up more or less in summer and autumn, and at these latter seasons the decaying leaves, and branches, and aquatic plants which have accumulated around the margin, communicate to the surrounding air a poisonous influence. It is upon the same principles that certain agricultural staples are produced at such an expense of health and life. The white or Caucasian race cannot, in any portion of the globe, carry on with impunity the perfect cultivation of rice. On this account, our author tells us it is absolutely prohibited in

certain parts of Russia, and most pointedly near Oczakoff. Nor is it difficult to explain the fact by a reference to the nature of the fat soil best adapted to the growth of rice. A black loam in our own rice lands, of soft vegetable remains, extends to an inexhaustible depth, and affords a perennial source of miasmatic exhalation.

The rotting of flax, and steeping of indigo in the appropriate vats, give rise to like results. The lake of Agnano, in the vicinity of Naples, has long been celebrated for its abundant production of noxious effluvia. We even now recollect the excessive oppression, and disgust, which, on a hot day in June, we experienced on approaching its banks, which were literally lined with heaps of flax laid there to rot. One of the reasons why indigo is so much less cultivated amongst us than formerly, is the extreme offensiveness of the stagnant water in which it is steeped.

We have spoken hitherto of malaria, or aerial poison, as derived only from the decay and decomposition of vegetable matter; but this is not, in all probability, the exclusive source of atmospheric contamination. We find the miasm existing and exerting its powerful and deadly influence wherever marshes and bogs are spread out under a hot sun, but we further ascertain its presence by the production of similar effects in places where the same combination of circumstances is by no means present. It is certain that many of the districts of Italy, notoriously subject to the malaria fevers, as they are there termed, do not offer the peculiarities of soil and surface which we have been considering as connected with the development of this noxious effluvia. With regard to the Campagna of Rome, now a mere waste, deserted except by the herdsman and his flock, it is a territory of volcanic formation, broken into gentle undulations, and quite dry. On its surface there is little or no water, nor is the vegetation by any means abundant. Yet this is the very throne of the pestilential destroyer, to the influence of which is attributable the comparative desolation of the ancient mistress of the world the queen of nations-the eternal city. The malaria, arising from the whole surface of this dreary region, annually extends its encroachments through her streets, and noble squares, and threatens the entire depopulation of her seven hills. Within the district, of which Rome may be considered the geographical centre, its influence is remarked to become every year more intense and universal, so as to offer sufficient ground for the melancholy anticipation, that the period is not far distant when her palaces will be heaps of solitary ruins, and her very site a wilderness. Shall we ascribe the production of this vast and malignant mass of malaria to the same sources from whence it is poured forth in the jungles of India, on the borders of the great northern

lakes, and among the rice fields of Carolina; or shall we not rather be under the necessity of admitting its possible evolution from sources not yet contemplated. It is not only a "popular prejudice" in Italy, as our author scornfully terms it, but the opinion of many of their best informed, and most scientific men, that volcanic soils are especially productive of malaria, by giving out, at a certain stage of the decomposition of the volcanic materials, the principles which go to form this poison; or, as others maintain, that the subdued fires of the volcanos, which burn beneath, generate gases, or mephitic airs, capable of producing these dire effects. In support of this doctrine or hypothesis, we may mention the well known fact, that in a remarkable number of instances, the sites of old and extinguished volcanos are peculiarly unhealthy. It does not appear that volcanic soils are of course unusually fertile, but we may infer that they contain certain ingredients of a peculiar property, from the nature of the vegetation which they supply; the grape, which gives forth the exquisite lachryma Christi, grows no where but on the sides of Vesuvius.

With regard to the nature of malaria, all the hypotheses hitherto proposed are crude and conjectural. It has been much disputed whether the atmospheric poison, in producing its effects upon the body, acts primarily upon the skin, the lungs, or the stomach, our author is in favour of the position that the lungs offer it the most ready inlet. The merited popularity of a distinguished professor in one of our medical colleges, has, in this country, given currency to the doctrine, that aerial poisons act chiefly, if not exclusively, upon the internal surface of the stomach, being mingled with the saliva, and swallowed. We would by no means deny the possibility of the admission of malaria into the system by each of these modes; yet we think it indicated by a variety of circumstances, that the skin is for the most part affected primarily by this deleterious agent. We find the state of sleep the most favourable to the excitement of miasmatic diseases. In all unhealthy countries you are cautioned against sleeping while exposed to the noxious exhalations. The postillion, as he drives you with dizzy rapidity through the Pontine Marshes, shouts to you to rouse yourself and sit up; every one urges upon you the absolute necessity of vigilance during your dreary ride through the Campagna; while all travellers have felt that this vitiated atmosphere is full of drowsy soporific dispositions, and that the most vehement resolution can scarcely resist the temptation to indulge in slumber. Universal experience has proved the danger of sleeping in such situations; but in the state of sleep little or no saliva is swallowed, while the skin, and probably the lungs also, are engaged with no decrease of activity in

their function of transpiration and absorbtion. The principal argument, however, in favour of the cutaneous admission of malaria, is drawn from the exemption enjoyed by the lower races of man, and by the inferior animals, from diseases originating in this source. In no respect is the difference between the white or Caucasian man, and the inferior races, especially the negro, more prominent and striking than in the degrees of their susceptibility to the action of these febrific miasmata. In this point the African constitution approaches nearer that of the lower animals than of the white man. He delights in the hot and steaming plains of Africa, and exults in full health and vigour amongst swamps and cane-brakes, whose lightest breath is destruction to the European. Without his aid, our rice-fields must for ever remain uncultivated, and the whole of our fertile low country become again a desert. Thus, also, it is only by the exacted civil and military services of the natives of tawny Hindostan, that the Englishman "lives, moves, and has his being," in that unfriendly climate, from the short contest with which he almost invariably retires pale, sallow, and languid, with worn out forces, and a shattered constitution. Now the structure and functions of the lungs and stomach, in the negro, do not differ notably from those of the white man. cannot account for the remarkable difference in susceptibility, otherwise than by a reference to the remarkable difference in the structure of the skin, which would, therefore, seem to be the organ principally acted on by malaria.

We

It is not a little interesting to the political economist, as well as to the mere physician, to observe the effects produced upon the human constitution by this poison. We shall do no more here than just allude to the immense catalogue of diseases occasioned by it, and the very great mortality. We give Dr. M'Cullough's list :-Fever, continuous or remitting, of an endless diversity of character; intermitting fever, almost equally various in its appearance; dysentery, colera, diarrhea, apoplexy, palsy, visceral obstructions, and dropsy. In addition to the mortal catalogue here enumerated, our author joins on a further list, which he has ranked under the term neuralgia, and which indeed he has made to comprise almost all the remaining "ills that flesh is heir to."

CUSTOM OF BARRING-OUT. (From the Gentleman's Magazine.)

Or the many strange customs which prevailed among our medieval ancestors, and which of late years have rapidly fallen into