him purchase their necessaries at his shop, in which one of his relations serves. By this means, he has a constant supply of ready money to pay his workmen, and the people about him; and his profits are about cent. per cent. He kills one or two bullocks every day, and all the superabundant meat is sold in the shop. On one occasion, a poor man who had been to the shop passed by, with a very discontented air, the front of the house where Quiroga was sitting. The latter called him, and asked what was the matter; he replied that the Capataz (bailiff) had refused to sell him a medio's-worth (24d.) of beef. "Where is your money?" replied Quiroga; and the man gave it him. He was then ordered to throw his lazo over the horns of a fine fat ox in the coral, worth seventeen dollars; he did so, and brought the animal to Quiroga, who said-"Take him home, and kill him, that you may eat beef." The poor man in astonishment replied-" But, my patron, how shall I ever be able to pay for it?"—" Why," replied his patron, “I have got your medio, and you have got my ox; if you are satisfied, I am; if not, I will" return the money." The man went away, and spread the story of Quiroga's generosity far and near, who was more than repaid for his outlay in the popularity it procured bim.

Such apparently generous acts as these, occasionally performed, enable Quiroga to rule, as an absolute and merciless tyrant, with impunity. No one dares to steal any of his herds, which wander unmolested through the plains; but if, by chance, such a thing occurs, the offender is instantly brought to his house, and shot without mercy, frequently upon the bare allegation of a spiteful neighbour. But, as a compensation for this, the country people are allowed to plunder any of the other estate-holders (estancieros) whenever they can, with impunity. Quiroga is also a perfect adept in gambling, and constantly contrives to have some of the militia officers in his house to enable him to follow this pursuit, which he also turns to profit, and wins the whole of their money.

On the deposition of Agueros, the Cabildo met for the purpose of electing a new governor. Their choice, as might have been expected, devolved upon Quiroga; but he again declined the honour, as an office he was inadequate to discharge with credit to himself, or benefit to the community. They sent a deputation to him a second time, but he still refused; and a third deputation was sent in vain. Like Cæsar on the Lupercal

"They thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse "

In fact, Quiroga was not disposed to give up the actual power he possessed for any such puppet-like office. The Cabildo, finding that

he was not to be prevailed upon, then sent him another humble deputation, saying that they felt themselves perfectly incompetent to the office of electing a governor, if he would not accept the offer; and they begged that he would name one for them. This was precisely what he had been aiming at; and he accordingly appointed to the office one of his ignorant gaucho neighbours—a man who could neither read nor write. When some of his confidants inquired of him the reason for so extraordinary an appointment, he replied with much sang froid-" A governor is a kind of animal, who will never cease to rob as long as he has an opportunity; no threat of punishment will deter him from it, or keep him honest. Now my friend, Silvestre Garban, would be as great a rogue in the office of governor as any other, but that, fortunately, he has been brought up entirely in the Llanos; so that he does not know how to steal any thing but cattle. Now, as there are no cattle to steal in the town of La Rioja, the presumption is that he will be an honest man, from want of temptation." And, as Quiroga had predicted, Silvestre Garban proved a very excellent King Log sort of a governor; making his mark occasionally, when a public document required it-like the lion's paw dipped in ink, recorded in the Turkish tale.

Some time after this, Colonel Araoz de la Madrid, a gallant officer in the service of Buenos Ayres, was sent to recruit for the Brazilian war in his native province (Tucuman), which bordered on that of La Rioja. Having delivered to the governor (Lopez) a large sum in dollars for bounty-money, the latter misapplied it; and La Madrid, in revenge, fomented a revolution amongst the indignant soldiery; and, after a pitched battle with Lopez-who, being defeated and severely wounded, took refuge in Salta-he was elected governor in his room. The congress would gladly have punished La Madrid for this act; but, as it was a time of public difficulty, and he was moreover a zealous advocate for Buenos Ayres, his offence was overlooked, and his new dignity confirmed.

A very short time elapsed before a quarrel took place between La Madrid and Quiroga; and, with all the bravery and confidence of a veteran warrior, the former entered the territories of his enemy at the head of two hundred men, and approached the Llanos, or plains of La Rioja, without any opposition, when he was suddenly met by Quiroga, at the head of four hundred of his well-armed gauchos. The conflict was long and bloody, and, notwithstanding the disparity of numbers, La Madrid made frequent charges with such success that victory had well nigh declared for him; when a chance carbine-shot struck him in the sword-arm, and thus rendered defenceless, he was instantly sabred by several of his surrounding opponents; on

*

nest, on agitating which the male hassar springs furiously at them, and is thus captured. The round-head forms its nest of grass, the flatpead of leaves; both at certain seasons burrow in the bank; they lay their eggs only in wet weather. I have been surprised to observe the sudden appearance of numerous nests in a morning after rain occurs, the spot being indicated by a bunch of froth, which appears on the surface of the water, over the nest; below this are the eggs, placed on a bunch of fallen leaves, or grass, if it be the littoral species, which they cut and collect together. By what means this is effected seems rather mysterious, as the species are destitute of cutting teeth.

SKETCHES OF TAVOY. (From the Asiatic Journal.-No. CLVI.)

THE common lot of humanity was our's, for we were not without our grievances at Tavoy; and, although in recital they may appear insignificant, the constancy of their recurrence rendered them nevertheless matters of such serious annoyance as to detract materially from the few comforts we possessed. One of these evils was to be found in the penetrating nature of the damps of the monsoon, which, gaining a free access through our airy mansions, effectually spoiled every thing contained beneath our humble and almost primitive roofs. So relaxed did the glue become by the humidity of the atmosphere, that every article of furniture dropped to pieces; and many a bachelor, whose clamped and strong camp-furniture effectually defied these devastating effects of the climate, and consequently enabled him to lounge securely at home, has made a ludicrous appearance when he has incautiously thrown himself back in the more light and elegant furniture of his married companions. Their backs almost invariably gave way, and the lover of ease had generally to compound for his inclinations by a sudden and awkward prostration on the floor. Woe unto such as in the pride of their hearts had brought over beaded or veneered furniture! Every ornament gradually

very

The flesh of this hassar is yellow, firm, and savoury, especially esteemed by the Creoles in their soups, which they prepare with the addition of several vegetable articles, such as the okra, calabao, and fow-fow, avam, and plaintains, boiled and pounded into a sort of plain pudding. The whole is seasoned with pepper, salt, and lime juice, and forms in reality one of the best dishes of the country, although many Europeans, out of a most ignoble pride and affectation, pretend to dislike it, for no other reason, however, than its being a common dish amongst the

slaves, and lower orders.

There are Creoles also who affect the same dislike or disgust to the fow-fow and okra soup, and yet swallow it enormously in private.

and silently dropped off, and was as carefully put by until the returning fine weather enabled the luckless proprietor to replace them for a brief and nearly a Lapland summer. So insinuating is the nature of this humidity, that the boots or shoes, which on the preceding night you have deposited by your bedside when retiring to rest, are the next morning furred with mould. A few such days and nights in England would suffice to throw half the nation into a consumption; yet, strange as it may appear, no bad effects are experienced from a continuance for many months of this damp atmosphere at Tavoy.

The crows were another fertile source of annoyance, amounting, in fact, to a positive nuisance. Buried in a jungle of lofty trees as Tavoy is, every part of it was a complete rookery, and the depredations committed in the poultry yard by these daring birds were very extensive. If a chicken ventured even at a short distance from the protecting wing of the parent, it instantly paid the penalty incurred by its imprudence, and no exertion of vigilance on the part of the hen could successfully combat the combined and harassing attacks made upon her infant brood by this thievish throng. Any one, who has not been similarly circumstanced, would be astonished at the imperturbable audacity of these feathered plunderers, who hop into the house, sans cérémonie, and watch their opportunity for stealing any thing which attracts their cupidity. If your eye be averted but for an instant from the breakfast table, even although you be seated thereat, they make a rapid dart at the viands, and generally with too much success: the butter vanishes in a twinkling beneath the attack of one of these harpies the eggs, borne through mid-air by others who have secured them by forcibly driving their beaks into them, share the same fate, whilst the cawing and filth of the disap pointed remainder, perched in every part of the room, give the concluding touches to this picture of "luxury in the East."

The large black ant, which measures fully half an inch long, swarms abundantly in every old house, and, indeed, no dwelling is entirely free from them. These insects are incessantly running over your person, and, if disturbed by even an unconscious movement, sting most severely. The pain is fully equal to that inflicted by a wasp, and the venom of it is considerable. A sting in the wrist frequently causes the whole extent of the arm to swell, and in many cases the inflammation does not entirely subside until three or four days afterwards. In a house where they are tenant is so fortunate as to escape receiving numerous, scarcely a day elapses in which the personal annoyance more than once before nightfall from these large ants, whilst his trunks, &c. are blackened in the interior by myriads of the puny pismires of the same species that is to be found in England.

About six or seven weeks previous to the setting-in of the rainy season, the candles are no sooner introduced than the flying ants, green bugs, and a numerous host of other insects, pour into the apartment, and settle in every direction. As the wings of the firstmentioned insects are merely ephemeral, they are shed abundantly upon your table and person, to the total destruction of all comfort. During our occupation of Rangoon I chanced to form one of a party that was invited to an evening entertainment given by some officers stationed on the banks of a lake. Even at the time I speak of, a really good dinner was far from being an every-day occurrence, and we consequently saw it placed on the table with no small degree of satisfaction. This, however, was speedily exchanged for an equal portion of chagrin. Whilst we were in the act of sitting down to table these detestable insects came flying in at every possible ave nue. In an instant, soups, gravies, and sauces were converted into solid masses, and every dish completely strewn with countless hosts of wings and bodies. After a few in effectual efforts to banish these intruders we were compelled to separate, leaving the repast untouched. Some idea may be formed of this multitudinous invasion, when I state, that we found it an utter impossibility to pour out and drink even a glass of wine: before it reached our lips at least half a dozen insects were floating on the surface.

This partiality of the flying ants to lights is not unnoticed by the Burmese, who take advantage of it, and secure vast numbers of them. During that breathless stillness of evening, which is so peculiarly characteristic of the period immediately preceding the monsoon, it is delightfully soothing and sublime to stroll beneath the moonlighttinged trees and listen to the fine contrast between the deep, croaking bass of the bullfrogs, which harbour amidst the swamps of the fort, and the shrill, plaintive cry by which the natives endeavour to attract the wandering insects to their lures. These merely consist of lights placed near basins of water; dazzled by the light to which they appear irresistibly attracted, the ants fall in shoals into the water, and the delighted Burmah conveys them into his dwelling for the purpose of converting them, sans wings, into curry. A brother officer of mine had the curiosity to partake of this dish, which he did with an infinite goût, declaring that it was the most delicious curry that he had ever tasted. For my own part, I confess that neither his encomiums, nor the novelty of the dish, could subdue the repugnance that I entertained to the principal ingredients.

With noxious reptiles, such as snakes and centipedes (the latter extremely large), Tavoy is well stored, and the overgrown and disgusting species of rat, termed the bandicoot, is likewise to be found in abundance. These

last burrow into the hen-houses, and are another formidable enemy to the poultry. The snakes are frequently to be met with on the roads in the evening; but, although several species are highly venomous, I never heard of any accident resulting from an unexpected rencontre with them. They occasionally introduce themselves into the houses by wreathing themselves round the posts on which the buildings are perched, and ascending in a spiral direction. These visits can, in a great measure, be guarded against by the simple expedient of strewing coarse gravel, or any rough material, around the house; the pain incurred by crawling over this substance will generally deter the reptile from making any attempt to cross it. Of this numerous class there is one species which is reckoned harmless by the natives, and if the assertion be founded in truth, it is fortunate that it is so, for these snakes, in addition to growing to a formidable size, manifest an extreme partiality to human habitations, for there they principally find rats, lizards, &c., which are their food. I was seated one day quietly dis cussing a fowl, for at Tavoy, with a slight variation of the phrase, it was "toujours per, drix," when I was suddenly aroused by the noise made by a large rat springing from the rafters into the middle of the floor. The example was instantaneously followed by four or five of its progeny, and I raised my eyes to ascertain the cause of this hasty and unusual decampment. The mystery was solved in a minute. With the head hanging down, and preparing for a dart upon such of the young fry as were still struggling on the floor, a large snake was coiled upon the rafter. I threw the first thing that came to hand at him, and snatched up a bamboo, but the snake escaped.

At a certain season of the year the Burmese are busily employed in the manufacture of their favourite zest, na-pui, a species of balachong, the principal ingredient of which is putrid fish, and the offensive odour arising in consequence from every house may more easily be imagined than described.

To atone, as it were, in some measure, for these serious drawbacks to comfort, amongst which the scarcity of provisions, already adverted to, may be fairly included, Tavoy yields a vast variety of exotic fruits. To enumerate the whole of them would be a task of time and some difficulty; but amongst the more conspicuous may be named the pine-apple, the hard and the soft jack-fruit, the dorianne, the rambootan, and the mango. The first of these fruits spreads so luxuriantly that it is repeatedly partially extirpated to prevent its overrunning the ground; and the fruit, which is such a scarce luxury in England, can here be purchased at the rate of nearly a hundred for a rupee. The wood of the hard jack-tree makes handsome furniture, being of a bright yellow, subsid

ing, by exposure to the atmosphere, into a light mahogany colour: the fruit of it is more esteemed than that of the soft species; but both kinds fetch a high price, varying, according to the size, from a quarter of a rupee to a whole one, for each fruit. The Bur mese are exceedingly solicitous regarding the preservation of this tree, especially within the walls of the fort; owing, it is said, to a tradition current amongst them that, during a season of famine induced by a blockade, the population was saved from the horrors of starvation by means of the abundance of this fruit within the town.

The dorianne is considered by many people to be a delicious fruit; but I could never prevail upon myself to taste it a second time. Its smell, when cut in two, is so powerfully offensive, that this part of the operation is generally performed in the open air, where the fruit is suffered to remain for two or three hours previous to its being produced on the table; and even then it is far from being entirely divested of its odoriferous qualities: the flavour of it strongly resembles that of a very tough custard deeply impregnated with garlic. Of the well-known fruits, the ram bootan and mango, no particular notice is requisite; but it is a singular fact connected with the history of the mangusteen (that prince of oriental fruits) that, although in clear weather Mergui can be seen from Tavoy island, which lies a little beyond the mouth of the river, this fruit, which thrives in perfection at the former place, cannot be introduced at Tavoy, nor indeed at any part of the Tenasserim coast which lies above Mergui, that island being situated in the highest latitude in which the mangusteen will flourish.

It is well known that the passion for gambling rises to a most extravagant pitch among the eastern nations. This phrenzy, as it may be termed, at Tavoy, the British government has converted into a source of revenue, by licensing a gambling house under a monopoly so strict, that not only is the erection of a similar edifice prohibited, but gaming in private houses is forbidden. The effects of an institution of this nature upon the morals of a people may easily be conceived. The more respectable class of the inhabitants, who would otherwise gamble for small sums in their own domestic circle, are thus forced into collision with the most reprobate and dissolute of their fellow-creatures; and the constant recurrence of obscenity and profanity, in their presence, completes most effectually that demoralization, the foundation of which was previously laid in the pernicious habits of gaming.

It is a curious but painful employment to visit this den of infamy. In that portion of the building which is set apart for gambling, may be seen various groups lolling over the tables, and staking different sums upon the game. Here might be seen the sharp eye

and crafty countenance of the Chinese in juxta-position with the Malayan features of the Burman; and here men bowing beneath the load of life and its innumerable and complicated infirmities, and urchins who had barely numbered half a dozen seasons, pressed forward with equal avidity to the tables, and appeared alike intent upon the revolutions of the game. It might be conjectured that these walls were so tainted as to defy farther pollution, but such a supposition would be erroneously charitable, for another part of the building is devoted to still viler purposes; for it is appropriated to the wretched victims of sensuality, who, mingling themselves amidst the throng of already excited games sters, throw an additional and irresistible temptation in the way of their overheated passions!

What native of an eastern clime, whose morality is constitutionally and proverbially relax, and whose religion is too imperfect to act as a salutary restraint upon the passions, can hope to escape the contaminating influ ence of such a place as this? The first step once taken, the gradations of vice become imperceptible, and it may safely be averred that, if we wished to effect the ruin of the character of a people whom the chances of war have brought under our domination, we could have devised no happier plan. But this gambling monopoly may be viewed in another equally destructive light, namely, as being productive of an effect exactly the reverse of what was originally expected from the measure. Considering the subject in a superficial manner, it appears both politic and reasonable that, where the love of gambling is too inherent in the people's nature to admit of its total extirpation, the government should turn it into a source of revenue, and accordingly this gambling-house was taxed at the rate of (I speak from memory) 1000 rupees per month; and a British sipahee constantly mounted over the building.

Although this is undoubtedly a large sum for the proprietor to pay, it does not operate as a check upon gambling; whilst, taking it in a pecuniary light, it makes but an inconsi derable item in the amount of revenue at the expiration of the twelvemonth. On the other hand, the paralization of industrious habits, occasioned by the loose and idle manners arising from this fountain of impurity, detracts silently but incalculably from the wealth which would flow into the government trea sury from other sources.

On seeing a Lady, in Thin Shoes, walking over a Macadamized crossing on a Wet Day.

THAT wet feet are injurious, physicians declare,
So gentlemen all, of the ladies take care,
And too many have cause to believe.
Or Mac Adam will leave you no Eve.