We subjoin an account of fires, which have occurred within the town of Nantucket. There may be some omissions, and the estimate of losses may in some instances be incorrect, but we believe that the error, if there be any, will consist in overating the property destroyed. That there should be so few losses in a town compactly built of wood, is to be attributed, perhaps equally, to the

steady habits of the inhabitants, and the promptness, energy, and activity of the young men of the island. The means for extinguishing fires consist of a sufficient number of engines, good apparatus, a bountiful supply of water from the harbor, public cisterns, and private wells.

Buildings destroyed by Fire.

In 1736 Friends meeting house, estimated loss 1762 Peter Barnard's house,

$400

400

1811 Matthew Myrick's rope-walk,

1812 Samuel Swain's house at Phillips' Run,

Several buildings at South Wharf,

3,000

200

6,000

Adding to these losses $3,000, for slight injuries sustained at different times,

It is believed that the total value of property destroyed by fires, since the settlement of the island, has not exceeded

3,000

$36,000

POETRY.

WE insert the following specimens of our island poesy, not because we consider them the best collection that can be made, nor because we suppose them, taken collectively, to possess very extraordinary merit. Some of the pieces have been deemed worthy of being handed down from a considerably remote period. Our fathers wielded the harpoon, and our mothers the distaff, with better effect, and certainly with more profit, than they did the pen; yet they were not all insensible to the smiles of the muses, nor were the muses always averse to their devotions. It seems necessary to possess some familiarity with an art in order to judge of others' skill therein; we deem it prudent, therefore, to withhold our opinion in the premises, and leave it for others to decide, whether we have added to the value of our work by our selections. And yet we are willing to take our part in the censures which may befall these productions, so far as taste and poetic feeling are at stake; and, if these qualities are not found to have been possessed by some of the writers, we shall plead guilty of the like deficiency ourselves. It is said that, when one chord of the stringed instrument is touched, all the kindred chords are made to vibrate; so, whether from local partialities or not we cannot determine, the sentiments of our own poets have awakened sympathetic emotions in our breasts.

The following is extracted from a work written by Peter Folger, of whom some mention is made in the second chapter of this history. The title is as follows:

▲ LOOKING-GLASS FOR THE TIMES, OR THE FORMER SPIRIT OF NEW ENGLAND REVIVED IN THIS GENERATION.

By Peter Folger.

Let all that read these verses know,
That I intend something to show
About our war, how it hath been
And also what is the chief sin,
That God doth so with us contend
And when these wars are like to end.
Read then in love; do not despise
What here is set before thine eyes.

New England for these many years
hath had both rest and peace,
But now the case is otherwise;
our troubles doth increase.
The plague of war is now begun
in some great colonies,
And many towns are desolate

we may see with our eyes.

The loss of many goodly men

we may lament also,

Who in the war have lost their lives,

and fallen by our foe.

Our women also they have took

and children very small,

Great cruelty they have used

to some, though not to all.

* * * * *

Let us then search, what is the sin
that God doth punish for ;

And, when found out, cast it away

and ever it abhor.

Sure 'tis not chiefly for those sins

that magistrates do name,