ཚ which now afford us the only records whereby to ascer- | shrubs with which the ruins were overgrown, and havtain their existence. The first account of these Ruins was published in London, in 1822, being an English translation of the report of Del Rio, together with the commentaries of Cabrera. Since that time the attention of the learned men of Europe has been directed to their further investigation, but Dr. Corroy, residing in the neighborhood of the Ruins, has probably made the greatest progress in these researches. ing cleared the ground and removed the rubbish, he penetrated the interior of these temples, towers, palaces, &c. and was the first to bring to light the aqueducts, statues, hieroglyphics, and the unknown characters and bas-reliefs upon the walls. [To be continued.] The cut in our number before the last, represented Votan as having returned with the deity to America. "Antonio Del Rio, Captain of Artillery, was sent, This deity, which in our last was seen kneeling at his in consequence of an order from his Majesty Charles feet, was in the previous number placed on a seat covthe Third, dated March 15th, 1786, by his Excellency ered with hieroglyphics; Votan with his right hand Don Joseph Estacheria, Captain General of Guatemala, presenting him a sceptre, two bands hanging from his to examine the ruins of a city of very great extent and left, the lower band showing his line of descent on the antiquity, the name of which was unknown, that was old continent, the upper exhibiting his American prodiscovered in the vicinity of Palenque, district of Car- genitors. The three human hearts show, that he who men, in the province of Chiapa, where he found mag-holds the band is Votan, the third of his race, Votan nificent edifices, temples, towers, aqueducts, statues, in the Tzendal language signifying heart. Nunez de hieroglyphics, and unknown characters, that have with- la Vega speaking of this hero of antiquity, says: "This stood the ravages of time and the succession of ages, Votan is much venerated by all the Indians, and in one and of which he made many plans and drawings." province they look upon him as the heart of the people." (Cabrera's Comment on Del Rio, p. 36.) In consequence of this order, Captain Del Rio was sent with a large party of men armed with axes, billhooks and other implements, to remove the trees and The cut on the preceding page needs no explanation. And it is the last we shall at present furnish on this subject, inasmuch as we have already given enough for a fair specimen. of all, are less tyrannical than the inferior classes, which, denied so full an exertion of authority, abuse the powers intrusted to them. "More, therefore, than even the lion, the Tiger is an object of terror. He is the scourge of every country which he inhabits. Of the appearance of man, and of all his hostile weapons, he is fearless; wild animals as well as tame ones fall sacrifices before him; the young elephant and rhinoceros he sometimes attacks; and sometimes, with an increased audacity, he braves the lion himself. "The species of the Tiger has always been much rarer, and much less generally diffused, than that of the lion. Like the lioness, nevertheless, the Tigress produces four or five young ones at a birth. From her nature she is fierce at all times; but when surrounded with her infant progeny, and in the smallest danger of losing them, her rage, her fury, becomes extravagant. To oppose the daring invaders of her den, she braves every danger. On such occasions, she pursues the spoiler with an enmity the most inveterate; and he, contented to lose a part in order to save a part, is frequently obliged to drop one of her cubs. With this she immediately returns to her den, and again pursues him: he then drops another; and, by the time she has returned with that, he generally escapes with the rewith hideous cries she expresses her agony, her despair, and follows the captor to the very town, or ship, in which he may have taken refuge, and dares him, as it were, to come forth. "The form of the body usually corresponds with the nature, the disposition of the animal. The Tiger, with a body too long, with limbs too short, with a head uncovered, and with eyes ghastly and haggard, has no characteristics but those of the basest and most insa-mainder. Should her young be torn from her entirely, tiable cruelty. For instinct, he has nothing but a uniform rage, a blind fury; so blind indeed, so undistinguished, that he frequently devours his own progeny, and if she offers to defend them, tears in pieces the dam herself. "Happy is it for the rest of nature that this animal is not common, and that the species is chiefly confined to the warmest provinces of the East. The Tiger is found in Malabar, in Siam, in Bengal, and in all the countries which are inhabited by the elephant and the rhinoceros. "When he has killed a large animal, such as a horse or a buffalo, he does not choose to devour it on the spot, fearing to be disturbed; and in order to feast at his ease, he carries off his prey to the forest, dragging it along with such ease that the swiftness of his motion seems scarcely retarded by the enormous load he sustains. engage. "To give a still more complete idea of the strength of this terrible creature, we shall quote a passage from Father Tachard, who was an eye-witness of a combat of one Tiger against two, and even three, elephants at Siam. For this purpose, the king ordered a lofty palisade to be built of ban.boo cane, about a hundred feet square; and in the midst of this were three elephants appointed for combating the Tiger. Their heads and part of their trunks were covered with a kind of armour like a mask, which defended that part from the assaults of the fierce animal with which they were to As soon, says this author, as we were arrived at the place, a Tiger was brought forth from his den, of a size much larger than we had ever seen before. He was not at first let loose, but held with cords, so that one of the elephants approaching gave him three or four blows with his trunk on the back with such force that the Tiger was for some time stunned, and lay without motion, as if he had been dead. As soon, however, as he was let loose, and at full liberty, although the first blows had greatly abated his fury, he made at the elephant with a loud shriek, and aimed at seizing his trunk. But the elephant, wrinkling it up with great dexterity, received the Tiger on his great teeth, and tossed him up into the air. This so discouraged the furious animal, that he no more ventured to approach the elephant, but made several circuits round the palisade, often attempting to fly at the spectators. Shortly after, a second and then a third elephant were sent against him, and they continued to strike him so terribly with their trunks, that he once more lay for dead; and they would certainly have killed him, had not a stop been put to the combat. "The Tiger, of which Father Gouie has communicated to the Academy of Sciences an anatomical description, composed by the Jesuit Fathers at China, seems to belong to the true species, as does also that which the Portuguese have distinguished by the name of Royal Tiger. Dellon expressly says, in his Travels, that there is no country of India in which Tigers so much abound as Malabar; that there the species are numerous, but that the largest of all is that which the Portuguese call the Royal Tiger, which is very rare, and is as large as a horse. "The skins of these animals are much esteemed all over the East, particularly in China; the Mandarines cover their seats of justice in the public places with them, and convert them into coverings for cushions in winter. The Indians eat the flesh of the Tiger, and find it neither disagreeable nor unwholesome. "Such is the character which Buffon and many other naturalists have given to the Tiger, and it certainly is not calculated to prejudice us in his favour. More recent writers have, however, and apparently with justice, endeavoured to remove a part of the odium which has been thrown upon him. Mr. Bennett, the scientific and acute author of the description of the animals in the Tower Menagerie and the Zoological Gardens, has laboured with much eloquence to raise the Tiger in the scale of estimation. Closely allied to the lion, (says he,) whom he resembles in power, in external form, in internal structure, in zoological character, in his prowling habits, and in his sanguinary propensities, the Tiger is at once distinguished from that king of beasts, and from every other of their common genus, by the peculiar marking of his coat. On a ground which exhibits in different individuals various shades of yellow, he is elegantly striped by a series of transverse black bands or bars, which occupy the sides of his head, neck, and body, and are continued upon his tail in the form of rings, the last of the series uniformly occupying the extremity of that organ, and giving to it a black tip of greater or less extent. The under parts of his body and the inner sides of his legs are almost entirely white; he has no mane, and his whole frame, though less elevated than that of the lion, is of a slenderer and more graceful make. His head is also shorter, and more rounded. "Almost in the same degree that the lion has been exalted and magnified, at the expense of his fellow brutes, has the Tiger been degraded and depressed below his natural level. While the one has been held up to admiration, as the type and standard of heroic perfection, the other has, with equal capriciousness and disregard of the close and intimate relationship subsisting between them, been looked upon by mankind in general with those feelings of unmingled horror and detestation which his character for untameable ferocity and insatiable thirst of blood was so well calculated to inspire. It requires, however, but little consideration to teach us that the broad distinction which has been drawn cannot by possibility exist; and the recorded observations of naturalists and travellers, both at home and abroad, will be found amply sufficient to prove that the difference in their characters and habits, on which so much stress has been laid, is in reality as slight and unessential as that which exists in their corporeal structure. "Unquestionably the Tiger has not the majesty of the lion; for he is destitute of the mane, in which that majesty resides. Neither has he the same calm and dignified air of imperturbable gravity, which is at once [To be continued.] so striking and so prepossessing in the aspect of the | fear has drawn largely on credulity, and the simple lion. But, on the other hand, it will readily be granted, and sufficiently disgusting fact has been amplified and that in the superior lightness of his frame, which allows exaggerated with all the refinements upon horror which his natural agility its free and unrestricted scope, and the terrified imagination could suggest. in the graceful ease and spirited activity of his motions, to say nothing of the beauty, the regularity, and the vividness of his colouring, he far excels his competitor, whose giant bulk and comparative heaviness of person, added to the dull uniformity of his colour, detract in no small degree from the impression produced by his noble and majestic bearing. "In comparing the moral qualities of these two formidable animals, we shall also find that the shades of difference, for at most they are but shades, which distinguish them, are, like their external characteristics, pretty equally balanced in favour of each. In all the leading features of their character, the habits of both are essentially the same. The Tiger, equally with the lion, and in common indeed with the whole of the group to which he belongs, reposes indolently in the security of his den, until the calls of appetite stimulate him to look abroad for food. He then chooses a convenient ambush, in which to lie concealed from observation, generally amid the underwood of the forest, but sometimes even on the branches of a tree, which he climbs with all the agility of a cat. In this secret covert he awaits with patient watchfulness the approach of his prey, upon which he darts forth with an irresistible bound, and bears it off in triumph to his den. Unlike the lion, however, if his first attack proves unsuccessful, and he misses his aim, he does not usually slink sullenly back into his retreat, but pursues his victim with a speed and activity which is seldom baffled even by the fleetest animals. "It is only when this close and covert mode of attack has failed of procuring him the necessary supply, that, urged by those inward cravings, which are the ruling impulse of all his actions, he prowls abroad under the veil of night, and ventures to approach the dwellings of man, of whom he does not appear to feel that instinctive awe which the lion has been known so frequently to evince. But even on such occasions, and although impelled by the strong stimulus of famine, he is in general far from unmindful of his own security; but creeps slowly along his silent path with all the stealthy caution so characteristic of the feline tribe. Occasionally, however, when the pangs of hunger have become intolerable, and can no longer be controlled even by the overpowering sway of instinct, he will boldly advance upon man himself in the open face of day, and brave every danger in the pursuit of that object which, to the exclusion of every other sentiment, appears under such circumstances wholly to engross his faculties. "It is evident then, that in the general outline of his habits, and even in most of the separate traits by which his character is marked, he differs but little from the lion. His courage, if brute force, stimulated by sensual appetite, can deserve that honourable name, is at least equal; and as for magnanimity and generosity, the idea of attributing such noble qualities to either is in itself so absurd, and is so fully refuted by every particular of their authentic history, that it would be perfectly ridiculous to attempt a comparison where no materials for comparison exist.-Endowed with a degree of force which the lion and the elephant alone can equal, he carries off a buffalo in his tremendous jaws, almost without relaxing from his usual speed. With a single stroke of his claws he rips open the body of the largest animals; and is said to suck their blood with insatiable avidity. Of the correctness of the latter statement, at least in its full extent, there is, however, strong reason to doubt. The Tiger does not, according to the most credible accounts, exhibit this propensity to drinking the blood of his victims in any greater degree than the rest of his carnivorous and blood-thirsty companions. In this, as in other instances, BIOGRAPHY. JOSEPH CAPPER, ESQ. For a circumstantial account of this gentleman, we refer our reader to p. 478 of the second volume of that popular work, Kirby's Wonderful and Scientific Museum, lately completed; we doubt not but the purchasers of that publication will be highly gratified with the striking likeness of this original character which we now present. We have been favoured, by persons who knew Mr. Capper intimately, with the following additional particulars concerning him:-It is well known to every reader of classic taste, that the Roman emperor Domitian, though the brother of the excellent Titus, was accustomed to amuse himself for hours together with destroying flies. Mr. Capper's antipathy to those insects has already been noticed, and for this reason, the company with whom he used to associate at the Horns, gave him the appellation of Domitian. A mischance which befel him in the indulgence of this fly-killing propensity, which he pursued with all the eagerness of a youthful sportsman, is thus related: After dinner he regularly took a pint of wine, and always had a glass, a tumbler, and a bowl placed on the table before him, and was accustomed to cover his wine with a piece of paper, to prevent his enemies, the flies, from quaffing the precious beverage. One day he happened to leave the room, and during his absence a gentleman laid on the paper a small piece of snuff of candle. Capper, on his return, mistaking it for a fly, said to himself, "Aha, now I shall have you;" and cautiously creeping towards the table, with his stick discharged such a blow as shivered his glasses into a thousand pieces, to the no small diversion of the company. Though his income was far more than sufficient to procure him all that he wanted or desired, yet he still retained those habits of economy by which his property had been in part acquired. A stock-broker having once done him a favour, he promised him the next commision he should have to give in his line of business. He accordingly directed him to buy for him 1000l. stock, which order the broker punctually executed, and Capper paid the amount. Meeting with him a few days afterwards, Capper, in the most indignant terms, upbraided him with, having given five-eighths when, at the same time, stocks were only three-eighths; declaring he was not fit to do business, and that he would never give him another job; and he kept his word. It should be observed that the stocks fluctuated that day between three-eighths and three-fourths, and that the broker had given the price he charged. By his will, dated July, 1799, it appears that he possessed 70001. in the three per cents. 18,000l. in the four per cents. 10001. in the five per cents. 421. 9s. 2d. in the long annuities, and a bond for 5001. His executors were, as before stated, Mr. Joseph Dutton, of George Street, Tower Hill, and Mr. Richard Dutton of Rosemary Lane, the latter of whom is a Quaker. We find that to each of those gentlemen he has left 3000l. and not 4,000l. as has been reported. Mr. George Dutton of Coddington, Cheshire, receives the like sum, and the remainder of his property is distributed among his other relations.-British Eccentric Biography. Effects of the late Meteoric Phenomena.-The editor of the Columbia Spy, in reference to the late remarkable appearance of the heavens, says: Many of the people in the country were alarmed-some thought that the last day had arrived. A clergyman of a neighboring township, who is in the habit of holding social prayer meetings on Wednesday evenings, informs us that his meeting this week was composed of a large and attentive audience, which was such a remarkable circumstance that he could attribute it to no other cause than the alarm which had spread on account of the strange sights in the morning. We have been informed, although we do not vouch for the assertion, that at a certain public house in this town, where it is usual to dispose of a good many drinks on market mornings, but one was sold on the morning mentioned, and no charge was made for that. Among the farcical terrors inspired by the late appearance of the meteors, we hear of the following:A Mr. H- -, of Morgan county, on seeing them, run out of his house in his shirt, exclaiming, "the world is now actually coming to an end, for the stars are falling." For greater safety, and for want of mountains to cover him, he ran naked as he was, under the house which stood on blocks, some distance from the ground. One of his negroes as much frightened as his master, sought the same refuge, but finding his master there, suddenly exclaimed, "this place no doo for me-no safe here! massa too wicked," and out he got and ran off. The wife, who seems to have had much the more courage of the two, came out and expostulated with her husband; she told him that as he was the head of the family he ought to come out and live and die with them. After a while he was persuaded to come out, and immediately bethought himself of his numerous short-comings and over-takings, of his boasts and wailings; and looked up into the face of the flashing, streaking heavens, he uttered the following: "Well, this one thing I do know, escape or not-live long or die soon, I never will drink another drop of liquor." It is to be hoped that the falling of the stars may redound to his advantage in the end.Georgia Journal. POETRY. ESCAPE FROM WINTER. PERCIVAL. That rolls o'er the evergreen bowers of the line. Indeed, I should gloomily steal o'er the deep, We would nestle awhile in the jessamine bowers, How light we would skim, where the billows are rolled When morning comes forth in her loveliest prime! We would touch for a while, as we traversed the ocean, At the islands that echoed to Waller and Moore, And winnow our wings, with an easier motion, Through the breath of the cedar, that blows from the shore. And when we had rested our wings, and had fed On the sweetness that comes from the juniper groves, By the spirit of home and of infancy led, We would hurry again to the land of our loves; BACK NUMBERS. We wish our subscribers distinctly to understand, that whenever there is any delay in furnishing them with the back numbers of our paper, the reason is, that we have them not on hand; but that, as the numbers are all stereotyped, they will be reprinted and sent to them. We wish it further to be understood, that we take no subscribers for a shorter term than one year, and that we permit no one to commence in the midst of a volume; but that back numbers will be sent to all without discrimination. GENERAL AGENTS. Achilles R. Crain, New York. H. L. & H. S. Barnum, Cincinnati, Ohio. PUBLISHED BY ORIGEN BACHELER, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR, NO. 233 BROADWAY. R. N. WHITE, ENGRAVER. TERMS, One Dollar and Fifty Cents per annum, in advance. Should an order for the Magazine be received unaccompanied by advance payment, one number will be sent showing our terms, after which no more will be forwarded till payment shall have been received. here, free of postage, will be furnished with four copies for one Companies of four individuals sending FIVE DOLLARS, Current year. Companies of ten, sending Ten dollars as above, will be furnished with ten copies. Companies that would avail themselves of the discount mentioned in our terms, must not expect an agent to be at the but they must take that upon themselves. trouble of looking up the individuals to form said companies, It is an old saying, that Truth lies in a well, but the misfortune is, that some men will use no chain to draw her up, but that which is so long that it is the labour of their life to finish it; or if they live to complete it, it may be that the first links are eaten up by rust, before the last are ready. Others, on the contrary, are so indolent, that they would attempt to draw up Truth without any chain, or by means of one that is too short. Both of these will miss their object. A wise man will provide a chain for this necessary purpose, that has not a link too much, nor a link too little, and on the first he will write "ars longa," and on the last, "vita brevis." | copy. As the sum of $1.50, which is the price of the Magazine to a single subscriber, cannot conveniently be sent by mail, it will be necessary that two subscribers at least send payment in a letter together. Magazine will be supplied at One Dollar per annum for each Schools adopting as many as half a dozen copies of the |