same time stating the British government allowance of one shilling and sixpence per day for each individual in such cases. We remained here about a fortnight, the people all along treating us with much kindness; and we were given to understand that the vicar, after our arrival, had assembled his flock, and publicly returned thanks to Almighty God, who had so wonderfully saved us from a miserable death.

We were so much refreshed and invigorated here, that in a fortnight we considered ourselves able to proceed on our way homeward. For this purpose a large boat and a Portuguese crew were provided to take us over to Fayal, a distance of about thirty miles, where we saw the British vice-consul, and received every attention from him. At Fayal we met with part of the crew of the John Miller of Liverpool, which vessel had likewise foundered while on her way to some port of South America. From Fayal we were carried to St Michael's in a coasting schooner, and thence passages homeward were provided by the British consul-general, for the whole in different vessels, which were here lading with fruit for England.

DRAWERS OF THE LONGBOW.

Ir would be a matter of no small difficulty, we think, to form a perfectly philosophical view of the class of characters called, in popular language, drawers of the longbow. We have known several of these remarkable personages in our time, and yet never knew rightly what to make of them. Whether they lied on principle, by chance, or without a moral perception of their error, it would have been difficult to say. The curious thing is, that these habitual liars, in every other respect except their fabulous story-telling, are generally excellent members of society, dutiful sons, good husbands, spirited and

useful citizens, obliging neighbours, prime fellows; but, at the same time, laughing-stocks to the world, from an utter disregard to, or inability to speak the truth.

The main provocative to the handling of this dangerous instrument, is unquestionably an overwhelming love of the marvellous. This sentiment carries everything before it all considerations sink before that of telling a story abounding in wonderful adventure; hence every distinguished shooter with the longbow, must be endowed with considerable powers of imagination to aid in the embellishment of stories which have the misfortune to be deficient in interest, as the true version runs, or to invent something worthy of narration where a basis of veracity is altogether wanting.

One of the most expert handlers of the longbow whom we ever knew, or happened to be on intimate terms with, was a gentleman, who, from his ability in story-telling, might have outshone Baron Munchausen himself, had he chosen to write and publish his manifold and wondrous adventures. Smithers was the name of this facetious being-Jack Smithers; but he was usually and better known by the professional appellation of Captain Smithers -a title he derived from having, for a few weeks, served as an ensign in a local militia corps. Fortunately for the development of the captain's latent talent, he had spent a short time in India, to which country he had gone in order to sell off and receive the produce of some property left him there by an uncle who died in the Company's service. The proceeds of the bequeathed property yielded him a decent little competency, on which he lived comfortably-that is to say, like Captain Clutterbuck, he could enjoy a clean shirt and a guinea twice a week-in his native village, on the banks of the Clyde, till the day of his death. It is impossible to say how our friend the captain should have got on without the trip to India. It was the great event in his life. There was no end to the accounts of what he had seen there, what he had done, what remarkable things had taken place in the voyages to and fro. And what a

glorious groundwork was this for battles, fighting, hunting, sailing, shipwrecking, and a thousand incidental circumstances therewith connected. We question if, without that voyage, Jack would ever have attained to the high supremacy in his art, which he really did reach. Not that his inventive powers were of so poor a stamp as to require any foreign assistance, either from land or sea, we shall by and by shew that his own country was a fertile enough subject for him; but his peregrinations gave him an unknown land-unknown at least to his fellow-villagers to which he could at once retreat on the slightest appearance of emulation; and with this purchase, as they say in mechanics, he could speedily overthrow all rivalry. It is impossible to give any idea of the gratification with which he was listened to, when, warming with the exercise of his profession-he never did any other thing but fib from morning till night, therefore the word is applicable-he passed from story to story, each better than the other, and all delivered in an inimitable intonation of speech, which, though at first assumed, had at last grown to be his natural mode of talk.

We recollect one day hearing a gentleman mention in our friend's presence the fact recorded by Bruce regarding the raw-meat meals of the Abyssinians. Quite true, sir,' said the captain; 'quite true, sir, I have no doubt. Raw meat, sir, is not so difficult to eat as you imagine. I once thought as you do, but I was accidentally cured of my aversion to raw meat, sir, though I don't pretend to say that I like it as well as I do cooked meat yet. I shall tell you how it happened, sir. When I was shipwrecked off the African coast' a shipwreck of course quite imaginary-I got off from the ship upon a plank, sir, and was separated from the rest of the crew. For two nights and two days I was tossed about on the seas, no land in sight, and a confounded host of sharks swimming about me, whom I had often to knock on the head with my stick, sir, before I could drive them off-this very stick, by the by, now in my hand, which

I saved with me'—we knew the copse where he had cnt it not a month before! Well, the weather was fine, but you may be sure I was getting hungry and tired, when on the third night, sir, something struck so smartly against my plank, as almost to shake me off: "Hollo! who's there?" cried I. "Jack Smithers, is that you?" was the reply; and who was this, do you think, but our captain, who had been tossing about, since the ship went to pieces, on a plank like myself. "Glad to see you, captain," said I; "any provisions with you?" "Nothing," said he, "but a piece of raw pork, which was all that the ship's ridiculous haste to go down gave me time to pocket." Well, sir, we tied our planks together, and the captain produced his pork. I never could bear pork boiled or roasted before that, sir; but so delicious was that morsel, that from that day till this I have been always fond, sir, of raw pork!' Here the narrator produced the very knife which cut the flesh, according to his adroit plan of giving an air of veracity to his stories, by some little natural touch of the kind. And so was our hero cured of his unreasonable aversion to raw meat.

The captain had a way of catching salmon, which it would be very difficult to imitate, and indeed, we do not exactly recollect whether he himself ever practised it more than once:-'I was once riding homewards on a very dark and rainy night, and had to cross Earncliff hills, before reaching the side of the river, which I had to ford. I had often well-nigh lost my way, sir, on the hills, for I could not see a step before me; but when I found myself at fault, I just leaped from my horse and caught a sheep, when I knew at once, by the mark, on which of my neighbours' farms I was'-he could not see the road, but he saw the sheep-mark! but, to be sure, it was all in his eye-so, sir, I found my way at last to the side of the river, when to my surprise I found it greatly swollen above its usual size. Well, I was resolved to be at home that night, so I made my horse take to the water, knowing him to be a good swimmer.

I had not got to the middle of the current, sir, when it carried me off the horse's back, and was in a fair way of carrying him down. So, sir, I took his bridle in my teeth, struck boldly out with my arms, and after being carried down for nearly a mile, I brought the horse and myself safely out. And what do you think, sir ! On mounting again, I felt something give me several smart jerks on the side, and, on putting my hand into my pocket, got a confounded fright by something biting my hand. It turned out to be a salmon,

sir; a twenty-pound salmon !
the bite, quite visible till this day!'

Here is the mark of

We begin to fear lest our readers should think these fibs so 'gross, open, and palpable,' that it is impossible they can ever have been uttered by any one out of bedlam, much less by a person moving in a decent place in society. So far, however, from being chargeable with overstepping nature in our portraiture, we are actually keeping in the background some of Jack Smithers' higher flights of invention, and presenting only such minor ones as distinguished his everyday talk. If such be our fears respecting the stories already told, how can we expect the reader to believe that what follows ever fell from human lips-even though we solemnly declare ourselves to have been an ear-witness? Talking one day to Jack of diseases, 'My good sir,' said he, 'that is nothing to what happened to myself when I was in India. I was attacked, sir, with an extraordinary disease of the country, which first seized on my toes, then proceeded to my knees, and from them to my stomach, causing me a great deal of pain. From the stomach it flew to my eyes, and injured them so much as to loosen them from their sockets; so that, one day as I was sitting in my hotel, you may conceive my astonishment on seeing them fall out and drop at my feet! The doctors have told me since, sir, that it was fortunate that I picked them up immediately, and put them in again, else I might have lost them altogether!' Had Jack told us this at an earlier period of our acquaintance,