BIOGRAPHICAL.

SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF ADMIRAL PAUL JONES.

Abridged from the Appendix to Curwen's Journal, third edition, by George Atkinson Ward.

Admiral Paul Jones was a native of the parish of Kirkbean, Scotland, son of a farmer named John Paul. He was born in 1747. He early became a seaman; and at 18 was master of a West India vessel. Having given a sailor a fatal wound in suppressing a mutiny, although acquitted by a court in the island where it occurred, he was so much persecuted on his return to England, that he took up his residence in Virginia with his brother, who afterwards left him considerable property.

When the Revolution commenced he was appointed senior first lieutenant in the navy, on the recommendation of Robert Morris, Mr. Hughes and Gen. Jones, of North Carolina, whose sirname he afterwards assumed in gratitude for his friendship. He made a cruise in the 28 gun ship Alfred, and in February, 1776, took command of the Providence, 12 guns, in which he took sixteen vessels in six weeks, and destroyed the fishing establishment at Isle Madame. He also fought the Solebay, 18, and twice the Milford, 32.

He was made Captain, Oct. 10, 1776, and in the Alfred destroyed the fisheries at Port Royal, and took all the vessels there, with their cargoes. February 2d, 1776, being at Brest in the Ranger, 18, he received from Count D'Orvilliers, the first salute ever given to the American flag by a foreign man-ofwar. In April he scaled the fort of Whitehaven, and spiked the guns. 38 in number, Soon after he landed on St. Mary's Isle, on the Scotch coast, the seat of the Earl of Selkirk, not, as has been pretended, as a freebooter although his men plundered the house of plate for he bought it up and restored it to the owner, and received an honorable letter in return, conveying the thanks of the Earl and his Countess. The Drake, of 20 guns, being sent out against him, he captured it in sight of numerous spectators.

He spent the next year at Brest, in mortifying delays, waiting a promised squadron; when he was struck by the first of "Poor Richard's Maxims," then recently published by Dr. Franklin: "If you wish your business aithfully and expeditiously done, do it your

self; if otherwise, send." He set off directly for Paris, and soon sailed with five ships: the Alliance, 36; Pallas, 30; Ceres, 18; Vengeance, 18; and Duras, 40, which he named Le Bon Homme Richard, in memory of the adviser he had followed-"Poor Richard."

This vessel was a worn-out East Indiaman; but in it he sailed from L'Orient to capture the Baltic fleet, which he probably would have taken if supported by his squadron. He took the Serapis, 50 guns, and Countess of Scarboro' 20, after a desperate action, with a loss of 306 men out of 380 in his own vessel, 7 feet water in the hold and on fire in two places. After this he engaged with Holland in the war against England, and was noticed by Louis the 16th. Congress struck a medal for him and gave him the command of a fine 74 which was building at Portsmouth, but afterwards presented it to France. He then joined the French fleets.

In 1786 he was appointed agent to Denmark and Sweden, to obtain indemnity for prizes delivered by them to England, and afterwards entered the Russian navy as Rear Admiral. For his services against the Turks, June 7th, 1788, he was made Rear Admiral, and decorated by the Empress. The opposi. tion of his enemies is said to have embittered his latter years; and he resigned his office and lived in France until September 12th, 1792, when he died soon after he had been appointed by Gen. Washington agent for captives at Algiers. He was buried in Paris with public honors.

For our own part we cannot look upon such a sketch of desperate and bloody deeds without pain and revolting of heart, especially as some were performed against his own native-born countrymen, and some of them were of doubtful necessity. If war can justify all these, then we say, God in mercy preserve peace!

DISTINGUISHED GRADUATES OF
NASSAU HALL, OR PRINCETON
COLLEGE.

[From the Trenton Emporium.]
Class of 1766.

Oliver Ellsworth was born at Windsor, Conn. on the 29th of April, 1745. He soon after commenced the practice of law, and became a distinguished ornament to the profession.He was a member of the continental Congress, and of the Convention that framed the Constitution of the United States. On the orga

nization of the federal government he was elected to the Senate of the United States, and continued a member of that body for eight years. In 1796 he was appointed by President Washington, Chief Justice of the United States, and in 1799 he was sent as envoy extraordinary to the court of France. Judge Ellsworth was distinguished for talents, learning and patriotism, and received the degree of Doctor of Laws, both from Dartmouth and Yale. He died November 26th, 1807, at the age of sixty-five years.

David Howell was born in New Jersey, in 1747. Becoming a resident of Providence, he was appointed Professor of Mathematics, and subsequently of Law in the University of Rhode Island. He was a judge of the supreme court of the State, and a member of the Continental Congress, and in 1812, was appointed Judge of the United States Court for that district which held until his death. He was a man of great talents and learning, a profound lawyer and an honest man. Judge Howell died on the 29th of June, 1824, aged seventyseven years.

Daniel McCalla, D. D., was born at Neshaminy, Pa., in 1749. He became a chaplain in the army, and having been captured by the enemy, was sometime confined in a prisonship. He spent the greater portion of his life in South Carolina, where he was celebrated for his learning and eloquence, and received from the College in that State, the degree of Doctor of Divinity. He died on the 6th of April, 1809, at the age of sixty years.

Nathaniel Niles was a native of Connecticut. After due theological preparation, he preached for some time as a candidate, and devoted himself to the practice of law. Mr. Niles attained eminence at the bar, and filled various public stations, among others that of Judge of the Supreme Court of Vermont. He was distinguished as a theologian, jurist, and metaphysician, and was an author of considerable repute.

John Woodhull, D. D., devoted himself to the sacred office, and was settled in the town of Leacock, Lancaster county, Pa. After remaining at this place for some years, he was called to the congregation at Freehold, Monmouth Co. N. J., where he continued until the period of his death, having been pastor of that Church for more than half a century.

Dr. Woodhull was a sound theologian, an able and powerful preacher, and an ardent patriot. He took part in the battle of Monmouth, and was an unshrinking_supporter of the Independence of America. Dr. Woodhull was for more than forty years a trustee of the College of New Jersey. Dr. Woodhull married a step daughter of the celebrated Gilbert Tennant. He died at Freehold in 1824, and his descendants are among the most respectable citizens of New Jersey.

Class of 1767.

Francis Barter was born at Princeton, N. J., in the year 1751, and wa- graduated at the

College of New Jersey, in 1767. Mr. Barber was distinguished during his College course, for the extent and accuracy of his literary attainments. In 1769, Mr. Barber became the principal of a classical school in Elizabethtown, N. J., where he devoted himself to the instruction of his pupils, and the pursuit of science. At the breaking out of the American Revolution, Mr. Barber closed his school, and accompanied by many of his pupils, repaired at once to the theatre of war. In 1776, he received from Congress, a commission as Major of the third battalion of the New Jersey troops; and at the close of the year, he was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the third re. giment of New Jersey. He was soon after appointed assistant inspector general, and received from Baron Steuben, the highest testimony in favor of his talents, activity, and services.

Col. Barber was in constant service from the time he entered the army, until the close of the war. He served with his regiment under General Schuyler at the north. He was at the battles of Ticonderoga, Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown and Monmouth, and took a prominent part in the battle of Springfield. In 1781, he was at the capture of the British army, under Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown. The Rev. Dr. Murray, in his interesting work on Elizabethtown, from which the above facts have been derived, states, that at the close of the war, and on the very day on which Washington was about to announce to the army the signing of the treaty of peace, Col. Barber was killed in the vicinity of Newburgh, as he was riding along the edge of a wood by the falling of a tree upon him. "He was says the author just named, "a fine scholar-a skilful and brave officerand rendered great and important services to his country. He has many descendants.Among the pupils at the school at Elizabethtown, when under the charge of Mi. Barber, were Gen. Hamilton, Brock holst, Livingston, and others, distinguished in the history of the country. At the time that Mr. Barber closed his school, his Assistant was Aaron Ogden, who had a short time before completed his education at Princeton. Young Ogden, whose patriotism was as glowing as that of his principal, accompanied Mr. Barber when he repaired to the standard of his country, and when Mr. Barber joined the army as a Major, Ogden entered it as a Captain, and they were to gether at Brandywine, Monmouth, Springfield and Yorktown.

[We find in the old New Jersey Gazette, the following notice of Col. Barber's death. It appears in the form of a letter from New Windsor barracks, and is dated February 12, 1783.]

Col. Barber was killed by the most extraordinary accident He lett on horseback about 10 o'clock to ride to his quarters, and in going through the woods in our rear, the top of a large tree which some soldiers were falling, struck him on the head and killed

him instantly. The tree was very tall, and the root of it some distance from the path, so that the soldiers did not see him till he was directly opposite. They cried out, he stopped suddenly and began to turn his horse, but be fore he got round he received the fatal stroke.

From the Colonial Magazine. An Excursion to a Cacao or Chocolate Plantation in the West Indies.

Some years back, while residing in the town of Port-of-Spain, the capital of the island of Trinidad, one fine morning at daylight, which begins there a little after two, I mounted my hardy Venezuelian pony, and started off at a brisk canter, for the purpose of spending a few days with my excellent and esteemed friend, the mayor-domo or manager of Reconocimiento cacao, or chocolate plantation, situate about twenty miles off, in the heights of the quarter or district of Aran

ca.

On coming thus suddenly upon it, it has the appearance of one vast forest-orchard, if I may make use of the term, planted in the space formed by a hollow between two mountains, which have receded a good deal more than they are wont to do at any other point. The mountains rise to, I should suppose, nearly 1,500 feet above the level of the culti vation, which is itself nearly 1000 feet above the level of the sea. One's sensations on reaching this calm and lovely spot, after a rugged and toilsome, although exciting, journey of six miles, are pleasurable in the ex

treme.

There are three species of the Theobroma— the Theobroma cacao, of which I am now treating; the Theobroma Guajanensis, and the Theobroma bicolor; this genus belongs to the class Polyadelphia, and to the order Pentagynia. The sort under consideration is produced by a tree seldom rising above the height of twenty-feet; it is equal in size to an orange tree, and its leaves are large, oblong and pointed. The whole tree more resembles the cherry-tree than any other 1 can compare it with, the leaves, however, being much larger than those of that plant. The flowers, which are small, and of a pale red color, spring from the large branches, and also form the trunk; they are succeeded by oval-pointed pods, grooved like a melon, and, indeed, not unlike that fruit, although the cacao-pod be smaller in girth than the melon. They contain a white pithy substance, which is of a sweetish, but sickeningly mawkish and disagreeable taste, and surrounds numerous seeds: these are the cacao of commerce. These seeds are oval-formed, and about as large as a moderate sized almond-kernel, but not so slender; they are internally, of a dark brown color, approaching to dun, and are covered with a thin skin or husk, of a light reddish-brown color. The nuts are very numerous, but vary in this respect, some pods containing as many as fifty, while others do not yield more than twenty seeds; they are, as

is well known, of a very oily nature. The tree produces fruit twice a year, or rather its principal bearings are two, although it may be said to be never altogether without some pods on it. The trees are raised from seed, which is sown, in the first instance, in nurseries, shaded by the plaintain or banana-tree. They are then transplanted in straight lines, so as to make a cross, or quincunx, formed by the junction of the apices of two triangles, or are arranged in the form of squares. The distance of the trees from each other is about fourteen feet in good soil, and about twelve in that which is inferior. Much nicety and judgment are necessary in selecting a soil and situation appropriate to this kind of produce. The Spaniards, who are the principal growers of cacao at Trinidad, do not trust to the results of analysis, to the color, or to any character or quality, except that derived from the luxuriance of the trees growing on it. The exposure should not be to the north, and the situation should be on the banks of a river, from which the benefits of irrigation may be derived when the seasons are too dry, and against any sudden overflow of which there are sufficient safeguards.

At this season, an extensive plain covered with cacao-plantations, is a magnificent object when viewed from a height. The farstretching forests of Erythrina present then the appearance of being clothed on the summit with flames, the fresh northeast tradewind adding to the illusion, as it sweeps over their tops in apparent fleecy clouds of smoke. I must not omit to mention that a plantation of cacao has many enemies; deer, a small kind of which are exceedingly plentiful at Trinidad, aud squirrels and birds, are often very destructive to both tree and fruit.

Cacao is prepared for market in the following manner: the pod having been gathered from the tree by the hand, or by means of a hooked pole, where that mode is impractica ble, from the branches being too high, it is collected into large heaps on the ground, and allowed to soften, or sweat, as it is termed by the planters, for three or four days. The pods are then opened, by means of a longitudinal cut, with a strong knife or bill, called a cacao-knife, or bill, and the seeds and pulp extracted with the fingers, and thrown into another heap, where the mass is allowed to sweat for two or three weeks more. At the end of this period, fermentation has loosened the seeds from their pulpy bed, when they are easily separated from it, and taken to the drying-house in baskets. The nuts are now daily spread in the sun upon a large cemented, or sometimes only carefully swept, esplanade, in front of the drying-house, where they are turned frequently and carefully, during the day; at night, they are again housed. The drying house is again furnished with large trays, in which the cacao is received during the process of drying, and which can be run out at ports in the side of the building, when the uncertainty of the

weather may render that plan advisable. The operation of drying is continued for about three weeks, more or less, according to the favorable or unfavorable state of the weather, when the nuts become sufficiently dry, and are packed for sale and shipment. Coarse bags, made of Oznaburgs sacking, having been prepared, each large enough to contain a fanega in weight, they are filled with the produce, which is now ready to be conveyed to market, in Port-of-Spain, on mules' backs, or in carts, as the nature of the roads will admit, where it is usually immediately sold, and shipped for Europe, as it is an article which deteriorates by keeping.

Selected for the American Penny Magazine.
[From Cochrane's Wanderings in Greece]
AN ENGLISH COUNTRY SEAT NEAR
ATHENS.

Our walk had now brought us near our friend, Mr. Bell's country seat, and we paid him a visit. This gentleman is a British officer, who, "tir'd of war's alarms," has taken to tilling his land, the greater part of which adjoins Mount Pentelico. His house is spacious, and built with all the comforts of an English dwelling. The second story is surrounded by a balcony, from which, even in the hottest weather, one finds a breeze. Above this, he had constructed a staircase ascending to the roof, the view from which is magnificent. Mr. Bell has laid out a great deal of money upon this spot. Around the house, he has cultivated a garden of about an acre and a half, which is considered the best in Athens. Leading from the gate to his house, (a distance of one hundred yards,) he has made two thick plantations of rose trees, with beds of anemonies, and various other kinds of flowers, which he brought from Malta. These were, at the present moment, nearly all in full bloom; and this, in addition to the odoriferous fragrance of clusters of orange and lemon trees, rendered the spot a most delightful and enchanting one. Though it was early in April, the pease (of the English kind,) were in the pod; and the potatoes were in a flourishing state. Of these latter, he always (he said,) had two crops in the year. His garden is watered by the Cephissus-a stream being laid on artificially from the river. There appeared to me to be only one thing wanting to complete this pleasant residence, and that was, a bath; for, in a hot climate, nothing can exceed the luxury of a cold bath, in a garden, in the morning before sunrise.

In the walk round the garden, Mr. Bell called my attention to the new wall he had built, after the style of the country, and spoke of the very small cost of it. It was of clay, about six feet high, and a foot and a half thick and he described the way of constructing it as follows-boards are placed about a foot from each other, and a yard in length, and closed up at the two ends; the soil is then dug out of the ditch, mixed up with a little water to make it of the consistence of soft clay, and

So,

HYDRO ELECTRICITY.-" The fact that electricity could be evolved by the act of steam was accidentally discovered about two years ago in England. An engineer was examining a boiler which was in action and which leaked a little, allowing a small jet of steam to escape through a crevice in the boiler and the binding which was around it. It happened that while one hand rested on the boiler he brought the other into this jet of steam, and was surprised at receiving a very sensible shock, accompanied with a slight cracking sound. This occurred as often as he placed his hands in the situation spoken of." Electricity was the cause.

The steam, under high pressure, is allowed to escape through many small orifices, opposite to which are placed the points of the prime conductor, which, of course, receives the positive electricity; the negative may be collected from any part of the boiler; and it is this which is used in the experiments, the prime conductor being enveloped in a cloud of steam. The usual position of things is therefore reversed, and the boiler is isolated by being supported upon glass legs.

The phenomena exhibited by this machine are most startling and wonderful. The spark is nearly two feet in length, and instead of being straight as is the case with the usual apparatus, it darts in a zigzag direction like lightning, and with apparent spite and virulence which is almost fearful. By this machine Aurora Borealis is shewn to be undoubtedly electric in its origin. The fluid is generated with such rapidity that a battery of Leyden jars, exposing one hundred and fifty square feet of surface, can be charged with it. A bolt from this battery would kill an ox or shiver a rock a foot and a half in diameter.-Evening Gazette.

This is the great place of resort for commercial men in the city of New York; and within it, (in fine weather, on the streetpavements around it,) a large and busy concourse of men of business is to be seen every day in the year except the Sabbath and the few festival days on which there is a general suspension of mercantile transactions.

The New York Exchange is built entirely of Quincy Sienite, three stories high, and a basement, covering a block, between four streets, and is 197 feet 7 inches on Wall-strent, 144 on one side, and 170 on the other, with a large dome above, 100 feet high. This covers the circular exchange room, 95 feet high, and 80 in diameter. In front is a row of 12 Ionic columns, with 6 more at the door. The shafts are single stones, 32 feet 8 inches long, and from 4 feet to 4 feet 4 inches in diameter at the base, those on the wings weighing about 33 tons, and the others 35. Each cost about $5,000. The building, among other things, contains Mr. Gilpin's News Room and Packet Office, several insurance and other offices. The Telegraph is kept on the top to communicate with that on Staten Island. The great fire, in 1835, destroyed the former Exchange, but did not cross Wall-treet. It swept down to Old Slip.

The late great fire also threatened the destruction of the Exchange from the other side, but was happily arrested before it had extended beyond the eastern side of Broad-street.

Wall-street, on which the Exchange fronts, owes its name to its having been the northern limit of the city for some time after its first settlement. A wooden barrier was built along this line, for protection against the Indians. As the population increased, streets were gradually opened beyond. After the revolutionary war, Wall-street, and the ad

jacent parts of several of the streets which cross it, were occupied by the houses of many of the principal inhabitants. Most of them, however, have been long since removed, to give place for larger buildings, now crowded with banks, insurance offices, exchange and brokers' offices, those of attornies, counsellors, &c.

The first bank ever formed in this city, the "Bank of New York," stands at the corner of William street, just above the Exchange. It began business, as a private company, soon after the return of peace, and in 1791 was incoporated by the Legislature of the State, with a capital stock of $950,000.

The first insurance company of this city was incorporated in 1798, under the title of the "United Insurance Company in the City of New York."

The Chamber of Commerce hold their meetings in their rooms in the Exchange. This company was formed in 1768, by twenty merchants, voluntarily associating, who patriotically combined to prevent the importation of goods from Great Britian, during the restrictions at that time laid on the colonies by the mother country. The House of Assembly passed a vote of thanks to them for this proceeding, on the second of May of that year.In 1770 a charter was granted to them by the colonial Legislature, which was confirmed April 13th, 1784, by the Legislature of the State.

The Board of Brokers hold a daily meeting a noon, in the Exchange. A reading-room, refectory, and numerous offices are found in different parts of this building.