county. The benefits of the two schools were open to children of the county; and the testator expressed his wish that, as far as circumstances would admit, the Madras system of education should be conformed to.

This interesting and truly noble-minded man died at his house in Baker Street, London, on the 16th of September 1824. His age is given in the Gentleman's Magazine as seventy-nine, which would place his birth exactly at the time when the insurrection of 1745 broke out. The age of seventy-seven, assigned to him by an authority which we have consulted in his native town, is probably nearer the truth, as it seems unlikely that a foot-regiment would be quartered in Elgin till after the suppression of the rebellion.* It is satisfactory to know that, after the death of General Anderson, the honour, although perhaps not the prudence, of his mother was cleared by legal proof-Elspet Anderson, of Garmouth, the daughter of the staymaker, having satisfied a jury that she was the lawful cousin, and nearest legal heir, to the deceased.

Since his death, his trust-disposition has been duly acted upon, and a fine building at the east end of the burgh of Elgin now stands as a lasting monument of his benevolence. We find, from an account of the parish published some years ago,t that five males and five females belonging to the town were enjoying the benefits of the Hospital for the Aged; that twenty-two boys and eighteen girls, from every parish in the county, were reared in the School of Industry-which number would probably be increased by other twenty, on the death of two annuitants; and that 230 children were receiving in the

* As the statements in this paper are of a somewhat extraordinary nature, it may not be superfluous to inform the reader that they are all, to the best of our knowledge, true. The obscurity which rests over a large portion of the history of the hero may have led to some slight incorrectness in a few of the less important details; but we have used every effort in our power to be correct, and, we believe, are so in all the more important features of the story.

New Statistical Account of Scotland, by the Ministers of the respective Parishes, No. VIII.

Free School'a gratis education suited to their station.'/ Thus the fortune of the founder was contributing, at the period to which we refer, to the happiness of no fewer than 300 persons.

It

Thousands every year flock to Scotland, to fall into raptures with the physical sublimities of its hills, and lakes, and waterfalls, or to muse over scenes which genius has peopled with the imaginary beings of romance. is strongly impressed on us that many, after indulging themselves with the contemplation of these objects, if brought to the remote burgh of Elgin, and informed of the circumstances narrated in this paper, would confess that they had found something still more beautiful, still more romantic, still more sublime. Let them first behold the edifice in which so many find shelter from the evils of destitution, and so many more receive that nurture which is best to enable them to befriend themselves through life; and then be taken to the small dark cell, where May Gilzean cradled in a hollowed stone, in darkness and wretchedness, the hapless babe whose inherent gifts and honourable use of them were to give him the means of indulging a singular benevolence in shedding all these blessings on his native district; and then let them confess, that human nature and human life have their sublimities as well as inorganic nature-and that these be of them."'

A PARTY OF CRUSOES ON A DESERT ISLAND.

IN the London newspapers of 1823, there appeared a most interesting and affecting account of the wreck and loss of a small English trading vessel in the Indian Ocean, with a narrative of the preservation of the crew on some obscure islets lying out of the usual track of navigation, at the distance of 600 or 700 miles south-east from the Cape of Good Hope. The account presented was in substance as follows:

On the 9th of May 1820, the Princess of Wales smack, of seventy-five tons burden, commanded by Mr T. Beckwith, sailed from the Thames for Prince Edward Island, in the Indian Ocean, with a crew of fifteen men, for the purpose of catching seals and other cetaceous animals for the sake of their skins. The voyage was every way prosperous; the vessel arrived at its destination, where the seal-catching commenced on the 1st November, and remained till the subsequent March 1821. Having, as it would appear, exhausted the objects of pursuit in this quarter, the vessel proceeded further to some desert islands, called the Crozettes, situated 47 degrees south latitude, and 47 degrees east longitude. This proved a fatal adventure. On the 17th of March, on reaching the Crozettes, a party of eight seamen was despatched in a boat to one of the islands, there to remain some time seal-catching, while the vessel proceeded to another island, to land a party for the same purpose. course of the day, after reaching the second island, a heavy swell began to set in towards the shore, and the captain, in order to gain an offing, was obliged to slip the cable, and endeavour to stand out to sea. Such, however, was the strength of the current, and the unmanageableness of the vessel, that the most serious apprehensions were entertained for its safety. In this condition the crew continued in hourly expectation of striking on out

In the

lying reefs until midnight, when, to settle all doubts on the subject, the unfortunate bark struck with tremendous force.

The striking of a vessel, whether on sand-banks or rocks, particularly the latter, is ordinarily the signal of destruction. On the present occasion, the crew instantly expected such a catastrophe, and proposed to get out the boat and try to gain the island; but the captain, who knew its desolate condition, and believed they could only linger out a few days there in dreadful want, opposed the proposition, and he chose rather to close his sufferings by a speedy death as the less horrible alternative. The crew, however, considered that there was still hope, and, under the circumstances, assuming the right of acting for themselves, they got the boat out over the gunwale, and threw into her a few things which they were able hastily to collect. Still, however, they refused to leave their captain to perish, and, after some entreaty, they prevailed upon him to commit himself to the boat with them. The night was dark, rainy, and boisterous, and the sea dashed over the rocks by which they were surrounded. They found the shore to be much nearer than they expected, but could not land, as it was bounded by a perpendicular rock. After rowing about for nearly four hours, they came into a sort of cove, where they got on shore in safety, but the boat was swamped. How they escaped the rocks in that darkness and heavy sea, was afterwards matter of astonishment to them. They hauled up the boat, turned it over, and got under it.

When the day broke, they perceived the vessel lying on her beam-ends, with a large hole in her lower planks, which proved that from the instant she first struck she could not afterwards have lived. The sea was washing over her, and it was evident that she must soon go to pieces. They were unable to launch the boat to save anything from the wreck. Amongst the articles put into the boat was a tinder-box, and with a few materials which they picked up on the shore they made a fire, and caught a few birds, which they dressed.

On the next day, they succeeded in launching the boat, and proceeded in her to a cove at about five miles distant, which was nearer the vessel. They succeeded in reaching her, and getting out the captain's and the mate's chests, landing them, and in picking up a number of planks. The next day they picked up a try-sail, and some casks of bread which were spoiled, but a gale coming on, prevented them from putting out in the boat to visit the wreck, as it blew furiously. The next day they saw, to their distress, that nothing was left of her but the masts, which had become entangled by the rigging among the rocks, and these soon disappeared. They then hauled the boat up, to live, or rather to sleep under her, and this was their only shelter for three weeks, during which time they subsisted chiefly on birds, and the tongues and hearts of sea-elephants. They had got some of their hunting implements on shore, and were able to kill this animal with ease, whenever they caught it, and its great importance to them will appear in the course of the narrative. The weather was so rainy and inclement, that, until the end of three weeks, they were unable to begin to erect any commodious shelter. At the expiration of that time, they collected all the timber they could find, for the island did not produce a shrub. With a part of these materials and some stones, at the end of a few weeks they completed a house or shed. They covered the top with sea-elephants' skins to keep out the rain, and the weather at the sides, by means of turf. They made their beds of a soft dry grass, with which the island abounded, and over this they had coverlets of sea-elephants' skins, and on the whole, they made their shelter tolerable. Knowing that it was useless to repine, they soon organised a settled course of life in their little community. Their chief occupation consisted in foraging for the means of subsistence within the limits of the island. Seals and seaelephants were the game which they principally depended upon, and these they daily went in quest of. The seaelephant was their grand mainstay, for it yielded not only some parts fit for food, but a large quantity of