man is, he will stand any fatigue under heaven, if he has only grit," (stamina).

Some tales of the Cumanchee Indians of Texas, were interesting. The Texan Rangers found that the best way to defend themselves against the Cumanchees was with a revolver pistol and a bowieknife. The revolver carried well for 100 yards, and more, whereas the Cumanchee arrows reached hardly seventy yards, to kill; and though these Indians are wonderful horsemen, riding fearlessly, shooting arrows as fast as revolvers can be discharged, and covering themselves with their horses' necks, yet they stand in wholesome fear of the new fire-arms. The Americans are partial to using buck-shot they think there is nothing like tying up three buckshot with a ball; if the ball misses, the shot may hit men right and left; if the shot did not kill, it disabled, and men went out of action. I have seen cartridges made up of twelve buck-shot, three and three, for close quarters.

:

In

The Cumanchees are great horse thieves, and have been compelled of late years to eat horses for food. However, they relish this fare very much, particularly the part under the mane; but, as we experienced in Africa, when compelled to eat portions of some score of zebras, among other fera naturæ, the taste of the flesh is disagreeably sweetish, leaves a taste in the mouth, and it is not advisable to smell it. The liver used to be the delicacy of the zebra. their forays the Cumanchees sometimes kill the settlers, and carry off the white women. One of the officers at West Point had seen a white woman retaken. She looked squalid and miserable, had a skin round her loins, and had been a slave to a squaw; she was so overjoyed at her release, that the soldiers shed tears from sympathy.

On the third day of our agreeable tarry at West Point, the morning being beautiful and clear, and the willow-trees showing the bright green of returning spring (it was the 16th of April), I was up at five, and climbed the height on which are the remains of the interesting old revolutionary post, Fort Putnam. Trees grew on the ruined walls, the casemates dropped with water, there were wooded and lonely hills around, and the deep Hudson below; the air was fresh and elastic.

Oh, here is calm! Still hold afar,

Old world, thy hard, unsparing hand

We covet not thy flying car,

That, like an earthquake, rends the land.
No; rather we will wander hence,

O'er breezy heights, through valleys green,
With nought to blind or jar the sense;
And in the soul, with joy intense,
Receive the moral of the scene.

On a signal-staff was this civil injunction: "This signal is the property of the United States; all persons visiting it are respectfully requested not to interfere with or disturb its adjustment" (it would hardly do on this side of the Atlantic); "offenders will be prosecuted

with the utmost rigour of the law." The "offenders " might take lynch law into their own hands.

Descending the hill, I was attracted by the sound of martial music. I asked a cadet what it was. He said it was for guard mounting. I saw a suspicious-looking lump in his cheek-what one expects to observe in that of a Jack Tar; and if an Irish echo had been asked, "This is what?" it might have replied, if it understood Latin, "Quid." The drum-major was "got up" with a bear-skin, &c., in the French style, and the band were distinguished by broad yellow lapels to their blue frocks. The cadet officers on duty for the day, marched past with black cocks'-tail feathers in their chakos, and saluted by dropping their Roman-like sword, without raising the left hand to the peak, as with us, and which, by the way, tends to unsteady the pace.

I will now give, as concisely as possible, some of the regulations of the War Department relative to the U.S. Military Academy. And first, as to the admission of cadets :-Each congressional and territorial district, including the district of Columbia, is entitled to have a cadet at the Military Academy, and no more. The members of Congress nominate the cadets; and there are ten appointments besides allowed, -these are termed "at large." The qualifications are, that the candidates must be over sixteen years of age, and under twenty-one, at the time of entrance into the Academy; must be, at least, five feet in height, and without disease or bodily infirmity. They must be able to read and write well, and perform, with facility and accuracy, the various operations of the first four rules of arithmetic,-of reduction, of simple and compound proportion, and of vulgar and decimal fractions.

During the months of July and August, the cadets are engaged in military duties and exercises, living in camp. The academic exercises commence in September. The half-year examination takes place in January. If any have been found unable to master the course, they are returned to their homes. "The nation sends these young men to the Military Academy, supports and pays them adequately, and opens to them an honourable profession, in the expectation that their best efforts will be given to qualify themselves for the higher duties of the military service. Those who will not, or cannot, profit by these generous provisions, should not occupy the place of those who will and can." In June is held the annual examination, which is also a searching one; more than one-third of those who receive appointments fail to graduate. Yet though these may have been averse to mathematical investigation, their mental abilities may enable them to succeed in other walks of life.

During the four years of the course of study, the first or senior class includes engineering and science of war, ethics, infantry tactics, artillery, mineralogy, and geology. The second class, natural and experimental philosophy, chemistry, and drawing. The third class, mathematics, the French language, and drawing. The fourth class, mathematics, the French language, and English studies.

In running over the extracts from the regulations of the U.S.M.

Academy, I find that no married person shall be admitted as a cadet ; and if a cadet get married, he must immediately resign his appointment to the institution.

Offences are divided into seven grades, namely :

If any one year a cadet's offences number 200, he is dismissed the Academy; each year the demerits count more, one-sixth, one-third, and one-half (the last year). Cadets may obtain leave during the encampments; but if they overstay their leave, without good reason, they are "dropped from the rolls." A monthly stoppage of two dollars is made from the twenty-four dollars' pay of the cadet, to purchase a uniform and equipments, on receiving a commission. The punishments are, privation of recreation, extra hours of duty, reprimands, confinement to room or tent, confinement in light prison, in dark prison, private and public dismission. No cadet is allowed to drink intoxicating liquors, or to gamble, or use tobacco, or cook in his room, or keep a waiter (servant), horse, or dog. Cadets must attend Divine service on Sundays (the chaplain was a Presbyterian clergyman at the time of my visit), no fighting is allowed with deadly weapons, and all combinations are prohibited.

The cadets are organised into a battalion of four companies, officered by the cadets, who are also made sergeants and corporals. The réveillé sounds at five a.m. from 1st of April to the 1st of November, and at six the rest of the year. At ten p.m. "Taps," when all lights are extinguished. "Peas upon a trencher" is the signal for breakfast at seven a.m., and "roast beef" for dinner at one p.m. The hair of the cadets is close cut behind, and no moustaches worn. With regard to the "police of quarters"-as the local term is-cadets arrange their bedding and clean their lamps, &c. The (cadet) officer of the day notes all irregularities in the rooms.

Among the cadets at West Point, there was a Mormon from the Salt Lake; also, Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, a son of the ex-king, Lucien; he had just got his commission. His general merits stood thus: on the last roll of the first class, eleven; his age twenty-one and a half; and his demerits, for the year, only fifteen. He is likely to do credit in the East to his distinguished family.

Having concluded our very gratifying visit to West Point, we bid adieu to our new friends; and, whilst my brother officers went to New York, to spend a few pleasant days there, I travelled north, and visited at Troy the senior officer next to the commander-in-chief of the American army, an old and esteemed friend, Major-General J. E. Wool. We had travelled together formerly, and I had been presented by him to the celebrated president, General Jackson, at Washington.

The honourable career of General Wool is as follows:-Entering the United States army, in 1812, he distinguished himself, and was severely wounded at the battle of Queenstown heights (where the gallant Sir Isaac Brock fell, and is interred), he became Bt. Lieut.Colonel for Plattsburgh, for several years was Inspector-General of the Army, and received the rank of Major-General for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battle of Buena Vista, in Mexico.

I was glad to see that the General was still hale, strong, and cheerful, notwithstanding his arduous career. His good judgment and management were particularly evinced when he led a division of 3,000 regulars and volunteers across the Rio Grande, into the heart of Mexico, to Chihuahua and back. When he was about to cross the frontier of the enemy's country, a number of the volunteers of his force (whom he had brought into order, and had disciplined sufficiently to enable them to take care of themselves) came to him and said, "General, we must help ourselves now." He replied, "No, I will allow of no plundering; we are to pay for our supplies." Hitherto, all the supplies, by long trains of wagons, had been derived from the States; he knew that these could not much longer be kept up, and that it was desirable to conciliate the Mexicans, to prevent a system of reprisal for injuries, guerilla warfare, and assassination of stragglers. The General, accordingly, called all the volunteers together, and said, "Those who do not agree to my terms of no plunder, had better go back." He knew that they had come for fame, and would have been ashamed to return without a campaign. They promised obedience; there was no plunder, no punishment, and his troops, on their long marches, were abundantly supplied by the Mexicans.

At the great battle of Buena Vista, General Wool, in conjunction with General Taylor (afterwards President of the United States), defeated, after a protracted struggle, 20,000 Mexicans, under Santa Anna; the Americans numbered about 4,500. General Wool, on that occasion, exposed himself fearlessly everywhere in the field, and displayed the greatest bravery and military skill. He thus holds a distinguished place in the annals of his country, which, in perpetual alliance with Great Britain-" the nursing mother of infant nations" -it is to be hoped, will promote the arts of peace, extend liberty without licentiousness, morality, and our holy religion, to the ends of the earth.

"Clementia et animis."

Montreal, Canada, 27th June, 1854.

THE FALLS OF BARRACONDA.

BY LIEUT.-COLONEL LUKE SMYTH O'CONNOR, 1ST WEST INDIA REGIMENT, GOVERNOR AND COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF HER MAJESTY'S SETTLEMENTS IN THE RIVER GAMBIA.

"The Gambia is navigable for sloops six hundred miles from its mouth, to the Falls of Barraconda."-MOORE'S TRAVELS, 1737.

A SINGULARLY accurate map of Africa and chart of the river Gambia, considering the period it was made and published, 1737, by the traveller Moore, states-" Here are the Falls of Barraconda, beyond which no European has advanced." However, Moore is erroneous in this assertion, for in January, 1621, Jobson, an enterprising traveller employed by the African Company, passed the falls, reached the hill of Tenda,* and remained for some time with Buckar Sano, a native merchant. The difficulties of the navigation beyond the falls were very great, from the shallow state of the river, numerous sand-banks, intense heat during the day, and the danger arising from herds of elephants, hippopotami, large baboons, and alligators; but although it occupied twelve days to reach the hill of Tenda, Jobson returned in six, favoured by the current.

Subsequently, Vermuyden appears to have penetrated beyond the falls, and describes his discovering "vast masses of gold;" but the imperfect nature of his journals, and the inconsistent relations made by him, raise shrewd suspicions as to the authenticity of his narrative, and it is very probable that he never ascended so high as he boasts of having done.

In 1723, a Captain Stibbs was despatched by the Duke of Chandos, then director of the Royal African Company, and reached James's Fort, in the river Gambia, at the close of that year. He then proceeded to the Falls of Barraconda, which he describes "as two solid beds of rocks, extending from the opposite sides of the river, and each occupying about a third of its breadth." There was considerable difficulty in finding any channel, on account of the sunken rocks; at last a very narrow one was discovered. The few natives he met with were a harmless people, and "supplied him abundantly with fowls and provisions, but he found himself in the region of elephants, river horses, and baboons." Fifteen days after passing the Falls of Barraconda, the river became too shallow to float the boats, and the quick-sands prevented their being hauled along; but even here "the channel was one hundred and sixty yards in breadth." Stibbs, after making several unsuccessful attempts for a passage, gave up the undertaking; he may have arrived near to Tenda, but even this is very problematical.

Moore was the next traveller, and described the Falls of Barraconda as being six hundred miles from the mouth of the river; a vast

The "Koba Tenda" of Mungo Park.