Of this place, he is not sparing of commendations. "The position of the town is the finest in the world, the houses well built, and the inhabitants are industrious, polite, hospitable, and intelligent." Now what has given to this village such superior advantages? Why, truly, there are three Irishmen residing in it, "who have hindered by their influence, the vitious propensities of the genuine American character from establishing here, the horrid dominion which they have assumed over the Atlantic States." But even with Pittsburg he is not altogether satisfied. Its "scholastic establishment," particularly receives his censure. He informs us,

"There is of a public nature but one which is called an academy, and is supported by the voluntary munificence of the citizens. It is under the direction of a number of Trustees, who employ themselves so much in altercation when they meet, that they have not yet had time to come to any mutual understanding on its concerns. There is, however, a master appointed, who instructs about twenty boys in a sort of transatlantic Greek and Latin, something in the nature of what the French call patois, but which serves the purpose of the pupils as well as if their teacher were a disciple of Demosthenes or Cicero."

By the perusal of this passage we had excited in our minds a mixed emotion of surprise and regret, that the good people of Pittsburg who have derived such inestimable benefits from the "three Irishmen," above described, have not hitherto discerned the importance of placing one or all of them in the direction of their "scholastic establishment," as from the acknowledged meekness of the Hibernian dispositions, so often, and conspicuously displayed, especially in our own country, those jars and bickerings among the trustees which have proved so baneful to the vital interests of the "Academy," would probably be harmonized or suppressed, and as by this arrangement they might also reform the "transatlantic" corruptions of classick purity, with which they are charged, by substituting the sweet enunciation of the true brogue of Erin.*

We trust, it will be understood, that we are neither sa silly, nor illiberal as to mean, by these observations, to convey a general and indiscriminate censure on the Irish nation. On the contrary, no one has a more exalted respect than the writer of this article for a people, whom he deliberately considers as among the most brave, generous, honourable, and high-minded of Europe. He never can forget whom she has produced, and what she has

Before our traveller embarks for New-Orleans, he resolves, very wisely, to endeavour to sell his horse, which had now become useless to him." As to money, not a dollar could be got for him. Whether this difficulty arose from the scarcity of specie, or the peculiar properties of the "creature," seems to us somewhat doubtful. All the offers, we are told, were in kind, and the various articles proposed in exchange are very pompously enumerated. Poor Rosinante is, however, ultimately swapped away for "salt pans," but how many does not exactly appear.

Relieved from the incumbrance of the horse, he prepares without delay to descend the Ohio, and accordingly buys a boat for "Forty Dollars," a sum which he seems never to exceed, and procures a servant of the name of Cuffe, "a fellow without any other character than that he knew something of the waters, was a good shot, and well acquainted with the haunts of wild turkies, game, and wild beasts," but who, we shall see in the sequel, nevertheless makes a very conspicuous figure.

They land a few days after their embarkation on a small island to which they are attracted by the singular beauty of its appearance. Leaving poor Cuffe, very patiently to catch fish," he sets off to explore this "little insular world." Here he meets with a family in the bosom of retirement, by whom he is "taken for a robber." At this very natural mistake he is amazed, and "waxes warm." The fears, however, which he engendered, are instantly removed by the assurance that he was not a Kentucky With the family, in despite of the recent affront, Mr. Ashe, after this eclaircisement, becomes "very sociable," and, prompted by the liberal curiosity which so eminently distinguishes him, he prys minutely into their history. We single out as by no means the least important incident which he records, "that the old man had sometime before bought a male and female pig, which had multiplied prodigiously!"

man.

As the evening advances, our adventurous knight, by that lack of firmness to which the most heroic are sometimes subject, is

achieved under circumstances too, the least auspicious to the development of genius, and the exertions of enterprize. The real, and indeed the obvious import of our remarks, is, to repel the harsh and unmanly reflections of a spurious Irishman, and in doing which, we have had occasion playfully to allude to some of these peculiarities which are confessedly incident to the national character.

filled with fears" at the prospect of sleeping in the open air." His imagination groups before him all the horrors of "wild beasts," and Cuffe," a fellow without character," very wickedly augments his apprehensions by reciting "stories of accidents happening on the waters, of murders committed, robberies perpetrated, of whirlpools, cataracts, and rapid falls," &c. But these dismal narratives were productive, by his own confession, of one excellent effect. They awoke in his mind the remembrance of his obligations to heaven, &c.

Notwithstanding, however, all these anxieties and alarms, our traveller some days after reaches Wheeling in perfect safety, "one of the most considerable towns on the western waters." Of the state of society and manners here, he speaks with the utmost detestation. Founded originally by renegadoes and “acquitted felons," he represents it at present to be in morals, even more flagitious and degenerate than Botany Bay! But upon this subject, we should do injustice to Mr. Ashe were we to employ any other language than his own.

To this place, he says, "all persons outlawed or escaping from justice fled, and resided, without the apprehension of punishment or the dread of contempt and reproach. They formed a species of nefarious republic, where equality of crime constituted a social bond. Of these materials, the society of the town is now formed."

Mr. Ashe very kindly offers a plan to cleanse this Augean stable. He proposes to one of the inhabitants, a "quaker of high respectability," to clear the town not only of its original race, but of every "profligate" whatsoever, and to deter others of a similar description from coming into it. We should think this very salutary advice, only, that were it to be adopted, the town would be thereby depopulated, if the preceding account of the character of its inhabitants be correct, and that, peradventure, it might operate sometimes very inconveniently on those "strangers who wander in the west." We cannot help suspecting indeed, had such a harsh and restrictive regulation existed, that our traveller himself would have experienced some small difficulty in gaining admission into this "wicked place!"

Forty miles below Wheeling, Mr. Ashe is again exposed to the terrors of "a night scene." Being somewhat intimidated by

the "majestic appearance" of the river, he prudently lands, and encamps till the morning. The spot selected was under the "lengthened gloom of a large walnut tree." At first, " a silence almost terrific, and certainly awful, reigned through the woods. The hour was too early for beasts to prowl, and too late for birds to sing." This state of quietude is abruptly interrupted by Cuffe, who, to the great alarm of his master, begins to howl like a wolf. But upon being convinced there is no danger from "wild beasts," where there is a fire, he permits Cuffe to proceed, who resumes, we are told with "a solo, so exquisite in judgment, so correct in expression, and so natural in cadence, that the very demons of the woods awake and join him in horrid chorus."

With this specimen of ululation, Mr. Ashe is charmed to ecstasy. He calls upon Cuffe to exert his whole imitative faculties, previously however taking refuge in the boat, which is hauled into the stream as a place of perfect safety.

Despairing of being able to convey anything like an adequate idea of this extraordinary performance, we shall cite the description given of it, though we are sensible that we have dealt already too liberally in extracts.

"I must," exclaims our author " do Cuffe the justice to acknowledge that never was a man more perfect, more inimitable in his profession, this science, for which the world yet want a name. He passed through all the varied modulations between infancy and old age; between a fawn and an Elk; between a young calf, and a Buffalo Bull. The beasts of the forest were deceived. Much commotion ensued. The stir and agitation approached. Savage must that breast have been, into which such cries did not strike fear. From the malignant yell of the tiger cat, up to the Panther's bloody roar; the wolf's howl, and the bear's rugged voice; all were heard, and all gave alarm. He ceased. A universal cry was uttered through the woods, which struck the Virginia shore, beat against the opposite hills, and at length died in the distant windings of the water."

After this wonderful exhibition, the master's opinion of the servant is entirely changed. I begin to think him, says he, "a great acquisition, and shall afford him every possible opportunity of following his propensity, and of improving his voice." With his usual discernment, Mr. Ashe at once perceives that this talent may be directed to useful employments. Henceforward, therefore, Cuffe is ordered to "crow in the morning like a cock to rouse all hands." By all hands, we presume Mr. Ashe meant his own two`

hands, for he and Cuffe, it appears, were the only persons of the party!

In this manner our Traveller "descends the river," occasionally stopping at some village, which he never leaves without pouring forth the severest invective against its inhabitants, or encamping on the "desert shore," where he is certain to encounter a host of terrors from wild beasts, and the "elementary conflicts of nature," or what, in more homely and familiar phraseology, is commonly called a thunder gust. During one of these tempests, he confesses that he stood appalled, and thought the gates of Chaos, Hell, and confusion, were opened wide above him."

This was at the moment when, the "lightning which before flashed in fine lambent flames, and intermittent flakes now took eccentric, hostile, and zigzag shapes, which perpetually traversed and opposed each other, or else formed balls of fire, which shot in all directions through the air, rolled along the ground, or hissed over the surface of the water: and the thunder which commenced by single peals continued with constant and dreadful clamour. The explosions never dying, and the reverberations appearing to vie with them in impetuosity and power."

At length, Mr. Ashe, penetrates into Kentucky, and visits Lexington, and the other principal towns of the State.

Lexington, he tells us, is well built, even having some pretensions to European elegance. The churches, however, which are four in number, and were never finished, "have all the glass struck out by boys in the day, and the inside torn up by rogues and prostitutes, who frequent them at night!" The prevailing amusements of the citizens are drinking, and gambling at billiards and cards. The women are represented as vastly superior to the men, but still they are only " rude beauties, having none of that chaste and elegant form of person and countenance, which distinguish those of England." This is ascribed to their "distance from improved society, and the savage taste, and vulgarity of the men." Leaving "all meaner things," Mr. Ashe now turns Philosopher, and the residue of his work is crowded with speculations the most refined and original. The objection, commonly alleged, against theorists, that they are prone to raise their hypotheses upon very slender foundations, and without sufficient regard to data, can hardly be applied to those we are to review. Mr. Ashe, with the happiest success collects indiscriminately from every person he meets in the course of his rambles, from the Chief Justice of the