CURIOSITIES AT BARAHCOON.

37

But what confirms it in a still stronger manner, is, that all these stones, composed of the fame principles, include nickel, a fubftance which is rarely found on the furface of the earth; and likewife iron in the metallic ftate, which is never seen in the products of volcanoes.

We cannot, therefore, attribute the fall of these stones to volcanic eruptions, and we have feen that there allo exift moral proofs which are repugnant to this mode of explication.

N.

An Account of the BURNING WELL at BARAHCOON.

[From the Oriental Magazine, printed at Calcutta ] My curiofity being excited by the various reports of this

prodigy, I was determined to fee it, and accordingly fet out in company with two gentlemen. We proceeded as far as Jaffrabad, in our palanquins; but it being the rainy feafon, and the creeks fo full of water, we were obliged to relinquifh that mode of conveyance, and were under the neceffity of applying to the natives to get us elephants, which they did. We were now preparing to mount them, when their keepers presented us with some plantains, and informed us, that by offering them to the elephants, we should fecure their friendship during our journey, and make them careful of us through the woods. Following their advice, we prefented the fruit, which was very gratefully accepted, and a grand falaam (the Eastern mode of falutation) given us by the elephants, with their trunks, on the top of their foreheads. After this falutation they immediately laid down, holding one of their knees as a ftep for us to mount. After riding eight miles, we approached the Mountain of Barahcoon, and foon afterwards entered a cavity between two hills. We had advanced a little way, when a variety of infects furrounded us, and began to be very trouble3 B2

fome,

fome, which the elephants foon observed, and quickly relieved: each of them broke a branch of a tree with his trunk, and continually kept fanning us with it, so that the flies had no opportunity of annoying us. Whenever they had worn off the leaves by fanning us in this manner, they broke another branch. After proceeding four miles farther (through the most disagreeable road ever feen, and had not the fagacious elephants fhewed the utmost attention to our fituation, we must have been bruifed and torn to pieces by the boughs of different trees of an immenfe fize) we arrived at the place the object of our journey, a little before reaching which, a very romantic fcene presented itself to our view. Several waterfalls, from rugged precipices, of a moft tremendous height, were interspersed with trees. We approached the top, after afcending a flight of steps amazing high, where the Burning Well was, and were met by feveral Faukeers, who live in small temples, and attend the frequent facrifices made there. Before we came to the entrance of one which had a dome over it, we heard a hollow noife like that of thunder; and, on entering it, emitted a fhocking fulphureous finell. On looking down a flight of steps, we saw a quantity of water iffuing out of the fides of rocks, and a blue flame covering the whole furface of the water, which every bubble that came from below, increased and made go off with a kind of explosion. The fcene was really frightful. One of us went down, being determined to fee whether it was not mere prieftcraft, occafioned by a fulphureous furnace at the bottom, in order to impose upon the ignorant, and fanctify the fuperftitious ideas of the Faukeers. The gentleman who defcended, dipt his cane into the water, and to our great furprize, he found the water cold he then put his hand into a place clear of the flame, but the water was not in the leaft warm, but exceffively cold. Obferving that the ftones where the water iffued

out

HORRID BARBARITY.

373

out of, he imagined through this means the flame might be communicated to the water, he called for a kedgeree-pot, and poured fome water upon the ftones, which cooled them immediately; but as foon as the water bubbled up again, the flash was directly the fame, and the ftones quickly reaffumed their former red colour. The water tafted as if there had been fulphur and verdigrease infused in it. The colour of the ftones about the well varied, thofe nearest to it being red, and others at a greater distance blue. During our stay, feveral of the bearers bathed in the Burning Well.

Having heard there was fire conftantly iffuing from a rock at Setewon, about four miles from the above place, we vifited it. The blaze was not fo violent or fo great here as at the former place, not exceeding what a cup of fpirits on fire might produce.

On entering one of the temples of a neighbouring hill, on which there are many, we saw a large hard blue stone, and on the top a small figure of a Bacchanalian form; there was fo much dew on the ftone, that in running off at one corner, it resembled a small stream, which would fill a common wine bottle in about an hour. It seemed ftrongly impregnated with fulphur. After amufing ourselves for fore time, we mounted our elephants, and returned home.

WM. T- -S.

An Inftance of HORRID BARBARITY, in the Environs of

VIENNA.

A GIRL who had been in fervice in that city, and had faved 400 florins, fet out from thence for the purpose of taking the money home to her family. In her way the ftopped at a public houfe in a village in order to pafs the night, the master and miftrefs of which were her rela

tions.

tions. Having related to her hoftefs the object of her journey, the latter formed the diabolical project of murdering her for the purpose of getting poffeffion of the money. In order to execute this horrid crime with the greater facility, fhe proposed that the girl fhould fleep in her own chamber in her daughter's bed, and that the latter fhould remove into a clofet, which was affented to. Before they retired to reft, however, and in the abfence of the mother, the two cousins had fome converfation, and at length it was agreed that the daughter fhould fleep in her own bed, and that the other girl fhould fleep in the clofet, after which they went to their refpective beds as agreed upon between themselves. Soon after midnight, the mother repaired to the bed where fhe fuppofed her deftined victim to be afleep, but where, in confequence of the agreement of which he was ignorant, her own daughter was then lying, and poured boiling fat down her throat. She foon, however, difcovered her miftake, and recognised her daughter by her cries, called loudly for help, but all affiftance was ufelefs, as the unfortunate girl expired in the most dreadful agonies.

Wonderful Difcoveries of MURDER.

A GENTLEMAN, upon whofe fidelity we can well depend,

affures us, from his own knowledge and remembrance, of the following fact.

An officer in the army, Captain Paxton, about forty years ago, took a farm near Luton in Bedfordfhire, which he rented of Mr. Crofs, à brewer in London, who á had formerly been a plough-boy to a farmer there. The captain would needs affume the air of a perfon of eftate, and keep a bailiff to manage the affairs of his farm. He fent him one market-day to fell grain and other goods at Luton, expecting money at his return: the bailiff whofe

name

OF A SINGULAR MÜRDER.

375 name was Reddas, having laid out the money he had received upon fome neceffary occafions, the captain fell into a rage, and in the height of his wrath stabbed the man, who foon after died of the wound. Paxton, upon this, fled into foreign parts, and continued there about two years. Having fome urgent business to tranfact in England, he ventured to return, hoping he might pass undiscovered, wearing a black patch over one of his eyes. The very moment he stepped out of the boat at one of the landingplaces upon the Thames, having scarcely set foot upon the ftairs of the place, the murdered perfon's brother (a barber at Luton) happened to be there, immediately knew him, and got him fecured.-Paxton was brought down to Bedford, and fentenced to the gibbet.

J. J. 1763, 26 October, I had this ftory attefted to me anew, by another person of good character, who knew the man. March 29, 1763.

This evening, George Keate, efq. of the temple, being at Dr. Young's upon a vifit, told us this remarkable ftory, which he had from Mr. Pinkey, chief justice of South Carolina, and which Pinkey had received from the captain of the ship who had brought the Negro hereafter mentioned from Carolina into England, the laft time of his coming over hither from thence, when he was taken up, as shall be hereafter related, in the prefence of the faid captain and of all his crew.

Whatever the occafion might be, this Negro, fome years before, put himself aboard a fhip fetting fail for England; which probably might be the first time of his coming over hither.

He was landed in one of our docks near London, and contracted with a poor honeft laundrefs in that neighbourhood for washing his linen. This poor woman wore generally three rings on one of her fingers, and was reputed to

have