strangely sticking, a three-tined fork, which belonged unto the doctor, and had been seen at his house after the boy's departure. Afterwards, his troubles found him out at the doctor's also; where, crying again he was pricked on the back,' they found an iron spindle stuck into him: and the spectre would make all his meat, when he was going to eat, fly out of his mouth; and instead thereof make him fall to eating ashes, sticks, and yarn.

Twenty persons, men and women, having been executed, the supposed sufferers, by their alleged enchantments, became more daring, and accused some of the best people in the country. Suspicion was now aroused; condemnation ceased; the accusers were silent; those under sentence were reprieved, and afterwards pardoned.

Seldom, does the historic page offer to the biographer a character more strongly marked than that of Phipps; of whose life, a cursory sketch may be found both instructive and entertaining. He was born at a small plantation on the river Kennebeck; his father was a gun-smith, formerly of Bristol, in England. His mother had twenty-six children, twenty-one of whom were sons. William, one of the youngest, reinained with her when a widow, tending sheep, until arrived at the age of eighteen. Actuated now by a powerful impulse, he conceived that he was born to fill a more important part in the drama of human life, resisted the desire of his friends that he would become a planter, and, as the first step towards attaining his imagined elevation, bound himself apprentice to a ship-carpenter. In this profession, he shortly became an adept. Having removed to Boston, he there followed his trade for about a year, and, by his good conduct, obtained in marriage the daughter of captain Spencer, a respectable citizen. Notwithstanding a severe disappointment and loss which soon afterwards befel him, he was still buoyed up by his early expectation of advancement: he frequently told his wife, that he should yet be captain of a king's ship, and have the command of better men than he accounted himself. But he did not vainly imagine. that riches would reward him in indolence, or that honours would pursue him in retirement. He felt that he possessed the vigour to attain what his ambition so eagerly desired; and that his prophecies might be fulfilled, by wis dom and prudence in the design, and patience and diligence in the pursuit. Upon hearing of a Spanish wreck at the Bahama islands, he made a voyage thither, to search for treasure; but with no greater success than just enabled him

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to visit England. His object in this, was to procure the means of examining another, and far richer, Spanish wreck; and, so forcible were his representations to the government, that, in 1683, he was appointed "captain of a king's ship," as he had prognosticated; in which vessel, a frigate of eighteen guns, this enterprising American arrived in his native country.

Many years were spent in fruitless endeavours to ascertain the position of the wreck; many dangers surmounted, with a degree of patience and presence of mind, fortitude and courage, scarcely surpassed by any hero, either of ancient or modern times. A few examples will be sufficient to establish the justice of our remarks. His men, wearied by their ineffectual endeavours, having mutinied, approached him on the quarter-deck, with drawn swords, and required that he should join them in running away with the ship, for the purpose of carrying on the trade of piracy in the Southern, ocean. But their brave commander was neither intimidated by their number, nor alarmed by their ferocity. Unarmed, unaided, unprepared, he rushed with heroic boldness upon the crowd, and, by the mere vigour of his blows, defeated his antagonists, and compelled them to their duty. At another time, whilst his frigate lay careening in a desolate island, by the side of a rock, from which was laid a plank reaching to the shore, his men, of whom he had about one hundred, went all, except eight or ten, to ⚫ amuse themselves, as they pretended, in the woods. Here, another conspiracy was formed. They determined, that in the evening they would seize their captain and the few faithful seamen who had remained on board, leave them to perish on the island, and sail with the ship, to perpetrate the robberies which they had planned before. Informed of their intentions, and assured of the fidelity of the others he prepared immediately to guard his vessel against surprise, and reduce the mutineers to obedience. Owing to the inclined posture of the frigate, all the provisions had been, through necessity, carried on shore; where they were placed in a tent, and secured by cannon from the possibili ty of an attack by the Spaniards. These, he silently or dered to be unloaded, and turned towards the interior, then, pulling up the bridge, he brought his own guns to bear on every part of the tent, and signified his intention of abandoning his atrocious crew to the fate which they had prepared for him. Terrified now by the apprehension of immediate destruction from the guns, or, at the less instant.

aneous, though more dreadful, death, from the want of food, they quickly brought the stores on board; and, having, on their knees, with eager supplications, displayed that cowardice which is the prominent feature of the assassin, they submitted to his orders. But Phipps would no longer intrust his person, nor seek to accomplish his design, with such a crew. He sailed to Jamaica, and discharged them. When arrived at Hispaniola, and informed, by a very old man, that the object of his desire was certainly upon a reef of shoals a few leagues from Port de la Plata, he sailed again for England; where, by the aid of the duke of Albemarle, and other persons of distinction, who became partners in his adventure, he prepared the necessary implements, and, with the most sanguine hopes, departed for the wreck. His perseverance was at length rewarded by success: an Indian diver led him to the long-lost treasure. Besides a large quantity of silver, brought up by a person named Adderly, of Providence, our hero recovered thirtytwo tons; which, with some gold and jewels, amounted to three hundred thousand pounds sterling. So generous, however, was he to his men, and so faithful to his partners, that only sixteen thousand were left to himself. But he received marks of distinction from his sovereign, which, to his noble mind, were more valuable than riches. He was

honoured, then, with the title of knighthood; and, for his general deportment, afterwards appointed to those stations in which we have already observed him,-commander-inchief and governor of the colony.

His family has since been ennobled by the king of England. Captain Phipps, a distinguished British navigator, is descended from the persevering American; and now bears the title of lord Mulgrave.

In the years 1627 and '38, '63, and '70, New England experienced violent earthquakes; which produced serious aiarm, but no real injury, to the inhabitants. In 1638, Harvard college, near Boston, the oldest seminary of learning in the United States, was founded. Two years before, the general court having voted four hundred pounds for the establishment of a public school, at Newtown, that sum was more than doubled by a bequest from Mr. John Harvard, a highly esteemed minister of Charlestown: who, in his will, left to the infant seminary half his entire estate. Thus endowed, the school was formed into a college; re ceiving, in memory of its benefactor, the name of Harvard and Newtown, through respect to the university in England,

where many of the original emigrants had been educated, was called Cambridge. The first Commencement was held two years afterwards; when nine students were honoured with the degree of bachelor of arts. The first master of the college, was Nathaniel Eaton; a good scholar, but without the other requisites for the instruction and government of youth. He was displaced for avarice, in withholding necessary commons; and for cruelty, in beating his usher with a cudgel, whilst two of his servants held him by the legs and arms.-This is the most richly endowed of all the American colleges. It has thirteen professors; and affords a wider range of liberal instruction than any other in the United States.

Some years from that period, a building was erected there for an Indian college; into which, several natives entered; but only one attained academical honours, before death, and other events, disorganized an institution so truly benevolent. But the generous designs entertained towards the improvement of that people, did not rest here. As a farther compensation for the injury suffered by them, from the encroachment on their lands, and consequent diminution of the means of supporting life, Mr. Elliot, a pious clergyman of Roxbury, translated the Bible into their own language, and had it printed at the expense of a society established for the spreading of the Christian religion. Besides, he com posed for them a primer, a grammar, and a book of psalms, with several other useful works; and was the means of opening schools in the Indian settlements, where the children were instructed, not only in their own language, but in the English, Greek, and Latin. Judicial courts were established amongst them, on the same principles as the county courts of the colony; in which, one English lawyer was united with the judges appointed by the natives.

But, let us inquire, what were the fruits of those institu ions, so libérally gifted, and planned with wisdom apparent ly so profound? Have the seeds, thus industriously sown, and assiduously cherished, yielded a harvest commensurate with the care devoted to their culture? Or, have they perished in a barren soil? Has the mode of cultivation been erroneous, the atmosphere injurious to increasing vigour? The soil, we believe, was generous: but there was a want of skill in the labourer; a destructive tendency in the climate. The Indian was overwhelmed with a multitude of doctrines, no less mysterious to the teacher, than incomprehensible to the pupil. The conduct of his patrons

towards their own brethren, offered an example at va..ance with their precepts; rendering him indifferent to their protection, and careless of a religion, that had nɔt subdued in themselves those passions which they now sought to restrain in others. Would he not exclaim, as did the simple Mexican, “Are any of these people in that Heaven to which we are invited? If there are, we desire not to follow!" Nor could he, though Virtue herself were to tender him salvation through a distorted creed, of which more than eighty opinions had been rejected by a Christian, receive it with sincerity: he might profess it for a season; but he would repay the labour of his ephemeral conversion in the accustomed deceptions of hypocrisy.

The third provincial seminary of letters, was established at New Haven, in Connecticut, in 1701; ten years after tha of William and Mary in Virginia. It was called Yale college, in honour of one of its principal benefactors; and intended chiefly for training up young men to the duties of the church. Dartmouth college, also, situated at Hanover, ir. New Hampshire, is a respectable institution. It was founded in 1769, and named after the earl of Dartmouth, one of its most liberal promoters.

The first printing press established in the British colonies, was in 1639, at Cambridge, superintended by Stephen Daye; but erected chiefly at the expense of Mr. Glover, an English clergyman, who died on his passage to America.

The first newspaper printed in the British colonies, was the Boston News Letter; in 1704. It was printed weekly, by Nathaniel Greene, for the proprietor, John Campbell, postmaster of Boston. No other paper was required, until 1719, a period of fifteen years; when William Brooker, then at the head of the post-office, published the Boston Gazette, and employed, as printer, James Franklin; an elder brother of the celebrated Benjamin Franklin. In 1721, James began the publication of another journal, the New England Courant. Its patrons formed themselves into a club, and furnished it with short, original essays, in imitation of the Spectator; which soon brought the Courant into notice. It was warmly opposed by the rigid puritans; whilst it was, with equal ardour, supported by men of more liberal opinions. But the press was then, as it had been during more than fifty years, in Massachusetts, under a rigorous censorship. Nothing could, with impunity, be published, unless pleasing to the colonial government. Franklin was soon imprisoned, and ordered to discontinue