ANECDOTE OF OSTERVALD, THE MISER. 217 was taken up, and committed prifoner to the Gate-house for a confiderable time. He died in the year 1678. Singular ANECDOTE of a MISER. J. K. MR. OSTERVALD, a well-known banker, died at Paris in December 1790, literally of want. This man, originally of Neufchatel, felt the violence of the difeafe of avarice (for furely it is rather a disease than a paffion of mind) so strongly, that, within a few days of his death, no importunities could induce him to buy a few pounds of meat for the purpose of making a little foup for him. Tis true,' faid he, I should not dislike the foup, but I have no appetite for the meat; what then is to become of that?' At the time that he refused this nourishment, for fear of being obliged to give away two or three pounds of meat, there was tied round his neck a filken bag, which contained 800 affignats of 1000 livres each. At his outfet in life, he drank a pint of beer, which ferved him for fupper, every night at a house much frequented, from which he carried home all the bottle-corks he could come at. Of these, in the course of eight years, he had collected as many as fold for 12 louis-d'or, a fum that laid the foundation of his fortune, the fuperftructure of which was rapidly raised by his uncommon fuccefs in stock-jobbing. He died poffeffed of three millions of livres, (125,000l. fterl.) X. A Singular PHENOMENON in NATURAL HISTORY. As extraordinary infect has lately been tranfmitted from when when it flies by night it fpreads a great light. Some fay, that if the face is rubbed with the humidity which iffues in shining spots or stars from this little living phosphorus, it will appear refplendent. Before the arrival of the Spaniards, the Indians made no use of candles, but of these insects to light their houses; by one of which a perfon may fee to read or write as easily as by a lighted candle. When the Indians walked in the night, they fixed one of them to each toe of the foot, and others in the hand. When taken, thefe infects do not live above three weeks at moft; while they are in good health they are very luminous, but their light decreases with their powers, and after they are dead they shine no more. ufeful, for they fly about the houses and devour the gnats. They are faid to be doubly CURIOSUS. Remarkable Inftances of BARBAROUS CRUELTY. MAHOMET, the first Turkish Emperor, was so taken with the perfections of a beautiful young Greek lady, whofe name was Irene, that he spent his whole time in her company, neglecting public affairs; but hearing his great officers were displeased at it, he fummoned them to meet him in a great room in his palace, and Irene being dreffed to the best advantage, he handed her into the midst of the Bafhaws, who admiring her beauty, and charming shape and gefture, condemned themfelves for cenfuring the Sultan for doating on fuch a lovely creature; but the Emperor, all of a sudden, twisting one hand in the downy curls of her hair, with his other hand drew his fabre, and with one drawing blow divided her head from her body, leaving all the spectators in a frightful pofture at the fight of fuch a cruel action, committed without any provocation from the innocent fufferer. Knowles's Turk. Hift. BARBAROUS CRUELTY. - 219 Amboyna, a town in the Eaft Indies, fituated in an ifland of the fame name, being the market for collecting and buying cloves, and other rich spices; the Dutch grasping at the whole trade of the spicery, having wormed out the Spaniards and the Portuguese, endeavoured to do the like with the English, who were their best friends and main fupport against the Spaniards in the Netherlands. This covetous defign caused many bickerings between them, but at length they came to terms of agreement; and the English, thinking themselves fecure, planted their factories in the town, under the protection of the caftle, held and well manned by the Dutch; but, before they had lived there two years, the Dutch began to attempt their utter extirpation, not by a maffacre, for that had been a merciful mifchief, but by fuch horrid, favage, and cruel tortures, as if they had fucked their malice from Indian tygers, or the worst part of the inhabitants of the infernal regions, for a more black and dismal tragedy was never seen or heard of. They pretending that the chief agent, Captain Gabriel Towerson, and the rest of the English factory, had confpired to feize the caftle, and expel the Dutch out of the Ifland, the Dutch feized the English, and, having no other witneffes against them than their racks, they extended their finews, drew them out at full length, disjointed all the limbs of their bodies, and by their water-racks, making them fuck in water with their breath, they fwelled the bodies to a monftrous proportion, till their skins were ready to crack, their cheeks blown up like bladders, and their eyes started out beyond their brows. And those whofe innocency and courage could not be forced by thefe cruel torments to accufe themselves of crimes they were no way guilty of, they burnt them with torches under their paps, their arm-holes, elbows, hands and feet, till the moisture which dropped from thofe burnt parts, put out their torches, Ff2 torches, and made fuch holes in their fides, that they might have perceived their entrails, though the monsters in cruelty would not difcern their innocency; but, perfevering in their devilish barbarities, threw them into dungeons, where their flesh putrified, and maggots engendered in their fores; which being horrible to express, what was it for these poor Englishmen to fuffer? Having thus wearied them out with new and repeated tortures, for eight days and eight nights together, ten of them were executed in March, 1623, there being but twenty English in the whole: the reft with racked, fwelled, burnt, and macerated bodies, were sent to the English plantations; and fo the Dutch feized that whole trade into their own hands, and have kept it till lately; and all this done at the fame time that the English were fighting for the Dutch at their own doors. The names of the English thus inhumanly treated, were, Captain Towerfon, Thompfon, Beaumont, Collins, Colfon, Webber, Ramsey, Johnson, Ford, and Brown. Hift. of Eng. 8vo. Vol. II. p. 174. Under the reign of Queen Mary I. in June, 1557, in the Ifle of Guernsey, was committed as great an act of cruelty and inhumanity as ever the fun fet eye on. A mother and her two daughters were burnt at the fame ftake as heretics, and one of them being a married woman, and big with child, with the violence of the fire, fhe burft, and a male child fell into the flames, and was fnatched out by one lefs cruel than the rest; but, after they had confulted about it awhile, the infant was thrown into the flames again, and confumed. Ibid. Vol. II. p. 493. Amurah III. Emperor of the Turks, fucceeding his father Selymus, after he had appeafed the Janifaries, by aug menting their pay and privileges, he caufed his five brothers, Mustapha, Solyman, Abdulla, Ofman, and Tzihan gar, |