tory sounds of the bell of death on shore. And as for the first time in obedience to it I ascended the companion-ladder, and passed through the opening crowd to the side of the ship, where in the sad preparations of the grave lay the form of one who at that hour the day previous had little thought of being then in eternity, I could scarce command my voice, in giving utterance to the sublime declaration of the burial service, "I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord." The pause too preceding the words "we commit his body to the deep," and then the plunge and plash of the lifeless clay, as it is launched to its watery tomb, speak in a voice more deeply touching than that sent back by the clod of the valley from the narrow house, when dust returns to dust, and ashes to ashes, in the seemingly more natural cemetery within the churchyard limits! The person buried was a young man of the marines. He had been ill for a fortnight, but was at no time thought dangerous, and for the last few days was considered convalescent. I first conversed with him upon the subject of religion ten days ago. In reply to the question, whether he had ever thought seriously of the destiny of the soul, his only answer— and one which he seemed to think abundantly sufficient, as his black eyes filled with tears-was, "I had a pious mother!" I have seen him daily since, and though confessedly far from God, he appeared persuaded to cast himself in penitence upon His mercy, and hereafter to lead a virtuous life. Poor fellow! he little thought his end was so nigh. On attempting to sit up after having been in a quiet sleep, the rupture of an internal abscess took place, and springing in a convulsion from his cot, he fell dead in the arms of his attendant. His was the first funeral, but we had too sad evidence before us that it was not to be the last. A petty officer was lying at the time in the very jaws of death, and expired the same day. Noble in figure and of an uncommonly hardy constitution, he died at the early age of thirty, a sacrifice to the demon of drunkenness. Before he was thought in particular danger, a fortnight ago, I spoke to him, in one of my visits, of the importance of being at all times prepared for sickness and death; to which he replied, that he was too weak both in body and mind, to think on such subjects. Then he was comparatively strong and perfectly himself; but soon afterward, the "delirium tremens,” with all its accompanying tokens of a horrid end, took from him every power of reflection, and he perished a miserable and degraded soul. As I stood by his cot gazing at his convulsed and agonized frame, just before he expired-after having lain six hours speechless, and utterly incapable of articulating a syllable distinctly-in an effort of anger at a shipmate attending him, he broke out in the most dreadful oaths and curses, sounding in my ears as if they already came from the region of the damned! To commend his immortal spirit by prayer to the mercy of an Eternal Judge, was all in my power to do; and I turned away with the heartfelt aspiration "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his !" VOL. I. C 26 SCENERY LETTER V. BAY OF RIO JANEIRO. Scenery of the Coast.-Evening Sketch.-Entrance of the Bay. - The Sugar-loaf. — Botafogo. — The Gloria Hill. — Praya Grande. - U. S. Ship Guerriere, Rio de Janeiro, EARLY on the morning of Friday the 27th inst., at a distance of 30 miles, we made Cape Frio, a lofty promontory, one degree due east of Rio de Janeiro. The morning was delightful, and with a breeze fresh and fair, we hoped at the time to gain the harbour by nightfall; but after doubling the Cape we lost the regular trade wind, and coming within the alternate influence of a land and a sea breeze, made such slow advances as on Saturday evening to be still outside of the bay, twenty miles from the city. It having fallen entirely calm, we were obliged here to drop anchor for the night, and wait for the breeze of the morning to carry us into port. But for the interruption of the order and worship of the Sabbath-a consequence of this delay-I should not have regretted it, from the greater opportunity afforded to observe and admire the rich and noble scenery of the coast. I was somewhat surprised, and you will believe me, dear H, much delighted, to find a most striking resemblance in some of the characteristic features of this celebrated empire and those of the islands of the Pacific, once our residence. Had I been taken blindfold to the anchorage of the Guerriere on Saturday evening, without knowing in what part of the world I was, I should fully have thought myself, on beholding it, in some group of Polynesia. There are the same fantastic headlands of bare sand and ashes, washed and furrowed by water-courses till seemingly the production of artificial workmanship, the same loftiness and wildness of outline in the mountains, the same dark luxuriant forests hanging among naked precipices and projecting cliffs about their summits, and the same smooth swelling hills of light green encircling their bases, like so much velvet, in the brightness of the sun. Indeed the whole coast from Cape Frio appeared so much to my eye like the first parts of Hawaii we saw on reaching the Sandwich Islands, that as we sailed along, at too great a distance to distinguish any distinctive marks of the abode of men-a vapourish smoke rising here and there from the low lands and valleys being the only evidence of inhabitants discovered-I could scarce banish the impression, from strong associations with that period, that this too was a heathen land. And in attempting, with a glass, to secure a closer observation, felt something like disappointment in not distinguishing, at intervals along the shore, huts of thatch, surrounded by their dark and naked inmates. The imperialists of Brazil might think me doing injustice to the magnificence of their country, by thus associating it in my mind with that of the rude natives of the Pacifie; but so 28 SCENERY OF THE COAST. far as the interest excited in my own bosom by it is concerned, it may justly be interpreted into the highest encomium I can bestow. Our anchorage on Saturday was near a lofty, naked cone, called the "False Sugar-loaf," in contradistinction to one very similar, ten miles further west, marking the immediate entrance to the harbour of Rio. We lay within a couple of miles of the shore, surrounded by scenery of great splendour and beauty. Before us, at the distance of a few miles, was the wild range of mountains immediately south of the channel into Rio, the most striking feature of which is known to sailors by the name of "Hood's Nose," from a supposed strong resemblance to that appendage of his Lordship's face. Indeed the whole range presents the outline of a colossal figure, in as near conformation to the human shape as the effigies on many tombs of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, lying on its back, with the head towards the sea. On our right and very near, was a beautifully defined beach, of snowy whiteness, stretching in a long curve to the east, and with a couple of islets, which we had passed, forming the kind of bay in which we were. Beyond the beach stretched a narrow interval of lowland, covered with grass, backed by abrupt hills and mountains of yaried and beautiful outline; the centre of the sweep rising much above the rest, and forming a kind of crown to all around; the whole beautifully wooded, and still in the wild luxuriance of nature. The lights of the evening gave the contour and |