CONSOLATION IN THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD. "WHATEVER Way I turned," says Mungo Park, in one of his Travels, "nothing appeared but danger and difficulty. I saw myself in the midst of a vast wilderness, in the depth of the rainy season, naked and alone, surrounded by savage animals, and men still more savage. I was five hundred miles from the nearest European settlement. At this moment, painful as my reflections were, the extraordinary beauty of a small moss irresistibly caught my eye. I mention it to shew from what trifling circumstances the mind will sometimes derive consolation; for though the whole plant was not larger than the top of one of my fingers, I could not contemplate the delicate conformation of its roots and leaves without admiration. Can that Being, thought I, who planted, watered, and brought to perfection in this obscure part of the world, a thing which appears of so small importance, look with unconcern upon the situation and sufferings of creatures formed after His own image? Surely not. I started up, and disregarding both hunger and fatigue, travelled forward, assured that relief was at hand; and I was not disappointed." Providence and rural hospitality. In this manner Cap- | existence at the Mysore Presidency.-Madras United tain C. became well known to the natives of the country Service Gazette. in every direction where sport was to be obtained; he was sufficiently acquainted with their language to make himself understood, and the kindly simplicity of his manner attached them to his person, and many of them indeed have been known to walk miles to give him early information of large game, which were his favourite objects of pursuit. Captain C. was thus quite "at home" in the Wynaud jungle and great western ghauts, where he probably brought to bag single-handed more head of large game-elephants, bisons, tigers, and the like, than any other man ever did before, or ever will again in India. When upon one of these excursions Captain C. happened to be passing the night in a small village in the Wynaud jungle, a ryot, who had been out very late searching for a stray bullock, came to tell him of a large cheetul, or spotted deer, which he had watched to its lair. He had also heard from the villagers that a huge snake had been seen several times in the neighbourhood. He started accordingly after his game at day-break, accompanied by the villager and a favourite dog, which rarely left his heels unless when ordered. After proceeding about a mile through very dense jungle, and being, as the villager supposed, near the spot where the cheetul had lain down, Captain C. of a sudden missed his dog, and hearing a rustling in the bushes about ten yards off, accompanied by a whimpering noise, he turned in that direction, and saw what he at the first glance took for a tiger, from its colour, a mixture of black and brown, but soon discovered what the monster really was, an enormous boa constrictor, which had seized his poor Juno, and was at the moment crushing her to atoms in its terrible coils. The native who was with him saw what it was likewise, and immediately fled. Captain C. afterwards described the appearance of the reptile, when thus coiled round his dog, as something resembling a barrel, every portion in violent muscular motion, and he distinctly heard the bones of the poor animal crack in succession within its terrible embrace. At last the monster raised his head and fixed two glaring eyes on Captain C., who, in another moment, might perchance have been fascinated by their deadly gleam, but with unerring aim he placed two balls in its forehead. The effect was not, however, as he expected, fatal; and the snake, instantly uncoiling itself from its victim, came straight at Captain C., who of course took to flight; but so thick was the jungle, that he found the animal gaining on him, from the noise it made amongst the bushes, and therefore sought shelter in a tree, re-loading his gun with all possible expedition. Whether the reptile followed him by sight or smell he could not judge, but Captain C. was only just prepared for a second discharge, when the boa reached the tree, and instantly twisting itself around the stem, would have soon seized him, but fortunately at the next shot he blew out both his eyes with a charge of B B: yet, though the snake appeared for a moment stunned, it still continued its efforts to reach him, until by repeated shots it was incapacitated from rising; not, though, till Captain C. had completely emptied his powder flask; and he even then did not venture to descend, as the reptile continued coiled round the tree, occasionally by a muscular movement showing that its vital powers were not yet wholly extinct. At length, after some hours' solitary confinement on his perch, and shouting until he was hoarse for aid, Captain C. had the satisfaction to see a number of villagers arrive, by whom the monstrous animal was soon completely destroyed. Captain C. had no means of accurately measuring its length but by a piece of stick, which the natives said was a cubit long, and he declared that it measured upwards of 30 of these, and was much thicker than one of his own thighs, which were of a make that would have well become the leather fie-for-shames of any life guardsman! The head of the boa was cut off by his orders, and sent to the Hon Mr. Cole, then president of Mysore; and its enormous jaws still may possibly be in Ir was from a private meeting that "The French Academy" derived its origin, and the true beginners of that celebrated institution assuredly had no foresight of the object to which their conferences tended. Several literary friends at Paris, finding the extent of the city occasioned much loss of time in their visits, agreed to meet on a fixed day every week, and chose Courart's residence as centrical. They met for the purposes of general conversation, or to walk together, or, what was not least social, to partake in some refreshing collation. All being literary men, those who were authors submitted their new works to this friendly society, who, without jealousy or malice, freely communicated their strictures; the works were improved, the authors were delighted, and the critics were honest! Such was the happy life of the members of this private society during three or four years. Pelisson, the earliest historian of the French Academy, has delightfully described it: “It was such, that now, when they speak of these first days of the academy, they call it the golden age, during which, with all the innocence and freedom of that for tunate period, without pomp and noise, and without any other laws than those of friendship, they enjoyed together all which a society of minds, and a rational life, can yield of whatever softens and charms."-D'Israeli. IT is but reasonable to bear that accident patiently which God sends, since impatience does but entangle us, like the fluttering of a bird in a net, but cannot at all ease our trouble, or prevent the accident; it must be run through, and therefore it were better we compose ourselves to a patient than to a troubled and miserable suffering.-Bishop Jeremy Taylor. It is better to be born with a disposition to see things on the favourable side, than to an estate of ten-thousand a-year.-Hume. CONTENTS. Page My Country Home........ 399 Poetical Genius...... ..... 385 | POETRY.— 387 392 The Benefits resulting from Popular Year Book............. 397 MISCELLANEOUS: 399 Adventure with a Boa Con- London:-Published by T. B. SHARPE, 15, Skinner Street, Snow-hill. No. 26.] London Magazine: A JOURNAL OF ENTERTAINMENT AND INSTRUCTION CORAL REEFS. St. Louis, King of France. (See page 404.) AMONG the various alterations which are continually taking place in the surface of our globe, perhaps the most important, because the most lasting, are those which are brought about by the most insignificant instruments. The volcano devastates and the earthquake overthrows; but in time, a fresh soil accumulates upon the once burning lava, and a new vegetation springs up; the island, which burst forth from the depths of the ocean, remains for a few years, and then disappears again. Not so with the achievements of the coral insect; by its labours are built up islands for the habitation of man; by it countries are united, and seas become dry land. We might speculate widely on the changes thus wrought, but we will first take a short view of the structure and distribution of coral reefs, according to the theory of Mr. Darwin, whose manner of treating the subject renders it highly interesting. Mr. Darwin says,- "Without any distinct intention to classify coral reefs, most voyagers have spoken of them under the following heads: lagoon islands,' or 'atolls;' barrier' or 'encircling reefs;' and 'fringing, or shore reefs.' The lagoon islands have received much the most attention; and it is not surprising, for every one must be struck with astonishment, when he first beholds one of these vast rings of coral rock, often many leagues in diameter, here and there surmounted by a low verdant island with dazzling white shores, bathed on the outside by the foaming breakers of the ocean, and on the inside surrounding a calm expanse of water, which, from reflection, is of a bright but pale green colour. The naturalist will feel this astonishment more deeply, after having examined the soft and almost gelatinous bodies of these apparently insignificant creatures, and when he knows that the solid reef increases only on the outer edge, which day and night is lashed by the breakers of an ocean never at rest." Several theories have been advanced upon this subject, but they have been found insufficient. Mr. Darwin's is, that both in atolls and barrier reefs, the foundation has subsided while the reefs have grown upwards. This theory has been objected to since the publication of Mr. Darwin's book; but the objection seems to relate merely to the depth at which the reef-building insects flourish; which, according to our author, is very limited. Let us take a description of an atoll, and we shall see the difficulty arising from this very supposition. Darwin saw it, was almost choked up with living coral, so that no vessel could pass through it. On several of the islets, only young cocoa-nut trees were growing on the extremities, while older and taller trees rose in regular succession behind them; which shows that the islets have lately increased in length; probably by the channels being filled up by fresh coral, or by sandy accumulations. These appearances indicate an increase of the atoll; there are others which seem to show the encroachment of the water. In several places, old cocoa-nuts were falling with their roots undermined, and there were rotten stumps of others upon the beach, where the inhabitants affirmed the cocoa-nut could not now grow. Also, near the settlement, were the foundation-posts of a shed, now washed by every tide, but which, the inhabitants stated, had seven years before stood above high-water mark. Hence Mr. Darwin inferred, that probably the whole had lately subsided in a small degree; and this inference was strengthened by the circumstance that the island had been shaken by an earthquake two years previously. As to the future, if left undisturbed the islets may still extend in length; but the conversion of the lagoon into land must be very slow, as the constant deposition of sediment by fish and mollusca, which are very numerous there, checks the growth of coral reefs, so that these two agencies cannot act together with full effect in filling it up. This description of the structure of Keeling atoll applies to nearly all the atolls in the Pacific and Indian oceans. There are seldom more than two or three channels, and generally only one leading into the lagoon of sufficient depth for a ship to enter. In small atolls, there is usually not even one. In the Maldiva group, the atolls are so related to each other in form and position, that at the first glance one is led to suspect that they have originated in the disseverment of a single one; the theory of subsidence, with the upward growth of the coral, modified by accidents of probable occurrence, will account for the occasional disseverment of large atolls. Keeling, or Coco atoll (we abridge from Mr. Darwin), is situated in the Indian ocean, a short distance south of Sumatra. Its greatest width is nine miles and a half. It is a ring, enclosing the lagoon on all sides, except at the northern end, where there are two open spaces, through one of which ships can enter. The reef varies in width from 250 to 500 yards; its surface is level, or very slightly inclined towards the lagoon, and at high tide the sea breaks entirely over it; the water at low tide thrown by the breakers on the reef, is carried by many narrow and shoal gullies, most of which intersect the line of reef at right angles, into the lagoon; a return stream sets out of the lagoon at the main entrance. The outer margin consists of porites, which, not being tidal animals, require to be constantly washed by the breakers, and are destroyed by a very short exposure to the rays of the sun. Where this had occurred, Mr. Darwin found the insects in the uppermost cells all dead; but lower down on the side they were living, and formed a projecting border round the upper and dead surface. The coral, being thus checked in its upward growth, extends laterally, and hence most of the masses had broad, flat, dead summits. On the outer margin of the reef was also a millepora, which grows in thick plates intersecting each other, and forming an extremely strong mass; the outside plates alone being alive. The rugged sloping surface round the external margin seems formed of great masses of living coral, fragments of which had been cast on the beach during gales, and were found to be of various kinds. On the margin of the reef, close within the line of the dead porites, there are other species which seem to require to be bathed during the greater part of each tide by breaking water, as they are not found in protected hollows; these formed high islands. Some barrier reefs have very few islets a fringe of two or three feet in thickness, and about twenty yards in width, like an artificial break water. The islets on the reef are first formed through an accumulation of a pile of fragments thrown together by some unusually strong gale. Their ordinary width is under a quarter of a mile, and their length varies from a few yards to several miles. The highest part is towards the outer margin, whence the surface slopes gently to the shores of the lagoon, where the little waves heap up sand and fragments of thinly branched corals. The lagoon of Keeling atoll is much shallower than that of most atolls of considerable size. The southern part is almost filled up with banks of mud, and fields of coral both dead and alive; but there are considerable spaces of great depth. The corals are very different from those on the outside; most of them have thin branches. These interior reefs are irregular in form, and have not a solid flat surface of dead rock, like that surrounding the lagoon; nor are they so hard, as, ten years since, the inhabitants made a channel through them with crow-bars, in order to float out a schooner, built on one of the islands. This channel, when Mr. "Barrier" reefs are those which encircle islands, as in the Society Archipelago, where they generally lie at the distance of from one to one-and-a-half miles, and occasionally even at more than three miles, from the shore. The central mountains are generally bordered by a fringe of flat, and often marshy, alluvial land, from one to four miles in width. This fringe consists of coral sand and sediment thrown up from the lagoon channel, and of soil washed down from the hills. In some cases the lagoon channels are open, with a level bottom of fine sand; in others they are choked up with reefs of delicately branched corals, of the same general character as those within Keeling atoll. These either stand separately, or more commonly skirt the shores of the includ on them; others are surrounded by numerous ones; and some form a single linear strip. Sometimes a part of the reef lies under water, dead, and covered with sand. The breaches in the reefs generally occur in front of the main valleys of the encircled island; the rivers bring down from the mountains mud, and other substances, which, being carried out to sea by the current, not only keep the breach open, but prevent the growth of fresh coral. The islands lying within reefs of this class are of various elevations; their number likewise varies. In the Gambier group there are four large, and some smaller islands within one reef; within that of Hogoleu nearly a dozen small islands are scattered over the expanse of one vast lagoon. Thus, an encircling barrier reef is a large atoll containing one or more islands; the reef being either, in an early stage of formation, a ring of corals; or, in a later stage, a circle of linear coral islets crowned with tall cocoa-nut trees. The barrier reefs of Australia and New Caledonia are of greater extent, lying, the former from eight to sixteen miles from the shore, and the latter from twenty to seventy. The third division of the subject comprehends "fring ing, or shore reefs;" of which those that border the island of Mauritius are a good example. These lie from half a mile to three miles from the shore; but even in the last case the inclination of the coast land, and the soundings outside the reef, prove that the basis of the latter does not lie at a greater depth than that at which the coral builders can work. Many islands and continents are fringed by similar reefs. Where the sea is very shallow, as in the Persian Gulf, and in parts of the East Indian Archipelago, they lose their fringing character, and appear as separate and irregularly seattered patches, often of considerable area. Fringing reefs are almost universally breached where rivers and even streamlets enter the sea. Respecting the depth at which reef-building insects can exist, Mr. Darwin thinks it is partly determined by the extent of inclined surface which the currents of the sea and the recoiling waves have the power to keep free from scdiment, that great enemy to the labours of the little workman; and that we may conclude that, in ordinary cases, reef-builders do not flourish at greater depths than between 23 and 30 fathoms. The theory most generally received on the formation of atolls, is that they are based on submarine craters; but there are many objections to this. Atolls are of various forms, some five times as long as they are broad, others narrow and crooked; some loopshaped and many together, others made up of numerous ring-formed reefs; these can scarcely have been volcanoes, and it is also not a little improbable, that there should have existed as many craters of immense size crowded together beneath the sea, as there are now in some parts atolls. If the rim of a crater afforded a basis at the proper depth, a per ectly characterised atoll might be formed, but the greater number cannot thus have originated. From the two circumstances,-first, the reef-building corals flourishing only at limited depths,-and secondly, the vastness of the areas interspersed with coral reefs and coral islets, none of which rise to a greater height above the level of the sea than that attained by matter thrown up by the waves and winds,Mr. Darwin advances the supposition that there has been a gradual subsidence over large areas. We know that this has been the case in countries now in existence; and, as we likewise know that there are at present areas gradually rising, as Scandinavia, Peru, &c., we may well suppose that there are others slowly sinking; so slowly, and in such parts of the world, that tradition does not bring down any record of the changes. Besides, in the case of subsidence, it would probably be attributed to some uncommon tide, or high gale. Islands have been apparently washed away during hurricanes, and to this many legends point. We have also proofs of great changes in many of the islands and reefs of the Pacific since they were first discovered, which can be referred to subsidence alone. Let us suppose an island surrounded by a "fringing reef," based upon the low shelving shore. As the island sinks down, either a few fect at a time, or quite insensibly, the living coral, bathed by the surf on the margin of the reef, will,from what we have shewn of such a situation being the most favourable to its growth,-soon regain the surface. The water will gradually encroach on the shore as the island subsides, and in time the reef becomes a barrier reef with islets upon it; the detritus of the rivers keeping channels open between them, though at some distance now from the shore. As the island continues to subside, the power of the fresh water currents is lessened, the mud, &c. is deposited within the reef, and the channels made by the small streams are filled up by the undisturbed growth of fresh coral. Let the island continue subsiding, and the coral reef will continue growing up on its own foundation, whilst the water gains inch by inch on the land, until the last and highest pinnacle is covered, and there remains a perfect atoll. If the shore of a continent fringed by a reef had subsided, the result would be a great barrier reef like that on the N. E. coast of Australia. In each case the form of the reef, and size and position of the channels, would be determined by the outline of the land, the number and force of its streams, and the quality and quantity of the soil brought down by them. We have seen that corals grow in the interior of an atoll or reef, based no doubt on the subsiding land; these, as long as the same circumstances continue, would remain reefs, but should the subsidence cease, or should the channels in the reef become grown up, and the reef itself be raised high enough to prevent the ingress of the sea, or still more, should any subterranean convulsion appear, the whole atoll, the lagoon, would in time become dry land. Thus Anamouka, one of the Friendly Isles, contains in its centre a salt-water lake, about a mile and a half in diameter, without any communication with the sea, and around it the land rises gradually like a bank the highest part is between thirty and forty feet, but on this part as well as on the rest of the land, coral rock, like that on the beach, is found. Elizabeth Island, in the Low Archipelago, is quite flat, about eighty feet in height; it is entirely composed of dead corals, forming a honeycombed, but compact rock. Mangaia, in the Austral group, is nearly 300 feet high, with a level summit, and there are in the central hollow, formerly the bed of the lagoon, many scattered patches of coral rock, some of them raised to a height of forty feet." These knolls of coral rock were evidently once separate reefs in the lagoon of an atoll. This shews elevation following,subsidence; and in the East Indian Archipelago, many authors have recorded proofs of the same thing. From the accounts of Capt. B. Hall of the lines of inland reefs, and walls of coral rock worn into caves, above the present reach of the waves, at the Loo Choo islands, there can be little doubt that they have been upraised at no very remote period. Numberless instances of the same kind might be quoted; in most of these volcanic remains are visible. Thus we approach the unseen agent of this continual change or alteration. In the central parts of the Indian ocean, in the China sea, and in the clustered Archipelagoes of the Pacific ocean, the great areas of subsidence, we must be struck with the absence of volcanoes, while the principal volcanic chains coincide with the presence of fringing reefs. There is not one active volcano within several hundred miles of an Archipelago, or even a small group of atolls. In the Friendly Archipelago, which owes its origin to the elevation of a group of atolls, two volcanoes, and perhaps others, are known to be in action: on the other hand, on several of the encircled islands in the Pacific, supposed by our theory to have subsided, there are old craters and streams of lava, which show the effects of past and ancient eruptions. In these cases it would appear as if the volcanoes had come into action, and had become extinguished, on the same spots, according as the elevating or subsiding movements prevailed. From The immense surfaces which have undergone a change of level during a late period, is a remarkable fact. The existence of continents shows large areas upraised, and in the case of South America, still upraising; the areas are likewise immense which are now subsiding. the southern end of the Low Archipelago, to the northern end of the Marshall Archipelago, a length of 4,500 miles, as far as is known, every island excepting Aurora, which lics just without the first cluster, is atollformed. Thus, "the prevailing movements now in progress, seem to accord with the actual states of surface of the great divisions of the world." It has now been shown that "an atoll differs from an encircling barrier reef, only in the absence of land within its central expanse, and a barrier reef differs from a fringing reef in being placed at a much greater distance from the land, and in the presence of a deep water space within the reef. It has likewise been shown that reefbuilding corals cannot flourish beneath a very limited depth;" and to meet these facts the theory of subsidence alone is satisfactory. It must be remarked as singular that there are no coral reefs on the west coast of Africa; nor, excepting at Bermuda, in the whole central expanse of the Atlantic Ocean. The islands of St. Helena, Ascension, the Cape Verds, St. Paul's, and Fernando Noronha, are entirely without reefs, although they lie far out at sea, are composed of the same ancient volcanic rocks, and have the same general form with those islands in the Pacific, the shores of which are surrounded by gigantic walls of coral rock. Thus far we have followed Mr. Darwin; his theory is as reasonable as his manner of stating it is clear and interesting; there are, however, considerations upon which it did not lie within his purpose to touch, although they strengthen his theory. In an old pamphlet by Governor Pownall upon the currents of the Atlantic Ocean, is this passage: "If two lines are drawn across the Atlantic Ocean, one from the southernmost part of the Canaries to Halifax, in Nova Scotia; the other from the northernmost part of the Madeiras, by the Azores to Cape Race in Newfoundland; the space contained within these lines, will be found, in fact and truth, to be a broken line of islands, rocks, breakers, and banks. Now as these visible rocks must have their base on some elevated ground; as the breakers must be occasioned by some sunken rocks or elevated ground; and as the banks must shoal off gradually, howsoever steep; the ground within this space thus crossing the Atlantic, is in strict fact an clevated, though broken line of ground." This observation carries us back to the ancient tradition of a large submerged continent, lying in the Atlantic Ocean, which was believed to have disappeared in one night, having been swallowed by the sea during an earthquake. This tradition is traced from Plato and other ancient writers back to the Egyptian priests, whose means of information we can scarcely guess at. The grassy sea also, which extends between the parallels of 18° and 33° north latitude, covering nearly 60,000 square leagues, gives the supposition of submerged land, though at a depth which can neither be sounded nor calculated. That this is not table land may be inferred from the currents which set out from the Gulf-stream in a northern and eastern direction, perhaps following breaches in the submerged land. The general current of the Gulf-stream follows the line Mr. Pownall mentions, in a southerly curve towards the African coast; but there are currents setting east, between the islands Pico and St. Michael of the Azores, and between the Madeiras and the Canaries. Cocoanuts and other tropical substances have been found thrown upon the Shetland and Orkney Islands, after violent storms. We know that the voyage from America is much more rapid than that to the New Continent; and American sailors say that "the course is down hill all the way." If we reflect upon all this in connexion with the constant subsidence and uprising now going on in the Pacific Ocean, we may well suppose that the tradition of the ancients respecting Atlantis is not without foundation. The subsidence may for some time have been gradual, but that the disappearance was at last sudden appears probable from the absence of coral about the Cape Verd, and other African islands, the links between the lost land and the present continent. At the American end of the bank mentioned by Mr. Pownall, lie the Bermudas, the connecting link to the American continent, and respecting these there are some curious facts. The islands stand on one side of a coral bank or reef, around which is a border of gradually shoaling water, nearly a mile and a half in width; whereas, on the exterior of other atolls or barrier reefs, there exists a narrow shelving margin, beyond which the ocean be comes suddenly unfathomable. The size, height, and extraordinary form of the Bermudas, present little resemblance to the long, narrow, simple islets of the atolls in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. There are also evi extended over other parts of the reef. The land upon a true atoll does not exceed thirty feet in height; the highest point of the Bermudas is 260 feet, and there occur in one place, five or six layers of red earth, interstratified with the ordinary calcareous rock, and including stones too heavy for the wind to have moved, without having at the same time utterly dispersed every grain of the accompanying drifted matter. This is curious, and though, perhaps, not to be taken as "confirmation strong" of the dream of an Atlantis, yet, when connected with other facts, it may lead future investigators in the track of elucidation. There are many curious facts in other branches of natural history connected with the Atlantic islands, which we shall take an early opportunity of noticing, as they bear, though collaterally, upon our present subject. The coral formations of the Red Sea, also require separate attention, on account of their connexion with the ancient historians. F. C. B. ST. LOUIS, KING OF FRANCE.' In the year 1247, the King departed for the Holy Land. The experience of previous expeditions had taught the Crusaders that Egypt was the key to Palestine or at least that the latter country, if conquered, could never be retained while Egypt remained in the hands of the enemy. It was, therefore, determined to descend upon the Egyptian coast, and Louis, with his Queen, his three brothers, the Counts of Artois, Poitiers, and Anjou, and other great nobles, journeyed down the Rhone, and embarked at Aigues Mortes on the twentythird of August. The barons had been previously assembled in Paris, and sworn fealty to their sovereign's children in the event of his never returning to his native land. The people prayed for blessings on his head, and the clergy chanted solemn hymns. The fleet made for Cyprus as their first point of destination, and the passage was considered, for the times, a favourable one, being accomplished in about five weeks. During the time of their sojourn in the island, various embassies were received, and the Empress of Constantinople (the wife of Michael Palæologus,) being accidentally driven on shore by stress of weather, was treated with all the respect and courtesy befitting her high station. The Sultan of Iconium, considered the most powerful ruler in heathendom, was to be kept in check by the forces of Armenia: such at least was the promise received from that country; and the Khan of Tartary likewise pledged himself to find employment for the Sultan of Bagdad, with whom he was at enmity. The Christian King received the Tartars' ambassadors with great honour, but took care to send back with them some priests and other Franks, who bore to the Khan a most costly tent, resembling in its form a chapel, and adorned with sculptured representations of the Annunciation and similar events, in the hope that the Khan might, from interest in the beauty of the adornments, be led to inquire concerning their subjects, and thus ultimately brought to the faith of the gospel. On the Friday before the feast of Pentecost took place the embarkment for Egypt; but the wind rose, and a storm ensued, so wild and fearful, that the vessels got separated in all directions, and of three thousand knights a third portion only could keep company with the King as Damietta rose in sight. The Sultan's force was drawn up along the beach," a goodly race to see," says Joinville, for they had much gold armour which glistened As the fleet drew nearer, a beneath the morning sun. harsh and terrible clang of cymbals greeted their ears: and the bravest paused, and questioned whether it were prudent, with such diminished numbers, to attempt a To the list of authorities for the former part of this article may be added Velly, Histoire de France, Tom. III. William of particulars. dent proofs that islands like the existing ones formerly Nangis has likewise been referred to in corroboration of one or two |