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Valdemusa os Mosa, or Mosa. Our ride, which lasted about three hours, lay through an exquisitely, rich, and highly cultivated country, consisting of corn-land, vineyards, and woods of olive, carob, almond, pomegranate, and apple-trees. Male and female peasants with long hair, generally plaited, wearing large black felt hats, and dresses of blue serge, much in the style of those of Holland, displaying neatness and contentment, divided the labours of the field. Instead of the mantilla, a head-dress called the rebozillo, or double handkerchief, is worn by the female, which covers the head, is fastened under the chin, falls over the shoulders and back, and is far from being becoming. The male peasants generally wear leather-shoes and spatterdashes. In the streets of Palma, I met several youths attired as ecclesiastics, but I found that they did not belong to the church, and wore this dress only through economy, many of them not having a shirt to wear.

It was now the almond-harvest, and merry groups, young and old, were assembled to collect this delicious fruit from the delicate trees that bore it. The eye could not turn but to banquet on some beautiful or romantic object. Every cottage was a picture, and the industry and happiness of man seemed to co-operate with the beneficence of the soil and climate.

When we entered upon the estates of the convent, the hand of culture seemed to have been still more actively and skilfully employed. After winding along the sides of the most picturesque hills, richly cloathed to their summits, belted with ridges or terrace-walls rising above each other, kept in the greatest order, and by vines, entwined round almond trees, bending with rich and ponderous clusters, we discerned the pale yellow front of the monastery seated midway on the side of a mountain, in a calm and majestic retreat, deriving a sort of sylvan solemnity from groups of cypresses, palms, and poplars, and interminable woods of olives. In such abundance are the latter, that the natives, in the fulness of pride and warmth of heart, have an exaggerating saying, "If only one olive were to be taken from each tree in the island, the amount collected would supply every native with oil sufficient for his ordinary consumption." This article, so precious to a Spaniard, is in this island so remarkably pure and sweet, that I became reconciled to the use of it. As we approached the monastery, we met several of the holy brethren taking their afternoon walk. We brought provisions and a cook with us, which are very necessary, as the monks never suffer meat, unless brought by strangers, to enter their walls; and their funds were at this time rather at a low ebb on account of the erection of a noble church adjoining the convent, which as far as it had proceeded, had dipped deeply into their treasury. Owing to this heavy expenditure, they had given notice in the Palma Gazette, that, with

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an exception of the English, they could not entertain strangers till their new church was finished.

The superior, an enormous and jolly old man, paid us the compliment of rising from his siesta to receive us, and whilst our dinner was preparing, one of the monks, a very intelligent man, conducted us over the convent and church. The latter is a vast and noble pile, the internal decorations of which were not half finished. The dome and roof were painted in gaudy colours and bad taste by an Italian artist, and the bases of the pilasters were formed of fine marble from the neighbouring rocks. There was a colosal figure of the Virgin holding a silesio, a net of iron with sharp points, which is by way of penance fastened round the thigh, or loins of female penitents, finely executed in wood, intended for one of the lateral chapels of the church. The number of monks was twenty-nine, of whom seventeen had fled from Barcelona. Their cells were handsome apartments. The gardens of the convent are spacious; in some of them we saw land tortoises. From a long terrace under arches of vines, there is a superb view of the surrounding valleys and mountains. After an excellent repast, we took leave of our prior, who expressed himself warmly attached to the English, and talked much of an entertainment which had been given to him, on board of an English frigate, and in our way to our mules, which were led to the village of Valdemusa, we were taken to the church, in which we saw nothing worthy of notice, but the levity with which the attendant monk evidently treated the mummery which he shewed us.

The next day, attended by an Englishman long resident at Palma as an interpreter, we had the honour of an interview with two members of the unfortunate royal family of Spain, Donna Maria Theresa de Vallabriga, and her daughter the Infanta Donna Maria Luisa de Bourbon. The former is the niece of the late Don Pedro Estuardo (Stuart) Marques di San Leonardo, a brother of the old Marshal Duke of Berwick, and who, with the consent of Charles the Third, was married to his youngest brother the Infant Don Louis, upon condition that she should not be acknowledged, nor the issue of the marriage entitled to any privileges. Don Louis had been bred to the church originally, was raised to the rank of cardinal, and appointed archbishop of Toledo, which he resigned on being dispensed from his vows. Soon after his death, leaving three children, a boy and two girls, it was publicly declared that the early and singular inclination, which these children had exhibited for the church, had determined his Majesty to yield to their pious propensities, and accordingly the girls were placed in a convent, and the boy committed to the care of the cardinal Lorenzana, then archbishop of Toledo, and educated in the palace of that town, to which elevated rank he has

since succeeded, and is likewise a cardinal and archbishop of Seville. On the death of the king, the eldest of the girls, as before noticed, was married to Godoy the Prince of the Peace, the words of the patent; for the Spaniards deem it impious to say Prince of Peace, an attribute of our Saviour, though commonly called so by the English. Shortly after these nuptials, performed by the brother with royal magnificence, a proclamation appeared, restoring the children of the late Infant Don Louis to their just rights, in which King Charles the Fourth endeavoured to apologize for the conduct of his father towards them, and consequently, had Spain remained in tranquillity, the succession to the Spanish monarchy would have been as open to them, as to the other branches of the royal family, it being generally believed that the cortes, holden upon Charles the Fourth's accession, had rescinded the pragmatic sanction of Philip the Fifth, son to Louis the Fourteenth, by which the crown was limited to male issue alone, and thus the females, as formerly practised in Old Spain, were admitted to an equal right.

Donna Maria Theresa, and her youngest daughter, were living in great retirement in the palace of the Marquis of Sollerick, having recently made their escape, under circumstances of romantic peril and enterprize, attended by a faithful priest, Michael del Puego, from Zaragoza, where the young Infanta had been placed in a convent.

The former of these two personages was a noble looking and rather dark woman, the latter very fair and of a fine complexion. Donna Maria held the French in such abhorrence, that she avoided making use of the language as much as possible. In our presence, she took an affecting and painful review of the reverses of her fortune, and with tears said, "though politics have but little attracted my attention, I have long foreseen the subtle intentions of Bonaparte, and the overthrow of the august house to which I belong. What will be our final destiny I know not, nor can I tell where we shall be obliged to seek an asylum,"-here she was so affected, that she paused for a minute, and then added, "I look to Heaven, there is my only consolation!" Through the interpreter, I recommended her to seek protection in England; but the horror she entertained of so long a voyage, and the desire of remaining in any part of Spain that held out for the legitimate throne, seemed to have too full possession of her mind to induce her to attend to the recommendation.

FROM THE SAME.

ACCOUNT OF THE LOUWA, OR FISHING-BIRD.

"NEAR the city of Cining, we saw them catch fish with a bird, which they call Lauwa; and because this way of fishing seems notable, and no where used but in China, I here present you with an account of it.

"This bird is somewhat less than a goose, and not very unlike to a raven; it has a long neck, and a bill like an eagle. With these they fish after this manner; they have small boats very artificially made of reeds or bamboos, which they sail upon the Chinese rivers and pools, and place the bird perching upon the outside of the vessel, from whence she suddenly shoots, and diving, swims under water as fast as they can thrust forward their cables with a light pole. As soon as she has caught her prey, she instantly appears above water, and the master of the boat stands ready to receive her, and opens her bill by force, and takes out the dainty. Afterwards he turns her out again to catch more, and to prevent these birds from swallowing down the prey, they hang a ring about their necks, which hinders them from gorging. Such fish as are too big for them to bring up in their bills, they discover to their masters, by making a noise in the water, who then helps to pull them out. Such birds as are slothful or loth to dive, are broken of that ill habit by beating. When they have caught enough for their owners, the iron ring is taken off, and they are left to fish for themselves, which makes them the more willing to work for others. The fishermen pay a yearly tribute to the emperor for the use of these birds, which are in much esteem with the Chinese; and such as are nimble and well taught, are so dear, that oftentimes one of them goes at fifty toel of Silver, which is about 150 guilders. We offered to buy of an old fisherman a couple of those birds, but he refused, alledging that they served to maintain him and his family; neither could he inform us whence those birds came, nor how they were first instructed; only he told us, that they were left him by his ancestors. We asked him likewise whether they ever bred with him? who answered, very rarely. We bought a dish of fish of this old man, which were most of them carps of a span and a half long."-Embassy of the Dutch East India Company to China.

FROM THE LONDON SPORTING MAGAZINE.

MEMOIR OF MIRZA ABUL HASSAN, LATE PERSIAN AMBASSADOR TO THIS COUNTRY:

With Particulars and Anecdotes of him during his Voyage from Persia.

Nadir

MIRZA Abul Hassan was born at Shiraz in the year of the Hejera 1190, or 1776 of the Christian Æra. He was the second son of Mirza Mahomed Ali, a man famous in Persia as an accomplished scholar, and who was one of the Chief Secretaries and Mirzas of the celebrated Nadir Shah. His father's services had nearly been requitted by an ignominious and cruel death, when the hand of Providence interposed for his safety, to strike with more severity the head of his attrocious master. Shah, in one of those paroxysms of cruelty, so common to him during the latter years of his life, ordered that Mirza Mahomed Ali should be burnt alive, together with too Hindoos, who also had incurred his displeasure. The unfortunate Mirza, on hearing his sentence, remonstrated with the tyrant, entreating him that he might at least be permitted to die alone; and that his last moments might not be polluted by the society of men, who were of a different faith from his own, and on whom he had been taught to look with a religious abhorrence. To this the Shah consented, remitting his death until the next morning, whilst the Hindoos suffered in that same hour. That very night Nadir Shah was assassinated in his tent, and Mirza Mahomed Ali was saved.

The family of Mirza Abul Hassan rose to its greatest power during the reign of Aga Mohamed Shah, predecessor to the present King. The Mirza's father died in the sevice of Kerim Khan; his uncle Hajee Ibrahim Khan (uncle by his mother's side,) attained the post of prime Vizier, whilst himself and the other branches of his family enjoyed the greatest share in the administration of the affairs of the state. It was somewhat before the death of Aga Mohamed Shah, that Hajee Ibrahim bestowed his daughter in marriage on his nephew, after a long and singular courtship. A sister of his wife's is married to Mahomed Taki Mirza, one of the King's sons; and a second to the Ameen-edDoulah, the second Vizier.

The family, however, was not always prosperous; after some time the King ordered Hajee Ibrahim to be put to death, his relations to be seized, his wives to be sold, and his property to be conficated. His nephews of course partook of the disaster; one was deprived of his sight, and remains to this day at Shiraz; the youngest, then twenty years of age, died under the bastinado;

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