we were indebted for the preservation of Virginia, while yet an infant colony, is derived from the curious"History of Virginia," written by Captain Smith, and published in 1632. He relates, that when, in 1607, after many vicissitudes, he commenced the building of James Town, the first town erected in the New World, he was frequently incommoded, and the lives of himself and his companions were endangered, by the conduct of the "savages" then inhabiting the place; who often attacked them, but were as often routed. On one occasion he states that their idol, which had been placed in the midst of their warriors, fell into the hands of the English; and their desire to recover it produced a temporising peace. This, however, quickly passed over, and the new colony appeared to be threatened with starvation; to avert which, Smith proceeded up the country in search of pro- | visions; and the natives, watching their opportunity, fell upon the men who guarded his canoe, slew them, and then took him prisoner. After some days he was introduced to "their Emperor Powhatan ;" and here he first saw Matoaka, whom he constantly, however, calls Pocahontas. We will introduce her in the captain's own words. Graphically describing his interview with the king, he says:-" At last they brought him " (the captain in the narrative always speaks of himself in the third person) "to Meronocomoco, where was Powhatan, their emperor. Here more than two hundred of those grim courtiers stood wondering at him, as he had been a monster; till Powhatan and his train had put themselves in the greatest braveries. Before a fire upon a seat like a bedstead, he sat covered with a great robe, made of skins, with all the tailes hanging to them. On either hand sat a young wench of sixteen or eighteen years, and along on each side of the house two rows of men, and behind them as many women, with their heads and shoulders painted red, many of their heads bedecked with the white down of birds, but every one with something; and a great chain of white beads about their necks. At his entrance before the king all the people gave a great shout. The Queen of Appamatuck was appointed to bring him water to wash his hands, and another brought him a bunch of feathers, instead of a towel, to dry them. Having feasted him after the best barbarous manner they could, a long consultation was held, but the conclusion was, two great stones were brought before Powhatan; then as many as could laid hands on him (the captain), and dragged him to them, and thereon laid his head; and being ready with their clubs, to beat | out his brains, Pocahontas, the king's dearest daughter, when no intreaty could prevail, got his head in her arms, and laid her own upon his to save him from death; whereat the emperor was contented he should live to make him hatchets, and her bells, beads, and copper."

Thus amiably does the savage girl of thirteen make her first appearance; and to her constant care and unceasing solicitude, at all risks, may be attributed the ultimate safety and permanent security of the settlement. Her father having concluded a treaty of peace with Smith, and sent him back to his infant colony at James Town, he found the settlers in a desperate state of want and insubordination; but here again Pocahontas, like his good genius, again saved him and his companions; for once every four or five days, she and her attendants brought the famishing men so much provision, that it saved many lives “that else for all this had starved with hunger." The captain's description of the plenty he had seen, the state and bounty of Powhatan, aided by the friendly assistance received from his daughter, so revived the broken-spirited men, that their intention of abandoning James Town, and finally leaving Virginia, was given up; and the speedy arrival of two English ships, and nearly a hundred men, well provided with all necessaries, confirmed their stay.

The further history of James Town, and the many hardships endured by the settlers, we must pass over; keeping merely in view the facts connected with Pocahontas, who frequently took upon herself the task (pleasant to her) of acting as a peaceful mediator between her father and countrymen, and the English settlers. After many negociations carried on between these parties,-when, upon each occasion, the demands and self-importance of Powhatan visibly increased,-he artfully changed his line of conduct, and lulling suspicion by his acts of generosity, won over the services of some Dutch settlers, and under cover of a great feast and merry-making, attempted to destroy Smith and his party; the treacherous Dutchmen hoping to succeed to all their possessions and prospects, under favour of the king. But the everwatchful Pocahontas, "in that dark night, came through the irksome woods," and divulged his sanguinary secret, begging of them to save themselves by flight. Penetrated with gratitude for so many instances of her watchful kindness, "such things as she delighted in they would have given her; but, with the tears running down her cheeks, she said she durst not be seen to have any; for if Powhatan should know it, she were but dead, and so she ran away by herself as she came." The next we hear of her is after Smith had left Virginia for England; when, upon Captain Argill's arrival there in 1612, on concluding a peace at James Town with the natives, "there was Pocahontas, whom Captain Smith's relations intitleth the Nonpareil of Virginia," in company with a native and his wife, who were bribed by the promise of a copper kettle to get her on board ship, under the idea that a retention of her as a hostage would be a surer way of securing the peace than any other. This was effected, and when they had her on board they sent

word to her father, that her only ransom must be | the liberation of the Englishmen made captive, and the restoration of their swords, tools, &c. stolen. After three months' delay, five men were sent ; but the English demanding perfect restitution, after a time" Master John Rolf" and another were sent to Powhatan, to conclude the business, by a restoration of his daughter and a corresponding return of our men and property. "Long before this," says Smith, "Master John Rolfe, an honest gentleman, and of good behaviour, had been in love with Pocahontas, and she with him;" which being made known to the English governor, Sir Thomas Dale, and she on her part acquainting her brother with it, the marriage was agreed to on all sides, and peace confirmed; "for ever since," says Smith, we have had friendly trade and commerce, as well with Powhatan himself, as with all his subjects."

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The history of the conversion of Pocahontas, who was the first of her nation to embrace Christianity, would doubtless be very interesting; but it has been left unrecorded; Smith having confined his relation to matters of political history. In 1616, when Sir Thomas Dale returned to England, she and her husband came in the same vessel, landing at Plymouth, June 12, 1616. In the following year she was introduced to Queen Anne of Denmark, wife of James I. She appears to have adapted herself admirably to the new sphere in which she was called to move, for Captain Smith tells us that, during her residence in England, "by the diligent care of her husband and his friends, she was taught to speak such English as might be well understood; well instructed in Christianity; and was become very formal and civil after our English manner." "The small time I staid in London," he continues, "divers courtiers and others, my acquaintances, have gone with me to see her, that generally concluded they did think God had a great hand in her conversion, and they have seen many English ladies worse favoured, proportioned, and behavioured, and as since I have heard, it pleased both the king and queene's majesty honourably to esteem her; and also divers other persons of good quality, both publicly at the court masques and otherwise, to her great satisfaction and content."

That she was worthy of all this attention, and had preserved her native honesty of feeling, and simple purity of heart, is illustrated by Smith's account of her conduct when he met her for the first time in England. He says, "She remembered me well what courtesies she had done; saying, 'you did promise Powhatan what was yours should be his, and he the like to you; you called him father, being in his land a stranger, and by the same reason so must I do you." This, he adds, he would have excused, because she was a king's daughter; but she said, "Were you not afraid to come into my father's country, and cause feare in him and all his people but me, and feare you here

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I should call you father? I tell you then I will; and you shall call me childe, and so will I be for ever and ever your countrywoman."

On her first arrival in England Pocahontas employed one of her native attendants to search out her friend, Captain Smith; but he, after some inquiry, reported him to be dead; probably becoming tired of his commission, as he is stated to have done of another, given him by the king, the father of Pocahontas. The Virginian monarch was desirous of obtaining information respecting this country, and therefore desired this person to notice particularly the manners of the English, and their numbers. Arriving at Plymouth," we are told, "according to his directions, he got a long stick, whereon by notches he did think to have kept the number of all the men he could see, but he was quickly weary of that task," as we may readily believe.

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The remaining events of the life of this interesting female are soon told. Having given birth to a son, she died at Gravesend on board a vessel, she being at the time on her voyage to her native land. "In the good ship George," says Smith, "it pleased God to take this young lady to his mercy; where she made not more sorrow for her unexpected death, than joy to the beholders to hear and see her make so religious and godly an end." The portrait, by Visscher, which is copied at the head of this paper, was engraved during her brief sojourn in England, and represents her at the age of twenty-one years, in 1616. She appears in the ordinary costume of an English gentlewoman of that period.

"The good sense, humanity, and generosity of this woman do her honour; as they carried her far above the prejudices of her education, and the barbarous customs of her country." Such is the tribute paid to her memory by Granger, who has slightly noticed her in his "Biographical History of England;" and so much, and more, will doubtless be awarded to her by all who reflect on her many superior and noble qualities.

THE IRISH ORDNANCE SURVEY. Ir may appear strange to persons not familiar with the nature of the subject, for us to speak of the civilizing tendency of the Irish Ordnance Survey. Yet we are so convinced of this tendency, that we are desirous of briefly noticing the objects and probable effects of this national undertaking.

Ireland is at present in a most extraordinary social position. Although it occupies so large a share of parliamentary attention every year, yet we are really very ignorant of the country. Its mineral, agricultural, and manufacturing wealth, have never yet been developed in anything like the ratio which they ought to be and may be.

Certain exciting topics, on which the most discordant opinions prevail, come every session under the notice of the public, and are debated with various results, according to circumstances; while other matters connected with Ireland, on which almost all men agree, are brought forward with less earnestness than if they related to England. Of the various causes to which this difference between the two countries may be referred, we do not propose here to speak. We would choose rather the pleasant task of finding something good and practical to describe.

It may be desirable to explain what is meant by the expressiou "Ordnance Survey." The Ordnance is one of the government offices, having cognisance of matters relating to military engineering; and some of its officers have the management of the surveys both of England and Ireland; the term Ordnance Survey, then, merely means a survey undertaken by the Board of Ordnance, with the sanction of parliament. A survey, in the sense here employed, is a careful examination and measurement of the whole surface of the country, with a view of determining, and laying down on maps, the boundary of the whole country, the inlets of the seas, the courses of the rivers, the positions and dimensions of the lakes, the heights of the mountains and plains, the distances from town to town, or from mountain to mountain, the nature of the ground, whether cultivated, partially cultivated, or barren, the position and extent of woods and forests; and, in short, everything which can throw light on the actual condition of the surface of the country. Such a survey is more or less minute according to the means employed. The actual distances and bearings by the compass, from one headland to another, or one mountain to another, are determined by refined scientific operations, which come under the name of trigonometrical surveying. The country is parcelled out into a number of very large triangles, the corners of which are, perhaps, sixty or eighty miles apart; and by means of telescopes and other instruments, the distances of these points one from another are determined with the most minute accuracy. When the position of the more prominent points in the country are thus determined, each of these large triangles is broken up into smaller ones, which are measured and determined in like manner; the summits of mountains, the spires of churches, the tops of towers, &c., serving as the marking or corner points. This being effected, the land-surveyor carries the investigation to greater minuteness, by filling up all the small triangles according to the surface which the country presents; tracing the courses of the rivers, the positions and dimensions of the towns, the boundaries of parishes, kundreds, or townships; and if the scale be sufficiently large, marking the position and boundary of every field.

Such is the general nature of the survey of the country; the mode of proceeding being somewhat varied under different circumstances. France, Bavaria, Naples, and other foreign countries, have been more or less surveyed in this way; and our own islands are now undergoing the same operation. The Ordnance survey of England commenced not much less than half a century ago; the interruption of many years of foreign warfare and other circumstances having retarded its completion in a most unexpected manner. It is not even yet finished; and the increasing demands of science, of commerce, and of manufactures, have rendered that which is completed less valuable than could be wished. The Ordnance Map of England—that is, the results of the survey, engraved on plates, and printed on a large number of sheets of paper, is on the scale of one inch to a mile, an inch of map being devoted to a mile of country. This scale is found to be too small for many of the purposes for which the survey was intended; and it is proposed that the remaining English counties shall be mapped on the large scale of six inches to a mile-a scale which, as we shall explain presently, is that adopted in the Irish survey.

Now one of the advantages resulting from such a survey is, that we thus obtain a kind of map of the national resources, of those elements out of which national as well as individual property arise. If we direct our thoughts to the fisheries, the important source of so much food to man, it will be obvious that the courses and depths of rivers, the quality of the water (arising from the mineral strata over or through which it flows), the exist ence of natural or artificial impediments to fishing, the facility of navigating fishing-boats round the coasts, and of transferring fish from one place to another-all must affect, in some way or other, the value of the fisheries; and these points cannot be determined without an accurate examination and survey. If we turn to the mineral wealth of a country, we see even more clearly how much depends on a careful survey of the surface; for, from the important geological principle of the stratification of the materials of which the crust of the earth is composed, coal or any other valuable production of the earth generally occurs in some determinate order; so that an examination of the strata near the surface may afford some means of judging whether the valued mineral is to be found be neath. Metalliferous veins, too, generally occur in some particular species of rock, so that if those species be present, we may form some guess as to the probability of the existence of the metal. It is true that a trigonometrical survey, being confined to the surface of the ground, has nothing im mediately to do with these geological inquiries; but until such a survey tells us, that at a certain place there is a bog, or a mountain, or a lake, or a forest; and until heights, and depths, and distances,