Far to the east where lofty cliffs ascend,
From whence York's gentle tide slow gliding on,
An even course, in ample prospect lies
An ancient town, overspreads the sandy glebe;
The healthful site, (for air serene renowned,)
No putrid damps from oozy beach invades :
A new Montpelier, thrice happy town;
Happy for health, for commerce and for love,
Fraternal love or sacred friendship fixed:
Here first in dignity as first in wealth,
The elder N.....* lives-respected name,
His country's glory and her best support;
And now oh N.....,* would the muse proclaim
Your private goodness and your public worth,
"The patriot virtues that distend your thoughts,
Spread on your front and in your conduct glow.
But your great mind even just applause disclaims,
And every noble act your duty calls.'

Sweet lovely maid, dear favorite of the Nine,
Say will you be my constant Valentine?
For you the muse expands her lapped wings,
Rears her fallen powers and strikes the trembling strings;
At thy dear feet she pays the tribute due,
Nor thinks she bends too low to wait on you;
Charmed with thy lovely form, thy music fine,
Ecstatic raptures all my heart entwine;
So my once loved Belinda touched the keys,
Lovely like you-like you was formed to please ;
Early in life the fatal summons came,

Withered my joys and snatched the beauteous dame;
In you dear nymph the reparation lies,

Say you'll be kind or youthful Strephon dies.

GWYNN'S ISLAND.

This island lies in the Chesapeake Bay to the

Swift through this town the mighty chieftain passed, east of Matthews county. Tradition says that And o'er its level field the coursers bound;

Back River's fertile plains now rise to view,
And instant flying back are left behind.
Nor could fine rural scenes, variety

Of houses, groves of corn and wheaten fields;
Of well-ranged files of trees, with fruitage hung;
Of flocks, of herds, with healthful herbage fleshed,
Detain the chieftain in his grand career.
Where once great Kicquotan'st barbaric prince,
Enthroned in state with savage grandeur ruled,
When led by lust of gain from Albion's coast,
Her sea-bred sons the wide Atlantic braved
And fixed another gem in Britain's crown.
Southampton stands, for finest oysters famed;
Delicious food-which kings might deign to eat,
Luxuriant here-dull cobler's banquets grace." &c.

From the Virginia Gazette of 1771.

WILLIAMSBURG, Jan. 17.

"On Sunday, the 25th day of November last, Wm. Nelson, Esq., and his new married lady made their appearance in Stratton Major Church, King and Queen county, for the first time after marriage, when an excellent sermon from the 24th chapter of Genesis, verse 20th:- And Jacob served 7 years for Rachel, and they

Pocahontas, in swimming across the Pianketank river, when near drowning, was rescued by one of the English, who in return received from her this island as a present. It belonged, however, not to her, but to grim old Powhatan, her father; aud fond as he was of her, it is likely that he would have vetoed the giving away so large a slice of his domain.

Early in the revolution, Lord Dunmore, with his motley forces, quartered on Gwynn's Island. Sickness rendered his camp a horrid scene of misery, and he was driven from the island by a force under Gen. Andrew Lewis.

MOUNT VERNON, Fairfax County.

His Excellency, the Governor, by and with the consent of his Majesty's Council having been pleased to grant 200,000 acres of land on the great Canhawa, &c., to the officers and soldiers, who embarked in the service of this Colony agreeable to a proclamation issued the 17th of Feby. 1754, by the Hon'le Robert Dinwiddie, Esq., then Lieut. Govr. and having moreover been pleased to require that I should receive the seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her,' was delivered by the Rev. Mr. Dun- several and respective claims of every person lap. In handling the discourse, the preacher in who engaged in the service aforesaid, before the

battle of the Meadows in 1754-, I do hereby his usual animated manner touched upon the tender passion of love as a necessary requisite give this publick notice thereof, requesting that in courtship and marriage, the duty of husband every officer and soldier or their representatives and wife with respect to acquiring and preserving domestic happiness, concluding with some very pertinent animadversions on the conduct of parties in regard to the disposition of children in marriage, and how far the duty between both ought to be reciprocal. The whole discourse was handled in a new and striking manner."

these lands, properly attested, to me, before the will exhibit their respective claims to a share of 10th day of October next ensuing, in order that Council and finally adjusted and to the intent the whole may be laid before his Lordship and that no unnecessary application may be made, it is hereby signified that no person who entered into the service of this Colony after the said Battle of the Meadows (which concluded the campaign of 1754) is entitled to any part of these 200,000 acres of land, as they were given to the first adventurers under the proclamation aforesaid.

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

COLONEL FERGUSON.-Dodsley's Annual Re-, spoke of it thus: "Pittsburg is inhabited almost gister for 1781 gives the following account of entirely by Scotch and Irish, who live in paltry Col. Ferguson, the British Commander, killed log-houses and are as dirty as in the north of Ireat the battle of King's Mountain.

land or even Scotland. There is much small trade carried on; goods are brought at the vast "He was perhaps the best marksman living, expense of 45 per cent from Philadelphia and and probably brought the art of rifle-shooting to Baltimore. They take in the shops money, its highest point of perfection. He even invented wheat, flour, and skins. They have four attora gun of that kind upon a new construction, nies, two doctors, and not a priest of any sect, which was said to far exceed in facility and church or chapel; so they are likely to be damned execution any thing of the sort before known, without benefit of clergy. The rivers so enand he is said to have greatly outdone even the croach on the town that I was told the Alleghany American Indians in the adroitness and quickness had in thirty years carried away one hundred of firing and loading and in the certainty of hityards. The place I believe will never be consideting the mark, by lying on the back or belly, and rable." in every other possible position of the body. It has been reported that Gen. Washington owed his life at the battle of Brandywine to this gentleman's total ignorance of his person, as he had him sufficiently within reach and view during that action for the purpose."

OLD SWINTON.-When word was sent up from below that Arnold was coming up the James river, Charles Carter of Shirley, with his lady retired during the night to the interior of the country, leaving only two sons and Old Swinton, a Scotch schoolmaster. This old teacher GLOUCESTER. This is one of the old coun-had his schoolroom in the Steward's house at a ties of Virginia (named no doubt after the Eng- little distance from the dwelling house. A few lish county of Gloucestershire) and in early times days after a party of British came over to Shirwas one of the largest and most populous. Many ley in a boat. Old Swinton, like another Domihistorical occurrences which we read of as having nie Sampson retreated up stairs into his sanctum taken place in Gloucester, did not take place in and hastily hid his watch in his hat. The redwhat is now known as Gloucester, but in that coats immediately coming up stairs enquired larger area formerly so called, and since razeed where was the family. He replied "they are all by successive loppings off. According to tradi-gone; there is nobody left but an old schoolmastion it was settled by the Warners and the Cookes, ter and two foolish boys." The soldiers then the Warners locating the lowland, the Cookes plundered some of his valuables which so prothe high. The Lewises, it is said are the only voked him that he pulled out his watch from its surviving descendants of the Warners. Among hiding place and surrendering it, exclaimed, the seats in Gloucester are Severn Hall, Warner you will have the rest you may have this too." Hall, and Rosewell. This last was built by Col. Matthew Page, of the Council of Virginia. Governor John Page resided at Rosewell. It is a fine old building, a cube of sixty feet, flatroofed. The front, as seen from the York river,

on which it stands, is quite imposing. The Ludwells were, in Sir Wm. Berkeley's time, a family of note in Gloucester. John Clayton the botanist, was for a long time clerk of the county court of Gloucester. He attained an advanced age and was engaged in a distant botanical excursion not long before his death. His valuable MSS. were burnt in the clerk's office after his death. None of his descendants remain in Gloucester. Vestiges of his "Flower Garden" are still to be seen. A whale, sixty feet long, it is said, was once taken in the shoals of York river. A shark has been taken there. Deer are almost extinct in Gloucester.

64 as

In the library of William and Mary College there is a book entitled "The Morning and Evening Prayer, Litany, Church Catechism and family prayers and several chapters of the Old and New Testament, translated into the Mohague (Mokawk) Indian language—by Lawrence Claesse, Interpreter to William Andrews, Missionary to the Indians from the Honorable and Reverend the Society for the propogation of the gospel in foreign parts! Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession. Psalm 2. 8. Printed by William Bradford in New York." The following is a specimen of the Mohawk.

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

ue

Ra-odereanayent ne Royamer. Songy waniha ne kawnggage tighsideron, wasagh na doPITTSBURG.-Arthur Lee on his route as com-geaglotine. Sanayent fera iewe tagserra eighmissioner for effecting a treaty with the Indians maway; Sin iyought karongyagough, one oghuin 1784, visited Fort Pitt, now Pittsburg, and ansiag. Niyatoweigh niserogle taggwana dara

slaves, but they felt the moral responsibility of she saw the carriage approaching, hoping it holding the destinies of their fellow creatures in would excite Mrs. Selden's admiration. their hands, and had sought to promote not only Mrs. Selden's eye followed the direction of old their physical well being, but their moral im-Hannah's, and she would not deny her the gratiprovement, and though their best efforts in many fication of the compliment which she saw she cases were attended with very imperfect success, expected. "What a nice, new counterpane you yet on the whole they reigned over a happy and have there, Hannah-it does credit to your spinimproving community, exercising a sort of patri-ning and dyeing; and your water pail looks so archal sway, in which the legislative, judicial, ex- clean, and your shelf of crockery so nice, it is a ecutive, and paternal functions were curiously pleasure to look at them. It does my heart good combined, and whose practical results would have to see every thing look so comfortable around confounded all theoretical calculations. you."

As Mrs. Selden approached the cabins, which Hannah saw that Mrs. Selden looked sad and were situated near each other on an elevated thoughtful as she said these words, which conridge of oak and hickory wood, a spot selected firmed her in thinking that some trouble was imfor the healthiness of its situation, she looked pending, and her own face reflected the uneasiwith deep regret at the humble, but happy little uess expressed in the countenance of her mishomesteads around her; she marked the blue tress. Rumors had got abroad amongst the nesmoke rising from every chimney, and the cheer-groes, that there was a talk of selling the Cedar ful signs of human habitation around every door, Creek estate, because Mr. Selden had a great and thought with pain of the time when the fire debt to pay for somebody, and this had given rise should be quenched on every hearth, and the to some uneasy surmises as to what would beinmates of these houses should be dwellers in come of the negroes in this case, but as they are strange places. a race who almost literally "take no thought for the morrow," the apprehensions to which these rumors had given rise died away, as no signs of

There was already a stir perceptible amongst the people who had discovered Mrs. Selden's arrival; the mothers of families were brushing the immediate change about to take place were floors of their cabins and their yards, the chil-visible. dren combing their heads and washing their faces, all striving to make every thing around them look as clean and neat as they could, sure that they should receive from their mistress some words of reproof, exhortation, or encouragement, accord-in the family rather as a friend than a servant. ing to the state in which she found them.

Hannah was an old and privileged servantshe had been Mrs. Selden's maid before her marriage, had nursed her eldest child, and from her fidelity and attachment had always been treated

The report that Mr. Selden would be obliged to

nah's mind, and she said in rather a sorrowful tone-" Few servants have such chances for themselves as we has, madam; I often tells them all, if they a'nt comfortable, it's their own fault."

But Mrs. Selden was in no mood now to re-sell this tract of land, now rushed upon Hanprove delinquencies, and her countenance wore such an unusual expression of seriousness, that old Hannah, who was always the first to meet and welcome her, saw at once with that ready instinct which is a characteristic of the race, that something had gone wrong with her mistress.

"How do you do, Hannah," said Mrs. Selden, kindly, holding out her hand to the old servant, who was looking anxiously in her face; how is your rheumatism?"

66

"Your master and I have indeed wished to make you all happy and comfortable, and tried to do so."

"God knows you both has," exclaimed Hannah feelingly, while she looked sadly and inquiringly into Mrs. Selden's face.

'Better, thank God, madam; them nice flau- "You have probably heard, Hannah," said nel jackets Miss Margaret sent me, did me a Mrs. Selden, clearing her throat to give steadipower of good. How is master, and the youngness to her voice, "that your master has a large ladies, and Mas Charles, when you heard from

him ?"

"All very well, thank you, Hannah. We will go first to your cabin, I wish to have some talk with you, and will sit there awhile."

debt to pay for Mr. Williams' estate, and he has no means of doing so but by selling this tract of land."

Old Hannah clasped her hands and rocked herself violently to and fro, exclaiming, "Lord have Hannah hastened to open the door of her cabin massy upon us, I never thought to see it come to for the reception of her mistress; she dusted down this. I never thought to see master part with such a large flag-bottomed chair, and placed it in the a fine plantation as this, and one that has been in most comfortable position by the fire, then glanced the family so long, and all to go to pay another at a new yarn counterpane, dyed with madder, man's debts, one as wa'nt the least bit of kin to which she had hastily thrown on the bed when him n'other. Dear me, dear me, what a pity!

And the servants, missis, what will become of compunction, for who can say, on such occathem ?"

governing any community, especially one of ne

sions that no duties have been left unfulfilled, or "Your master preferred selling his land, much most imperfectly performed, when the moment as he values it, to parting with his servants, but arives that there can never again be an opportuas the Sherwood estate cannot support you all, nity for their exercise. Yet most persons in Mrs. he will be obliged to send some of them to settle Selden's situation would have looked back on land he has in the west of Virginia; he will do their own conduct, not only with approbation, every thing in his power to avoid separating fami- but self-complacency. for her's had been a perlies; Arthur, too, will go with the servants and formance not only of general, but of individual remain the first year, and Mr. Thomas Selden, duty, towards her servants. There was not one whom you have seen, Hannah, and who is an of them past the age of infancy who might not excellent man, and a cousin too of your master's, recall instances of care for their comfort, of her will settle upon the land, and I am sure he will consideration for their feelings, of her efforts to be kind and good to the servants. I have heard impart to them religious instruction. Meritoritoo that Mrs. Thomas Selden is a very good wo-ous as these outward acts were, they were easy man, and I hope she will supply my place to in comparison with those inward trials of temthem all. The old servants will remain unless per, patience, forbearance, perseverance under they wish to go, and those who have wives and discouragements, which all have experienced children on other plantations, can remain if they who have sought faithfully to do their duty in can find places they like in the neighborhood." Old Hannah drew a deep sigh, as she said-groes. Yet Mrs. Selden was much more hum“Ah, missis, you and master will do the best you can for us, I know, and it's a mon'sous good thing that Mr. Thomas Selden is gwine to live out there; they'd all rather be under one of the family than any one else, being as how they know the ways of the family, and I has a nephew myself as lived with Mr. Thomas Selden two or three years, and he said him and his wife were both mighty good people, and that Miss Kitty, as he called Mrs. Selden, nursed him when he had a bad fever, that she saw to every thing herself, and brought him his physic, and tea, and all such things as was proper for a sick person to have with her own hands; but for all that, missis, I don't say she could take your place with the servants, for I don't b'lieve nobody could do that, and as to being sold out of the family, I had rather one of my children should go to the backwoods than that should happen."

bled now at the recollection of her omissions, than elated by the remembrance not only of her good deeds, but of her triumphs in that silent warfare within, known only to herself and her Creator.

It was Mrs. Selden's custom, whenever she visited the farm, to go around to each cabin, to drop a word of encouragement or reproof, whichever she thought most needed, and usually to read and explain some portion of the Scripture to the negroes. As she paid her accustomed visits on this day, she observed with a mingled feeling of pain and pleasure, the gradual advance of comfort and neatness among the servants, and was much touched at their obvious desire to gain a smile from her or a word of praise.

Even Kate, one of the most incorrigible amongst the women, had her floor neatly swept up, her water pail freshly scoured, her children's faces washed until they shone, and their heads combed until each particular hair stood on end. These last operations had evidently been just performed, and Kate stood with a grin of delight at her cabin door, waiting to receive her mistress.

“It has distressed us all very much, Hannah, the idea of sending the servants away, but we have no choice in this matter-this is the best thing we can do, and I believe the young ones will soon get reconciled to the change, as you see young people constantly do who are obliged Various little offerings were brought by the neto leave their homes; but it grieves me to think groes, with so much apparent good will, that it of seeing them as much disturbed as I know they would have been impossible to refuse them-one will be at first, and the thought that they will be offered a mug of persimmon beer, which she said out of my reach-that it will no longer be in my was very nice, and that she had been saving it power to do any thing for them, distresses me." until missis came, as she heard her say once Mrs. Selden's eyes were filled with tears as she liked persimmon beer very much; another she said these words, and her voice and manner brought some new laid eggs to beg that she would showed how deeply she was moved. None, carry them to Miss Margaret, while the children whose vision has been opened to a sense of their presented offerings of apples, sweet potatoes and moral and religious responsibilities, can regard the walnuts. They all soon perceived, however, dissolution of any connexion, which has placed that their mistress looked sorrowful, and their the destinies of others greatly within their con- manner underwent an immediate change in control and influence, without a pang of regret and sequence. Negroes have a quickness of percep