A Lapland Village, built in the Fissures of the Ice.-M. Læstadius, the French Protestant Missionary, teaching the Inhabitants. THE FRENCH MISSIONARY LÆSTADIUS painful detail. The missionary was obliged, as AND THE LAPLANDERS. SCARCELY half a century ago the Laplanders were Pagans-they are now Protestants: this fact affords a strong testimony in favour of Missionary enterprise, against which neither the burning plains of Africa nor the frozen regions of the Arctic Circle have interposed obstacles too formidable for true Christianity to overcome. We have already described what untiring energy can accomplish amidst the parching sands of South Africa; where man herds with his fellows in great congregations or tribes :-we now reverse the picture to exhibit a region whose rigid climate and inhospitable soil separate its inhabitants from each other, distributing them in solitary families over the face of the land. In the former, the work of conversion is happily progressing in masses-here it had to be worked out in slow and NO. IV. Moffat and the Bechuanas, p. 36. Læstadius did, to wander from hut to hut, from man to man, to deliver the glad tidings of the Gospel. His privations, hardships, and zeal may be estimated from the details of the scene of his labours we are about to give. Whilst among some of the people he had to overcome a deeply-rooted Paganism, others had to be weaned from a degraded form of Christian worship-that of the Greek Church, the national religion of Russia-to which two-thirds of Lapland belongs. The vast tracts anciently called Scandinavia, situated at the northern extremity of Europe and partly in north-western Asia, are now divided between Russia, Sweden, and Norway. That portion of them lying between the White Sea, the gulfs of Bothnia and Finland, and the western and northern expanses of the Arctic ocean, is Lapland, or country of the Lapps. It is chiefly a table land, E crowned on its western frontier with a mountain- | throughout the higher lands of the Lapps--the ous chain, that forms the extremity of the Scandinavian Alps, which giving out other ranges, make western Lapland a rugged and unequal territory. Except a narrow isthmus between the extremity of the Gulf of Finland and the White Sea, Lapland is completely sea-girt; hence its people are divided into two great classes, namely, mountaineers and those who live on the coast ;-they are either shepherds or fishermen. Russian Lapland, however, possesses neither of these characteristics, consisting chiefly of plains above which detached hills arise sometimes to a considerable height. It is among the mountain population of Lapland that the scene of our illustration is laid. The climate of these inland parts of Lapland is one of extremes. The winter is long and severely cold—the summer short and intensely hot, lasting only about sixty-six days during each year; but the season compensates for its shortness by its genial influence upon vegetable and animal economy; for, before it has passed over, crops are sown, ripened, and reaped: no change is experienced either in light or temperature during the whole twenty-four hours, for there is no night, the sun never absenting himself; but the long winter presents a dreary reverse; the cold is so excessive that mercury, and even brandy, frequently freeze in the open air, and the whole face of nature is buried beneath sheets of ice, or snow of great depth. During the winter solstice, the sun continues for seven consecutive weeks below the horizon; and in the day-time only a partial twilight prevails. To these phenomena the characteristics of the people may be traced. During the short period that nature smiles on them, there is not a more active race upon the face of the globe; in winter it would be difficult to find their parallel for indolence. Shut up in tents rudely constructed in the icy but sheltered clefts of hills, they engage in little other employment than eating, drinking, and sleeping; the reindeer-herds of which constitute their chief property-giving them little care save to preserve them from straying. Their habitations are formed by six beams of wood rising in the form of a cone, and not meeting at the top, to leave a hole for the escape of smoke. These poles are covered with a thick coarse cloth; a flap of which, left loose between two of them, constitutes the door. The floor is strewn with reindeer skins, which serve the triple purpose of carpet, chairs (for the Laplanders squat like the Easterns), and beds; a square stone frame under the hole at the top, and in the middle of the tent, answers for a stove; the speedy egress of smoke being considered a disadvantage. Its fumes thickly impregnate the whole hut, and are considered a protection against cold in winter, or swarms of insects in summer. To these dreary abodes-placed at wide intervals early Missionaries from the Christian church wended their way, to introduce the light of the Gospel. They found the people involved in a universal idolatry, in which the elements were typified, and every object in nature was changed into a god; yet despite the progress of truth-which was rapid in the minds of this misguided nation-much still remains to be done among them; for though all the Swedish and Norwegian Laplanders are now members of the reformed church, and are ashamed of their former superstitions and idols, in the ancient Russian territory the people are ill instructed by the eastern priests; professing Christianity, but retaining many of their heathen ceremonies. Among the more enlightened Laplanders churches have been built, in which regular services are performed, and they seldom fix their abodes further than twenty or thirty miles from a place of worship -a distance by no means formidable to a Laplander in his sledge drawn by the swift reindeer. Indeed a Lapland parish sometimes extends some hundred miles. The churches are rude buildings constructed of logs of wood laid transversely together, and seldom in good repair; but in them the natives assemble from their distant homes every Sunday; some arriving the day before (if they have a long way to travel), and taking up their quarters for the night in the church. Their natural indolence, and long journeys in the open air, prevent them, however, from deriving much benefit from the efforts of their spiritual teachers. Dr. Clarke describes them as forming at best a sleepy congregation, and gives no favourable account of their spiritual enlightenment; yet, he continues, during the chanting of some verses from the psalms, " it was impossible to listen to the loud and full chorus of a rude people, thus celebrating the triumph of religion over the most wretched ignorance and superstition, without calling to mind the sublime language of ancient prophecy, The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom as a rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing.'" Although, compared with the condition of nations who have never heard the doctrines of the bible, the Laplanders possess many spiritual advantages, yet much remains to be done for them. Our engraving presents the best means to be employed for accomplishing the "much more" which the religious state of the Laplanders requires. We there see the missionary bringing the Gospel to their very doors, rousing them from their lethargy and mental indolence to a knowledge of divine truth, and shedding the blessings of civilization and religion over their homes-forcing it by constant visitation and untiring exhortation into their hearts. W. POEMS BY A CUBAN SLAVE. POEMS BY A CUBAN SLAVE. A VOLUME thus entitled, we beg to recommend to the immediate attention of our readers. It commences with a poem, "The Slave Merchant," by Dr. Madden, to whom indeed we are greatly indebted for the whole. He says in the preface: "A Collection of Poems, written by a slave recently liberated in the Island of Cuba, was presented to me in the year 1838, by a gentleman in Havana, a Creole, highly distinguished, not only in Cuba, but in Spain, for his literary attainments. Some of these pieces had fortunately found their way to the Havana, and attracted the attention of the literary people there, while the poor author was in slavery in the neighbourhood of Matangas. The gentleman to whom I have alluded, with the assistance of a few friends, of pursuits similar to his own, (for literature, even at the Havana, has its humanising influence,) redeemed this poor fellow from slavery, and enabled him to publish such of his poems as were of a publishing kind in a country like Cuba, where slavery is under the especial protection, and knowledge under the ban, of the censors of the press. 51 business of a house-painter, and was not successful -was advised to set up as a confectioner, and lost all his money in that line, and eventually has settled down as a 'chef de cuisine' in occasional service. The gentleman who was mainly instrumental in obtaining his liberation from slavery, induced him to write his history. This task he accomplished alike creditably to his talents and his integrity. It was written in two parts-the second part fell into the hands of persons connected with his former master, and I fear it is not likely to be restored to the person to whom I am indebted for the first portion of this manuscript. As far, however, as this portion goes, I have no hesitation in saying, it is the most perfect picture of Cuban slavery that ever has been given to the world; and so full and faithful are its details, that it is difficult to imagine that the portion that has been suppressed can throw any greater light on the evils of this system than the first part has done. I have given a literal translation of it, and that translation, revised by a Spaniard, will be found at the end of these poems." The following is an extract from "The Sugar Estate;" it is a sketch of "A few of those pieces which were unpublished or unpublishable in Cuba, I have endeavoured to put into English verse, and, to the best of my ability, have tried to render, so as to give the sense of the writer (sometimes purposely obscured in the original) as plainly as the spirit of the latter, and the circumstances under which these pieces were written, would admit of. I am sensible I have not done justice to these poems, but I trust I have done enough to vindicate in some degree the cha. racter of negro intellect; at least the attempt affords me an opportunity of recording my conviction, that the blessings of education and good government are only wanting to make the natives of Africa, intellectually and morally, equal to the people of any nation on the surface of the globe. "The author of the poems I have attempted to translate is now living at the Havana, and gains his livelihood by hiring himself out as an occasional servant. His name, for obvious reasons, I think it advisable not to publish; but to leave no doubt of the authenticity of these poems, I have deposited the originals in the Spanish language in the hands of the secretary of the British and Foreign Anti-That tells a tale of murder largely done. slavery Society. 66 THE MAYORAL WHO OVERSEES THE BAND." WITH all due awe and reverence possest, "He is now in his forty-second year. He was born at Cuba. His father and mother lived and died in slavery in Cuba. The former was a pardo' negro (or Mulatto negro); the latter, the offspring of an African and a Mulatto union. He was about thirty-eight years of age when he obtained his liberty. The price paid for it was 800 dollars. He obtained employment from a tailor for some time after he got his freedom; subsequently, he went out to service--then tried the This worthy person gravely I addrest, The deaths, they tell you, of the slaves, are here Jamaica bondsmen, in "the good old times" The following is another specimen of the powers and feelings of a slave : THE CUCUYA, OR FIRE-FLY. [The Cucuya, or fire-fly, is an insect which abounds in the fields of Cuba. In the darkest room it is possible to read by holding one of these insects along the line; they have two lights in the head, and one in the belly. In the spring, the fields at night are illuminated with them; children delight to chase them, and the Creole girls adorn their hair with them, or keep them in cages, and feed them on cane or sugar.] THE fire-fly is heedlessly wandering about, But shrouds every gleam as the dawn doth appear. It sparkles alone in the soft summer's eve, On the leaf of the orange awhile it disports; And oft as one looks on such brightness and bloom, It hardly can seem to be closely confined, In the cage that her delicate hands have prepared, But this amongst all is her favourite one, Thus cherish'd, the honey of Hybla would now Our limits restrict us to one more poem ; it is TO DEATH. Oн, thou dread scourge and terror of our race! Hear one poor Christian's humble prayer to thee, While passion's spell is on my heart-nor yet Oh, yet not while I feel this bosom rise, But let it be, when thou dost see me yield, Here, assuredly, is much that is admirable. How does this Cuban slave tower in intellectual energy and moral feeling far above the multitudes by whom his race have been oppressed and destroyed! We trust that this volume will not only place him in an interesting aspect before many, but lead them to "remember those who are in bonds as bound with them." UNWISE CHAMPIONS OF TRUTH. EVERY man is not a proper champion for truth, nor fit to take up the gauntlet in the cause of verity: many, from the ignorance of these maxims, and an inconsiderate zeal unto truth, have too rashly charged the troops of error, and remain as trophies unto the enemies of truth: a man may be in as just possession of truth, as of a city, and yet be forced to surrender; 'tis therefore far better to enjoy her with peace, than to hazard her on a battle.-Sir T. Brown. EVILS OF FOUNDLING HOSPITALS. EVILS OF FOUNDLING HOSPITALS. OUR present object is to show the positive evils produced by Foundling Hospitals, namely, the great increase they immediately cause in the number of children abandoned by their parents; the fearful amount of mortality among such children, and the demoralising effect of the system upon society at large. In relation to the last point we should state, that it has been ascertained that foundling hospitals do not, as might reasonably be supposed, increase the number of children born out of wedlock, but even a worse evil is the consequence, as we shall presently show. The case of Mayence is, perhaps, as convincing as any in respect to the first point. From the year 1799 to 1811, a time of uproar and disturbance, when the whole country was occupied by troops in actual warfare, proverbially no great professors or practisers of good morals, thirty children only were deserted by their parents in twelve years; while in three years and four months, from the 7th of November 1811 to March 1815, during which time a foundling hospital was supported, more than 516 children had been left at its gates. The hospital was then suppressed, and in the ten succeeding years only seven cases of desertion took place. M. Von Raumer, Professor of History in the university of Berlin, made a tour through Italy in the year 1839, in the course of which he carefully examined the condition and consequences of foundling hospitals throughout the country, and from his work, which was published in England in 1840*, we shall borrow freely. In Venice, M. Von Raumer found the number of foundlings to be 3338, and for the rural districts 10,625. The hospitals cost the state yearly 36,671 florins. It has been calculated that there is one foundling for every 321 inhabitants. In Turin, the foundling hospitals cost the state 40,000 lire yearly. In a population of 380,000, 500 children are yearly deserted by their parents; and in the year 1839, 3500 such children were maintained in the hospitals. "In the Genoese districts," says the Professor, "the hospitals contained 1202 foundlings in 1813, and in 1835 the number had increased to 2555. In 1835 the number of deserted children found alive was 275; those found dead were in number 163. The mortality of these children, within the year, was 120. Every eleventh child, on an average, was a foundling. "In the whole monarchy (Sardinia and Lombardy) 3480 children were deserted in 1835, of whom 1957 died. For a population of 4,000,000 there were no fewer than 18,365 children main *Italy and the Italians. By Frederick Von Raumer, author of "England in 1835,"" Illustrations of History," &c. 2 vols. 8vo. Colburn, 1840. tained in the foundling hospitals, at an expense of 425,000 lire to the state. As long as the bigoted notion prevails that these revolting institutions promote morality and prevent infanticide, no remedy is to be hoped for, and the permission offered to vice will continue to foster depravity. Are not the deserted children that are found dead, are not the others also who die in such prodigious numbers, murdered? Are they not murdered by mothers, fathers, and legislators ?" At Rome, "in the space of five years, from 1829 to 1833, 3840 children were exposed: of these, I am told, 2941, or 72 per cent., died. They are said to occasion a yearly expense of 50,000 scudi." At Florence," at the end of 1838, the foundling hospital there (for about two-thirds of Tuscany) supported 7600 children, 3400 of whom, according to one computation, were illegitimate, the others born in wedlock. The number of the children annually exposed amounts to about 1200. The mortality, formerly as high as 80 per cent., has decreased since the pay for nursing has been raised, that is to say, since the expenses have been greatly augmented. "In Naples there were exposed in the year 1824 1977, of whom died 1471 raging murder, sin, and wretchedness of all kinds, and yet patronised and extolled by state, city, and church." The extent of mortality in other places is equally terrible. In the hospitals at Madrid the proportion of deaths among the children, in the first year, amounted to 67 per cent.; at Vienna it reached 92, at Brussels it amounted to 56, at Paris to 72, and in all the other places in France, collectively, to 60 per cent. Of 19,420 children received in twenty years in the hospitals of Dublin, only 2000 remained alive; at Moscow, only 7000 out of 37,600; and at Petersburgh, out of 25,624, received from 1832 to 1835 inclusive, 12,290. The ordinary mortality of children in their first year is estimated at twenty-five per cent. in towns, and twenty per cent. in the country. The total |
