violin; each string being from twelve to fifteen inches long, and united at both ends to the ring, so as to form what in a riband would be called a bow. On teries in the Godhead and the most inscrutable coun-cords, exactly resembling the smallest strings of a sels in the Trinity, to the very lowest pit of hell, and the confused actions of the devils there; there is nothing now unsearched into by the curiosity of men's brains." But James knew that men's curiosity would degrees of complexity, from a simple through-put, pry under his " divine right," and he greatly feared to a complication of loops and twists of three quar that an increase of knowledge on that subject would increase his sorrow. These are days of free thought and of free action; and human skill, curiosity, and invention know no bounds-human knowledge and discovery no limits. THE KNOT-RECORDS OF PERU. each string are from ten to thirty knots of different ters of an inch in diameter. The knots and intervening portions of the string are covered with a substance which gives them the appearance of having been dipped in sealing wax; the colour being for the most part green, but in some of the knots yellow, and in others red. Alexander Strong, who purchased them for fortyfive dollars, from a person who had bought them at Buenos Ayres, with the hope of selling them to advantage in Britain, also received with them a key, consisting of five small slips of leather, scrawled over It is generally known that the inhabitants of Peru were found, on the discovery of America, to possess a degree of intelligence and a range of social insti- with something like writing; and it ought to rank tutions, which plainly pointed out that the nation high among anecdotes of perseverance, that this must have previously had a communication of some humble and unlettered man actually taught himself kind with Europe. Among the other circumstances Latin, in order that he might acquaint himself with distinguishing them from savages, was their system the key, which, strange to say, is in that language, of recording events and conveying ideas by means and then submitted to the inconceivable drudgery of of knotted cords, called Quipoes. From the accounts untying the whole successive parts of this worse left by the Spaniards who conquered the country, it than Gordian knot. Having first arrived at English appears that these quipoes were, in general, formed for the various Latin words, he proceeded to apply of the intestines of animals, like our catgut, on them to the various knots which they referred to, which were knots and loops, the varieties of which and finally, by wonderful skill and industry, made represented letters; and there was a class of men out a rude narrative of the whole, which remains as like our notaries and clerks of council, whose busi- a monument of his extraordinary task. ness it was to compose these volumes; the name It appears, that in the quipoes belonging to Mr. given to these officers was Quipo-camayoes. The Strong, proper names are given in red knots, numeknots are diversified by colours, for minute distinc- rals in yellow, while other parts of speech are in tion. There is extant, in a Spanish work published green. On examining the numerals in the quipoes, in 1608, a minute account of all that took place at a it is found, that instead of advancing as we do by meeting between Garcilasso de la Vega, an officer tens, the Peruvians advanced by threes; which is of the king of Spain, and the inca of Peru; being a perhaps the reason that certain American nations transcription of the report of record taken of the pro- have been represented as unable to count farther ceedings by two Quipo-camayoes, who sat all the than three. One is represented as the commonest time in the hall of audience, engaged upon their task. knot, such as seamstresses generally make on a In the year 1827, there appeared in London a small thread on taking the first stitch. Two is representquarto volume, giving an account of a bunch of ed by a knot, in which the end is put through once these knot-records, which had fallen into the hands more before drawing tight, as a seamstress does of one Alexander Strong, a ship-carpenter, and been when it is desired to increase the magnitude of the brought by him to this country. The story given knot. And three is expressed by performing the as to their transmission from an ancient inca of Peru same operation an additional time. But four asthrough many different hands, until they came into sumes a new conformation, for it is expressed by a those of Mr. Strong, need not be repeated here; but loop of the simplest kind, such as is made, in nautiwe shall give a description, so far as we are able, of cal language, by taking a bend on the bight of the the object itself. rope; and five is expressed by the same kind of loop, with an additional twist in the clinch or part where the whole is drawn tight; and siæ has another twist still. Seven is another kind of loop, which The quipoes recovered by Strong were contained in a box of wood which had been cut out of a solid block, and measured eighteen inches in length by eight in breadth and depth. On the outside were is manifestly different from four, though it would painted many apparently unmeaning figures, includ- probably puzzle a forecastle-man to define the difing one, however, of a man on horseback, which is ference in words. Eight is the same with the adsaid to be alluded to in the quipoes within, as repre- dition of another twist in the clinch, and nine with senting a dream, in which one of the Peruvian incas another. Ten is no loop at all, but a portentous foresaw the arrival of the equestrian people by whom they were to be overcome. 'The quipoes consist of seven bunches, each of which is formed upon a ring of animal sinew, bedaubed with different paints, and measuring from three to six inches in diameter. The whole form kind of a knot, such as might be made in a cat-o'nine-tails where the object was to kill. Eleven is the same with an additional twist of the clinch; and twelve with another. Thirteen is the same kind of knot as ten, only with a loop sprouting out on one side: and fourteen and fifteen distinguish themselves one narrative, which begins with the smallest ring, by their twists as before. In this manner the sysand goes on to the largest. From the circumfer- tem goes on to a hundred-for so far the unknown ence of each ring, proceed from thirty to a hundred apocalypst has chosen to carry his operations ; exhibiting a new knot at every third numeral, and expressing the two next by additions at the clinch. The knots, as may readily be imagined, in time grow exceedingly complicated and artificial; but they invariably adhere to the ternary system de scribed. The number of knots in the skin of proper names is 102, and in the three collections of green knots, 231; so that, with the addition of the hundred numerals, the whole number of knots or ideographick symbols is 433. The positive contents, as presented by the key, are in the main very analogous to the account of Peruvian traditions given by Humboldt and Bonpland, as follows:-"The cosmogony of the Mexicans-their traditions on the subject of the mother of mankind falling from her first estate of happiness and innocence the notion of a great inundation, in which a solitary family escaped upon a raft-the account of a building like a pyramid, raised by the pride of mankind and destroyed by the anger of the gods-the ceremonies of ablution practised at the birth of children-their idols made of maize flour kneaded into paste, and distributed in portions to the people collected in the inclosure of the temples their confessions of sin made by penitents their religious associations like our convents of men and of women-the belief universally extended, that white men with long beards, and of great sanctity of manners, had changed the religious and political system of their countrymen-all these circumstances together had led the ecclesiasticks who accompanied the army of the Spaniards at the time of the conquest, to believe that at some very remote period Christianity had been preached in the newly-found continent. Some learned Mexicans thought they discovered the apostle St. Thomas in the mysterious personage, high-priest of Tula, whom the Cholulans knew under the name of Quetzalcoatl. There is no doubt that the doctrines of the Nestorians, mixed with the opinions of the Buddhists and the Chamans, found their way through Mantchou Tartary into the northeast of Asia. It is possible, therefore, to suppose with some appearance of reason, that ideas connected with Christianity may have been communicated by the same road to the Mexican races, and particularly to the inhabitants of that northern region from which the Tolteques migrated." BEAUTIFUL EXTRACT. "There is scarcely a profession in which the sympathies of its professors are more painfully excited than that of the medical practitioner. How often is he called to the bed of hopeless sickness; and that, too, in a family, the members of which are drawn together by the closest bonds of love! How painful is it to meet the inquiring gaze of attached friends, or weeping relatives, directed towards him in quest of that consolation, that assurance of safety, which he has not to give! and how melancholy is it to behold the last ray of hope, which had lingered upon the face of affection, giving place to the dark cloud of despair. "And when all is over-when the bitterness of death hath passed from the dead to the living-from the departed to the bereaved-hark to that shriek of agony, that convulsive sob, that bitter groan, wrung from the heart's core, which bespeaks the utter prostration of the spirit beneath the blow! "There, cold in the embrace of death, lies the honoured husband of a heart-broken wife-her first, her only love! Or, it may be, the young wife of a distracted husband, the bride of a year, the mother of an hour, and by her, perhaps, the blighted fruit of their love-the bud by the blossom, and both are withered." Tales of a Physician. OTTO OF ROSES. The Royal Society of Edinburgh received from Dr. Monro the following account of the manner in which this costly perfume is prepared in the East: Steep a large quantity of the petals of roses, freed from every extraneous matter, in pure water, in an earthern or wooden vessel, which is exposed daily to the sun, and housed at night, till a scum rises to the surface. This is the otto, which is carefully absorbed by a very small piece of cotton tied to the end of a stick. The oil collected. squeeze out of the cotton into a very diminutive sal, stop it for use. - The collection of it should be continued whilst any scum is produced. THE KNIGHT'S EPITAPH. - BRYANT. This is the church which Pisa, great and free, Reared to St. Catharine. How the time-stained walls That earthquakes shook not from their poise, appear To shiver in the deep and voluble tones Rolled from the organ! Underneath my feet There lies the lid of a sepulchral vault. The image of an armed knight is graven Upon it, clad in perfect panoply. Cuishes, and greaves, and cuiras, with barred heim, By feet worshippers, are traced his name history. The thoughts they breathe, and frame his epitaph... "He whose forgotten dust for centuries And quick to draw the sword in private feud. As ever shaven cenobite. He loved As fiercely as he fought. He would have borne The maid that pleased him from her bower by night, To his hill castle, as the eagle bears His victim from the fold, and rolled the rocks "He lived, the impersonation of an age N. Y. Mirror COL. DANIEL B00N, OF KENTUCKY, IN THE COSTUME OF A WESTERN HUNTER, ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN DANIEL BOON, Comprising an Account of the Wars with the Indians on the Ohio, from 1769 to 1782. WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. It was on the first of May, 1769, that I resigned my domestick happiness, and left my family and peaceable habitation on the Yadkin river in North Carolina, to wander through the wilderness of America, in quest of the country of Kentucky, in company with John Finley, John Stuart, Joseph Holden, James Monay, and William Cool. On the seventh of June, after travelling in a western direction, we found ourselves on Red river, where John Finley had formerly been trading with the Indians, and from the top of an eminence saw with pleasure the beautiful level of Kentucky. For some time we had experienced the most uncomfort exposed daily to perils and death, among savages and wild beasts, not a white man in the country but ourselves. Although many hundred miles from our families, in the howling wilderness, we did not continue in a state of indolence, but hunted every day, and prepared a little cottage to defend us from the winter. On the first of May, 1770, my brother returned home, for a new recruit of horses and ammunition, leaving me alone, without bread, salt, or sugar, or even a horse or a dog. I passed a few days uncomfortably. The idea of a beloved wife and family, and their anxiety on my account, would have disposed me to melancholy if I had further indulged the thought. One day I undertook a tour through the country, when the diversity and beauties of nature I met with in this charming season expelled every gloomy thought. Just at the close of the day, the gentle able weather. We now encamped, made a shelter gales ceased; a profound calm ensued; not a breath to defend us from the inclement season, and began shook the tremulous leaf. I had gained the summit to hunt and reconnoitre the country. We found of a commanding ridge, and looking around with abundance of wild beasts in this vast forest. The astonishing delight, beheld the ample plains and buffaloes were more numerous than cattle on their beauteous tracts below. On one hand, I surveyed settlements, browsing on the leaves of the cane, or crossing the herbage on these extensive plains. We saw hundreds in a drove, and the numbers about the salt springs were amazing. In this forest, the hab-mountains lift their venerable brows and penetrate itation of beasts of every American kind, we hunted with great success until December. the famous Ohio rolling in silent dignity, and marking the western boundary of Kentucky with inconceivable grandeur. At a vast distance, I beheld the the clouds. All things were still. I kindled a fire near a fountain of sweet water, and feasted on the On the twenty-second of December, John Stuart line of a buck which I had killed a few hours beand I had a pleasing ramble; but fortune changed fore. The shades of night soon overspread the the day at the close of it. We passed through a hemisphere, and the earth seemed to gasp after the great forest, in which stood myriads of trees, some hovering moisture. At a distance I frequently heard gay with blossoms, others rich with fruits. Nature was here a series of wonders and a fund of delight. Here she displayed her ingenuity and industry in a variety of flowers and fruits, beautifully coloured, elegantly shaped, and charmingly flavoured; and we were favoured with numberless animals presenting themselves perpetually to our view. In the decline of the day, near Kentucky river, as we as the hideous yells of savages. My excursion had fatigued my body and amused my mind. I laid me down to sleep, and awoke not until the sun had chased away the night. I continued this tour, and in a few days explored a considerable part of the country, each day equally pleasing as the first. After which I returned to my old camp, which had not been disturbed in my absence. I did not confine cended the brow of a small hill, a number of Indians my lodging to it, but often reposed in thick canerushed out of a canebrake and made us prisoners. brakes to avoid the savages, who I believe frequentThe Indians plundered us, and kept us in confine-ly visited my camp, but fortunately for me, in my abment seven days. During this time, we discovered sence. No populous city, with all its varieties of no uneasiness or desire to escape, which made them commerce and stately structures, could afford such less suspicious; but in the dead of night, as we lay pleasure to my mind, as the beauties of nature I by a large fire in a thick canebrake, when sleep had found in this country. locked up their senses, my situation not disposing Until the twenty-seventh of July, I spent my me to rest, I gently awoke my companion. We time in an uninterrupted scene of sylvan pleasures, seized this favourable opportunity and departed, di- when my brother, to my great felicity, met me, acrecting our course towards the old camp, but found cording to appointment at our old camp. it plundered and our company destroyed or dis persed. About this time, as my brother with another adventurer who came to explore the country shortly after us, was wandering through the forest, they accidentally found our camp. Notwithstanding our unfortunate circumstances, and our dangerous situation, surrounded with hostile savages, our meeting fortunately in the wilderness gave us the most sensible satisfaction. Soon after we left the place, and proceeded to Cumberland river, reconnoitring that part of the country, and giving names to the different rivers. In March, 1771, I returned home to my family, being determined to bring them as soon as possible, at the risk of my life and fortune, to reside in Kentucky, which I esteemed a second paradise. On my return, I found my family in happy circumstances. I sold my farm on the Yadkin, and what goods we could not carry with us, and on the twenty-fifth of September, 1773, we took leave of tucky, in company with five more families, and forty to Ken Soon after this my companion in captivity, John Stuart, was killed by the savages, and the man who friends and proceeded on our journey our came with my brother, while on a private excursion, was soon after attacked and killed by the wolves. men that joined us in Powel's Valley, which is one We were now in a dangerous and helpless situation, hundred and fifty miles from the new settled parts of Kentucky. But this promising beginning was soon overcast with a cloud of adversity. On the tenth of October the rear of our company was attacked by a party of Indians; who killed six, and wounded one man. Of these my oldest son was one that fell in the action. Though we repulsed the enemy, yet this unhappy affair scattered our cattle and brought us into extreme difficulty. We returned forty miles to the settlement on Clench river. We had passed over two mountains, Powel and Walden's, and were approaching Cumberland mountain, when this adverse fortune overtook us. These mountains are in the wilderness, in passing from the old settlement in Virginia to Kentucky; are ranged in a southwest and northeast direction; are of great length and breadth, and not far distant from each other. Over them nature has formed passes less difficult than might be expected from the view of such huge piles. The aspect of these cliffs are so wild and horrid, that it is impossible to behold them without horrour. Until the sixth of June, 1774, I remained with my family on the Clench, when myself and another person were solicited by Governour Dunmore, of Virginia, to conduct a number of surveyors to the falls of Ohio. This was a tour of eight hundred miles, and took sixty-two days. On my return, Gov. Dunmore gave me the command of three garrisons during the campaign against the Shawanese. In March, 1765, at the solicitation of a number of gentlemen of North Carolina, I attended their treaty at Wataga with the Cherokee Indians, to purchase the lands on the south side of Kentucky river. After this, I undertook to mark out a road in the best passage from the settlements through the wilderness to Kentucky. Having collected a number of enterprising men well armed, I soon began this work. We proceeded until we came within fifteen miles of where Boonsborough now stands, where the Indians attacked us, and killed two and wounded two more of our party. This was on the twenty-second of March, 1775. Two days after we were again attacked by them, when we had two more killed and three wounded. After this, we proceeded on to Kentucky river without opposition. On the first of April, we began to erect the fort of Boonsborough, at a salt lick sixty yards from the river on the south side. On the fourth the Indians | killed one of our men. On the fourteenth of June, having completed the fort, I returned to my family on the Clench, and whom I soon after removed to the fort. My wife and daughter, were supposed to be the first white women that ever stood on the banks of Kentucky river. On the twenty-fourth of December, the Indians killed one of our men and wounded another; and on the fifteenth of July, 1776, they took my daughter prisoner. I immediately pursued them with eight men, and on the sixteenth overtook and engaged them. I killed two of them and recovered my daughter. The Indians, having divided themselves into several parties, attacked in one day all our infant settlements and forts, doing a great deal of damage. The husbandmen were ambushed and unexpectedly attacked while toiling in the field. They continued this kind of warfare until the fifteenth of April, 1777, when nearly one hundred of them attacked the village of Boonsborough, and killed a number of its inhabitants. On the sixteenth Colonel Logan's fort was attacked by two hundred Indians. There were only thirteen men in the fort, of whom the enemy killed two and wounded one. On the twentieth of August, Colonel Bowman arrived with one hundred men from Virginia, with which additional force we had almost daily skirmishes with the Indians, who began now to learn the superiority of the "long knife," as they termed the Virginians; being outgeneralled in almost every action. Our affairs began now to wear a better aspect, the Indians no longer daring to face us in open field, but sought private opportunities to destroy us. On the seventh of February, 1778, while on a hunting excursion alone, I met a party of one hundred and two Indians and two Frenchmen, marching to attack Boonsborough. They pursued and took me prisoner, and conveyed me to Old Chilicothe, the principal Indian town on little Miami, where we arrived on the eighteenth of February, after an uncomfortable journey. On the tenth of March I was conducted to Detroit, and while there, was treated with great humanity by Governour Hamilton, the British commander, at that port, and intendant for Indian affairs. The Indians had such an affection for me, that they refused one hundred pounds sterling, offered them by the governour, if they would consent to leave me with him, that he might be enabled to liberate me on my parole. Several English gentlemen then at Detroit, sensible of my adverse fortune and touched with sympathy, generously offered to supply my wants, which I declined with many thanks, adding that I never expected it would be in my power to recompense such unmerited generosity. At On the tenth of April, the Indians returned with me to Old Chilicothe, where we arrived on the twenty-fifth. This was a long and fatiguing march, although through an exceeding fertile country, remarkable for springs and streams of water. Chilicothe I spent my time as comfortable as I could expect; was adopted, according to their custom, into a family where I became a son, and had a great share in the affection of my new parents, brothers, sisters, and friends. I was exceedingly familiar and friendly with them, always appearing as cheerful and contented as possible, and they put great confidence in me. I often went a hunting with them, and frequently gained their applause for my activity at our shooting matches. I was careful not to exceed many of them in shooting, for no people are more envious than they in this sport. I could observe in their countenances and gestures the greatest expressions of joy when they exceeded me, and when the reverse happened, of envy. The Shawanese king took great notice of me, and treated me with profound respect and entire friendship, often intrusting me to hunt at my liberty. I frequently returned with the spoils of the woods, and as often presented some of what I had taken to him, expressive of duty to my sovereign. My food and lodging were in common with them, not so good indeed as I could desire, but necessity made every thing acceptable. I now began to meditate an escape, and carefully |