with much taste the English with the Portuguese manner of gardening, and thereby improved both. It matters not to what clime we go, or what may be the pursuits of our riper years; the habits and images acquired in early life, strike their roots too deeply into the mind to be ever eradicated or subverted by those that come afterwards. Even so was it with the General. He had long left his native England, but not his recollections of currant-tart and gooseberry-pie: they were doubtless the delights of his boyhood, and his imagination still fostered the pleasing impressions they had left behind. He had sent to England for currant and gooseberry shrubs, and had planted them in his garden with such success, that, in a short time, his patisseree de uvas de Inglaterra (English grapes), as the Portuguese call our gooseberries, put his Lady's doces de Marmelo (Marmelade) entirely out of countenance. His gardener, misled by the name, very naturally concluded that English grapes were to be treated like Portuguese grapes, and instead of thinning out the gooseberry branches, as we do in England, cut them away to three or four leaders at the top of each stalk, which he staked in the Espalier form. The consequence was, that each leader became, as it were, a rope of gooseberries thickly crowded over the whole branch, appearing like a long slender cluster of grapes. B. FORAGE.

OPERATIONS IN MYSORE.

LETTER FROM THE CORPS UNDER COLONEL EVANS, C.B. MADRAS ARMY. MYSORE, the country of Tippoo Saib and Hyder Ali, is one of the finest provinces of India. On the destruction of Tippoo's power, during the Viceroyalty of Lord Wellesley, we replaced the ancient dynasty on the Musnud of Seringapatam, engaging, however, to support the government of the restored Prince by a considerable subsidiary force to be stationed. It was from this force that Colonel Evans's corps was detached to quell a formidable and extensive insurrection which broke out in the early part of last year. Bednore, or Nuggur, to which the following letter refers, is a considerable fortress, the capital of the insurrectionary district, and the capture of which was therefore indispensable. It is about 300 miles from Bangalore, north-west of Seringapatam, and in the midst of one of the most magnificent and picturesque ranges of mountains in the world, running for about a thousand miles along the western shore of India. The passes through these mountains are few and difficult, the soil exuberant, the scenery beautiful in the highest degree, the forests extensive, and the trees and elephants of the largest growth. "My last was dated from Mogah; we were then halting for the junction of two companies of the 62nd regiment, and two twelvepounders. They reached us on the 28th May 1831. One of the guns, however, had broken down, the carriage of the other was in a precarious state, and every thing tended to show that the means of supply and equipment suitable for such an emergency were not in the readiness to be wished: to our friends the Mysoreans, I believe, may be attributed this deficiency. While waiting this reinforcement at Annantipore, it appears that Colonel Evans procured information of a route by which he could turn the strong lines of Futty Pett, and so get at the Fort of Bednore, or Nuggur, without coming into

contact in front with the works thrown up in advance of it by the enemy. On discovering this line of march, I understand that he offered the Mysore authorities to advance at once upon it with his own battalion and his brigade of six-pounders, if they would furnish him with provisions for twelve days and the means of transport (the distance was estimated at six or eight marches). But this they did not comply with. The season therefore became far advanced, and though a commissariat was established belonging to the corps, still it could collect but a very small quantity of grain. These, it appears, were additional arguments for adopting the route leading into the enemy's rear. Dispatch was also necessary, lest the approaching rains should shut us up between rivers, or overtake us while in the hills, where they are terribly heavy, and peculiarly destructive to the health of troops.

"Our whole force was collected on the 28th May, consisting of three small battalions, one twelve-pounder, two sixes, one five and a half inch howitzer, and a few pioneers, in all scarcely 1400 men. We halted on the 29th, to establish an hospital and depôt of stores. Marched on the 30th. On the previous day, however, the cholera broke out in our little camp, with alarming symptoms; but marching forward, and a fall of rain, carried it off. The roads, if roads they may be called, were at first unusually bad, but instead of improving, they became worse as we proceeded. As was anticipated, the twelve-pounder, our only heavy gun, soon broke down; however, by great exertion, it was repaired. For two days we were obliged to construct the road by which we proceeded, and this cost us no ordinary labour. The line of march for the most part lay over precipices and along forest and mountain tracks, through which no wheel carriage had ever before passed. So many obstacles rendered an extended column of march unavoidable, and the baggage and followers were, therefore, particularly exposed to attack, and this occasioned us alarm. But the insurgents were so completely taken by surprise by the line of march we had adopted, that they did not molest us. But the unsatisfactory part of the affair was, that they did not give us an opportunity of having a tussle with them, abandoning every thing as we advanced, so that on arriving at their capital, Bednore, which we had so laboriously prepared to attack, it was found to be evacuated. The monsoon had now commenced, and we had to march seventy miles to get out of its influence into the open country. During these proceedings, the British Political Agent to Mysore was with the force.

"The civilians and politicians think this insurrection is now completely put down; but the intelligent natives with whom I have conversed, assure me, that as soon as the rains are over, and the revenues come to be again demanded by the native authorities, the people will again rise. If so, our force will probably have another little campaign."

[Here is a proof, though on a small scale, of the importance of strategy. By adopting a line of movement which turned the enemy's position, works are carried without the loss of a man, which, in being attacked in front, had just previously made a vigorous resistance. Direct movements, in short, are very often what may be termed "taking the bull by the horns."]

TRAITS AND INCIDENTS, NAVAL AND MILITARY.

We have alluded elsewhere to the disadvantages under which modest merit labours in advancing its just claims to reward, and have hinted that the quality known as " modest assurance," is too often found to grasp unmerited honours. We are persuaded that numberless instances of devoted spirit and distinguished conduct, slighted or unnoticed amidst the great current of our martial achievements, remain to be recorded with honour to the services and advantage to their individual members. In justice to both, we shall be ever ready to record examples of sterling merit in either service and in every rank, and to recall to the attention of superior authority the claims of men who, from honest pride or want of opportunity, may have shrunk from advancing, or failed in pressing their undoubted pretensions to favour. In pointing out individual cases, we must be understood to do so in the prosecution of a public and professional purpose.

The Artillery labours under disadvantages in the above respect not common to the army at large. For instance, Capt. Strangways, as Lieutenant of that corps, commanded the Rocket troop at the battle of Leipsic after Capt. Bogue had fallen, and was thanked on the field of battle by the Crown Prince of Sweden, for his personal intrepidity and the important services of his troop. The effect of the rockets was decisive. The above circumstances were stated in Sir Charles Stewart's (Marquess of Londonderry's) account of the events in question. Since that year (1813), and for the above reason, Capt. Strangways has held the rank of Captain in the Swedish service, with a Russian Order, and two medals,-tributes to his gallant conduct on the part of Foreign Powers; while in his own service he remained till the year 1826—a subaltern.

If the peculiar constitution of the corps of Artillery presents an obstacle to the acknowledgment of desert in the subordinate ranks out of the slow routine of promotion, it is a defect which demands an early remedy.

SINGULAR ESCAPE OF AN OFFICER AND BOAT'S CREW OF THE MADAGASCAR.

THE following unvarnished account of a remarkable result of presence of mind, is extracted from a letter of Mr. Otter, of the Madagascar, the party concerned.

Off Hydra, the Captain (Lyon) ordered me to take out one of the boats, and go round to the south of Hydra to look for the Philomel brig, and join the ship again when I could. After being away all day, about eight o'clock at night I saw a ship eight or nine miles off, which I took to be us, and of course I wished to get on board as soon as possible, but in burning a blue-light the boat unfortunately capsized, eleven men, a midshipman and myself in her. One could not swin a bit, and several others were poor swimmers; however, by exertions and keeping the men to the boat, we managed to get on shore at the back of Hydra, in a little bay. We burnt our blue-light at 8'40' P.M. by the ship's time, and we did not reach the shore till a little before the moon went down, at 37′ past two A.M. in which time we got the boat along about three miles, by means of towing and paddling with

U. S. JOURN. No. 39. FEB. 1832.

the bottom boards. The gunwales of the boat were generally eighteen inches under water, but the stern only four or five. As several men got the cramp, and others became sick from swallowing salt-water, they were allowed to rest on the stern, whilst the others swam and towed. When we got on shore we were all naked, and nothing like a house near, except a deserted barn, which we were very glad to crawl into until daylight, and never was sun more welcome than it was that morning, though it paid upon our bare backs pretty well about noon. At four A.M. we started, after baling the boat out, with only one oar to steer, and some bottom boards to row with; but luckily we picked up six or seven oars floating about, and gave way for Spezzia, distance about twenty-one miles. At one, a schooner took us in tow, and we reached Spezzia in the afternoon, where the frigate arrived a little after. We presented rather a curious spectacle, one with a jacket on, that had been floating with the oars; another with a red flag round his head; a third with a blue one, and so on.

PRESENCE OF MIND.

DURING Lord Exmouth's attack on the batteries of Algiers, in 1816, the Algerines used a great number of red-hot shot, particularly in the early part of the action. On board His Majesty's bomb Infernal, one of those comfortable articles came in, through Wallis's, the purser's, cabin, in the after cockpit; and having bundled a shelf, full of books, on the top of the Assistant-Surgeon, Jones, who was lying in the purser's cot, given over with the Gibraltar fever, it rolled across into the opposite cabin, and was there got into a bucket of water, by the gunner and some others stationed near the spot.

This interesting amusement was but just concluded, when the men in the magazine, the door to which was close by, heard a desperate smash among the powder-barrels, and were almost covered with a cloud of loose dust and powder, which was thrown all over them. Knowing the business which had employed the gunner in the cockpit but just the instant before, they naturally enough, in the confusion of the moment, called out to him, "A red-hot shot in the magazine;" and were rushing out of it to circulate wider the same cry, should their new red-hot acquaintance permit them. The ill consequences of this may be easily conceived; the only chance for any one on such an occasion, being to jump at once overboard. The gunner in an instant saw, that if the cry was false, it was folly to spread it; and if true, it was useless; for to kingdom come we must inevitably go. He flew to the magazine, shoved the fellows back into it, and turning the key on them, stood there, with his hand on the lock, till he knew all danger must be past—rather a queerish situation, gentle reader!

The chaps were afterwards a little laughed at; for, strange to say, we could not find this intruder on their equanimity of temper anywhere; and many doubted at last, if any shot had come into the magazine at all. To be sure, there were the broken barrels and the spilled powder in favour of the narrators of the story, but this seemed still not fully to convince; for even the worst of dangers generally get laughed at when they are over, by our happy-go-lucky sons of Neptune. When, however, she came to return her powder into store, after arriving in the Thames, the mystery was solved; it was then found

that the said shot had gone through four barrels of powder, and lodged itself very comfortably in the middle of a fifth.

The gunner's name was Coombs; and the last time I saw this man, who had shown such an unexampled presence of mind, was in 1824; he was then mending shoes, in a solitary room in the back-slums of Deptford, to help out a precarious existence-Sic transit gloria mundi!

PRESENTIMENTS OF DEATH.

λ.

INSTANCES of strong presentiment are by no means uncommon, but I have never heard of any more striking than the following two.

Lieut. Stuart had been many years in the service, and had for some time commanded the Seaflower, a beautiful prize brig-of-war, well known on the Lisbon station in 1812, &c. where she was principally employed in convoying Government freights. He was afterwards appointed to the Harlequin, of eighteen guns, on the Newfoundland station; this appointment was given him with a view to his promotion— Poor fellow, if he was not promoted, he was at any rate provided for. He was first Lieutenant of the little vessel, and during the time he held this station, was distinguished by that gentlemanly behaviour and urbanity of manner, so much to be desired in those who possess almost unlimited power. From the time of his first joining her, however, he seemed to think of death, and frequently declared, that he had never yet been in an action of any kind, although so long in the service, and that he felt convinced most fully in his own mind, that, when he did get in one, he should fall.

Many a long hour in the weary night-watches on the banks of Newfoundland, has he wiled away by reciting all his former prospects and his future hopes; but it invariably wound up with his taking a longer stride than usual, and declaring as he finished his yarn, "If ever I go into action, I shall fall-Well, it's all right-Keep a good look-out there, forward:" this was the hint that he wanted no more conversation, and the mate of his watch used to leave him and go over to leeward. Poor Stuart would then pace the deck, in the most perfect mental abstraction. He had indeed a most melancholy foreboding of his fate, but he met it like a hero.

It was in the latter part of 1813, or the beginning of 1814, when the Harlequin, not far from Bermuda, fell in with one of our own packets, and from some mistake in the signals, the packet took her for an American which she had heard was in those seas, and let fly a raking broadside at her as she was coming up on her quarter; while the Harlequin was getting into carronade range, the packet continued to fire at her, principally from a long brass gun, which she had mounted abaft, and which was directed by a passenger, an artillery officer.

Poor Stuart was in the act of walking aft, apparently in the highest glee, and cheering the men with the hopes of soon having her alongside, when one of those raking shots came in at the starboard gangway, walked away with the back part of his head, and his brains literally flew up to the peak of the main-sail: it took another man's shoulder off, and then went out through the poop.

There was many a wet eye the next day, when

"The wave was made his winding-sheet!"