other ship."--(Miss Simmons, who was present at this narration,
seemed to be much interested at this mention of her own name; she,
however, did not express her feelings, and the stranger proceeded with
his story.)--"The gentleman was, with justice, the most beloved, and the
most deserving to be so, of any officer I have ever known. Inflexible in
everything that concerned the honour of the service, he never pardoned
wilful misbehaviour, because he knew that it was incompatible with
military discipline; yet, when obliged to punish, he did it with such
reluctance that he seemed to suffer almost as much as the criminal
himself. But, if his reason imposed this just and necessary severity,
his heart had taught him another lesson in respect to private distresses
of his men; he visited them in their sickness, relieved their miseries,
and was a niggard of nothing but human blood. But I ought to correct
myself in that expression, for he was rashly lavish of his own, and to
that we owe his untimely loss.

"I had not been long in America before the colonel, who was perfectly
acquainted with the language and manners of the savage tribes that
border upon the British colonies, was sent on an embassy to one of their
nations, for the purpose of soliciting their alliance with Britain. It
may not, perhaps, be uninteresting to you, gentlemen, and to this my
honourable little master, to hear some account of a people whose manners
and customs are so much the reverse of what you see at home. As my
worthy officer, therefore, contented with my assiduity and improvement
in military knowledge, permitted me to have the honour of attending him,
I will describe some of the most curious facts which I was witness to.

"You have, doubtless, heard many accounts of the surprising increase of
the English colonies in America; and when we reflect that it is scarcely
a hundred years since some of them were established, it must be
confessed that they have made rapid improvements in clearing the ground
of woods and bringing it to cultivation. Yet, much as they have already
done, the country is yet an immense forest, except immediately on the
coasts. The forests extend on every side to a distance that no human
sagacity or observation has been able to determine; they abound in every
species of tree which you see in England, to which may be added a great
variety more which are unknown with us. Under their shade is generally
found a rich luxurious herbage, which s