The American papers which arrived yesterday bring nothing from Havannah
so late as was received by other channels in the course of the week. The 4th of July passed in the United States with the usual observances. Ammg the varidus methods employed to give the anni- versary of American freedom eclat, the following is the most curious : it is "an official letter" from Samuel Patch, the famous American jumper, addressed to the New York papers :— " Messrs. Editors—Please to notice in your valuable paper, that I propose celebrating the anniversary of our glorious Independence by leaping over the Little Falls, Essex County, New Jersey ; which not being sufficiently deep, I have erected a stage, so that the clear leap will be about 80 feet.
" I perceive, by a notice in Alderman Binns' paper, that some base person proposes that I should leap with a frog for a hundred sovereigns. I will leap with the worthy Alderman over as many coffin handbills as he shall be able to collect, and will leap with hint into Tartarus, if he bets me two to one, and goes first.
"I regret to perceive that exploits of a most daring character make but an indifferent impression upon a gallant people. Look at Leander, who swam across the — I forget the name of the sea, to get a peep at his sweetheart— history has not forgotten him. Look at Hannibal, who crossed the Catskill Mountains in winter, before Mr. Webb had built the Mountain House ; look at our late worthy President, Mr. Adams, who swam across the Tiber at Rome, and the same river at Washington City ; and look at me, who have jumped over the Passaic Falls several times without being killed—will history forget these exploits ? will not Noah Webster in his next dictionary notice them ? Every skimble-skamble thing in the country is patronised—an Italian Singer—a pair of fat babies—a dancing corps—an Egyptian mummy, or the dog Apollo, can make fortunes, and can visit Saratoga Springs in Summer,— while I, who have done what Jove never did, can scarcely make up a paltry fifty dollars.—Some day or other, I shall take out* n leap that .you will hear no tnore 'of me; and thus leave the country to mourn over their loss."
