MACFARLANE'S BANDITTI.

THIS is an avowed piece of bookmaking, by a professor of the art. But a made book by a good hand is often better than the spinning of some very original brains. Mr. MACFARLANE has an easy and pleasant way with him in bookmaking : we envy his facility—and eke his success. Now here is a nice little work fabricated with a good broad-nibbed pencil and a short pair of scissors. No black- letter work, no huge folios, no tiresome parchments, no costly do- cuments from the Tower or the State Paper Office: with Mr. BULL for his librarian, and half-a-dozen modern books of travels, behold Mr. MACFARLANE fully established as an author of a popular book on a popular subject,—for certainly he has rightly gauged the public taste. No one understands it better than the keeper of a modern circulating or subscription library ; who well knows that the universal demand is for something "deep"—that is, something with " Bandit" on the titlepage and lots of daggers in the body of the work. If "Castle" or "Cave" crowns the title, so much the better; if the Italian name of a bravo may be discovered on turn- ing over the page, the interest is augmented, and the circulation of the work secured. There never was so great a disappointment in the female world as in the case of COOPER'S Bravo: the shock was extreme when it was discovered that that apparently wicked. and mysterious youth had never committed a murder—that his assassinations were all sham—and that their fine sympathies had_

been most grossly taken in by an impostor and pretender to deep crimes.

Mr. MACFARLANE knows the taste of the town better; and instead of one murderous hero, has got a whole company of deep tragedians,—Italians chiefly, but he has ransacked every country in Europe for seasoning to his Christmas entertainment. The Italian bandits, unhappily, fall very far short in the article of romance : the poor devils he describes have not one of them a house over his head, much less a castle—there is not one of the true Mon- toni breed : they seem every one.to be chiefly in want of a crust; and if they get dollars, they dare not descend into the meanest vil- lage to spend them. The author has lived, it appears, a great part of his life in the South of Italy ; he has travelled through, and about this peninsula, and visited in its remote corners perpetually ; yet he has got but one bandit story of his own to tell,—and that is but . a very miserable one, we fear the young ladies will think. Mr. MACFARLANE and an Italian gentleman were proceeding in a gig to pay a squad of labourers employed in draining ; and were stop- ped by two (not more) ill-looking fellows, who presented their muskets to their breasts, after making them stop : the gentlemen had pistols, but they were at the bottom of the gig,—so the money was given up : the gentlemen got aid, pursued, and ultimately the robbers were taken : they spent years in prison, and Mr. MAC- FARLANE left the country before they were brought to trial. So much for Mr. MACFARLANE'S own romance. He has been more lucky in trusting to other sources. More especially has he got a "" particular bloody" storyof a Hungarian horsedealer and a German innkeeper, who, in attempting to murder his guest, cut the throat of his own son, who had in a drunken fit thrown himself on the traveller's bed. Spain furnishes, on the report of some officers of King JOSEPH'S army, several nice examples in throat-cutting. For Italian mischief, in spite of the author's long residence in Italy, he is almost entirely indebted to Mrs. MARIA GRAHAMS pleasant book. Everybody recollects her sojourn at Poll and at Tivoli, at the time when EASTLAKE got all those bandit models which made his fame, if not his fortune. The moderns, however, are not enough; and we regret to say that the author has been compelled to go as far back as the tales of the Buccaneers. Cap- tain BURNEY'S quarto was too tempting to be passed; it invited the scissors far too eagerly : so that we have all the old story of Harry Morgan's sacking and burning of Panama over again, and sundry stories of such famous characters as L Olonais. The newest and the least obvious part of the work, is neither the ex- tracts from the Year in Spain, Mr. INGLIS'S Spanish Trard; nor Bishop HEBER'S Journal, nor Captain MUNDY'S Sketche.c: but from a translation by the Oriental Society of a Chinese ac- count of the robber fleets that infest that country under the com- mand of the widow CH I NG,—an account made far more interest- ing when combined with Mr. GLASSPOOLE'S narrative of his de- tention by these bloody Ladrones. Mr. GLASSPOOLE'S narrative first appeared, it seems, in WiraussoN's Travels. iu China; a book we have not. bad the good fortune to meet with.

Respecting these Chinese scoundrels, who for a time carried on robbery on an imperial scale, we shall hazard a quotation, to gra- tify such of our gentle readers as love tales of violence and slaughter. The existence of these pirates, who swarm about the Celestial Empire like shrimps about a dead fish, is, however, poli- tically curious; for it serves as a gauge of the disposable power of this overgrown and overpeopled realm, and ought to have served as a lesson to our East India Company. They flourished three or four years almost without a check ; when, after a vast de- struction of property, and the loss of, it may be said, hundreds of thousands of peaceable lives, they were bought over, by rank and pay, into the regular armaments of the Empire. Mr. G-LASSPOOLE belonged to one of our East India Company's vessels : he was picked up at sea in a cutter, and for a quarter of a year was kept in a state of confinement, amounting, under all the circumstances, to torture: he would very quickly have been put out of his misery, as was the way with these Ladrones,—who are here engraved running about with trunkless heads tied to their belts,—but the chiefs hoped a good ransom, and feared the co- operation of the English vessels of war with the Chinese autho- rities—the Portuguese they despised, in this following the fashion of Europe.

" At day-light the next morning, the fleet, amounting to above five hundred sail of different sizes, weighed, to proceed on their intended cruise up the rivers, to levy contributions on the towns and villages. It is impossible to describe what were my feelings at this critical time, having received no answers to my

• letters, and the fleet under way to sail—hundreds of miles up a country never visited by Europeans, there to remain probably for many months, which would render all opportunities of negotiating for our enlargement totally ineffectual; as the only method of communication is by boats that have a pass from the La- drones, and they dare not venture above twenty miles from Macao, being obliged to come and go in the night, to avoid the Mandarins: and if these boats should be detected in having any intercourse with the Ladrones, they are immediately put to death, and all their relations, though they had not joined in the crime,* share in the punishment, in order that not a single person of their families should be left to imitate their crimes or revenge their death."

The following is a very touching incident in Mr. Glassponle's narrative. " Wednesday the 26th of September, at day-light, we passed in sight of our own ships, at anchor under the island of Chun Po. The chief then called me, pointed to the ships, and told the interpreter to tell as to look at them, for we should never see them again ! About noon we entered a river to the westward of the Bogued- three or four miles from the entrance. We passed a large town situated on the side of a beautiful hill, which is tributary to the Ladrones : the :inhabitants saluted them with songs as they passed."

• That the whole family must suffer for the crime of one individual, seems to be the most cruel and foolish law of the whole Chinese criminal code. The Hoo-muu, or Bocca Tigris. After committing numerous minor robberies, " The Ladroneanow prepared to attack a town with a formidable force, collected in row-boats from the-dif- ferent vessels. They sent -a messenger to the town, demanding a tribute often thousand dollars annually; saying,. if these terms were not complied with, they would land, destroy the town, ant murder all the inhabitants : which they would certainly have done, had the town laid in a more advantageous situation for their purpose; but being placed out of the reach of their shot, they allowed

them to come to terms. The inhabitants agreed to pay six thousand dollars, which they were to collect by the time of our return down the river. This finesse had the desired effect, or during our absence they mounted a few guns on a hill which commanded the passage, and gave us in lieu of the dollars a, warm salute on our return.

" October the 1st, the fleet weighed in the night, dropped by the tide up the river, and anchored very quietly before a town surrounded by a thick wood.

Early in the morning, the Ladrones assembled in row-boats, and landed ; then gave a shout, and rushed into the town sword in hand. The inhabitants fled to the adjacent hills, in numbers apparently superior to the Ladrones. We may easily imagine to ourselves the horror with which these miserable people must be seized, on being obliged to leave their homes, and every thing dear to them. It was a most melancholy sight to see women iu tears, clasping their infants in their arms, and imploring mercy for them from those brutal robbers ! The old

and the sick, who were unable to fly or to make resistance, were either made prisoners or most inhumanly butchered ! The boats continued passing and re-

passing from the junks to the shore in quick succession, laden with booty, and the men besmeared with blood ! Two hundred and fifty women and several children were made prisoners, and sent on board different vessels. They were unable to escape with the men, owing to that abominable practice of cramping their feet ; several of them were not able to move without assistance : in fact, they might all be said to totter, rather than walk. Twenty of these poor women were sent on board the vessel I was in : they were hauled on board by the hair, and treated in a most savage manner. When the chief came on board, he questioned them respecting the circumstances of their friends, and demanded ransoms accordingly, from six thousand to six hundred dollars each. He or-

dered them a berth on deck, at the after part of the vessel, where they had nothing to shelter them from the weather, which at this time was very variable—

the days excessively hot, and the nights cold, with heavy rains. The town being plundered of every thing valuable, it was set on fire, and reduced to ashes by the morning. The fleet remained here three days, negotiating for the ransom of the prisoners, and plundering the fish-tanks and gardens. During all this time, the Chinese never ventured from the hills, though there were frequently not more than a hundred Ladrones on shore at a time, and I am sure the people on the hills exceeded ten times that numbent

" October the 5th, the fleet proceeded up another branch of the river, stop- ping at several small villages to receive tribute, which was generally, paid in

dollars, sugar, and rice, with afew large pigs roasted whole, as presents for their

Joss (the idol they worship).§ Every person, on being ransomed, is obliged to present hint with a pig, or some fowls, which the priest offers him with prayers ; it remains before him a few hours, and is then divided amongst the crew. Nothing particular occurred till the 10th, except frequent skirmishes on shore between small parties of Ladrones and Chinese soldiers. They frequently obliged my men to go on shore, and fight with the muskets we had when taken ; which did great execution, the Chinese p?Incipally using bows and arrows. bey have match-locks, but use them very unskilfully. '° On the 10th, we forined at junction with the Black squadron, and proceeded many miles up a wide and beautiful river, passing several ruins of villages that

hail been destroyed by the Black squadron. On the 17th, the fleet anchored abreast four mud batteries, which defended a town, so entirely surrounded with wood that it was impossible to form any idea of its size. The weather was very kzy, with hard squalls of rain. The Ladrones remained perfectly quiet for two

days. On the third day, the forts commenced a in tire for several hours: the Ladrones did not return a single shot, but weighed in the night and dropped down the river. The reasons they gave for not attacking the town or returning the fire were, that Joss had not proniied them success. They are very super- stitious, and consult their idol on all occasions : if his omens are good, they will undertake the most daring enterprises. The sleet now anchored opposite the ruins of the town where the women had been made prisoners. Here we re- mained five or six days, (luring which time about a hundred of the women were ransomed ; the remainder were ofilned for sale amongst the Ladrones, for forty dollars each. The woman is considered the lawful wife of the purchaser, who would be put to death if he discarded her. Several of them leaped overboard and drowned themselves, rather than submit to such infamous degradation."