EXTRACTS.•

ANECDOTES OF MAJOR TAPIA,

Major La Tapia, when an ensign, bad distinguished himself at the aesault of Valdivia. The day after the western forts vere captured, he was left with a small guard in charge of the prisoners at the castle of Corral, whilst the remainder of the patriot troops were re-embarked to proceed against the forts, on the opposite side of the harbour. La Tapia was no sooner left to himself, than he determined upon shooting the whole of the prisoners. He was upon the point of commencing this operation at the moment Lord Cochrane's secretary went on shore to look at the castle. Observing the preparation for

this massacre, the secretary went towards La Tapia, who congratulated bins upon his having arrived in time to witness the execution of the godos (gothic), who, he added, had shown a disposition to rise upon the guard. The secretary, with some difficulty, prevailed upon La Tapia to suspend the execution, and to allow bins to examine into the matter. In the mean time he sent off a message to the admiral, who was on board the frigate, anchored under the guns of the castle. La Tapia was placed under arrest before he could ac complish the intended execution. He stated in palliation of the projected crime, that his father, mother, two brothers, and an almost infant sister, having been murdered in Colombia by the royalists, he had made a vow never to show them quarter ; that the admiral might hang or shoot him if he pleased, but that he never could lose an opportunity of avenging the cruel massacre of his family. He then threw off his shoes and stockings, pointed to several deep scars upon his ancles. " These," said he, " were caused by the heavy irons which fettered me in a loathsome dungeon for eighteen months, before I had attained the age of sixteen. Is it in human nature to forget or forgive such injuries ? The sight of a Spaniard," he added," throws me into a fever ; and his harsh and gut rattones remind me of the insults I was compelled to bear when a prisoner. I know that I have done wrong in the eyes of the law, but I obey the law of nature."

In consequence of this affecting appeal, and of his very courageous conduct during the assault, La Tapia was after a few weeks imprisonment liberated, with a severe reprimand. He distinguished himself afterwards at Mirate and Moquegua. When Miller in 1821, retired from Moquegua, towards Tacna, he sent La Tapia with a trumpeter, a few regulars, and a montonero party, with orders to approach as near as possible to Arequipa. Tired of the dreariness of this service, La Tapia longed to pay a visit to the city itself. Accordingly he presented himself one day at the royalists advanced post, under pretence of

being a yarlamentario or bearer of a flag of truce, and was conducted to

General Ramirez, then commanding in Arequipa. Producing a paper, which had been fabricated for the purpose, he said, " General you will perceive by this document that I ant commissioned by Colonel Miller, my commanding officer, to communicate with your excellency." "Yes " answered the General, after looking at the paper ; but what can you have to say, now

that the armistice has taken place between the viceroy and General Sae

Martin ?" La Tapia to whom the news of the armistice was equally sudden' and unexpected, and who had prepared quite a different pretext, replied with the utmost composure and readiness, "that is the object of my mission, to inform your excellency of that event, and to propose in consequence, that hostilities should cease at the same time, between the troops under your excellency's command, and those of the liberating division of the south." " It is impossible" exclaimed the astonished general, " that your coinmanding officer could have yet heard of the armistice, for it was concluded at POnchauco only eight days ago, which time it has taken the courier to bring me the intelligence, and it has only just arrived. How then could your commanding officer, who is forty leagues farther off, have already received the information ? La Tapia, perfectly unembarrassed, answered, that he was not in the least surprised at the astonishment expressed by the General, as indeed the circumstance was almost incredible; that however, he was not at liberty to divulge the means by which Colonel Miller received communications from General San Martin, along the line of coast occupied by the royalists; that he would, therefore, only observe, that such was the energy and patriotism exhibited by the inhabitants, that the agents of the independents could perform their secret missions with such celerity as though they actually had wings. That although the main body of Colonel Miller's division might be nearly forty leagues distant, yet this officer was in the habit of riding to his advanced posts, which his excellency well knew were almost at the gates of Arequipa, and that it was just as probable that communications should be received at the one point as at the other. Ramirez appeared, upon this reply, to recover in some degree, from his surprise, and invited La Tapia to partake of a collation, during which he received marks of the politest attention from the General and his staff.

In the mean time the circumstance of the arrival of a patriot officer occasioned a considerable sensation amongst the patriotic inhabitants of Arequipa, and the interest became at last so ardent, that Ramirez thought it prudent to dismiss La Tapia without delay, which he did, with the assurance tirat he was willing to conform to the armistice, and that he would send an officer 011 the following day to arrange the terms. La Tapia had left Arequipa six hours when General Ramirez discovered how ingeniously he had been played upon, by the arrival of an official communication front Colonel MIller, upon the subject of prisoners, in which no allusion was made of the armistice, or to La Tapia's mission.

La Tapia was remarkable for his ready wit, his amazing fluency of speech, and for the quaint anti amusing terms in which he could express his inveterate detestation of the Spanianbs—Gelleral Miller's Memoirs, Vol. 2.

"GEITING ON " I N THE womo.

Some forty years ago, an Irish boy, about eighteen years of age, appeared at the door of a respectelde house in the valley of Nlajes, and asked for a supper and a hammock for the night, with an air of confidence not commonly shown on a self-introduction. He was, however, readily tohnitted, and in the course of the evening told his adventuees ; from which it ;tepeared that he had been sent to sea two three years beffire, but disliking the confinement of a ship, ran away from some merchant-vessel trading in contraband on the coast or Peru, and that he had wandered about the country ever since, always receiving succour and protection, but, being of a roving disposition, he continued to go farther NVitilOtlt faring, worse. On the foilowing morning. instead of taking his departure, he told the good people of the hou,e that he liked the looks of theni all, and that he would willingly remain and make himself useful, if they would find him in victuals. No objection was made, and he speedily became one of the family. In a very few days he extended his acquaintance to the village shoemaker, and then persuaded his patrons that he should prefer going to hear mass in a new pair of shoes. When these were brought home, he discovered that he could not very well wear new shoes without new stockings, nor both without new something else. He never asked Ihr anything as a matter of favour, but demanded it with an easy boldBees of manner, so tempered by broad humour, dust he never met with a refusal. Within the first two months, he had found out every little ehop in the valley, and waylaid every passing pedlar, until he collected rather au extensive wardrobe. Soon after this the young spark became tired of inactivity, or perhaps he panted to display his sued! beyond the boundaries of the valley. Be that as it may, he made an early repertuuity to say to his friends, " You have no work to employ me, and I shalt be a constant expense to you if I remain ; give me therefore twenty dollars, and I will go seek may fortune elsewhere." A family consultation was held, and not twenty but fifty dollars were put into his hands. An affectionate parting ensued, and years rolled away without bringing any tidings of the oft-remembered wanderer. In the mean while, one of the sons (Bon Manuel Bejerano, the original narrator of tide tale) grew up and became a priest. He was accustomed to go to Arequipa once in two or three years. As he came out of the bishop's palace, at one of these visits, he felt himself almost lifted off the ground, by a man who, with open arms, had darted across the street, and exclaimed, " Don't you know me ? I ant that stranger had who found so kind a shelter in your father's house. Come to mine: I have a shop full of goods : I have no delete : I have four thousand dollars in my strong box : I have a wife and four children: come then, and receive that welcome which we shall be delighted to give."—General Miller's Memoirs.

EC110 OF LURLEY ON TI1E smock.

Between St. Goar and the ruins of SchOnberg, at a spot where the Rhine,

from the direction of its deep shmosities, aeseines the appearance of successive and isolated island lakes, bounded all round by upright gigantic rocks, or sloping hills, clad with vines to their very summits : the postilions suddenly checked their career, and turning the wide end of their bugles to the reach of the river we had just passed, blew loud and strong their postboy tune, and then held their breath. Quickly the nmeical sounds were heard repeated once in a clear and distinct manner, not far from us ; and again a

second and a third, and even a fourth time, but as ii from a progressively increasing distance, until they died away. The experiment, more than once repeated, proved equally successful. We were assured that the repetitions of the sound are more munerous when the experiment is made in a boat placed midway between the two banks.

It was not to be expected that so remarkable and striking a phenomenon, should go without being converted into an allte7m-ical tale during thu ages of ignorance and superstition. How, in fact, was this never-failing repetition or the fisherman's choired morning prayer amid evening song, which some invisible voice responded in the distmt space, :us he glided over the bosom of the water to or front his daily toil, to be accounted for? Imagination, ever ready to plunge into the supernatural, created a lovely nymph arid placed her abode on the rock of Lmley, from the sides of which the sounds'are prin-cipally reverberated. A dangerous eddy lies in the broad shadow of thus rock, and many a time, when the ainazed boatmen tracked its way through the stream, listenim, to the mysterious voice front the height of Lurley, his frail hark drawn within die vortex, would miserably perish under the rocky dwelling of dm syren. Attracted by the reports of her beauty, and spurred on by the proclaimed cruelty of her disposition, the youthful son of the Count Palatine of a neighbouring country determined on seeing the virgin of leaky, and carrying her a captive to his father's court. his fate was sad, for on arriving, escorted by a few followers, in the agitated waters of Curley, his boat whirled round and disappeared. Grieved at the loss of his child, the Palatine Count despatched a trusty band to seize the relentless nymph ; but just as their rude leader unmoved by her heavenly charms and dishevelled tresses, was in the act of summoning her to surrender, a sudden hurricane swelled the stream, the waves, crested with foam, rose to time top of the rock, and encircling the lovely Undine, saved her from the rude grasp of man, and carried her to time realm of her fathers. Her voice is still heard returning the song of merriment or sorrow, but her beauteous form appears not on the heighths of Lurley. In thie short legend we can trace the working of the mind, under the influence of the heart. Those were not times for the march of intellect, but for that of the passions. Hence the Aee of Romance. But now that the heart has lest its influence on the actions of men, under the management of Societies for diffusing useful knowledgo, and of mechanical Institutes—now that the sixpenny treatises on natural philosophy, on hydraulics, anti acoustics, all perspicacious and free from errors, enable the commonest understanding to explain on the simplest principles, what was before a complicated phenomenon—the echo of Lumley would be accounted fir by the singular disposition of the two elevated banks of the river, following parallel lines in a serpentine direction—thus presenting to the rays of sound, more than one

reflecting surface. This disposition of the two banks, which are here in some parts scarcely more than one thousand feet asunder, while it accounts likewise for the formidable eddies which are observed in this place, explains how intricate and dangerous the navigation must necessarily be ; nay, fatal too, if the careless boatman, less watchful of his course, passes his time in calling on Lurley to repeat his" halloos." I have attempted to show the manner of the echo just described, in a diagram of the relative position of the two banks beyond St. Goar, where our postilions stopped of their own accord, to indulge us with the pleasing effect of reverberated sound. A mention is made of this echo by Barthius, in his notes on the Thebaid of Statics.

I may add to this, that the eddy of Lurley is, in reality, considered as the most dangerous spot in the whole course of the navigation of the Lower Rhine ; so that the immense goniree, formed in this dark place by the surrounding hills of slate-rock and basalt, is looked upon with a deree of horror by the boatmen. The Rhine, in a distance of not more than one hundred and fifty yards, has here a fall of not less than five feet."-Dr. Granville's Si. Petersburg's.