and then marched upon Washington, 4 miles distant, which they reached at eight o'clock that night, and referring to London as a standard of comparison, were surprized to find the metropolis of the Western World, a city with streets laid out but not built on, or with only a few detached houses at such wide intervals from each other, that the columns of the invading army might march in squares through every hiatus. It presented, however, to the eye, a number of public buildings, devoted to the great purposes of legislation and government, on elevated scites, overlooking the Potomac; and of these proud edifices, in a few hours, scarce a stone was left standing. The Capitol, the President's "Palace," the War Office, the Treasury, and the Arsenal, were blown up by the British troops, and buried in one common mass of ruin and desolation. Scarcely was the work of ruin completed, when the wrath of Heaven seemed provoked; for there came on a whirlwind so awful and tremendous, that the columns of the besieging army were as completely dispersed as if they had undergone a total defeat; some flying for succour behind the dilapidated buildings, and others falling flat on the ground: the very cannon were lifted in their carriages, and borne to a distance on the wings of the tempest. In the miserable account of war, the triumph is not unfrequently dashed with humiliation, and the conquerors, in the precipitance of their retreat* from the land which they had invaded, left behind them at Bladensburg, a great part of their wounded; among them were the following officers: Colonel Thorn

* The British army occupied Washington exactly 24 hours.

ton, Lieut.-Colonel Wood, Major Brown, Lieut. Stavely, and Ensign Buchanan.

And now while patriotism and her dejected train of citizens bent over the ashes of the Capitol, Religion, with exalted voice exhorted them, not ineffectually, to the performance of a sacred and solemn duty. The senate, the clergy, and the people went forth to bury the dead of the enemy. The procession moved slowly from the highest flat area of the hill of the Capitol (whose marble ruins, reduced to one undistinguished mass, were yet smoking from the effects of their explosion,) and proceeded through the Pennsylvania avenue, along the east branch of the Potomac, to the battle ground at Bladensburg. Men, bearing the implements for the interment of the dead, preceded the members of both houses of Congress. In the centre of the procession walked the officiating priest, distinguishable by his band and surplice. On arriving at the field of battle, strewn with the bodies of the slain, there was a deep and solemn pause: the graves were dug in silence: and no voice was heard but that of the minister, as the earth of a foreign land closed over the victims of unnatural war.

NIGHT ATTACK

OF A CAMP OF RANGERS,

On the Shore of Chesapeake Bay,

BY

THE CAPTAIN AND CREW OF A FRIGATE...

noctisque per umbram

Castra inimica petunt.

VIRGIL. 7. 9. v. 314.

The bay of Chesapeake is one of the largest in the world. It is twelve miles wide at its entrance between Cape Henry and Cape Charles, and extends two hundred and eighty miles northward to the mouth of the Susquehannah river, through which vast extent of water the tide ebbs and flows. It is from 7 to 18 miles wide from shore to shore, averaging a depth of 9 fathoms, affording a safe and easy navigation,* and abounding with commodious harbours. Of its tributary rivers the principal are the Susquehannah, the Patapsco, the Patuxent, the

* In this respect there is an invaluable difference, between the Chesapeake Bay, or River, and the Plata, in South America. The depth of the Plata is by no means proportionable to its breadth, and its navigation is perpetually obstructed by enormous sand banks, not covered with more than two or three fathoms of water. The English and Ortiz banks, in particular, detract from the utility of the river, and inspire such terror, that the Plata has been emphatically termed the hell of Pilots.

Potomac, the Rappahannock, James, and York; navigable for ships of burden into the heart of a cultivated country.

*

When the army of General Ross advanced upon the city of Washington, Sir Peter Parker, in the Menelaus frigate, ascended the Chesapeake to make a diversion of the enemy in that quarter. The breeze blowing from the northward, the ship had to beat the whole way, but the crew forgot the toil of their ascent in the magnificence of the scene before them. Northward they beheld the waves running out to the sky like those of the main sea, or partially terminated by isles of various shapes forming an interrupted horizon; whilst the moving level landscapes on either shore were relieved by the rich amphitheatre of woody hills in the more distant prospect, surmounted by a waving outline of azure mountains that bounded the whole. The mind of the enlightened navigator associated with the shores before him all that was enterprizing and romantic in an age of discovery and adventure. To the fancy Smith appeared sustaining with

* An Oxford or Cambridge education disqualifies a man for travelling he never gets fairly out of the leading-strings of Alma Materhe travels with his satchel hanging to his back, and thinks there is no appeal from the judgment of Virgil, who, perhaps, never had an original thought of his own. Hence Eustace, in his Classical Tour, is lost in wonder at the magnificence of the Tiber and the Po, "whose .. currents are unexhausted in the scorching heat of summer." From this the inference is inevitable, that they would be seen to most advantage after a shower of rain. What is the Po compared with the Potomac ? The one a hundred and fifty yards wide at its mouth, the other seven miles and a half! The Shepherd in Virgil was filled with admiration of the magnitude of his village till he visited Rome, and then rebuked himself with the exclamation of Stultus ego!

persevering energy the courage of a handful of colonists in the wilds of a barbarous nation; and Pochahontas approaching the forlorn outcasts with a heart to pity, and a hand to bless.*

The frigate anchored before Pool's island, towards the head of the bay, above the estuary of the Patapsco, and the same day an African born negro swam off to the ship, and made report that in a deep ravine on the Eastern shore of the Bay, a detachment of Rangers had encamped, who were collected to assist in the defence of Baltimore, and were only prevented from crossing to the opposite side by the appearance of the Menelaus. On receiving this information Sir Peter Parker resolved to fall on them in the night, with the hope of cutting off and securing the greatest part as prisoners, and, at ten o'clock, the boats were hauled up alongside the frigate to disembark one hundred and twenty four seamen and marines, with their respective officers: the expedition was commanded by Sir Peter Parker. The crew crowded the gangways to witness the departure of their comrades, and as they descended the ship's side there was many a silent pressure of the hand exchanged between them. It was not long after the full of the moon, and scarcely had the boatmen begun to ply their oars, when every eye was directed to a glow in the east, and the luminary of night

Recorded honours have gathered round the name of this Indian maid in the account (printed in Purchas' Pilgrims) given by Captain Smith of her kind protection of the colonists; and had King James, when he received her at court, conferred on her a title, the appropriate motto to her armorial bearings would have been MISERIS SUCCURRERE DISCO.