and seeing only a deep incision across his wrist, nearly severing the hand from the arm, and a lancethrust that had penetrated the shoulder between the muscle and the flesh, his open eyes suggested that life might not be extinct. I felt his pulse, but it was imperceptible. At the same time a negro with his lance coolly severed the muscle, and extricated the barbed projectile. I looked upon the man with disgust; but, with a laugh, taking the body by the hand, he rolled it over on the chest, and then two open lance-wounds between the shoulders plainly showed the cause of death.

"On our way home the body was drawn by the legs for a considerable distance, and finally carried on the shoulders of some of the party to conceal the trail. It was secreted in the bush in the hope of its eluding the search of the enemy, leaving it to be devoured by beasts of prey; but the head, severed from the body, was secured and destined, with four others, to be suspended on the tree in the centre of the village circus.

66

At night great rejoicings took place, commencing with a war-dance by the women, who, in pairs, closely following each other to the sound of the tomtom, and chanting a war-song, moved in measured steps round the tree. At each time, as the procession approached the heads of the victims, a halt took place, and insulting epithets addressed to the fallen were followed by the clanking of their anklets and shrieks of applause. Sickened with the exhibition, I retired from the scene.

"The day following, after a night's conviviality, the heads were secreted in the bush in order to

bleach the skulls.

Another feast celebrated their

suspension on the tree."

These are the descendants of the Moors who built the Round Towers in Ireland, when they became masters of Spain !

189

CHAPTER X.

DEATH OF MOSES.

THE Law-giver, when he had firmly established the two extensive empires of Mexico and Peru, had it in his mind to found another kingdom in the north of Mexico, which should include King George's Sound, in the Pacific Ocean, and stretch across the continent of North America till it reached the Atlantic Ocean.

It

This immense tract of country was inhabited by savages, living like the wild animals by whom they were surrounded. They knew not God, nor had they any idea of religion, having no greater intelligence than that possessed by the brute creation. was, however, the intention of Moses to visit these people, to teach them the knowledge of civilised life, and to impart to them the blessings of religion and industry.

This, indeed, was the mission on which Moses was sent over the different quarters of the habitable globe by his God, who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and who took him away from the camp of the children of Israel at the ford of the river Jordan, viz. that he (Moses) might carry the glorious tidings of salvation to nations that were living in ignorance and supersti

tion. He obeyed the sacred behest, and there are ample proofs which attest the success of his mission. and labour of love.

The route he took is marked by signs of flourishing empires, with religion, learning, and laws, as far as the spot where the servant of God was killed by savages-the very people whom he came to reclaim. He visited the coast of North America in a boat made of copper, everything on board of which was made of that metal. Of this the Indians are passionately fond, and for the sake of it they killed the inspired missionary.

But the sequel proves that they repented of their wicked deed-when it was too late. In the hope of obtaining forgiveness from the murdered old man, they paid him divine worship, and carved an image to represent the visitant whom they so cruelly deprived of life. The memory of this remarkable event was handed down to posterity from generation to generation, even to the time when Captain Meares visited. that coast in his ship; and the story was related to him by one of the descendants of those who committed the horrid crime. Captain Meares gives the following narrative of what he heard:

"For a long time the English thought the inhabitants had no religious belief whatever. To the huge mis-shapen images seen in their houses they addressed no homage; they had neither priests nor temples, nor did they offer any sacrifices; but an accidental circumstance led to the discovery that, though devoid of all superstitious observances, and wholly ignorant of the true God, they were not without a certain * Meare, Voyages, vol. ii. pp. 70-71,

tence after death.

species of mythology, including a belief of an exisThis discovery arose from our inquiries on a very different subject.

"On expressing our wish to be informed by what means they became acquainted with copper, and why it was such a peculiar object of their admiration, a son of Hannapa, one of the Nootkan chiefs, a youth of uncommon sagacity, informed us of all he knew on the subject; and we found, to our surprise, that his story involved a little sketch of their religion. When words were wanting he supplied the deficiency by those expressive actions which nature or necessity seems to communicate to people whose language is imperfect; and the young Nootkan conveyed his ideas by signs so skilfully as to render them perfectly intelligible. He related his story in the following

manner :

"He first placed a certain number of sticks on the ground, at small distances from each other, to which he gave separate names. Thus, he called the first his father, and the next his grandfather he then took what remained and threw them all into confusion together, as much as to say that they were the general heap of his ancestors, whom he could not individually reckon.

"He then, pointing to this bundle, said, when they lived an old man entered the sound* in a copper canoe, with copper paddles, and everything else in his possession of the same metal; that he paddled along the shore, on which all the people were assembled to contemplate so strange a sight, and that, having thrown one of his copper paddles on shore, he himself

*Nootka Sound.-J. V. G.