that it is simply baked saw-dust. But he is no judge. Having left the hut, we started for the second time, and with a good breeze, direct for the mouth of Puerto Cabello lagoon. We were now in the famous bay which bears the name above-mentioned; and certainly a finer harbor it would be difficult to find. Perfectly sheltered from the violence of all the storms that blew over it, with any quantity of water, with fine holding ground for anchorage, it appeared to be to me the very desideratum for the necessities of a large town. The harbor is easily made, the entrance being several miles broad, and the Chimilecon mountain rising, in one unbroken peak, to a great height, serves as a landmark for vessels many miles at sea. Mr. Squier, in his "Notes on Central America," gives a perfect description of it, with an accompanying map. Blunt, in his "Coast Pilot," pronounces it to be one of the best harbors on the coast. It is a beautiful sheet of water, unbroken by a single rock or other obstruction to the free and secure navigation of it in any part. During our progress we shot many wild fowls, and passed some beautiful plantations, at one of which we compelled our boatmen to land us. Here we selected our future residence on a gentle slope, a few feet from the water's edge, and when we shall have finished our Central American palace-which I think should be in the form of a paint-brush or palette, emblematic of our calling-we will send you on a sketch of it. On board again we soon entered the lagoon. If it were only in the North, adios to Saratoga, Newport, etc. Why, in my mind, I saw in the blue distance of a near future a dozen hotels on its delightful shores, with "regular boarders" the year round, and in their record-books names hailing from Maine to Texas. The Doctor, who is from the latter place, offers, as an inducement to some enterprising Yankee, to take his room so soon as the shingles are on. A Mr. Fisher has a plantation here, and around him is clustered a family of bouncing little ones to whom disease is unknown. By This is the proposed northern terminus of the "Interoceanic Railroad," and a more desirable location could not have been selected. building docks two hundred feet long, the largest ocean steamers could discharge their living freights with all the security of New York accommodations. The people every where along the coast are anxious for its commencement, rightly thinking that it would turn their comparatively worthless plantations into "independent patches of wealth," as the Doctor calls them. Start the Railroad, gentlemen! Open the richest country on the globe to the enterprise of the world! Let the "iron horse" but once snort through these majestic forests, and its woods will be turned into shining silver, its grasses into glistening gold, its small plantations into thriving Yankee farms; the plow and sickle will supersede the machete and the rude digging iron; the weeds, rank and strong, will turn into waving corn and wheat; and the lit-ing isolated in the midst of its ornamented tle marshy spots will be soon covered with nutritious rice, all yielding plenty and smiling contentment on the hardy adventurer. In concluding this sketch we would observe that this race of Caribs originated on the Cayman Islands, and are known as the "Red Caribs." grounds, profuse in shade-trees, shrubbery, and flowers, reminding one more of a thickly settled neighborhood than a town. The avenue leading from the capitol to the Governor's house is more compactly built, and is the theatre of all the commercial life the place affords. "On an eminence near the town, imposing from its extent and position, stands the State Asylum for the Insane. A building worthy the taste and public spirit of any State. "By the burning of the old capitol in 1831 Raleigh lost the statue of Washington by Canova, a gem of art of which the Carolinians were justly proud. The hero was represented in a sitting posture, costumed as a Roman general, holding tablets in one hand and a style in the other, as if about to write; we believe the intention of the sculptor was, to represent him as Washington the statesman and lawgiver, while his recent military character was indicated by the sheathed sword beside him. The conception was beautiful, the work skillfully and ele It is not many years since their depredations in the piratical way have been suppressed, and many an old sea-captain may tell of the care he used to avoid its inhospitable shores. In the first instance, they were driven from St. Domingo and Jamaica for their participation in numerous outbreaks, and they went carrying with them an unquenchable hatred against the whites. In the settlements on this coast and in Guatamala they are very hospitable, and most of them speak the Creole English. Their language contains many French words, not recognizable, perhaps, with its guttural intonation, to the polished Parisian-with the exception of the numerals, the pronunciation of which is tolerably correct. They are, in fine, an industri-gantly wrought, but there was nothing in it esous, hard-working community; and so free are they from the cares of this life, and so smoothly does time fly with them, that but few of them have any idea of the number of summers that have passed over their heads in their happy, quiet homes! We left them with regret, but with a promise to return soon and settle among them. NORTH CAROLINA ILLUSTRATED. BY PORTE CRAYON. III.-GUILFORD. "List his discourse of war, and you shall hear A fearful battle rendered you in music." "THE SHAKSPEARE. In "HE capitol of North Carolina bears the ap- The su "Around this central point the town is built upon several streets densely shaded with double rows of trees. The private residences for the most part resemble country houses, each stand pecially to touch the American heart or understanding. The soft Italian, whose genius was inspired by dreams of the Greek ideal commingling with shapes of modern elegance, who pined even in brilliant Paris for the balmy air and sunshine of his native land, beneath whose magic chisel the frigid marble warmed and melted into forms of voluptuous beauty, had neither the soul to conceive nor the hand to earve the iron man of '76." As Porte Crayon warmed with his subject he | ble, in a greater or less degree, to every subject rose from his chair and paced about our writing- to which human effort has been directed. If it table like a chained bear. "That task," continued he, "yet remains to be accomplished; there is no statue of Washington existing, there never has been one." seems not to have been sustained by the progress of the fine arts at all times, the exception may be fairly referred to the fact, that the genius of certain peoples and periods, instead of being devoted to the legitimate task of develop "You forget that which adorns the square in front of our Federal Capitol," I mildly sug-ing into beauty and grandeur the ideas of its gested. "Get out! it is scarcely worth criticism-a pitiful heathen divinity set up to be scoffed at by the children of the image-breakers-a half naked Olympian shivering in a climate where nudity is not, and never can be, respectable." "But there is the statue in Richmond." Crayon paused for a moment as if to cool off. "Houdon," said he, "made an effort in the proper direction, and the unaffected approbation which his work has elicited proves it. That it has been greatly overpraised, is not chargeable to a want of taste in our people, but simply to the fact that they have no means of comparison. It is the best we have, and is estimated accordingly. But although the costume and design of the statue are good, there is nothing in that affected pose to remind one of the most striking characteristic of Washington's person, The lofty port, the distant mien, That seemed to shun the sight, yet awed if seen.' "A French writer says: Malgré l'opinâtreté des hommes à louer l'antique aux depens du own times, perversely turns for inspiration to antiquity, rejecting the healthful freshness of the present to feed morbidly on the decay of the past; wasting its native vigor in feebly imitating, instead of aspiring to the nobler task of creating. Why may not the ridicule that in literature is attached to the faded imitations of the ancient poets-the Venuses, Cupids, nymphs, and shepherdesses-be as fairly turned against the wearisome and incongruous reproductions in marble of gods, heroes, and senators, with modern names, and modern heads on their shoulders?" "Bravo! Porte Crayon turned lecturer! You bid fair to rival Ruskin in the crusade against the Greeks and Romans. You and he are harder on them than were the Goths and Vandals." "But, my dear P-, permit me to explain. You have misunderstood the drift of my remarks-" "Encore, Sir Critic. You administer the chibouk like a very Fahladeen." "Now pray be quiet, and I'll tell you an anmoderne, il faut avouer qu'en tout genre les pre-ecdote appropriate to the subject: miers essais sont toujours grossiers.' The truth "A provincial society of literati, somewhere and common sense of this assertion is applica- in France, wished to compliment Voltaire, and voted that his statue should decorate their hall. A young artist of great merit, a native of the province, was commissioned to execute the work. The sage, who was never averse to flattery in any shape, complacently sat for the bust, and an THE AETIST. | excellent likeness was modeled. The artist was now at a loss how to complete his work. The antique furore was then at its height in France, and Hogarth's caricature of a nobleman personating Jupiter, with a big wig, ruffled shirt, and a thunder-bolt in his hand, scarcely surpassed in absurdity many of the sorious productions of that ridiculous era. The artist was an honest fellow, and was at his wits' end in endeavoring to reconcile common sense and the spirit of the times. Embroidered cuffs, shirt ruffles, and knee breeches, would not do in marble at all. The wardrobe of antiquity was ransacked, but nothing found to fit Voltaire. Fortunately the severely classic taste could dispense with all costume, even the fig-leaf, so our artist modeled his figure after the Antinous. "But to see that lean, leering face, that preposterous curled wig and scraggy neck, set upon a round, graceful, fully-developed figure, was inadmissible; the incongruity was too glaring. The head, which had been pronounced a perfect likeness, could not be changed, so he went to work again, and, with much labor, reduced the figure to the meagre standard of the face. The completed statue resembled Voltaire, no doubt, but it also looked like a chimpanzee, or the starved saint done in stone in the Museum at Florence, or the wax-work figure of Calvin Edson at Barnum's-a sculptured horror, a marble joke. The society was outraged. The statue, instead of being inaugurated, was kicked into a cel lar; while the unhappy victim of classic taste | traveler continued his journey westward, by the lost his labor and reputation together, nor is it likely that posterity will ever repair the injustice." North Carolina Railroad. This road traverses the best portion of the State. The face of the country is pleasantly diversified with hill and Having passed several days very pleasantly dale. The sombre vesture of the pine woods is looking at the outside of things in Raleigh, our changed for the rich and varied leafing of the upland forest, while evidences of agricultural improvement are manifest on every side. Then, as we pass along, we hear the old familiar names of Revolutionary memory; names that make the heart leap in recalling the wild, romantic details of the Southern war, all the more thrilling that they have escaped the varnish of spiritless limners, and are not heard in the common babblings of fame. But still, in the humble cot and squirely mansion, the memory of these brave deeds and glorious names is fondly cherished. "Come hither, Curly-pate; what paper was that you showed your mother just now that delighted her so, and got your pocket filled with ginger-cakes ?" "That, Sir, is a picture of Colonel Washington chasing Tarleton. Mother says I am a great genius." "Why, Beverly, be quiet. I said no such thing." "Indeed, madam, this drawing is an astonishing production. The attitudes of his horses are decidedly classic, and seem to have been studied from the Elgin marbles. The boy will doubtless be a great painter some day." |