John Gilmary Shea, LL.D., says that no Passionist died early enough in this country to meet Father Keenan's find, may that not have been one of the Trappists referred to in Mr. Luke McGuire's statement?)

The records of the Order of Dominican Priests are said to set forth that two "Dominicans," in the latter quarter of the 18th century came to the mission at Lancaster and Conewago; that all trace of them was there lost; that they never returned again to the general order, and that nothing has since been heard of them. There is no record extant of any Dominicans having been here at Lancaster, and what became of them or where they lie buried is an unsolved mystery.

Thomas Devereux, sexton of St. Mary's church, states that in 1884, while he was engaged in cutting a drive-way from the street into the yard of the schools, which formerly was the old graveyard, he came across a coffin containing the body of a short, well-set man, with a head of grayish, bushy hair, and that the body was robed in a white serge habit, which had a cowl or hood to it. The body was reinterred again among a number of other bodies which were disinterred at the same time. Mr. Devereux at once informed his brother (Rev. J. P. Devereux, O.P.) of the finding of the body, and that clergyman came to Lancaster, but was unable to recover the remains in question, as they could not have been distinguished from the other remains among which they had been carelessly reinterred. By the style of dress the remains were evidently those of a Dominican. Strange that there is no record on St. Mary's church register of these two priests who were interred in the old churchyard!

At the beginning of the present century John Carroll, the famous Bishop of Baltimore, and later on the first Archbishop in this republic, administered at times the rite of confirmation at St. Mary's. Prince Gallitzin, the pioneer priest of the Alleghenies, paid frequent visits to St. Mary's. While here both of them stopped in the old "Risdell mansion," at the corner of East King and Shippen Streets. The Risdells were

a family of famous converts. Bishop Carroll, while on his visits, confirmed a number of the members of the congrega tion. A brief mention is here made of two of the pioneer families of the parish-the Hook and McConomy families, descendants of which are still living. Rev. A. J. McConomy belonged to the one and D. A. Altick is the great-grandson of the other. D. A. Altick's great-grandfather, Michael Hook, was one of the establishers of the parish in 1742. The Risdells have all died and are interred in the new cemetery. Miss Ann Keenan, sister to Father Keenan, and who was his housekeeper (now quite an old lady), is still living in a pleasant house opposite the church.

LANCASTER, PA.

S. M. SENER.

CATHOLIC RELICS OF EARLY DAYS.

IN August, 1872, some workmen engaged in excavating for the foundations of the round-house on the Pennsylvania Railroad, at Columbia, about ten miles from Lancaster, came across the following articles: some much-decayed human bones; the oxidized remains of an old French flint-lock musket, which has brass mountings; a steel paint or tinder box, about the size of a tobacco-box; a knife-blade, and iron tomahawk; a glass bottle, containing some dark colored liquid; some twenty or more opaque glass beads; a brass crucifix, and two brass medals, inscription on them corroded and illegible. The articles in question are in possession of Mr. F. X. Zeigler, of Columbia. The human remains were much decayed, and evidently had been interred for many years. The crucifix indicates that the remains were those of a converted Indian, perhaps from the Huron country. They are mute chroniclers of men and events that never had a written history.

A DESCRIPTION OF MARYLAND.

66

EXTRACTED FROM A POEM ENTITLED CARMEN SECULARE," ADDRESSED TO LORD BALTIMORE BY MR. LEWIS, 1632-1732.

[From the "Gentleman's Magazine," December, 1737.]

TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE LORD BALTIMORE :
Low in the gloomy vale of thought confined,
(The dreary mansion of a lab'ring mind,)
Where darkness spreads, and Stygian waters flow,
Thick vapours rise and hollow tempests blow;
Where wan Anxiety with terror strays,
To search the path within the thorny maze;
Close in her steps, with equal care I tread,
Long used to toil,-but hopeless to succeed.
Yet urged by choice, who dares not to aspire ?
To day what Justice bids, what you inspire:
By Heaven exalted, by your Prince caressed;
By Nature favoured, and by Fortune bless'd;
Compleat in person, in address polite,
Fashion'd to please, to polish and delight,
Courteous to all, beneficent and good;-
(The best and surest marks of noble blood,)—
True friend to science, and, in taste refined,
To every study, every art inclin'd;
By all advantages of mind improv'd!
Admired and honoured, courted and beloved.
In climes remote, where Indian virtue lives
And honest labour by your influence thrives;
Where your dominion with indulgence sways
To give them plenty, peace and happy days,
No savage there, but in his bosom finds

A zeal to worship and a love that binds;

Alike inclin'd with suppliant gesture bend,
The ardent votary and the humble friend.
Thus, the bright sun, with genial warmth replete
Revives his tender flower with kindly heat;

The grateful plant his generous aid explores,
Turns to the God and while it lives, adores!
No dreadful hurricanes disturb our skies,

No earthquakes shock the soul with sad surprise;
No sulphurous volcanos vomit fire,

To blast the plains with devastation dire;

No treach'rous Crocodiles infest our floods

And pois'nous snakes recede to pathless woods.

The landskaped earth shows many a pleasing scene,
And fogs but rarely hide the blue serene.

Nor are these blessings of indulgent heaven,
To an ungrateful race of mortals given.
Here every planter opens wide his door

To entertain the stranger and the poor;

For them, he cheerful, makes the downy bed,

For them, with food unbought, his board is spread.
No arts of luxury disguise his meals,

Nor poignant sauce severe disease conceals;
Such hearty welcome does the treat commend,
As shows the donor to mankind a friend;
That Good Old English Hospitality

When every house to every guest was free,
Whose flight from Britain's Isle her Bards bemoan
Seems here with pleasure to have fixed her throne,—

Such-Gracious Sir,-your province now appears,
How chang'd by Industry and Rolling Years-

From what it was.

When for the faith your ancestors had shown
To serve two monarchs on the English throne,
Cecelius from the Royal Martyr's hand
Received the Charter of this spacious Land.*
Incult and wild its mazy forests lay

Where deadly serpents rang'd, and beasts of prey;

The natives, jealous, cruel, crafty, rude,

In deadly wars declar'd their thirst for blood!

Oh! if the muses would my breast inflame,

With Spirit equal to the glorious theme,

My verse should show to the succeeding age
(Would Time permit my verse to 'scape its rage)—

* 1632.

What toils your great progenitors sustain'd
To plant and cultivate the dreary strand;
What virtue in Cecelius' bosom glow'd

Who, with unsparing hand his wealth bestow'd,*
Exhausting treasures from his large estate
His infant colony to cultivate;

To humanize a barbarous, savage race,

And for industrious men provide a dwelling place.
Maturest wisdom did his act inspire,

Which ages must with gratitude admire,

By which the Planters of his land were freed
From feuds that made their native country bleed !
Religious feuds, which, in an evil hour,

Were sent from Hell, poor mortals to devour !
Oh! be that rage eternally abhor'd

Which prompts the worshippers of one mild Lord,
For whose salvation one Redeemer died,

By war their orthodoxy to decide!

Falsely religious-human blood to spill

And for God's sake their fellow creatures_kill.
Horrid pretence.

Long had this impious zeal with boundless sway,
Most direful, urged o'er half the earth its way,
Tyrannic on the souls of men to prey!
'Til Great Cecelius, glorious Hero, broke
Her bonds, and cast away her yoke!

What praise, oh! Patriot, shall be paid to thee!
Within thy Province conscience first was free! †
And gained in Maryland its native Liberty.
In ships prepar'd by Baltimore's command
They came to cultivate his subject land,

And all who could not for themselves provide,

Were by his kind, paternal care supplied.

That men of different faiths in peace might dwell,

And all unite t' improve the public weal,

*Lord Cecelius was at a charge of about £40,000 in sending Ships, People, and Provisions to settle Maryland. He never derived an interest from this outlay, as is proved by the Lord Baltimore's Case, delivered in Parliament in 1715.

By an act of 1640, allowing liberty of conscience to all who profess their belief in Jesus Christ. By this act a fine was imposed on all such persons as should call their fellow-planters by any of those party names, by which the factions of Religion then in England were unhappily distinguished.