AND JOSEPH H. FRANCIS, 128 WASHINGTON-STREET.

AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED STATES.

STEREOTYPED BY GEO. A. &. J. CURTIS, BOSTON

VOL. Y. OCTOBER, 1837.

PARLEY'S MAGAZINE.

RAMBLES OF RICHARD ROVER.

It is so long since I have related to event-the capture of Cornwallis-how ingeniously Washington contrived to shut up him and his army in Yorktown, and keep them hemmed in till they were obliged, by their thousands, to surrender to him. You will find the story in a dozen books, to which you can probably have access; and perhaps most of you know it already.

you any of my adventures, that I suspect many of you will conclude, before you see this, that I have no more stories to tell. But I have not done yet. I have one more ramble in the south to relate.

I went one day to Yorktown. Yorktown, you know, is situated on the south side of York river, in Virginia, about 12 miles from the place where the river empties itself into Chesapeake bay. It is a miserable old village, of scarcely 60 houses, going to decay. Once it was much larger and more respectable; that is, before the war of the American revolution. But, ever since that war, it has been going to decay.

But as I told you, I was very anxious to see the place; so I started in company with a friend early one morning to visit it.

We entered the town from the south. About three quarters of a mile from the village, we came to a little eminence, with two or three Lombardy poplars on it. Here, they told us, Lord Cornwallis, after he was taken, gave up his sword. You see a representation of the scene on the opposite page. You will easily distinguish Gen. Washington and Lord Cornwallis from the rest of the company.

You will not surely expect me to stop and relate the long story of this great

When we entered the town, we were not a little surprised to find all the old embankments and forts still standing, as they were in the revolution. Their walls of earth were indeed somewhat fallen down and covered with grass and weeds; but you could distinctly discover their shape and general size. There were several of them-some larger, and others smaller.

But what struck us most was a great number of little pits all over the Green or Common. They somewhat resembled the places where our northern people bury apples or potatoes, several years after they have been thrown open and have not been used. There is a large, but not very deep hollow, thickly swarded over, like the rest of the ground, and in shape somewhat resembling a bowl, or a tea saucer.

On asking what these little pits were, we were told that they were places where the bomb-shells burst, which Washington and his men threw into the

292

THE WIDOW OF LACHTA.

village to annoy Lord Cornwallis and
his army.
Some of them were thrown,
I believe, from a distance of two miles;
that is, from Gloucester on the north side
of the river; where, too, you may still
find embankments.

I have one more story to relate of what I saw in Yorktown. The village, as has been said, is on the south bank of York river. The banks of the river are pretty high, and are formed in part of a kind of rock, which appears to have been formed of a mixture of sand, seashells, &c. The rock is quite soft, and may easily be cut with an old axe or hatchet. In some places the bank is as high as the roof of a common house, or even much higher; and exactly perpendicular.

Here, in one of these perpendicular places, not far from the water's edge, is a kind of cave, which the people of

Yorktown call Cornwallis's Cave. It consists simply of two rooms, adjoining each other, cut out of the soft rock. One of them is as large as a good-sized sleeping room; the other is much smallerand seems more like a closet.

Some of the people of Yorktown say that this cave was dug by Cornwallis's men, and that he made it his quarters, at least part of the time, while Washington was besieging him. But I do not know how this was. I describe the cave to you, just as it appeared, and give you their stories, and leave you to form you own conclusions. I ought to say, however, that I could find nobody in Yorktown now, that lived there in the time of the siege. That event took place more than half a century ago, and the Virginians of the Low Country are not a very long-lived people. Yours, &c.

RICHARD ROVER.

THE WIDOW OF LACHTA.

pointing out to him signs of the approaching tempest. Only look, my dear son, at the lake: it is madness to venture out such a day as this: let the boat go without you, and stay at home for your mother's sake, Stephen.

It was a cold and bleak day in No- widowed mother, who was anxiously vember, in the year 1724, and the fishermen, on the shores of the Lake Ladoga, predicted a coming storm. The thick clouds began to gather over head; the wind blew in louder and more frequent gusts; and the waves dashing violently on the shore, gave indications that it had already commenced, when the door of one of the small cottages near them opened, and a fine-looking young sailor appeared, followed by his

O, mother! replied the young man, you are over anxious. I have been in many a worse storm than this; besides my business with Matzin should be deferred no longer. Ah! here is the boat.