amiss if I had said miraculous) tree; at least, it was so, in respect to us, who had been labouring four days through extreme heat, without receiving the least moisture, and were now almost expiring for the want of it. We could not help looking on this as liquor sent from heaven, to comfort and support us under our great extremity. We caught all we could in our hands, and drank very plentifully, and liked it so well, that we could hardly prevail upon ourselves to give over. A thing of this nature could not but excite us to make the strictest observations concerning it; and accordingly we stayed under the tree three hours, and found we could not fathom its body in five times. We observed the soil to be stony; and upon the nicest inquiry both of the natives of the country and Spanish inhabitants, they said there was no other such tree, seen throughout New Spain, nor perhaps all America over.

Who can but admire the wisdom, goodness, and power of God, in making such a tree; enduing it with such admirable and useful properties, and placing it (at the end of a dark and inhospitable passage) so suitable for the relief of weary, thirsty travellers, of whom it might be said, in the language of the Psalmist, "They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty their soul fainted in them." And may it not be said, in a peculiar manner, with reference to these poor men, "He led them forth by a right way," that they might drink of the refreshing waters dropping from this wonderful tree. How different the nature and product of this singular tree from the Bohon-Upas, in the island of Java, the pestiferous effluvia of which strikes death to man and beast; but from the end of every leaf of this, refreshing water distils! The former may be considered an instrument of wrath, but this, of grace and mercy.

THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD ASSERTED.

An instance of perfidious courtship punished.

[Wesleyan Magazine.]

THAT the Almighty Disposer of events, in his government of the moral world, does sometimes step out of his ordinary course in the administration of justice, and in the punishment of the wicked, little doubt can be entertained. History, both ancient and modern, strongly support this position, furnishing us with evidences, at once so pointed and convincing, that none but the most obdurate sceptic, can reject its testimony. We

He dreaded to go near a reading-school, lest he should hear the ill-fated lesson. Whatever misfortunes befel him, (and these were not a few, for he was several times hurt, and even maimed, in the mines where he laboured,) he still attributed them all to the malevolent agency of the deceased; and thought he could find allusions to the whole in the calamitous legacy which she had bequeathed him. When he slumbered, for he knew nothing of sound sleep, the injured girl appeared to his imagination with such a countenance as she had after the rash action, and the Prayer Book in her hand open at the hateful Psalm, and he was frequently heard to cry out, "O my dear Betsey, shut the book, shut the book," &c. With a mind so disturbed and deranged, though he could not reasonably expect much consolation from matrimony, yet imagining that the cares of a family might draw off his thoughts from the miserable subject, by which he was harassed both day and night, he successively paid his addresses to many young women in Marazion, but they indignantly flew from him, and, with a sneer, asked him, "Whether he was desirous of bringing all the curses of the 109th Psalm on their heads ?" At length, however, he succeeded with one, and he led her to St. Hilary Church to be married, Jan. 21, 1778; but on the road thither, they were overtaken by a sudden and violent hurricane, such as those which not unfrequently happen in the vicinity of Mount's Bay and he, suspecting it was poor Betsey" rode in the whirlwind and directed the storm," was convulsed with terror, and was literally “crippled with fear." Such is the power of conscious guilt, to the mind wounded by its reflections.

He lived long enough to have a son and a daughter; but the corrosive worm within his breast preyed on his vitals, and at length consumed all the powers of his body, as it had long before destroyed the tranquillity of his mind; and he died on Friday, October 20th, 1780, and was buried at St. Hilary the Sunday following, during evening service. But here observe a strange coincidence of circumstances; for while the body lay in the church, to the astonishment of all the congregation. who knew that the 109th Psalm had operated on him so powerfully, it came to be read in the ordinary course! Against this event, there was more than sixty to one; and that his funeral should also happen on a Sunday, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, exactly corresponding to the time in which the young woman destroyed herself, is another remarkable occurrence; but, respecting the malediction of this Psalm, it had no farther effect, as both his children died before him. "Verily there is a God, who judgeth in the earth!"

and their breasts stripped naked. In this situation they remained a short time in prayer, attended by several priests, until a signal was given by the judge to the executioner; on which the latter produced an instrument, much like the spring lancet used by farriers for bleeding horses. With this instrument, poisoned with the gum of the Upas, the unhappy wretches were lanced in the middle of their breasts, and the operation was performed upon them all in less than two minutes.

My astonishment was raised to the highest degree, when I beheld the sudden effects of that poison; for in about five minutes after they were lanced, they were taken with a tremor, attended with subsultus tentinum, after which they died in the greatest agonies. In sixteen minutes all the criminals were no more. Some hours after their death I observed their bodies full of lived spots, their faces swelled, their colour changed to a kind of blue.

These circumstances made me desirous to try an experiment with some animals, in order to be convinced of the real effects of this poison; and as I had then two young puppies, I thought them the fittest objects for my purpose. I accordingly procured, with great difficulty, some grains of Upas. I dissolved half a grain of it in a small quantity of arrack, and dipped a lancet into it. With this I made an incision in the lower muscular part of the belly of one of the puppies. Three minutes after it received the wound the animal began to cry out most piteously, and ran as fast as possible from one corner of the room to the other. So it continued during six minutes, when all its strength being exhausted, it fell upon the ground, was taken with convulsions, and died in the eleventh minute. I repeated this experiment on two other puppies, with a cat, and a fowl, and found the operation of the poison in all of them the same: none of these animals survived above thirteen minutes.

I thought it necessary to try also the effect of the poison given inwardly, which I did in the following manner. I dissolved a quarter of a grain of the gum in half an ounce of arrack, and made a dog of seven months old drink it. In seven minutes a retching ensued, and I observed, at the same time, that the animal was delirious, as it ran up and down the room, fell on the ground, and tumbled about; then it rose again, cried out very loud, and in about half an hour after was seized with convulsions and died.

From these experiments I have been convinced, that the gum of the Upas is the most dangerous and most violent of all vegetable poisons; and I am apt to believe that it greatly contributes to the unhealthiness of that Island. Nor is this the only evil attending it: hundreds of the natives of Java, as well as