MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 867, 23 November 1853, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

A Public Levee at Indianapolis. — In the -afternoon we reached the capital of Indiana : a -▼cry •mall place, whose resources are not yet aufficent to provide for drainage and pavement. The aboriginal mud of the rich soil reminded me here of the atreets of Debrecsin. "We proceeded to the hotel, whilst the gentlemen were paraded throagh the streets and introduced to the Legislature. The hotel is very far "from nice, and the attendants seem to be fully •ware that everybody bere is to do bit ova busi«no«s. For example, when I was in a hurry to dress for the levee of Governor Wright, and asked •for a light, the waiter brought two tallow candies, put them in my hands, and pointing to the mantelpiece, he slid, ' There are the candlesticks' — •and left the room. "We went to the house of the Governor ; it is small, and I soon perceived why it is not so comfortable as it could be. In thronged the society and people of Indianapolis, ladies and gentlemen of every description 4 muddy boots and torn clothes, •and again desperate attempts at finery ; glass jewels •and French silk dresses, which after having found no purchasers in New York have been sent to the West. Some of the mothers bad their babies in their arms; workmen appeared in tbeir blouses, ■or dusty coats, jnst as they came from the workshop ; farmers «tept in in high boots. Once more •we saw that the houst of the Governor is the property of the people. And yet this incongruous mass •did not behave unbecomingly to a drawingroom : there was no rude elbowing, no unpleasant noise or disturbing laughter, — had they but shaken ■bands less violently! I yet feel Western cordiality in my stiff arm. " Madame Kossuth found the heat so oppressive, that, accompanied by Mr. Fulszky, she went to the adjoining room. A waiter was there arranging tbe table for sapper. He looked so different from tbe society in the drawingroom, that Mr. Pulszky asked him whether he had not come from the -Old Country. " ' Yes, sir,' said the waiter ' I came from Worcestershire.' * ' Do you like this country V " * Sir,' was tbe answer, ' bow could I like it? I lived in tbe old country, and have there served lords. As soon as I have made bere so much money that I can live quietly in Worcestershire, I shall return.' "—Pulszkyl" — Pulszky 1 s America. Aristocracy of Colour. — *' ' Is it true that the Governor has received a deputation of Coloured persons V I was asked by a gentleman. I answered that 1 had heard of such a delegation having called on him. " * But yon do not mean to say that he saw them?' continued Mr.——. 41 1 expressed my astonishment at the doubt, as I could not understand how Kossutb, whose door was open to any one interested in the cause he pleaded, should shat out people because they were Coloured. But my remark seemed to be quite as •trange to the gentleman as his opinion appeared to me. To see Coloured persons in a drawingroom, was obviously an offence against a prejudice of tbe aristocracy of Colour, as deeply-rooted as tbe Lorcor of high-born Continental ladies for those whose pedigree cannot prove a range of sixteen noble ancestors. I could not refrain to tell Mr.— — ,as a parallel case, tbat one of those exclusire ladies in Vienna, who often vr«« in want of money, sod foaod herself obliged occasionally to receive a banker who transacted ber business, had ber drawingroom fumigated as often as that gentleman left it. She found the aristocratic air of her drawingroom was polluted by the breath of low-born persons who were mere bankers. 11 Bat the American could not find out the parallelism of the case, and thought it monstrous that the relation of Whites to Whites should be compared to tbe relation of White men, free and equal, to Coloured persons of an inferior race, Blares themselves, or at least the sons and dcs-

cendants of slates. No social intercourse on the baaii of equality is possible with them, even in tbt Free States. 11 But it is not only the White man who looks down upon the Black ; from the dark Mulatto to ihe hardly tingod Quadroon, every lighter shade claims a grade of preeminence, acknowledged by the full Bkck and ihe White. A Mulatto girl sewed for me in the hotel ; and I soon remarked that one of the Black waiters attended on her with uocomraon courtesy, and brought her for her dinner every dainty the kitchen and the cellar afforded, as if ordered by us. I thought this extravagant, and told it to the housekeeper ; who exclaimed, ' The bad girl, to degrade hericlf so far as to accept attention from a Bkck fellow !' This, then, was the great error ; not that she had accepted a bottle of champagne, to which she had oo right, but that she had accepted it 'from the Black fellow:"— lbid. Fight with a Cayman. — " I bad made," says M. de la Gironiere, " three beta of strong cords, each of which nets was large enough to form t complete barrier across the river. I also had a hut built, and pat an Indian to live in it, whose duty was to keep constant watcb, and to let me know as soon as the cayman returned to the river, He watched in vain for upwards of two months ; but at the end of that time he came and told me that the monster had seized a i horse, and had dragged it into the river to devour it at leisure. I immediately repaired to the spot, accompanied by my guards, by my priest j (by this time M. de la Gironiere had built a church, and got a priest from Mmnilla),who positively would sac a cayman-hunt, and by an American friend of mine, Mr. Russell, of the house of Russell and Sturges, who was then staying with me. I bad the nets spread at intervals, so that the cayman could not escape back into the lake. This operation was not effected without some acts of imprudence ; thus, for instance, when the nets were arranged, an Indian dived to make sure that thf-y reached the bottom, and that our enemy could not escape by passing below them. But it might very well have happened that the cayman was, in the interval, between the nets, and so have gobbled up my Indian. Fortunately everything passed as we wished. When all was ready, I launched three pirogues, strongly fastened together side by side, with some Indiana in the centre, armed with lances, and with tall bamboos with which they could touch the bottom. At last, all measures having been taken to attain my end without risk of accident, my Indiana began to explore the river with tbeir long bamboos. "An animal of such formidable size as the one we sought, cannot very easily hide himself, and aoon we beheld him on the surface of the river, lashing the water with his long tail, snapping and clattering with bis jaws, and endeavouring to get at those wbo dared disturb him in his retreat. A universal shout of joy greeted his appearance ; the Indians in the pirogues hurJed their lances at him, whilst we, upon either shore of tht river, fired a volley. The bullets rebounded from tbe monster's scales, which they were unable to penetrate ; the keener lances made their way between the scales and entered tbe cayman's body some eight or ten inches. Thereupon he disappeared, swimming with incredible rapidity, and reached tbe fir«t net. The resistance it opposed turned him back ; be reascended the river, and again appeared on the top of the water. This violent movement broke the staves of tbe lances which the Indians had stock into him, and the iron alone remained in tbe wounds. Each time that be reappeared, the firing recommenced, and fresh lances were plunged into his enormous body. Perceiving, however, how ineffectual firearms were to pierce his cuirass of invulnerable scales, I excited him by my shouts and gestures, and when he came to the edge of the water, opening hia enormous jawa all ready to devour me, I approached the muzzle of my gun to within a few inches, and fired both barrels, in the hope that the bullets would find something softer than scales in tbe interior of that formidable cavern, and that they would penetrate to bis brain. All was in vain. The jaws closed with a terrible noise, seizing j only the fire and smoke that issued from my gun, and the balls flattened against his bones without injuring them. The animal, whicb had now become furious, made inconceivable efforts to seine one of bis enemies ; his strength seemed to increase instead of diminishing, whilst our resources were nearly exhausted. Almost all our lances were sticking in his body, and our ammunition drew to an end. Tbe fight had lasted more than six hours without any result that could make us hope its speeJy termination, when an Indian struck the cayman, whilst at the bottom of tbe water, with a lance of unusual strength and size. Another Indian, at his comrade's request, struck two vigorous blows with a mace upon tbe but-end of tbe lance, the iron entered deep into the animal's body, and immediately, with a movement as swift at lightning, he darted | towards the nets and disappeared. The lance- pole detached from the iron head, returned to the surface of the water : for some minutes we waited in vain for the monster's re- appearance; we thought that hia last effort had enabled him to reach the lake, and that our chate was perfectly fruitless. We hauled in the first net, a large hole in which convinced us that our supposition was correct. The second net was in | the same condition as tbe first. Disheartened by our failure, we were hauling in the third.when we felt a atroog resistance. Several Indians began to drag it towards the bank, and presently, to our great joy, we saw the cayman upon the surface of tbe water. He was expiring. We threw over him several lassos of strong cords, and when he was well secured we drew him to land. It was no easy matter to haul him up on the bank ; the strength of forty Indiana hardly sufficed. When at last we got him completely out of the water, and had him before our eyes, we stood stupified with astonishment, for a very different thing it was to see his body j thus, and to s«e him swimming wben he was fighting against as, Mr, Russell, a very competent person, was charged with his measurement. From the extremity of the nostrils to the tip of the tail, be was found to be twenty-seven feet long, and bis circumference was eleven feet, measured under the arm-pits. His belly was j much more voluminous ; but we thought it useless to measure him there, judging that the horse upon which he had breakfasted must considera- < bly have increased his bulk. " This first process at an end, we look counsel as to what we should do with tbe dead cay-

man. Every one gave his opinion. My wish was to convey it, bodily, to my residence ; but that was impossible ; it wouM have required a vessel of five or six tons burthen, and we could not procure such a craft. One man wanted the skin ; the Indians begged for the flesh, to dry it and use it as a specific against asthma. They affirm that any asthmatic person who nourishes himself for a certain time with this flesh, is infallibly cured. Somebody else desired to have the fat, as an antidote to rheumatic pains ; tod, finally, my worthy priest demanded that the stomach should be opened, in order to ascertain how many Christians the monster had devoured. Every time, he said, that a cayman cats a Christian, be swallows a large pebble ; thus tbe number of pebbles we should find in him would positively indicate the number of tbe faithful' to whom his enormous stomach had afforded sepulture. To satisfy everybody, I sent for an axe, wherewith to cut off the head, which I reserved for myself, abandoning the rest of the carctss to all who bad taken part in the cr.pture. It w«s no easy matter to decapitate the monster. Tbe axe buried itself in the flesh to half-way up the handle, without reaching the bones ; at last, after many effort", we succeeded in getting the bead off. Then we opened the stomacb, and took out of it, by fragments, the horse which had been deroured that morning:. The cayman does not masticate ; be cuts off a huge lump with his enormous teeth, and bolts it entire. Tbua we found the whole of the horse, divided only into seven or eight pieces. Then we came to about a hundred and fifty pounds' weight of pebbles, varying from tbe size of a fist to tbat of a walnut. When my priest saw this great quantity of stones — ' It is a mere tale,' he could not help saying ; ' it is impossible that this animal should have devoured so great a number of Christians.' It was eight at night when we ccmple ed tbe cutting up. 1 left the body to our assistants, and bad the head placed in a boat to convey it to my house. I very much desired to preserve this monstrous caput as nearly as possible in the state in which it then was; but tbat would have required a great deal of arsenical soap, and I was out of that. So I made up my mind to dissect it, and preserve the skeleton. I weighed it before detaching tbe ligaments ; Us weight was four hundred and thirty pounds ; its length, from the nose to the first vertebre, five feet (about five feel six inches in English measu>e.) " I found all my bullets, which bad flattened themselves against the bones of the jaws and palate as they would have done against a plate of iron. Tbe lance-thrust which bad slain tbe cayman was a chance, a sort of miracle. When the Indian struck with bis mace upon tbe but of the pole, the iron pierced through tbe nape into the vertebral column, and penetrated the spinal marrow, the only vulnerable part. " When this formidable head was well prepared, and tbe. bones dried and whitened, I had the pleasure of presenting it to xny friend Ras- ', sell, who has since deposited it in the museum at Boston." — Twenty years in the Philippine Islands.