kingdom of God, all but that black-aveesed fellow there.' 'Oh, bless you, that's our chaplain,' they shouted, and in a little the joke was over the ship, and even the great mogul (that's the captain) on his quarter-deck got it. "Well, I went on to Jaffa. Now, doctor, don't think me very wicked if I say as to what are called the sacred places that in general they seem to me to be humbug, but that tanner's house at Joppa was one of the few I thought the raal bit. I went on a lovely day and sat on the roof, and it was maist line o' shore that St. Peter went along to see Cornelius, and the place I was sittin' on might have been the scene o' his vision, and so I sat a long while blue and warm, says I, 'I'll gang and "We'll begin at Palermo," he said, and tak' my advice, never you gang in a French steamer. For 1 gaed in ane to Messina, and sic a set o' jabbering monkeys as were in it! I couldna mak' them understand a word I said, but I got a fine Italian steamer frae Messina to Alexandria, and a captain who spoke English and treated me as if I was his father. When we got to Alexandria, 'Noo, Mr. Tamson,' said he, if you go ashore to an hotel they'll rob you, but if you stay on board I'll put you ashore every day, and you can see the place in comfort,' and so I did. solemneesin', for there was the long One day a strange-looking craft was lying off the roadstead, and in the afternoon when I came down to the port I thought I would like to see her more closely. There were two wee Arab thinking. But when I saw the sea, boys in a boat fighting, and the wee one was getting the better of the big one, when suddenly he was sent over into the water, but held on so tightly that the other had to let go. When they were in the water they fought like a couple of cats, but at last, settling their differences, they got into the boat and stripped off their wet clothes to dry. I was so diverted with them that I determined to hire them and their boat to go to the strange vessel; so holding up a franc, and pointing to the big ship, they came to shore and off I set, with the two wee naked scuddies at the oars, the bow high in the air and the stern deep with my weight. When we came near the vessel I saw she was an English man-of-war, and the officers gathered at the top of the companion soon hailed me, 'Hillo, old cock, where are you going?' 'I'm one of your owners,' said I, and I am come to inspect my property, and to see whether you can protect me.' So they welcomed me on board, and the young fellows showed me over the ship and took me into their ward-room for lunch, and I did keep them merry with stories. By and by I said, 'Noo, young men, I wish to tell you I am satisfied wi' ye. Ye're as fine a set of lads as ever I beheld, and, no to be profane, I would say, looking about on your open, healthy faces, you are not far from the "How did I get up from Jaffa to Jerusalem?' Why there was a machine, that is, there was a board or two upon wheels, and sic a road! I thought my inside would have been shaken out o' me—but we had a grand dinner at Arimathea! "Jerusalem was more interesting than I can tell you, and I went wanderin' every day to some bit or other. One day I went to the ruined mosque on the top o' the Mount of Olives, and when I saw the half-ruined tower I determined to get to the top. There was an arch, not very safe-lookin', that was to be crossed first, and the lad, that came wi' me and my donkey, said I mustn't try it. But doon I lay, and over it, and called to just drew myself I and never did I sing it with a fuller heart than I did that day.” just a sma' bit o' the Dead Sea-and | comin', and no' a mere sultan, I wadna there and then I did what had never climb up on the top o' a cab to see been done there since the makin' o' the even her. But tak' you my card to world. What was that, d'ye think? that officer on horseback, and tell him just sang out, as loud as I could, the I'm an auld man frae Scotland, and Scotch version of the Hundredth Psalm, that I wish to see his Majesty.' So off he goes, and the officer spoke to anAll people that on earth do dwell other officer, and then up he rides and Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice, makes the sodgers staun back, and tells me in English to follow him, and away he led me to the platform where a' the swells were with their ribbons and orders; and didna they glower at me, as if they would say, Wha are you, old boy?' And in a while the sultan cam', and everybody bowed low as he cam`. But, says I to mysel', 'Dod! I'll gie him a raal British cheer. Hoorraw!' says I, Hoorraw! Hoor-r-a-a-aw !!? and with that the sultan paused and looked at me, and, wi' a low bow, went on. After a time I saw him coming back. I'll gie him another cheer,' said I. Hoorraw! Hoorraw! Hoorr-a-a-aw !!' and again he bowed to me and passed on. But he hadna gaen far before he stopped and spoke to an officer, and the officer comes up to me and says, 'Sir, the sultan commands me to say that if you wish to see his pri vate gardens you will be permitted." That's very kind,' I answered, but can I gang in a cab ? No, sir, you cannot go in a cab.' 'Well, be pleased to say to his Majesty that I am much obleeged to him for his kind offer, and that I'm very sorry I can't accept it.'" This ended all I learned from himself of the strange adventures of this forcible personality. One remark regarding his stay in Jerusalem struck me as original, and it was spoken in perfect reverence. "It occurred to me," he said, "as I paced the Via Dolorosa, and thought of that procession to the cross, and the distance between the house of Pilate and the scene of the crucifixion - no matter which site you may prefer for Golgotha-that when all that our Lord had passed through is taken into account, the night of suffering and the terrible scourging, and the distance he had to walk, over a good part of which he carried the cross, I say that, humanly speaking, he must have been physically an unusually strong man." This is a reflection which seems justified, and I am not aware of it having received expression before. But returning to the less serious part of his adventures he took me from Jerusalem to Constantinople. "One morning the lad came to me saying, that if I wished to see the sultan he was to go in public next day to say his prayers a thing he had not done for a long time, as he was in terror of assassination. So, next morning the carriage was round at ten and away we went. We drove up to the grand 'Place,' and there the ground was held by soldiers, and in the middle of the square was a platform on which were all kinds of officers and ambassadors in full uniform, and near me were rows of carriages full of fashionable people. When I tell you to do so,' said the lad, you must get out and sit on the roof of the carriage if you wish to see the sultan.' Me sit on the roof o' a cab!' said I. No likely! There's no a more loyal man than me in a' Scotland, but if it was Queen Victoria that was From Chambers' Journal. A TRIP TO MINORCA. WHEN in Palma, the capital of Majorca, we told of our intention to cross to the island of Minorca, they tried to dissuade us from the trip. There is nothing whatever to see in the island except the talayots," we were informed. Its scenery is about as beautiful as that of Lincolnshire; and its hotel accommodation, save in Mahon, the chief town, decidedly rough.” But a fair acquaintance with the world had taught both my friend and me to distrust the opinion held by the inhabitants of one island about the nature of an adjacent island. Such opinion is apt to be based upon prejudice, or even upon reasonable envy. No sensible person would give full credit to the judgment of an average Frenchman about Great Britain and her people; or suppose that our insular ideas of France and the French are trustworthy through and through. Besides, there were special reasons why we should feel a curiosity about Minorca. Had we not, in the Palma Museum of the Lonja, seen a great escutcheon in stone of the lion and the unicorn lolling against a wall with cobwebs about it; and had we not been told that the monument was a relic from Minorca · a reminiscence of the days of the last century when the British made them selves very much at home in the little island? Majorca is a very lovely land, full of flowers, and with a nook of mountains where the scenery is so alluring and grand that it would be hard to match anywhere. But Majorca has been Spanish ever since its conquest from the Moors in 1225. It has never, like Minorca, had the Unionjack flying gaily from its forts during the spring and autumnal equinoctials. And so we resisted our friends' counsel, and one afternoon went aboard the steamship City of Mahon, bound for Port Mahon. It was a breezy April day, and the white horses were running at a great pace outside Palma's bay. Our passage was not a pleasant one. The boat had a fiendish kind of roll in the open sea. Moreover, the deck was populous with a crowd of little boys and girls a juvenile theatrical troupe, engaged to perform twice or thrice in Minorca before returning to Spain. They were attended by half-a-dozen older folk, including the "prima donna," a languishing beauty, whose pallor was soon emphatic enough to show through her painted blushes in a very sad way. And save the fat manager of the troupe, I believe in half an hour every man, woman, and child be longing to it was very seasick. It was about as disagreeable a scene as it could be; for Spaniards are not heroic under such a trial. Sunrise found us, however, at anchor in the fine harbor of Mahon. The frowning forts of Spain were to our right; and on the other side of the inlet we could see the dismantled ruins of the works built up so spiritedly and with such art by our own engineers nearly one hundred and fifty years ago. A rosy sun was just peeping over the red houses of Mahon, and casting a fair welcome sheen upon the still water of the inlet, and making the rather bare, hilly boundaries of the harbor look pretty enough in the translucent air. There was every promise of a fine day, a mercy to be grateful for in the Balearics in spring, when a good deal of rain is wont to fall. Summer here is generally as dry as a bone. The hot, plain country of Majorca is then, in spite of its vineyards and olive woods, a profoundly disagreeable place of sojourn. The dust and glare of the long white roads are very conducive to ophthalmia. They are bad enough in spring, but summer much intensifies the badness. Each brook bed then dries up and cracks, as if it besought the obdurate heavens to pity its agony of thirst. The diligences of the interior are vile instruments of torture at any time. Even in the coupé, where you do get plenty of air, you are half choked by the cloud of dust in the midst of which the three or four little long-tailed horses jog along with a well-assumed air of resignation. Those who are used to the land find support in the bad cigars of Spain and the thimblefuls of brandy which it is the fashion to drink in the different villages by the way. But to an unbroken foreigner, these are additional sources of irritation, not springs of consolation. Late in the day we found ourselves in the diligence from Mahon to Ciudadela, with a blue sky over us, and a very endurable amount of dust in our midst, arising from our horses' feet. It British. Of the latter, some are as modern as you please, for the Mediterranean squadron often comes to an anchor in Port Mahon and gives the jack-tars a day on shore. Unless the Duke of Newcastle's ghost revisits the earth to afford us information, I am afraid we are unlikely to know the truth about the tragedy of Admiral Byng. He certainly failed to relieve the siege of Port Mahon, and so we lost the island. But it is by no means certain that he deserved blame for the failure. Be that as it may, he died like a gentleman. In Minorca, by the way, they have a plastered walls, Spanish as well as wicked habit of cropping their horses' tails poodle-wise, which much detracts from the dignity of the noble animals. We had in the mean time spent several hours among the ruins of the British forts at the head of the harbor, and reflected about Admiral Byng. seems clear that in our day we did not seize upon the right positions for fortification. Out of question, Spain has shown wisdom in concentrating her powers upon the other side of the inlet. It is a torpedo-shaped headland, all but an island, elevated, and with precipitous red rocks as a seaward boundary. From this elevation, the Spanish engineers look down upon the remains of our Forts Marlborough, St. Philip, and the suburb of George Town across the water. Their guns have a very formidable air, and the acres of red-roofed ammunition stores, barracks, and other buildings on the heights, are sufficiently impressive. Our hopes of a closer inspection of the Mola, as this great fortified post is called, were signally defeated. Though I bore a letter to the chief officer of the place, he could not act as he would like to have acted. A government pinnace was offered us, that we might sail round the cape. But as for getting within the walls, that was impossible. The war minister had issued an express prohibition, and not to oblige a crowned head would my friend have run counter to it. We rambled from one heap of rubbish to another, and marked where the French cannon-shot had harmed us most. Flowers were blooming heartily among the ruins, and bees buzzed about can "What satisfaction,” he asked, 66 I receive from the liberty to crawl a few years longer on the earth with the infamous load of a pardon on my back? I despise life upon such terms, and would rather have them take it. I am conscious of no crimes, and am particularly happy in not dying the mean, despicable, ignominious wretch my enemies would have had the world believe me." When the news reached him of his suspension, he stripped off his uniform and threw it into the sea. This was at Gibraltar. He was executed at Spithead, on the Monarch, on the 14th March, 1757. A cushion was set for him to kneel upon in the forecastle of the ship - though he protested he was entitled to die on the quarter-deck — and at the dropping of his handkerchief five of the six marines who had been told off for the hateful task shot into his body. The sixth missed his aim. "There lies the bravest and best officer of the navy," exclaimed a common sailor, when he fell dead. It is hard to read Byng's last words without feeling some emotion. If he was merely a State tool, to be discarded and broken when done with, then the statesmen who sacrificed him had much to answer for. In any case, none but a man of sterling worth could have expressed himself as follows at such a time: "Would to Heaven I had died discharging my duty in the day of battle; then would my name have been. transmitted, with my father's, to posterity with honor, which now will be remembered with indignation, a reproach to my relations, a disgrace to the marine, and a scandal to my country.” to the common traveller they repay investigation less than one has a right to expect, seeing how their fame has been noised abroad. They are not nearly so attractive as the nuraghe, or round towers, of Sardinia, with which they may have an affinity. They are harder to discover, and as spectacles they are trivial. But there is no doubting their antiquity. Even the nuraghe must yield them the precedence for their roughness of architecture and crudity of design. When we had ridden the whole length of the island and viewed it from an eminence in the middle, we reluctantly came to the conclusion that Minorca is rather a dull and not at all a beautiful country. Save its harbor of Mahon, it has little to recommend it to the world at large. The winds are so strong over it, and the surface is so flat, that nowhere are there trees of any size. For the most part in the interior, where barley is not grown, a low scrub largest. There is little attempt at macovers the land; though in places there are the beginnings of little artificial copses of pines which may in time get the better of their enemy, the storms. A talayot is merely an irregular round or polygonal heap of rocks, with or without a central chamber, the rock masses at the base being of course the sonry in them. The limestone lumps have been dug out of the adjacent soil, and piled one upon the other until the edifice is of the desired height A capital road runs through the island magnitude. They are of various and from north to south. General dimensions, the average being about Wade started it; but since our day fifteen yards in diameter and about six Spain has much improved on it, and in elevation. Where internal chambers now it would gladden even the critical exist, they are generally approached by soul of a bicyclist. The Minorquins a hole that is little better than a burrow, meander up and down it on a very re- slightly below the surface of the soil. spectable species of ass, and in a mood Here, too, the workmanship is much that makes them ready to stop and more primitive than that of the nugossip with any one who addresses raghe, which are not only built of them with a commonplace civility. stones very fairly dressed, but which There are several bright little villages further have in some instances spiral in the interior. Alayor is the chief, inner staircases as well as a lofty domed with a big church and a sheaf of wind- chamber of considerable strength. mills conspicuous over its white-faced houses. Also, there is Mercadel; and close behind Mercadel is the famous peak called Monte Toro- or the Bull contemporaries? It is not improbable, Mountain — upon which, several centuries ago, the Virgin is said to have appeared one day, in consequence of which the place was made the site of a church and monastery. From Mercadel, which is as nearly as possible in the middle of the island, a good road trends west to the clean little village of San Cristobal. Here we pic nicked agreeably with a native to whom we had been recommended, and paid respectful visits to sundry talayots of the vicinity. Antiquaries and archæologists would delight in the talayots of Minorca. But Who shall say, with assurance, whether the builders of the talayots and the builders of the nuraghe were even though the latter seem to belong to a more cultivated age. Both may be the handiwork of men of Phoenician origin, or of the primitive population whom the Carthaginians displaced. In the neighborhood of certain of the talayots one sees clear traces of an arrangement of monoliths in the form of colonnades, porticos, and chambers open to the air. This is notably so with what is termed the Hostal group by Ciudadela, the old capital of the island, at the north-west corner of it. Some of these monoliths are recumbent, having evidently been overturned by |