the fire as the flames burned his face, as though
he would have extinguished it. But for all
that, the obstinate wretch gave no sign of repentance.
Then they set fire to the furnace
underneath, and as the flames mounted he
made the most frantically violent efforts. But
the plank on which he rested was quickly
burned, and he fell face foremost into the
left hand part of the furnace. And from these
flames he passed to try the anguish of the
eternal fire!"

And the ladies of Palermo sipped their ices as
they watched the scene.

This is the story of the last execution by fire
that ever took place in Sicily.

And very strange it is to think, that the
great grandfathers and grandmothers of people
now living may have been present at it;
stranger still, that a portion of the sentence of
condemnation which consigned these unfortunates
to the flames, should have continued in
operation up to the spring of the present year!

SOUTH AFRICAN GOLD.

GOLD has been discovered in South Africa,
also diamonds worth from twenty to five-hundred
pounds.

The writer of this narrative, who lately left
the Cape Colony, and while there specially directed
his attention to the subject of the gold
fields, will endeavour to tell what was known
on the subject when he left South Africa.

From Cape Town, the capital of the Colony,
to Hope Town, situated on its north-eastern
frontier, near where the diamonds before alluded
to have been found, is a distance of six
hundred miles. To reach Hope Town by bullock
waggons would take at least thirty days. Hope
Town might, however, be reached in twenty
days from Port Elizabeth, a place further eastward,
and about four days more distant from
England by steam than Cape Town. No other
means of transit are available than waggons
eighteen feet long, drawn by sixteen oxen, at
the rate of twenty miles a day. After crossing
the Orange river the explorer still has seven
hundred and six miles of country to traverse
before he reaches the southern end of the line
of gold fields, which do not belong to the Cape,
but will eventually form a grand extension of
the colony of Natal.

But what ground have we for believing that
there really are valuable gold fields in South
Africa; and what reason have we to expect that
they will prove remunerative? It need hardly
be said that waggon loads of gold would be perfectly
valueless to a man in the heart of a
desolate country, without any means of carrying
it to where it can be turned to account. Before
twenty-four hours had passed, the possessors
would willingly give all for a mutton chop
and a glass of water. " What with the gold works
of the tract which, I think, really supplied the
Ophir of Solomon, and the great coal fields of
Natal, South Africa is about to become an El
Dorado. " These are the words of perhaps the
greatest living authority in Europe, to the
greatest living authority in South Africa upon
the subject. They are words pregnant with
hope, but hope still unborn.

The discoverer of the southern gold fields is
Herr Mauch, a German traveller of considerable
acquirements, connected scientifically with Dr.
Petermann of Gotha. He describes himself as
perfectly amazed at the immense auriferous
wealth spread before him, and believes that the
yield will be above that of Australia or California.
Specimens of the quartz found by
him were forwarded to Port Elizabeth, and
tested with very satisfactory results. Herr
Mauch was at the time of his discovery accompanied
by a celebrated elephant hunter,
Mr. Hartly.

These gold fields lie within the territory of
a chief called Machien, who has since the discovery
of gold proposed to Sir Philip Wodehouse,
the governor of the Cape Colony, to
transfer the sovereignty of his territory to
Great Britain.

The reason why the chief is so ready to make
the offer unsolicited, is that his territory lies
contiguous to what is called the Transvaal
Republic, a colony of disaffected boers who, in
consequence of the abolition of slavery in the
Cape Colony, parted with their farms, withdrew
beyond the boundary, and have more
than once been engaged in active hostility
against the crown. They have, whether wisely
or not, been recognised as an independent state;
and their numbers are recruited by adventurers
from other parts.

The Transvaal Republic is the refuge of every
miscreant who finds the Cape Colony too hot
to hold him. It is the Alsatia of South Africa;
and it is unquestionable that slavery there exists
under the mild term of apprenticeship, and
in order to obtain " apprentices" the adult
aborigines are constantly, under one pretence or
another, shot down in cold blood, men and
women, and the children carried off as slaves.
This proceeding is facetiously called hunting
for " black ivory."

No sooner did the Transvaal Republic learn
that gold exists in the territories of their neighbours,
than their legislators, by a very simple
process of enactment, annexed to their own dominions
a large slice of land to which they have
not the slightest claim, to which their title
never has been, and never will be recognised.
The chief, Machien, fearing that he will be unable
to cope with such unscrupulous adversaries,
recruited as they will doubtless still further be
by the scum of other parts of the earth, has
offered his land to the Queen of England.

The offer of annexation was made by Machien
through the Rev. Mr. Mackenzie, a missionary
resident in those parts, who has added his testimony,
in favour of the auriferous wealth of that
region, and transmitted to the colony several
fine specimens of gold quartz. Some diggers
from the Transvaal Republic are already at
work.

Attention having thus been directed to the