sighs and tears, lamenting their sad estate without
any hopes of deliverance. Serrano supposing
that his guest wanted refreshment, entertained
him with such provisions as his miserable life
afforded; and having a little comforted each
other they began to recount the manner and
occasion of their sad disasters. Then for the
better government in their way of living, they
designed their hours of day and night to certain
services. Such a time was appointed to kill fish
for eating, such hours for gathering sea-weeds,
fish bones, and other matters which the sea
threw up, to maintain their constant fire; and
especial care they had to observe their watches,
and relieve each other at certain hours, so that
they might be sure their fire went not out. In
this manner they lived amicably together for certain
days, for many did not pass before a
quarrel arose between them so high that they
were ready to fight. The occasion proceeded
from some words that one gave the other, that
he took not that care and labour as the extremity
of their condition required; and this
difference so increased (for to such misery do
our passions often betray us), that at length
they separated and lived, apart one from the
other. However, in a short time, having
experienced the want of that comfort which
mutual society procures, their choler was
appeased, and so they returned to enjoy commerce
and the assistance which friendship and society
afforded; in which condition they passed four
years; during all which time they saw many
ships sail near them, yet none would be so
charitable or curious as to be invited by their
smoke and flame; so that now being almost
desperate, they expected no other remedy
besides death to put an end to their miseries.
"However, at length a ship, adventuring to
pass nearer than ordinary, espied the smoke, and
rightly judging that it must be made by some
shipwrecked persons escaped to those sands,
hoisted out their boat to take them in. Serrano
and his companion readily ran to the place where
they saw the boat coming; but so soon as the
mariners were approached so near as to distinguish
the strange figures and looks of these two
men, they were so affrighted that they began to
row back: but the poor men cried out, and that
they might believe them not to be devils or evil
spirits, they rehearsed the creed, and called aloud
upon the name of Jesus: with which words the
mariners returned, took them into the boat, and
carried them to the ship, to the great wonder of
all there present, who, with admiration, beheld
their hairy shapes, not like men but beasts, and
with singular pleasure heard them relate the
story of their past misfortunes. The companion
died on his voyage to Spain, but Serrano lived
to come thither, from whence he travelled into
Germany, where the Emperor then resided; all
which time he nourished his hair and beard, to
serve as an evidence and proof of his past life.
Wheresoever he came, the people pressed as a
sight to see him for money; persons of quality,
having also the same curiosity, gave him sufficient
to defray his charges; "and his Imperial
Majesty, having seen and heard his discourses,
bestowed a rent upon him of four thousand
pieces of eight a year, which make four thousand
eight hundred ducats in Peru; and going to the
possession of this income, he died at Panama,
without further enjoyment. All this story was
related to me by a gentleman called Garci
Sanchez de Figueron, one who was acquainted
with Serrano, and heard it from his own mouth;
and that after he had seen the Emperor he then
cut his hair and beard to some convenient length,
because that it was so long before, that when he
turned himself on his bed, he often lay upon it,
which incommoded him so much as to disturb
his sleep."
D' Israeli conjectures, probably enough, in his
Curiosities of Literature, that all the reflections
of Robinson Crusoe—which appear to arise so
naturally in the mind of an enforced solitary—
were derived from Steele's or Selkirk's own
verbal descriptions. That De Foe borrowed
the main incidents of the most popular book of
adventure ever written from Serrano's narrative
is even more probable.
ELECTION-TIME IN AMERICA.
WHEN I make these present notes, it wants
a week to the election of President, and the
Lincoln men and the Douglas men are in a
seething state of excitement.
All the political clubs are sitting day and
night. The " ROUGH-SKINS" are clamorous, the
"PHIZ UGLIES" are vociferous, the " DOUBLE
PUMPS" of Baltimore are marching in procession,
the "REVOLVER HITTERS" and "DEAD
RABBITS" of New York are unfurling their banners,
the "WIDEAWAKES" are trimming their
lanterns by day and carrying them about all
night. The Wideawakes are as potent in the
America of the present day, as the "KNOW-
NOTHINGS"—those foes of the Irish and German
emigrants—were a few years ago.
The small-printed American papers are full
of reports of political meetings, and rumours
of intended disruption in the South, and of the
people of Carolina drilling "Palmetto regiments,"
and buying powder and rifles. Everywhere
advertisements meet your eye of this inflammatory
kind:
ROLL ON—ROLL UP!
Sixteen varieties of CAMPAIGN MEDALS, solid rim,
with milled edge and gilt shell rim medals containing
beautiful melainotype likenesses of
Lincoln and Hamlin,
Bell and Everett,
Douglas and Johnson,
Breckinridge and Lane.
MARK BARNEWITZ and JONATHAN PUMPNER, 38
and 40, WEST FOURTH-STREET, NEW YORK.
Now, when I go to the store of Barnewitz,
and buy these election badges, which are about
the size of a five-dollar gold piece, I find they
bear on one side the likeness of the nominee for
President, on the other the Vice-President, and
are to be worn at the button-hole. I have seen
thousands wearing them; and since I have
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