him, and found masons already waiting at my door to begin their work, which they did as quickly as I entered. For some days past I had been conducted in and out by a small door at the nearer end of the corridor, instead of, as formerly, down half the length of the latter, and through the grand portal in front; but the hasty glance I was enabled to cast upwards in crossing, showed that colored mats had been spread over a great portion of the stone floor, and that benches and low tables of carved wood, inlaid with gold, upon which were golden vases containing flowering plants, were scattered over the length of the promenade. I was now curious to see what changes had been made in the gardens and grounds adjoining two sides of my cage, and endeavored to force up a corner of the screen; but the matting was of such strength that I failed even to make a hole large enough to apply the eye to, unassisted as I was by any implement. At length, at the approach of evening, two men, carrying between them a small metal gate, appeared on the outer side of the bars, and fell to work with their implements to cut a sufficient opening; they worked hard, but in utter silence, and paid no attention to the few questions I could ask in their tongue. Such an opportunity might not occur again, and I was sorely tempted to saunter near, choose my time, and by well planted and unlooked for blows, overthrow the workmen, and so escape through the gap; but the appearance of teopixquis on the summit of the teocalli, and the daylight still remaining, checked my rising inclination rather than the mere want of weapons of any kind, not excepting even a billet of wood. I was restless nevertheless in spite of my desire to avoid all suspicion, and from a little distance watched keenly every action, praying that the work might be protracted until after night, in which case I resolved, at every hazard, to make one bold attempt.

Meantime, a stir was discernible among the teopixquis, and numerous drums, beaten on the teocalli, were immediately answered by the rattling of others, joined to a jingling of bells, and droning of some manner of wind instruments from the front of the palace. These sounds, and the distant shouts, heralded, as I supposed, the approach of the king; a surmise confirmed soon after by the descent of a long procession of the teopixquis bearing torches, from their elevation, and advancing towards the latter point. The smiths worked harder than ever, but in a few minutes it became so dark that one of them was compelled to hasten away for a light-the gate now only wanting hinges to render it complete, being first leaned up against the opening, and the swarthy naked back of the remaining laborer braced against it to prevent its falling; the entire carelessness of the position showed, that by them certainly no suspicion was entertained of my desire to be at large, an opinion not to be wondered at, since they may have seen me daily passing into the houses of their superiors, without the least show of restraint; and possibly the sturdy owner of the back added to this a contemptuous opinion of the amount of muscle contained in my slender figure, contrasted with his own brawny limbs. However that might have been, I longed for perfect liberty again, and could scarce control my impatience until the other was

sufficiently far to prevent his ear being caught by the noise of the struggle. To have thrust the grating aside, and in a hand-to-hand encounter, endeavored to gain the mastery, would have evinced foolhardiness, to say the least of it, where the weapons, for as such most of their tools would very well have served, were wholly in the possession of the assailed party, and a shout could bring a throng to the spot; I consequently adopted a more vigorous method of accomplishing my purpose. Running rapidly but lightly for some yards, I threw my whole weight against the gate, at the moment that the smith had partly straightened himself up to look over his shoulder, his attention being caught by my quick footsteps; down he went headlong, the heavy grating above, and I on the upper surface of that; and although the shock must have been enough to stun an ox, on the instant he raised an outcry, which I stopped, before it had more than unclosed his lips, with a blow from an implement my hand fell upon, I scarce know how.

I rose to my feet somewhat shaken myself, and looked in the direction of the palace front, but nothing was discernible save a glare of torches over the intervening walls and trees, accompanied by a clamor, vocal and instrumental, sufficient to have drowned a shout from this distance, had the smith succeeded in giving one; the latter lay either dead or senseless, and without stopping to learn which, I walked as rapidly as the starlight would permit, overleaped the low boundary of the wooded grounds attached to the royal buildings, and crossed diagonally among the trees, the better to mislead the first of the pursuit. A square and street lay before, leading through the quarter of the coamatlis; but there was no help for it, as to avoid these a circuit of nearly half a mile not free from similar risk of encounters, was the only alternative; fortunately I still wore my usual native costume, and depending on the mantle and dim light to constitute my disguise, I moved along at a moderate pace, although my pulse was beating at fever heat with eagerness and excitement. I met several stragglers on their way to witness the arrival of the Teocacizi, and more than one called out to know if he had yet come; but although I understood their questions, I did not venture to utter a Tepecohuatlan word for fear of detection, and passed by, bending my face down as if lost in thought. One, the last I encountered, was however not so easily to be baffled, and after hailing me by some name, probably mistaking my figure for that of an acquaintance, made up to me, when I fairly took to my heels, the houses of the coamatlis being just then all passed, and heard my new friend letting fly from a distance a string of epithets for my exclusive benefit. There were no huts of the working classes on this side of the town, and almost immediately in the rear of the last habitation, I struck into a tract of land of the same rugged, sterile nature, as far as could be distinguished, as that we had crossed on the route to the Tlamacazcalli. The dwarfed growth was so dense in places, that I could not see an arm-length ahead, and this, with the rough character of the surface, rendered my progress exceedingly slow; but the ascent commenced abruptly, and inspired me with the hope that I was at the

foot of the low dividing sierra, and once the top was attained, would find no difficulty in descending to the great plain on the farther side. In this I discovered I was partly right, for after half an hour's tedious clambering, I found, to my dismay, a perpendicular wall of rock in front, and worse still, that I had been mounting in the bed of a chasm which here terminated, the steep sides approaching within reach on either hand. There was only one manner of remedying the mischance, by retracing my steps; and this I did until the chasm opened into a ravine, when I groped my way through a thicket, the thorns of which lacerated my hands and tore my native costume to shreds. I pushed on, however, commonly in a line parallel with the base of the range, as I judged that the surest method of finding a gap if any existed; and in case none was to be found, I determined, rather than turn back, to continue in the same course, even as far as the monastery itself. The latter place, I concluded, could be reached at least some time during the approaching day, and once in sight, I designed to lie concealed until the coming on of night suffered me to gain the road descried from the observatory, undetected, and so to find an easy descent to the plain.

As I alternately walked and climbed, my face was frequently turned towards the city below, over which hung a halo of light, and from the midst arose a hum of voices, interrupted by occasional shouts and bursts of wild music. That my flight had been discovered, and immediate measures taken to frustrate my plans, I afterwards learned, but at the time I could detect not the slightest indications of pursuit: everything around was quiet, and except the lizards, or small reptiles of some sort, which abounded and rustled through the leaves on all sides, whenever I forced my way into a thicket, and two or three hares startled from among the rocks, nothing possessing life crossed my path. As the night wore on, the fatigue consequent upon climbing a hill-side so rugged as that I was traversing in the dark, and after long inaction, began to be felt; and at last, bewildered by the numerous turns I had made, and uncertain of the right direction in which to advance, I sat down in a hollow within a group of jutting rocks to rest, but overcome by weariness, fell fast asleep, and so continued until dawn. As soon as I awoke, I began to look about me to discover my whereabouts, and reproached myself angrily for the rashness of the act; once recaptured, from what I had already, and under favorable circumstances, experienced, I could entertain little hope of again eluding the vigilance of my keepers. I was still more conscious of the folly of yielding to drowsiness, when between the crevices of my pile of stones I saw, not twenty yards off, several huts, such as the Tepecohuatlans who cultivate the lands inhabit; a sturdy class of the people, whom it would be a hopeless matter to endeavor to baffle on their own mountains. I had wandered, unaware, into the middle of one of their fields, the boulders among which I had taken refuge being quite surrounded by patches of maize and tobacco. As yet there was no sign of life about the premises, and supposing it not unlikely they too had visited the city the night before and returned late, I hastened to place myself again under cover, before my

retreat should be cut off by any awaking; accordingly, keeping my late shelter as much as possible in the line of the huts, I crept up the slope and soon breathed more freely out of immediate danger.

Not far from this place I fell into a foot-path leading through a defile, at the termination of which I hoped to find the passage I was in search of; the only thing to be dreaded was a chance meeting with any of the Tepecohuatlans, but I still held in my hand the tool which the evening before had done me good service, and with it I was resolved to attack any opposing odds, the name given me, "Quezatequitl," as already shown, acting as a more effectual safeguard of my life than a suit of armor. I had occasion to test both before walking the fourth of a mile farther, for in a place where the ravine narrowed and was overhung by crags, the noise of a pebble falling as if loosened from above by a stealthy foot, called my attention to the rear, and discovered a party of Ichcahuepilli (cuirassiers) who must have before occupied the heights, filling the passage.

As quickly as they saw they were detected, they started in full cry and run; but as I knew the summit could not be far distant, I had no fear of being overtaken with a start of at least seventy yards, and reinvigorated by my long slumbers; nevertheless, it was somewhat startling to hear an answering shout from the very quarter I aimed to reach but there was no time for debating a choice of evils, and in another minute my advance was opposed by a second body of soldiers, while a rapid glance upwards showed the heights held by others swinging nets, which the swiftness of my pace alone deterred them from throwing with accuracy; indeed, as I ran, several dropped before and behind with a whizzing noise, and had I not been so far below, the second or third fling would have sooner terminated the race. Possessing, as I did, a sort of charmed person, I did not slacken my speed on account of those in front, but resolutely charged the whole throng, crying out meanwhile words which had been acquired piecemeal, carefully put together, and practised to employ in the event of an emergency like the present.

"Queza-tequitline-Tonca! ae-miecachuey." (I belong to the Quezale-beware, lest you harm me!)-paralyzed the arms of the Tepecohuatlans; but throwing themselves upon me as I penetrated their midst, they endeavored, by sheer force of numbers, to make me prisoner; but the idea of being borne back to witness another of their hateful sacrifices was intolerable, and I dealt blows right and left with certainly no weak arm. My weapon was in shape similar to a chisel, only that one edge was sharpened half way up from the square end, the material copper, tipped with flint, and from the weight produced hideous gashes in the visages upon which the keen extremity descended; except for the narrowness of sweep, I know of no preferable weapon in a desperate rencontre. Sometimes I was obliged to sever the sinews of a wrist before a determined grasp could be broken, but generally my hacks were directed against the bared breast and face. Slight as are these details of the most violent struggle it has ever been my ill fate to engage in, I fear there are not wanting persons who will judge as hastily as harshly of such apparent butchery, for

I confess not the slightest attempt was made on my life after the utterance of the talismanic words; but the horrors awaiting my recapture, the ultimate uncertainty of my fate, and the fact that it was owing to no native clemency that I received hurt from the hands of none of the ferocious sharers in the melee, must all be borne in mind, and I am confident any man of candor, placing himself in my position, will fully justify my deeds. Be that as it may, in far less time than the narrative consumes, I was through and free, and without a scratch; in another instant I turned an angle of the rock, and found myself on the summit, in sight of the broad valley and far glittering lake, and in contact with a parapet wall not higher than the breast, but upon which I had come so suddenly that there was no space to leap. I quickly recoiled a step, and had already risen from the ground in the act of vaulting over, when, slight as the pause was, a fatal moment of inaction being presented, a net dropped around my head like a cloud, and, blinded, entangled, yet carried forward by the impetus of the bound, I was dashed against the wall, and fell back on the inner side, more than half stunned.

My senses, however, were sufficiently alive to leave an indistinct resolution to be free, omnipotent, and I had already cut a rent in the meshes, when pounced upon by the excited pursuers, in whose hands, fast bound, bleeding from the mouth and fingers, which last had been cut by the chisel in the fall, and treated as roughly as the preservation of life would allow, I was borne back, and towards mid-day thrown into the former prison, the door leading into the aviary being closed also in the end, so as to limit me to the single apartment. To this I paid no regard at the time, for, faint and feverish from intolerable thirst and blood lost while returning, I laid stretched out upon the floor, and could think of nothing but my pains and bruises, and the mischance which had occasioned them all.

ART. IV.-MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.

REMARKS ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE RIVER MISSISSIPPI.

BARS or shoals are the result of some natural or incidental defect in the channel of a river; natural, as when caused by geological obstruction in its bed; incidental, as when caused by obstructions incidental in their locality, or when they are the legitimate result of causes that have grown out of the condition of the river itself. When natural, they could not have been prevented, because they existed always; when incidental, they might have been prevented, because, having originated in causes that grew out of the condition of the river, there was a time when they did not exist. In either case they can be removed.

Wherever shoals are formed, they can only be removed permanently, by removing the cause; for, if the shoal itself be removed, the cause still remaining, it commences reforming immediately; and