RELIGIOUS DELUSION.

53

shouted impatiently, "Whoa-ha, Buck, get up dar-g'lang, Bell!"

A little boy of the party is said to have grasped his father by the leg, and asked—

"How's ye feel, fadder, when you's free?"

Reli

Brown manifestly laboured under the hallucination that he was a second Gideon or Joshua, divinely appointed to wield the sword of the Lord, and carry out the emancipation of the negroes, no matter if their manumission had to be obtained by the slaughter of their owners. gious delusions are always the most dangerous and ineradicable; so it was fortunate for the South that this enthusiast's plans had been frustrated. Kangi, an associate and co-leader with Brown, took, however, a lower view of his authority, for when the High Sheriff arrived with an escort at John Brown's cabin, near Harper's Ferry, to arrest the ringleaders, and observed to Kangi, "Do you know who we are? I am the High Sheriff of this county," Kangi replied—

"To the devil with the High Sheriff of Lynn county! Hand over that gun!"

After his arrest, and during his examination, Brown was asked by a senator of Ohio, "Who sent you here?" To which the culprit gruffly answered

"No man sent me here-it was my own prompt

ing, and that of my Maker, or that of the devil, whichever you please to ascribe it to. I acknowledge no master in human form!"

The following lines are sufficiently indicative of Brown's objects and religious delusion. They are said to have been written by this fanatic, and addressed to his men :

"They are coming-men, make ready;
See their ensigns-hear their drum ;
See them march with steps unsteady;
Onward to their graves they come.

God of Freedom! ere to-morrow,
Slavers' corpses thou shalt see;
Georgia maids shall wail in sorrow,
For my sacrifice to thee!

Philistines shall fall-the river

That meanders through this wood
Shall be red with blood that never
Throbbed for outraged womanhood.

Blood of men, who, when their brothers
Traffic human flesh for gold,
Laugh, like arch fiends, as poor mothers'
Heartstrings break for daughters sold;

Men who scoff at higher statutes

Than their codes of legal wrong;

Men whom only tyrant-rule suits;
Men whom hell would blush to own:

I will lay them as on altars,

Prairies! on your grasses green:
Cursed be the man who falters-

Better had he never been.

BROWN'S ADDRESS.

Brothers! we are God-appointed

Soldiers in these holy wars;
Set apart, sealed and anointed

Children of a heavenly Mars!

Weakness we need not dissemble-
But Jehovah leads us on:
Who is he that dares to tremble,
Led by God of Gideon?

Let them laugh in mad derision
At our little feeble band-
God has told me in a vision

We shall liberate the land.

Rise, then, brothers, do not doubt me,
I can feel his presence now,
Feel his promises about me,
Like a helmit on my brow.

We must conquer, we must slaughter !
We are God's rod, and his ire
Wills their blood shall flow like water,

In Jehovah's dread name-Fire!"

55

It is to me a matter of surprise how such an arrant enthusiast as Brown could have obtained sympathizers and friends to promote his nefarious schemes; and that, having met with a felon's doom, he should, by some persons, be regarded as a martyr, and apotheosized as the saint of freedom.

Origin of the City-The Westover MSS.-" Cities in the Air"-An Agreeable Surprise-The Capitol-Colonial Relics-The Washington Statue-Monumental Church -Burning of the Theatre-An August Assembly-Ancient Church-Tredegar Works-Speculative FollyTobacco Manufacture-James River Canal-Penitentiary -"Ducking Stool"-An Eccentric Celebrity-" Scratching"-Attorney and Client.

RICHMOND, the metropolis of Virginia, is said to owe its appellation to the resemblance which it bears to the site of its namesake on the Thames; a circumstance which has been noticed by persons who have visited each locality. If Rougement gave a colour of adaptation to the latter, it might well have done so to the Southern city, whose hill-sides glow with a rich, auriferous tint.

This interesting capital is situated in Henrico county, on the north side of the James River, at

ORIGIN OF THE CITY.

57

the Great Falls, and is distant one hundred and seventeen miles from Washington. Although a comparatively modern city-being first established by law in 1742-it is frequently alluded to in the early history of Virginia. The site was originally denominated Byrd's Warehouse, from the fact of the founder of the city having had a business establishment there. It occupied the ground where the elegant Exchange Hôtel now stands. Colonel Byrd resided some short distance off, at a spot called Belvidere, thus described by Burnably, in his "Travels in America," in 1759:

"It is a small place, upon a hill, at the lower end of the James River Falls, as romantic and elegant as anything I have ever seen. It is situated very high, and commands a fine prospect of the river, which is half a mile broad, forming a number of cataracts. There are several little islands scattered carelessly about, very rocky, and covered with trees; and two or three villages in view at a small distance. Over all these you discover a prodigious extent of wilderness, and the river winding majestically along through the midst of it."

In March, 1675, a grant of land, to the number of 7,351 acres, "beginning at the mouth of Shoccoe's Creek," and extending several miles up the river, was obtained by Captain William Byrd,