he was arrived in the river with 169 out of 173 monkeys consigned to him, four having died upon the passage; and begging him to have them landed as soon as possible, for they began to be very mischeevous.' Ex They were landed as soon as possible, were disposed of with equal speed, and, in consequence, an unprecedented fall took place in the monkey market. ports were now made to the remotest parts of England, and, among these, was a female, dispatched to Portsmouth, who was bought a bargain by the pos sessor of the maritime monkey, and given by him in marriage to his favourite, For some time the happiness of the wedded pair appeared to be complete; and the frigate sailed upon a summer eruize during their honey-moon. The husband, however, soon grew indifferent; and indifference was soon suceeeded by disgust. This was manifested by angry looks, chatter, and even blows, upon the female persevering in her attentions. All were much disappointed and scandalized at the evil success of so promising a union. At length, however, an apparent change took place in the husband's conduct, and was hailed with correspondent joy by the ship's company. Their pleasure was, however, of short duration, for the traitor, having one fine day decoyed his wife out to the end of the fore-top-gallant yard, as if to show her something at sea, and sat down with her on the spar, slipt his paw under her sitting part, and tumbled her overboard. I never shall forget the momentary horror with which this was witnessed by all, with the exception of a French captain then a prisoner on board, who, turning to the second lieutenant, exclaimed, Parbleu, Monsieur, ce drole là a beaucoup de caractère.' The second monkey extracted much fun from a bear. This beast, who was of a saturnine complexion, indulged himself much in sleeping on the sunny side of the deck. On these occasions the monkey would overhaul his paws, and twitch out any hair which might be found matted by tar or pitch, the suffering which to remain seemed to be a great scandal in his opinion. At other times he would open Bruin's eyelids and peep into his eyes, as if to ascertain what he was dreaming about. The bear, irritated at such liberties being taken with his person, used to make clumsy attempts to revenge himself, but his persecutor was off in an instant. The rigging was, on these occasions, his place of refuge. Thither he was indeed followed by his enemy; but poor Bruin was but an indifferent top-man, and seldom got beyond lubber's hole. The monkey, on the contrary, was famous for his activity, and for some time was entitled by the sailors, 'Deputy captain of the fore-top.' He obtained this designation from a very singular practice. Having observed the excitement produced on deck by the announcement of a sail a-head, which, as well as the chase which followed, seemed to be highly agreeable to him, the fore-top became his favourite station; from whence he made his signals with great energy, chattering with a peculiar scream when any vessel came in sight, and indicating by signs in what direc tion it appeared. Pug continued to volunteer his services for some time in this manner, and constantly found his reward. But, at length, upon the sloop's getting on bad cruizing ground, he found his employment dull, and, by way of enlivening it, amused bimself with giving false alarms. He was started for this by the boatswain's mate, and lost his rank as De. puty-captain of the fore-top. In lieu of which, moreover, he was new-named Monk the Marine; a denomination which he certainly knew to be opprobrious, as he resented it with grimaces, chatter, and when he dared with blows. Though he was fond of the excitement of a chase, he was not supposed to have good nerves, and those who had seen him in action (he was, after the first experiment, always sent below) made but au ill report of his steadiness under fire. This poor monkey came to a melancholy end. He had observed a sick lieutenant, who breakfasted after the rest of his mess, making his tea, and being accidently left alone in the gunroom, determined to imitate him. He however succeeded ill in his mixture: for he infused a paper of tobacco which was lying on the table, into his pot, instead of tea, and afterwards swallowed it with its accompaniments of milk and sugar. This ill-imagined beverage produced the most fearful commotion in his inside, attended with long and loathsome vomitings, of which he finally died, The doctor, who was a materialist and an atheist, and a most quarrelsome fellow, (he had killed two brother offi cers in duels, one for only calling him Dr. Gallipot,) attended with more care than we had expected; but the poor beast (as the purser said) was outward bound, and could not be recalled. The surgeon announced that Pug died of the iliac passion, and announced this as a reason for believing that man was a better breed of monkey. VIEW OF THE GREEKS IN 1824. Extractana; OR, Selections from New Books. VIEW OF THE GREEKS in 1824, By G. WADDINGTON, Esq. BOBOLINA, THE GREEK HEROINE. MOST people have heard of the 'heroine' Bobolina: this important person was born at Hydra; but as her husband, to whose large property she has succeeded, was a native of Spezzia, her usual residence is in that island. She displayed much zeal in the beginning of the revolution, and equipped several vessels for the naval service; she directed, too, her attention towards the Morea; she formed an early connexion with Colocotroni, and shared, if she be not much belied, no trifling proportion of the plunder of Tripolizza. She certainly entered that city a few days after its capture, while its streets were yet reeking with blood, in a kind of triumph, on horseback, astride, after the manner of Orientals and Amazons. Since that period, she has married her pretty daughter to Capitan Panos, thus strengthening her continental influence; while old Colocotroni obtained by the connexion the support of a considerable party in Spezzia. Thus, then, is Bobolina at the same time an Islander and a Capitana. Nothing is so dull and unpopular as truth: are we not educated in the flattering belief that heroines are a species distinctively valiant, generous, and disinterested-surpassingly beautiful, and of unfading youth? Such ought to be the heroine Bobolina; and it is not without reluctance that I am brought to confess that this warlike lady, the Hippolyta of the nineteenth century, is old, unmannerly, ugly, fat, shapeless, and avaricious. THE GREAT EXTENT OF FORGERY IN SOME spirit of enterprise and speculation she most assuredly possesses, nor has she failed to turn it to a very profitable use. Two mints have been established under her auspices, at Spezzia and Napoli; the rapid depreciation of the Turkish piastre, and the little intrinsic value of the last gold coinage, have opened a lucrative field for forgery: the coinage has been imitated by the Greeks with great success, and large quantities of it have been privately imported as Turkish money into various parts of Asia. Similar attempts were 407 made to imitate the Spanish dollar, but not with the same success; in weight, indeed, the forged seldom falls short of the real dollar; but the indifference of the execution makes them instantly distinguishable. In the mean time, this false coinage has obtained very little circulation among the Greeks; that pecuniary people throw far too keen a regard of scrutiny on a dollar or a machmoodie, to be easily deceived as to its genuineness or value; all, too, are aware of the fraud which it is attempted to impose upon them, and all are well acquainted with its heroic authoress-so well, that the very name which they always apply to a false coin is the name of the lady to whose ingenuity they feel obliged for it; and Bobolina, if she be destined to any sort of immortality, will descend to posterity as a bye-word. THEODORE COLOCOTRONI. "The Leader of the Klephlic, or Robber party, was Theodore Colocotroni. Descended from a race of noble bandits, he had obtained some personal honour in his hereditary profession, before his admission into the English service; and in the interval, during a residence of some months (or years) at Zante, he had exercised with success the trade of a butcher. He was called to the Morea very early in the Revolu tion. A fortunate engagement in the neighbourhood of Tripolizza established his military character, and the plunder of that city in October, 1821, provided him with the most effectual means of supporting that character. "The party properly Klephtic gradually acquired many adherents in the Morea, and several distinguished persons, who had never practised brigandage, became associated with it; some from mere love of military license, many from the connexion with the family of their chief, and many from ambition and avarice. These, united, formed the party of the Capitani, in which more indefinite and sonorous name its Klephtic origin was merged and forgotten. Petro Bey, Deliyánni, and others, obtained some estimation and authoritybut Colocotroni was still the idol; and during the first year of the insurrection he possessed, in spite of the name of Ypsilanti, almost unlimited influence in the Morea. THE PORTFOLIO. LONDON, MARCH 5, 1825. CONVERSAZIONE OF THE I IMAGINE that I have by this time made De Philipsthal collect a pretty particular number of spectators, both young and old. I am indeed tolerably inform ed, that such is the fact. I am abundantly pleased at this circumstance, nay, I am proud to have delivered so many of my little philosophers as have honored me with their attention, from the scientific trifling, and worse than trifling ribaldry, with which, to the discredit of the cheap press, the learned Thebans who conduct it so often pamper them. I exult in my success with the subject, but yet methinks I hear that half-whisper which generally assails the showman, "Is there nothing else?" I promptly answer these enquirers, Yes, there is something else; there is an abundant variety to come, and of equal interest too. We have store of materials before us, but to determine the order of appearance is "the rub." Let us see. Philosophy? The interrogative system, with its countless catechisms, has well nigh scraped science to the bones, and, verily, dry as a bone are some of its catechisms! Again, the curiosities, the facetiæ of literature? Not at present; the novels and novelettes, the tales, the story-books for children of all growths and all ages, thank the stars, will for some time shut out such subjects from our Conversazione. Once more. What have we on yon neglected shelf? Papers, old books, prints, drawings, sketches, a perfect heap! Down with them. What are these, so withered and so wild in their attire, that look not like the inhabitants o' the earth, and yet are on't?" Let us exercise the library bellows a few moments. Ha, my old friends, the companions of many a watchful night, come forth! So. Magic, Witchcraft, Alchymy,Physiogno 'tis time, 'tis time: Round about the cauldron go." I shall select from these sources such matters as may be expected to entertain the readers of the Portfolio; and this perhaps without any regular order, although assuredly not without method, "Now here, now there." I shall yet take care not to entangle my young followers. I will begin with an old lucubration of mine, a hobby of my younger days, some of the curiosities, the mysterious intricacies, almost the MAGIC of Perspective. ANAMORPHIC PAINTINGS; OR, MAGICAL bited and sold in their shops anamor- The paintings I am about to describe have been generally of two descriptions one of them is deduced from the surface of a cone, and is, from an extraordinary and unintelligible distortion, restored to a perfect image of a regular and well-defined object by reflection on the surface of a metallic or glass cone. which represents vastly more difficulty Another is a painting THE CONICAL ANAMORPHOSIS. and complexity, but is of yet corresponding curiosity and interest, and is equally within the reach of familiar explanation. The optical lens, vulgarly known by the appellation multiplying glass, is known to be generally flat on one of its sides, and to have its other side or face of convex form, but subdivided into several flat surfaces of square or polygonal figures. It may be familiar to my readers, that a picture, or any regular object viewed through a lens of this description, will appear to be broken up as it were into as many detached portions as there are faces to the lens, and if they will observe the effect, it will be found that the portions so detached have their distances of separation evidently depending on the angular inclination of the faces of the lens to each other. The nature of the paintings now to be described may be considered as deduced from this effect; a painting of this kind is, in fact, in all cases, a picture drawn to suit the circumstances of the particular lens with which we are to view it. scribe about it, on the point A as a centre, (and which must be chosen as near the centre of the subject as possible) several concentric and equidistant circles, as the circles Aa Ab Ac Ad; the number of these circles must depend much on the nature of the subject, as will be better understood after the first experiment; in general from 4 to 6 will be sufficient. Having arrived at the extreme boundary of the subject with the last and largest circle, cross the centre of the figure with a horizontal line BC, a vertical line D E, and these again with the diagonal lines F and G, dividing the concentric circles already described, 4.09 with their spaces, into the (the figure 2 is here constructed separately, in order to avoid in this description the confused appearance of the letters of reference on the figure 1 itself) equal portions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, &c.; this part of the process we will term the preparation of the drawing. The next proceeding is to compose a distorted or perspective arrangement of the annular spaces, and their subdivisions, already obtained by the preparation. To this effect, 1st, describe the triangle ABC, fig. 3, to represent a vertical section of the cone to be used in the transformation; A B being the diameter of its base, Cits ver tex. 2. Construct the figure 4 thus: continue the line of the base A B (described anew in this figure,) indefinitely, and draw the axis of the cone C D indefinitely through the vertex C towards E. 3. Divide the semi-diameter A D of the base into as many equal parts as there have been concentric circles in the preparation of the drawing. Determine the distance or height at which the eye of the observer is to view the transformation, as the point E; and draw the lines Ea, Eb, E c, &c. one to each of the divisions on the semidiameter A D. 4. Contrive the slope line A C in the direction Z, describe on C the semicirele S V, and measuring the angle T S hich the perpendicular E C makes with the slope side A C, make an angle V W in the opposite direction, equal to it, and draw C G. 5. From the several points in which the lines Ea, Eb, Ec, &c. intersect the slope side A C, draw the lines CH, CI, CK, respectively making the same angle with, or going off at the same angle from the line AC, as that in which they fall on it; and continue each to an intersection with the line of the base AD B. The points G, H, I, K, so obtained, will be the places of concentric circles, which, in the distorted drawing, are to represent the concentric and equidistant circles described on the original subject. Another figure is yet to be constructed, which shall be the distorted representation of the original picture. This new figure is the fig. 5, (to be given in our next.) It must be observed in this drawing (fig. 3.) that the line EC, which proceeds from the place of the eye to the upper part of the cone, is directed to G, and is to fix the place of the outermost circle in the figure 5; and the line which proceeds from the eye to the lower part of the cone, is directed to K, and fixes the place of the innermost circle in that place. Let it be particularly observed, that the circle represented by the point a in fig. 4, gives, by the reflection of the line a H, from its point of intersection c, the point H to represent that circle in the distorted drawing: that the point b gives I for its representative, the point c gives K, and the point c, or the centre, gives D:-the entire arrangement is in fact reversed, the smallest circle which covers the original in fig. 1, (and fig, 2,) is represented by the largest in the distortion of fig. 5., while the largest circle of the original, viz. a, is represented in the distortion by the smallest circle M, which stands next in contiguity to the base of the cone. Those parts of the original which occupy the outer circles with which it is covered in the preparation, are in the distortion to be so compressed, as to occupy the inner ones; while those parts of it which occupy the inner circles, or are nearer to its centre, are in the distortion to be so extended, as to occupy the outer circles; and hence the APPARENT CONFUSION of the distorted drawing. A careful reference to the figures 4 and 5 will shew this inversion in the order of the several parts of the figure, and explain the management of the inversion itself, while it exhibits a specimen of the curious and apparently ABSOLUTELY WILD effect of the transformation. (To be continued.) |