The boat was soon launched from the ship, and a part of the crew despatched to examine the country. These men soon returned with a favourable description; and Machin accompanied his mistress on shore. The scenery was more than equal to any accounts, that had reached them, even in the language of romance. Flowers bloomed in every shade; trees,-the growth of ages,-reared themselves to a great altitude; canary birds animated every bush; laurels, cedars, oranges, lemons, bananas, and other fruits, were in the amplest profusion; and the honey, which they gathered from the crevices of the rocks, had the odour of violets.

Escaped from the horrors of the ocean, the lovers now felt, as if they had entered into Paradise. For three days, they roved about the island in a state of transport. Under a venerable tree they formed a hut of boughs, and prepared to land part of the ship's cargo for immediate use. On the fourth night, however, a violent hurricane destroyed all their hopes and anticipations! The ship broke from her moorings; and, being driven on the coast of Morocco, was wrecked; and the crew seized as slaves.

When Machin and his mistress missed the ship in the morning, the latter gave herself up to despair: and, after upbraiding her lover for some time, became speechless, and in a few days died of grief. Machin, overwhelmed with sorrow, gave himself up to his misfortunes; and, refusing all consolation from his companions, died on the fifth day. A few moments before he breathed his last, he directed his friends to bury him in the grave, which, under a large tree, contained his unfortunate mistress. This his companions did not hesitate to perform; and

after inscribing over it an exhortation to any Christian, who might thereafter visit the spot, to erect a church, and dedicate it to Christ, they committed themselves to their boat: and, being driven on the coast of Morocco, shared the captivity of their fellow seamen. There are two or three contradictory accounts of this first discovery of Madeira; but the preceding seems to bear the palm, in point of authenticity.

tree.

IX.

Ninus of Babylon was buried under a white mulberryThe sepulchres and monuments of the Corinthians were among groves of cypresses. In many parts of Turkey large burial-grounds, planted with trees, are the only vestiges, which villages possess to prove, that they were formerly cities. In Madrid one of the churchyards forms a square; through the middle of which a rivulet runs, with roses, violets, and jessamine, growing spontaneously on its banks.

2

The custom of adorning graves with flowers, we have already described; but here we may be permitted to add, that in a village of the Peak in Derbyshire, there is a custom, as Miss Seward informs us, of suspending garlands of white roses, made of paper, over the pews of those unmarried villagers, who die in the flower of their age. At Okely in Surry, rose-trees were once3 accus

1 Galvano. Prog. Maritime Discov. p. 22. John De Barros, &c. Also Locke's Hist. of Navigation, p. 17. 4to.

2 The natives of the great Loochoo island deposit the remains of their relatives in vases, over which are hung, on bamboo poles, bundles of flowers. Each cemetery, says Captain Hall, wears an air of cheerfulness, p. 143, 4to. 3 Gibson's Camden.

tomed to be planted on the graves by all those young men and women, who had lost their lovers.

The Otaheitans plant trees in their cemeteries, which they call morai: and when one of Captain Cool's sailors plucked a flower from one of them, an Indian went up and struck him; as if he had committed a kind of sacrilege. In Greece the sepulchres were covered with parsley: and the boys, who died during the festival, called diamastigosis, were buried with much solemnity, and a crown of flowers placed upon their heads. The custom of strewing herbs and flowers was, at one time, prevalent in Italy. This is proved by a passage in Ausonius1, an epitaph on Sannazarius, and another on John Baptista Marino3. Pontanus alludes to it, in his poem on the death of his wife; and Hessus in his sixth eclogue5. Shakespeare describes it, as being prevalent at Veronao; and were he always accurate in costume, and never guilty of anachronisms, we might be led to suppose, the practice once prevailed in Denmark, and Bohemia. It ob

1 Epist. xxxvi.

* Ciceriscus.

2 Da sacro cineri flores.-Hic ille Maroni
Sincerus musâ, proximus ut tumulo.

3 Fundere ne renuas, flores, et thura, Viator!
Ossibus, et cineri quem lapis iste teget, &c.

5

Guiccardini.

Spargite odoratos, tumulo date, spargite flores. Romeo and Juliet, act iv. sc. 4.-v. sc. 4. Misson confirms the prac

tained, certainly, in the middle ages of Christianity. St. Ambrose alludes to it, in his funeral oration on the death of Valentinian1; and St. Jerome, in his letter to Pammachius, on the death of his wife." While other husbands strewed violets and roses and purple flowers on the graves of their wives, you, Pammachius, bedewed her ashes with the balsam of charity."

To this custom the English poets are frequently alluding. Milton does so, in one of the best passages of Lycidas; Smollet in his imitation of Tibullus; Giffard in his elegy of, "I wish I were where Anna lies ;" and Chatterton, in his dirge of "O sing unto my roundelay." of" Gray, also, in the omitted stanza of his elegy; and Collins in the dirge, sung over the grave of Fidele :—

The redbreast oft, at evening hour,

Shall kindly lend his little aid,

With hoary moss, and gather'd flowers,
To deck the ground, where thou art laid.

X.

Adanson, author of the families of plants, left in his will, that a garland, culled from his "Families," should be placed over him. The most agreeable spot in Caubul is the tomb of the Emperor Bauber*; situated on the top of a hill, surrounded by beds of anemonies. Flowers

1 "Nec ego floribus tumulum ejus asperagam, sed spiritum ejus Christi odore perfundam; spargant alii plenis lilia calathis; nobis lilium est Christus, hoc reliquias ejus sacrato."-Ambros. Orat. Funebri de obitu Valentin. Crowns of flowers were placed upon the tomb of St. Felix. The reason for this custom is stated in Durand. Ret. vii. c. 35.

2 Hierom. Epist. ad Pammach. de obitu Uxoris. 3 L. 139. And in Samson Agonistes.

4 Caubul, 434.

were scattered over the grave of Klopstock; a lime-tree overshadows his monument of white Carrara marble; and while the celestial muse holds an urn in one hand, the other seems pointing to heaven. Thus reposes the first of German poets!

During the French revolution, persons of all persuasions were deposited in a common burial-ground, planted with trees. On the front of the entrance was inscribed the following unscientific, imbecile, cold, worthless, and disgraceful sentence:

"DEATH IS AN ETERNAL SLEEP.

With what melancholy pleasure, my Lelius, did your friend, Harmodius, and myself, visit the tomb of Publicola! standing in a churchyard, surrounded by several jessamine and rose bushes. His manners were so attaching to all of us, that, associating with his memory moral simplicity and mental tranquillity, the imagination, dwelling on his modesty and humanity, lingers with a mild and elegant delight. He was reading, as we were informed by his wife, the following passage in Percival's Essays; when he was seized with apoplexy. "To the intelligent and virtuous, old age presents a scene of tranquil enjoyments; of obedient appetite; of well-regulated affections; of maturity in knowledge; and of calm preparation for immortality. In this serene and dignified state, placed, as it were, on the confines of two worlds, the mind reviews what is past, with the complacency of an approving conscience; and looks forward, with an humble confidence in the mercy of God, and with devout aspirations, towards his eternal and ever-increasing power." What a happiness to die at such a moment! His tomb is erected; but