The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-12-25 00:00:00

THE MIRROR OF HOPE.

. It is singiAttr, its well as ;edifying,"to trace the
Curious workings of a restless mental bodily
ivity which seems to find solace only in tut,:
4tring " to and fro upon the earth,'! thto v
various scenes of peril and adventure, hick
forces its possessor into strange fellowship with
the privations and dangers of savage life, and
shrinks' not from the perils to be met with
in the encounter of civilised man returning to a
state of savagery in quest of gold. All this, and
more than this, is to be met with in the pages of
the two volumes now issued by this adventurous
female. Her adventures among the islands of
the Malayan Archipelago, as they open up a
newer field of observation, are fresher than those
connected with California, concerning which we
have already heard so much. Among these little-
known islands, and still less-known people, she
met with many incidents worthy of notice, and
several of these we should like to have transferred
to our columns, but must content ourselves with
one.

Amin the desert's rugged scene,
Delusive Hope! why dost thou stand,
Displaying thus with silent mien,
A mystic mirror in thine hand?
Alas I my sinking heart to mock,
The gleaming crystal cheats mine eyes,
Casting on barren sand and rock
The light, the tints of Paradise.

Reflected in the glass I see
Bare rocks, with moss and flow'rets gay;
Young leaves bedeck the blighted tree,
And 'mid the sands a streamlet's play ;
But false are flower, and stream, and leaf;
I look around—the vision's o'er—
Cease, cruel Hope l to sport with grief;
Thy magic shall deceive no more.

I snatch thy mirror—break it—strew
The scatter'd relics far and near—L-
Rut see! full many a vivid hue,
And gleam and ray are sparkling here.
O'er all the wilderness they beam,
The shiver'd crystal's atoms bright,
And make the illumin'd landscape seem
Refulgent with a wondrous light.

A VISIT OF CEREMONY TO THE QUEEN OF LAGUSI.
When I left the boat to walk a quarter of a mile to
the royal abode, the whole population of the village ac-
companied me, for mine was the first European face that
had ever been seen here. The whole body tried to enter
with me into the palace (a bamboo hut, of course), but
they were, as might be expected, forcibly put back. The
queen kept me waiting a long while before she made her
appearance. She was an old, but lively and vigorous-
looking woman, and talked a great deal, and with much
emphasis. She said she was seventy-six, but judging by
the age of her youngest son she could not have been so
much. The people here, when they are old, generally
4 ,-cty' 8 Second Journey Round the World •
• try to make themselves out older, in order to add to
Sumatra,
to the Cape of Good Hope, Borneo, their dignity; but besides this, they have a very imperfect
eltrnatra, Celebes, Ceram, the _Moluccas, way of reckoning, and often do not themselves know how
t 41ifornia Panama, Peru, Ecuador, and the many years they should count. After having partaken of
ell States.
B Ida Pfeiffer, London: Lo - the customary refreshments of tea and sweetmeats, I
bilel Co* y Lon wished to retire, for I was half-lame from sitting nine
ti hours in that cramped posture; but the great lady would
eke Ida Pfeiffer has now seen all the not allow this ; she was too much entertained with the
twice andall the d.world, at
over,
of my interpreter, who told her all the news
4.0 f the great town of Macassar. She was extremely
qd many who are not adepts in the read- cheerful and animated, although, as she herself told me,
tt,
1, have, at least, heard of, if they have not with truly stoical indifference, she had ~. a Sim only
'adanie Ida Pfeiffer. Among the latter class three days before. That
,is the way w , these people.
Ilat
frankly range ourselves ; we have often. Aa
and
dlong
behaveasthaeaboidfytihsein twheertoufsraentthieeywsictrmeetarnedwrbwul
Of, though we have not seen, the roving when it is once buried, the the sorrow is buried with it, and
jlhe is, and has been, a great traveller, they are quite comfortable and merry again. The queen
(47vellers, it is well- known, “ see strange wore mourning for her son, which consisted of a piece of
''' but Madame Pfeiffer, does more than see ' 'dark cloth passed round her head, so as quite to conceal
118° tells ' her hair, and hanging down upon her shoulders. Much
of the strange sights she has seen. against my will I was compelled to sup with Her Majesty,
passioni for travel seems ,to be a somewhat and the sapper was no better than usual. There was a
r One, and is less or more confined to love crowd of little dishes, the entire contents of which would
Peg . by rfo means have overloaded the stomach of one person
otion which, in her case, appears to be, .
with,a good appetite. One dish contained a single hard-
Lliltue, in' vgreat degree its own reward. boiled egg, cut into four parts, another three very tiny
Zrseverance and courage exhibited by a lone potatoes, a third the half of a fish three inches long, a
in twice traversing the principal thorough- foul few slices of cucumber, a fifth two very little
i,*. a
ban-
and many of the least-invitinc, and `most onioiX/ and so forth. In the midst of this splendid
°tens byeways of tlirikrld, is so'''. unnvak, if
. quet wait placed a vry large closely-covered soup-tureen,
.
and up it'a great ladle ;on this giant dish I centred all
b$ the
as to class the achievem
.erkt „my bop& and expectations, dreaming of boiled fowls, and
the acts of heroism. 'That the ladh.lnas Heaven knows what dainties, that I suppOsed it to con-
tnderful philosophic depth of minCaM is tain. I took a good portion of rice upon my plate, think-
Possessed of accurate
generalising pa gof
of the fowl. \Still the cover was not raised. I thought I
rvation is tam me 3 and the fact, thQ4ll it de— should like a little salt to my rice, and'asked for some ;
in an unfortunate degree from file value of
eels, does.not.. in any way lessenAbb wonder
by the extraordinary 1-1 '
10 ays effort_.
..,. er pictures
minute, and they catty on their face
tan air of fidelity-; that: they convQ± in- tiitii
04 of an important character, which rnds •
oeculative than her own ma t
tit. q
salt-aellar. I felt ready to turn into a pillar of salt my-
anner of serving water. Two handsome cut-glass
'oantlks, in cases,,
, y urn to usefu . -., • ••
and then, at laiti.off went the cover, the great ladle was
plunged 4n, and about a thimbleful of fine white salt pre-
sented to me. The grand dish was merely a monster
sel/60th grief and disappointed hope. Not less odd was
hadAlbeen placed before us ; and, as
,„ '...nters•are mostly accompanied by glasses, I waited
1,.. , e time in hopes of seeing them brought ; but as none
eitine,l asked for them, and was then requested by Her
li,

Like earth-born stars here glittering keen,
Like fragments of a rainbow there,
Like jewels dropped by elfin queen,
Like fountain's spray, like dew-drops fair,
The shattered mirror multiplies
Its vainly-broken fairy spell;
I Hope lin thee what magic Hest
Thy power is indestructible I

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