The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1804-12-14 00:00:00

black sidrs, no head nor galleries. Perceiv-
ing the privateer getting ready to chase, we bore
up under the appearance of intending to speak him ;
but the night coming on, conceiving it most prudent
to wave a second overhauling, stood off to the west-
ward. At half-past seven fired a shot a-head, but
did not cause us to alter our course.

" Monday, Oauber B.—At ten o'clock, n. vs. Be-
mini isles bearing E.N.E. distance three leagues,
discovered a large ship on the rocks, and three small
vessels at anchor : our being very short of provisions
and water caused us to bear up in order to procure
a supply. At three o'clock, p. m. came to anchor,
when the following gentlemen came on board : Cap-
tain Peter Mutt, of schooner Joseph ; James Mott,
of schooner Rem' fawn ; and Nathaniel Sweeting, of
sloop ; all of Providence, whose polite at-
tention and friendly assistance dent.i..d our grate-
ful acknowledgments, and from whom we re-
ceived one barrel beef, one cask water, a quantity
of sugar, fresh ash, &c. for which no payment nor
any return whatever would be accepted of, and
seemed sorry they hal it not in their power to ren-
der us further service ; they informed us the sbip
on shore was from Havannah, bound to Teneriffe,
cargo, sugars; wrecked in the hurricane of the Gth,
7th, and Bth, September, and four of the crew pe-
rished. The schooner Jane, Captain Kerrison, of
this port, put into Havannah on Siturday, '29th
September, twenty-seven days from Kingston, with
the loss of her main-mast, the top of her foremast,
and rigging much damaged ; and five days wanting
water, casks being stove in the perpetual gales she
encountered."

AMENIC4.

TIIE lIMMIrEss OF NORTH SALEM.

-

NEW-YOIIK, NOV. 13.
The following Account or a Shigtear Character, now redding
in the N -,4libouri,ooll of Salem, in I/tidiest Comity, in
this St.,te, i; from ti,elaical 11 Jrnetetc•, printed at Pough•
ke:psie; •routmunicated, as The Editor deel ire., from autho-
rity so resptcM,lc as admits not a doubt of its Perfect
correctness.

When the train of human events appears to deviate
from its wonted emirs and becomes pro to t,ve of
characters altogether • and unexampled, it has a
claim on the world to be perpetuated.
An iastanee of this kind, where nartrc has ap-
peared surprisingly to wand,.r from its swinted ope-
rations, is displayed is the eharaCter and manner of
life exhibited by a certain female in the vicinity of
this towr. We often hear of men, from various
mctives, preserving a life i if solitude in some gloomy
cavern of the earth ; but to find one of the fair sex
immurred in a cave, wholly secluded from human
society is a true plienomencii.
Acquainted with all their delicacy of body, their
natural timidity of mind, their loquacity of temper,
and their inordinate love cif seeing and being seen;
to find them forsasi-ig all human society tor the
dreary haunts of savage beast:, appears, when re-
lated, too romantic to gain belief Yet the reader
may rely on the sequel, as a simple narrative of
fa Rs.

Sarah Bishop (for this was the name of this hermit-
ess) is a person of about fifty years of age. ~bout
thirty years ago, she was a lady of considerable
be..uty, a competent share of mental endowments,
and education ; she was possessed of a handsome for-
tune, but she was of a tender and delicate constitu-
tion, and enjoyed but a low degree of health, and
could be hardly comfortable without constant re-
course to medicine and careful attendance ; and
was often heard to say that she had no dread of any
animal on earth but man, Disgusted with them,
and consequently with the world, about twenty-
three years ago, she withdrew borsch from all hu-
man society, and in the bloom of life resorted to the
mountains, which divide Salem from North Salem :
where she has spent her days to the present time,
in a cave, or rather cleft of the rock, withatawn
from the society of every living creature. Yester-
day, in compaoy with the two Capt. Smiths M. this
town, I went into the mountains to visit this stir-
prisit g hermitage ; a just portrait of which is con-
tained in the following lines.
As you pass the southern and most elevated ridge
of the mountain, and tacg'n to descend the southern
steep, you meet with a perpendicular descent of a
rock of about ten feet, in the front of which is this
cave. At the foot of this rock is a gentle descent of
ilea and fertile ground, extending about ten rods,
when it instantly forms a 11 ightful precipice, descend-
ing about hair a mile to the pod, known by the
name of Long Pond.
On the right and left of this fertile ground, the
mountain rises in cliffs, and almost incises it, being
a square of about one half acre. In the fi ont cf the
rock Oil the north, where tile cave is, and level with
the ground, there appears to be a large !rostrum of
the rock, of a double fathom size, thrown out of
the rock by some unknown convulsion of nature, and
lies in fit of the cavity from whence it was rest._

partly incliising the mouth, And forming a room of
the same dimensions with the frustrum uselt : the
rock is left entire above, and forms the roof of this

humble mamicn.

This cavity is the habitation of this hermitess, in
which she has spent twenty-three of her best years,
self-excluded from all human society. She keeps no
domesticated animal, not even a fowl, a cat, or a
dog; Her little plantation, consisting of one half
acre, is cleared of its wood, and reduced to gras.,
but she makes little use of it, excepting that she has
raised a few peach trees on it, and she plants yearly
a few hills of beans, cucumbers, and potatoes. The
whole plat is surrounded with a luxuriant growth of
grape vines, which overspread all the surrounding
wood, and produce grapes in the greatest abun-
dance. On the opposite side of this little tenement,
or cave, is a fine fountain of excellent water, which
issues from the side of the mountain, and loses it-
self in this little place.
At this fountain we found the wonderful woman,
whose appearance it is a little difficult to describe ;
indeed, like nature in its first state, she was without
form, that is, she appeared in no form or position I
had ever seen before ; her dress appealed little else
but one confused and shapeless mass of rags, patched
together without any order, which obscured any
human shape, excepting her head, which was cloth-
ed witli a luxuriancy of lank grey hair, depending on
every side, just as nature and time had formed it,
' wholly devoid of any artificial covering or orna-
rw-nt.

When she had discovered our approach. she exhi-