The Arkansas advocate., 1830-06-02

the dead in other countries, the 6aried Egyptians are of great use to the living, constituting their only fuel and their chief medicine.
 Remarkable escape from Death.-Ssiir: The following example of escape from apparently inevitable death is SC singu- lar, that l think it deserves to be record led, and cannot but prove acceptable to your readers.
 In the attack of Manila, by Sir Wm. Draper, in the year l762, Capt. Richard Bishop, of the marines, greatly distin- guished himself by his intrepidity and professional knowledge; in consequence of which, he was by that general, made governor of the town and fort of Cayite, the principal port in the island of La conia. At this time there was in the neighborhood a Malay of extraordinary bulk and strength, aud of the most fero- eious disposition, who had formerly worked in the dock-yard, but had desert ed, and having collected nearly an hun- dred men of the like character with himself, committed every species of law less violence on the persons and proper ty of peaceful inhabitants. For the ap- prehension of this man, Captain Bishop had long offered considerable rewards but without effect; when, one day rid ing out with d brother officer attended bJ about forty men, he saw this despe- rado, armed with carbine, brace of pistols, seymetar, and q dagger, issue out of a wood at short distance, at the head of his troop. Instigated by sud- den emotion of resentment, Bishop de- termined to inf1ic6 on this man the just punishment of his offences; but being himself without weapons, he borrowed pistol from the holsters of the officer who accompanied him. Thusprosided, he galloped up to Malay, and presented the pistol to lis head. The Malay and his followers, eoniounded at this bold act of single man, offered no resistance. The pistol missed ire, Oh which, Bishop. striking the Malay with it violent blow on the head, knocked him off his horse. In the meanwhile the English troop, hastening to the assistance of their lead CT, and concluding hlm to be fully equal 10 cope with his fallen antagonist, pur- sued the banditti, who immediately fed. and both parties were soon out of sight. All was the work of only a few seconds: during which, Bishop seeing the Malay stunned on the ground, alighted in order to secure him, or, if necessary, to kill him with his own weapons. No sooner, however, was he off his horse, than the Malay was on his feet, and began des- perate struggle with lis rash assaiIant. 1t was the business of the former merely to employ his own offensive weapons 1; the latter had the double necessity of defeating their use, and of applying them to his own advantage. The Malay was singularly strong and active, inured to hard labor, and exerting himself in his own climate; the Englshman of much less muscular force, and that re- duced by long priyation, and by the in- huence of excessive heat, but the dispa- rity was in . considerable degree com pensated by the energy of an invincible mind.
 This contest for life continued for al- most an hour, when at length Bishop, almost faintiiig wiittii, wiitii, iaatigue,s was thrown on his back, and the Malay, kneeling on him drew his dagger, and with all his force aimed at his breast the fatal blow. At that moment Bishop, exert ing his last remains of strength, with ] both hands averted the point of the dag ger as 1t descended, and changing its direction, drove ii upwards into the throat of the Malay, who immediately fell dead upon him.
 Bishop, unable to walk, crawled on his hands and knees 10 his horse. which he found grazing at the distance of a l quarter of mile, near the spot where 1 the contest began. He mounted him
 with difficulty, and was soon happily 1 joined by his friends, who had chased I their opponents into some dangerous l passes, and returned, not without solici-
 tude for the fate of their commander.
 whom they had long left.
 1 The victor carried away the spells of
 his enemy, part of which, the scymetar ! and fatal dagger, the writer of this let-