ate neighborhood, where, I believe, are
still traces of an ancient temple. The St. Bernard has been a favorite
pass with armies, and is thought by many to have been that chosen by
Hannibal.
Not very far from the house is the 'morgue' so often noticed by
travelers, containing numerous bodies, which, though they have not
decayed, are nevertheless repulsive to look upon. The well-known figures
of the woman and her babe show that for once the warm refuge of a
mother's breast chilled and fainted in the pitiless storm.
After cordial well--wishes from the brethren, we left the hospice,
bringing away remembrances of it as one of the most interesting places
it has been our privilege to visit. It has, of course, changed character
within half a century, and there is now less necessity for it than
formerly. Many travelers complain of it as now wearing too much the
appearance of a hotel; but we were there too late in the season to find
it so; and even if true at other times, the associations with the
Monastery and the Pass are so interesting, the scenery so bold, and the
welcome one meets with so cordial, that he who regrets having made the
ascent must have had a very different experience from ourselves.
A few hours' ride brought us to the valley, where we met peasants
driving carts and bearing baskets piled up with luscious grapes. A
trifle that the poorest traveler could have spared, procured us an ample
supply.
THE HUGUENOTS OF STATEN ISLAND.
Staten Island, that enchanting sea-girt spot in the beautiful Bay of
New-York, early became a favorite resort with the French Protestants. It
should be called the Huguenot Island; and for fine scenery, inland and
water, natural beauties, hill, dale, and streams, with a bracing,
healthful climate, it strongly reminds the traveler of some regions in
France. No wonder that Frenchmen should select such a spot in a new
land, for their quiet homes. The very earliest settlers on its shores
were men of religious principles. Hudson, the great navigator,
discovered the Island, in 1609, when he first entered the noble river
which bears his undying name. It was called by its Indian owners,
_Aquehioneja, Manackong_, or _Eghquaous_, which, translated, means the
place of _Bad Woods_, referring, probably, to the character of its
original savage inhabitants. Among the very earliest patents granted for
lands in New-Netherland, we find one of June 19th, 1642, to Cornelius
Melyn, a Dutch burgom
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