The Wandering Freemason.

course , full of my new acquaintance , whose card had been duly deposited there : and tho American lady opportunely arriving , confirmed , by her manner , the exaggerated impressions I had communicated . Sho seemed , as it were , their sponsor , and our Charge d'Affaires agreed to gratify

bis wife ' s natural curiosity and open spirit of hospitality by adding the lion ' s name to tho invitations sho was issuing for a ball . The ball took place ; Blake sat until supper time the centre of an admiring group , narrating tiger hunts in India , explorations in Africa , episodes of the revolutionary propaganda in Italy , anecdotes of courts , and projects

for gigantic works in America and Europe . He explained the failure of the Nicaraguan Canal , which had sent the O'Gorman home penniless , and boasted of the coming time when tho Andes would be crossed by Railways and the steam-whistle resound along the banks of the Amazon and

Orinoko . * Old General Miller ( comrade of Dundonald ) , a scarred and war-worn hero , was greatly interested . Ellaby ( representative of King Kamehameha II . of the Sandwich Isles ) and doyen of the diplomatic corps , eagerly snuffed

good speculations in tho wind , and M . de Lesseps—Minister of France ( with whoso cousin of Suez , Blake claimed acquaintance ) , complimented him in his courtly way , as " a la tete de la civilization de notre temps . "

He was soon tho talk of the town , and a mystery into which all were trying to pry . Some said he had come to oust Gibbs and Sons from the Guano contracts , somethat he had offered to buy the Galapagas Islands and

colonise them with Germans—that he was the proprietor of a new patent for concreting sugar—that he had lent five millions to a deposed President to enable him to seize the Chincha Isles and make a descent on the coast . All babbled

and wondered , in vain , he remained as erst—a mystery . Only , when I informed him that the chief merchants , on laying their heads together , had found that he had brought no credits on any of them , he rejoined . " Why should I , when I packed 5000 sovereigns in my trunks on leaving

Australia , and havo unlimited credit upon Rothschild ? " This answer did seem rather " strong , " I dared not repeat it , in view of the derision it might provoke : dazzled and carried away by his fascination , I felt I had gone too far to retreat , and preferred to wait the upshot of events .

He still resided at Morney s Hotel , where ho was frequently visited by a Notary , and where , when I saw him , ho pumped me unceasingly upon the reputed position and family life of the leading statesmen of the Republic . At length tho " coup " descended , and all was revealed . A

decree appeared in the Gazette , conceding to Miles Blake the privilege of importing 5 , 000 free labourers per annum into the country , for five years , from the South Seas . He then explained to me that he had a concession from the French and Belgian Governments to deport that number

of natives from the New Hebrides and New Caledonia , and dropped hints of the thousands of dollars that the decree had cost him in bribery of officials , from the President down . Foreigners in Spanish America ever lend an open ear to these accusations , which may or not be well founded . The

condition of Peru , at the time , certainly favoured the assumption of their truth . The total population was estimated at 8 , 000 , 000 , and the President of the Republic , by a stroke of his pen on assigning the Guano Contract , drew annually 20 , 000 , 000 dollars into the Exchequer , exclusive

of Customs dues , licences and other imposts ; being an average of two dollars and a half for every man , woman and child . Out of the 8 , 000 , 000 of souls , moreover , more than nine-tenths were of the poorer sort and peasantry , who could not hope to participate in the fruits of

Government expenditure ; which was absorbed b y a compact , well equipped Navy , an Army admirably clothed and drilled of some 20 , 000 men , and lastly , though not in least degree , by Government Officials . As the State was chronicall y in debt , it is evident that the last class must have benefitted

inordinately . Every Government office which seemed to need five clerks employed twenty , and salaries were delightfully high . A natural result was the extreme of luxury and reckless expenditure in the capital . Public amusements were provided on feast days ( about once a

week ) with lavish hand ; acrobatic performances , fireworks and illuminations in the " Plaza de Armas " without stint , oub of public money ; three days of festivity , with all

manner of displays , were devoted each year to the celebration of Independence ; and the curse of gambling , fostered by State lotteries , preyed remorselessly upon high and low . To this , Sundays at many of my friends' houses were * Theao dreams havo since been realised .

The Wandering Freemason.

entirely devoted ; after delicious champagne breakfasts , not to be matched for gigantic prawn-salads and " chupes , " venison-pastys , turtle steaks , vegetable butter , pineapples , cheremoyas and melons , they would gravitate to the Rocaynbor table , flanked each by his pile of onzas . This , in

a city which is no neophyte in startling political revolutions and sudden shocks of disastrous earthquake ; almost within sight of those Guano Islands , where despairing

slaves of Chinamen sought frequently an end to their wretchedness , by leaping down the foul Guano shoots . to be disinterred in all the ghastliness of rigid petrefaction , by astonished seamen months after in European ports .

An Episode In American Masonic History.

AN EPISODE IN AMERICAN MASONIC HISTORY .

THE following incident , of which tho official statement will be found in Part III . of the recently published " History and Transactions of the Grand Lodge of New York , 1781-1815 , " deserves to be noticed with a certain degree of particularity . It illustrates so trul y the real spirit of tho Craft .

At the regular meeting of Grand Stewards' Lodge on 30 th May 1792 , a Bro . Abrams announced that several Portuguese brethren , having been forced to quit their homes in the island of Madeira , through the persecution directed by their Government against all Freemasons ,

had arrived in the City of New York . It was then and there resolved , " that a Committee be appointed to wait on the Deputy Grand Master , and request him to call a meeting of the Grand Lodge , on Saturday evening next , in order that some measures may be taken by the Grand

Lodge ( should they judge it expedient ) to pay some mark of attention to their persecuted brethren . " The Committee so appointed consisted of Bros . Abrams , Bright and Adams . A Grand Lodge of Emergency was accordingly held on the 2 nd June following , when it was explained

why the meeting had been called , and it was immediately resolved " that a Committee be appointed to wait upon the said brethren , and in the name of this Grand Lodge to request their attendance at their next regular meeting , on Wednesday evening next . " The Committee thus appointed

was ordered to consist of W . Bro . Scott , Bro . Abrams , and the Grand Secretary , and they were requested to provide refreshment for that evening . R . W . Bro . Morton was also directed "to prepare an address to be delivered by him to the said brethren . " At the meeting of Grand Lodge on

the Sixth of the Month , Bro . Morton announced that the Committee appointed by Grand Lodge had waited on the exiled Portuguese brethren , and invited them to attend that Grand Lodge . These brethren had expressed their sense of the attention of the New York Grand Lodge , had

promised attendance , and were at the time in waiting . Thereupon the Committee waited upon them , and conducted them into Grand Lodge , where they were received by those

present with marks of the highest respect . Bro . Morton then delivered the address he had been directed to prepare , and the exiles having requested that a copy thereof should be furnished , it was resolved that Bro . Morton be invited to

present to them a copy . The usual business of Grand Lodge was then transacted , and arrangements having been made for the Lodges to dine together on the 25 th June , in

celebration of the Festival of St . John the Baptist ' s Day , the Madeirans were invited to be present at the banquet , and though there is no record of the fact , we presume the banquet came off as arranged .

There is nothing , perhaps , so noticeable in the ' above resume of the incident , as recorded in Grand Lodge minutes , as the marked simplicit y of the record . There is absolutely no parade of circumstances . A number of exiled Masons arrive in New York , and the Grand Lodge

addresses them in terms of fraternal sympathy , and requests the honour of their presence at a regular periodical banquet . The minutes contain no " tall talk , " but merely the usual dry chronicle of a fact . It is in the highest degree creditable to our New York brethren of 1792 that they acted so fraternally and so simply .

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