suits, which they ascribed to the future painter of history; they expressed, however, neither surprize nor sorrow for this backsliding in Benjamin, nor did they either admonish or remonstrate. He took up a musket-inspired with his enthusiasm, young Wayne, afterwards a distinguished officerand joining the troops of General Forbes, proceeded in search of the relics of that gallant army lost in the desert by the unfortunate General Braddock.

To West and his companions were added a select body of Indians; these again were accompanied by several officers of the Old Highland Watch-the well-known forty-second, commanded by the most anxious person of the whole detachment, Major Sir Peter Halket, who had lost his father and brother in that unhappy expedition. Though many months had elapsed since the battle, and though time, the fowls of the air, the beasts of the field, and wild men more savage than they, had done their worst, Halket was not without hopes of finding the remains of his father and his brother, as an Indian warrior assured him that he had seen an elderly officer drop dead beneath a large and remarkable tree, and a young subaltern, who hastened to his aid, fall mortally wounded across the body. After a long march through the woods, they approached the fatal valley. They were affected at seeing the bones of men, who, escaping wounded from invisible enemies, had sunk down and expired as they leaned against the trees, and they were shocked to see in other places the reliques of their countrymen mingled with the ashes of savage bivouacks.

When they reached the principal scene of destruction, the Indian guide looked anxiously round, darted into the wood, and in a few seconds raised a shrill cry. Halket and West hastened to the place-the Indian pointed out the tree-a circle of soldiers was drawn round it, whilst others removed the leaves of the forest which had fallen since the fight. They found two skeletons—one lying across the other-Halket looked at the skulls said faintly "It is my father!" and dropt senseless in the arms of his companions. On recovering, he said "I know who it is by that artificial tooth." They dug a grave in the desert, covered the bones with a Highland plaid, and interred them reverently. This scene, at once picturesque and pious, made a lasting impression on the artist's mind. After he had painted the Death of Wolfe, he proposed the finding of the bones of the Halkets, as an historical subject; and, describing to Lord Grosvenor the gloomy wood, the wild Indians, the passionate grief of the son, and the sympathy of his companions, said he conceived it would form a picture full of dignity and sentiment. His lordship thought otherwise. The subject which genius chooses for itself, is, however, in most cases, the best. The sober imagination of West had here a twofold excitement-he had witnessed the scene, and it was American—and, had Lord Grosvenor encouraged him to embody his conception, the result would, I doubt not, have been a worthy companion to the Death of Wolfe.

West was called from the first and last of his fields by a messenger announcing the dangerous illness of his mother. He hastened home and

arrived only in time to receive the welcome of her eyes and her mute blessing. He loved and honoured her much-and when he was old and gray, recalled her looks, and dwelt on her expressions of fondness and of hope, with a sadness which he wished neither to subdue nor conceal. With the spirit of his mother, the charm seemed to have departed from his father's house; he seldom spoke of it afterwards, and soon forsook it for Philadelphia, where he established himself as a portrait painter in the eighteenth year of his age.

His extreme youth, the peculiar circumstances of his history, and his undoubted merit, brought many sitters. His prices were very low-two guineas and a half for a head, and five guineas for a half length;-and the money thus laboriously earned was treasured prudently-to secure, at some future day, the means of travel and study. Young as he was, he had the sagacity to see that travel influenced the public opinion, and that study, and long study, was necessary for him if he really wished to excel. He knew that the master-works of art were in other lands, and on Rome especially he had already set his heart. So little, indeed, of the genius of the Old World had found its way to the New, that when the accidental capture of a Spanish vessel had placed a St. Ignatius of the Murillo school in the gallery of Governor Hamilton, West copied it without being either aware of its excellence, or even to what style of art it pertained. Dr. Smith admired so much the posture and sentiment of the saint, that he persuaded the young artist to paint his portrait in the same position;-a kind of appropriation which saves time

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́and invention, and can give little fame. With better taste he painted the Trial of Susanna, a work which he loved long after to talk of and describe.

From Philadelphia, after painting the heads of all who desired it, he went to New York; with which place he was not at first much delighted. Eager traffickers from all quarters thronged her streets and quays, and the young painter was elbowed into the shade by those

"Who darkly grub this earthly hole

in low pursuit."

Now and then, however, a merchant, after a successful bargain, sat down in the joy of the moment for his portrait; and the wandering mariner, who found markets on the rise, and gains on the increase, hung up his likeness also in the Temple of Fortune. Though art was not in high honour, West, nevertheless, found its pursuit profitable; he raised his price of a half length to ten guineas; and the spirit of amassing money seemed in a fair way of making him its own, when a letter from Smith recalled his thoughts to Italy.

The Italian harvest having failed, a consignment of wheat and flour was sent from the New World to the Old, and put under the charge of one of the Allens of Philadelphia, who offered West a passage to Leghorn. It happened that a New York merchant, of the name of Kelly, was at that time sitting to West for his portrait, and to this gentleman the artist spoke of his intended journey, and represented how much he expected a year or two of study in Rome would improve his skill and taste. Kelly paid him for his portrait-gave him a letter

to his agents in Philadelphia, shook him by the hand, and wished him a good voyage. Ere he reached his native place, after an absence of eleven months, all the arrangements for his departure had been completed by Smith; and when he presented the letter of Kelly, he found that it contained an order from that generous merchant to his agent to pay him fifty guineas-" a present to aid in his equipment for Italy." The plodding citizens of New York rose in the painter's estimation at least fifty per cent. Two merchants in Leghorn, Messrs. Jackson and Rutherford, received him kindly, and, with introductory letters to some leading men in his pocket, he departed for Rome.

West, like most men of any imagination who visit Rome, was always fond of describing his first impressions. He had walked on whilst his travelling companion was baiting the horses, and had reached a rising ground which offered him a view far and wide. The sun was newly risen, all was calm and clear, and he saw before him a spacious champaign bounded by green hills, and in the midst a wilderness of noble ruins, over which towered the nobler dome of Saint Peter's. A broken column at his feet, which served as a milestone, informed him that he was within eight thousand paces of the ancient Mistress of the World, and a sluggish boor, clad in rough goat skins, driving his flocks to pasture amidst the ruins of a temple, told him how far she had fallen. In the midst of a reverie, in which he was comparing the treacherous peasants of the Campagna with the painted barbarians of North America, he en