THE

YOUTH'S MAGAZINE.

JUNE, 1840.

From Travels in South America.

INDIAN BRIDGES.

In parts where it is necessary to have recourse to artificial means for crossing the torrents, the people make use of a rude, though very ingenious contrivance. Two strong cables, formed of the roots of plants twisted together to the thickness of a man's leg, are stretched across the stream from bank to bänk, at about four or five feet distance from each other; the ends on the one side of the river being made fast to a tressel of wood, while on the other they are wound around a windlass, for the purpose of stretching or slackening them at pleasure. Across these are placed long sticks, laid at equal distances the whole length of the bridge, and large boughs of trees are strewn thickly over them, which form a kind of flooring; two smaller cables are then extended on each side, a few feet above this floor, and serve as ballustrades; and upon these rude bridges the Indians pass backward and forward, regardless of danger, though a European traveller shudders at the idea of venturing his life upon what appears to him, from a distance, only like ribands suspended in the air over a great precipice. The danger, however, is not great when a single person passes over it with a quick and even step, keeping his body leaning forward; but the swinging of the bridge becomes very violent when two persons pass at the same time, without keeping pace with each other; or when one of them, frightened by the view of the water, which he

sees through the openings of the branches, has the impru dence to stop in the middle and catch hold suddenly of the ropes that serve as a rail. Such are the perils to which the adventurous traveller is exposed, who would undertake so hazardous an enterprise as the journey from Quito to Santa Fe!

From the last Annual Report of the New-York Institution.

INSTRUCTION OF THE DEAF AND DUMB.

Ar a period when the art of educating the deaf and dumb has attained so high a degree of perfection as that which marks it at the present day, when its claims upon the public philanthropy are so extensively acknowledged throughout all Christian communities, and when it is pursued in many countries with all the system and methods which its successful prosecution requires, it is interesting to revert to the circumstances of its origin, and the successive steps which distinguished its early development. Such a retrospect cannot fail to gratify every friend of humanity, by showing how much has been accomplished in a space of time comparatively brief, and indicating, at the same time, with what certainty truth and benevolence will ever prevail over prejudice and bigotry, and with what success persevering effort, however in itself feeble, will at length surmount the most formidable difficulty.

The early history of the world affords us no evidence that a desire to relieve the misfortunes of the unhappy deaf and dumb ever, even in the most enlightened ages, animated the minds of men. Hardly indeed do we find a mention of the existence of such a class of persons, and whenever such a mention does occur, it is accompanied with some intimation of the entire hopelessness of their situation.

It might be supposed, that, with the prevalence of Christianity in Europe, prejudices, unfounded as these

were, would shortly disappear. Such was not, however, the case.

In the early part of the sixteenth century, the celebrated Italian mathematician, Cardan, suggested the practicability of their education, though intimating, at the same time, the extreme difficulty of the undertaking. Cardan was sensible of the truth, which, however obvious it may appear, has yet been controverted in the strongest terms by many enlightened men, that speech is not at all essential to the utility of an alphabetic language. He laid down the proposition, that ideas may be directly associated with written words, and that the images of these written words may afford to the mind the same facility in conducting its operations which their sounds afford to those who speak. He saw,

clearly enough, what is the true nature of the aid which the intellect derives from the use of signs representative of ideas, without falling into the error of supposing that such assistance is obtainable only from signs of a particular description.

In contemplating the present moral and intellectual condition of Spain, we can hardly bring ourselves to believe, that a noble and philanthropic art should have first sprung into existence there. This seems, nevertheless, to have been the case with that of which we are speaking. It is to a Roman Catholic ecclesiastic, a Benedictine monk, of the convent at Ona, that the earliest authentic records on this subject attribute the honour of having first regularly attempted to teach the deaf and dumb. This benevolent man, by name Peter Ponce, is said to have been remarkably successful in his efforts. Indeed, if we believe the accounts which are given of the attainments of his pupils, we must suppose that not all the labours of subsequent instructers have been able to accomplish more than was done by this earliest pioneer.

John Paul Bonet, also a native of Spain, not long after

the commencement of the seventeenth century, published a treatise on this branch of education. This individual appears, too, to have met with very encouraging success in his endeavours to put in practice the precepts he set forth. It appears probable that his methods of instruction were entirely of his own invention; for after the death of Ponce, a long time elapsed during which the art was altogether lost, that instructer having neither published nor committed to writing any account of what he had done.

The art of instructing the deaf and dumb seems to have been destined to but a brief existence in the country of its birth. After the time of Bonet, it fell into disuse; at least we find not more than one instance mentioned in which it was practised. In Italy it attracted the attention of one or two writers, and in England, in the seventeenth century, there sprung up a number of instructers. Of these, the principal was Wallis, professor of mathematics in the University of Oxford, who laboured with some success in this department of education. But the English instructers by no means attained the striking results recorded of Ponce and Bonet. In Holland, the names most usually associated with the infancy of this art are those of Van Helmont and Conrad Amman.

Germany, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, produced a large number of instructers; while in Holland, England, and Spain, the art was shortly forgotten. In the year 1718 George Raphel published a work, in which he gave the results of his experience in the education of three of his own children. Many others, in a more extended history, might deserve notice; but the individual whose name is most frequently mentioned among the early German instructers was Samuel Heinicke, the director of the first institution ever publicly endowed, which was established at Leipzic, in 1778.

In France, before the period of regular institutions for

the deaf and dumb, the names of but four instructers are recorded. These are Father Vanin, Pereiré, Ernaud, and the Abbé Deschamps. Pereiré appears to have been remarkably successful, but he carefully kept his processes secret from the world. In 1749 he presented two of his pupils to the Academy of Sciences of Paris, in the hope of obtaining some valuable compensation for his invention.

The instructer who next claims attention, and whose labours availed to accomplish more in behalf of the deaf, and dumb than those of any other who has ever appeared, is the Abbé De l'Epeé. From his time, this department of education has continued to occupy so great and constantly increasing a share of the public attention, that Degerando, in his history of the art, has made it the scparating epoch between the two great periods into which he has divided his subject. Up to this time there had been neither system nor mutual understanding prevailing among instructers, nor, in many cases, had one been aware even of the previous existence of others.

De l'Epeé commenced his labours in the year 1760, and died in the year 1789. He it was who turned the practice of this art from a gainful speculation into a charity; who gave of his own means, that the unfortunate might enjoy the blessings of education, instead of selling to them what numbers are unfortunately too poor to buy. It was his ardent desire, a desire which was in a measure gratified, to see other teachers, instructed by himself, establishing other schools, wherever there were suitable subjects to be educated. He laboured for nearly thirty years, without any countenance from the great, and with little notice from the benevolent. His own limited means sustained the school which he had founded, and his own ceaseless toil rendered it a means of extending to a very large number the benefits of a respectable education.

The perseverance of De l'Epeé at length convinced the