Fowle's New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

Extract of a letter from Falmouth, April 19.

At a time when four-footed animals are taught to equal, if not exceed, the human race in the deep sciences, it must give you pleasure to hear of a new importation of the most extraordinary nature, and to which I am an eye witness, otherwise you might doubt the authenticity of the following information. Last arrived here with crowded sails, the brig Notra Senhiora de Magdelena, from Lisbon; she narrowly escaped a light frigate sent after her, with a number of officers of the holy inquisition on board, in order to bring the freighters, &c. dead or alive, before the dreadful tribunal, on suspicion of witchcraft, or as the warrant declares, for having entered into express compact with the devil and his angels. Emanuel Pedro d Silva, proprietor of the animals, makes the following declaration. "that though the descendant of a noble and rich family in Portugal, yet by the earthquake at Lisbon, and other causes, he was obliged early in life to shift for himself, and to turn ass and mule driver between Lisbon and Madrid; that by a long acquaintance with the docility of those animals, he at his leisure taught them what is deemed supernatural in Portugal, and of consequence brought down the wrath of the holy inquisition on him. Death, in the most cruel manner would have been his lot, if fortunately he had not made his escape to this land of freedom." Emanuel Petro de Silva has brought over with him seven large asses, of the true dapple breed, from Salamanca, and declares with confidence, that one of them shall play any piece of music put before him on the piano forte, equal to the most expert Italian performer; another tells fortunes to the life; a third finds out stolen goods: a fourth touches their fandango on the harp, and the rest dance to the time; the fifth blows the French horn incomparably: the sixth and seventh dance to a miracle on the tight rope.