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'«:saa2Bis.a ,4.^ i * ».S. ^''h* IX S.t* ^ * »si if X^:.i?». jv: % I ^WKraWtS^S SFi- ' lii M V, I #* AN HISTORICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL W' iff or THB NORTH-AMERICAN COJVTIJVEJVT; ITS NiiV]i«)Na Mim "imiiiBiBSa BY THE REV. JAMES BENTLEY GORDON. WITH A i^ummatp ilceount OF HIS LIFE, PRINTED BY JOHN JONES, 40, SOUTH GREAT GEORGE'S-STREETr 1820. !l an % '■ 158755 .-■M' ,«i ^•"■■'; J .i^ A ""^./^ - :MM fl \:1- -rSf.WV'Wii*'--"-'****-' ■ TO THE KING. SlR^ It 18 surely an auspicious circumstance n not only for the orphan daughters of the Author^ for whose benefit this Publication is ; but for man- kind, that the greatest Sovereign of the worlds h the most sensible to a call of humanity and letters* It would ill become me to presume further, than to subscribe myself, with the deepest gratitude, yoiu Majesty's most faithful, most obedient, and most humble subject and servant, ■■ ■ ■ ' ■ ,'v ' .- :. \ i' '. • . '■ ■■" ■."■■■ ' 1 \ .\ .■'■!■. " - . ., - • . ■ THOMAS JONES, Representative of the late JmiHes Bustl^ti' Gouuos. Ntdgrove Sekool, Rafhfarnham, ••_ 20rGs, Ajvi> oriJ^ioj>rs, OP THE LATE REV. JAMES BENTLEY GORDON, Rector of KUlegny^ in the Diocese of Ferns / and of Canaway, in that of Cork ; Author of " Terraquea ; or^ Memoirs Geographical and Historical ;"— of the " History of the Rebellion of 1798 ;"— " of Ireland"— and '' of the British Islands." '".h- i r"i i f . 2 .-^ - ' .'- "'■ .' i- ►^ * ••*■ -'• .'vx . , J ir.iJL V •• '.:-':,v T^ ^^^«>- -V Y:.uViZ:r.:rg3MAT ^ ,y . I, •- • ■ ..■ ..■ , • <■-»,■« ( , ■ ^\ ;" «"« =o 'rt--:'"^ ■ . • vft f '. f 1, ' ,. ' f '■■• ■^ - .! \ j^ v., . 1 A SUMMARY ACCOUNT, &c. . I r , . I 1 ^ -vV " W£ hare but collected this Volume, and done an office to the dead, to procure his orj^ans, guardians, without ambition, either of self-profit, or fame, only to keep the memory of so worthy a friend and fellow, alive. i " HEMINGE AWD CONf)BLfi." . ■ % . f ^ Doctor Johnson complains, that even Goldsmith's life of Parnel, is du^l and unentertainin^, as the wri- ter had no proper knowledge (*' had not eaten and drunk with him") of his subject. He knew the man, whose character he described, by report only. He was not acquainted with the exact features of his mind, the peculiarities of his manners, their shape and colour. The remark is acute and just : but not suflBciently extended — no variety of incident, no dra- matic cast of character can be thrown into the biogra-' phy of a secluded and sedentary scholar, which may render the narrative lively and entertaining. b m' !i m X ■ A SUMMARY The truth and reality of the likeness should be preserved, and they admit not of such extraneous or- naments. Happy it is for the narrator, that he can thus throw a yeil over his own deficiencies, by im- puting them to the deficiency of the subject — that he can conceal his dulness by attributing it to the same- ness which necessarily attaches to the quiet, ikavaried life of a secluded scholar, who never mingled with the great and learned, except in scenes of rural tran- quillity—who led a species of still life, which, how- soever abundant in happiness, affbrds little matter for narration. Yet, although this narrative is dull, it is consolatory to the writer. It is a medicine to his sorrow, and a gratification to his pride ; for a man may be proud to have enjoyed the friendship of Mr. Gordon, from boyhood upwards, f^r thirty-four years, without the interruption of an hoi r. Medicinal for the mind, while thus employed, sev us, to hold converse with, '<* , t^; j^/C>¥ V. «« 'ji^*'S'' n\l The guide^ philosopher and friend/ MiU: who giiled all the joys of past life, and softened ail Its sorrows. ; i ».' 'i » a ^ i fS^i ', James Bentlby Gordon was the son of the Rev. James Gordon, of Neevc-hdl], county Londonderry, in the north of Ireland, a younger branch of the Ducal family of Gordon, by the then Earls of Hunt- k ACCOUNT, &C. M ley, who having adhered to the race of the Stuarts, shared in their misfortunes ; and the residue are now mostly scattered through Scotland and Jamaica. His mother was daughter of Thomas Neeve, cele- brated in British biography, as a man of eminent science and literature ; and was nephew to the great Bentley, whose fame so many of his descendents par- ticipate in, and are honoured by. This gentleman having been connected by marriage with the Mac- Cartney and Sidney families, illustrious names, left a large personal property to his grand-children. By the mismanagement of the trustee, it became of no value to them. The present Sir Thomas Neeve, of Essex, Baronet, is lineal descendant of the maternal branch of Mr. Gordon's family — as was also the ce- lebrated Richard Cumberland, who till within a few months of his death maintained a correspondence with the subject of this narrative. 'MVbv^.*Kit»¥i?^; V VS! «^>t Ci'X -s«- Although Mr. Gordon was fully alive to the great value of family-respectability to society at large, and considered it as a great stimulus— an additional in- centive to honourable conduct in life, he notwith- standing never boasted of his. " QuiB non fecimus ipsi, vix ea, nostra vocoJ\ But indeed no man, who has a claim to a good descent should undervalue it. b 2 hiJ^iyi^iiU: i^^^i^^iM.^'j^ ■i* Xll A SVMMABY ii It is a badge of digtinctioDy which ittakes all other honours sit with a better grace. Doubtlee^y, as Horace says, and as many of even kings and nobles have said, since Horace's time, true nobility resides in the mind, and is not to be measured by splendid titles and ancestral dignity. It cannot with unerring certainty, be transmitted from father to son* It may however be admitted that hereditary rank and family honours continued from generation to generation, engender, spread and secure a distinctive highmind- edness of conduct, which renders the acquisitions of this generation the seeds and plants of the virtues and excellencies of those which are to follow. Men are thus most eflRsctually formed into " what nature and the gods designed them." A stronger stimulus is thus ^ven to man's exertions than by any considera* tions merely personal and selfishr * mmi^^n** Having received the usual school-education^ he en- tered Trinity College, Dublin ; and originally pur- posed to read flHr a fellowship, but was prevented by a long illness, terminating in a weakness of sights wMch for many years, deprived himi of all power oi ready- ing ; and although he subsequently acquired strength enough of vision to be able to read a book placed close to the eye, be never acquired sufficient clearness of sight to enable him to read with ease and fluency. This defect threw an ungracelul, unrecommendatory ACCOUNT, &C. XIU awkwardness over hiai whole demeatiour* It affected and blunted the whole system of his tastes, by ex- clading him, before he had sufficiently stored his mind with images, from an expansive or an exact view of nature. He never acquired a perception of the beauties of a landscape, or a flower ; and the narrator remembers his being laughed at by a lady, to whonti he once presented a flaring, full-blown peony, as " a beautiful rose/' IHiring his continuance in colUge^ ht engage the attachment and lasting friendship of several very respectable men. On leaving it, about the year 1773, he entered into orders. Bubsequiently, In early life, about 17T6, be became acquainted with the late Lord CoUrtown, (as privat9 tutor to his ma^) a man who^ endowed With all the refineiiftetit and high polish which a court can bestow upon a noble nutur^, kiiew how to valne^and bad an innate mgard f&t simi^lieity and integrity snoh as Mr, GordoA's^ In faef^ hi» Lord- ship, who had the best possible Op|korl«tlities of know- ing himi intimately and w«rll, a« h« liv^d ili hiii ilimilyj at Courtown, for amne year^ alwiiys, as is evident by his lettei's, regaifded him not only witli^ est^m^ In or about the year 1770, he married Miss Boo- key, daughter of Kif^hard Book^^y, Bs^. » a family of ^ ■KS ?^ "■^^Tp^ xiv A SUMMARY high respectftbility, in the counties of Wicklow and Eildare ; a son of which, Thomas Bookey, Esq. (a ne- phew of Mrs, Gordon) of Mount Garnet, in the county Kilkenny ,was lately, June 1819, married to.a daugh- ter of the present Lord Bishop of filphin"^ ; and Miss Bookey, Mrs. Gordon's niece, heiress of the main branch of her family, is married to James Chritchley, Esq., repeatedly Sheriff of the counties of Wicklow and Kildare ; and who, although a man of extensive possessions, is still better known for integrity, libera- lity, and correctness, in all the walks and commerce of life. ■ TT-TT- •*.^* U-.~-.H Whatever o,ther advantages Mr. Gordon may have derived from his.miarriage, it is certain that the first, and best object of life was fully obtained by it. The cheerfulness and kindness of his wife's disposition, her bland ness of manners and goodness of heart threw a family-paradise abound him. If, fortunately, they had been reared in habits of judicious economy, they would have found their income amply sufficient for all the purposes of a respectable establishment, which indeed (though by incurring debts) thpy always up- held ; but, though neither of them was extravagant, they were improvident, and never sufficiently un« derstood, and attended to the conduct and distribution ^my*. * Since the foregoing was written (in July last) his Lordship has been translated to the Archdiocese of Tuam. ACCOt^T, &C, XV of their fortune. Thus, therefore, with them the brightness of life was too often obscured by pecuniary difficulties and embarrassments. But the sweetness of her temper, and the philosophy of his, soon dissipated those clouds ; and they cast only a slight and tran- sient gloom over minds engaged and engrossed by the necessary cares and attention to a numerous and growing offiipring. Shortly after his marriage Mr. Gordon undertook the establishment of a boarding school, at Marlfield, between Gorey and Courtown, in the county Wex- ford ; and for some years, he was entrusted with the education of the sons of several most respectable men. But neither his health, nor his habits corresponded with the severe and unremitting duty of a school- master. If he failed in that occupation, Milton and Johnson did so before him. That he was beloved by most of his pupils ; and by some of them in no ordi- nary degree, the narrator well knows. Among others, the sons of the late Mr. Coleman, of Newtown, n'ear Rathfarnham, with their father, (a gentleman of the greatest worth and intelligence,) were attached to him, with respect and cordiality during their lives. All the survivors of this most amiable family, conti- nue their regards with undiminished sensibility, for his memory, towards the objects most dear to him. ! i XVI A 13UMMARY '. '\ : , Many a delightAiI weae of literary eonrefBatioDi ctf philo8opbic»} instructioDy of pamnial solieitiide, of Christian example, witnewied in this family, rushes on the reeoUeotion of the narrator and presses for ut- terance; but he must cheek himself from the detail. Doll heads, or cold hearts may ridieule the livinij^ picture pourtrayed by Goldsmith, oi domestic blis» in the Wakefield family, and turn from it, as an exag^- ration of the poet's imagination, or a vulgar scene of jfow enjoyment ; but indeed the poet's pen adds no- thing to the reality of Mr. Gordon's fomily fire-side at Marlfield. He doubtlessly possessed the same unaf- lected simplicity and integrity oi character, which Goldsmith gives his Vicar. He was actuated by the same benevolence of humanity and oblivion ior its weakness, and was ikever touched with hostility ex- cept against vice» intolerance, or aggression. >f \ ■ ':'^' ^A ' . • fff': Wl«ll' ■ I' '^'aij " He was a friend to mankind, for he Icnred them all." ' The following circumstance may sufficiently exem- plify his generous and persevering ardour, in the pur- suit of literature, an ardour, whidi obstacles only strengthened to overcome,. *' ne cede fnali»r ^ed con- tra cttidentior ito*' Residing in the country, at too great a distance from public libraries, he was often stopped in his researches for \Tant of books not to be ■ < ^uhlin, to store his memory, and to make his notes, or like Doctor Primrose, though for a 'more laudable purpose, the beast was sent to the fair, and the narrator has known him, to sell a horse for ten guineas, which sum, he immediately isent to the late Mr. John Archer, then residing at 80, Dame-street, Dublin, (a man, who was the first to introduce an extensive variety of books in all sciences, and languages among his countrymen ; and whose dealings were all marked by distinguished liberality) in payment for a copy of Gough's edition of Camden's Britania — Ex uno disce antnes. Let every young man of a liberal profession, thus cultivate let- ters, they will be an ornament, and a solace through life, and perhaps may also cause a man's memory to foe respected, by those whose respect is valuable. At - »-*.*. . W^Ot' '\ - 't M c • \ III .1 Sllil ^viii A SUMMABY all event^f fi real attachment to letters* lifts a man above the soidici views of life And all its meiMiness. It not oi^ly encreases the valiiie of all other ei\)oyaient(r» hat it creates new enjoyments of its own*. It ipalces a man agreeable to himself and enables him* to extend his ajg^reeabilities beyond himself. It sof^ tens all the ills of life, and exalts all its blessings. It adorns the highest fortune, and, as will be seen in the case of Mr. Gordon, it enabled him, to recover the rank and consideration in life, which was lost, by the improvidence of an ancestor, and notwithstanding a xn* st injudicious management of an ample income* to leave, it is hoped a valnable inheritance in the fruits of his naemory* and the labours of his intellect, to hia posterity. Neither religion, nor virtue, properly speaking, can exist among mankind without it. De- void of learning, religion degenerates into blind fsinar tlcism, or wild enthusiasm ; €ind without Mi* virtue'jS features are savage and uncouth. ^a ii -^^ «mH^^ I^* * Jn this outline of Mr. Gordon's ianiily concerns* may we be allowed to oiBtbr a tribute* t. y«f ^r^f ,9r, ««»tT»». to the memory of a brave and generous youth, his eldest fipn* James George Gordon,* who as LieutenanI; in Lord Cpurtown's' corps of yeoman cavalry* dis- played no much courage and humanity in the rebel- lion of 1798* and so strongly attracted the attention * r ■ ACCOUNT, &C. xix ^nd kindness of the ld,te veteran General Skirreij'who commanded at that time' ill his neighbourhood, that he subsequently procured him a commission, and ac- companied it with a letter (which is now with other documents of the General's in the narrator's posses, sion) of the most kind and cordial advice and direc< tion. Fortes creantur fortibus* This youth liiet his death leading up his division, to the attack of Fort Sandusky in Upper Canada, as his friend. Gene- ral ^kirret, junior, the son of his patron, did, leading on the too daring assault of Bergen-op-Zoom« .••t »(irtfc' r ^».mr' ■ These and similar statements may appear puerile to some ; but if they have a tendency, as the narrator means they should, to inculcate principles in boys, such as fathers would wish them to possess, the objection will not be formidable. Neither the opportunities, nor the capability of the narrator enable him to put forward a finished composition. He has none of the art of authorship, its formality or its pomp — not that he despises these things, because h0 knows not how to reach them ; but he has been too much engaged, since his own boyhood, iii teaching hoy», to be now enabled to teach men. Those who want instruction least. Will not be the first, he hopes, to complain of his d^fieieincy. He does as we]I as he can, under the circumstances that impel him to the work. The generosity and candour, which he has c 2 A SUMMARY on most occasions, experienced in life, he trtrsts, will not be denied to liira on this occasion, which haft awakened all his sensibilities, and recalled the whole train of his own life, as^ well as that of his friends,, in review to his mind^ , There is a circumstance in tlie life of Mr. Gordon^ barren as it w:as of incidents^ which shews la a strong and pointed manner,, how he was estimated by a great and iudependeat mind.. In 1807, when Mr. Fox was- in power, he wrote to Mr. Gordon, and sent him an introduction to his Grace the Duke of Bedford, then Lord Lieutenant. Although this kind- ness was disappointed by the death of Mr.^ Fox, and the consequent shortness of his Grace's lieutenancy, no language of the narrator can reach the nobleness and grandeur of Mr. Fox's conduct oa this occasion, as on most others. Hereditarily accustomed to the walks of greatness ; yet unsophisticated by the in<^ trigues which the struggles for greatness are said ta generate, he turns his attention with a magnanimous simplicity, to aa unambitious sbolar in aa obscure corner, whose only recommendation to him,, was a kindred integrity in historic relation — a firmness in the cause of truth unjustly visited by neglect and ob> loquy. A noble example this ; and the memory of it is fresh in the mind of his Grace the Duke of Bedr> ?;«! ft:J U'HHi'' ,:H-^nm**-} r^un '«\ •"'-** •'■•'*- i^* '' 'j« > ■» / ^■■. w > aCCOVNT, &C. zzi ford; and the greatest prince on earth has most graciously recognised it»^ , The author of this narrative t(Hiches o» any failing;' or defect of Mr» Gordon's< with filial reverence ; but although he would shield the memory of his friend from aay malignant criticism^ the impartiality of hi» narrative demands that the whole truth should be' told. '' The Gods give us some fault» tO' shew thati we are men/' An honest writer should however- adopt the candour of tlie true critic ; and although he may be forced by the current of his narration t Jt^to loi ti M i m «t « /> p aw ^ ■■•■ There is a little incident of no importance, except as it may display the character of the man, in its native ■simplicity* Riding home from the narrator's house, (to which for the last twenty years, he generally paid ^a visit, or two, annually) many years since, (1807,) he was attacked on Tallaght-hill, by a body of foot- pads, and robbed of his money, his watch, and upper clothes. Having been dismissed without bodily in- jury, and ridden on a little, he suddenly recollected, that they had taken from him a favourite cane of little or no value to them. He turned back, shouted out, and. requested they would restore his cane, which in- deed they did. He then proceeded on his journey, in awkward plight enough, equipped in a ragged coat and tattered hat, which the robbers gave him, to the bouse of Ms friend, James Chritchley, Esq. of Grange- beg, in the county Kildare. Here having been re- furnished, he proceeded next day, home to Kll- legny. r'JI»iHBV *.» ■ iJ4..ti ^4,-f^f*i* II* rf,' "^ ^>* --t "^ i» 'nft.* , .1 1t> 'imfeiiltl mw Ml *htmm^ Accd»N*r, Ac. •xv That Mr. Gordon wiis far frt^m cultivathlf the graces of life, as Lord'Chesterfleld -so • forcibly ad niio- nifhes is perfectly true ; and that he had an habitual peculiarity and prima facie awkwardness of manner, is: not denied. This, in a great degi*ee was attributa- ble to hfs deficiency of sight* All men, however, catch f^omewhat of the tone, and manners of those, with whom they must most conyerse, and associate. The narrator often observed, that during the latter years of Mr. Gordon's life, his conversation and tone be- came deteriorated. While he lived at Marlfield in the neighbourhood of Courtown and Gorey, he had much more of the tone and manner of literary con- versation and polite life, than subsequently. But no man ever possessed the fundamentals of true polite- ness more than he did. Always natural and unali^t- ed, be was easy without effort, plain without rude- ness, and peculiar without offence. He never im- posed restraint on himself, or others — As he never meant to ofifend, he was not apt to suppose himself offended. He never attaclced, or disobliged any man, who did not attack, or disoblige him — Then iitdeed he was perhaps somewhat too unmeasured in his re^ sentment, and too lasting. We should, however, add, that he imagined the oflfence on the injury to be con- tinued and unexpiated, as no man, on an ackaow- d - .. y m m xxH A SUMMABT ledgement of an ^rror, was more readily and sin- cerely appeased. How unfathomable, «ays Rochefoul- cault, are the depths of self-loTO ? How studiously do some men stru£;gle to conceal low and unworthy mo- tives, and to assume some justifiable pretext for the cold-blooded persecution of the memory of a man, whom having first provoked, they cannot even forgive his ashes? tl About the year 1706, the late Hon. and Right Rev. Thomas Stopford, Lord Bishop of Cork, who inhe- rited a full share of the exalted and characteristic generosity of his noble family, presented Mr. Gordon to the living of Canaway, in the diocese of Cork. In 1790, His Grace, the present Archbishop of Dublin* then Bishop of Ferns, having for several years before, been favourably impressed by Mr. Gordon^ exemp- lary life, learning and intellectual endowments, in the true spirit, and meaning of a Christian Bishop, presented him to the living of Killegny, in the dio- cese of Ferns. His Grace's letters evince how highly he esteemed Mr. Gordon, during an acquaintance of many years. Under present circumstances, it will be allowed without any suspicion of adulation to say, that his Grace appeared and acte^- in his episcopal function (a trust the most important and sacred,) as one of those lights, which, providlenee for a season. ■ iMf ■ y. ■ ..•..'"..<. 1- i "■ •» \, ACCOUNT, dtc. xxvii exhibits as an exemplar to mankind — O $i sic om^ nes. They of his own order, it is hoped, will not be fonder to praise, than to imitate his truly pastoral attention to old and meritorious clergymen. Then the Church of the establishment will co-incide with the design of its institution, and the spirit of its doc- trine ; and be a real public concern to advance the cause of Christian faith by the most powerful motive of Christian example in its practice.^ Fortunate is the diocese of Leighlin and Fernsf in its late, and its present bishop, administered, as it is by an enlightened discernment, and benevolent atten- tion, as will more fully appear in the sequel of this narrative. The amount of these^ preferments to Mr. Gordon may, comniunibua annis, have been six or seven hundred a year ; but they came late in life ; and his habits although plain and inexpensive were im- » ■ "^^^^ Since the above was written r July 1819,) Hist Grace, Doctor Euseley Cleaver, Archbiriiop of Dublin, has paid thefifreat debt of nature ; and now minffles with the spirits of the just made fierfect, where human ' praise, or blanie avails him not ; but, where the uprightness and integrity of hili intentions, and the illustrious example of his life, will speak for . him» as aagela^ " trumpet tongued." " f Since these sheets were sent to the press, the Right Hon. and Right "Rev. F^icy ^eelya^ D. D. Bishop of Leighlin ami Femsj has been traii«lat«4 to tho dioeew of Clogber. d2 Jl! m >fl xxvm A SUMMABY provident and negligent, from want of knowledge in the daily transactions of life ; and, he was not ever able during the latter part of his life, to completely redeem the embarrassments, which he necessarily con- tracted in the former part. Having thus summarily drawn the outline of his fortune and his manners, we are now to say a few words of his modes and habits of study, and of his general opinions. His custom was to read his author leisurely and thoroughly : he then walked out, re- volved and digested the subject in his mind, and made himself master of it, in a connected, orderly manner. Thus adopting the fashion, which Swift attributes to Pope, " Pope walks aad courts the muse." Like Henry in the composition of his History of England, he was thus enabled to complete his work, without the intervention of a second copy. Nothing can more clearly and satisfactorily manifest the full and perfect knowledge which he had of his subject, than that he composed so long a work from the ful- ness of his mind and the stores of his memory. — Scarcely a blot — ^few interlineations, additions, or al- terations are to be found in his manuscripts consisting of nearly three thousand very closely written pages. ACCOUNT, 4kc. XXLK sLike the bee, he collected the materials from various quarters; and so mixed and new moulded them, that the composition, although it savours of the flowers whence collected, has, by the operation of his art and industry, acquired a new, a racy, and an embalming quality of its own. Eatly imbued by the Greek and Latin classics, he too much undervalued modern poets. Of all profane authors, he esteemed Homer most^Milton next- then Virgil and Horace. Shakspeare^ he did not * Against Sbakspeare it is objected by tbe greatest of all critics (Doctor Johnson) that " he seems to write without any moral purpose." The Doctor, indeed, whose mental acumen was only inferior to Shakspeare's, urges this charge, as well he may, with a tender solicitude, and speedily too discharges it, by observing, that from his writings "a system of moral duty may be selected." Shakspeare is then, therefore, as didactic as life requires, and in the manner, by which life may be most efficaciously edified Although his flight be apparently vagrarkt, and his course disorderly, truth never tbrsakes his pinions, or ceases to direct his view. She presents herself to him, as it were mdaponte, as Venus to her son jEiieas, and he becomes at once smitten and inspired with her charms. Smitten ami in^ired.he certainly is, and he makes his inspiration to be felt: and inculcates a love for virtue and goodne^ of every species, more efTectually* then the ablest Professors e cathedrd, h ve ever done. Society is delighted, . refined and improved by his writings "plenm9 et melius Ckrifsippo, ant Crantore." May we not, therefore, cundidly conclude, that he designedly interweaves the aptOt et idonea vita, with the web of his table and tbe de- velopment of his characters. He knew that tlie moral medicines of mau- kind otten require to be gilded,' that by preventing the patients nausea, they may produce titie due effect intended by the prescription. Shakspeare is the writer of all others, who inculcates a truly impartial, universal ./' A SUMMARY properly appreciate io consideriDg him second to any writer of any age, or country. Dryden, and Pope, and Goldsmith; Gray, and Campbell; Rogers, and Burns, and Southey, were among his favourites. Virgil, and Horace, and Milton, he had by heart, and almost all the fine passages of the Iliad. This foun- dation he laid in youth, and he never much added to it afterwards. He used to insist too much that mo- dern poets only dilate and weaken the strength and texture of poetic imagery ; and that it was for the most part time lost, to give those hours to their works, which may be so much more delectably be- stowed on the great originals, whence all these pig- morality. Other writers, and the theatres of other nations, ancient and modem, address themselves, exclusively, or peculiarly to some distinct class, or order of mankind, with a view to flatter either the higher or lower classes and ranks of life ; and thus injure the best bonds of society, by false and treacherous pictures, by low covert insinuations and unsociiU conclu- sions, that the miseries of mankind and the disorders of society, arise from the inequalities of human condition, more than from their own vicious pro- pensities. Thus the drama of other writers instead of inculcating a le- gitimate sense of moral duty and social order, engender envy on one side, \ and contempt on the other. Shakspeare alone, of true British breed, era- braces all ranks and degrees of men, without flattery and without preju- dice. In his magic mirror there is no distortion in little or in big. Every man from the king to the peasant, raay see his duties depicted there, and the mutual dependence of all on all, with awholesom^ impartiality, and poetic justice* In his mode of inculcating moralit]^^ as in all !iis modes, he excels all other men, he coincides wim nature in hor spring. Buds and flowers "spread their beauty to the sun," and imperceptibly form into fruits, delicious to the taste, and useful to the support of lite. ACCOUNT, Ac* xzxi inies draw their little wealth. This, to be gare, ig too much a wholesale undistinguishing criticism ; but the self-loye of poetry moclcs all criticism, aad new cobwebs of the brain will be OTor a weaving. In all his researches — ^in the whole system of his life, he was more studious to form clear ideas and just conclusions, than to mal(e any pompous, senten- tious display of the steps that lead to them, Verum et decens, truth and propriety, were the great objects which he sought after and cultivated in life. The critic will not complain that Mr. Gordon's stile does not make his subject sufficiently intelligible. He cannot, however, be so easily excused from the oppo- site charge of never leaving that which was clear to himself, obscure to his readers : and this is a fault, which most men are not too prone to pardon. Peo- ple love to find in a book something beyond the level of ordinary apprehension — something, which may cause a ripple on the smooth surface of the mind, and seem at least to apply a flattering stimulus to self-complacency; although it be not sufficient to awaken indolence to mental exercise, or dulness to the activity of thinking. Occasional difficulties, and some peculiarities in an author, serve like the swells and turns in a road to keep the attention more alive liH> ! XXXll A SUMMABY and observant of the beauties of the country, than a dead level, and a direction ever in a right line. Passing from the poets to the historians. — Thucy- dides was his favourite. Him he regarded as the father of authentic history, quwque ipse vidit, &c. — He esteemed him as the friend of rational liberty, and his book as a school for statesmen, in which they, are taught by powerful example and clear inference, the danger of tyranny, as well as its cruelty : and that above all, the cowardly tyranny of demagogues, sharpened, as it always is, by their own insecure and precarious authority, is most to be dreaded — most to be avoided. On such occasions men may well indeed f< fly from petty tyrants to the throne :" but wise men fly only to the throne of the laws. Mitford,"^ * May we here presume to oiTer a slight criticism on a passage in Mr. Mitford's history of Gretfce^ chapter 18th, section 5th, he states, and refers to Thiicydides, that the Lacedaemonians sent Gylippus alone in aid of the ^yrocusans. Mr. M. is in this passage, evidently mistaking. It would appear, that he is misled by the ctrift of Alcibiades's speech, who then in exile, roused the Spartan councils against his countrymen, the Athenians^ and their allies. Thucydides does not warrant the position, that Gylippus was sent alone. See Thucyd. lib. 6, chap. 93, — <■<' ««< To«<«;>vr KofnOwt fiovXiMitittt 90ui* om iktw v«feiiTbir i^cXisr* tuit rat;(irrs rit w^iXiis i||i< r»it *u»i— Agam, lib. 6, chap. 103, avm i»m* (ri/X6i«r, iai/91 trwtn (t»* A«"»'M"»— And yet Still, lib. 7, chap. 1, Ka,o(utTv\im!a,»\met,fTti,ri> AOOOVNTy dc. XXXV ral writen and critics of hii own, or iiny other country,'^ As to the great theological writers, and divines, the reproach, which Thirlby made to his great rela< tive,^ Bentley, applies with equal force to him. He appeared to avoid conversation on the topic. He felt not sufficiently strong. The narrator however is well assured, that he was not so uninformed even on this subject, as he appeared to be. That he was not better informed, is unquestionably a great deficiency, and a just reproach. He however certainly had much of the substance of the volumes of the great Doctors, Clarke, Tillotson, and Taylor, floating in his memory. In early life, he adopted another course of reading and study; and although, at one time (1T08,) he . !^ To afibct any eulogy of Doctor Johnson would appear to an English- man, as an encomium of Hercules would to an ancient Greek — prcsump* tuous and unnecessary— »a pitiable and futile attempt " to guard a title that was rich before." Unhappily such is not the case in Ireland. Many Irishmen, even of letters, treat the Doctor's memory with a boyish, idle, ill-informed, supercilious contempt — men, who indeed know his character only from some half-told anecdotes t)f occasional irritation, sudden erup' tions of a too great and wounded sensibility, without the causes which produced the explosion, or a knowledge of the circumstances by which it " was accompanied, presume to condemn a man, who illustrates by a full and steady blase of intellectual s^Aendour, his country, his a^, and human iiature itself; and whose fame sfSreads per ora virum with civilized life and polished language, throqgh all the nations of the world. ) ^>« e 2 ' ' ^ vr ■Im X XXVI A SUMMARY A i ' lost all his manuscripts, the accumulated labour of many years, he subsequently, after an interval of about eight years, and the completion and publication of other works — ♦* veteris servant vestigia flam- ma" returned eon amore with renewed vigour of mind, and a more ripened understanding to his origi- nal and favourite pursuit of geographical history; and he has left his work complete, a» a bequest to his daughters^ Of this work, as we mean to speak more at large hereafter in the account of his manuscripts, we shall now only say, that it is not written for any distinct profession of men solely, or appropriately^ Its nature is general ; and men of every profession may find delight, and improvement in its pernsaL The philosopher, the man of business, the man of let- ters, the legislator, may any, and all of them, meet cu- rious and useful information spread through its pages, which they may not find in any other work of the same kind and extent. But an inhabitant of these islands^ by being enabled, in a comparatively easy manner, to contrast his own condition with that of an inhabitant of any other country, will find most delight, and the greatest lessons of contentment, in its perusal. Such a study is calculated immediately and certainly to in- flame the amor ptUricc of Britons. If Britons take a review of mankind in the various nations and cli- mates of the world, they will have little to envy.. *r ACCOUNT, ^C. xxxvli In molt other nations, they wiH perceive the physical ills, to which climate exposes mankind, enhanced and exasperated in a manifold degree, by the much more oppressive inflictions of human institutions. They will see poor human nature degraded and oppressed by the most disgusting and cruel superstitions. Throughout all Asia and Africa, with the exception which Britain affords — throughout most of America, and much of Europe, they will find the great majo- rity of manltind, living in a crouching and precarious -dependence on the always capricious and often san- guinary will of a few tyrants. Scarcely in any other region of the earth, but their own, will Britons find any guarantee, any law, that is an emanation of the public reason, suiRciently strong, uniform and certain, to protect the public rights against all aggression ; and yet, possessing these qualities, of a spirit sufficiently mitigated and condescending to interpose its shield in favour of the weakest individual, and to cover him most efl^tually from any self-willed, capricious at- tack, of the mightiest man in the land. ^^ «, t Although Mr. Gordon was a steady preacher of the word of his great Master, and that he composed seve- ral sermons clear, impressive, piquant and original, • he never perplexed himself or his hearers with the .quarrelsome tortuosities of dogmas unintelligible, or XXXVlli 4 BtMMAST hard to be understood. Yea, all of you be doers of ftb e word, and love one another, was the beginning and the eJ9d, the 0lphn and omega of his prefiching and his practice* Thus his religion animating his prin- ciples, governing his practice and actuating his con- duct, spread calmness and peace over his conscience through life, and enabled him, in fkiU possession of his intellectual faculties, to the last moment of his existence, to resign his being in this worJd, without a pang, or a disturbing sigh, in perfect charity with all mankind, on the lOth April i.819, in his seven- jti^tby^ar. It now remains, that we give in the same rapid, but faithful manner, an account of his publications and of the manuscripts which he has left. The first of them is his Terraquea, or memoirs geographical and historical. Of this work he had in 1798, pub- lished four volumes, when, at the suggestion of a clerical friend, still alive, and by the advice and en- couragement of his printer, he too inconsiderately undertook to write a succinct account of that distress- ing period. Unfortunately (should we say so ?) for his children, he performed his untertaking too much in consonance with the dignified independence of his own mind, to give satisfaction to any party. He par- took not of the passions and enthusiasm of the time ; ':■•% ■' Accoimt, Ac. xxxix and he wrote as a philosopher at a season when he might have ensured his promotion and made the fortune of his family by writing as a partizan. His prejudices, as well as his reason and his sense of duty, gravitated towards the glorious fabric of the British constitution. He saw that violated and defiled by all parties. He consulted not his power, but the dis- position of his heart, in attempting to allay or soften the phrenzy of the times. The motto of his book— ^ ,!» " Truths would you teiich, and save a sinking land, '* All fear, none aid you, and f6w understand," Was alive in his memory, as an apothegm of instruct tion for others, more than for himself. Hume re- lates that Harrison, the author of Oceana, had too much confidence in human reason, and indeed so bad Mr. Gordon. He deemed that as it ought, it would be, omnipotent among mankind* He found, and his posterity may still find, that it is in full force only among a few ; but that the thick clouds of hereditary prejudice, and the deadly virus of anti- social and conflicting factions, hang over and begloom the minds, and distort the aflTeetions of the greater number ; and that the writer who undertakes to present the naked truth, with candour and impar- tiality, to a public so constituted^ imposes- on hira«elf a duty of great difficulty and haaardr Neither party 1 j!"^ .■*.<» ...ti xl A SUMMARY \ I receives, or is amended by such unpalatlifoie impari^' tiality ; and he who oifers it is condemned as a vic^ tim by both. It is said that boys are not'gratefal to' their instructors ; but the observation is more gene- rally applicable to men. Boys soon outgrow their juvenile distastes, and for the most part become re-' spectful and fond of their masters: but men ai*e actuated by a stubborn pride and inbred prejudice, which will not bear the probe of reproof, how just or useful soever, if the prescription be not accompa nied by some severe stroke of adversity, . In the storm of civil war, the predominating maxim is, that he virho is not for me in every thing, is against me in all. The violation of every law, human and divine, is sanctioned by a boisterous zeal for a party. He who reprobates such conduct in his own party, or acknowledges any goOd property in the opponents/ is set down as a hollow and false friend, governed by his fears; or some other equally unjust and unwor^ thy motive is attributed to him. Where is the man, who, like Mr« Gordon, would stand erect on such an occasion, and dare to do justice to all parties, with the calm impartiality of a true historian ? At such a season, other men may have written with a like unbiassed mind; but the publication was delayed to after times. We must allow that Mr. Gordon did not sufficiently appreciate this posthumous courage^ ACCOUNT, Ac. XU This work ^lowever went through two large editiong in England and in Ireland ; and is not now to be found at the booksellers. Even at the time, it ex- torted from the superciliousness of those dark and dangerous (dark because anonymdus-^-dangerous be- cause self-interested, purveyors to the public appetite for censure; -* V * -fttitir Discit enim citius, meminit que lihentius Ulud, Quod quis deriditt quam quod probat ^ veneraturj "'*' "*' • ) tribunals, the reviews, a praise for integrity, far above any praise possibly resulting from any effort of the intellect. As the effervescence of zeal evaporates, as the voice of faction sinks into the calm of peace, its value becomes every day higher, in rational and im- partial estimation. " Sons shall blush, whose fathers were its foes." — It was the first and only work of a general nature, to lift its voice in truth and candour to expose and put to shame the aboniinations and enormities of the enrages of both sides, with more than a disinterested fidelity, and a fearless iutegrity, which should for ever endear the author's memory to the wise and good. He presented, or he intended to pre- sent, topics of mutual forgiveness to both parties, by shewing them, that each of them had fallen into in- temperate and cruel excesses of conduct. The aim-^ f MW . ■» " f«* zlii A svunrART '1 the object of hi» book, was evidently to allay and re- concile the angry pawions of his countrymen, and to unite, in tme comaion bond of citiseniifaip, the whole fomily of the British people. He indeed always contended in the true spirit of British J^ berty, and Cliristian feeling, that even in their er- rors, his «!ountrymen, as children of the state, are entitled to a paternal treatment and indulgence.-^ He associated with them in much of the intercourse of life ; and he knew by long and intimate experi- ence tlie fidelity and g^ierosity of their nature, and how susceptible they are of sudden intpeeMions whe- ther of good or 411. He lamented the long and egre- gious m^istakes in the training and management of such valuable elements. He could not divest himself 4>f the opinion, l^at they would be as good siibjects of the law — as amenable, and as industrious, orderly and honest, as they undoubtedly are, as kind and sincere, as their fellow-citizens of England, had they been subjected lo the same kind of government. But alas, this has not been the case : and we should not aittribute to natural and irreclaimable dispositicm, those defects, imperfections and vices of character, which are equitably to be charged to the account of injudicious, and unsocial laws. On every occasion Of danger, or disagreement, the first question of an Eng- lishman is — Jack, how stands the law — is the law in ACCOUNT, Ae, zim your ibvour?— " for we do ||B«r the IftW." II so, alFi well. — Bat '*an arrogant piece of fleih lordt it over" poor Paddy ; and the first queitioa of anlrish^ man on such an occasion, is not how stands the law ? but how inclines the squire — how is his honour af- fected towards you ? Is he your friend ? If so, Pat^ you are. safe^ Thank God, this state of things is on the wane and fading front society ; but there are still too many and deep traces of it remaining:^ r The great landed proprietors of Ireland are^ for tbe most parti absentees:— ^non-residents. Their Irish aflftdrs are con* ducted by agents having no proprietary interest in the soil. Many of the gen.try, who do reside, prefer their individual wiU, or some paltry, apprehended convey nience, to the deep and permanent value of habitual submission to tbe law ; and in their own practice too often set an example of the law's infraction. Such as in the case of smuggling, illicit distillation, the eluding of payment, or throwing all possible embar- rassments against the pay ment of tythes. Endeavour- ing to shift the odium of rack-rents, tbe prima maU iftbegf from themselves, against tbe parson or the ex** ciseman ; and on the other h^i^nd complaining of the vices of tbe coin monality, a»the bars to all national improvement, &s if the instruments of practical wis- dom, were the true, and only impediments to the adop- f 2 m III li f ^ J r. [W :^r^ii flVW -f^,: XllYL A SUMMARY »A M if' Hon of good sense and right feeling!. It is thus, that some men travel in a circle, and make one part of their injustice, an efcuse for the other. It is thus, too, that the beneficent wisdom of the law is too often not only thwarted, and rendered nugatory ; biit made oppressive and vindictive— gtctcl ^^ff^* ^ine moribus vancB proflciunL Whenever Ireland shall have enjoyed a resident gentry, equal and social laws, when air her magistrates shall have been appointed and recognised by law ; for, as Hooker says, " the voice of law, is the voice of God;" her morals, her learning and mannel^ will be found to correspond with the ge- nerous elcTnents of her people. *^ Read,'' says a philo- sophical poet, " a nation's history in its eyes." Who, then,thathas known Ireland, and that has seen, or read of other countries, thirty years ago, and can see, or read now, but must acknowledge her improved con- dition out of all proportion with other countries ? The repeal and relaxation of so many of the anti- social, penal laws, re-awaked the stupified faculties of her people. Those barriers t6 national happiness and improvement being removed, every social ad- vantage has flowed on the land in just proportion, and will continue to flow, as the work proceeds. Proceed it will. Reason and utility ensure its pro- gress to full completion. Provident fathers, cordial neighbours, and good citizens, are its oflTspring — social ..1 w ACCOUNT, &C. xlv prosperity its effects — generous emalation, gentle- manly pride, kind domestic feelings, and natural strength, its consequences. It is easy, and to a weak head or a bad heart, it is alluring, to plant a man's - foot in a faction, and to regard a fellow-citizen a« an r'enemy ; but the true patriot and the true Christian jNrefers the interest of his country to that of any •party, and though he will in turn be abused by all, •like the immortal Grattan, his mind is bent only , on peaceable and social adjustments. Let Greece, •or America hold out to their gullible admirers^ •their banners of freedom, inscribed on one side, with the titles of religious liberty and ci?ilequa- . Jity, and shew on the other a band of miserable helots, I hunted like beasts for sport, or a no less miserable ^group of enchained slares, staked as a wager at hazard, by a drunken American patriot. But let the "^ sons of Britain — all the subjects of her wide empire, .unfold the code of her laws, to animate, or to shame ' the nations — ^to extinguish all kinds, names, and de- Kgrees of slavery, from the face of the earth ; ** and igather in its shade the living world :'' for indeed not ^'only man, but the very brute creation, have rights under and are protected by British law, which con- tains the salient principle of excellence in all things, i and a recuperative gpirit, redeeming all past mistakes. M 1 S4-' '■*■»* t », h'^^'T^-f^t-St^f .M-*..4. x3r>^«'-=' -'i'"' •■tli ^S^ ~-i% 'irt It xlfi A HUMMABT Miw Gerdmi*8 next work k a bi«tory of Ireland, in two Tolumes octaTo. Of thk work wo may confi- dently 8ay, that it 18 what it protends to be; a clear and distinct relation o^ all the yaiuahle and well autbeiKtieated facts of Irish history, in a just and im* partial manner. This work passed through two editions^ and is now rarely to be found, except in private libraries. His next and last published work is a history of the British Islands, in £our volumes octavo. This work ia excellently adapted to ||ive a clear and correct view of the general history of the British system of islands, from the earliest period to our own time, and would be advantageous to the higher ckusses «f schools ; as also to recal and refresh, ia a luminous manner, the facts of British history fading on the memory of those who have studied it in more detailed and extensive publications. JiL, I i ■ We come now to speak of the Manuscripts which he has left. These, with the four volumes already published, complete the mem<»rs geographical and historical of the entire globe. He has also left an Jhistorical memmr of the church of Ireland, not quite perfected. ' ■» irif ■ ^ * * ri-Ji X;j ...', t *•': The plan which he pursued in the execution of his great work, is, in the first place, to describe all ACCOUNT, Ac. XlTil the prominent featares, and distingnishing charac- teristicf of the earth, and its inhabitants. He llien descends to the description of particalar countries.-^ His researches appear accurate and extensive ; his plan satisfactory and full. The work has a cast of origi*- nality running through it, that distinguishes it from any worlc of ttie Icind hitherto published, and evinces it to be the offspring of a mind, which having long and powerfully considered, had well prepared and concocted its subject. The work is therefore not got up in the spirit of a book-maker, who stitches various •hreds torn from the writings of others ; and hangs them as it were, without eomiparing and weighing their coherence and value unconneetedly together, in form of a motley, heterogeneous tissue of tawdry patch- work. He mounts to the sources and original authorities — he compares, weighs, and selects from 'them, all the discriminating features lUusrative of his subject. Although the web he confessedly and neces- sarily of foreign materials, its texture is all Ms own — ^kociiab€gif hoc est imUandtM, In this he deserves praise — m this he is to be imitated. . J-l'iJ-fJai t:»l» I iff il'\iti-^.. »■.«, -f'i:, h-\ilt.iS- The narrator has since the death of his fi*iend (from April to July 1819,) devoted most of his hours of ^ relaxation from the duties cihis profession, with all the cailmness, and Impartiality, that his mind allows. '^.'^i '3 •ijt m :xmt;>v xlfiii , .•jA SUMMARY to the examination and comparison of these mana- scripts, ^'iththe treatises of Guthrie, of Payne, of Piolc- erton, and of Piayfair, (with whose work, he has had for many years, some acquaintance,) and he has confident hope, that whenever the public shall havea^ fair opportunity of deciding — they will agree with him, that his friend's production, has advantages and excellencies not to be found in them. It is not his purpose, nor is it the right of a person circumstanced as he is, obscure and unknown, invidiously or detract- ingly to speak of these writers. They are valuable and eminent compilers, particularly Pinkerton and Piayfair. However, since they wrote, new informa- tion has been acquired* The old and the new world have been more fully explored — regions then entirely unknown, or imperfectly known, have been since < visited by scientific and literary men, with all appli- ances and means to acquire and communicate intelli- gent information. The world, if I may so express myself, has been extended by the the enter prizing re- search of more modern travellers. New Strabos and new Pausaniases, endowed with all the accessions, which time has added to science, since the days of these ancients, have thrown a clearer and a steadier light on ; geographical history. The illustrious Humboldt, and I our still more illustrious countryman, Clarke, (moro illustrious as displaying equal science andimmeasura- ((^ ill i«^fet?fe ll' ACcavjfTf Ac, xlix Uy more lenrning, on ^ound miieh more difflbcilt, becauM( much oHeoer trodden, where readers oaii- not be entertained by ftupendoui novelty, or daszled by a diiplay of eoiily observed, bat attractive becanse strangle jfihenomena,) with a host of other travellers of great, though inferior celebrity, have in our days, vi- sited the new and the old world. Of the wealth of all these writers Mr. Gordon has ably and fully avaiK ■■ ''* V' r-4 I i , lii A MUUMAKt I ments, as things useless to the manhood of societ^^; and which society having outgrown, no longer needr, and would even do well to reject and destroy them; as monastic, unsocial incumbrances^ His philosophy taught him better; and he saw in the overthrow of establishments, only a voluntary, rash, «nd wicked anticipation of the decrepitude of age ; or rather a presumptuous, insane return to the imbecility of childhood, the infancy of society. Wisdom, he well knew, has always two extremes to combat and bear up against: on the one hand, she must encounter the blind admirers of antiquity, ** annosa valumina va-^ turn" and the friends of every abuse; and on the' other she must maintain herself against the empirical dogmatism of petticoat philosophers, and self^plumed enthusiasts, who utterly abandon the realities of liie^ and would build the whole structure of society and government on the idle chimeras of inexperienced heads. The course between these two adverse follies is indeed parvo ditcrimine lethi.* but wisdom must make good her passage, and she can do so by firmly grasping the helm, and steadily holding on her course in the middle »pace. Establishments were in their origin, improvements on the i^en state of so- ciety. Let the principle of improvement, which gave them birth, preside over their existence, and they will run on imperishably through ages^ as banks of JkbcomxTi ^. liii accumulation, fram which posterity may draw the hest principles of religion, science, and letters. He Was deeply impressed with the conTiction, that every sect of religionists having power so to do (not recog* nized and identified with the state,) would act as rivals to, or disturbers of, the state. He too well knew how deep and how salutary religions impres- sions are in the minds of mankind, to conclude that the ministers of a predominant religion should be left to float at large in society ; to main- tain their holds over the minds and consciences of its citiEens, while those' ministers theirselves iiave no legal appropriate share in the public esta- blishments of their c I ii^y system of her domestic polity, she can have no title to be mentioned, as an instructress and exemplar to other nations. Indeed she seems in most of the great es- sentials of wise and enlarged legislation to be but lit* tie, if at all, before the worst of the European go- vernments, always excepting Turkey, which although having dominion in Europe, is Asiatic in principle and constitution ; and Spain, which appears to be bowed down in stupid submission to a benighted, un> mixed and unalloyed hierocracy.. Mr. Gordon deemed the most enlarged compre* hensiveness in the articles of the Church, consistent with the essential doctrines of Christianity, to be the surest and most advantageous mode of producing the greatest unity and steadiness in essential and substan- tial religion, and that all those Christians, whose ex^ alted piety and understanding give them the lead among mankind, now perfectly agree among them*- selves in essential and substantial religion — that how far soever they may divergoin opinion, or spread asunder in verbal definitions or polemic apprehensions on secondary and subordinate topics, they will all be found, ever reunited in sentiment, respecting the fun^- damental essentials, and vital substance of religion, and its everlasting utility — not merely to man indi- vidually consideredi but to the greatest empire* Re- ACCOUNT, &C. Ui Ij^ion is the fealty of the human mind ; it is a lively acknowledgement of gratitude and submiMion, as much due by the greatest empire, as by the humblest iiiflividual. Before its tribunal, both are equally fee- ble. To be forgetful of it, in either, argues a stolid and pitiable ingratitude to the great Giver of all good $ and draws its punishment along with it. The indivi- dual loses the best solace, and the most animating principle of bis existence. The greatest empire thus f'Ciirgetful of its weakness^ and absorbed in its pride and seif-sufflcieucy, enervates the strongest arm of its 8trength,and rashly renounces^ or foregoes the influence, ,;Which it might otherwise possess over the minds of its citizens. But the establishment of religion seems imk* perative on the greatest empire, as much as an habitual religious impression is valuable to an individual, or even more so. An individual may forget, or forsake his duty for a season. The first blow of misfortune awakens conscience, and forcibly recalls a man to his duty, flmpires have no such monitors^ If their principles be erroneous, they continue to flounder on in sickly and. feeble existence — ^in turbulence and faction; cradles for all the bad passions which afflict human nature. The empire which embraces and (adheres to right principles is never sickly-^never feeble. It flourishes , green in age^ equally as io; youth I, branches may be. pruned ofi*, or decay~^^ru»i> CU8 virety semperque virehit. ," i\ II I ■ I I- ua A SUMMAKY * Title, which alters all tkiogi earthly, may liave ten- der^d a change oeceMMury, not la tlie ipirit and iiubb •talice of Chriellanity, but ia the mode of itt adaptaw tiOQ to the wfuitt of ttian ia an altered itato ol' lockty. It iMOuld therefore perliapn be foiind, on a raviiion of the tkirly«niae artiohM, by the firoper authority, in e«ir titne^ now that enquiry and discuiwioD have begot a bet^ ter testperameAt, and spread a brighter, a steadier, and a holier U|^ht, over tbe Chridtian werld, that they cam advantageously be rendered more oouiprehensive, without detriment to their substance or their science. .To theLr substance^ because they are gospei-truthe — ia their sciontfe, because they are instituted iov them only who are protperly ovdained, as having a scien> lific. lino wledge of the prinoiples ol' their jfuroliMMiaB. '. It: was Mr< Gordwa'a apiaion, that the govern meiit of this empire has not: been sufllciently attentive to 'the vast national and individual utility of spreading 8ch(M>liestahlisbments in connection with the great university and cotiegiate establishments, through every district of its territary, in descending grada- tions, adapted to the solid instruction and suitable tiaining ol the humblest of the people in reMgious and moral habits. He was fully aware, that the 'huButn ondestanding does not endure a vacuity, and that it is prooB to run into iacalculoble aiMl obstinate ^W'«^ ^ ACCOUNT, Ac, ]xili errors on these vital subjects, when left to the feeble^ iineonnccted eHbrts of its own unassisted powers t --^that even should a man, by a lucky chanee, hap^ plly fall into a right course of thinking on these subjects, he still finds himself at sea, unsupported and unconnected, dependent on his native individual energies alone, to assint him against the winds and billows, which continually assail him in the voyage of life. He conceived it therefore the bounden duty of. the s\iprerae authorities of the state, which in respect to the public, are in this regard, in looo pa- rentis, to provide such establishments, and to tnake auoh arrangements universally, that the human Viind, even in the humblest situations and rank of Ufe, shall receive a right nourishment and due diree^ tion, which may influence its eonduot during tbtf whole course of life. He dki iMt think, that the youth of the country should be left to the ehanee direotioB and training of unconnected, and peHiaptir blind gaides-Hiye, and may be^ perverse and mis« cbievofis guides; of to the casiml inllnenee of eheap laracts,?^ which, for the mcMst part, they cannot evett V , * It must not be iwderatood^ from t)ie alraVe, that Mr. Gordon wmi averse from the dimemination ot cheap, judiciously written, tructs.— He^ in fhct, co-operated lr» Ihat Mhtinrvb. rle ho^ef(^r dfd itot d(^ein if, even in cQf>itiRctioii with the BiU, or Lsncaitcr SehoAlt/ A f«AI Mid tuffioiiieiii plan of uatioual education. 'M Ixiv A SUMMARY V ;r t l«ad, and which their habiUi have nerer been formed to rplish, or even to darkly understand. He did not deem it a system of national education to have youth instructed in reading, writing, and arithmetic, only. He did not think that thus to impart an arm of some strength to human beings, which they may use in- differently for the public detriment or the public serviee, without the guidance of religion, morality, or established authority, whether on the cheap, com- pendious, and fasliionable plan of Doctor Bell, or Mr. Lancaster, was a full and satisfactory plan of na- tional education. He knew that reading, writing, and cyphering, (as Cuddy Headrigg calls them) are things quite compatible with the most absurd, wild, stupid, and mischievous opinions respecting the fundamental ordonnances and duties, which should regulate and govern the constitution of society. That they, in fact, have neither a necessary nor a natural tendency to give any salutary direction to the human under- standing. They do not train up the child in the way he should go. They implant no habit of order, reli- gion, or morality. They give a boy some ease and firmness in his steps; but they do not instruct him in the least as to the ceurse most necessary for him- self and the public, that he ^hould pursue in life. — They subject him. in a Tery slight degree to mental discipline, or intellectual habits, and they do not con- AOCOVNT, d^C. Uf neot |ii« Meiui< ^itb >iif •oili^irMQr, They tefteli bipja Di^ dii^ eiilier t^ God, or ma* — Thcgr m»^ aa • readily K)e<)oi9#r iHfltmmeiitft of iDiiibordlmition» w oCobedieno«» Nol «o with » right eduo«ittoiii imfulr oalod l»y propoftlvEpidf» and coiiao«l«d withitbo. puMif authoriU^. Mr« Gordon wasv inditf d w#(I a^rarc , for liOvko0Wlho|) iHiimaii leglilaiioQ cao^nviorl&oalj dy m^ ral q«Mfliw* that aft^r aUa tiio b(«t avf aoff 4 4yf to m ajT natiotiaal odneatiop, sp^eadips tho vigUaoea of Ha wi#* doa^ by tho* iwost aiuiUMo ciiidt vttlNoot iiistinieliN^ thrpttghoiil f^ery duitriet Qt tho country^ can oftbey^ soaio ^pcii wiH 0l4) be fownd to spriof up in tha qh^ mil ap wall a# iu the natural worlds Biit«tiUtbf$ proverb bold« rtrongly and aigniAcantly, that be who gownikot flood saedi spwa iMSid will reap tares, Pro^ vldont ]^i«lator« taJ^e eare wUely aad proapeetivoly to^ QqUlTota the «oilfe aikd to sow good seed* ProYideikt loglslatofs w^all know tbet youth is the season, in wbAshr $0^ give a right direetiou to the hninaoi mliad — thfit lit K^m then, and th^n only, be easily and cht apib^ moiUded lo^ the shape, which it ought tor assume and netMuitlbrough li^ The impressions then made on ii(,;WiiMn«tf.lOn|tl>'.f»''V"^ - a«Tiq.r<:' " '^ •' \^:r-^^.\ ^ , , Qu'i>i J ,i .A*TljAH5»fi.| vti-ii Hi i'Nril ;H)^f)Hitq m . 1 1/ tiHH t^Vii vi4l».^. IWi^h- WAiif * ^pb^i ii i'^'Hfi'J <*;.^ h'^i/'i^ ii 9'>« I*, , Ixvi A 0VMMART "^ (ri Should we not tll^relbr^ ootielnde, thftit ihe errors Of opinidn are, for the ino«t {Nirt, inyolunlar^, and are rather to be pitied than desjpiied ; rather to be treated with emoltient than camtie remedioK and are niu^h niore easily prevented by the univerMll spread of a right education^ than to be rooted out by the repnlt* thoi meofM of notional oiiltivaliion ; in pravidiag •uMaMo ^ imtltutloaf Bitd imitraatwra, for traioitif « mod^liiif ^^ and directing the iinderitandingi of the youth of lo-^ cicty, 06 they are, in repreMing their full grown, ob^ 8linMle« noxious, and danfOtous propen»ilioi, the oirtle of their #wn dntiea would long rinoe have been mneli narl*owed« their eowrae emoothened^ 'their pnoapeeto cheered mmI extended on all tideet gkatut'of Joy^ and fkdnew, inilcnd of enJkuinOMH diicoiitent lOtid den tenoe wettld have opened around Ifhem^ And enrely kia, aa nniohthe intereat, aa it ii thedutyvof Utem* prome anthorit^Mof the state, that the youth of tha coUniry ahnuld roceive a aalntary and duO'direetion^i^^ It helottgt to 8U0I1 a timely >wiidoniy to aneh a *pvovi^'^ dent earn, aa that whiob we hivre heenoontemplatittg^ to«teliovethettt iVoni tkm paioAil necoMity of thosero*' at least: aiost of those inflictions, which cast an odium on ou thority. And no eounlry u Oder the snn« has 90> sirohf a claim as Britain, for such henolloeMt attention of its legislators. No other country is so much ex* i *" Acotitm; kk.'^ Hilt ittorttliflltwrftture, and ftillioUtt^aff6h]'lV6^ l^e ioiitU mfH^nax and f^vlx i^t tot^fititinif ftMi the tMUiati^ tMH^imh All «lM' litttlbtls dr the ^^HM.'Wblh 'tHb dliiitliMeiiMi ttnitl tti a ttiiil tt^ri^iipti^d oi" iiMyitiV^(^^r|^iir (^11 H f»rtlier, Mtid ill « (Hr^oMitt^titlg ^e^ree, ktii! it^' a iiiit>f« daii||:0roui'qUiiH(< f^bfti the mpid ^fOWtti of wealthy In the ocnandc^iaf doHKeti, dut'^plaU Uro^tfi'- tloa wUh the i>ro^re89 of A real;' llheriifl cumvattoti^ and the ifiheretit (fh«ck^ wMk^^neykttkiUid^d^tiUfiJ agalimt the i^tilttMitfc t^l^ttniptioh '^f the liirWn mind* If evvf" ihe< BHtiiAi cOhl/tittitibti' perhh, Irfie ruia win be hi^iMight^ oti, il6t by the dorrafrtfloo of A6 Iffi^ature, (f6r no earthly t^oW6f can ^rnipt it from the corruptioir of any of its bhincheg, lHti^£ U or oommbrtit or by the »#ord of Us army \ hat h^ t It) or tby\he ipread of wealth amonf h* people, tn a'dd^^ odt W all proportion n^ifha wdf i^onliec^ted, v^e1l'digefpttil6^d^' national ediication-^rbnti il want of a^f^itiidl; ^ntii- btkhed nai^onal training' Of air ordcm of citi^n^, im- plaathig in* them, in e^rly youth, a ^0nKi0 'Of th<^tr social duties, With more solldtnde, and in A' gt^ntin degree, tlian of any aculehess in letters ahnty,t and 9trebg|Ji^ r|^Q accoiapl^sh an end appareRlly sd* diss^rable, it , needs only to extend and- difbse efl^ shoots In all directions from, and sttill in conneeUooF. with, the great parent seniinar^es already Jn exists ehii^e. It 9nly requires to revise and ep]arge the" p^an of natioQal edut^tion. To do fhat on a wellr e^rrangiBd systepi ,pf union and s^bordisation^ whiek individuals, aiif^ societies of individuals, do noiy^ on the gliinnierlng lights of tyros in knowledge. Let a board of f^ucation, consisting of the heads of tl^e churchy and of t)ie universities,; be invested, lityt^he l^^slature with power and means to bring a refil, , n^orf^!f^ , religious education home to the lovvcist, as well. as the higbest ranks of society, and : the thin^ ^ill be d^^v ^^^ ^^ principle be oncer agreed on — new lights will every day spring up to: pJL|l*ify and i^iprove it. Half a generation will not have passed off, v^hen the clamours oif faction and dis-fi content will have died away. The poor man's cot*t tage, when . its inmates shall have been thus earlyii trained jn the way they should go, will l^hen^; not longer envy the palace of the great. The peasant: Accovvi, Ac. Ixxi Trill have been . tinlght, that the jfreat ^'o^ of the «arth areas useifM to nlnor, in the 'scheme of society, «as he is to them; and^ isill wi{l be embraced ** in one wide system of benevolence." — Finally, i^ justice to Mr. Gordon's Tnemory, it is right to explain, in a few words, his poltiicarbpfnions. It is the more so, because tfarey have been ntterly mistaken aiid misre- presented, it >iras indeed his misfortune, or his happiness, to sometimes entertain difibreut senti- ments from the decisions of authority ; but he was not prone to infer, that the authority which he dis- sented from was less pure ' or less incorrupt than himself-^*' hane veniam damus petimus que vicia- «t'iir."->-He, like the great imperturbable champion of politilBal 'freedom, and his country's honour, the il- lustrious Charles Fox, had studied the history of man and nations, and was of that order of thinking beio)^, who see «Tents in their causes, and reading, as it were, the future in the past, would prevent those evils which the vvisdom of others teaches, at best, only to remedy; and which, perhaps, would •not have been remedied^ were it not for the provi- -dential interference of a Russian campain, and the drun^ken ambition of a despot;''- ' «'y*^ > iiiir, :, ■<:• qcteiir oiid «;oaiipr4»f iionoive inindi wiU otteti t^l i^f»l j4l(ttcultiei of opl^ uioii» in deciding ou^ tb« modilcation, acUunltuenti and adoption of very itinny mefiRnre0» U« Dould not, liQWeverii coao^ivo liow a uian^ at opice wIm and Itoneit, practifQd In all tlio vvay* of mankind, and long convermfit In all the intri<;acies of public life, should designate ** kingi|» a« lovor* of low cotti^ pany," and yet regard and throw the mantle of, Ue eloquence around tlieun^ a^ if beingv^ alinovt Rupev* human» and of autborUy indefbaffihle. Mr.Qordon did indeed deem thin a kind of laiiing north 6^ nouihi not to be acquired hy the ablett navigatois taMght in anj^ honest Mhool of politioal tvaYeriinf. He could not, like Mr. Bnrkosi perceive in whal» the right of the American people to revolt and independcnoe firoiti the ceittiparatively mild and pa- ternal government of firitfdn» wim mofe seared and i^l ACCOVnTi te. ixxm exmmhle tfinn that of tho French people, from n jj^Hndlng and humiliating deKpotism. He dkl not oonftiiitid In hln mind, howiioever othem might in thelri» the right to an amended and reformed go- vernment, with tlie tdoody and dinguflting atroclHoi diiplayeil hy Frenchmen i ntrooltleN which, although from their extent and modeii of |ferpetraiion, they fait an iiidellhlo itnln on the French character, mn never n\nk the value of national Independenoo and individual freedom ; of law, or lit)erty, in the mind of any reaionalile heing In any country. Nay, Iheiie very AtrocltieM arc calculated to enhance the iiacred and eternal value of regulated freedom ; because, In a national «enie, nuch atrocities are the genuine oil- •pring engendered by despotic, unbalanced power, the frlghti\il parent of so numerous ilH to mankind*. , ■,'h >'>' Mr. Gordon's admiration of the British constitu- tion, was Ibr the aggregate and collective body, ond for the manly, rational, and salutary spirit of opendss which characterises its operations, and tempers its proceedings. Mis eyes were not raised in adoration of the throne, as a separate, independent powor.-^ There was no sycophancy in his respect : the due^ hereditary authority of the crown, limited and le»> gallied, Vvas, in his opinion, as much a blessing to the people as to the sovereign. Thus clrcumslaiic^d, k ■ m ... j.. Ixxiv A8UMHABY ( i > [•■> thus sdrrounded by constitutional ohecki kind ]f«irpoK* flible ministers, he is exempted from the caprieioiit passions generated by an uncbntroulable atithortty, or prerogative absolute ; and all the dangerous and pernicious consequences resulting from them. Irre* sponsible in his own person, and placed at ease, above the reach and fog of all domestic factions, and of all temptations from foreign influence or corruption, the sovereign ^ has leisure to be good.'' Thus, not merely his inclinations, but his habits, will be liberaliaed ; encompassed as he is, by all the motives which human institutions can provide, to engage benevolence, and to ensure the public utility. Nor were Mr. Gordon's afibctions, or his reason, prostrated to the aristocracy, whose just weight, and liberal, high-bred habits, a cunahuliSf he always advocated, in connection with the other parts of the constitution. In his admira- tion of an hereditary nobility, connected in constitu- tional power, and identified, in social interest, with all the other parts of society, he saw not only a higher polish, but a greater strength given to the barriers of law and liberty. He considered them not .«on1y as '* Corinthian capitals," but as pillars too, in the edifice of socie.ty — monolitliic shafts, contributing at once to its beauty and duration. Still farther was he fk'om resigning his reason, or his will, to the capri- eiousy unbalanced, and for the most part» blood-stained ACCJOUNT, Ae» 1*XT t^xraiiity of the demooniey^-a power dangerous to iUteiff even more than to it» oppoaents — an tinleavened maM of intellectual matter^ a vi» eonciUi expett^ executing its own decrees this day, with a blind and £ital promptitude, and to-morrow bowed in stupid idolatry before some Baal of its own creation — some military tyrant — some Buonaparte, or some Crom<- well — '' The gaze of fools, and pageant of a day." v His knew, (for he had studied history,) that any of these powers separately considered, affords no pro- tecftion, or guarantee for human happiness ; but that the judicious admixture of all, as happily and for- tunately blended in the British constitution, forming the mingled mass of all ranks of the primorea papuU, the only legitimate law*giTers of every country, bids fair to be co-equal with the duration of the human race in this empire, and will most probably inpu- ence, by the force of its example, the destinies 6{ other nations. ^ Mr. Gordon lived to see almost all the hopes, which a patriotic philosopher of a sanguine complexion, can form for his country, realized and placed in a traih ^f illimitable improvement by the truly constitutioik- k 2 . * ii,f* IxxtI A SUMMABT , ■ t, a1 principles and conduct of the regency. He fiyed to iee wisdom and vigour combined with every spe- cies of public beneficence, In the councils of bis coun- try. II6 saw the most perilous and extended war, in which this empire was eVer engaged, brought to a most glorious and most advantageous termination, fle saw the very name of a Briton a title of respect, and a passport through the world. He lived to see the nations, which were thrown down and shattered by the violence of foreign, military tyranny, reconstruct- ed, by British influence and British wisdom ; and re- stored to their balance among each other, with im- proved arrangement and steadier securities ; and their equipoise thus rendered less liable to any chance of future disturbance. He lived to see the vessel of the state conducted with the most rare skill, in thesud* den and violent reflux consequent upon the transit from a most extended warfare of so long duration^ to a profund and universal peace. He indeed deemed this civil glory equal, if not superior to any glory that can be gained by the greatest exploits of war. — In the exploits of war too, he saw the conduct of his country, and the fame of her heroes, eclipse^ in every quarter of the globe, the glories of all other nations. Supereminent above all, he admired the deliverer of the civilized world, his country-man, the inimortal Wellington. ACCOUNT, Ac, Ixxvii ~ As ta the charges of corruption made against par- liament, he considered them as vague and unfounded charges, mere expressions of jealousy, presumption, or disappointment. He was fully satisfied, that the le- gislature, in all its branches, is free from every taint of corruption, or tendency to foreign influence. As to domestic influence, he knew not how any govern- ment can be conducted without it. He saw it a living and predominating principle among all ranks and descriptions of men in society. All men of all par- ties assist, and confer favours on their friends, rather than on those, who, though perhaiw more meritorious, are not so related to them. They who are loudest in their complaints against it, are neither last, nor least in their practice of this great political offbnce. The an- archic, drunken turbulence and swinish gluttony of annual elections, or the phrenetic, bloody tyranny of universal sufiVage did not appear to his understanding a cure for this evil, real, or apprehended. Far from considering the boroughs of Britain the cause of its evils, he regarded them, when contemplated as a pro- portional part in the actual, practical system, (for, as to •theories, paper-constitutions forged on the anvil of metaphysical heads, he utterly despised them) of parliamentary representation, as a public benefit and providential blessing. . He regarded them as the doors^almost the only doors through which heaven* ■•! t-, t: .■•,*!» Ixxviii A iUMMABY I |! ii<1 ,■ I 'ii\ 4; 111 I born talentff^ hat aoeompaoiod with hereditary for- tiiDe» cain enter into, the mnctuary and manajsement of public afiiiirs. By^ the intervention of borough^ he thouj|;ht thai the solid* lumpish, and unleavened matter of the great landed ariatocracyy was happily fermented. He law^ that through this door*. the greatest statesmen^ Britain. or any other couatry has ever exhibited, have passed — the WaJ poles, the Pits, Fox, Grattan, tion to which it has raised this empire in peace and war, at home and abroad. All experienoe, ail the evi- dences of historyyall the impressions of fact, real ways beyond the fallacioo» promise of splendid hypothesis, or audacious conjecture, taught him, that the repre*- sentative of an obscure borough is aa vigilant and beneo ficial a legislator, as incorrupt, and understands the interests of the empire, in all its relations, domestic and foreign, as he who is returned by the most exIeiK- sive county. Let it be asked, by what conceivable plan can a body of men,, more deeply interested in the pmblic prosperity, be collected, thaitthe aggregate body of the present house of Commons^inthe imperial. pan- ACOOUKT, Ac* lixix liament. If it be evident, as it would appear to be, to any calm ooniiderate mind, that it it utterly impracti* cable, by any iraafioabie proceig, to bring together a body of men more deeply interetted in, and more profoundly intelligent, at to the meahs of promoting the public happinem ; it is then merely puerile and pedantic, to dwell in longl^winded, or acrimonious Terbiage, on the anomalous, irregular system of elec- tion, by which the house of Commons is at present formed. The science of legislation is made up of practical sound sense, and good feeling, and holds on a clearer and a steadier course, than the palpable ob- scure of merely theoretic wisdom, which nerer fully applies to, or takes a luminous view of all the cir- cumstances of human afikirs; and knows not how to make due allowance for the varied friction, and the up-and-down-hill movements of society. While the the great bulk of the representatives in the imperial parliament may continue, as they are, fully ariMl to all practical purposes, identified in in- terest with the aoii 9{ their counls'y, and with the Uood and mass of its population, subject in their own persons and estates, ta the laws that a man not possessing political power, electivo franchise, has no suiBcient security for bis life and liberty. TLiaws to which he has never assented by him* self, or hii^' representative, may deprive him of both* It is therefore inferred, that every man (and it may,i, by the same reasoning, be inferred, that every man^ #^ fm i£ ■■!■ i Ixxxii A SUMMARY % h <« i-::! ■M woman and child) has a natural, inherent ri|;ht to an equal share in making the laws, or in appoint- ing the law-makers. This sycophantic and delusive jargon is, as false in fact^ as it is, in its consequences^ subversive of the best interests of society. It is folse^ that men are equal by nature, or reason. Nature and reason make the inequality between man and man, even greater than human institutions do. — - The bodily strength and intellectual powers of man and man, differ more widely even than the for- tunes of citizen and citizen. All men cannot there** fore be equally entitled to political power, by natural law. Society cannot be founded on such a presump- tion so much at variance with nature, and with fact. The right to political power is therefore a modifica- tion of human convenience (not an abstract principle levelling all conditions) for the advantage of society ; and has, most wisely, been attached to property, as a shield of protection, against the blind rapacity of the poor and needy, who are necessarily surrounded by temptations to seize on and disturb property, which the rich and powerful have not to injure life and li- berty. On the contrary the natural impulse of the rich and powerful, when established in their rights unassailably, is to pvolect, by wholesome laws, the ^life and liberty of the poor and needy, to come to their assistance in all emergencies of sickness, or of ACCOtTNT, &C. Ixxxiii sorrow, of hunger or of dearth. But the natural impulse of the poor and needy, is to disturb and appro- priate to themselves, the advantages of the rich and powerful, although any individuars share of the plunder could be small indeed. Property therefore, which is the object and the aim of all human indus- try, manual and intellectual, requires bulwarks of self-defence, not at all necessary, or useful to men, not possessed of it. Property generally begets habits tranquil and quiescent. It is therefore useful in a scheme of national representation, that a door should be kept open, by which property can associate to itself other qualities, in sufficient abundance to enliven and enlarge its views. That the talents of the land, of whatsoever description, may be thus, for all useful purposes, sufficiently represented, and enchained to the public service, which, if not thus enlisted, they would otherwise disturb and impair. After all, when we consider the imperi&l house of commons, a miscella- neous mass of all, that is eminent in society, in which also property preponderates ; yet we will find, by the evidence of history, and the analogy of human nature, that were it not balanced on the other side by the house of lords ; and both of these houses, compressed by the great (it is to be doubted whether now sufficiently gi-eat) influence of the crown, it would be obnoxious k 2 ^ 'fl vl :H' ■.fl: •li kud UxxiT A SUMMARY V' i: to most dangerous oscillations, and would otherwise, notwithstanding the gravity of its materials, soon swing from its centre, split into factions, and perish bj the sword of some new military demagogue. Law, and liberty, property, peace, and life itself, must be protected by arms. All other men, as well as kings, find their last reason in arms. The neces- sity for arms attaches to society in all its stages, from savage life, up to the highest refinement. As people multiply-->as the arts of peace advance — as property accumulates, and life refines, arms become a separate pFoUoiaion. The difficulty then is, to socialise the^ profession-'-to infuse, as it were, through the very marrow of the military body, an habitual disposition for submission to the civil authority, with a conti- nual aptitude for war. How to reconcile such dis- cordant elements, is a problem of so great difficulty, that only the institutions of this country have ever effectually solved it. In other countries, whenever the army is extended in a degree commensurate with the wants of war and the national defence, it becomes, on return of peace, terrific to the public liberty. The great military leaders and officers of foreign armia^, have no civil interest superior, or equivalent, to that of their military profession. — >. They are soldiers of fortune, whose souls are absorbed ACCOIWT, Ac. Ixxxv by war ; and they cat and carve for themselves. — Their pay, their plunder, and their glory, are the sole motives and object of their lives, never ending, the soldier of other nations cannot bear to subside into the citizen; and the citizen must endure the soldier. In other countries, the character of both cannot be said to blend. The general policy of other countries seems to say, that the military body should be as distinct in interest as in profession, from the other orders of society. That there should be pride on one side, and abasement on the other. — The institutions of this empire (as if heaven- descended, certainly built up by a heaven-descended wisdorr^) order matters better ; and the soldier and the citizen, from the highest ranks of life to the lowest, commingle in social interest, feeling, and fellowship. The paramount aim of both, equally, is to support and improve the laws, and to assert their sanctity and independence against all foreign force, or domestic factions. The soldier's submission to the laws, in this empire, is as ready and as tame as that of any other man. The chivalrous spirit of a proud and dignified obedience, can, with no propriety, be said to be extinguished, or > even to languish. It is woven into the soldier's ha- j bits — deeply appreciated by his reason, and suspends his- arm before the majesty of the laws. I 'm Ixxxvi A SUMMABY Mr. Gordon was decidedly of opinion, that this empire is encompassed by a political necessity, to keep a watchful guard against the too great prepon- derance of any foreign nation — as Spain, Germany, Russia, France, &c. He knew that the nature of all power is accumulative, and requires to be watched by the measures of vigilance and circumspection. That a Semiramis of the North may be as dangerous to national independence and commercial freedom, as a Philip the Second in the South : that the spirit of lawless ambition is the same, whether in a Char- lemagne, or a Charles the Fifth — a Lewis the Four- teenth, or a Buonaparte* He entirely concurred in opinion ^ith those poli- ticians who build the throne on an hereditary foun- dation, and raise it above all competition in splendour at home, and above all chance of temptation from abroad : but his understanding widely diffbred from those, who wish to see the throne surrounded by a set of beggarly officers, with stunted and curtailed salaries, scarcely equal to the profits of a thriving shop-keeper. He thought such provisions not only incongruous and inconsistent in their nature, but dangerous in their consequences ; inasmuch as the steadier and more independent those props by Which the crown is surrounded may be, the stronger the m ACCOWTf &e. IxxxTil ties by which they are held to the ciyil constitution, the less danger there is of their giving way to the pressure of so great a power. He well knew, that those thrones whose princes are served by slaves, or by officers approaching in their salaries to an estate of sla- very or meanness, are eventually neither cheaper nor more beneficial than the splendid monarchy, which only freedom knows how to erect, or can support. He had therefore no envy against the large salaries and pre-eminent respectability of public men. He thought, that as society advanced in wealth and splendour, the provision for the public service and its functionaries, should advance^ pari passu. That thus only can a government become an emanation from, and be a just representative of society, by embodying in the public service a sufficient pro- portion of all that is great, and illustrious in the country. He could not be persuaded that mean «Hlaries are the best securities for the fidelity of public functionaries; and he knew that those ^sala- ries, even more certainly than the incomes of pri- vate men, being expended at l^ome, quickly re- turn into the bosom of society, and give a new impetus to arts and industry. He did not, hoW' ever, conclude that the abuses and malversattous of office, should be tolerated. In his opinion, those public concerns call for the public attention, and due . ^*% Ixzxviii A SUMMABT scrutiny ; and that in this cmpira they are not new neglected. He only contended, that public offlcert ghould be at least placed on a level with the cor^ responding ranks of society. Mr* Gordon's opinion, like Mr« Hume's respecting a public, national debt, does not appear to have been formed with hU usual caution and circumspect in* vestigation. He did not sufficiently distinguish be- tween such a debt, as afl^ting a despotical govern* ment ; and, as afibcting a government constituted, at is that of this empire, in which all the various, im- portant interests of society have a practical advalorem represantation. Although in a despotical state, a small public debt, tends to stablish the sovereign, till the means to satisfy the stipulated interest fail; yet when accumulated beyond this point, it then imme<- diately becomes the fatal signal for discontent, revolt and revolution — Witness France* On such occasions^ under such governments, unsocial and despotical, each order of society stands on its oWn unconnected, isolated foundation, and asserts its own peculiar and selish privileges, like an ally in a confederacy, rather than as a component part of one homogenial body. But in a government, such as that of this empire, emanating from and having a practically inherent connection, and identity of interest with all the im*^ ACCOUNT, &C. Ixxxix pprtant interesti of society, there ig no suck danger. Such a government has a safety-valve adapted to the vast power of the machine. As the principal of the national debt rises — as the elastic gas ascends^ thei valve gives way — the interest sinks. In this scheme, matters arrange themselves by a self-motion, native and inherent, on the principle of family-concord, and mutual advantage. When capital can be more pro- fitably employed in trade and business, the tax of the national debt is the more easily bornr. When capital can be less profitably employed in business, men become desirous to invest it in the public funds, and this competition sinks the rate of interest to the public means of paying it. In despotic go- vernments, a debt is that of the state only, and wears all the harsh features of a private contract. It is a bond in the hands of a Shylock, possessing no softening, mitigable quality. But in a country, venose government is constituted as ours is, ?^ has an entirely diflferent character. Although it cannot be said to be the cause of the nation's prosperity, it is an evidence and an index of national im proves ment — it is an evidence and an index of the great commercial wealth of the country. Loans cannot be raised at home till wealth has accumulated.-^ When it becomes so greatly accumulated as it has in this empire, it is fortunate that it can be fixed m m m zc A 8UMMABY ! t . ,«/■ rif and natioDalised Iq the public funda. It is thui prevented from taking wing to foreign shores, and fructifying, perhaps, hostile countries. It thus becomes an ac'iditional anchor to ensure the public domestic tran^quillity — a fulcrum on which to support the national power in a manner most eilbctual, against all hostile attacks. It thus imparts a princely spirit to the mercantile interest, and renders mer- chants, by blending them in the magistracy and goTernment of their country, in the words of scrip- ture, *' great men of the earth." — Nor does the bles- sing end here — it spreads through, and has a genial influence over the conduct and afihirs of private life. When men see that prosperity in trade may lift them and their families to contact with ancient greatness and modern renown, and give them a participation in the government of their country, their feelings become liberalized by their hopts ; and we all know the strength and force of hope. A public debt, as it exists in this empire, is therefore a commercial, political, and moral blessing. — Britain, the most improved and prosperous nation under the sun, has the greatest national debt. It is, perhaps, greater in its amount, than the aggregate of all the public de?)ts of all the countries of the world. But are the citizens of any other country, ceteris pari- iu9f more at their ease ? Is industry better rewarded ACCOUNT, Ac. xei in other countries supportin/g; an equal population ? Have men generally more chances, or greater proba- bility of becoming independent by an honourable exertion of their talentu in professions, or in trades ? Are the labouring classes of society better fed, clothed, and housed, in other countries? If not, can the na- tional debt be said to press against the national pros- perity ? Has it not advanced with the growth of society itself, by mutual and voluntary agreement, and gradual stages? Has it not, and does it not, sup. port and propel every national interest and glory ? Has it not been formed from the successive accumu- lations of provident and fortunate individuals, in all the arts, trades, and professions, which maintain and polish society? Can it in reason, in justice, or in equity, be held less sacred and secure, than any other property ? Are the social and voluntary pacts of society to be helc' iess indefeasible, than those which, often commencing in violence and blood, were sub- sequently, with the greatest propriety and utility public and private, ratified by law, as a constituent component principle of society itself. Surely then the national debt hm as strong a claim of indefea- sible right and elemental consideration. It is, how- ever, not uncommon to hear it confounded with the causes which produced it. To hear arguments aimed to unsettle the foundations on which it rests» by m2 mil ?,>,f . 'm I'.ti ¥ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 Hi 12.5 I.I m 122 i2.2 Z |f£ 12.0 lit 11.25 1.4 HI 1^ 7] .> /J ^^^ /^ '^ 7 Hiotogra{iuc Sciences Corporation 23 WeST MAIN STRHT WEBSTiR.N.Y. M5M (716) •72-4503 xcu A SUMMARY '1J mixing it up with the politics of the years that are past. This is an unjust mode of reasoning. — The national debt ably and well supported the na- tional interests. It completely soldered all the breaches made by past blunders, inexperience and folly, and carried the national interests and glory, through bad and good fortune, through all the chances of bat- tle and the conflicts of party, to the most triumphant issue. It protected the public from all dangerous blows foreign or domestic : and whenever it may be accompanied with a system of national education, suf- ficiently extensive to embrace, to train, and modify the great mass of the national intellect, and to give it a uniform direction, the national interests and glory, will be then so thoroughly rooted, as to endure through a long series of ages aiid generations* Without the existence of a national debt, it is evi- dent, that the honour and interests of this empire, could not have been so efl^ctually sustai&ed by taxes raised to provide, within each year, for its own ex- penses. But by the instrumentality of the national debt, the prosperity of merchants becomes the same as the puUic prosperity. Both interests are thus identi- fied. Property, which has a natural tendency, to fix itself capriciously, in large masses of laccumttlation» ill the coflfbrs of fortunate individuals i» thus re-distri- ACCOUNT, &e. XClll buted, and, in form of the public expenditure, gives an impetus to arts and industry; and renders the public burdens more gradual, less sensible and less oppressive. Let the amount of this debt be whatever it may, the fair question is, whether the national means are more depressed by it, than they must necessarily have been by providing for the national exigencies without it. If it be clear, that to have provided for the national expenses, by annual taxes, to the amount of those ex- penses, as the public service called for them, would have repressed and paralyzed the national powers of industry and reproduction, much more than to pay a gradual interest for the sum of those expenses, it is evident, that the national debt, on the whole amount, is beneficial, as at least a cure for a greater evil. Now at five per centum> twenty millions can be raised for one million of taxes. The prompt expenditure of twenty millions enables a country to obtain advan- tages, which it could not obtain by the slow process of raising forty, or even perhaps sixty millions in a se- ries of four or six years. The national debt has thus then put this empire in a proud attitude, to vvhich it could not otherwise have attained* Its honour thu« asserted supports itsinterests, and its interests thus supported, makes the condition of every individual subject, ceteris puribus, much less difilcult to be borne. Yet it is boldly asserted, that the national debt of this 'Km k Ik ' '^ n mM i i'l If 3^ xci? A SUMMARY empire presses against manufacturing arts and in- dustry, and enhances their price beyond what they would otherwise be, in all foreign markets. If it were as easy to prove a proposition, and satisfy the mind, as it is to malice an assertion, the logic of ail men would be pretty much on a level. Nature, which gives different advantages to different men, deals Jn the same manner by nations; and doubtlessly several manufactures are better adapted to the genius and climate of other countries than to our own. The existence and intervention of the debt have main- tained and kept alive many a manufacture among us, which would have been in ruin without it — or rather the whole fabric of our national manufactures, would have participated in the ruin, which the ex- istence and intervention of the debt, have saved the public fortunes from. Let us not therefore envy the blessings of Providence and the developement of their industry to other nations. Their prosperity will make them better, because richer and abler customers for those articles, with which we can best su pply thek wants. This is the true principle of trade, a barter of equivalents — real or imaginary. This principle, whether founded on reason, or on instinct ; on a well judging taste, or a wild caprice, gives birth to the industry of nations ; and propels men to the prodno- tion of articles, which never would be fofocied at "^ti'*"^-^'- -'■■'^'•i ACCOUNT, &C. XCV home, were it not, to command articles from abroad, which too, would never have had existence, had no such reciprocity existed. In the commercial world, the wealth and prosperity of every iodividual country, contribute to the wealth and prosperity of all others. Thus, to compare extremes, the poor Indian, who traverses the vast north western wilderness, becomes gradually civilized, by the altogether fantastic and superfluous wants of the beaus and belles of the polite world. The market, which is thus opened to him, for the produce of the chace, gradually teaches him new wants, and supplies them more conformably to his growing tastes, than he had ever been accustomed to. Thus the vanity of one part of our species awakens the dormant powers and excites the industry of the rest. Thus the national debt of this empire, places it, in such a high, strong, and commanding position, that the entire faculties of her people may be developed to the greatest advantage. The whole comniercial worM is thus involved in the continuance 1^* her prosperity. She is thus rendered the centre^ towards which the commereiai interests of the world gmvitajte, and roAnd which they move. Her prospe« rity ijs tha» foiiajdedy not in the loose and shifting sands of man's opinion merely, but in the adhe- sive soil of his^ interesta also. If man had not a stronger tendency to piMrsue hi$ interest, thaa to 2''1 m If m X^Vl A SUMMARY i - embrace the fleeting meteors of opinion. If thii instinct does not impart circumspection to his rea- soning, and caution to his conclusions, the debt of this empire would be subjected to shocks and yaria- tions, much more rude and violent, than it is. If the payers of taxes, were not, in a great degree the payees also, their discontent would manifest itself, in a manner much more formidable, than the clamour of a populace. But the interest of those, who give the tone to public opinion, governs the stops, and ven- tages, which produce the national concord, and the greatest practicable, public prosperity. It is thus, that the national debt gives, in this eniipire, steadiness to the Euripus of commerce, the fleetingness of opinion, and the fugaciousness of capital. As it encreases man's wants, as it multiplies his desires — it teaches to provide for their gratification in the greatest abun- dance, and at the cheapest relative rate. If it en- hances the price of articles contributing to the ease and comfort of human life, it enhances in a still greater degree, the general price of the labour neces- sary to the manufacture and production of those arti^ cles; so that, feirly speaking, the comforts and conve- nience of the labouring classes are encreased by it. Finally, experience shews that the national debt, (that is to say any fixed amount of debt) has a na- J^CCOUNT, Ac. xcvii tural tendency to decrease in weight de die in dUm — in an adequate proportion to the accumulation of ca- pital, to the extension and perfection of the arts of ciyilized life, and to the ratio of mercantile profits, al« ways, in all its phases, adjusting itself, to the public convenience, and ministering as by a vernal process, to social advancement and national prosperity. That it liberalizes public and private liberty, and teaches it to look defiance only against the enemies of British in« stitutions. But this defiance, how great soever, is simply defensive, and aims no blow at the prosperity and trenches not on the happiness of others. It is merely a vivid indication of a determination to pro- tect their own. Honores mutant mores — is an axiom as true of nations, as of individuals; and doubtlessly wealth and strength and power, success and victory, impart a tone, a carriage and a demeanour widely different from the struggles of poverty, weakness and defeat. Buonaparte, the day after the battle of Wa- terloo, presented a very diffbrent face, from that with which he scowled on the nations of Europe after the battle of Austerlitz. >.. '/" ^ys been infallibly found— in an adherence to the ordinary modes which Divine Pro- vidence has ordained to found and advance all human prosperity — ^in a greater and more unshackled free- dom of trade ; or by equitable, that is to say, mutu- ally advantageous, commercial treaties with foreign n 2 I'. A BUHMABT r I- 11? 4 nations, (if commercial treaties should be deemed useful, which is questionable,) by rend«)ring the laws, where practicable, more equal, just, and impartial — by systematized, foreign colonization, which may in distant time be as out-posts, and points d*appui for the body of the empire-off-sets ; from which, in future ages, the well-regulated s|>irit of British freedom, may be difilised through all climates of the world. — Such seem to be the chief practicable means of encreasing the national wealth and industry — of adding to its prosperity and happiness: except, in- deed, we should be inclined to adopt the plan of Dean Swift, which is still more sagacious than that iof our more modern projector — viz. to kilt one part •^of the population with which to feed the other, and .to tan their hides to make summer-boots for the fdandies and exquisites of our time. If a shower of gold could be poured upon the land, as if by volcanic l«ruption, sufficient to pay off the national debt in fan hour, it would not be a jot more beneficial to the : nation, than the above laudable project of the witty ! and patriotic Dean. The money, to be useful, should be used ; and as the capital already on hands cannot rfind channels of employment, the proprietors of this portentous shower of gold, should starve at home, or - carry the metal to other countries to make profit of 'it. The ultimate conclusion would then appear to ACCOUNT, &C« d be, that national prosperity is of a regular growth, and cannot be forced by a jerk of authority, although, like the oak of the forest, which continues to spread indefinitely through ages, it may be hewn down in a moment. This sketch now draws to a conclusion. The nar- rator will, by some, be thought too ardent and enthu- fliastic in favour of the memory of his friend. Let the reader, however, be assured, that his ardour, or his enthusiasm has never ciirried him beyond the bounds of strict truth. His zeal may, indeed, be somewhat warmed by his affbction, and roused by the unmanly obloquy dealt by low minds against the memory of his friend, to the prejudice of his children. But this puny spite, this froth of faction, foams in vain. The solid adamant of Mr. Gordon's character, his unspotted life, the inflexible integrity of his nature, the pure bullion of his understanding, his solid unassuming learning, bid a firm defiance to all hostility. While he lived, his masculine virtue proud in its conscious- ness rushed to repel by open retort, those arrows which a cowardly malignity aimed at him, from secret am- bush. He scorned all such weapons: his character scorns them still ; and he often, from extreme sincerity, laid himself open to wily arts, which he could never practice. Never meditating fraud or wrong to any 1 1 M \, i;.'';«'|j m i li ft f - Cll A SUMMARY If' I! 1= man, he wai above all fear, and transcending the itoicj he settled in the christian philosopher. He aimed at serving the interests, shaming the vices, and promoting the social concord of his countrymen and fellow-citi- zens ; but he never stooped to flatter them, or to join in any of their factions ; and never courted popularity in any shape or form — -bat please God, his children may see popularity accompany his memory — that popula- rity, which if on earth, he would value popularity with the good and wise. During his life, he engaged the respect and attention of some of the most exalted and venerable characters to whom he was known. Bince his death, it appears in what estimation his me- mory is held by him, who must for every reason be allowed to be the best and only appropriate judge of it. By the Right Rev. and Hon. Percy Jooely n, D. D. Lord Bishop of Leighlin and Ferns, who, having had the best opportunities of knowledge, aa his diocesan for many years, stamps with authoritative sanction, the true value on his character. His Lordship, with the grace and reanimating manner by which a man of his birth and station, so well knows how to confer an obligation, in promoting Mr. Cfordon's only son, the Rev. Richard Bentley Gordon, to a benefice, declares, *< that he wishes to shew his respect for the memory of his father, as an author, and a gentleman of high con- sideration in his diocese." — That the son will feel and J^COOUNT, Ac. ciii manifeit the like manly gratitude of his fether on a similar occasion, there is good reason to hope. He has already given proof, and promise of a steady determination in maintaining the rights of the Church, and promoting its interests, by a perse?e- Terance, not to be shaken by difficulties. But this judgment of the Bishop of Ferns, this gene- rous tribute to the memory of a scholar of inde- pendent mind, whose praise could never be gained but by goodness, and who never accepted a favour but where he thought goodness resided, reaches far beyond its immediate object. It evinces, in a manner impressive and conclusive, that the spirit of a scholar and a gentleman, should enter into and actuate the clerical character. Indeed, what other security can human institutions devise, to guard an established clergy agai^ist the degrading solicitations of sensual appetites on the one hand, and the yet more pernicious illapses of spiritual pride and ig- norance on the other? But while the honours and rewards of religion and letters are held connected, as the Bishop of Ferni connects them, the establish- ment will be its own support against all the efforts of secret foes, or open enemies. It may naturally be expected, (it is indeed a prediction of the Author of our holy religion) from the number of willing dupes spread through society, that cunning hypo* wWM Ik '^fffmlG hi m 1 th' ,^x« t4m ij^Hi f'^^i' CIV A SUMMARY orites should be found to descend on a prey go easy. The disease, however, is not radical or mor- tal— ^it is merely symptomatic of weak. intellect, in the first stages of enquiry. It will worlc its own cure by its progress ; or it can be arrested in its advances by the simple and salutary process of extending the establishment, with provis'^^ns and regulations adapted to the altered character of so- ciety. At all events, while a spirit, such as the Bishop of Ferns fosters and acts on, shall predomi- nate in ecclesiastical concerns, the agents of mischief, whether from malign intention, or sincere stupidity, can never again become formidable in these nations. The world has been awaked; and religion, which was given to man, to brighten life, and to cheer society, is not now, as heretofore, regarded as a cold dogma of the brain, or as a series of > ^ords repeated by the lips, without influence on the i oral habits of life ; but as a full and salient fountaii from which all good conduct flows, indicating the urity of the source by the streams that issue from it But as the Biihop of Ferns so impressively inculca is, it belongs to learning to keep the fountain cle? • No other earthly power is of sufficient force to dissipate the deadly vapours of fanaticism, and the intoxicating fumes of enthusiasm, which have so strong a physical tendency to mix with and pollute its waters. Mi The Volume which is here presented to the Public, forms about ti Twelfth part of the Memoirs Geographical and Historical of the entire Globe : of which, four parts or volumes, were published, up to 1798;^— the remainder is left in manuscript, almost completed, by the author. The Editor has not se- lected this part for publication, on the* ground of its being superior, or more complete in execution, than any of the remaining manuscripts: in fact, it is the only part of the work which is not completely finish- ed. It has been sel'«icted, because it appears sufficiently Competent, and large enough for a volume; which is as much as can, at this time, be presented to public consideration. From the Royal protection and sup- port, which has been so most graciously bestowed upon this volume, it is hoped that the time is not far distant, when the entire work may appear, in an uniform dress, 'the Asiatic regions are those on which the author bestowed most pains, and which, from the great natural lines of distinction observable over their i'M) f ■ "'^ .Mv.'i;jw;»-|ii||imi ft* PBBBAdB. It !:: 'lil ^1 r sur&ce and popalation-— the number of large iglands and archipelagos, by which the Asiatic continent ia enCompaMed — ^the deep interest ivhkik this empire has in their soil and commerce^ and the Tarious views which have been taken of them, from the earliest ages, requires the greatest share of attention and pains in research and comparison. Mr. Gordon, it would seem, is therefore justifiable in treating of them so amply as he has done. Of Africa, not much js known, with the exception of Egypt, and the coasts, which are fully described in these manuscripts, as are also all ^the known parts of the interior, from a tl^o- rougb examination and comparison of every authority on the subject. Of the continent of South America, the informa- tion is vague and scanty : but, as much as can be had in substance any where, will be found in these nia^ nuscripts. Humboldt and Bompland have cast acute and scientific eyes over many of its regions. Their physical features, and distinguishing characteristics^ are described in these manuscripts with & bold accu- racy. But what was accurate when they were writ- ten, has ceased to be so. Physical and moral convulr sions are continually altering the features and cha- racter of this quarter of the globe: its political and physical geography will afford new matter for future ^' FSHPACX; writen. It ismyM: (inly, 181^) not Mify, t6 the resalt of the aagpicions ferment glowing through- out many of the diitricts of ^is great and beautifkil diVidon of the globe. < It fo itide^ to be hoped that the expellers of tyranny, if nltimately iflneoewCofl, will never imitate its conduct in tlieir ingtitnUonf, or re- member its existence longer than it may be necessary to assert their own indepelidenoe. That they wiu model their p<4itical constitution, and idiape their public aflbirs conformably to the analogies of human nature, and to those principles which, from the evi* denoes ci history, are proved best to promote huriian happinen. That they will never putsue chimerical theories, mere oflbprings of the brain, having no foundation in the realities of life, and the pre-existing arrangement of society. That they will for ever Iceep in mind, the great lessons which the preennt age of the European world so forcibly teaches, that the idogmas of philosophy are as obstinate and bloody, though of not so universal adoption, as those of Reli- gion in its darkest ages. If, indeed, we should not say that the names — ^the sacred names of religion ^nd ]^losophy, are only masks, which bad men put on to disguise wickedly ambitious aims, unholy and tem- poral purposes, and which true religion abhors, and true philosophy strips oir. o2 ..'■*'• %v IPBEFACE, The last ▼olilme of these Membires may contain — jr Russia, Poland, ci Hungary, Dalmatia, Lower Dalmatian Provinces, Greece, . Grecian Islands, Grecian Archipelago; -or-. Subjects of great curiosity and interest, particularly that of Greece, which will be found to foe the produc- tion of a liberal and pains- taking scholar. -h ■ • .' •.' ■ •• . , . < . ■ ■■■ , ■■ ^ ' : "' ■ ' . For the last few years, the question of a north-west passage through Baffin's bay, to the Pacific ocean has been received and agitated. The Quarterly and Edin- burgh Reviews, two rival journals, of the highest rftnk, sed magno intervalloy in public estimation, divide the suffrages on this occasion — Surely however a question of this nature should not be discussed with acrimony, or sarcasm. Such is not the way to arrive at truth in any question of doubt, or difficulty, much less of one, of scientific and liberal curiosity, in which even still (July 1819) there is some uncertainty and room for doubt. After all that has been said and Writ- ten on this subject, it mdy not be unacceptable, or unnecessary to quote the following passage from Mr. Gordon's Terraquea, or memoirs geographical and historical, vol. 1, page 9, edition 1790 — speaking, of PRBFACB. Bafflirs bay and tlie inlets connected with it, he says; " I have here considered this whole great inland sea, « or mediterranean of America, as a gulph ; and '* must continue so to consider it, until it be found to << have some other communication with the ocean, « beside, that which it is known to have with the *< Atlantic. That it hasi no channel westward to the < from one lake to another, and from inlet to inlet. <*. Besides a strong argument lies against the supposi- <* tion, as the tides decrease, towards the north in << Baffin's bay, (see Foster's Collection of Northern *f discoveries.) So that in all probability Greenland ** makes part of the American continent." This con^ * He would since have added/ and M'Kenzie's Journey. — Editor. r K*l f ti PABFACB. iti III if» I ekudoa dmWAfrom the evidence of fdieti, and tbennn- logy page 5.*- lure. It is competent for any one to combat the propriety of any, or ail of the opiniona promulgated in the foregoing sketch and prelWee. It fa not equally ao, to combat the reality of the repreaentation, that ia made of them. No man knew Mr. Gordon ao weH and ao long, aa the editor of thia Tolume \ and he has to the ei^tent of hia power, drawn the pietnre of hfs mind, the outline of hia intellect, with the aanie fide- lity and plainneaa of execntion, that the limner haa the miniature^likeneaa of hie feee prefixed to thli Yolume« jM^;rr* m^. ^i TBB FOLLOWING IS A LIST OF MR. GORDON'S UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPTS. SOUTH \MERICA. TVrra Firma, 89 Peru SO Chili, 30 Guiana, 28 Patafj^onia, 8 Archtpelago of ChenoBt ^ ASIA. Anatolia, 06 Anatolian hlandt, m 14 Caucana, 82 ^f,ia, 70 Atijfria, 30 Armenia, • 18 Arabia, 180 jPer«a, 180 Hindottan, 809 Tramgangene India, 118 THbbet, 41 Tartar^, 113 Cocea 4 China, 806 Japan, 108 Cejflon, 16 Sumatra, ....138 Java, and smaller hlandi, 89 Borneo, Calebes, Molucca, 84 Wevt thtmatran Mandt, 14 Soolooe and Manilla, 88 Lackdives, Maldives, Coco, An- daman and Nicobars, 89 Mawarinas, •««»«M«tt««»«*t»tM«i«« 9 MOU. Australasia 13 Tasmanian Inlands, 16 Poljfnesia, 48 'id part, J3 AFRICA. V'gypt, 80 Barhary 61 Sahara, 18 Nigrilia 70 Guinea, 19 Congo, ]3 Abjfsinia, 16 Mtbia, 7 Caffraria, ....« 46 Azores, 6 Madeiras, *«........ 4 Canaries, II Cape Verd, 6 Idoles, 1 Ouinea Islands, 4 Samotheo, Assumption, St, He- lena, Tristem, U'Alcunha, ^c. 13 EUROPE. Russia, 90 Poland, 86 Hungary, 36 Dalmaita, 86' Lower Danubian provinces, ... 6 Oreeee, 84 Grecian Islands, 16 Grecian Archipelago, ••••,,.• 16 m 4D!iaf PIRIKDAIL iJSB tiido by tho wuvta of tho Atlantic, on tlio other l>y tliotw of tht> Pftoilio o^^\\» t1trou|hout tlio ouUm longth of it» ton^tory, Mt^ico iKMstMiciOi a prodigiouii «xttMit of iHHritinio coaMt, but w furnislitHl with vory fow luurbours, and M'ldoni oiyoy« a iiafc navigation ovon to tfieae. An iin- meixm body of watoi\in«ratttuiUy pro|)eHrhnp8 oven iiin|ifu1ar. Tho immenio CordittetiM, or chnin ot* tho Anci«M. which trAveraes loii)(itudiually nil South AuiDricHj ooiitinuen iti courNC, with in gonoml u north- woaterly direction, hut with a cotupuratively very mnuU elt»vtttiou, through the territorici of Darion, Vomgua. Ni- caragiM, and Guntiinala, into t)io main region, or broadeat fmrt of the va»t Mexican istlunui. In tlio hitt immc<1 pro- vince the Contillora begins to at«end toward itM former atti- tude; but, in ita tbrther progrew, instead of diiiplaying the ajipearance of a mountainouii ridge, it expands into a l^lain, or coiM?ate«uition of plaint, immensely long and wide, of what is called tableland, of prodigious elcTation, which extends far beyond the limits of the Mexican isthmus, inio North America. Here, instead of a chuin of sum- mils, which in South America forms the crest of the Andes, the very ridge itself of tJie Cordillera constitutes the widely spread and lofty |)lain, on which the mountains of the country are so siluate., whidh stretches nortli-wcstward with the appearance of a vast level. The spine of this region, which, from the level as|)oct of the surthce, is imjiercep- tilde to the eye, can only be traced by its tbrming a sepa- ration between the waters which tlow with op^Misito courses towaitl the two oceans. OnAPTBR I. Conlonr. liesides the vast eentrtil plain, along which runs tlie spine of tlie Mexictui istlunus, two lateral plains, in the northern parts, one ou the eastern side, tho other ou the wcstenij •jti-'va 4 MBllCO. CllAPTER I. ill ■' stretch far toward the north, formed in like manner lu (he central> by the spreading of two lateral ridges, which branch from the main CordUlera about the northern latitude of twenty-one degrees. The numerous and extensive plains of this extraordinary region, which form such a concatenation as to seem only one immense level, except that, they are often separated by. chains of hills, are yet very different in altitude above the surface of the ocean. The elevation of the great central flats is from about five thousand six hundred to eight thousand eight hundred feet and upwanJs> equal to that of many of the great Italian Alps. The platform of the land maintiBins this height very far toward the north or north-west, with such gentle acclivities, where actual uneveness occurs, that carriages may roll, with a perfect ease, in that di- ncction, to the distance of fifteen hundred miles from the city of Mexico, consequently a great way into North America. From, the central plain, to the two oceans the ground declines,, but not in. the same manner, to both. In travelling from the central plain to the Atlantic,, the land is found to preserve, through an extensive space, it& great elevation;, but when. a descent commences, it continues to be rapid through the whole way to the shore. The road, to the pacific ascends and, descends alternately many times, before its termination . in the sands of the coast The great platform of the Mexican, isthmus seems generally to consist of a concatenation of vast plains or vallies, environed by hills, and resembling the beds- of desicated lakes. One of these is the famous and beautiful valley of Tenochtitlan, elevated above seven thousand, four "^^•<. % ..<,:■ MEXICO* hundred feet above the ocean's level, in form a longf oval/ sixty miles in diameter, environed by a wall of porphyritic and basaltic mountains^ and containing the celebrated me- tropolis of Mexico. Yucatan is a low peninsula^ flat, except a chain of low hills^ which divides it^ running in< a south-westerly direction. » • The chain of the \ndes, in its course through Darren^ and other provinces to Guatimala, is of a comparatively smallj but as yet unmeasurjed elevation, abounding in val- canoes in an extraordinary manner, especially from the eleventh, or at least the thirteenth degree of latitude- northward. In Guatimala, where it reascends to comider- able altitude, its crest, jagged with volcanic cones, runs along the western coast, but aftenvards advances through the central parts of the country, and at length approaches the Gulph of Mexico, when the Cordillera, expanding into plains of table-land, ceases to exhibit any crest at all. On the immense platform of elevated land in the north, the mountains are so scattered or grouped, as not ta form any chain, nor to bear any reference ta the CJordillera. Of these numerous mountains the most elevated group, some of M^ose summits ascend into the region of perpetual sndrw, stands on the south-eastern side of tbb valley of Tenochtitlan, which it contributes, on that quarter, to in- close. The altitudes of four of the highest summits of this group, above the ocean's level, have been measured. That of Popocatepetl is found to be seventeen thousand seven hundred and sixteen feet ; that of Orizaba, seven- teen thousand three hundred and seventy-one ; and that of CHAPTER I. Moantaint. G Mexico; CHAPTER . I. Lakes. Iztaccihuatl, fifieen thoiysund seven hundred. These mountains are volcanic, and two of them, Popocatepetl and Orizaba, are actually long flaming in the present age. Beude these, three other mountains \vcre burning, in the northern parts of the Mexican isthmus, in the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century ; Tuxtla in the province of Veracruz, JoruUo in that of Valladolid, and Colima in that of Ouadalaxara. The Mexican volcanoes are ranged in a line from east to west. The numerous chains of bills, by which the extensive plains of the Table* land are commonly bounded or environed, hardly rise to the height of six hundred feet, or at most eight hundred, above the adjiHning flats.* Those plains which are thus inclosed by chains of hills appear as if they had been in times far remote, vast lakes or basons of water, which has been exhausted, in a long series of ages, by evaporation, p^volation through the po- rous earth at the bottom of the inclosing mounds, or drains through .(^nings formed by the pressure of the fluid, by earthquakes, or by some other operations of nature. The water has not, however, been every where exiiausted* Mexico still abounds in lakes, wbicl^ appear to bejn a state of gradual decrease, and to be the rfmains of ancient hn-' soAis prodigiously greater. To specify more tlian a few of these, which are generally of a similar kind, is unneccssaryt The lake of Chapala, in the province of Guadalaxara, * For (he contour and gionntains s«e Humbold's "Eanj on New Spain, 8to. London, 181 1. The information, may be collected from rarious parts, particttlorlj, vol. 1, p. 34—79. MBXIOO. f. seems to be about Sixty miles inlengfli, and is accounted chapter to occupy twice as great an area as that of the lake of ' Constance on the borders of Switzerland. The lake of Pasquaro, in the province of Valladolid, is of much infe- rior, though considerable size^ but is remarkable for its extremely picturesque appearance. Much inferior to many Others in Area^ but the most famous in history, are the lakes of the valley of Tenochtitlan, in the immediate vicinity of the Mexican metropolis. Of these, at present five in number, that which is much the greatest, named Tescuco, expanding to an area of about eighty square miles, is filled with salt water. They collectively occupy little more than thie tenth of the valley, but were far more extensive when first seen by Europeans in the sixteenth century. Their decrease, beside natural causes, is partly ascribed to an artificial drain, a tunnel made through the bottom of the mountains on the eastern side, a. work, which, from mismanag'ement, has cost, in a long course of operations, tlie sum of thirteen hundred thousand pounds, and the lives of several thousand Indians forced into the employment. Far the greatest of all the lakes of the Mexican isthmtus is that of Nicaragua in the south, reported to be a hundred and seventy miles in length, and about half so much broad. The vast lake of Nicaragua, by : lificial canals, and rivers which flow in its vicinity to opposite coasts, might perhaps, if the ground were weU examined, aflford the best situation, any where in the Mexican isthmus, for the opening of a navigable communication between the ivfo oceans. Projects for the forming of such a navigation have Rivers. ' fi 8 MEXICO* CHAPTER L Iteen geveral times conceived, but their practicability has 110 where, within the limits of Mexico, been as yet demon- strated. The rivers of this region, mostly small and in- navigable, are little favourable for the execution of such plans^ In the southern parts, from the narrowness of the land, the streams are small; yet are comparatively very wide at their niouths. In the northern, from the ri^id descent of the country toward the shores, they are generally tor- rents. The only great river which flows through the Mexi- can soil, but which however belongs much more properly to North America, is the Bravo, called also Rio del Norte, which runs nearly through a length of fifteen hundred miles, from its source in the North American regions to its eflux into the Gulf of Mexico. Of the rivers whose courses are confined within the limits of Mexico, the greatest, and doubtless one of the principal for the purpose of commerce, is the Santiago, which falls into the Pacific ocean. Of the rest among the chief are the Tula and Panuco, which dis- ^arge their waters by a united stream into the Gulf of Mexico. Among the smaller rivers in a more southerly si- tuation, which are conceived capable of utility for internal trafiic, the Guasacualco and Alvarado are particularly noted, whose channels lie to the south-east of the maritime town of Veracruz. Seatont. From its tropical sHuation the temperature of Mexico may naturally be expected to be extremely hot, which is actually the. case in all the low parts of the coun'^'y, as the maritime tracts and the flat peninsula of Yucatan. In such ill general, wherever the land is not elevated more than a MBXIOO* 9 thousand feet above the level of the ocean^ the mean heat of the air, or the temperature calculated at a medium tlirough- out the year, raises Fanenheit's thermometer to about or near the seventy-seventh degree* But in the great northern portion of the isthmus, from the contour of this region, the temperature of the vast central plains is rather cold, or at least cool, than hot. Here the medial warmth is comnionly from fifly*one to My-five degrees: but in the highest plains, as that of Toluca, the thermometer, during great part of the day, never rises higher than the forty-third or forty-sixth degree. Sometimes, but indeed rarely, it has sunk below tlie freezing point in the valley of Tenochtitlan, and snow has been seen there in the streets of the metropolis: but the elevation of the line of perpetual snow seems hardly less in this latitude than fifteen thousand one hundred feet above the ocean. Between the coolness of the interior plains' and the suffocating heat <>f the coasts, various inter- mediate degrees of temperature have place. All these variations may be experienced in one day, in descending on the rapid declivity of the eastern side to the shore -at Veiiticruz. The whole ascent of the land, from the ocean to the highest plains, is concnceming the third or highest lone, which oomprehunds the most elevated flats, to add any thing to that which I have already said seems quitiB unnecessary. The heat is found greater on the western than on the •astern coast, and also more uniform throughout the year, except that an extraordinary coolness has been observed to prevail a few hours before sunrise. 0|i the eastern the ardours are greatly allayed by winds from the north>west,. which blow frequently from the autumnal to the vernal equinox* with the most violence in March, commonly with tbe least in September and October. Sometimes, but indeed rarely, tempests from the north are felt here even in May, August, and the intermediate month», in what iS' accounted the favourable season, or that of the breezes^, gentle gales from the south, which mostly prevail, with con- wderable regularity, from March to September. On the western coast what is called the fine season has- place in a- different part of the year, from October to May : but eveiv then the tranquillity of the Pacific ocean is here interrupted by impetuous winds from about the north-east. Of the ftHiI season in these tracts the months most dangerous to> navigators are July apd August, when terrible hurricanes MSZIOO* 11 blow firom the south-west. Storms also from the same quarter accompanied with tremendous thunder and rain, render the eastern coasts of Nicaragua and the neighbour- ing parts inaccessible to shining almost through the whole of August and September. Thunder storms on these coasts are indeed frequent duruig the greater part of the year, and in the hottest months are often tremendously violent. In general in the Mexican regions the wet season begins in June, and continues about four months : but in the southern parts, where the land between the oceans is nar- •row, and the mountains are adapted to the interception of the clouds, the rains are &r from being confined within so small a portion of the year ; nor are the times of rain and drought the same at once in the plains and mountains. In the broad region of the north, where the high plains of the interior form the ridge of the cordillera, the showers are in- frequent in the tnble'land, whose naked surface attracts not the vapours, and thus is deteriorated by an encreaung deficiency of moisture, while the low maritime tracti^ are copiously watered fram June to September inclusively* The showers commence later on the western coast than on f he eastern, but continue longer. In the elevated plains the air is salubrious, but on the coasts it is quite otherwise, especially in the hottest months: yet at least in some of Ihe maritime tracts, as at the British settlement in Yucatan, it is found fiir .less unwhcdesome than in4he West Jndiau islands.* CHAPTER L • Humboldt) TOl. 1, p. ^S— 87 ; vol. S, p^ S50— S52 ; vol. 4, p. 148— 460. Hend«non's Accoant of Hondnras, Londoo, 1809| p. 9—1 1 . Ji 2 19 MBXIOO. CHAPTER I. Uiflory. Previous to an Account of the products of the Mrxioin soil, which vary with the temperature, but of which many new species have been added to the old since the conquest of the country by the Spaniards, a sketch of the history of this vast region may not perhaps improperly have (dace. Like every other part of the New world, or American he- misphere, the existence of Mexico was totally unknown to the inhabitants of Europe and of all- the other r^ons of the Ancient world, till its discovery by the Spaniards, who first, under Columbus, visited the coast of Darien in the year 1502, that of Yucatan, imder Hernandez Cordova, in 1617, and that of Veracruz, and of the territories extend- ing thence northward, in the following yar, under Juan de Grijalva. The discoverers, in the two \u\ lev expeditions, more especially Grijalva and his associat^Hy who had hi- therto beheld no natives of the American hemisphere in a condition of soAciety much raised above the state of nature, were astonished when they found a numerous population well clothed in cotton, considerably civilized, and forming the subjects of a great empire, in which a very regular system of government, both cuil and religious, had been fully established. This was the great kingdom of Tenoch- titlan or Mexico, of whose foundation and subsequent ag- grandizement a history is pretended to be given from Mexi- can records, penciled, in a kind of painted hieroglyphics^ by which events and th 'r dates were attempted to be trans- mitted to posterity. I mu&i own that a history derived from such a source appears to me considerably dubious, notwithstanding all arguments adduced in its favour ; yet MBXIOO* 13 not to fake M>mo slij^ht notice of it might not be regarded chapter t as altogether excusable.* - : According to the interpretations given to us of these jtaintings, tteveral tribes or nations, migrating southward from some regions unknown, successively settled in Ana- huac, by which name is understood to be signified all the land of the Mexican isthmus between the fourteenth and twenty-first degrees of northern latitude. The firet were > the Toultecs, who arrived about the year 648 of the chris-' tian era, a people somewhat advanced in civilization, who - cultivated maize and cotton, built cities, formed public roads, erected great pyramids, the remains of which are still admired, used hieroglyphic paintings, and measured their time by a solar year less imperfect than that of the Greeks or Romans. The Chichimecs made their appearance in ] no, the Nahualtecs in 1 178, the Acolhuesand the Aztecs in J 196. The last, who have since been called Mexicans,' by the people of Europe, are said to have long remained in a slate of comparative weakness, to have founded the city of Tenochtitan, in the valley of that name, in the year 138.5, and to have at length gained an ascendancy, and finally, a dominion over the neighbouring tribes. From ^ Mexitli, the appellation of their god of war, to whom their chief temple was dedicated, their Metropolis and whole empire were called Mexico by the Spaniards. Their go- ' vernment, whatever may have been its original form, became ultimately a moinarchy, where nine kings are re> * See Clafigero's Hiitory of Meiico. 't » 14 MBXIOO. CHAPTER I. corded as reigning in •ucceMion, of whom tlie nintli, Mon- tezuma the Second^ was on the throne when Europeans first visited this country. Indeed, from existing circumstances, various races of men appear to have successively taken their abode in the p^reat Mexican isthmus. Above twenty languages, as dif- ferent fW>m one another as any two languages of Europe, are spoken in this country. Of not less than fourteen of these have grammars and dictionaries been written. But the signal predominance of the Aztec tongue, which is spoken from the lake of Nicaragua through an extent of eleven or twelve hundred miles northward, seems a strong argument in favour of a far more early origin, or far longer duration, of the Aatec empire than is assigned to it by its pretended history. The account, however, given in that history, thatthis and other tribes of invaders had come from countries of a northwesterly situation, is highly probable, since we find that these had fixed their habitations in the elevated plains, where a cool temperature prevails, similar to that of more northern regions, in prefierence to the low maritime tracts, where the soil is more fertile, but the heat much greater. From what countries they came we have no ground to (^r:lermine. The general conjecture is, that Ihey were originally emigrants from the northern parts of Aaa. As their posterity, when first known to Europe, were unacquainted with any other grain thaumaize^ and were quite ignorant of the use of milk and beasts of bur« den, they could not have migrated from any country into which the agriculture, or even pasturage^ of Asiatic people had been introduced. . / '«• * mxioo* 15 Beside the great kiii|;(loin of Mexico, thus denominated from its metropolis, several independent tribes and states were found by the Spanish discoverers subsisting in this vast isthmus. In the north were the savage dans of hunters, called Otomites and Cicimecs. Among states composed of people comparatively ctvilized, seated more toward the south, and bonlering the Aztec empire on the eastern and western sides, were tlie kingdom of Mechoacan and the republic of Tiascala. The territory of the latter was only sixty miles distant from the Mexican capital. Tne chiefs of Yucatan, the savage tribes of Honduras and of the more narrow tracts in the south, were exempt fronvthe dominfon of the Aztec monarchs. This dominion appears to have been confined, at the time of the Spanish discovery, within a space of six hundred miles in length and about one hundred and forty broad, containing perhaps an era nearly equal to that of the island of Great Britain. What may have been its population can only be conjectured. This doubtless was more dense about the seat of government, particularly the valley of Tenotichlan, than at present, but may have elsewhere been more thin. The monarch of this realm appears to have been absolute, but the nobility under him to have been visited with the same pernicious powers of the fuedal description as the nobles of the ill-go- verned kingdoms of Europe, by which the lower orders were miserably oppressed. The political system had been carried to such a pitch of improvement^ as in one institution to surpass the best regultited at that time of European states, the institution of couriers, stationed at proper intervals, to convey intelligence with rapidity, to and from the court, to all parts of the empire. CHATTBI W'l! I .*^ ' l' 'ii 16 MEXICO. CHAPTER I n. > i\ k'i li Tlie people of this kinf^om, and of some of the adjoin- ing states, had made considerable advances in civilization. As they were destitute of beasts of burden, their a>>Ticul« ture indeed could not be so extensive as where such are' in use ; but where no deduction is made from the products of the soil for the food of cattle, a greater number of the human species may be maintained in a given space. Where :the cities are large and numerous^ and the right of private property, the distinction of ranks, and the division of trades or professions, were fully established, much progress in their state of society must be admitted. As they were unacquainted with the use of iroi for th^ fabrication of ■sharp instruments, their attainments in the mechanic arts were much slower than they might have otherwise been ; yet they had found the mode of hardening copper, by an admixture of tin, to such a degree as thence to form axes and other instruments almost as sharp aa those of steel, like the brazen weapons of the ancient Greeks in the time of the Trojan war. " Tin being a metal very little spread over the globe, it is ratlier surprising that it should have been used in both continents in the hanlening of copper."* They also made knives and other edge tools, of the volca« nic substance called obsidian, which was a principal object ,yf . their mining industry. ; In the fine arts, such as painting, the advancement of the Mexicans, though much admired by the Spaniards of the sixteenth century, fell greatly short of that of tiie .European artists; nor, in literature, had their attainments IIumboldt| vol. 3, p. 118. ii'ii^ tu> -■■'■■^ MBXfOO: ^ reached so far as . the invention of an alphabet, though toward it they had made some pro;;ress, in painted reprer sentationB, hieroglyphics^ and numeral figures. They had by some means acquired such an acquaintance with astro- nomy, as, hy intercalations and cycles, to calculate the year to a degree more nearly approaching to exactness than the ancient nations of the old continent. Their ordinary year contained three hundred and sixty-five days, of which five were intercalary, the rest distributed into eghteen equal months. They had a cycle of thirteen years, a period of fifty-two, and an age of a hundred and four. They had hot improved so far in commercial transactions as to con- vert tlie precious metals into money ; but had used, as a medium of exchange, or as the representative signs of the value of things, gold dust contained in transparent quills of aquatic birds, small pieces of copper of a certain shape, thin bits of tin, small bales of cotton cloth, and the almonds of the cocoa fruit or chocolate nut. The last are in use even at this day where very small change is required. The gloomy complexion of the paganism of the Mexicans, who sacrificed human victims to monstrous idols, is not more an argument against the civilization of this people, than against that of the Phcenicians and Carthaginians, the great commercial nations of antiquity : " for natiots, long after their idea^ begin to enlarge, and their manners to refine, adhere to systems of superstition, founded on the rude conceptions of early ages."* A dismal superstition, however, which re- quired the shedding of human blood on the altars of idola- * Robertsons's History of America. lifi % CHAPTER f. I, .^-<,i■ f k s.t'J 1^1 •\ , 18 MJKXIGOt CHAPTER tryt seems to have been carried among) th* Mexicans to ah I. extreme no where exceeded^. Spaobii Conqueit. X(, on the discovery of ^is country by the Spaniard^^ a conunercial intercourse had been established on equal terms of reciprocal benefit, the Meicipans,. by the introduction of the European arts and lit^ratujre^ might have rapidly ad- vanced in civilization, and become^ in course of time, a great and wealthy pec^le : but the sole object of the Spa- nish court, in sending ships to America, was conquest ; and that of the adventurers was the acq^usition of riches by t))e speediest means possible, how np&rious soever. That son^e formality should be used in the seizure of discovered countries, instructions in writing were given to the adven- turers, in which they were authorised to require the natives to submit thenv^lvcs as subjects to the king of Spain, in Gonseqiience of a donation of their persons and territories to that monarch by the Pope, and to embrace the Roman Catholic system of Christianity, instead of the heathenish lites^hich they had practised before. In ease of noncom- pliance, which yet might naturally be expected, where the Requisitions must appear incomprehensible to the people to whom they were addressed, the adventurers were commis- sioned to waste the land by sword and fire, and to reduce to slavery the remnant of the inhabitants. For the conquest of Mexico> Valasques, governor of Cuba, committed an armament to the conduct of Fernando Cortes, a man of most audacious ambition, intrepid courage, and power- ful talents ; but so deitita^ of all principles of honesty, MBXIOO; 18 honour, and hfuiuanity, as to deserve truly tlie title of a chapter coHBummate viUain. ""•" Having by tnltrigires drawn his men to consent, Cortes 1519-11191 assumed an {impendent command, disclaiming the juris- diction of Valasquei, who had expended much of his pri- vate fortune on the equipment of the ^Jtpedition. Wifli a band of six hundred soldiers and seamen, he landed at a place called Sanjuan de UUua by the Spaniards, in the be* ginning of April, in the year 1519, at the distance of ebout a hundred and eighty miles from the Mexican metro- polis. His artillery vonsisted of ten field pieces, and his cavalry of deven horsemen. The astonii^ment of the natives was extreme at &e display of EiirOpeiKh arms and tactics, made designedly in their presence, but chiefly at the explosion of the cannons, and the rapid course of the horses, animals posing one creature. Cortes professed the most friendly ,^ , intentions, dec-larhig himsdf to be the ambassador of the great emperor of the east, charged With deqmtches of a nature highly bcncicial to the Mexican king, and of such importance> that he couid not communicate them to any other persoti tirnn the m<6naiFch himself, to the presence of whom he tlemanded admittance. Montezuma the Second, the then reigning sovereign, having attempted in vain to purchase the departure of these formidable strangers by tnag- fiiiioent presetits, which tended only to inflame their desile of seizing the plunder of a country containing so much riches^ transmitted at length peremptory ordera that they ■ V c 2 V ■' • . \ ' v' '^ '.{('Ml, m I: , m M- *Q • ^!i' msxico. \ . CHAPTER I. 15^=-: should retii^ immediately out of his dominions. As Cortes {)osi(ively refused to reimbark, and insisted on admission to the royal presence, matters came at once to such a crisis as required a perfectly decided conduct in the Mexican mo- narch. He ought to have assembled a numerous army, which might either have overwhelmed this handful of in- vaders, or at least have starved them into a departure by precluding all supplies. Whether it arose from a defect in his character, which indeed appears to me to be the case, or from causes not satisfactorily explained, the indecision of Montezuma, who only interdicted his subjects from intercourse with the stran^ gers/ was fatal to himself and hi» kingdom. By being per- mitted to remain unblockaded on the coast, Cortes found means to discover dissatisfaction in certain members of the empire toward its head, and to form alliances with these against their native sovereign. Reinforced by the troops of these allies, and justly presuming, from the particular in- stances which had already occurred, on extensive disaffection in other provinces, Cortes commenced hi» march from the coast into the interior in the August of the same year. He requested permission to pass through the territories of the Tlascalan republic to the city of Mexico ; but this was re- fused by the council of state, as his designs were suspected, since he had professed himself a friendly ambassador te Montezuma, to whom they were enemies inveterately im- placable. Afler some desperate conflicts, in which the Tlas*- calans, from the vast inferiority of their arms, and from abr surd practices the result of superstition, were repulsed witJiu * . MBXICO* 21 great slaughter^ the chiefs of the commonwealth agreed to a treaty of peace and alliance. A very debilitating circum- stance in their military system was their regarding the car- rying away of the dead and wounded of their party as a pouit of honour, in like manner as the Greek in early ages, •as described by Homer. " Attention to this pious office occu- pied them even during the heat of combat, broke their union, and diminished the force of the impression which they might have m{lde by a joint eifort." Also, from some erroneous idea, instead of taking every possible advantage in their attacks, they sent previous notice to the Spaniards of their intended hostilities ; and, instead of endeavouring to starve their invadci-s by the prevention of supplies, they even took much pains to furnish (hem with food. CHAPTER I. \^:':^ With a reinforcemeiht of six thousand Tlascahms, Cortes , proceeded on his march, in which, from the fatal irresolu- tion of the infatuated Montezuma, he met with no impedi- ment. He was even accommodated with quarters, by com^ mand of that monarch, at the city of Cholula, where the Spanish commander, apprehending, or pretending to appre- hend, a conspiracy against him, seized the principal men^ and made a frightful massacre of the citizens^ His object was probably to strike terror, and this he appears to have effected. He thence advanced at the end of October, di- rectly to the Mexican capital, where he was received in a most friendly manner by Monteziima, who assigned him for his residence a palace, with buildings and courts sufficiently spacious to afford commodious lodging to all the Spaniards and their auxiliaries. For the amazing irresolution of th^ I: m 22 MEXICO. CHAPTER I. ',* ' MexiiJau khug, and liis finally amicable admi»sion of the invaders, accompanied by ah army of his most inveterate ene- tnies, into his capitAl, we can on no other grounds pretend to account than, beside some defect in his personal character, on a superstitious dread of the Spaniards, as being of a supe- lior kindj the object o€ whose coming was perplexingly mys- terious. Cortes, who had availed himselfof all advantages <]erivable from the ignorance and superstition of the devoted prince and people, and who, in confidence of ultimate suc- cess, bad burned his ships, to preclude, w^hout victory all hopes of retut . to his soldiers, now put in execution a scheme which, as appears from his own letters, he had me- ditated from the beginning. Admitted to a friendly au- dience with Montezuma, be. seized his person, and carried him prisoner to the Spanish quarters. The want of magna- nimity in this monarch, who ought rather to have submitted at once to the stroke of death than to betray to a foreign foe the dignity of his crown and the safety of his people, favoured highly the views of the insidious European. To appease the citizens, who were rising in a tnmult, he de- clared to them from the battlements of the Spanish quarters> that his removal thither was altogether his own voluntary act for the' spending of a short time with his new friend; and, to satisfy Cortes, he even commanded a Mexican gene- ral, with several officers, who had made an attack on the revolted clans on the coast, in which some Spaniards were fi^in, to be delivered into the hands of the foreigners. On a pile formed of Mexican weapons, taken from the royal ma- gazine in the metropolis, was this general, together with bis son and five of his cWef officers, burned alive for having WBXIOO. olbeyfed the command' of ^ir sovereigpi^ Mrho thus basely chapter aiicrendered them t<^ hi^i perfidioiui enemies. ' From the profound raneration of the Mexicans for their sovereigfn, and their consequent iaifilicit obedience to all his pnlere, Cortesj who had reodeiied himself master of his person, governed, during sevenal months, the whole king- dom in his name, as the usual system of administration was continued, but all mandates were dictated by the Spanish leader. He even forced the captive monarch, and his nobles through his influence, ta the acknowledgement of subjec* tion, and the paymenjt of a tribute, to the crown of Spain : but, when he insisted on the abolition of the pagan modes of worship, and the adoption of the Roman Catholic, he found so inflexible a determination of refusal in both prince and people, that prudence obliged him, for the present, to de«st. The discontent, excited by this attempt, was some- time a^r enflamed to fury by a most atrocious act of vio* lance. Qbl^ed ta mardi toward the coast to o^qpose Nar- vaez, whom Velasquez had sent with a body of troops to deprive him of his command, Cortes left the custody of the captive monarch to Alvarado with a hundred and fifty Spa- niards. In order to exterminate, as is pretended-^ the au- thors of a conspiracy alledged to subsist among the Mexi- cans, or allured by the spoil; of the precious ornaments worn on the occa^on, Avarado took advantage of a solemn festival, when the principal persons of the kingdom were celebrating religious rite» in the court of the great temple. Having secretly taken possession of all the avenues, he sent Into the court a body of soldiers, who massacred all^ except 15S0. )» ii fi'ia '' m 1 'l,tW ■ m km ' f "km ' '^'f'lw j«i " hSt * i4!l»jdg| 34 CHAPTER I. ("> H I i MEXICO. a few who escaped by climbing over the battlements of the enclosure. Aroused by this flagitious treachery^ the Mexi* eans laid aside their dread of European arms, and furiously assailed the Spanish quarters/ Avhich had been' strongly for- tified. The small garrison would doubtless have been soon ovierwhelmed, if Cortes had not returned opportunely to its' relief. That commander, by intrigues of his emissaries amo.ng the soldiers of Narvaez. had so succeeded as to take him prisoner, and to draw his troops to his own standard.' With an army now augmented to the number of a thousand Spaniards, beside an additional body of two thousand Tlas- . calans, Cortes re-entered the Mexican metropolis in the June of the year 1620. , Though the Mexicans, from' a want of conduct in their leaders, permitted the enemy, without opposition, to re- establish himself, with a much greater force than before, in his fortified post, they resumed their arms with renovated fury, when, by certain expressions betrayed by the Spa- niards, now elated by success, they discovered, that the object of these foreigners, from their first arrival, was the conquest and pillage of the country. Nothing ever sur- passed the ardent and persevering courage displayed in their assaults. The place of those who fell by the artillery and other arms of the foe, was instantly filled by fresh battalions which rushed successively to the combat. To cajole the multitude anew, Montezuma, in the utmost pomp of royal ^ robes, was procured to appear on the battlements, and to •use all possii)le arguments to prevail on his subjects to sub- mi\> At the sight of their sovereign » dead silence ensued ; MBXICOi 25 but at the end of his oration, which proved him to be an instrument in the hands of their most insidious and cruel enemies, a hollow murmur prevailed, and the assault was renewed. Before the Spanish soldiers could cover him with their shields, he received two arrows and a blow of a stone. The wounds were not mortal, but he perceived, too late for the safety of his people, that life in his circum- stances was unworthy of preservation. Rejecting all medi- cal assistance and food, he expired in a few days after. A retreat was found to be quite necessary by Cortes. This he made in the night along on.> of the almost every one of which was a day of battle. Conducted to the presence of Cortes, Guatimozin said,. " I have done what became a monarch : I have defended my people to the last extremity. Nothing now remains but to die. Take this dagger," laying his hand on one which MHXICO. $J the Spaniard carried, " plant it in my breast, and put a pc« riod to a life which can be no longrr useful." With tlie magnanimity of the conquered prince may be contrasted the baseness of his conqueror. Cortex, who tippcars to have clandestinely appropriated to his own use great part of the treasures of Montezuma and Guatimozin, to the de- frauding of his followers, to whom had been promised a proportion of the spoil, put to the torture the royal captive and the chief favourite of that monarch, to make them confess where the unproduced riches lay concealed. This flagitious act was committed either from a suspicion that some wealth still remained undiscovered, or rather, at least partly, with a design to deceive his soldiers with respect to the riches wliich himself had secreted. The mode of tor- ture was this : the soles of the feet were soaked in oil, and then gradually burned. When the favourite, overcome by the exquisite pain, betrayed a sense of his sufTerings, the monarch, with an indignant look, reproved his weakness by asking him, " Am I now reposing on a bed of roses?" Over- awed by this reproof, the favourite became dumb, and at length expired in agony. Guatimozin survived the torture, but was destined to sustain a series of new indignities, and a cruel death. Under a pretence, without a shadow of proof, that he was conspiring with his fqrmer subjects against the Spanish power, he was, in the following year, hanged, to- gether with the two persons next him in rank, the princes of Tezcuco and Tacuba. They were suspended from the same tree by their feet, with their heads hanging down, a posture calculated for the prolongation of anguish. ,Even the ruf- ^an soldiers of Cortes, long inured to the perpetration of p3 CIIAPTEK i 1589. m Ki 38 IdBXIOO* CHAPTER crimes, murmured a«^inRt this atrocious act, which doubt- "~~* less they rcfjarded as a wauton display of cruelty, an act of ir\ju8tice without profit thonce acquirable. Wherever in the provinces, through which detachments of the Spaniards, successively reinforced, were sent in all directions, the least appearance of resistance had place, a horrid slaughter of the inhabitants was committed, and all V the chiefs, who were taken alive, were doomed to cruel deaths. Thus, in the province of Panuco, were four hun- dred and sixty nobles, of whom sixty were of the first rank, burned alive at once, in the presence of their children and other relatives, who were compelled to be witnesses of the agonizing scene. By these ferocious conquerors were all the higher orders, the nobles, and gentry, and ministers of religion, among whom is maintained the civilization of a people, completely exterminated. The last were the de- positories of the literature of the nation, which thus perished with them. Not content with this, the Spanish monks, in general a most malevolent species of beings, actuated by a superstitious zeal, the result of bigotry and ignorance, de- stroyed all the Mexican records on which they could lay hold, conceiving them as connected with paganism, inso- much that only some fragments escaped their spiritual fury. Those people who survived this sanguinary conquest, - ' V consisting of the lower classes, the vulgar of the nation, were reduced to a most abject state of slavery, in the hard- ships of which great numbers were soon consumed. Cortes, however, the instrument of this national destruction, wa& 'not long permitted to possess the fuU fruits of his laborious . ^ MBXICO. crimes. The court of Spain thought proper to consign , the management of the revenue and the civil government to otlier persons, by whom he was controled in a mortify- ing manner, and at length, in 1 530,, it committed to a vice- roy the administration of all the conquered country, which received the denomination of New Spain, a denomination given at first by its discoverers to the peninsula of Yucatan only. Cortes spent the last seven years of his life in Eu- rope, contemned and even insulted by the Spanish court, while he vainly solicited his sovereign for the restoration of his authority, and expired in the year 1547, in the sixty- second year of his age. The history of Mexico, which continueil thcncu forward under the dominion of the crown of Spain, contains hardly any events which can interest a European reader, until its revolution in the nineteenth centiuy. CHAPTER I. s. i 11 Political revolutions in Mexico are followed by no small innovations in its vegetable products. From its conquest has resulted the introduction of many species from the Old continent ; and its exemption from the oppressions of Eu- ropean government must remove those discouragements which the absurcjl policy of the Spanish court has imposed upon the culture of some of the most valuable. From the vast variety in the elevations and aspects of the land, v/hich gives a correspondent variety of temperature, in all degrees from the fervours of the torrid zone to the coolness of re- gions approaching the frigid, the plants and trees of almost all climates are easily propagated in the Mexican soil. Yet from the want of that vigorous heat, which operates during Vegetables. I % I'tii" ■v-, * I -^f:-f.ii id MEXICO. CHAPTER I. a short time in the short summer of countries placed much farther from the equator than the poles^ several vegetables, jvhich thrive in these countries^ attain not perfection in those elevate pkiins of Mexico, where the heat, though greater on the whole amount in the course of the year, is. not, from its equability in the torrid zone, sufficiently powerful at any one season. The only kind of grain found cultivated in Mexico by its discoverers was maize, which was indigenous to America, whence it has been received by the Old conti- nent, where it was unknown till after the discovery of the New. This grain, which is still the most extensively culti- vated, as it flourishes both in the hot lowlands and in plains of nine thousand feet in elevation, is here so luxuriant, as to grow to the height of from six to nine feet, and often to yield four hundred fold of the seed; " It is believed that we may estimate the produce of maize in general in th& equinoxial region of the kingdom of New Spain at a hun- dred and (ifty for one."* Of the species of com communicated from the old con- tinent, such as rice, wheat, barley, and rye, the first, which is best adapted to the low, moist, and sultry tracts along the coasts, has not become as yet, though it may pro- bably hereafter be, much an object of agricultural industry. The three latter, with other kinds of grain common in Europe, flourish only in those parts which enjoy a mild temperature, between the hot regions neaf the ocean on one side, and those plains on the other which are cold from * Humboldt) chap. 9. MEXICO. 31 excessive hei^^ht. In ascending from the coast to the cen^ tral table land the commencement of their culture is not oUten found at a less elevation than three or four thousand feet. The barley and rye, more especially the former, are cultivated on plains of greater height, or of less warm tem- perature, than the wheat. The last is of excellent quality, ahd so exuberant as often to produce fitly fold or more, and very seldom so little as sixteen. The quantity of its produce depends in great measure on artificial irrigation, as the interior of this country is ill supplied with rain. This irrigation, ahd the consequent production of corn and other esculents, might be vastly extended if the country were populous. Where human industry supplies not the requisite moisture the fields produce only pasturage ; and even that entirely fails in the dry season, from about the beginning of March or. /Vpril till the rains begin to fall about the estival solstice.- The most elevated plains in the central parts yield hardly even pasturage, but are bare, %rid, and saline, like the tracts called steppes in the im- mense regions of Tartary. CnAPTER I.' 'rm m. These bare and saline tracts however, though occupying extensive spaces, bear no great proportion to the whole of this fine country, " a great part of which belongs to the most fertile regions of the earth/'* Among the esculents is the banana, indigenous to Mexico, indigenous also to tro- pical Asia, whence some species of this vegetable, some- what difierent from the American, , have been transpUnted ';;l * Humboldt, chap. 3. ,'33 MBXICOi CHAPTER I. to the New world. The regions adapted to its successful culture are those where the mean temperature of the year is measured by the sevcnty-fidh degree of Fahrcnheit'ii thermometer. In the Mexican soil, ill such hot situations^ it liears ripe fruit of from six to eleven inches in length, in the tenth or eleventh month after its plantation by a sucker ; and is so productive, that two days work of a man, without much labour, in each week in the year, is sufficient for the maintenance of a family; and that any space of ground, planted with bananas, maintains twenty-five times as many persons, as an equal portion sown with wheat. Indigenous also to the same hot tracts of Mexico, whose elevation ex- ceeds not between two and three thousand feet, are the two species of maniok, the sweet and the bitter, of the former of which the juice is innocuous, of the latter, in a raw state, |K)isonous* The two species seem not distinguishable by the sight, nor otherwise than by the taste. The bitter juice is divested of its bad qualities by boiling. Grated, com- pressed in sacks like apples for cider, formed into cakeijr, and baked on plates of iron, the maniok roots yield an ex- cellent kind of bread, agreeable to the taste, and very nu- tritive, as containing much saccharine matter. The har- vest of this vegetable, which in its root resembles the pars- nip, and in its mode of culture the potatoe, comes not till seven or eight months after the planting of the slips. In plains more elevated and not so sultry is the potatoe culti- vated, which appears to have been indigenous to Chili, and propagated thence to the Mexican territories, where it seems to have been unknown before the Spanish invasion,* Hnmboldt, ch«p. 9. MBXIOO* as Tobacco, an iudigonous vegetable, with which the cast- cm hemisphere has been furnished by America, would be cultivated to great extent, if its culture were not rentricted by Spanish ordounances. The case is different with the sugar-cane, which has been imparted by the Old world to the New, and of which the cultivation has rapidly encreased since the conclusion of the eighteenth century. As the work is here porforined by hired labourers, and consequently at vastly less expense than in the West Itidian islands, where slaves only are employed, this and other continental countries will probably, in course of time, supersede the exportation of sugar from those islands. Before the intro- duction of the cane into tlieir territories, the Mexicans pro- cured sugar from the stalk of the maize and other vegetables. The culture of flax and hemp has been discouraged, but indigenous cotton of the finest quality is copiously pro- duced. Several species of the indigo plant are also natives of the Mexican soi), but the province of Guatimala, of which the annual product of the best quality in the world, is valued at above half a million, is the chief scene of its cultivation. SiirsapariUa, the sanative root of which is so well known, grows wild in great quantities, as also the jalapa plant, a kind of what the botanists term convolvulus^ from which the medicinal powder of jalap is made. The region most pro vrhich thrive well in this countl7, since the trans- pkntation of the trees from Europe, but have been pre- vented by government from becoming an object of extensive culture. The agave or magtiey tree, which varies mucii in species, has served in place of the vine to furnish liquor to the aboriginals. This liquor extils from a cut made- where a gnvA bunch of flowers would otherwise be deve- loped. An ordinary proc^uct from a tree of hardly five feet, high is a hundred and and fifty bottles in the year ; but the quantity it ofl^n considerably greater. The vinous juice, thus obtained, abounding in saccharine matter, ferments^ is fit for use in a few days, and> though it has a fetid smell, is preferred by some of even the white inhabitants to every other 'beverage. It is called pulque by the Spaniards^ re- sembles cider in' appearance, and yields by distillation a very, strong brandy. From the bark of this tree the ancient^ Mexicans manufactured their papen • To enumerate all the vegetables of a country, which, b)*^ its various elevations and temperatures, unites the products of the tempemte imd torrid zones^ could not be attempted MBXIOO* «l in this work. The variety of ita forest trees is altogether prodigious. Among these are the cabbage palm« the cotton tree, the ironwood, the mahogany, the logwood, the cedar, the oak, and the pine. The first, which bears a mass of edible substance at its top, ofa white hue, and of an agree- able taste, like that of the artichoke, is beautifully majestic, growing to the height of above a hundred feet. The second, little less in height, b(>ars a most beautifully 8t>letidid profu- sion of variously coloured flowers, in which predominates the hue of the carnation, succeeded by small pods, in which is contained cotton of a silky fineness. The logwood and mahogany are so abundant as to have induced some £!nglish •adventurers, at no small risk, in defiance of the Spanish power, to form a settlement in Yucatati, in the bay of Hon- duras. The mahogany tree, conspicuous Itt the dense forests by its leaves of a reddish yellow, is of so vast a size, that, though it is cut at the height of twelve feet from the ground, a single tree is often found to measure twelve thousand superficial feet, and i6 brin^ a price of more than a thousand British pounds. * Near the city df Mexico have been 4;ypresses found fif^ feet in ^irfh f The most-useftil quadrupeds of this, as of other American countries, are all of foreign introduction, as the hofse, the ass, the cow, the sheep, and the hog, all of which have mut-' tiplied toa^uprisingdegree. Two species indeed of the neat, one of which is called the musk ox, were indigeBous, CHAPTER I Aoimtlt. s :^\;'.! * Henderson, p. 5i, i Ilainboldt't Researches) Tol. 1) p. 301. 36 MSXICO. CHAPTER I. but never made subservient to the use of man by taming Several indigenous varieties of the dog were found in a do- mestic state among the Mexicans, one of which, termed techichi, was eaten by the natives, for which purpose it was- frequently emasculated and fattened. As this people were destitute of labouring quadrupeds, all the operations of agriculture and the carrying of burdens were performed by the unaijded strength , of the human species. Among the innumerable species of wild quadrupeds are some varieties, of the deer,, the armidillo, the porcupine, and the monkey. We find also the pecaree, the agootee, the racoon, the ant- eater, the tapeer, and the opossum. ' The beasts of prey are chiefly varieties of the cat, to the two largest species of which the name of tiger is given, though their size isgenis- rally &r from entitling them to that denomination. The more formidable, but more rare, of these two sorts is termed, the black tiger, the other the Brazilian. A few fowls were found tame among the natives of Mexv, ico by the first European visiters, among which were the turkey and a species of duck ; but the gallinaceous race of poultry., called the cock 'and hen by Europeans, was un- known till its importation fronv the old continent. The tur- key, with which America has furnished the old world, is much larger in its wild than in its domestic state. Perhaps the former is of a different species from the latter. The. wild sort has been found to grow to the weight of forty pounds in the southern parts of North America.* It has * Voyage de Mlchaux, p. 190.. ■/ MBXICO. quite disappeared in the populous parts of the vas^ Mexicaiir isthmus ; but it still inhabits the thick forests of Yucatan, Honduras, and other southern tracts. Here it is said to display such a brilliancy of plumage, as not to yield in beauty to the most splendid species of the peacock.* Next in size to this bird, and much resembling it in its habits, of a beautiful figure, and quite feasily tamed, but so impatient of cold as not easily to bear a removal to cooler climates, is the curassow, the male of which is nearly black, but the female of a rich chocolate hue, with variegated spots, and superior to her matie in magnitude of body. The penelope cristata or quam, much esteemed for its flesh, belongs also to the class of indigenous poultry. The only species k?re known of the partridge resembles the Guinea hen much ia appearance, and even in size. ., 9t CHAPTKR I. Amid the inconceivably great variety of birds we find the dove, the wood-pigeon, the scarlet spoonbill, the humming bird» the toucan, various tribes of the heron, and of the parrot. The swallow has been- an object of curiosity, parti- cularly about the bay of Honduras* Here it is seen in pro- digious numbers during the rainy season, but afterwards totally disappears. Each morning, at the dawn, these birds are observed to rise in a vast spiral column;, in the form of a waterspout, to a certain height, whence they disperse in all directions. At sunset they re-araemble, and descend in the same form, with such velocity, as to make a noise like the roar of ati immense torrent, or of a tremendous gust of * Henderson, p. HO. \'V m CHAPTKR I. flISXICO. / iivtnd.* Of th« small bints of the woods, which in g^era}> possess great beauty of plumage, but no melody of voice, one of the tribes is composed of some species of the ortolan, which are so numerous, that a hundred of their nests might often be counted on a sinn^e tree. The lakes, the rivers, and the inlets of the ocean, are covered with vast flocks of water-fowl of various kinds, among which is a species the same in appearance with what is termed in Europe the Mus- covy duck. ■» The tribes of serpents, lizards, and other reptiles, seem here to be nearly the some as in other tropical countries* Among the inhabitants of the waters are the manatee and alligator. The turtle, also, particularly in tliree speciec^ abounds in the neighbouring seas. In general the marine animals are the same with tliose of other American regions witliio the torrid aone ; but the case is somevvhat -diflrerent in respect of the terrene. The latter, in the northern and elevated lands, are like tliose of the neighbouring countries of North America ; but in the bot maritime and southern territories they are similar to those of the South American r^ions between the tropics. The shell which yields the purple dye, and that which cootams the pearl, are consi-* devabty copious on the western coast, the former chiefly in the bay of the Tekuantepec, the latter in the bay of Pa- nama. The Pacific ocean in the vicinity of the vast Mex* ican isthmus, particularly between the main land and the Marias islands, i^ounds >■ whales of the largest size juui *■ lleMdersen, p. ISO. JVBXIOO* most valuabk) kinds. The chief object of pursuit to fishers m this tract of ocean is the cachalot, in the enormous ca- verns of whose snout is contained the substance called qiermaceti. A single fiirii of this species oflen yields above a hundred and twenty barrels, of above thirty giallons each, of this unctuous matter.* This fishery has been hitherto pursued almost exclusively by adventurers from the British Islands and the United States of North America. 90f CRAFTBa I. Of the insect tribes the most useful and most worthy of notice are the bee, the silkworm, and the cochineal. Mex- ico possesses an indigenous bee, either destitute of a sting, or armed only with a feeble one, the wax of which is not so easily wlutened as that of Europe. This species abounds particularly in Yucatan, especially in the environs of the town of Compeachy, which sometimes e^^rts near eight tuns of wax in the year. The white mulberry tree, with its concomitant silk worm, was brought eariy from Europe into this country, but its culture has not been permitted to extend. Several indigenous kinds, however, of the cater- |Mllar called silkworm, subsisted there, togedier widi a species of mulberry, previously to the discovery of America, of the «lk of some of which a few stufi^ are stiH manufac- tured. Most of these feed on leaves entirely different from those of the mulberry, particulariy on those of a tree called the arbutus madrono. These insects weave their silk into pendent bags, seven inches long, of a brilliant whiteness, composed of several stratums of so dense a tissue^ as to I • Humboldt,, cUp. 10. 40 MBXtCO. CHAPTER I. resemble Chinese paper, and to be applicable to the same use. It is in fact a natural paper, which the ancient Mex- icans used in writing, posting together several stratunis, to render the thickness such as they thought proper.* They also wrote on the parchment of the skins of stags, and ou paper fabricated from the bark of the agave. The lustre of the madrono silk, as this is termed, would render ih highly valuable, if impediments were not opposed to the fabrication of it into cloth by the extreme difficulty cxpe> t'ienced in the winding of the thread. The cochineal insect, indigenous only in the American regions, but begun to be propagated lately in the Indian, is of about the size of a bug, found adhering to a thorny shrub termed nopal, which bears a fruit resembling the tig. This insect is of two kinds, the wild and the fine. The no- pals also, on which two kinds subsist, are specifically or essentially different. The wild cochineal, w;hich thrives in several parts of South America, as well as in Mexico, is co- vered with a white sort of down, like cotton, which increases with its age. Though the colour, which it yields is very beautiful, and permanent, it is little esteemed in comparison of the fine. The latter sort, which is larger than the wild, and powdered with a white substance, resembling fine jneal, requires very much the care of man, particularly in the culture of the nopals, which are not permitted to grow above the height of four feet, and the preserving of the an.i- joal from, destructive insects and other enemies. Ataccr- Hamboldt, chap. 10. MBXIOO: fuiii stage of its existence the animal is killed, by being plunged in hot water, or by other means. In some districts it affords three hanrests, or gatherings, in the year. Its production appears to have been more general in Mexico, to which it seems to have been peculiar, before the Spanisli conquest than at present. Its culture has been lately almost confined to the province of Oaxaca, which is said to furnish Europe with four hundred tuns annually, at the price of half a million. So lately as about the middle of the eigh- teenth century, a considerable quantity was produced in Yucatan, but in a single night the insect was exterminated in that peninsula by the cutting of all the nopals. This deed is charged by the aboriginals to the account of the government, which is said to have adopted this measure for the securing of a monopoly to cultivaton in other parts : but by the white inhabitants of Mexico it is ascribed to the aboriginals, who are said to have been actuated by resent- ment at the low price fixed by Spanish avarice on the pro- duct of their industry.* In either supposition the fact is conformable to the erroneous system of Spanish adoii- uistration. Whatsoever may be in future times the product of the soil' in this fertile cocitry, under an improved political sys- tem and an augmented population, the great object of pursuit has hitherto been the metals of gold and siWer, Minerals of other kinds, which appear to be sufficiently copious in the bowels of the earthy as qppper, tin, lead, * Hanboldt, chap. 10. f 41 CHAPTER I. 1 v'* . II •II ;; 4t MBXICO* CHAPTER I. iron, ftnd mercary, have been as yet much neglected. Tin is discovered, in the same manner as gold-dust, in alluvions grounds, or the beds of torrents. Mercury, so much used in the extraction of silver by amalgamation, may probably hereafter be procured in such quantity from the Mexican mines as not only to supply the consumption at home, but also, in a considerable degree^ that of Europe, instead of the Mexican miners being, as at present, furnished in great part thence v^ith this mineral. Among the very various substances of the fossil class, found in several territories of this vast region, are zinc, antimony, and arsenic : but cobalt and manf(anese appcttr not to have occurred in such quantity as to aierit notice. Neither has salt been discovered in a minerad state, in masses of great siae, but is thickly dissemi- nated in those high ai^Uaciovs lands which form the ridge of the cordiUera, and which resemble in their nature the great saUiie plains of TiMrtary and Tibbet. It is also found in nuiae mafriie«» after the evaporation of the water by the sunbeams, particularly about the port of Colima on the coast of the Pacific ; and in the beds of desiccated lakes in the interior country, especially in that of Penon- blanco, on the northern borders of the province of Zaca- teeas^ whidi, on becoming regularly dry about the brumal solstice, yields annually to government above twelve thou- auid tuns of aalt^ not pure, but mixed with particles of eartjk^ ' Mining ind«istry in Mexico has heretofore been directed almost exclusively to gold and silver. The quantity pro- cured of the former is however comparatively small^ not ^v i\...\^. MBXIOO. ,u^. H equal in value to a twentieth part of the latter* The gold is ohtaintnl not only from alluvious grounds by the common process of wa«4iing, but also, cither pure or mixed with silver, in the mines. The silver exported annually from Mexico is computed at near sixteen hundred and fifty thou- sand pounds of troy weight. The quantity indeed extracted from the earth in this country is said to be ten times as gpreat as that which is furnished by all the mines of Europe toge- ther, and to constitute two-thirds of what is drawn from all parts of the globe. Yet, though mines are worked in near five hundred places, above one half of the whole quan- tity procured is said to be yielded by the three districts of Guanaxuato, Zacatccas, and Catorce. Guanaxuato alone is said to produce albove a fourth part of the silver of Mex- ico, and a sixth of aH exported from aH the regions of America. By an ingenious calcubtion the quantity of sil- ver furnished in the course of three centuries by the mines of all America is computed to amount to above three hun- dred and sixteen millions of pounds of troy weight. The product of the Mexican mines, which have so vastly con- tributed to this enormous sum, has been in a state of increase since (he middle of the eighteenth century. Not- withstanding the unequalled wealth affo:'ded by these mines, they exhibit not such large blocks of native silver as have been discovered in the Qld continent. This metal is commonly d^ssepninated in the metalliferous earth, in a pure state indeed, but in partiqles so minute as not to be percep- tible except through a iiiIl-ruHcupe, and so thinly arranged, that sixteen thousand ounces of this errth yield only three or four ounces of silver. The territories in this country f2 CIIAPTBR I. 14 44 MEXICO « CHAPTER I. -k AntiqnitiM. most abundant In the precious metals are situated between the twenty- first degree and the twenty-fourth and a half oC northern latitude, on the ridge and western slope of the C!ordiIlera, at elevations of from near six thousand to near ten thousand feet above the ocean's level, mostly in places of such a temperature as is &vourable to vegetation and agriculture.* All the works of the Mexican mines are voluntarily performed by hired labourers, who are paid at least three or four shillings a day. In their search for the precious metals the first colonists from Spain were guided by the indications of mines received by them from the natives. Tliese had not only discovered the means of extracting treasure from alluvions earths, but had also long " applied themselves to subterraneous opera- tions in the working of veins. They cut galleries and dug pits of communication and ventilation ; and they had instru- ments adapted for the cutting of the rock." The excava- tions formed by their mining industry are among the monu- ments Tvtiich attest that the ancient Mexicans had made much greater progress in the arts than is generally supposed. They had not proceeded to the coinage of gold and silver, but had converted them into various ornaments, particularly vases of exquisite workmanship, some of which were in pre- servation until very lately. Of their ipstruments made of obsidian and of copper mixed with tin I have already made mention. Some monuments of combined labour, works executed for religioun or political purposes, might be ex- * For a fall accoant ofthci mioei aee Hiunboldt, chap. 11. HBXIOO* 45 pected to remain, where a nation once subsisted so nume- rous and under so regular a government. The fortified hill of Xochicalco is remarkable, surrounded by a wall and ditch above two miles in circutt. But in the capital and its environs, where the old city was destroyed by its ferocious conquerors, few relics of antiquity are found, except the ruins of aqueducts and of dikes constructed for resistance against inundation, two vast blocks called the stone of the sacrifices and the stone of the calendar, the colossal statue of a goddess covered with hieroglyphics, and two religious structures, called teocalliea, at some distance, in the vicinity. The stone of the calendar is denominated from the use to which it was applied, and that of the sacrifices, on which immolated victims were thrown, is adorned with a relievo, representing the triumph of a Mexican king. Tliese blocks, containing . each above three hundred cubic feet, serve to shew what huge masses tlie ancient Mexicans contrived to move, by what means we are not informed. But, among a multitude of idols, has been lately found buried a carved stone of above ten times the size of either of these, which the Spaniards endeavoured in vain to remove. The remains of religious piles are however the chief mo- numents of Mexican antiquity. These were all truncated pyramid!», bearing a rude resemblance to some of the cele- brated pyramids of Egypt, ascending by stages, and termi- nating above in a flat surface, on which were placed the images and altare of their deities. Great stairs of hevm stone conducted, on the outside, from the bottom to the top of the fabric ; but whether or not the mass was solid through- CHAPfBR I. ^ mtxico* CHAPTER I. out« or contained apartments within, has not b<>)en deter- mined. The great teoeaUi in the Mexican metropolis, which was probably (be model of all others, was destroyed by the Spaniards, but the remains of two are still seen in the same valley, north-eastward of the lake of Tescuco. One of these, consecrated to the sun, has a base near seven hun* dred feet long, ancL in its present state, a perpendicular height of a hundred and eighty. The other, which was de- dicated to the moon, rises from a smaller base to the height ofonly a hundred and forty-four feet. Each is a mingled mass composed of stones and day, incased with a thick wall of a porous kind of stone termed ainyg;daloid and with lime. The sides of these structures face not exactly the four cardinal points of the compass, but deviate only fifty- two minutes from that pQation« from which the pyramid of Cholula deviates not at all. The base of this, the greatest of all these [ules in Mexico, is fourteen hundred and twenty- three feet broad, and what remains of the height is a hundred and seventy-seven. It is composed, as far as known, of alternate stratums of brick and clay, faced on each side with a vrall of amigdaloid. The materials are different in the pyramid of Papantla^ in the northern part of the pro- vince of Veracruz. With abase exactly square, of a breadth of eighty-two feet, and with a height of not more than sixty- five, the teocatti of Papantla is much less remarkable for its me than for its symmetry, and for the polish and per- fectly regular cut of the immense blocks of hewn stone of which only it is pomposed. Six stages in this pile, adorned with hierpglypbics, are still visible, and a seventh seems concealed by a rank vegetation around. Environed by a MBXIOO* 47 thick forest^ and concealed by the silence of the aboriginals, who held it in gr^at veneratkuij this monument remained quite unknown to Europeans, till it was accidentally dis- covered after the middle of the eighteenth century.* Among the arts of the ancient Mexicans was the manu- facturing of paper and cloth from' silk and cotton. By the introduction of wool and the use of iron by the Europeans^ the manufactures of the natives are improved : but their in- dustry in these, as in various products of the soil, has been ipdirectly discouraged by the government of Spain, whose erroneous policy was, that the colonies should be totally de- pendant on the parent countr) tor whatsoever merchandize the latter could furnish. This system, which raised the price of imported goods, by preventing a sufficient supply, obliged the inhabitants to encourage a contraband traffic with the Dutch and Ekiglish colonies. A different state of things will doubtless have (dace, and has even already had a commencement ; but our information is limited to the situa- tion in which affairs were found in the earliest years of the nineteenth century. Not only the colonial system of the Spanidi court, but also the nature of the country itself, has considerably impeded its commercial operations. From the great paucity of harbours, and the tempestuous weather, already mentioned, inimical to navigation, the cj^terior com- rtierce is confined to a few harbours ; while, Com the almost total want of navigable rivers, the merchandize is transported to and from the interior only by laud-carriage ; and this • Humboldt, chip. 8. RcNsrchti, v«lf 1, p. 01— 114, CHAPTBl I. Coaiineree. r ■'.'IL MMXIOO* OMAPTRK I. • \ !*! ■1'*U'-*-'). carrlnge, from (he dccliTiticH of the* IaiuI towartl the coBst«, tiiid the nnrrowneiii of the roads, tinftivoiirable to whRelod ve- hicle!^, ifi performed on the backi of mules and other quadru- peds. Thus near seventy thousand mules are employed in the conveyance of goods to and from (he port of Veracruz alone. Anodier impediment is (he insalubrity of the nwrithne towns, which> from their low situation, are exposed to yiolent heats, unpropitiouB to the health of ISuropeans, and of the inhabitants of the elevated plains of the interior country. From the heat, combined with other causes, arise disorders of the body, particularly the yellow fever, whioh tVequeutly commits great ravages at Veracrui. The internal commerce of (he Mexican provinces is main* tained almost entirely by land*carriago, or by a coasting navigation. The external in transacted chiefly in the mari- time towns of Veracrui, Portalrallo, Panama, and Acapulco. The imports consist of manufkctured goods, and various other articles, as wine, brandy, iron, steel, mercury, and wax. Among the exports are sugar, flour, indigfo, sarsa- parilla, vanilla, jalap, logwood, cochineal, raw cotton, and hides, but principally the precious metals, in coin, wrought plate, or ingots. The annual value of the importx, which is doubtless in a s(a(eofaugmen(ation, has been calculated, including the contraband tradr. which is stated at the fourth, at least, of the whole, to amount to four millions and' a half of British pounds. Gold and silver constitute more than two-(hirds of (he expor(s in value, besides that near two millions, in these metals, are, or at least were, annually tlruwn out of the country in taxes to tlie Spanish king. Thus MlllOO* nil tlio product of the mines, CMtimtited at nearly aix millions a year is oxporte<], except a little more than the worth of two hundred thousand pounds, which remains to augment the quantity of the precious metals possessed by the inha* bitants. The great emporium of Mexico is Veracruz, where between four an according to iher "trength of the interest by which his party is upheld; evadb. tiie restrictions imposed on his authority. Hi8> jurisdiction* extends into N in the space of a tew yeacs^ fitomthe people placed under their jurisfHctioa : but otiiers have acted in a most nobly disii»* terested manner, particularly the Count de Revillagjgedo and the CThevalier d' Azanza« whose memories are held in very great veneration. To give a formal statement of the tribunals of justice and other pants of the political system. CBAPTBR I. *-J m\ H mxiGo. CHAPTER I. peipetuRlly liable to be newly modeled and newly arranged; seems inexpedient in this work« and could not beinterast- ing. All the vices of the feudal power, so deleterious in Spain> have passed into Mexico, with this addition of evil, that the immense distance from the seat of the supreme authosity renders the application of remedies more difficult, notwith- standing the courts of justice termed audiences, and various other institutions, in appearance wisely planned by that high directing body, styled the Council of the Indies, ta whose jurisdiction are subject all the aflUrs of the Spanish posaessions in America and the Philippine islands^ and whose integrity of conduct has been greatly extolled.* The lands are in great proportion the i^perty of a few power- ful families, whose extensive possessiona have gradually absorbed the smaller estates, who harass the farmers, and eject them at pleasure, to the vast retardation of agricultu- ral industry. But the evils of the political system^, whidi, indeed at several successive times have beeU' iii part cor^ rected, press chiefly on the aborigimds, who still, notwith- standing much accomplished in their favour, remain in a miserably degraded condition. This unfortunate race of people might have been exterminated, like the indigenous inhabitants of the West Indian islands, if the court of Ma- drid had not made early exertions in their fiuvour, exertions which perhaps saved the remnant from destruction, but> which unintentionally tended to confirm their slavery. In?» * Drponi^ Canccas, 8to. London^ 180t, toI. 1,. p.357— SfiO« MIIIOO* S$ •tead of being wised indiicriniinately as daves by the Spaniardi, the natives were distributed among them, in such manner that each colonist might be a protector to the persons.put under his authority. But, instead of protec- tors, the people found themselves consigned to tyrannical masters, who, by a perversion of the ordonnance, treated them, notwithstanding their being declared freemen by the Spanish Government, a» vaiwals affixed to the soil, and as much the property of each landholder relatively as the cattle in his fields^ In the eighteenth century, the condi- tion of this race was much ameliorated. By instructions from the sOverelgpi power, particulary, to his great honour, in the reign of Charies the Third, the viceroys and audiences took measures to cause the protection of the laws to extend to the ancient natives. This laudable design was still fur- ther promoted by the division of the country into intendan* cie8» territories over each of which a sub-governor, styled intendant, presides, a part of whose duty is the protection of this people. Whatsoever attention we may indagine bestowed by the government of Spun on its American colonies, no efiectual system of laws has as yet been devised for the aboriginal Mexicans, nor have any of a salutary nature, which have been enacted, answered fully the proposed end. The In- dians, as the pure descendent^ of the ancient natives are denominated, are completely insulated in society, with re- spect to the rest of the inhabitants, banished in general Into the most barren parts of the country, and distributed vk villages, in which no people of any other description CBAPTM L ^.. I 1 54 MBXIOOk CHAPTLR I. are pcrmittecf to dwelt. Except the rpftl or pretenfled de- iicendents of their ancient noUei, who however are not dftithig^uiflliable from the rest in either dren or manhers, they ane mi^jected to a polt^x, which is regarded as a brand of ihfhmy. They are g;ovemcd immediately t»y ma- gistrates of tilis chm of gentry, who, far from being their protectors, senre as the tyrannical instruments of oppres- sion nnder the white inhabitants. Such indeed is every where- the natine of mankind that authority is most cruelly exercised by slaves. With respect to legal rights, they are treated as beings of an inteKect by nature inferior lo that of people of European descent. They are condemned by absurd* laws to a perpetual minority, insomuch that no dbed signed* by any of them is obligatory, nor pecuniary contract above the value of fifteen franks, or between twelve and thirteen shillings. The people of any mixed breed are in like manner segregated, marked with disgraceful inferiority by the poll- tax, and excluded from political privil^es. Various are the acts of oppression exercised over these and the Indians by the privileged part of the community. Thus, for in- stance, a white man, concerned in a manufactory, contrives to bring into his debt a man of a lower class, and employs him in his workshop for the payment of the debt by labour; but, instead of %vages in money, he furnishes him with ne- cessaries at a price so exorbitant that the debt is never discharged. The miserable workman, thus rendered a perpetual debtor, is incarcerated for life, and forced to waste bis health in continual toil^ under the lash of an unfeeling master. The white inhabitants, who tyninnize over all' otliers, are far from being equally privileged among them« MBXlOOi idrei. To Spaniardi only of Buropeftn birth ue confided iMcea of fruit and emolument, to the eaclueiofi of the creolee« or natWet 4>f BuropeMi anceitry. Diicoutent ■gainet the 8(>anish govemmeat wai ithe consequence among the latter ; but their fear of the lower claaiea, in caae of a involution, has restrained tiiein from vigorous I Icr the asserting of 4b«ir independeoce. * 55 CRAFTIA I. Without the disunion of the classes of inhabitants, and the wellfounded dread Of Ihe tedt of the natives enter- tained by the Creoles, the military force maintained in Mexico would be inadequate to its retention under the govenamcnt of Spain. This force tis stated at little more than thirty thousand, of which the regular troopi form less than a third. The rest consists of a militia composed chiefly of Creoles. For external defence these troops might be sntficient. The coasts are unfavouvable to the debarcation of an uvading army : the air of the maritime tracts is hos- tile to the health of foreigners ; «nd many parts of the interior country would be found incommodious to the march of a foe : while desarts and other obstacles on tlie northern frontiers may be expected long to prevent any formidable irruptions of an enemy on that quarter. The expenses of the military esiablrahment, and of other parts of the system of internal government, absorb much the greater part of the royal revenue raised annually from the Mexican ter- ritories, which has commonly amounted to between four and five millions of British pounds. Above a fourth of the , - I |o«M • HHuboMt, «l»p. «, 10, IS. V: . « t 50 MBXICO. CHAPTER whole arises from the duties on the precious metals ei- — —— tracted from the earth. Near seven hundred thousand pounds a year have been sent to supply the charges of government in other Spanish colonies, and above a million to the royal treasury in Spain. This treasury has indeed received twice as great an annual remittance from Mexico as from all the other foreign possessions of the Spanish monarchy together * Raiiiioa. The revenue of tl^e church in Mexico is probably equal to much more than a fifth of that which is levied for the use of the king. The perpetually increasing income arising from tithes appears to amount to about six hundred • thousand pounds. The lands, which are in the actual pos- session of the clergy, pay perhaps not more to them in rent than forty or fifty thousand pounds a year ; but they possess funds to the amount of upwards of ten or twelve • t millions, lent to proprietors of lands on the security of mortgages, or bequeathed, and charged on estates by a like mode of security. The difference in the incomes of the clergy is prodigious. Thus, while the annual revenue of the archbishop of Mexico falls little short of thirty thousand pounds, that of a parish priest in an Indian village is often not more than twenty or twenty-five pounds. The paro* chial clergy indeed contrive to augment their means of living by levying small sums from their Indian parisbi- ■ oners. Thus they are paid ten franks, or between eight and nine shillingSi for every liaptism, twenty franks for each • Hamboldt, chap. 14. MEXICO. 57 cortificRte o( marriage* twenty for interment, and from twenfy-five to tliirty, by every individual, in oflforin^ which are called voluntary. A considerable inequality, in pecu- niury circumstances, has place even among the prelates, wliaare ten in number, and whose ai^gregate yearly income may be a hundred and fitly thousand pounds, but among whom the bishop of Oaxaca has hardly four thoueand. Beside about four thousand lay brothers and sisters, the Mexican clergy consist only of between eleven and twelve thousand, of whom about half are regular. The convents, not only here, but in all other parts of Spanish America, instead of being founded in retired or solitary places, as in Europe, where they contributed much to the progress of agriculture, and afforded asylums of hospitality to the tra- veller, are nuMtly crowded together in towns, where they are subservient to no purpose of public utility.* CHAPTBR Except some tribes of savages, particularly in Honduras and Darien, who remain still heathens, and independent of the Spanish government, no other than the Roman Catholic religion is professed by any of the inhabitants of Mexico, nor indeed of any country subject to the crown of Spain. The Indians however know nothing of Christianity beyond its exterior forms. They still adhere to their ancient cus- toms and ideas, having only exchanged the ceremonies of a sanguinary mode of worship for those of a gentle and humane religion. " This change from old to new rites ' rft * Humboldt, chap. 7, 10. His account exteads not to Gnatimala or to Darien, for which I could only proceed by leu authentic materials. ^r~- 58 *t HEXIGO* CHAPTER I. was the effect of cbmpulaion^ not of penuasion, and was produced by political events atone. In slich a complicated mytholos^y as that of the Mexicans^ an affinity was easily imag^ined between the Aztec deities and those of the east. The books of ritual, composed by the Indians in hiero- glyphics at the beginning of the conquest, evidently shew, that at that period Christianity was confounded with the Mexican mythology. The Holy Ghost is here identified with the sacred eagle of the Aztecs. The missionaries not only tolerated, they even fkvoured to a certain extent, this amalgamation of ideas, by means of which the Christian worship was more easily introduced among the natives, who, fond of whatsoever is connected with a prescribed order of ceremonies, find in the Christian religion particular enjoyments. The festivals of the church, the fire- works with which they arc accompanied, the processions mingled with dances and whimsical disguises, are a most fertile source of amusement for the lowec Indians. Every where the Christian rites have assumed the ^ades of the country into which they have been transplanted. Indians have been seen masked, and adorned with small tinkling bells, performing savl^^e dances around the altar, while a monk of Saint Francis elevated the host.* Townt. This wild mode of worship we must suppose to have ||>lace only in the villages, not in the cities, where civilza- tion is chiefly concentrated. Few indeed of the cities and towns require particular notice, although, beside the me- Humboldt, chtp. 0. ' "m o^ (S « « ,« « • MBXIOO. 59 tropolis, some are of considerable magnitude. Thus Gua- nuxuata, vritli its suburbs^ contains above seventy thousand inhabitants ; Pucbla de los Angeles above sixty-seven thousand ; and Queretaro thirty>five thousand. These three cities are situate on the central table-land, at no great distance from one another and from the capital. Zacatecas also contains thirty-three thousand, andOaxaca twenty-four thousand souls. The Spaniards, in their choice of the situations of towns, followed only the traces of the indige- nous population. They imagined themselves to be the founders of new cities when they gave new names to those of the ancient Mexicans. One of the best built is Puebla^ with lofty houses mostly of stone, and with streets broad, clean, regular, crossing one another at right angles, and ending in a great square in the center. Queretaro is also celel>rated for the beauty of its edifices and a noble aque*^ duct. Pasquaro, inhabited by six thousand persons, is only remarkable for its situation on a beautiful island in a charming lake of the same denomination. The maritime towns of Acapulco, Veracruz, Portobello, and Panama, are famous for their commerce, though otherwise inconsi- derable. CHAPTER I. Acapulco, seated on the coast of the Pacific ocean, con- tains not more tiian about four thousand inhabitants, except at the arrival of the galeon from Manilla, at which time it is crowded with adventitious numbers. Built against the back of a chain of gigantic mountains which reverberate the sunbeams, it is exposed to a suffocating heat, which contributes to render the air unwholesome. Its admirably , n2 ' Acapnlco. 60 CHAPTER I. k MEXICO. fine harbour, safe and commodious, consists of a deep and spacious bason, which; environed by masses of granite of a savage aspect, appears to have been formed by an explo- sion of subterranean fire. The harbour has two entrances, and the depth of wator on the coast «. utside is so great, that a ship of the line might float almost in contact with the rocks in perfect safety. For the admission of breezes from the ocean, for the mitigation of heat in the town, an opening has been cut by the labour of man, through the wall of rocky mountains. vencru. Contrasted with this town in the nature of its port and coast is Veracruz, regularly and beautifully built on the ' shore of the gulf of Mexico, and containing sixteen thou- sand inhabitants, beside the multitudes which resort to it at the season of traffic, when fleets arrive from Europe, and the West Indian islands Situate in an arid plain, it is fur- nished with water chiefly by cisterns, which are filled by the rains in the wet season. As the country in this neigh- bourhood is destitute of rock, its buildings are constructed of substances drawn from the bottom of the sea, such as are referred to the madrepore class. That which is called its port or harbour is only an unsafe road for anchorage, . f among flats and islands, on one of which, named San Juan Portebeiio. Ulua, is a strong fortress termed a castle. Portobello, thus denominated from its excellent harbour on the coast of the Atlantic, in tba isthmus of Darien, would not deserve mention except for its trade, which has already been no- ticed under the article of commerce. Confined on the land-side, by mountains covered with wood, its air has been MBXIOO* « insalubrious^ but its insalubrity has decreased with the de- crease of the forests. On the opposite coast of the same isthmus, at the distance of sixty miles, stands the city of Panama, on an arid tono^e of land destitute of vegetation, in a great bay of the Pacific ocean, where a road for an- chorage is formed among islands, as at Veracruz. It is incHosdd with a wall of freestone, and its streets are gene- rally broad, straight, and well paved. 61 CHAPTER I Panania. The capital of all New Spain, indeed the chief town of all America, is the city of Mexico, seated in a most remark- ably beautiful valley, or widely extended bason, which is enclosed, as 1 have already mentioned, with a wall of ro> mantic mountains, and interspersed with lakes of various magnitude, five in number. The modern city stands so exactly on the same ground which the ancient Tenochtitlan occupied, that the site of the cathedral is that of the ancient tcocaUi or temple ; the hotel of the Duke of Monteleone^ in which are kept the archieves of the state, has been erected where stood the palace of the unfortunate Monte- zuma ; and the street now named Tacuba is the same as the old TIacopan. Yet the ancient city stood within a lake, quite insulated by water, accessible only by boats, or by three long causeways formed on great dykes : where- as the modern is situate wholly on continental ground, be- tween the extremities of two lakes, the Tezcuco and Xochi- milco. The cause of this difference is the decrease of the Tezcuco, whose waters have receded, and left the land dry which they formerly occupied around this metropolis. The dikes arc partly still in existence, forming elevated cause- Mexico. € ^v • \ OHAPTeK I. •■!»?r*' ' MBXICO. ways over manihy grounds, and serving as barriers a^i^ainst inundation. The present capital however, occupyin(^ a square near two miles broad, is far interior in extent to the ancient; nor perhaps is the population of the former, con- sisting of nearly a hundred and forty thousand persons, equal to more than a third of that of the latter. The po» pulation, fertility, and beauty of the whole vale of Tenoch- tillan, by the first view of which die Spaniards were enrap- tured, have indeed much declined since the conquest of the country. " Adorned with numerous teocallies, like so many Mo- hammedan steeples, surrounded with water and dikes, founded on islands covered with verdure, and receiving hourly in its streets thousands of boats which vivified the lake, the ancient Tenochtitlan, according to the accounts of the first conquerors, must have resembled some of the cities of Holland, China, or the Delta of Lower Egypt. The capi- tal, reconstructed by the Spaniards, exhibits perhaps a less vivid, though a more majestic appearance. Mexico is un- doubtedly one c f the finest cities ever built by Europeans in either hemisphe.'e. With the exception of Petersburgh, Berlin, Philadelphia, and some quarters of Westminster^ there does not exist a city of tlic same extent which can be compared to the capital of New Spain, for the uniform level of the ground on which it standa, for the regularity and breadth of the streets, and the extent of the public places. The arciiitecture is generally of a very pure style, and there are even edifices ot very beautiful structure. The exterior of the huuses is not loaded with ornaments. Two sorts of ^ MBXIOO. 63 hewn stone^ the porous amygdaloid called tetzontli. and es- pecially a porphyry of vitreous feldspath without any quartz, give to the Mexican buildings an air of solidity, and sometimes even magnificence. There are none of those wooden balconies and galleries to be seen which dis- figure so much all the European cities in both the Indies* .The balustrades and gates are all of Biscay iron, orna- mented with bronze, and the houses, instead of roofs, have terraces like those in Italy and otlier southern countries."* The modern streets run generally in the directions of the ancient, directions adapted doubtless to those of the cause- ways, nearly from north to south, and from east to west. Some superb public buildings, and other works of art, con- tribute to the embellishment of this metropolis, which is aup(riied with fresh water by ^wo aqueducts, the larger of which is above six miles leng. Of the floating gardens, rafts covered with soil, on the lakes, some are even still in existence. CHAPTER I. Better grounds are fuiTiished for approximating by calcu- lation the number of inhabitants in the a4)ital than the area of the country, whose form is quite irregular, and of the whole of which no maps quite accurate have as yet been published. Extending obliquely through twenty degrees of latitude, it stretches in length above two thousand miles ; but its breadth is altogether various, about sixty miles only at the narrowest part, the isthmus of Darien ; but at its Extent. -:% W .MW • Humboldt, chap. 8. jij ^*fi>tt»' mm m * ^ ® ^».■ • 64 CHAPTER I MBXICOi broadest in the north, at what may be termed the base of its figure, not less than six hundred and thirty. Perhaps if its area could be accurately measured, it would be found to contain near six hundred and thirty thousand square Eng- lish miles, or above four hundred millions of acres. Divbion. The divisions of New Spain arranged by the Spanish government are political and arbitrary, and have been arbitrarily altered, nor hv.ve any of its arrangements been accommodated to geogiaphical delineation on the nor- thern quarter, where the vast Mexican isthmus is politi- cally confounded with wliat are termed the provincias internast the territories claimed by Spain in the immense peninsula of North America. In the south are the ter- ritories of Darien politically united with New Granada, of Veragua, Costarica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Yerapaz, Guatimala, and Yucatan. Of the remaining portion of New Spain, to the rtorth and west of Guatimala, an old division is still retained by many of the inhabitants, a divi- sion into the provinces, of which some are styled kingdoms, of Mexico proper. New Gallicia, New Leon, New Santan- der, Cohahuila, and New Biscay. The most northern of these extend into North America, as also the most northern of the inteadancies isito which this country has been more recently partitioned. These territories, placed under the inspection of sub-goveruvors styled inteudants, are named Merida which comprehends a part of Yucatan, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Mexico, Puebla, Valladolid, Guanaxuato, Gua- dalaxara, Zacatecas, and San Luis Potosi. Of the last a great portion belongs to the North American Peninsula. « I ■«■ • 'v.; HBXICO* The province or territories into Mrhich New Spain has been divided are exceedingly unequal in extent and population, more especially the latter. The elevated plains, where the temperature is mild, are in general far more po- pulous than the low tracks near the ocean, where the soil is much more fertile, but exposed to much greater heat. " The interior of the country contains four cities, which are not more than one or two days' journey distant from one another, which possess an aggregate population of three hundred and ten thousand. The central table-land from La Puebla to Mexico, and thence to Salamanca and Ze- laya, is covered with villages and hamlets like the most cultivated parts of Lombardy. To ^e east and west of this narrow stripe succeed tracts of uncultivated grounds on which cannot be found ten or twelve persons to the square league,"* or not near so much as two to the square mile. '* The great cities of the Aztecs, and the best culti- vated territories, were in the environs of the capital of Mex- ico, particularly in the fine valley of Tenochtitlan. This alone was a sufficient reason to induce the Spaniards to establish there the center of their new empire : but they loved also to inhabit plains whose climate resembled that of their owk; country, and where they could cultivate the wheat and fruit trees of Europe. Indigo, cotton, sugar, and coffee, the four great objects of West Int^ie n com- merce, were to the conquerors of the sixteenth century of very inferior interest. They sought the precious metals only with avidity, and the search for these metals fixed 65 CHAPTER I. Population. './ '■jfi] * Humboldt, chap. 4. I 66 MBXIOOt CHAPTER I. them on the central plain or ridge of the Cordillera."* Possessed of the advantage of a temperature not ungenia]« the mines of this country, instead of withdrawing the inha- bitants from agriculture, are mostly surrounded by the best cultivated lands, where the nishig of provisions is encour* aged by the markets which the multitudes collected by the mining business furnish. The roost populous of the intcn* dancies are those of Mexico, Puebla, and Guanaxuato. The first is stated to contain on an average two hundred and fifty-five;, the second three hundred and one, and the third five hundred and eighty -six persona to the square league ; while the intendancy of Veracruz is supposed to have only thirty-eight. The total population of all New Spain appears, in the year 180S, to have exceeded sevea millions, and to have been in a state of n^id encrease. This country indeed may probably contain about half of the inhabitants of aU Spanish America, f T«babituto. About two fiAhs of the whole population of New Spain consist of unmixed aboriginals, termed Indians, the des- cendant of thoee ancients tribes who inhabited the country- before ^e arrival of Europeans. The white inhabitants of unmixed European blood may constitute about one-fifth. The rest of the population is composed of persons of mixed descent, called eastaa by some Spanish writers. The whites are divided into Creoles and Spaniards or Europeans. The > ' formerarenatives of America : the latter, who fonn hardly a fourteenth oi the whit« pc^iulation, are natives of Spain. * Humboldt, chap. 4. f Iden, chap. 8 ; alio toI. 4, Supplement, p* 33S. MIXIOO* 97 The castasj the tribes of mingied extraction, are distin- guished by the appellations of mestizos, mulattoes, and zambos. The mestizos or mestees are the mixed descen- dants of whiles and Indians, the mulattoes of whites and negroes, and the zambos of negroes and Indians, or of ne> groes and Cliiuese or Malays, imported in the intercourse vrith the Philippine islands. "The colour of a mestizo is almost a pure white, and his skin is of a particular trans- parency. The small beard, and smalt hands and feet, and a certain obliquity of the eyes, are more frequent indications of the mixture of Indian blood than- the nature of the hair. If a mestiza, a female of this race, marry a white man, the second generation diifen hardly in any thing from the Eu- ropean race. As very few negroes have been introduced into New Spain, the mestizos probably compose seven- eighths of the whole castes. They are generally accounted of a much more mi4d character than tiie mulattoes, who are distinguished for the violence of their passions and a singular volubility of toog^io. The descendants of negroes and Indian woioeii bear at Mexico, Lima, and even at the Hi>^an IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) A 1.0 1.1 11.25 ■JO "^^ M^H W y^ ■■■ 2.0 us lU ■ii Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STtEET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14SM (716)872-4503 4r 70 CHAPTER I. ' MEXICO. In the eye of law every white Creole is i Spaniard,"* but a wrong system of practice has caused the distinction. Be- tween the native whites of Spain and of Mexico scarcely any other difference worth notice is assignable^ except that the latter are said to have made lately a greater progress in the kuQwledge of literature, notwithstanding strong en- deavours of the government to prevent them. The negroes of this country are so few as to be hardly worth notice. " The kingdom of New Spain is, of all the European colonies under the torrid zone, that in which there are the fewest negroes. We may almost say that there are no slaves. We may go through the whole city of Mexico without seeding a black countenance.*' From exact information procured by the persons employed in the numeration of .1793, it appears that in all New Spain, to the north of Guatimala, " there are not six thousand ne- groes, and not more than nine or ten thousand slaves, of whom the greatest number belong to the ports of Acapulco and Veracruz, or the warm regions of the coast. Of the seventy-four thousand negroes, annually furnished by Africa to the equinoxial regions of America and Asia, not above a hundred land on the coast of Mexico. The slaves besides, fortunately in so small number, are here, as in all the other Spanish possessions, somewhat more under the protection of the laws than the negroes of the other European colcmies. A slave, who by his industry hfts procured a little money, may compel his master to Unmboldt, chap. 7, i^ .^m'M MEXICO* X ■ ■ ■ give him his liberty on paying the moderate sum of from sixty-two to eighty-three pounds. Liberty cannot be re- fused to a negro on the pretext that he has cost the triple of the sum^ or that he possesses a particular talent for some lucrative employment. A slave also who has been cruelly usedj acquires^ on that account^ his freedom by the law, if the judge do justice to the cause of the (^pressed : but it may be easily conceived^ that this beneficent law must be frequenly eluded."* W'- The aboriginals of this country, in corporeal qualities and features^ agree with the great mass of indigenous po- pulation throughout the American contment. " The In- dians of New Spain bear a general resemblance to those who inhabit Canada^ Florida, Peru, and Brazil. They have the same swarthy or copper colour, flat and smooth hair, coarse, dark, and so glossy as to seem to be in a con- stant state of humectation ; small beard ; squat body ; long eye with the corners directed upwards towards the temples ; prominent cheek bones ; thick lips ; and an expression of gentleness in the mouth strongly contrasted with a gloomy and severe look. They have a more swarthy complexion than the inhabitants of the warmest climates in South Ame- rica. They have also, particularly the tribes of the Aztec and Otomite race, generally more beard. Almost all the Indians in the neighbourhood of the capital wear small mustachios, and this is even a marie of the tributary cast. A great physical advantage- is, that they are subject almost Vf Humboldt, chap. 7. 71 CHAPTER I. Aboriginals. s.fi .^:i' , ■* m MEXICO* CHAPTER I. to no deformity. A hunch-backed Indian seems not to be discoverable ; and any who squint, or are lame in arm or leg, are extremely rare. When we examine savage hunters or warriors, we are tempted to believe that they are tdl well rnade^ merely because those who have any natural deformity either perish from fatigue or 'are exposed by their parents; but the Mexican and Peruvian Indians, those of Quito and New Granada, are agriculturists, who can only be compared with the class of European peasantry. We can have no^doubt then, that the absence of natural deformities among them is the effect of their mode of life, aUd of the constitution peculiar to their race. Accustomed to a uniform nourishment of almost entirely a vegetable na- ture, they would undoubtedly attain a very great longevity, if their constitutions were not weakened by drunkenness. In the temperate regions of Mexico, half Up the cordillera, natives, especially women, of a hundred years of age, are by no means uncommon ; and they are fourid also to re- tain their muscular strength to the la^t."* The strength of those Indians, who are employed as porters in the mines is doubtless extraordinary In a hot temperature of between seventy and eighty degrees of Fahrenheit, these remain loaded, each with a weight of from two hundred and forty- two to three hundred and seventy-seven pounds, six hours every day, during which they ascend and de.scend several thousands of steps, in pits of such acclivity, that the angle of the inclined plain is only of forty-five degrees, the ascent of which is to Europeans, without any sort of burden, op- pressively fatiguing.f ■y.-- * Humboldt} chap. 6. -I- Humboldt, chap. U, . MBXICO. . - T|)e languages of (hp abprigi^als are various, and many of ^Ijpjij r^xlioally (J^ffcreq^ pne from anptiicr. The Maya if>ng^9^ spokw in tlw^npfrlji^rn part* of Yucatan, i^ remark- able for its extf^ii^^ly guttural proniinci»tiou. The Aztic, vfhich u of all t^e most extensively diffused, and doubtless th9inost|?i}ltivat<3)i(l* is mi very sinw)(h or sonorous, but copioy^ and e^prppginre. It is desjIitMte of tl»e sounds of Uie letterp 5, P, F, Q, ly degraded by SpaiHpl^ tyriHsny vary liMte can be known- Considering ''.thp M^^ucan Indian in bis actual sUkte, we perceive ia bim:He^^ tbat mobility of sensation, gesture^ or feature, UprtlNlt activity of mind, fpr which several nations of the \m CnAPl'ER. I. '^'■^■1^ HI \\ I ml m ■°1<;|.J ifi n^ ■'4u% u MEXICO. CHAPTER I. if equiiioxial regions of Africa are sa advantageously distin- guished. There cannot exist a more nlarked contrast than that which is between the impetuous vivacity of the Con- goeze negro and the apparent phlegm of the Indian. Tjne latter is grave, melancholic, and silent, so long as he is not under the influence of intoxicating liquors. This gravity is particularly remarkable in the Indian children, who, at the age of four or five years, display much more Intelligence and maturity than white children. The Mexican loves to throw a mysterious air over the most indiilerent actions. The most violent passions are never painted in his fetitures^; apd there is something frightful in seeing him pass all at once from absolute repose to a state of violent and unres- trained agitation. The music and dancing of this pleopie partake of this want of gaiety by which they are character- ized. Their songs are terrific and melandhdic. The wo« man shew more vivacity ; but they shar&the misfortunes bf that servitude to which their sex is oondemned among mcfn whose civilization is in its infimcy.*'' >i4;*M.ii>i ^^i* wi*..*^ ,.u« 'v^Ui:! ii'iVj !,.oa,* ,he displays a great fJEicilityofapprebensiohy a judicious mind, a natural logic, and a particular disposition to subtilize, or s^ize the finest differences in the comparison of ebje and qeiremonies, of; thq ^nd . /oi ^ which , they are •"i.'i li- iiiijfir > . I. i:uy*;'.>!> "li-. i;l ■Jir !■■ •\» J"J ((J » ,. I,. , ,,.. ^;":ActUslom.ed to a long slavery^ the, natives of Mexico patiently swfferithe yeicajlions to which they are frequently. ex:pQ$ed ftwn? the whites. . ^hey oppose ; to tjieia only ,a ctlnmng, veiled under t|ie most deceitful' appearances of apathy and stupidity.: A9 the Indian can very rarely revenge himself on the Spaniards^, hp delights i9 milking a common cause, with th^m fpr the oppression ^f his own compa- triots. . Harassed for ages, and compelled to a blind obe-. dience, be wishes, to tyrannize in his turn. Oppression, ^very where produces ;. the > s^oi^eflPects. It everywhere corrupts the morals. " Among the vices of a degraded race that of drunkenness may be well expected. " This is most common Namoiig. those Indiai^s vvho inhabit the valley of Mexico and the environs , of JPfiebla and T^lascala, wherever the agave is cultivated on a great scale. The police in the CHAPTER I. «.|i: m ■ m^t. ft CHAPTElt I. city of Mexico 8dnd» round tumbrils to collect such drunk* ards Iks may be foUnd stretched in the streetli. These are tarried to the principal guard ^iduse. In the mom* ing Iron rihgs are ^tii round their ancles^ and they^ are obliged M cl^n the streets dhirhv^ thr^e day^. They are di^l^ed on the fourth ; but mat^y of thieni' ^re apt to be fonnd a^in in the iconic of tht Wieek." Little energy can have plaee aMbrt^ peopfe 6& dtihiMed. Vfh^n any appear8> it degeii^ral^il iMo har^ndss. This is displayed' chiefly " by the inhabihintsc^ TlAsicala. Amid their prtiaaut degradation, the de^cfndaMs of thds^ repubffeatis are Sttii to be diistinguished by a ceftaiti htttt^htin^sis 6f ehiiract^r; iniipired by the mehrory of the ancient grahdeuir of their state." In their degenerate condition the " Mexicanfs haVe^ still preserved a particular relish for painting, and for the airt of earring in wood or s(«ne. We are astonished at \^haf they ai^ able to execute with a bAA knife- on the faard^t wood. In painting they display great aptitude in the ai^of imi(atJkM> and ini»dh gi^ater still for the purely meehanical artSv This cannot fkil of beeoming some day yety tafuable, whenF the inanufaetiire» shall take ibeii' fTight ic a country Whete k regeUerathig govemmi^nt re- mkuk yet to b6 creiatea."* They have filso preseWed an extiraohdin^ry taste for floWcM, with a firesh collect^n of Which their tradeiis ornament (hieir shops, or places Of sail^, ^i!!ty day. ^ Tlte account giVcn above rehttesl only to the abortg^ls subtect to the ^i^isAi Qovemment. Cohcemittg the few, ■Bxrcov viho still retain theii* ind^pendenifi in separatlsd tra^tft, n<>- thing; further is known than tliat they are savages like the wild tribes of North America^ except a particukr clan on the coast of I^ndurUs, denominated Musquitoes. This little nation, whkih cannot muster more than fifteen hun- dred, or at most two thousand men able to beer arms, has an accidental tincture of negro blood, from the wreck of a ship carrying African slaves, of whom several females escaiped to land. Detesting the Spaniards, fr6tn tvhose set- tlements they are separated by a ridge of lofty mountains^ a part of the Andes, they have Itxig maintained an alliance witb the English, and have among tbem a tradition, that the people witb grey eyes are to be their protcttors from slarery. From this comiexion, they have acijuired a com- paratively considerable degree of civilization ; though both sexes in general wear no other dotliing than a small kind of vtrapper, which reaches from tile lower part of the waist to the middle of the tliigh : but, on es^traordinary occasions, their chiefs appear clothed m Drttisb regimental8> and bear titles of military commissions. Their government is a mo- narchy absolute and strietly hereditary^ By theiT superior state of polity they keep tiinler tribute^ which i£| paid annu- ally ui cattle, two contiguous tribes, the Poyersand Towcas, each more numerous than themselvee, and accounted also- bftfver. They appear to possess a ;^' *e of happiness supe- rior-to that of most aboriginal Mexw ■> and enjoy a olenty of food : but, from the nature of thetr coast, which admits no Vessels of ai^y considevable size^ not indeed even small ciaft Nmthout danger, they have very little commerce.* The * UenderaoD, p. 177-^191. 77 CHAPTBB I. ^ I ■OS m ^ jH^^B i!i|| !^^^^B: tJI^^^H 11 ]|B ■' ;|H pi9l jftj' fi9B p.'' W Bi'i^ i'^HpB »i!'-!''|BM Bl'Vwt 'w'-^m ;pi';gB iK'^'lji'^^K, :; ! '\|B! ''''jI^B' •im '■■'W^M ::i"'' ■''III wM' t VV 78 MEXICO. CHAPTER I EngliMi Srttle> meiit. English settlement \n Yiicttan has been sometimes nxi- noyed by predatory bands of savages, ivho iss4ied from unknown recesses in the forests. These made their ap< pearance in a state of total nudity, and with a must ferocious disposition. They were armed with bows of a curious workmanship, the arrows of which were supposed to be poisoned.* >u'> imru Jur^oth or^i9ii i «jn«»n'5Sfm '^'.''>.. ■" ' ■'< . 'itriilr iih ' • ^r-'ui-a <{tt!* ' The only European settlement except those of the Spa* niards, which is retained in the Mexican regions, is that of the English, in the bay of Honduras, on the coast of Yuca> tan, formed solely for the cutting* find exportation of maho* gany and logwoods This settlement is smallj computed to contain, in the beginning of the nineteenth century, only about two hundred white people, five hundred of a mixed brieed and free negroes, and three thousand negro slaves. The last are considered as so ' attached to their masters, from a humane treatment, as truly politic as it is uncom-t mon, that they are all entrusted with the use of arms, and ar^ excellent marksmen. On this depends, in no small part, the safety of the colony, which i&so parted from the Spanish posts by swamps and imperietrablie woods, as to be exposed to an attack only from the sea. By a shameful concession of thie British cabinet, in a treaty concluded in 1763, the fortifica* tions were demolished, and the colonists put. under the protection of the King of Spain, who pledged his faith that, in case of war, they should be allowed six months, afl6r notice, for the removal of their persons and effects. This promise was as shamefully violated in 1779, wheD> without ' fHenderson, p. 18."> ' MBXICO. 79 the least previous notice, their properties were seized, and their persons transported to Cuba, imprisoned, and treated otherwise with cruelty. Restored to their possessions in 1784, by a new convention, they took more effectual mea* sures for defence, insomuch that they repelled a formidable invading force in 1798. Their dwellings are seated on the banks of rivers, down which the timber is floated to the place of embarcation. The chief of these rivers is the Balizc, which is navigable through a space of two hundred miles, for all the purposes required by the settlers. At its mouth stands the town of Balize, the only regular esta- blishment, quite open to the sea, and consisting of about two hundred houses of all descriptions. These are built entirely of wood, generally raised eight or ten feet from the ground on pillars of mahogany, mostly covered with shin- gles, but some still thatched with the leaves of the pal- metto.* ■ '. '■ -'•>-■." •■ ■ ■'■ - •. /■.■!• CHAPTER I. '' )i m * Henderson. "i; r^ /■■■ ' '■'.;; ^V:.. ■•\- >' >v*''- -rTA i'l'Uj-'- t;iy'<-;''"v";*c/.-^lu m is < 9 mi g? oauSM n 5; bjf; '> />* f; ■uli ,l(t. tiiri ii»* 4>;ii4K« 31i* >t^ii.lJ-> hmQi jar of toiijoft ai lytiimr t»iU il-4iiif» «wob .naviT jo eilfiad f-f* .1 » fit* iiiij on* ■Of! if %> idiki^ fi: 'jjdp tbi?? ii'rt^: ijniJno art iH» luif/ IjgiibJiuIr tU; ./ ^,: ■«' / y 81 CHAPTER II. -' It u ■'I. I. NEW MEXICO. Stte-^Diviawn-^Coait — Face — Waters — Air^^Products-— ■ Antiquities— ItUkahitants — Torans. "VW ■ ■- .; '. ..;■ ' A REGION of great, but as yet undefined extent, is here conceived to occupy all that vast space which lies between Louisiana, the Californian gulf, the Pacific ocean. North- western America, and. Old Mexico or New Spain. From the last we consider it as parted only by an imaginary line drawn from the northwestern angle of the gulf of Mexico to the most southern part of the gulf of California. Except where the latter gulf and the ocean bound it, its limits are elsewhere quite uncertain. On the side of northwestern America we cannot even conjecure where the .wilds of the two regions .mutually terminate. On the side of Louisiana the position of the bounding line depends on future events. The Spaniards, to whom New Mexico has hitherto be- longed, consider this country as extending as far to the east as the river Mermentas or Mexic^ua,' which flows into the CHAPTER II. Site. .•r-'.'.v . i| ■...(• '*'■'■■ 'I ■ ■ i ■ ■;{ i •15' ' I"! ' -f 80 NEW MBXICOi CHAPTER II. Divisiout COMt. Face. gulfof Mexico to theeastoftheriver Sabina; whUetheanghK Americans, in possession of Louisiana, woukl contract the Spanish dominion within the great river called Rio Bravo del Norte, willing tq ^tein) t)Htir ^VQ settlements so far westward as that stream. Taken in tlie sense- noted above. New Mexico contains gtmX part of what are called the intendancies of San Luis de Potosi and Durango or New Biscay, together yfii\\ tihp^e- of New Mexico properly su^ called. New CftHfomia, or, as ii was denominated by the fiimous Drake, New Albion, and Sonora, including Cinr aloa. These intendancies or governments, subordinate to the viceroyalty of Old Mexico, are conudered as subdi- vided into a number of inferior provinces or territories, the limits of which are not permanently settled and a catalogue of whose names seems< hardly worth attenti(Mi» The coasts of this country have not been well explored : at least no accurate accounts of them have been received. That which is washed by the gulf of California loubtless presents many receptaclesfor shipping,,but fewof tht ti are no-> ticed or named, and none described* That which h washed, by the Pacific ocean has several ports which seei to be good. One, that of San Francisco, has been note* as ex- cellent. In its coast on the side of the gulf of Me? :o, the extent of >vhich coast is as uncertain as the easten limit of this region, no harbour has been found, except r small vessels which can swim in shallow water. From the coasts the land risea north-eastward and north-westward to the interior country, the middle parts of which consist of moun- tainous tracts and high table-ground. This table-ground NBW MBXfCd* 85 is a continuation of that of Old Mexico, ivhich advances, though with inferior height> northward through this region, yet rising higher in approaching- (he north, and attaining its greatest elevation in the mountains of Sierra Verde, about the fortieth degree of latitude> the ridges of which extend still further towtird the north. To the east and west of the ete- Vftted interior country the lands are generally low, but much more on thd eastern side, where are plains of vast ex- tent. Great pArt of these plains are what ai^ called Savan- nahs, destitnte of trees, but covered with various grasses. Of such consists all the eastcril part of the country next 'Loui^ana; a vast extent from north to south, which termi- nates Sbuthwan) in impossible marshes. Although the country alotig* the CatHfornian gulf is h>w, tt is diversified with hills, whith increase in number and elevation i^ they recede fr6m the coast. New Albion presents a different fitc'e, traversed' frorn north to> sdUth, at no great distance ffom its shor6^} by a centinnation of that vast tid^& of motintttins^whtch extends aton^ the' eoast of North ^wctnterti America. Th* scendry thtioughou^ the vast ireigfon> of New Mexico inr almost a^ wild, as the country is unhibabited ex- cept in scattered spots. As the land is generally fertile, and the sky serini^, the prospect is mostly pleaiiliifg, but smne tracts lite arid, attd by riitture barren, liius ii desart, de«tit\itef6f^iV^t(^r, extendi ab^iiH! ninety miles betwieen th^ Intendtltwi^s o^ DUrarigo and MiN* Mejricd propeHy 96 called, and thus alsd the norfh^n^rt of Sbnora is sttn^y and'drV.*' ''' ^■^'^^'''^ 'jmoa ni viqqnR ewob yvB'^H .\!rr>v] ^^o'f n~ )■ ! * iIttD9boldl's New Spain, vol. 3,.Ghap. St—VaacoiMrer's Voyage, voL 4; chap. 8, &r. L 2 CRAPTRK i» .tw!s7^ ■■:.K ■',"48,11 ■■lit-f ■i;%' 'fit t>'i .i'!j? '^:k iflljlM!;.'! '.«5!;,i!' I it I \ m NRW MBXIOO* CHAPTRR 11. Wnlfri. Conccnun^ the Inkcs tuid rivers of thh ns yet iiYip^rfectly explorwl rof(ioTi wo have litllo to say. Of the former we have no certain account. Two have been noticed in tho western partn, a salt lake about the thirty-ninth tiegreo of latitude, the western limitM of which arc unknown, and the lake of Tiinpanog^os, about the forty-fir»t deg;rec» of g^reat but unascertained extent. The chief of the rivers i» tnat which is named by the Spaniards Rio Bravo, Rio Grandedel Norte, the great river of the North, which, A*om its source in the Sierra Verde, runs above a thousand miles to its influx into the f^ulf of Mexico, with a very muddy stream, a stream., which, from tho melting of the snow, begins to swell in April, attains its greatest height in the beginning of May, and sinks again toward the end of June. The Rio Colo- rado, springing from the same chain of mountains, flows south-wcstwartl above six hundred miles to tho northern angle of the Californian gulf. Another Rio Colorado, dis> tiuguislied by tho epithet of de Texat, is one of the many streams which flow southward into the gulf of Mexico. The Rio Gila has a westerly course- to the angle of tho Californian gulf into which the Colorado makes its inAux»4 ^ >ii,A scantiness of streams of water and of rain seems the chief inconvenience of this otherwise in general very fine country, The season of rains appears to be from Oecem- ber to March. Little (alls in the other months, particularly in the autumnal, in which a dry season seems mostly to prevail. Heavy dews supply in some degree the deficiency of rain, and in New AII)ion at least a haze, or kind of fog, which very frequently obscures the sky, promotes by its ' moiHtiirn vrgotiUioti. The toinperatnrc must vnry with the circdinstnncon of the land, pavtieulnrly iln height ahovo the ocean's level. In the low landn of Now Albion the weather \» m niiUl (hat the inhaliitatits enjoy a perpetual spring, at leant as far as the thirty-sixth deg^reo of latitude ; while in the elevated tiible-grouuds of the province of New Mexico properly so called, the winter is so severe, that Ihe Rio del NorJe, at the Ihirty-sevetitli degree, is sometimes^ for a suc- cession of years, frozen so hard as to admit the |Missago over it of horses and carriages. Even in the low lands in the eastern parts, although tho heat is violent in summer, the cold of winter is rendered severe by sharp winds from the north. The sky throughout tho whole is* in general serene, little troubled by storms or violent changes of weather, and the air is accounted uncommonly salubrious io the human constitution.* fii^w-iiiUmn-'t^ t»l ?»»«■ Among the indigenous vegetables of this country, spon- taneously produced, are oak, cherrytree, and many other species of timber, gooseberries, raspberries, currants, and various other berries, roses, wild peas, and wild vines, which bear a sour kind of grape. The grain, fruits, and roots of Europe, so far as they have been imported and tried^ thrive excellently in its fertile soil. Thus in New Albion, wheat sown without manure, and cultivated in a very clumsy man* ner, yields thirty, or at least twenty>five fold.f European quadrupeds have also been introduced and thrive well, par- * Humboldt, book 3, chap. 8.— VancouTcr's Voyage, in Turlous places. + Vancouver, bo In so arid a region the vcf^'tablc products uuist he ox-^ pected to be scanty. The land is nlinost destitute of trees, yet amid the sand and stones at the foot of the mountains some species of the cactus rise to extrnorditrary heights. The vine, where cultivated, yields an excellent grape, tha wine of which resembles that of the Canary islands. Wo can easily conceive from the climate of California what vegetables it might yield where soil and water are procured, but the chief object of culture appears to be maize. Among the indigenous quadrupeds is a wild animal on the moun- tains which resembWtn the motf/Ion of Sardinia, having horns " curved on themselves in a spiral form,*' and leaping, like the ibex, with the head downward. The gulf of Califor- nia along its coast is more productive than the land, yield- ing pearls of a very beautiful water and large sizei but often of an irregular eAiape, disagreeable to the eye. They abound much more in the southern than in the nortliern parti of the gulf, particularly in the bay of Ceralvo, and around the islands of Santa Cruz and San Jose. This branch of industry however has been of late years so ne- glected, that it is considered as almost or altogether Abandoned. » . • Humboldt) book 3, chap. 8. Vrt i<\>V^ CHAI'TKR II. 99 CHAPTBE II. 6ALIP0RNIA. California was discovered in 1634, by Hernando de Orix- alva, in the employment of Cortes, the conqueror of Mex- ico, who visited in person the country in the following year, and afterwards commissioned, for the completion of the survey, Francisco de Uiloa, who ascertained this region to be a peninsula. In 168S, the Jesuits began to establish missions for the conversion of the natives, and " displayed there that commercial industry, and that acti- vity, to which they are indebted for so many successes, and which have exposed them to so many calumnies in both Indies." In the middle of the eighteenth century their af- fairs were prosperous. They had in very few years built sixteen villages in the interior of the peninsula, and their settlements were become considerable. Since their expul- sion in 1767, the Spanisli government has confided Califor> nia to the Dominican monks of the city of Mexico, under whom the state of aflkirs Heems much altered for the worfee. California is so thinly peopled as to bi,almost a desari. Its length is about seven hundred miles. Its unascertained breadth may be on an average nearly one hundred. Its area may thus contain near sixty millions of English acres, or may be nearly three times as great as that of Ireland. The number of people in all this extent of territory seems not to exceed nine thousand. The Spaniards are few, con- sisting only of some soldiers and monks. The indigenous people, who are so far reclaimed from a savage life as to dwell in fixed habitations and cultivate the soil, are reckoned only at between four and five thousand. Of those who still remain savage the number is said scarcely to amount to OALiroiNIA. 93 four thouiand. The country was formerly far leu thinly inhabited, but a great depopulation, within thirty or forty years past, has been caused by the small pox, and perhaps by political defects, of which we are not informed. No towns can have place where people are so few. The chief mission or village is that of Lorcto. Those indigenous Gilifornians, who still remain in a savage state, are descri- bed as among the very lowest in the scale of civilization^ wandering about in a state of absolute nudity in search of precarious food, exposed without the shelter of a roof to all the vicissitudes of the atmosphere, and destitute of other religion than the dread of invisible malignant beingpi, whose malice they deprecate. They are rather of a small and feeble frame, with little vigour of spirit, and of a very dark complexion, approaching to black. They entertain such a contempt of clothing, that a man in clothes appears more ridiculous to them than a monkey with garments to the common people of Europe.* t Humboldt, book 9, chap. 8.— Account of California by Venegas, &o. OHAPTIR II. ■•Af. V .IS til "i:'. f'W, . ^■,.:*i ,,(:, THAPTER III. 95 NORTHWESTERN AMERICA. I Mi Site-^ Coanl-^ Face'-' Water »^ Temperature^ Vegetabtes ^mAnimah-'FoBBih'-'Hintory'^ Commeree—lnhahitanta'— Eikeemoea—Occidtntah'-Perton — Hahiti^^Language^ Uou»eB-^Life^Manneri— Interior Aboriginala — Per»on8 Habits — Language— Hahitations— Food — Religion — Oovemment — Tribes — Depopulation^Life — Manners-" Onstoms — Arts» NORTHWESTERN AMERICA, Herb considered, for geographical convenience, as that immonso coutinuous \)ortion of the northern peniniula of the new continent which remains as yet uncoloniied by Euro|K5an8, and free from the dominion of any ciyilizcd nation, consists of the wholo extent oC territory which lies between the gulf or sea of Hudson, the Pacific ocean, the Arctic ocean or Icy sea, and the boundaries of Canada and New Mexico. These boundaries indeed are not as yet per- manently setlJcd, nor can we at present form a rational con- jecture how soon such alterations shall have been made, by the planting of colonics, as may render a new geographical CHAPTER III. Site. I .# ' - NOBT( 'BSTBRN AMBBICA. CHAPTER HI. Cout. account of this vast region necessary. The eastern coast of this immense tract, except along the seas of Hudson and Davis, where it is in general rocky and steep, though af- fording many receptacles for shipping, is quite unknown. The same is the case with the whole of the northern. The western, parted from Tartary by Beering's strait, is bordered in an extraordinary manner by innumerable islands, is in- dented by numerous inlets, which form harbours various in magnitude and quality, and consists in great proportion of high table-ground, which constitutes part of the base of an immense chain of mountains. Of the various projections of the land that which runs farthest into the Pacific is the peninsula of Alaska. Of the multitude of inlets, that which penetrates nearest to the great inland waters is Lynn chan- nel, near the latitude of fifty-nine, which advances within three hundred ap:' ' eventy English miles of the great Atha- baska or Slave .i.e, from which, however, it is separated by a vast chain of mountains. Of the masses of rock, vari- ous in size and figure, which, along this extensive coast, repel or break the waves of the ocean, some display to ma- riners a romantic appearance. Of these, one, resembling a ship under sail, stands insulated near the middle of a chan- nel^ beyond the fifty-fifth degree of latitude, abovcf two hundred and fifty feet in perpendicular height.* Ftce« This immense region, so far as information concerning it / has been collected, consists in general of wide-spread plains. « VancouTer'i Voyage round the World, 8to. London, 1801, toI. 4, p. 100.— For the coast in general, see various parts of the 4tb, 5th and 6(h rolucjes ; also Cooke's 3d Voyage, Pferouse, &c. ' * which gradually rise to a great elevation in the interior, and are trayeraed in the western parts by a prodigious ohain of mountains^ ^nd el8ewhere;i more especially^ in the southern parts> by sonteridg^eeof inferior magnitude. The western chairij apparently connected with the Andes of South Ame- rica^ may perhaps be justly denonUnated the Andes of the Norths though by travellers it has been named the Shining and the $tnny mpyntains, from the appearances displayed by it in several places. In its progress northward* ^is vast ridge elevq,tes its peaks to a stupendous height, and tajtes a north-westerly direction, parellel to the coast of the Pacific^ from ^bieh ocean its range of summits, 'cased with pei^* tual ice and snow,, is visiUe to mariners, through a far eexr tended course of navigation, and to which some lateral chains, and branches extending from the main ridge, make^ in several places, a near approach. It presents to the eye a grand ^nd magnifioent prospect, but cold and savage, of spow, glaciers, and naked rooks, rugged, precipitous, and 9ti|pendou^y high. Between the river Columbia and Cook's inlet it attains it» greatest devation and greatest breadth, a breadth of from about two hundred and sixty to between three and four bun^h'ed miles, and is bordered along the easteni skirts by a narrow and uneven strip of quite marshy or boggy ground. Pursuing still a north-westerly course, but, from Cook's inlet, with apparently diminished size. It terminates at length, aboQt tlte seventieth degree of lati- tude in the Arctic ocean.* I OMifwrtii tMii s?,-?j * MBckenzfe*'* TivTels, 4I«. Lvndon, 1801, p. 4dl—.40S<— Vancoarer, Tol. 6, p. 97, 411, ^Cri &c. , , . . 9r CHAPTER iir. 1 W^ • ^' -a it*'"'! f \ •• » < ■ -1 ' ' » . . . ■ > i 4 , , ^ ': ,. ; ::. * f \ ■ 98 CHAPTER I J I. MORTHWBSTBRN AMBRICA» A ridge of much inferior height, but of prodigious lengtlr, extends fronn Labrador^ between the waters of Hudson's gulf and those of the Saint Lawrence river, in a nearly south-westerly course, to the sources of the river Utawasw Thence it turns north-westward to the longitude of eighty- nine degrees and the latitude of fifty, where it forks, and sends a branch to the south-west, while the main ridge pursues a north-westerly dii^ection-, to the north of lake Winnipig, whence it winds westward between the rivers Beaver and Saskatshawin, till it strikes a long ridge which stretches north eastwards The latter, parting the waters which fall into Hudson's gulf from those which flow to the Arctic ocean, takes a direction almost to the north beyond the latitude of fifty-seven, and throws a branch to the west, which temiinates at Mackenzie'sciven ,-'^' Vf L» *t «V'I >^ ** That part of this vast region, which lies- between the Andes of the North and the Pacific ocean, is mostly moun- tainous and ruggid. To the east of this chain vast plains expand, widening as they advance toward the east and south. The northern parls which stretch eastward from these mountains, dreary, cold, and inhospitable, destitute of trees, except some dwarfish kinds, abounding in rocks and water, and shelving to the ley sea, bear a strong resemblance to the Asiatic vegion of Siberia. Even farther toward tlie south the Savannali^, or grassy plains, are considerably like the Tartarian Steppes, or desarts of Northern Asia ; while the Northern Andes, in respect of position, may bear some similitude to the Uralian chain. In the southern parts the wild scenery, the only kind which can have place NdRTHWltf^TERN AMERICA. 99 ill regions void of culture, has been found highly beautiful. A celebrated traveller enjoyed in September ''a most ex- tensive romantic, and ravishing prospect ;" and again he thus speaks of what he saw in May.* " This magnificent - theatre of nature has all the decorations which the trees and animals of tlie country can ofTord it. Groves of poplars in - every shape vary the scene, and their intervals are enlivened \vith vast herds of elks and buffaloes ; the former choosing the steeps and uplands; the latter the plains. The whole country dis|)layed an exuberant verdure. The trees which bear a blossom were advancing fast to that delightful appear- ance ; and the velvet rind of tlieir branches, reflecting the ■ oblique rays of a rising or setting sun« added a splendid , gaiety to the scene which no expressions of mine are quali- fied to describe." ■^' y^/^;.^'^^ '■'i» •■v^m.-timm^:-::^t^iif0fjt$f^ ) • •■■'• ■:'■,.,. cp^^-ti Beside the vast lakes and rivers of the immense northern peninsula of America already noted in the general view, many of no inconsiderable magnitude belong to this north- western region, of which however very few are more than very partially known to Europeans. To attempt to describe them would as yet be premature. Such is their number and communication, that canoes can be navigated in all di- rections, through thousands of miles^ except short inter- ruptions at places called portages, where, on account of cataracts, or othei* impediments, the canoe and its cargo mnst be carried from one navigable part of the channel to CHAPTRR Iff. Waters. m-n ViW i • r| * Mackenzie, p. 155. — ^See also Lewis and Clarke's Timvels, 4to. Lon« ■don, 1814, {>. 40, 63, 990, 550, &c. N 2 * . * . :-*. 100 NOBTHWBSTBRN AMBRKA. CHAPTER IlL .■;f!' and making its way through a gap in the main ridge, discharges its waters into the vast bason absurdly called the Slave lake, from the western angle of which it makes ita egress, and pursues its course, a course in all of about seventeen hundred miles, to the arctic ocean, under the denomination of Mackenzie's river. Among those which run to die Pacitic ocean is the Columbia, called also the Oregan and Tatoutche^Tessi, which is said by late travellers* to be navigable by large sloqMs through a hundred and eighty miles above its mouth, and by ships of three hundred tuns through a length of a hundred and twenty-five miles. That which has been deno- minated Cook's river has been found by Vancouver to be only «n inlet of the Pacific, above two hundred miles in lengtii. •1 ji-' ■'■n> Wii ^?.g , ' t'-'i '(i Ejeposed to the northei*ly and northwesteriy winds, which blow with inconceivable keenness from the ice of the Arctic ocean, all the northern parts of this immense region, which lie to the east of the Northern Andes, sustain the utmost rigours of intense cold, in the same manner as Siberia. • Lewis and Clarke'* TfayeU, 8to. London, 1809, p. 19. ^^ i*^ V *•' KORTHWESTBBN AMERICA. 101 The earth continues (rozen throughout the whole year^ except that in the heats of summer it is thawed to the depth of from two to four feet. The season of these heats, which are indeed intense, is only of about four or five weeks' duration ; but even then the changes from heat to cold are great and sudden."* To the south of the long ridge, which ex.tends from Labrador southward and west- ward, where warm winds from the gulf of Mexico operate on that part of the atmosphere, the temperature is milder, and is found warmer in proportion to the advance of the country southward. In the long tract contained between the Northern Andes and the Pacific ocean the air is vastly less cold than in the parts between the same parallels to the east of these mountains.f This appears to be the dTect of oceanic wiids, from whose influence the tracts lying east- ward of the Northern Andes are screened by this huge barrier ; while by the same, in its north-westerly direction, the piercing winds from the icy sea, may be, in great mea- sure, confined to the more eastern regiom. CMAPTEK ur. i The indigenous v^etab\es, spontaneously produced, in this immense uncultivated portion of the globe, are in great variety, varied with the temperature of the air, the nature of the soil, the aspect of the ground, and othf • circum- stances ; but the species as yet distinguised by th< esearches of Europeans are comparatively very few. To>. ird the icy shores'of the north vegetation gradually languishes, ending • Volney's View of the United States of America, 8to. LQndoo, 1814, 0. 166— 167. ' ■ ' ..lit- . t CooIl's Tkiid Voyage, book 4, chap. 3» Hii' Vegetables. ml — iMaiiaMiiwi.ii^to.1. '» t 108 MORTHV^ESTERN AMERICA. CHAPTER III. • v ill stunted and stragglings pines, juiiipora, and in«m, and leaving little beside naked rocks and water to the view of the traveller. Southward the herbage gradually augments, . and the trees cncrease in siEo, variety, and number, till at length the ^drests become dense and extensive. This im- provement of the vegetation, in a progress to the south, has plarc far earlier, or far nearer the north, on the coast of the Pacific ocean than on tlie eastern side of the Northern Andes, from the superior warmth of the air on that coast. Among the trees of the forest are several species of the pine, many of which grow to such magnitude as to be twenty or thirty feet in girth, and of a height proportionate, some- times of above two hundretl feet The cedar also, often of still larger dimensions, covers some tracts of considerable extent. The alder forms beautiful woods in some places, with a trunk seven or eight or more feet in circumference, and forty in height between the ground and lowest branches. The ipner rind of some species, particularly that which is called the hemlock tree, is used as food, on occasions of scarcity, by the savages. Wild berries of various kinds are produced in al^undance, in places adapted severally to their growth. Among these are gooseberries, currants, cherries, raspberries, cranberries, and strawberries. The rosebush also flourishes copiously in many tracts. Among the wild plants are flax, the parsnip, the carrot, the liquorice, wild rye, and that which is termed by botanists sizania aquatica, and by travellers wild rice. This appears to be a species of grass, bearing farinaceous seeds which rese:.i- hle rice. ' Growing in vast quantities in shallow streams of water, in tracts where the cold is too severe for the pro- NOWraWBtTBltM AMKRICA. 103 duction of European corn, thii plant, which now serves to feed savages and wild (bwi, may become in future times an object of human culture. All the qnadrupedls of this immense region, so (kr as wo are informed, appear to be as yet indigenous, except the horse, which has been lately introduced into the southern parts by the Indians^ who stleal considerable numbers from Hie Spanish colonists of New Mexico. Among the indi- genous animals are two species of the Vaccine tribe, the bison and the musk ox, which difier greatly in size, but arc humped both at the shoulders, are clothed, at the roots of their long hair, with fine wool fit to be manufactured into cloth, and smell both of musk, but the latter sort more strongly, insomuch that its heart is on this account not edible. The bison, termed also the buffalo and the Ameri- can ox, grows to such a size as to weigh from sixteen hun- dred to two thousand' four hundred pounds. From its long flocks of reddish hair, depending from the head and shoul- ders, the bull displays a tremendous aspect, but is extremely timid, unless it be woundied, when it becomes dangerously fierce. Tliesc animals migrate in vast herds from north to south, and from the highlands to the lowlands, and con- versely, according to the seasons, between the liatitudies of Hudson'l^ gulf and' those of the northern parts of New Mexico. These and severar species of the deer are so numerous in the rich Unds toward' the south, that the coun- try has " the appearance, in some places of a stall-yard, from the state of the ground, and tlie quantity of dung which is OHAPTBR - *■ Um III. \ 1 ( ij I Animals. iiy ^ V] IHi' f'i # w.m .1 ^1 \ :'' 11 • 1 f 'i ii " .« ■fii t 1 'l ! VI y ■■I'l / .■;' I'il • * * * • f •li ' . , \ "■1 f , ,*Hi t^ii ','' J*!' 101 NORTHWEStUm AMKKKA. r CHAPTER III. ' Sm »1bo Lewis and Clark«, 4(o. p. 0ft3. 'f « . f Pennant's Arctic Zoology, vol. 1, page 8 ->H. NOHTHWBITKRN AMERICA. 101> woimded. Tho skin ii manufactured into excellent buflf. The 6e8h is remarkably agreeable and nutricious, particu- larly the tongue, but chiefly the nose, which is perfectly marrow.* Several tmaller species of deer, like those of Eu- rope, roam in numerous herds through the vast forests and savannahs of tho middle and southern parts, and in like manner the elk. . , . ^ < ■ ' !\ Among the various other kinds of quadrupeds in this vast region are several species of the bear, white, red, black, and grey, the beaver« the porcupine, the wolf, the fox of se- veral sorts and colours, the ground'dog, which burrows in the earth, the wolvereen, which seems to be a spteies of carnivorous bear, and several varieties of the cat, the largest of which is by some called the panther, and has been found six feet in the length of itp body. The beaver inhabits from the sixtieth to the thirtieth degree of latitude, but much more toward the former. This amphibious animal, so much the object of pursuit on account of its valuable fur, is known to live in societies of two or three hundred together, to work in common like the ant or bee, and to form assemblages of com- modious apartments on lakes and rivers^ where it lodges, and stores its food, the branches and shoots of trees, for the winter. The beaver, which weighs from forty to sixty pounds, is inferior in size to the black sea-otter, the weight of whose body is seventy or eighty. The fur of this qua- druped, which inhabits the coast of the Pacific ocean, be- twei^n the latitudes of forty-nine and sixty, is in such esti- CHAPTRK 111. I ■' )j ■y ; ■ 1 '• - '- •1 i;* ■■''if * Pennantj Tol. 1, p. 18»91. O '1 .IkI'^I ■.mm : .. fXt 406 NOKtBWJtSTnN AMMlCAri OHAPTER ilMlion> that the skin has sold in China at the price of flwiD ' fourteen to twenty^five pounds. Among the numerous tribes of the feathered race is the 4urliey> indigunons only in the new continent, whence it , haabeen imported into the okk This bird, which, in its wild state^ grows to the weight of thirty, sometimes even forty pounds, is numerous only in tracts most remote from human habitation, where it h said to assemble in< flocks of frequently fire hundred each. Aquatic fowls are in pro- digiauft numheffS} patticniarfy several' siiecies of wild geese, thousands of which^ are taken in the vicmity of Hudson's guKl '^o bird which^ most astonishes by its numbers in a spi^ies of pigeon, which breeds in the northern partr, pud migvatcK to ikm south at' the approach of winter, much none indeed hi> some yeare than in others, in flocks <^ many milKoos* The.nMneties of the serpent are in constderable ' numlNBr>; but the rattle snake, so dlenominated flrom the ret" tUng of di^ joints of; bone at the end of its tail, m not found noMkiwavil of thu forty^ilfth d^ree of latitude. Various other reptiles are eopious in places adapir^ to their nature. Marine anhnals, among wbidt are various kinds of the seal, the whale, and> nnmerous tribes of other fish, abound along thecoast^ FouiU. ^Roerning the fossils of this i«urt of the globe we can at^ present say but little, as nothing bcr.eath the surfoce of ' the earth, and extremely Httle of the surfiice itself, has as yet been explored ; but that it is deficient in riches of this nature we have no reason to suspect In all the northerqi ' NORTHUBlTBRN AMERICA. parts to the north of kkie Winnrpigf, itMd eaRtward from the ainio to the gulf ofHiidgon, the subitratnm of the Roil teems mostly granite^ tvhile to the west mid south of this lake lie vast beds of limestone, between whidi and the granitic region are ^tuat^ all the great basons of fresh water m North America.* A tMttt hi the north so abounds in cop- per, that a strean) which flows through it to the Arctic ocean, has thencie been denominated the Coppermine trver. Vast bed» of mineral salt exist in many parts, as iserrinced by saline welts and other tokens. For instance, westward of the Unjign rittir, In its 'approach to the Sfla^e Mite, con- cretdd Mfit, f ptefeidtly Whtte and pute, mi^y be e6lTected in any tpMntity, sittonnd the numerous iiools arid sprhigs of salt Winter, '^ich uppdur in ihaft traet. in other ptacta iMve springs bedn s^n whose margins are covered witli iMf]lHltr«Mis%i«Hi^tions ; and fbttmahis 6f bttomdii, ^r- ttolilaVIyin'tierritoties hear the Elk rlv^r, haVe'b6en dfteb- varied, fntoWhidi a pole/tlrenty tieetiOng/tnay be ins(ett6(l pertMridii^larty downward, wittfoat reftiMance. Stratums llUbid^' colli havo been fomvd, arid 'pro'bkbly this valuable foi^il'tnay be M^iOfita in many patts. m ouaptbr 111. m fin I, "Irl The history of this as yet uncultivated part of the earth's suvfiice i>s only a'rlJgilt^ 6f 'discoveries of its' coasts by na- vigtitors, and of its iti«eHor by tIraVellerB, as the history df itsHefW MVagblMiabMLiits, amon'g \rbo)n ave no k^coi^s, is nnkniil>wn. in a seanih (br'a north-west pa^st^ to tlie'East iMii«s,'Wbicontifraetl to*bean t>brf^tof 'bO]()eandtiAtei<- Hbtorjr. 08 ■/i*idii :'4| 109 NOnTMWtlVrRNN AMMICA. CHAPTRR III. I *l prise till the latter fwrl of the cif^hteciilh century, the Ett^ liiih, under Mnrtin Vrobiiher, in the year 1576, Uinoovered the strait which bean hit name, in the nca which wan atler- wanl calloil the itrait of Davis, (Vt)in John Davin who vix- plored it ill 1565, lietwccn Greenland and the main contl* iientof America. In 1610^ the important diacovery was made by Henry Hudaon of the cxtcusite gulf called liudson's bay, the coaats of which where a trade in din was found very profitable, have since been examined by other navigators. The earliest discoverers of the Western coasts were Spa- niards, one of whom Francisco Gali, viewed the shorea of the continent between the tiiVy-seveuth and ftfty-ei|(hth de- grees of latitude, and admired the snowy mountains of the great northern chain.* . Tlie next who attempted to explore these tracts were the Russians, who had possessed them* selves of SiberiA, the part of the old continent the nearest to the new ; but their discoveries extended not far to the south. The first Russian discoverers of the American coasts were Beering and Tchirikof, who sailed from Kam- tchatka in 1741. From the former the channel between th(b extremities of the two continents beara the name of the strait of Beering. .'iHiC^W » ? P . ?Sh The Spaniards, afler an intermission of nearly a bunt drcd and seventy years, renewed their voyages northward on the American coast, not for the promoting of geogi«f)hir cai knowledge, but for the prevention, if possible, of any, settlements which other European nations might meditate V » Humboldt's NewSpsiO) 8to. Lond«n, 1811, Tok fl, p. 3ea ♦ ' *. NOKTHWCirrUllf AMBMC*. to f>Mlnbli»li, in region* of which the Bpaniih crown olaitnetl cxchiHivoly (he dominion. A 8|Ninish captain, named Jnan Perns, in 1774, anchored, with hi* crew, on the ninth of Angnit. " the Ant of all European navigatorii, in Nootka road, which (hey failed the |iort of San Lorenzo, and which the HluMriodii^Cook, four yearn a(l^rwilQ]fb named King Ueoiff*'^ Anund."* Cook, and hin lUcoeSaor, Captain Qoro, ffv^ilc-od the coait to the strait of Boering, and l)eyond it ■•! ikran the permanent ice of the Arctic sea permitted. Other expcditioni were Rubiequcntly made by Spaniih ofPcrw, which, with thoae of tlio famous English navigator, Vancouver, in thr years llVi, 17tf3, and 1794, complotcfl the survey of the norlh*wcstern coast. I)^or the CTiploration of the interior parts a journey was performed on land bylloarne, and two voyages wera accomplished along lakes mid rivers by Mackenzie. The former having taken I i ( 'parture from Churchill river, which falls into Hudson's gr'f, arrived, by a north*westcrly course of near thirteen l«undred miles, in the June uf 1771, at the mouth of the ^ppermine river, under the latitude of seventy-two de- grfis. The latter, having embarked in a canoe, at Fort Cbepewyan, at the lake of the Hills, proceeded to the Slave lake, anil thence, by a stream called from his name Mac- keifiile's river, in the July of 1789, to the Arctic ocean, near the seventieth degree. In his second expedition, wfiiftli was directed sodth-westward, he sailed from the same fort ilp the IJnjigah, and passed thence by a portage to the Oregati, whence he arrived by land, in the July of 1793, at 109 CHAPTan 111. ill I ' 1 * Uumboldt, tol. t, p. S04. / "■:' no HOHTHWESfraim AMERICA. : i CHAPTER ni. Comraerce, ^n iiildtof the Paeiiicoc^hn, aYiotit the fifty-second degree 6i' intitudo, the iirtt of all Europeans who traversed North America from the' Atf jmtic to the opposite shores. The Voya;^ performed for the discovery of the coasts and inlets of this immeliseregi^li have led to the establish* inetit of ail ejtt^nsive c6Anm%rce in (hn and peltry, the only protHicts of th«90 ivilds as yet considered a8west comfMmy, in ITBS, vrho^ Brents haVe^redc^ fiictofi^ along the SaskattAi^ia river, ^Hd si^m tolte aji^iK^diitilg ttte t*actfic otean. Btafihttts^ a;mtnuW7(k)n, stfidyftrioltistniihttfactui^ iirtides, are j^iven In '«]Kdh)in^ to the ^Va|^ fbr fte ^yrotluets 6f the bhate. The gdbds kte ebnvieyed in e^inoes tftade bf the bark of twees, ][)!airtledtaVly i!hic bllreh. the tiitfbite 'fhfis tte hghi fop^cdi- ^6nal tft&n^rtation dV^t^ltmia, *iknd,1f is^sily damaged, are also Cosily irt!*())Ulr^. 'th^ese craiy vessels are navigated thousands of miles by intrepid mariners, who are wonder- fully patient of cold, fktigue, and liunger. At a portage MORTHVIEanEH A«EMC4. the vessel ! ia unloaded or lightened, accordioj^ to circum- stapces^ and the merehandiie is carrjedion men's shoulders to the ne^t place of embarkation } while the canoe is either floated empty, or partly disburdiened, through the rapid, or earned, over-land, in likamannev as. the cargo. Ill CHAPTER III ' ',tl The earliest traders on the western ooast were the Rus- siansj who have formed> small tiwtories in the north-western partSk as far toward the south as the ftfty-ninth degree of latitude, which seems to be the limit of their commercial operations, or of any dominion in America which they can justly claim. TheseJndeed seem of all Europeans the best adapted tor an advantageous tmfiU: in these regions, from their hardy modes of lifo, und their trade by land with China, the chief market for peltry. By tlie discovery of Nootka sound, by the celebrated Cook, a new scene of com- merce was opened for fdrs, particularly that of the marine otter ; but this trade has been, ruined for a time by the com- petition, and irregular conduct of difierent nations, particu- larly Angto-Amoricansw No means are furnished^ for the forming of a just estimate of the quantity of furs and skins of the beaver, the marten> the lynx, the otter, and various ether quadrupeds, ej^fiorted by Uie way of Hudson's gulf, Canada, and the western ports.: but we know that the traders of Canada^ have procured) ubove a hundred thour sandt baavers' skins in the space, of a ypar. #, V Th»^i(>"(«' our conception, as we have no knowledge of anterior occu- * Mack«Bsie'8 IntrodttCtion. ^ ' ill If <■ M V.'' 'I r '■ nn NOHTirWESTEHN AMERICA. CHAPTER III. Eskimops. OcriUentalju pants, may, for the convenience of giving to the reader sucli Information concerning them as can be collected, be con- sidered as divided into three general classes, the Eskeemoes, the Occidentals, and the interior aboriginals. The Esqui- maux or Eskimoes, who dwell along the northern coast, from Hudson's gulf and the sea of Davis to the Pacific ocean, are the same with those who inhabit Labrador and Greenland, in the accounts of which countries they are described. Of the Occidentals, by which term are de- signated the inhabitants of that western region which lies between the Pacific and the Northern Andes, our knowledge is extremely limited. They consist of various tribes or nations, which are different, in their personal characteristics, from the rest of the Americans, and from one another. Penou. MH^S.i'i Of the personal conformation and complexion of the Oc- cidental Americans several partial accounts have been receiv- ed, but not such as enable us inform thence a general charac- ter which could prove satis&ctory. We find that to the north of the fifty-first or fifty^second degree of northern latitude the hair of the inhabitants, altogether differently from that of the interior aboriginals, is generally of a brown or ches- nut colour, sometimes approaching to fair.* Their com- plexions also seem in general less dark, and some tribes are found, which, in the prominence and regularity of the fea- tures, and fairness of the skin, bear a strong resemblance to the people of northern Europe. High cheek-bones appear * VancouTcr, toI. 4, p. 105.—- La Peroose, toI. 3, p. 195. MbRtU WESTERN AMERICA.' fo be universally prevalent : but, instead of attempting a general portrait from observations too few and scanty, the notice of some particulars may prove less unsatisfactory to the reader. About the sixtlefli degree of latitude, and to the north- ward of it, the people were found of a stature not exceeding the common height ; of a square make, or with strong chests ; with heads disproportionally large ; short and thick necks ; large and broadly spreading faces, inclined to flatness ; eyes, though not otherwise small, yet not large in propor- tion to the face ; noses with full and round tips, which are hooked or turned upward ; broad and white teeth, equal in size, and evenly set ; black, thick, strait, and strong hair ; strait beards^ generally thin, but sometimes thick, and fre- quently of a brown colour on the lips ; and skins sometimes white, without any mixture of red, but sometimes brownish or swarthy.* A little to the north of the fifly-fourth degree, a tribe was discovered with large eyes, European features, and a skin less dark than that of the German peasants, though the people dwelling around were of a different cast of features and complexion.f The inhabitants of the ter- ritories situated about the fifty-second degree are in gene- ral of a middle stature, with round faces, high cheek-bones, a complexion between the olive and copper, small grey eyes with a tinge of red, hair of a dark brown hue incli- "'-*« mu « Cook's Third Voyage, Book 4, chap. «. ' ,,- • .^ + Humboldt, Tol. 1, p. 146. us CHAPTER III. if v^ 'if ::,;{! 5^ ii:^ m ■ i'i ■ ; ,' *1 iJy n ■• I '■) 11 m CBAPTBB QJn^ to Uaekj awl hetil» so flaKteoed by art both beforeand bokiDfli m to teMakiate aboT^ m the (osm of a wedge ^ This cuileaiied 8ha|>e of the head continues onward to the souths to the countries about the Columbia river. It 119 caused in the time of infancy^ when the skull is soft^ by the- pressure of twa boards, oovered with soft leather, the one affiled to the frontal booe, the other to the occipitaK The pcoplei however, who dwdl to the south of the fifty- first, or fiftieth defpree of latitude^ appear to be a race essen* tially different firoin. the more northern tribes. The inhabi- tants of the coasts aboutNootka sound are described as-below the common stature, with fleshy hy« wide at the eKtmmities, with large nostrils; and generally, low between the eyes, but, in some rare instances, high and ai|u»Une ; and with eyes generally black, but aometimes of a dark yellowish brown, with a black pupil.* Their com^ picxioii js a coppery colour, but someivbat lighter ithan that of the interior aboriginals. The defornnty of the lags is attributed in great measure to tiowir mode tof sitting iOn tbcAr heels, and 1o tight lomametital bandagj^ w«rn by the femadies. lU COAPTEK III. \-H] The custom of rendering tlie forehead flat, which is ope- rated on all persons of both sexes on the coasts, about the Cdiumbia, and >tfa<«ice inoithwtuid thvoHgh six or jieven de- grees of latitude, diminishes eastward, so as 'ait ^first to be confined to females, and «ft length 4o iceaieieatirely, .tptbe east of 1^ northern Andes. IHhe tiSbes .of fihoekooees or 8iiai(e Indians, who iw«\\ til6y are ^i«8ci4bed aBftat 'feet >and «nkles, «md efookeddegs ,-f 4o which another aooountfiAds ajorocukicdnei^fi * I/e wis and Clarke, p. 436> + Ijcwjs aod jClarke, 4to. p. 313. v2 Ifttf.v.';! ¥'' '*■- M ml 116 CHAPTBR iir MORTDWESTERN A.MERMA. of body, high cheek-bones/ large light coloured eyes, and such meagerness 0.1 to contribute to give them a frightful aspect.* The inhabitants- of the coasts nearer to the north, about the fifty-fourth degree^ and^ even the fifty-second, and thence beyond tlie sixtieth, give themselves another artificial deformity more disgusting than the flat forehead. This i» a horizontal incision made, in the time of infancy, quite through the under lip, which causes the appearance of a se- cond mouth. ■ A thin piece of wood of an oval shape, com- monly about three inches long and two broad, is worn in this orifice, the artiticia. lips of which, are received into greoices made round the edge of the wooden ornament. This horrible mode of decoration seems in some- tribes wholely, and in others, chiefly, to be applied to the female sex* IhUtfc The habits worn by the occidental abori^uals of Ame- rica are various, but are every where, as may be expected, rude, and in general inadequate for the purposes of modesty or comfortable warmth. The various tribes, like savages in general, are variously omitoented or disfigured, with trinkets, with paint, or with indelible figures impressed on the skin. : The trinkets are worn in strings on the legs and arniis, o« suspended from the ears, or septum of the nose, perforated fiyHrthat piii^MMe. On the northern parts of the coast, about Cook's inlet, the common garment of both qca^es is a close robe of skin, with the hair mostly outward, gttBually to the ankles, sometimes only to- the * Lewifl' Accoant, 8f«. p.. 10. ■' ( »- I » KOHTHWESTEnN AMERICA. 117 . I ' _ • \ ; knees, with a hole above barely sufficient to admit the heaJ, and with sleeves reaching; to the wrists. The head, legs, - and feet are commonly naked ; but some have high caps in the form of a truncated cone ; some have leathern stock- ings extending half-way up the thigh ; and almost all have mittens for the hands from the ftftws of bears. For a de- fence against rain they use an outside garment made from the intestrnes of the whale, or some other large animaU like that which is used by the Eskeemoes, whom also these elans resemble in their boats atid instruments for fishing. Farther southward, toward the fifty-second degree of lati- tude, a robci is worn either of skinr or manufactured from the filaments of the inner bark of the cedar, or some other tree, falling to the heels behind, and a little belbw the knees before, with a cape in the form of an inverted bowl. A cap is also used in these territories, sometimes a kind of leathern shoe, and in rain a short mantle of matting: but for the covering of those parts which civilized nations are most careful to conceal, no means are employed, except a small apron of fringe carried by the women, which answers not the purpose otherwise than quite imperfectly. Garments of thick leather, in case of expeqted battle, and other de- fences against weapons, are occasionally carried also; Flax and the wool of some wild quadrupeds are rudefy manufactured into a kind of cloth by th^ people about Nootka sound. Bende various dresses occasionally worn, for war or ceremony, often monstrous and frightful, the common garb of the inhabitants of this part of the coast is a kind of flaxen cloak, ornamented at the edges with f&r CHAPTER III. m ■■• i ■ 'I •■;^ ti- , ( lie III. NOBTHWIBTCIIM AMBItlC4k ' - . -i . lUid fnnges, rrachirifi^ hc\oyy (Ira kncm, pnMinfj^ under iht letl nrni, and tird over (lie riji^ht slioitlder, in mucIi tnuiitirr as (o IcAVc botfi aritiM tVee, and (n cover (he \v\\ m\e, bn( (o cxpoHe ihcir rif(li(, except when (Jie veB(nient Ih collected by n gii'dlc. Ovor Ihti is placed a iiiHiHie, MUHlur in ■(utf and urtiumend, cov(>riii(( (he ariiiii (u (he elhoWM and (lie body (o (ho waiii(, resembling^ n ruiuid diali inverted, with u hole in the middle, through which Ihe head \n tliruKt. On (he liead h a cap of line imUtingi in (bun ol'a truncated cone, (ied umler (he ohm with a titring, o(\cii decorated ut lop with a knol> or a hunoli of (oMeh. Among the (ribcs about the Columbia Uie dresn of the men i« a biiuiII robe of Hkin« I'eaoliiiig (o (he middle ot' the thigh, tied aciiMs the breast by a string, with the corners hanging loust>ly over tko units. Sometimes, instead ot' this, a blaniibet, wov^>ii liy tiie fiugcrs, as used. All )«u't« ot' tlte uiau, with this imjierlvct vesture, cxce|it the bucJiand siiouldt^are pj(|>osod to view. The i-obc of the womca decccnds nat below the waist ; but tlio lower parts of the bmly are iiicou)|)JeteJy covered by a kind •of fringe, work of rushes, flags, or h&rk of trees, sometimes interwoven with fur* The coveriag of tlte iK'tid is a conical ca|> of similar matcnak, >ticd unilcr Ihe chiu, iti like inunncr as that of (he people of Nootka. To notice tnoro varieties would be useless, especially as i\n intercourse with Euro- ^tins may kitroducc in a few yeai's considerable alterations. Lugms*. The lai^ifuagcs of the ocoifloutal tribes, of which our kuowlcdge is altogethur scant)^ ii^pear to be us various as their pevsouul charaottvisUcs. The fficvch of the mure Qortliern iuliabitaiits» us about Cook's inlet, i.s guttiu-al ; but V. •* MOWWWimilN AMIM04. * the \«onlf, which souml m MittAuoan »u (lie eara of Euro* ^ini, ore pronounced hi genenl with Birenglh ami «liv iiiiclnrM. 'l\w luiigiiaKo of Nootica, which it eiientiailx (liflcrant from (iio tnoro norlherii diftlecls, i»far from haiHh or (liMigrfNfiiblo, al)ouniling> more in labial ami (knital, tlian h» gtittural goumii. Yol Rome of ite syllablot cannot accn- mlely b« rcprcionlwl by Ihe leltcri of owr alphabet, n«)r easily exprPMctl by 6ur(>pean», partknlarly otio whkli very frequently occura. Thi» \n approximated by Roman cha- rncters in the worti oputtntht, the name of the nun, and onuUathl, that of the moon. The words often terminate in z and n», but much more commonly in tl. Thus Yucuatl m the real appellation of the harbour, which Cook, from a remarkable inattention, or inaccuracy in hearing, con- ceived to be called Nootka. From the little which is known of this language we have ground to suspect an affinity be- tween it and the ancient Mexican.* About tlio Columbia the pronunciation of several tribes is so guttural, that no« thing " seems to represent tlieir tone of s|)eaking morn than the clucking of a fowl or the noise of a parrot. Thi» peculiarity renders their voicea scarcely audible^ except at a shoit distance, and, when many of them are talking, forms a strauge confusion of sounds. 'Fheir common convei'sa- tion consists of low guttural soundsj occasionally broken by a loud word or two» after which it relapses, and con scarcely be distingMishctV't by a stranger. How far this mode of speaking may resemble, or differ (Jcom* the clacking of tlie 119 CUAPTRa III. fk 1 11 * C«ok't third Voy«ge, book 4, chap. S tM Ot— Humboldt, vol. 3, p. J0fi; f Lewis and CUrko, p. 331, 374. m NOIITHWUTERN AMERICA. CHAPTBIl lU. HoUMfc Hottentots, we cannot pretend to know, until the discourses of both kinds of people shall have been heard and described by the same observers. Beside various kinds of huts or cabins, like those of other savages in America, habitations of an uncommon sort are in use with the occidental tribes, especially near inlets and rivers where fish are copious. These, both in sides and roof, are composed of planks, retained in due position by poles, posts, and ligatures. Each house contains commonly three, four, or more families, whose distinct apartments are so imperfectly separated, that the whole fabric may be con- sidered as having a rude resemblance to a long stable, with two ranges of stalls, and a broad passage in the middle, from end to end, between them. A hollow in the floor, without hearth or chimney, serves as a fire-place. Aper- tures in the roof, longitudinal at the ridply the deficiency, are found to believe in the existence of two principles concerned in the government of the woiid, a good and a bad, and in a con* test between them. Notions of a like nature seem to pre- vail in other tribes ;* but of their various and absurdly super- stitious ideas very little is known, nor would perhaps a par- ticular knowledge of them be worthy of being communicated. Some forms of worship are observed in several communities, where wooden images of rude formation are in use. The mqdes of burial are various. Of these to mention two may be sufficient. The one is to wrap the bodies in the skin of animals, and to place them, one over another, in wooden ihouses appropriated to that purpose. The other is to leave them to moulder in the open air, in canoes, on spots of ground somewhat elevated, chosen from some superstitious motive. Much diversity has been discovered in the manners of different tribes. Many are thievish and treacherous, as is generally the case with savages : yet some have been found, with surprise, remarkably honest, particulariy the Wolk- wolkihs, who dwell about the Columbia river, at a consider* able distance from the ocean. Some also have displayed a 4XHnparaUvely great mildness of manners, as the Chopunnish clans, who inhabit a neighbouring tract still farther from the oceant tti. '( 11i3 OUAPTia 111. * Mickensie, p. 374. f Lewii t Clarke, p. 635, 657. y «8 m NORTHWESTEBM AMERICA. CHAPTER III. All the occidental tribes are addicted to igammg, aaare men in general of barbarous manners, in whatsoever coun* try they are found. These tribes, however, bear an honour* able distinction from other savages in their behaviour to- the female sex. Women among them are not only treated with respect^ but also often assume authority, and command. This, with seeming justice is ascribed to their mode of life. Among peo|de purely venatic, where a precarious and often scanty subsistence is procuraUe only by the vigorous exer- tions of the male sex, the females are conndered as of little utility in contribntiug to the common suf^rt, and therefore of litde value. But where, as in these western tracts, the food condsts chiefly of wild vegetables and fish, the women are as useful as the men in the acquiring of necessaries for the family or clan. Here the collecting of roots and berries devolves chiefly on the females, and they are as dexterous as the males in the management of boats and instruments of the fishery, l^e stationary life of this pec^ also, and their plenty of provisions, occasion a treatment of the old and infirm different from Ihat which is experienced by per* sons of this description in tribes which subsist by hunting. In the erratic life of the laitter, iriio make long and laborious excursions in quest of precarious food, the infimn who can give no assistance, nor accompany the rest without caunng delay and trouble, become a useless incumbrance, and are therefore abandoned. But in a stationary state of society, amid a sufficiency of provisions, the coversation and advice of the aged and experienced are regarded as compensating for the victuals which they consume. We find indeed, that among the occidental Americans^ the aged of both sexes^ MORTHWSatKRH AMERICA. When even deprived of Bight and the use of their Ihnbs^ are held in respect^ and treated with tenderness, Notwith- standing however that so much deference is paid to femal^> men prostitute theit* wive8> daughters, or sisters, to strangers without scruple.'* 1«5 CHAPTER III. •i',w.. The Interior aboriginals belong to th&t general race of indigenous Americans, of which I have spoken in the gene- ral view, and which extends throughout the vast continent of America, from the vicinity of the Eskeemoes to the strait of Magellan. The colour of the skin is coppery, or a red- dish brown ; the hair universally of a jetty black, glossy, smooth, coarse, flat, and pendent ; the eyes black, small, deeply set, and oblong, with the comers directed upward toward the temples ; the nose commonly sraight ; the lower part of the face in general triangular, while the forehead approaches a square form ; the cheeks prominent ; the cast of the countenance suspicious and ferocious, contrasted with an expression of gentleness about the mouth ; the fore- head less prominei4» and the occi(»tal bone less curved, than in Europeans ; the fiice either destitute of a beard, by the eradication of the hairs, or thinly fumidied wiih thatappen> dage ;t and " the mouth is formed like a shark's, that is, the sides are lower thai\ the front, and the teeth, small, white, and regular, are sharp and cutting, like those of the cat or the tiger. May not this form be naturally accounted for from their habit of biting Irom a lai^ piece when they eat, * Lewis and Clarke, p. 441, 44f . — ^VancooTer, Tol. 4, p. SM. ^ Hnnboldt, vol. 1, p. 141^148. Volney, p.403<^13. .j Interior Aboriginli. Penow. i.n w'm ■■vfli m ]2G CHAPTER III. .itei»"- IIORTHWESTORK AMERICA. without ever tiding a knife ? This habit evidently gives the muscles a ppsition which at length they retain, and this po- sition ultimately modifies thesolid partslikewise."* They are .in general well shaped, but less robust tlian the Europeans, and various in stature. Variations also in personal charac- teristics, even shades of colour, have place in the different tribes, by which those who are well acquainted with them can ea^ly distinguish them. Some distinctive marks are the effxtsof art. One of the most striking is found in the tribe of the Cboctaws, who, by a compression in the days .of infancy, mould the head into the form of a truncated py- ramid. The shades of colour are so different, that, while in some tribes the skin is hardly darker than in the southern Europeans, it is in others almost as black as that of the N^roes«f as is the case^ among the Mississaguis, at lake Ontario. Habiu. The habits or dresses of the aboriginals, improperiy termed Indims, of North America, vary in the different .tribes, and in a difference of circumstances. Many go al- most naked, even in severe weather, using only some of the articles which compose a full clothing. These articles con* ^ sist pcincipally of a kind x>f shoes, hoes, aprons, a coat, an outside robe, a girdle, and some appendages. Those who have an opportunity of trading with Europeans have mosUy CQlt^nged their leathern garments for those of doth or b^ai^Letingi but the rest still continue to clothe themselves • YolMjy ibidem, f Weld'9 Trnveis in Nortli America^ 8to. London, 1799, vol. 9, p. 3%4. . I NORTQWESTERN AMERICA. withskioi^. 'The Testmenta of both materials are fasbioaed in the same manner, and are in general nicely decorated, at the seams and edges, with porcupine's quills and other ornaments. * The shoe, called moccasin, is formed of a single piece of the skin of the buffalo, elk, or deer, fitted closely to the foot like a sock, with a seam from (Jie toe to the instep, and another behind at the heel, and with sometimes a sole of what seetns a thick parchment, from the skin of the elk. The hose or leggings, of leather or cloth, extending from the instep to the mjddle of the thigh, are fitted tightly to the limbs, and sometimes sewed on them so closely as to remain immoveably fixed until worn into rags, and aire fastened to a narrow girdle by two strings, one outside of each thigh.' Another narrow belt is also in use, to which are appended two small aprons, one before, the other behind, and through which are drawn, behind and before, the ends of a narrow: piece of cloth, or leather, passing between the thighs.' What may be termed the coat is in the form of a shirt, open at the neck and wrists, and descending only to the upper ends of the leggings. The outside robe is a kind of mantle of leaither, sufficient to envelope the whole body, or a great square piece of cloth, or a blanket, thrown about the shoul- ■ ders, and variously placed or folded, according to the fiiocy of the wearer, but often drawn over the left shoulder jind under the right, in such manner as to leave the right arm free. The garments of the women are scarcely distinguisho able from those of the men. Some wear a skin, or cloth, about the middle, descending to the knees ; and some a ^. ^> m CRAPTER HI. _ it' 1 :'" ■■ .. 3 ■ll '' 1 '■v,\-. . li ' , ■ ' ;v . ■• 'i' d.T ( »•• y , i • 'i '* \.,' ■■,''. m '.-.;_■ . ■<■/■ m , ' '1 ' ^ ■;, ':^m, k: ?! '; 'ips mm IS8 CHAPTER III. NORTHWESTERK AM^RKA. iihirt tvliich reaches to the ancles. The hair of both sexes - is variously modified. Among males many permit only one lock to grow, which falls backward in length from the crown of the heail. Both men and women wear ornaments in great variety, as bracelets on the arms, pendants in the ears, and sometimes in the nose. Some men slit the ears, and distend them so as to touch the shoulders. The faces in general are horribly painted or daubed, especially in pre- paring for a warlike expedition, with ointments of different colours, particularly black and red.* Lugoage. 1*he languages spoken by the numerous little nations or tribes of savages, who roam through the immense wUds between the northern Andes and the European settlements on the eastern side of North America, have not as yet been made so much the object of philological enquiry, as to af- ford grounds for the furnishing; of any satisfactory Informa- tion on that subject to the readef. Such an inquiry, exten* sixely and judiciously pursued, by tracing affinities between- different languages, would tend to discover a consanguinity, or an ancient connexion, between different clans, and also to determine whether an affinity exists between any of these American diidects and any of those whidi are iq[K>ken in the old continent. Whether, however, any valuable knowledge would result from this labour may be doubtful, since these faariMirous dialects, wholely oral, or unrecorded by any per- nuuwiit cbaracters, may have greatly changed. in a course • \f*\i, vol. 8, p. 930—998. Mackcoiie, p. xcUi— zct. Se, 87. LcwUtDdCUrke|P.04<— 60|77, 64S* NORTHWESTERN AMERICA. 129^ of ages, and several may probably have altogether perished. *"* in^^* Yet great pains are said to be taken by the American sa- '■"'^~~' vages to preserve the purity of their languages, particularly in their orations at their public councils or assemblies^ wliere, orators are studious to display their eloquence, and the auditors attentive to criticise the speeches. B it the languages of savage tribes, whose ideas are few and. little abstracted, must necessarily be barren, how figurative so- ever their studied orations may be. The dialects in general of the interior aboriginals contain many polysyllables, and in several the words end frequently in vowels. Some dia> lects are perceptibly more guttural than others ; but the females are obrarved ' to pronounce the languages much more softly than the other sex, in general indeed with a delicacy very pleasing to a European ear.* Most of these d ialects, or the greater part of them, are comprehended under twogeneral heads, the Knisteneaux andChepewyan languages. The former, in all its variations,' is spoken by the tribes , ,;. who dwell in the vicinity of Hudson's gulf and the British settlements in Canada, and thence as far westward at least as the lake of the Hills. The latter is in usf^ %mong those who inhabit the more western r^ons from the sixty>fifth degree of latitude southward to about the fify-second.f The habitations of the savages of North America are rude Habi(«tioBfc in the extreme. In general they are only temporary huts, composed of a frame-work of poles and a covering of bark. The poles are fixed with their lower ends in the ground^ li I i, .,1 ■ ill Hi * Weld, Tol. 2, p. 288. f Mackenzie, p. zcii, cxvii. R w l^ ROKTHWBITeRN AMIRtCil. cHAPfdfl tit. am) the upper joined at top, m ns to form a ttope for the outMde coverhtg. Borne huts are conical i others of diffb* rent figfures. In some a hole at tlie top iervei for a chimney. 8omi9 nre only nlirds open on one side, Theie are often placed in pairs, each pair with the open sldee opposite to each other, and a f)re In the space between them for the accommodation of both. SometJntes four sheds are dis- poNed in the form of a quadrangle, with one fire In the cen* tcr for them aU. Several tribes dwell In tents covered with skins. Teht» of this df'scription of an extraordinary sice Hre used as common hails for public consultations. In their hunting expeditions, in the rigour of whiter, the savages IVame their temporary lodges from the snow itself, which they use, on the occasion, as the material of building, and which, consolidated by the (Vost, forms a firm enclosure^. and an eflectual shelter fVom the winds. ^Md. rf^iS- The food of the savage tribes In this immense region con* sists principally, often wholely, of the ftesh ot animals, eaten fVeqncntly almost raw, sometimes entirely in that state. Their meat, when cooketl, is boiled, fVled on etntiers, or stewed or roasted wMi hot stones, covered with leaves, or grass, nnd earth. The boiling, where European pots have not been procured. Is performed in kettles of stone, or In wooden vessels^ In which the water Is heated by red>hot stones. They much prefer the fat of the flesh, as that of the bear, to the lean, as the former remains longer in the tto* mach under the operation of digestion. The lean however is necessarily chosen for the making of what is called pemi- kan, meal preserved for store. For thia purpose (be flesh NORtnWIITRRN AMRRICA. m of tlio larger kinds of qiJtti1riipod»> cut into tliin nliccN, and dried in (ho ■unbcnmB« or on a wotnlen grate over a slow firei or by the froit, in ponndeil carefully between two Btoneii. In thiR itato it may, with care, be kept fit for food during Reveral yearn, without wilt or any mibMitule for it. It is mixed with an equal quantity of tlio (hickefit or firmetit kind of the fkt of animalii> melted, and poured on it in a lioiling Btnte. Carried in baskets or bugs, in expeditions, it forms a nutritive sustenance, when supplies from the chase or the fishery fail. The pomikan is sometimes varied by other mixtures. Thus in the composition of a superior kind, marrow and dried berries have a place. To berriet, wild roots, the rind of trees, anil other vegetables, recourse is had, when the more usual, and more favourite kind of ali-* ment cannot bo obtained. 8ome tribes boil vegetables with the flesli of bears, the fat of which gives such a flavour as is considered as delicious even by some liluropeans. Salt is uscfl as a seasoning by some tribes ; but many never tasto salt, spicMofany kind, or bread, at any time in their lives. The llesti of dogs is eaten at religious feasts, but not in general aR common fooc|« cnAPTBR III. 1^ The superstition of men in a savage condition ought hardly to lie dignified with the name of religion, nor can a regular statement pf their wild and irrational fancies lie easily formed. Religious uolioos "form not a regular system among savages, because every individual, in his independent state, makes for himself a creed, after his own manner. To judge from the accounts of the historians of the first sottlen, and those of late travellers in the north- r2 Raliglon. *./i.H m NOATIIWRHTRRN AMRIimA* rttA I prrn It. s^^VS wflM, it npt^iHirM tliiit the invny^t^M ffonnnilly f*ottitinN(« fliHr mythnlogy in tlir fnllnwtttg tuniitirr. ^\tni a grettt tHanifnH, t)V nnttrrior grttiMit, i^vrntn ttic fHirtli nntt llif) ncrinl mftteniii, tht? vWblo wholf* ol'\^'hit'li conMitutci^ the nnlterw of* w»- vngf'. Thhi grant mntiitnu, rt^niitiiigf nii higli« without iiny cl«»iir Idwi whptts ntlPN tlio worKI, without giving him^rlf much trtniltle ; irMiiN min, whiil, or (hir Mrcnthef, ncconling to his fancy; (tometitnm nmk(»n a notie tomnUfic himieM'{ concf^ntn himself am little* about the atthin of men an About thoBo of other living belugn that Inhabit the earth : iloen gomi without tAking any thought about it t nuft^ni ill to lie perftet rated, without its disturbing his repose { antl in the mean time leaves the world to a destiny or fktality, the laws of which are anterior and paramount to all things. Under his command are subortlhiate manitous, or genii, iimnmera- ble, who t>eople earth and air, and preside over every thing that hnppens, and have each a separate employment. (H' these genii some are good> and these do all tlie gooil thai takes place in nat.tre. Others are Imd, and these occasion all the evil that happens to living behigs. I't is to the latter ehieily, and almost exclusively, that: the navages addnisfl their prayers, their propitiatory offerings, and what religious worship they have, the ol\jcct of which Is to appease the malice of these manitous, as men appease the ill humour of morose and envious persons. They offbr little or nothing to the good genii, because lAf^ would do neither more tioi' less good on this account." "' This fear of evil genH Is one of their most habitual thoughts, and that by which they are most tormented. ■• ,ji NORTHWIITIIIN AMBRIOA. Their mnil ttilrepid Witrrioin nrc, in (liin reflpect, no lictter tlinii lliK women unil cliililreii. A ttreani, a plmntorn Mecii lit nifflit in lh« wooilii, or a sinintcr vvy, eipiaily alarmi tlieir crednlnnti and iiippratilioiM rniniln. tint, an wlierevrr tliere am (InpM, knavon will Mart up, we find in every savage tribe ROine juggler) or pretended magician, who maltes a ti'adn of expounding dreainn, and neguciating with tlie inanitonH the biiMineNR and desires of every Iteliever. Notwithstand- ing their inlerctmrMi with the genii, the magicians are greatly pnsxled to explain tlieir nature, form, anti aspect. Not having onr hieas of pure spirit, they snppose them to be corporeal substances, yet light, volatile, true shailows, and maneff, ailer the mnnner of the ancientji. Bometimes (hey anil tlic savages select some particular one, whom they suppose to reside in a tree, a serpent, a rocli, or a cataract, and him they make tlieir fetish, like the negroes of Africa. The notion of another life is a pretty general belief too among the savages. They imagine that, after death, they stiall go into another climate and country, where gome and fish abound, where they can hunt without being fatigued, walk about without fear of an enemy, eat very fat meat, live without care or trouble, in short be happy in every thing that conititutes happiness in this life. Tliose of the north, place this climate toward the south-west, became the summer winds, and the most pleasing and genial tempera- ture, come from that quarter."* The analogy is easily observable wlilcli the religious notions of the indigenous tribes of North America bear to those of the primitive V33 CMAPTea III. U ][:! 1 1 (41 • Volney, p. 477->480. i'y 131 MORTHWESTERN AMERICA. CHAP'fER 141. Grecians, to those of the barbRrous hordes Rt present in Northern Asia, and indeed to those of people in a state of savage ignorance in every part of the world. Where Chris- tian missionaries have endeavoured to propagate their doc- ' trines among the more eastern tribes, they seem to have iv some degree modified ttie ancient and proper opinions of the American oboriginals ; but no real conversion to Christianity appears to have had place ; except with an exceedingly small number whom the Moravians have persuaded to adopt the agricultural, instead of the venatic life. The superstition of the savages is so blended with fancied magic, on which, more than on drugs of any kind, they depend for the cure of diseases, that every thing of a reli- gious nature is by them termed medicine. In feasts which are celebrated for religious purposes, in some of which the flesli of dogs, oflTered in sacrifice, is eaten, what is called the bag of medicine is opened with great ceremonyjr containing several sacred articles, one of which, in some tribes, is a little image. A piece of furniture indispensable on such occasions is the sacred stem of a pipe, the smoking through which ts a most material part of the ceremonial. This stein« kept in reserve with reverential care, is adapted on the occa- sion, to a pipe billed with lighted tobacco, and transferred from hand to hand till each man takes a whiff. Every par- taker in the rite of smoking is regarded as bound by an ob- ligation, according to the end proposed in the giving of the feast. T^us, if the fea«t be furnished by a public contri- bution, and war be the object, the partakers are solemnly enlisted for the expedition. When a chief holds a religious NOftTHWBSTBBN AMBBIOA* assembly at hia own mansion, all penom, vrho join in the c<'remony of smoking^, are bound to entertain no grudge or hostile design against the chief, or against one another.* In tome tribes, as among the people called Mandans and Minnetaries, a huge stone, conceived to be oracular, is an object of religious respect. When a deputation visits the sacred spot, the deputies perform the rite of smoking to the stone, and of presenting the pipe to it, and afterwards retire to an a€|)acent wood for the night. In the morning the de- stinies of the nation are found marked by a number of white ^ts on the stone. These are deciphered by connoisseur^j who probably had secretly made them in the night, f No speciea of rule, wl^ich can rightly deserve the title of government, has place among^ the savage aboriginals in the interior of Nerth America. In each tribe or nation all men are perfectly equal in political power. None can have any authority to command, nor can any one have influence, ex- cept by superior age, wisdom, or talenta. Thus "the excessive independence of each member, and the absence of every social tie, from the want of all subordination and authority,' have constituted such a turbulent and tenvriH democracy, that it may well be called a real and fearful anarchy."! In all tribes are chiefs, some for counsel, some for war, or for both ; but tiieir authority depends wholely on their persuasive powers, and the opinion entertained of their wisdom or prowesf. As all the members however have one interest at heartj the general weliiEu« of the nation>. l» CHAPTKa HI. GovenmcBt, 'l '.' ifel ' ■ I" 1- * Mackenzie, pt xcit— ciii. t Volney, p. 448. ■I- Lewis and Ctorite, p. 181. > ' 130 NORTHWEarBRN AMBRiCA. CHAPTER Hi. •hn^ f rfw. and as the chiefi!) are well known to be actuated by no other motives, whatsoever measures they recommend are mostly adopted.* In many tribes are found hereditary chiefs for advice or counsel ; but the leaders in war are selected for their courage, experience, and skill. Among some of the more southern tribes, less erratic than the northern, a few faint marks of advancement toward a more regular govern- ment, are observed. Thus in many villages a kind of police is established for the preservation of internal peace. In each of these an authority is constantly exercised by dif- ferent men in succession, two or three at a time, nominateu by the chief ; an authority held so sacred, that no resistance is made to these officers of police, whp^ in tlie suppressing of quarrels or disorders, are not sparing of blows.f The savages, of whom I am treating, attach so little of importance to property, that their chiefs are generally the poorest in the several tribes. Home indeed have imagined that " no right of property exists among savag^. This fact, though generally true, requires however some more precise distinction. Even the most vagabond and ferocious savage has an exclusive possession of his arms, clothes, trinkets, and moveables ; and it is remarkable, that all these objects are the produce of his own labour and indus- try: so that the right of this kind of property, which is sacred among them, evidently derives from the property which every man has in his own body and limbs, and which con- sequently is a natural property. Landed or fixed property is absolutely unknown in tribes which are constantly wan« • Weld, Tol. 8, p. «73. f Lewis tad Clarke, p. M. ff / . I « liOlrilWUTtRIt AMERICA. derihg : but there are caseii of exception among thoie, whom the goodnets of the soil, or any other reason has rendered sedentary. Among tribes who live in villages, the houses^ built either of trunks of trees, of mud, or of stones, belong without dispute to the man by whom they were erected. There is a real property in the house, in the ground which it covers, and even in the garden which is sometimes annexed. It appears farther that, in certain nations, where agriculture has made some progress, the children and relatives inherited these. Consequently there was a full and permanent right of property. But in other nations, at the death of the pos- sessor, all was confounded together, and became objects of division, either' by lot or choice. If the tribe migrates for some time, and deserts its village, the individual then retains no positive right to the soil or the ruined hut ; but he has those of the firat occupier, and of the labour bestowed by his own hands.*'* . Except such pittances of ground, tlie whole of the region inhabited by the interior aboriginals may be said to be an immense common. IM' cnAPTsa III. < t y. m 11 The small and thinly scattered tribes of savages, who roam through, or in any manner inhabit, this immense common, bear various denominations, many of which appear to have been wliimsically, or from some fanciful concep* tions, bestowed on them by Europeans. These petty clans are commonly stiled nations^ though they seldom consist of more than three or four hundred families each, sometimes of not more than one hundred. The tribes are generally • Voloey, p. 448—450. 8 Tribcft m % 138 NORTHVIESTESM AMEBICA. CHAPTER III. >i/nt subdivided into bands, which severally bear distinctive appellations. The bands are often so small as to consist of only three or four families each, particularly in the dreary northern parts, where food is so scanty and precarious. The term nation is sometimes used in an extensive sense, as signifying a combination or system of many tribes, jspeakin^ the same language, and consequently supposed to be of kindred blood. Thus the Knisteneaux, or Kilistinons, extend their venatic courses from the gulf of Hudson, on the northern side of the Saint Lawrence river, as &r to the west as the Athapesco lake, and seem to. be making a progress still farther westward. The Algonquin race, who speak the same language, are sometimes confounded with this extensive people, and are sometimes considered as under a separate denomination. The numerous tribes of the Che- pewyans, who appear to make a contrary progress to- ward the east, occupy all the country between the Kilistinons - and £8keemoes,and extend on the eastern side of the northern Andes, as far to the south as the fiilty-second degree of northern latitude on the river Columbia. The Nadowasees, and Assiniboins, inhabiting the plains about the Saskatshawin and Assinihoin rivers^ appear to be advancing toward the northwest. Dcpophiion. The progfess of indiginal tribes toward the west and northwest is caused by the advance of European colonies in these directions; those of the English from the east, and , those of the Spaniards from the south* According as . "^ the colonists push their encroachments into the wilder- ness, converting portion after portion into arable ground. NORTHWESTERN AMERICA. 139 the savages retire bdbre them^ toother with the wild beasts^ oa whose flesh they depend for sustenance. Their numbers decrease still iaster, from a variety of causes, than the extent of their hunting grounds is diminished: Even before the arrival of Europeans among them, their increase in popula- tion, if incriease had place, was extremely slow, not only from mutual slaughter in their wars of tribe against tribe, but also from the infecundity of their females, and the^great difficulty of rearing children. The infecundity of the females is caused by their licentiousness in celibacy, their practice of procuring abortion, and the labours and hardships im- posed on them by the savage tyranny of their husbands. The difficulty of supporting infants amid the hardships of savage life is such, that, when twins are born, one of them is commonly abandoned, and the mother takes car« not to attempt to re^r more than two or three children, suckling each, in succession, during two, three, or four years. Since their intercourse with Europeans they have decreased rapidly in number, principally from two causes, the introduction of spirituous liquors, and the infection of the small-pox. By spirituous liquors, which, from the intemperance characteris- tic of savages, they swallow, whensoever procurable, so long as they can stand or sit, their health is undermined or destroyed, and qui^rrels arise in the rage of ebriety, in which they kill or maim one another, unless their women, which i^ generally the case, remove all their weapons outof their reach. This constantly, though slowly, operating cause of depopu- iWiort is far exceeded in horror by the temporary ravages of the small-pox, to check which, this people, from ignorance and superstition, attempt not to apply a remedy. b2 CHAPTER 111. fil : r> II if ■M .!.' 11 =; whom the infection had not reached, to call them around him, to represent the chid suflferings and horrid fete of their relatives, from the influence of some evil spirit, who was preparing to extir-, pate their race ; and to incite them to baffle death, with all its horrors, by their own poinards. At the same tMne> if their hearts feiled them in this necessary act, he was himself ready to perform the deed of mercy with hisk NORTHWEITERIC AMERICA. u ..f.« ■ \\ u 142 CRAPTER III. NevrinnLBTEiiM ambbtca. of life, that finy who, from weakness or fatigue, are unable to keep pace with the rest, are left behind, and, if they can- not, by following the traces of their comrades, overtake them at their resting places, are abandoned finally (p their, fate. In the mere southern parts, where pasturage and animals of the chase are more copious, the inhabitants asso- ciate in larger bands, and are less erratic ; though there also they frequently change their quarters, according to their wants and other circumstances, removing their tents, or abandoning their old huts, and erecting new. In the vast plains toward the south -the use of the horse has, since its introduction, rendered hunting more easy. Beside various other modes of obtaining their prey, they encompass on horseback a herd of buflbloes, and kill a number with ar- rows or other weapons, evading, by dexterous horseman- ship, the assaults attempted by the surrounding animals in their own defence. . Some tribes, where the land is fertile, cultivate small patches of ground, in which, with the hoe, they plant maiz, potatoes, and other vegetables. To allure some neighbour- ing aboriginals from the venatic life to the agricultural, and thus to entice them into a state of civilization, has been' zea« lously attempted by the Quakers of Prnsylvania, that most benevolent of all sects of Christians. T according to the general' practice of these peopl6i will despise, domineer over, and even beat them. Sometimes they spend their eveningsin relating (he noble deeds of tlieir relatives, or of (he heroes of their tribe : how in their lives they killed, scalped/and. H9 OHAPTKK III. m 150 MOftTRWESmN AMEBICA. CHAPTER HI. bumed luch a number of their eiit^iiiics : or how, liaviiig had the miiforlune to be takeu priHoiiers, they endured the moat horrible torments with the proudest bravery. At other times they entertain them with the domestic quarsela of the tribe, their cauaea of complaint af^ainst some of their neig^h- boura, and the precautions to be talien to revenge them, opportunely. Thus they give them at once lessons of dis> aimulation« cruelty, hatred, discretion, vengeance, and blood* thirstinesB. They never tail of seizing the first opportunity of a prisoner of war, to have their children present at the punidiment, to tutor them in the art of tormenting, and to make them partakers in the canibal feast, with which these aoenes terminate. It is obvious that such lessons must make a profound impresaion on a young mind. Accordingly their constant effect is to give the young savages an iqtractable, in^Mrious, rebellious disposition, averse to all contradiction : and restraint, yet dissembling, knavish, and even polite ; for the savages have a code of poUteneea,qot less established than that of a court. In short, they contrive to make them unite all the qualities necessary to attain the object of their pre- vailing passion, the thirst of revenge and bloodshed. Tlieir ffensy in the laal point is a aubfect of astonishftient and alBright to all tlie whiles who have lived with them." "On the whole it may be said, that the virtues of the savages are reducible to intjvpid courage in danger, unsha- kea finnn^se amid torUiresi, contempt of pain and death, and patience, under all; the anxieties and distresses of life. Doiibtfeia these are useful qualitiea; but they are all con- MORnnmrHw kuaack. 151 fined to the kidividiMl, aH lelfiflh, and without any benefit to the Mciety. FWtber they are proofii of a life truly wretched, and a social itate to depraved or null, that a man, neither finding nor liopin|[^any aniatance from k, it obliged to wrap himself up in despair, and endeavour to harden himself against the strokes of fate. In pursuing my invea- tigation I do not find that I am led to more advantageous ideas of the liberty of the savage. On the contrary, 1 see in him only the slave of his wants, and of -the freaks of a sterile and parsimonious nature. Food he has not at hand : rest is not at his conunand : he must run, weary himself, and endure hunger and thirst, heat and cold, and all the inclemency of the elements and seasons ; and as the igno- rance, in which he has been bred, gives him, or leavea him a multitude of false and irrational ideas« and superstitious prejudices, he is likewise the slave of a number of errors and passions, from which civilized man it exempted, by the science and knowledge of every kind which an improved state of society has produced."* With the affectation of insensibility under the most tremen- dous suflferiugs the apparent apathy of the savages^ in the concerns of life in general, seems to have connexion. They express no surprise at the sight of any object^ howsoever new or extraordinary, no joy at the meeting of the nearest relatives, nor grief at their departure* and receive both good and bad news with seeming indifference. Howsoever ia- nishedj they betray no symptom of hunger; but, when cnAPTBa 111. •V<(liiqr,p.440-4M. mz CIIAPTKR III. M0UTHWC8TKRN AMERICA. arrived at tliu huts of their friends Mrliere thoy expect Ihcjr craving^ to he satisfied, they sit in apparent ease, waiting' patirntly, without asking for any, till food be offered them. Consonant with their habitually affected apathy is the gra- vity of their deportment. They luaiiitaiu a serious and solemn air, at least before strangers. They never interrupt any person in speaking, and they in general behave with u kind of politeness, which shewaa habit of avoidiug to give oifence. They are hospitable in a high degree, sharing un- reservedly their food with visitants to the last morsel : but this may be ascribed in great measure to their improvident disposition, as tlieyare apt to consume with a thoughtless pro- digality the provisions of the day^ without any regard to the danger of posterior famine. Their prodigality is accompa- nied by an indolence, from which they can onl) be roused by the calh of hunger, or the thirst of revenge, in which case they display Mie most vigorous persevering exertions. From indolence a* . a want of a sense of decency they are filthy in their persons, huts, and food,, i^nd commonly swarm with vormine, which they eat as a delicacy as fast as they can catcU Ihem. ',:, T^e insensibility^ which tlio savages affect under their own sufferings, is real with respect to the siiflcrings of others. The feelings of compassion appear to be wholly strangers to their breasts. Of the treatment of their prisoners 1 have spoken already. A cruelty characteristic of savage man- ners is also displayed, in the treatment of females, to whom is consigned the carrying of burdens, and every other spe- cies of drudgery ; while the men disdain to carry any thing • V NOITHWISTIRN AMBllOAi 15S eicept their Amuij and never lend Miiitance to alleviate the hanUhips of the Mieaker iex; They are liable besides to varioui maltreatment to be unmercifully beaten, maimed, and even murderedj by their brutal husbaudfl. Hence fre- quently mothers, to save their female offspring from a life of such misery, extinguish the vital spark immediately at the birth. Inured to cruel treatment, these females are cruel in their turn. To join with frantio rage in the tor- turing of a prisoner, and in tlie killing of a captive woman or child,: by their own hands, they feel a quite tiivourite amusemenlw Ttie appearance indeed of pairi, or distress of any kind* aflbrda commonly a subject ofenjoyment, or mirth' and lai^ter, to* both sexes. Fronn their inferiority in slKcngjtb and tfOiiMige women are accounted inferior beings. Thatnovalueiasetpn female chasliAy may partly perhaps liafve arisen from* ihia.priwiple. Lioentloua adnoufs in. her yettrs of eelilwttyi are>;nolt at all regarded as Aiulls in a fe- male. At: 6wm of the feastSii At l^rt among the more sc?ithevn irtbes* ini lihis regiMk the most unaiodest exhibi- tions are mads, of the intercourse between the sexes^ io the view, of all the companyv Mem prostitute their wives, without aaruple,; to sUmngarsw This is a usual act of bos- pitaliiy to guests*. Yet if a wife indulges a galant without hter htiibmidfa permissioni she in liable to be most cruelly puiisked by her. savagQt loid, wh» perhaps bites the nose tramihcs faoe^ or^puts ihrjt tt^dcath. Polygamy is in gene- ral'pr^stiee, and the e»!hat)ging>of wives between mau and mam ia-alsa usual; * '• "' CIIAI*nt Itli III I 164 KORTHWBSTBRN AMBR1CA* eHAPTRR Cutlonw. Among the ciisfoms of Iho people of whom I am treating^ is the ceremony of marriage, which varies iirdiffbrcnt tribes^ but the most general mode appears to be- the followiiig. After a feast on the occasionj the two persons intended to he joined in matrimony stand holding a wand about four feet long, at opposite extremities^ in the presence of three or four males and as many females. When they have made a declaration of their afieclion and Intention, the wand is brokeu into pieces, ia number equal to that of tbewitnesses, of whom each takes a piece, and preserves it with- great caie. When they .determine on a divorce^ the witnesses, in the presence of a company assembled for the business> t>brow these pieces into the fire, by which ceremony the union i» considered as dissolved. At weddings^ and on other occasions, dancing is a custom. Diffisrent dancea are appropriated to different affairs, and these agMn vary in the different tribes ; but to convey to readers a clear conception of the differences would perhaps be impossible, and of little utility. The dance ef tfie pipe, which is performed at the arrival of ambassadors of peftpe from a hostile clan, or on the passage of an eminent stranger through their vHlages^ is the most pleasing to Europeans, as being attended witb more graceful movements, or leas violent gestures, than others. The dance of war^ exhibited in preparing for a hostile expedition, or after its completion, is terrific in the extreme, as its motions are designed to represent themodes of killing, scalping, and other sxts of ferocity, accompanied by those hideous yells which they raise in real combat, Mobile their weapons are so brandished, that to avoid being wounded by one another requires expertn^ or address in the highest degree. Women in genei^l are excluded from joining with the men in dances, but they have some appro- priated to their si^x, which they perform apart. ' Thej|>ipe of peace, called calumet, which is smoked witli the most solemn formeJity at the settling of pacific treaties, or at the reception of friendly strangers, consists of a bowl of red n^arblJe, aind a wooden stem about four feet loUg, cu- riously painted with hieroglyphics, and adorned with the most beautiful feathers of birds. The decorations are dif- ferent In the different tribes, which are easily distinguished at first sight, of their calumets. When a treaty of peace is coUcluded, a paiiited hatchet or club is buried in the ground, to denote that all annimosities have ceased between the contending parties. Treaties are recorded by belts of fk^atnputn. The substance thus named is the inside of a diell chilled the clam,' found in the Atlantic, on the coast of North America. At present this is sttnt to England, where it is rlianuftictured into beads, which are sent back, and sold to the savag^. The beads are of two sotts, the white and the violet coloured, of purple. The latter, which are es- teemed equivalent in value to their weight in silver, are more esteemed. They are sometimes sewed, in various ar- rangements, on broad belta of lather, but are more commonly fofmed into strings on thongs drawn through them, ten, twelve, or more of which, according to the importance of the business compose a belt. These ■Wfti> ^nvi hou ">t»i « ; • ' v2 -.f«; 'r.'ij ■■ Jv.iiT; I im CHAPTER if?' '■"Jl .V- m 156 IIOIITBirim»ll AMfllWA. III. beltf «re piodiMcd td partioular {)eriodf« and Ihe tret- iifMt ofyrhkh Uioy nro (he iiiemoriali«' aro leverally recapU tulatedi for tlio reconUipg of them in the memory. The customs which regulate tlie giving of proper names, for thp designation of individuals, appear not clearly explicable. CliiWiien commonly bear the name of (he mother, not of the tath«r« OB the, parentage cannot be so doubtful on the female aide. The name also of the tribe or bawl, vrhlch is mostly that of «Dme animal, ii generally retained. Appellations qr titles arO( besMfSiOonfermd on cJiieGi and distinguished warrior*, after their arrival at the age of maturity, which bear a refe- reneetothe hiernglyptiicmarkoflfaeirfiimtliee, or to their superior abilities or exploits. At funerab Ihey inter without burning, and comni«only destroy all the personaV prpperty of tbedeceased. , hi raoitming they cut riiort, the , haif,,and blackien tlie ^e with charcoal. Aria, Among the arts of theaavages of North America we may, perhaps redcon tiiat by which they find their way through fbreste, awampe, and other pathless wilds. In this they, are by nome aupposed tO'Surpass all other people on our globe : at least they are doubtless surpassed by . none. The point at which they ,aim, thougli hundiedaof miles distant*, tliey arrive at by a direct or uudeviating course. This ex- pertness, so surprising to Europeans, is doubtless the result of eariy and incessant habit, and of an undistracted atlea- tion. Among tlte phenomena, by the observation of which they distiug .ish the di^rent points of the compass, is t^. appearance of the trees. Tlie bark, on the northwestern NOftVUWESTBftM AKBRI&A* 167 tide/ expofird to piercinjfc windgfrom that qualrter. is thicker and harder than elsewhere on the tree, and of a ditTerent colour. They shew not less expertness in the pursuit of men and quadrupeds, wiiose traces thny follow with antonish- ing saffiicit) . Proin their ability thus to traveno vast spaces of land, in rarioua directions, to the intended spots, we may naturally suppose, which indeed, we are informed to be the fiM:t, that they are in general well acquainted with the geo- g^phy of their couutry, or the relative situations of its diffe- rent parts. Of theartei of readi^ig and of writing they are totally ignorant. Events are recorded in the memory, which, ill poiitioal transaotious, is agisted by belts of wam- pum and some rude hioroglypliics. Tliey reckon their years by winters, or, as they ierm them, snows ; and the number of days consumed iu a journey they call so many nights. They diviile (lie year into twelve moons, or lunar months, which they denominate from some circumstances attendant on the seasons. Tiius the moon of frogs has place in May, and theperiod of thirty mooHS. i^ CHAPTBa 111. U(ii» ' >fn medicine they are acquainted with some simples of great efficacy ; but tiie powers of these arc often irustratcd / by superstition. Thus the patient is prevented from the reA^eliment of sleep, or of any sort of repose, by the noise of incessant lattles, employed to frighten away the malig* 1^! , J , t ilil KdRTBWESTKRN AMBRICA. OHAPTfilt IIL naht spirit, Who is imagined to betheaulhor of the malady» nnd to be continually on the watch to renew the aggpresnon. In some cases of distemper, particularly of the fererhh kinds, a mode of cure is practiced of the same nattire with the Russian manner of bathing, which sometimes causes deaths and sometimes recovery. The patient is thrown into a violent perspiration in a heated hut, and thence suddenly {dunged into cold water or snow. They have instruments of music, among which ii a species of f;ute : but, instead of regular tunes, they |koduce from' Uiem only wild or uncon« nected notes. 'Hieir mechanical arts are few and simple ; but by time and attention they form some utensils in a neat and curious manner. Thus baskets are marie of so dose a contexture as to contain water, in the same manner as a pail or bowl. Their weapons are often very nicely ornamented : but the bow, except in remote parts toward the west, is from commerce with Europeans, superseded by the gun. The tomahawk, a peculiar weapon, is a hatchet of small sise, to which a pipe for the smoking of tobacco is often attached. This, though they seldom silfier it to part from the hand, they can throw with such dexterity as to hit a small marie, at Ute distance of ten yards, with the forepart, which pro* jects, and terminates in a sharp point. Thdir canods, which are cunstinicted of the bark of the birch, the elm, and other trees, bound firmly on a slight frame-work of wood, are remarkable for their lightness. A boat of this kind, which carries twelve men on the water, may be carried by one on the land, in such frail vessels, which bear a cargo ofa tun or more in weigbt, beside the crew, voyages are f HORTBWSniBN AMERICA. performed of hundreds of miles, sometimes two or three thousand, along the hdcea and rivers of these immense re- gions. Other species of canoes are also iu use, among Mrhich are trunks of great tree» hallowed into the form of slender boats^ and pointed at the extremities.* m CHAPTBR III. * Bedde the writingB of ttsTellen already qaotod cenoerniog the man- ' mtn, &c. of the Sarage Aaericani, a moltitade of others might be addaocdy. aathoie of Carver, Loaf) Adair, Bernard Romani, Heame, ftc. &c. ,- >-'■ IK, ij IS if ;. y CHAPTER IV. GREENLAND 161 IS of great, but unknown, dimensions, its extent to the north* beings yet unexplored, nor is it decided whedier it be entirely eiivironed by water, but it is more probable that it is joined on the northwest to the American continent, and ought rather to be accounted an American tl^an an European region. Vast* masses of dazzling icef fill the surrounding seas, partly floating and partly fixt, and dis- playing a strange variety of fantastic forms. Islands innu- merable of various sizes border the coasts, which are deeply * Nafig^rars hare uiled on iU western tide as far as the 78th degree of lalilude, and on the eattera at for as the 80th. f The most noted field of fixt ice is that which is called the Eisblink or Iceglance, situate on the western coast between the 6%d and 63d degrees. It is an high field of shining ice, resembling a fast arched bridge, extending twenty.foor miles in length and six in breadth across the month of an inlet. Its glance in the air is seen like an Aurora Borealis at the distance of many leagutts, and its arches, through which the water returns in strong currents at (he tide of ebb, are from 40 to 120 feet high. CHAPTER IV. M M IM SR1INI.A1I1>. CHAPTER IV. .1. . indented by many inlets. Its shores are generally high and rocky, especially on the western side, and there more espe- cially towards the south ; and the mountains, which every where fill the land, rise close to the sea shores, craggy, pointed, and of great elevation, their summits being visible to mariners at the distance of forty leagues.* These moun- tains, and with them all the inteiior country, are covered with perpetual ice and snow ; but the lower grounds on tlie coasts appear in summer clotlied ^ith a kind of ver- dure, f Few brooks and no rivers water these ruggped re- gions, and the interior country is totally uninhabited. Greenlanders dwell along the western coasts as far to the north as the 75th degree of latitude, nor is it certainly known whether any people subsist in these countries still nearpr to the pole. A few Danes are settled along the same coasts as far as the 7l8t degree*; but the eastern coasts, tho< gh formerly open to navigators, and actually settled by a Nor- wegian colony in the ninth century, are now so blockaded with ice as to be inaccessible to ships, and as a passage to them by Land from the western side through the icy moun- tains of the interior country, is also impractical>le, it is uot $ * The Hieiiatak or stag's horn, litiutte on the western coast about tho 84th degree, and reckoned the highest mountain of Greenland, is seen at th« distance of 00 leagues at sea. ^ + The Norwegians, who discovered this country in the ninth centuiy, gave it the name of Greenland, because they affected to thitiiithat the eastern coast, vn which tk«ey first arrived, appeared more green than Iceland, froiD which island they had lut departed. ^/ OREXHLAND. I 163 certainly known, whether these eastern shores have^ at pre- chaptrr sent, any inhabitants or not. ■' Here, as in other places situate in high latitudes, two sea- sons only divide the year, the spring and autumn being ex- cluded. That which is called the summer is commonly of five months duration, from the beginning of May to the end of September, during great part of which time about the solstice there is continually day, for to the north of the arc- tic circle the sun remains many weeks together without setting, and to the south it disappears but a few hours, and then so strong a twilight reigns, that by its i^d alone a man can see well enough within doors to read the smallest print at midnight. The noontide heats in the longest days are scorching, in calm weather and in places where the sun's beams concentre, but in general the Greenland summer is neither very warm nor comfortable. The snows remaia even on the shores until June, and begin to fall again in August and September. Thick fogs envelope the coasts from April to August ; and the .Id emitted by the vast masses of permanent ice is always chilling at night, or when the sun is low in thie horizon., The winter of seven months duration is altogether rigorous, all being involved in depths of ice and snow. The frost-smoke issues from the sea like the smoke of an oven, and feels less cold to a man immersod in it than the dry air around ; hrX when it is wafted into a colder region'of the atmosphere it is converted into the frost shower, being frozen into small icy particles, which, driven on land by the winds, bring with them a cutting cold almost insupportable. The subtile snow dust, with whic&i|ie air X 2 t ^ ". ■^t ^, ^^,^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) A ^/ ^^ -^ '/ /A HiotDgraphic Sciences Corporation 23 WfST MAIN STRUT WEBSTIR.N.Y. 145M (716) •72-4503 in ' z ^ ^ 164 CHAPTER IV. "^ •i» GBECMLANB* is filled when the snows are drifted by the winds^ is not more tolerable. Night witU little interruption invests the skies for some months, the sun but peeping two or three hours above the horizon in^ljie souths and not appearing at all for many weeks together m the north; but, besides the twir lights, such is the brightness of the moon and stars, which shine in those northern climes with superior lustre, and such the splendor of the Aurora Borealis that a man can see well enough in the open air to read. The sea is generally open notwithstanding the intense cold, permitting the Greeulan-- ders to pursue their occupations of fishing and seal-huiiting, on which their subsistence depends ; but when it happens that, for two or three weeks together, a continued sheet of ice spreadsfrom the shores many leagues over the sea>*navL- gation is precluded, and famine is the conseqiience. The parhelion or mock sun, so frequently seen in arctic climates, is particularly often Iseen in Greenland, as also the halo or luminous circle about the moon. It is remarkable that when the winter is uncommonly severe in the temperate cli- mates of Europe, it is mostly uncommonly mild in Green/> land, and vice versa. It is also remarkable tliat the springs or wells in Greenland rise and fall regularly with the* tide, being higher at the tide of flood, than the tide of ebb, and 'liighest of all at spring tides« Lightning is rarely seen, thunder more rarely heard, and calm weather predominates^ and that more in proportion as the country approaches the pole, but when storins come, which is generally in autumn^ Jjiey blow with irresistible fury. ' -; jiarth in these regions, rendered sterile by the cold^ riJly any \egetable for the subsistence of man^. t; GREENLAND^ 165 corn has benn frequently sown, and as frequently grown up with a proinisin*^ appearance, but was always destroyed by the frost before it could attain maturity. Some low shrubs appear, bu( the country is entirely destitute of trees, which defect kind providence has in some measure supplied by drift wood, which is conveyed to the coasts by the winds and waves. Some spots of ground upon the coasts, acci- dentally manured about the dwellings of the Greenlanders, pcoduce grass of so nutricious a quality that it has fatted a Tew shet^p, brought from Denmark, to an uncom- mon degree, in an uncommonly short time ; but in general the surface \s barren sand or stones instead of soil, and moss of various kinds the predominant growth, and in advancing towards the pole nature wears gradually a more barren aspect, until at length all vegetation ceases, and nothing meet» the eye but naked rocks. The animal productions of the land are also scanty ; besides a few rein-deer, hares are found which are white aU the year, and a kind of partridges called snow hens, which are grey in summer and white in' winter ; but the two last are not esteemed as food by the Greenlanders, who prefer to them the flesh of foxes. The only tame auimals are dogs, which howl instead of barking, .are like wolves in appearance, and are mostly white; they «re chiefly used as beasts of burden ; from four to ten of thenr, harnessed to a sledge, draw the Greenlander in state along the ice. But, te compensate in some degree for the penury of the land, the seas are prolific, and furnish great numbers of water fowl, fish, and seals, which constitute al- most the whole subsistence of the Greenlanders, and in th&~ catching of which they display surprising feats ot dexterity. CHAPTER. IV. *'" -m'- 166 CHAPTER IV. GREENLAND. The king of Denmark claims the dominion of these frozen deserts^ and some of his subjects from Denmark and Nor* way are settled on the western coasts, who trade in seals' blubber, skins, and eider down ; vessels also from difierent European nations, particularly Holland, are employ'd in the Greenland seasj every summer, in the whale fishery.* The Greenlanders, who inhabit the western coasts, and who are the same kind of people with the Esquimaux on the opposite coast of America, have been computed not much to exceed 7000, and their number decreases yearly .-f They are of low stature, most of them not reaching to the ■,* ^'- ^ * The whale, though a fish, has red warm blood like that of land animals, and, like them, is furnished with lungs for breathing, brings forth its young alive, and audkles them. Of this fish there are many varieties, but that which is called the black or Greenland whale is generally from fifty to eighty feet long, and some have been fonnd from one hundred to two hundred feet. It is not a fish of prey like seme other species of the whale, but feedi on a whitish slime, which floats on the surface of the sea. Its throat is not more than four inches wide, and its month is destitute of teeth, but its upper jaw is furnished with about 700 barders, or blades, of which the whalebone is made. These barders are shaped tike scythes, hang down like the pipes of an otgan, (en or twelve feet in length, and are received into the under jaw, hollowed for that purpose, as into a sheath. These whales abound mott between Spitzberg, Nova Zembla, John May's Island, and Greenland, where near four hundred ships hare been employed in one summer in pursuit of them. -f Their number in the year 1730, was said to be 30,000, and In the year 1746, 20,000; so that they decreased one.thicd in 16 years; but the de> ropeans to lift. The bodie» of both men and women are fleshy, fat, and full of blood. Their blood is unctuous, hot, and dense ; the steam emitted from their bodies in perspi- ration is hot and smells like train ; and the vapour, which they breathe out from their lungs, is hot and dense, inso- much that when many of them are assembled in one apart- ment, even in winter, an European can scarcely bear the heat, or breathe fur the thick exhalation. They suffer the rigorous cold of their climate with, but thin covering, and with their heads and necks generally bare ; aiid they sit in; tlieir houses mostly without any covering at all except their breeches. s- * 167 CITAPTER IV. 168 CHAI»TEK IV. OREENLANO. ThcCiit'Ciilandcrs arc not very lively, much less addicted 1o extnivagaiit cfttisions of mirth, but arc clicurful when assembled in companies, and live together in surprisin^;^ harmony \>ithout any form of government or religion, the law of reputation being tiie only restraint on tiieir monds. Whatever superalitions fancies prevail in their minds, it is certain there is no form of religious worship among them, excepting tlic Christian converts of the Moravian brethren, \v1k> have with wonderful perseverance brought some hundreds of these poor people to the profession of the Christian religion. Though they arc very hospitable and courteous to strangers, they have much pride, the consotpiencc of much ignoiiince, and value themselves nnich above the Europeans, concerning whom they talk witii nnieh ridicule in conversation among themselves. Their nunws for num- bers are continued no farther than five, but, by reckoning the fingei's of both hands, and toes of both foot, some make a shift to number twenty, which is the extent of liieir arith- metic. They arc extremely dirty in their way of living ; their common every day-clothes drip with grease, and swarm with lice, which they cnish between their teeth when they catch them : their vessels arc no otherwise cleansed than by the tongues of their dogs ; and when any of them presents a piece of meat to a person whon» he means to treat with par- 4icular politeness, he previously licks it over clean with his tongue. Few of the Greenlanders live many years in one place, but remove in the summer from one part of the coast to another, fixing their winter quarters in whatever placo seems most convenient. Among them, ns in other rude nations, the carrying of burdens and other laborious works gubbnland. arc leHt to the womeiij the providiug of food by fishing and ticul-huitting being l)^ pFQvinco ot'thft mou. . ThiU whicl) may he called the Hhirt of (ho Urevuland- era ii6 made of the skios of birds^ the feathers inward : over litis is a kind of vest mostly of seals' skin, and over Oiat a coat of seals' skin, Mrhich is sewed up close to the chiiu witliout any opening either before or behind, but is drawn down over the head like a shirt, the arms being thfiust up into it. The breeches are of seals' skin, very short both above and below. The stockings are of the skin of young seals found in the bellies of their dams, and llie^hoes of seal skin bound over the instep by a thong which passes under the sole beneath. Over all, the men wear. a Wge ontsido garment of seals' skin called a water coat, tureished with bone buttons when they go to sea. The dress of the women is nearly the same, but the nurses wear .an outside garment bound round the waist with a belt, ao.wide behind that the child has room to lie within it at the woman's back, and is prevented by the belt from falling through. Her? the infant tumbles entirely naked witliout any other swaddling clothes or cradle. The men cut their hair short, but the v^Qmen wear it long. The Greenlanders dwell during the winter lit houses, and iduringtbesummer in tents. .r.a The bouses are built on steep rocks or elevated grounds, where they may not be incommoded by the affluic of water when the snows dissolve. There is no part of the house 169 ONAPTRa IV. vto onwtkH^. CHAPTBIt IV. under ground, and it is raised no higher than barefy to ad» mit a man to stand upright. These habitations are near twelve feet wide, and of vnrioua lcii(|ilis, up to seventy feet,, in proportion to the number of families crowded together in one house, which is fVom three to ten. The walls are com* posed of broad stones and earth, and the roof of raflers laid acrossa longitudinal beam,whichis supported by postsdrivei* in the ground midway between the side walls. On the raf- ters are laid billberry bushes, over them sods, and over these fine earth. These dwellings have neither door nor chim- ney, but the use of both is supplied by a vaulted passage from twelve to eighteen feet long^, made of stones and earth, enterinff into the middle of the house, and so low Ihat a man must creep to enter. On the same side are windows two feet square, made of guts of seals or maws of fish ; and under them a long bench for the accommodation of strangers, which is esteemed the most honorable seat in the house. Half the floor oppositeto tlie windows is raised a foot higher than the rest with boards and skins, and divided into as many distinct apartments as there are families, resembling horses' stall8> and separated by skins^drawn from the posts, which support the roofing beam, to tlie wall. The only fires ever lighted in these houses are lamp8> one of which stands constantly burning at the partition post of each fa- mily, cut out of soft bastwrd marble, about a foot lon^, in form of an half moon, filled with train of seals> and furnished with dry moss instead of cotton, which burns so well, that, ftom the junction of so many lamps, the house is sufficiently, lighted and sufficiently warmed. Over each lamp hang^ a OREBNUMD. kettle of the tame stuflT, in shape like an oblonj;; Ijox, a foot long and half a foot wide, in which (heir victuals are boiled. The boats of the Greenlanders are of two kinds, and serve quite different purposes. The umiak or woman's boat is four or Ave ft)et wide, three feet deep, and from thirty-six to fifty*four feet long. It is flat bottomed and sharp at both ends. Its frame consists of a keel, ribs, up< right posts, and laths joined together with whalebone, and it is covered with seals' skins. It is rowed only by women, and in it the families and effceti of the Greenlanders are transported from one part of the coast to another, sometimes three or four hundred leagues. The rajack or man's boat accommodates one person only. It is shaped like a weaver's shuttle, eighteen feet long, hardly a foot and a half wide, and hardly a foot deep. It is composed of a slender keel, longitudinal laths, and transverse hoops, which go round the sides and bottom, joined with whalebone. It is covered with seals' skins, which enclose it on all sides like a bag, leaving only one round hole in the upper part or deck, barely sufficient to admit the body of the rower, who sits with his legs stretched along the bottom This hole is secured by a rim of bone, ^nto which the rower tucks his water coat so tightly, that 'htugh billows break over him no water can enter the boat. ; le holds the middle of his oar with both hands at once, and strikes the water on both sides alternately, sailing at the rate of more than twenty leagues iii the day, and making '^lw . CHAlPfiR IV. m OHAPTKR IV. ailUKl4MD. hill way ilirouKli Ktormy whvor wheru an Biirop«Mk boAl could not nnhRiiil, and if Itn lio overMt» wo Ui«t hit hwid tinngn down pr rprndicnlnrly in tlir water, ho rMtorat him- srU* ttiid hit boki to tho proi^or poiture by ii iwinnf of his (mw AiukhI witli Imrpoonn ho purtuoi the maU y$\ik\(kk «ro tho chiofand fttvourito food of thoM people, and whf n occa- sion nniuirei, he canriee hii little boat aoroM a head-land or field of ice, and launchee U again at thu other side. V ?. 1 .■i% a. .t.rf»... SPITZBERGEN, .^"I'lX. DiioofMRD hy Sir IIiikIi Willoughby, iiii Eiif^liNli navl- l(ntor, ill tiio yonr 1553, mid improperly oullod by hoiiiu Npw Gropiilnnd, niid Knut Qrrriiluiiil, NoninM to voiiNiNt ok' onr f(mU iilniid, mid iiimiy of Niiinllnr diiiioimioiiM, wlumo rftiigt^ towurddtiio iturlh in not fully tuMMirlniiiod, but im iioihi of (hcin odviiiicn fiirtlior townrdn (ho miiitli timti tlin 7Dtli dog^roo oflutitiido, tlio rigouni of (lioir winter urn oxtroim% •nd (ho kind nn bnro mid bnrron an tlio iiordiorn purtii of Groonlaiid lying between the muiie fiurallolH of Itttitudo^ pro- ducing no iipeci«B of tree or Rhrub, but mipplied with drift- wooil from the sen, and totiilly doitituto of hummi inhiibit* antR, but yielding NubmiHtence to rein-doer mid foxeii, mid pBrticiilarly visitefl by the white bear,* which is an iinwel- coiiio viiitant alio in Greenland, Tlie coaiti are liigh« und * TIm whitt bMf ii ■ pradMloM anlotKl, •xtnnitly fl«ro« ind Ibrini. i)»blt, InhiMlIng the «rc(lo rtgloni, fitrllouUrljr SpUibtrgtn. It li ■in|>hl. bloiM, tnd l» Ntn chlifly en th§ fleldt of Ice where it goei in puriuit of mkIi. It ii maoh lirgtr tlian eny otiier ipeolei of the bear, Iti body being about the Moie liie with thtt of an ox. Iti head It long like a dog'i^ and lie hair l» long and lofl like wooU riiAiTn iv 1 t m CHAPTER IV. '• fPITEBKIOEN. t . ;4'i Ts*!) in many places inacceMible, especially on the west, and the face of the country is extremely rugged, and full of dusky mountains, which are highest also on the west, and, like those of Greenland, are generally so steep and sharp pointed, that the ice and snow, which all the year fills the vallies, cannot rest on them. The surrounding seas swarm with whales, seals, and other marine animals, which are the ob- ject of pursuit to great numbers of European vessels, chiefly Dutch, which in summer visit these inhoqiitable coasts, whose sovereignty is vainly claimed by the king of Den- mark. {■• .0 < "i ■4 h 'j M' 17» CUAPTER y* /'• J|t.; CANADA. ■4 I Site — Rivera — Face--&a90ti«— Hiatoty'-" Vegetahlea-^ JnimaU — FoaaiU — Commerce — BoatS'^Area — Dioigion — Population'-' Inhabitants — Government — Religion — Man- ners— CiM(om«— TravelUng-^Tovana, li tft LI,. CilNADA, ExTBifDiMG along the vast river Saiiit Lawrence^ from its mouth in the sea of Newfoundland, westward to lake Wini- pig, may be considered as having its natural boundary, on the northern side, in a rid^e of highktnds, which winds from the coast of Labrador in prodigious length toward the west, separating the waters which flow to Hudson's gulf from those which are received into the channel of the Saint Lawrenee. Another ridge of highlands, on the southern side of t^t vast river, stretching southwestward, was de- clared, in a treaty with the United States in the year 1783, to be the boundary of Can^a on that side, so far toward ihe west as its occurrence with the forty-fifth degree o£ CHAPTER V. Site. . ' ; # Sill m m CHAPTER V. CANADA. nortliern latitude : thence the bounding line was conceived to proceed westward along the stream of the Saint Lawrence, and through the chain of the giVHit lakes Ontario, Erie, Hu- ron, and Superior. Tiie Jiwlt nf>9"t natural however, on its whole southern side/ would be the stream of tliis huge river And itK chain of lakes. Aivtn. To the Saint Lawren '' Canada owes chiefly its import- ance. Of this mighty strr^m« its im^tnense lakes, and its stupendous cataract: at Nia^irt, I ltav« treated in the gene- ral view. With a breadth of from ninety miles, at its mouth, to fifteen, at a grater distance from the ocean, and wHh a idepth of from ibrty 1o ten or eighteen fkthoms, this river l» safely navigable by great ships of the Ime as tar tts Quebec, through a length of four hundred ntlles, by sliips of three or four hundred tuns, near two iitindired fiirthei', to Montreal, and by boats carrying two tuns several hun- dred miles higher, except some short interruptions which can be easily n nedied by canals.* A great number of islao^s many of liich have a beautiful appearance, are con- tained in the Sail. Lawrence, which, above Quebec, -spreads wide in soipe pai , and in others contracts into a narrow and profound cha' lel. One of the largest of the islands is that Qt Orleans, near thirty ipiles lone And ten broad« near Quebec pity , ,,, ' , **'. Ttiie country is ititersecteid by a multitude of streams, which are received into the S^itit JLawrisncc on its northern "" '^ Gilo's Letten on €a&«d«, 8«o. Leodmi, 1809, p. 37, 68k— W«ld!t TiAveli If Nopth Amcfica, S«o. LomIoii> liTM^ nd. 3, p. MfM, ,. i CANADA. m side. Many lakes of various sizes are formed by these, or connected witli themi and many of the rivers are navi- gable by boati or canoes. The most frequented of the au.viiiar streams is the Utawas, or grand river, the naviga- tion of which, however, is so interrupted, that in the course of two hundred and eiglity miles not less than thirty»two portages occur, places where the goods and boat must be carried on land from one part of the channel to another. The CKaudierc and Montmorenci, which fall into the Saint Lawrence, the former on tlie southeastorn side, about seven miles above Quebec, the latter on the northwestern, about the same distance below that city, are noted only on account of the cataracts which they form. About three miles above its influx, the Chaudiere, in a stream two hundred and fifty feet in breadth, falls perpendicularly from a height of a hundred ami thirty feet, between very steep and lofty banks, amid a sceiieVy wildly picturesque. On the quantity of. water in the channel however depends in great measure the grandeur of the fall, which in times of flood appears awfully majestic. The stream of the Montmorency, only fifty feet broad in its channel, is so broken at. its fall by rocks, and thus dilated, as to appear much broader. The height of the cataract, in which the water falls almost perpendicularly, is found to be two hundred and forty-six feet. The streamy in its descent from such an elevation, appearing like vast sheets of enow, forms a fine object to mariqers in the Saint Lawrence, to whom it is clearly visible, as having place almost at the influx of the Montmorenci.* CHAPTER v. ♦ Gray 87— »». Weld, vol. I, p, 319, 157— Ma Z ITS CANADA. CflVPTER \\ Face- Cnifiiida may in great port be considerod os the vuUey of llie Saint Jjawrcnce. This is particulurly tl»e case with Lower Canada, one of the two provinces into which Ihis great country is politically divided, by a line imagined to run northwestward along the Utawas river. Here the country is enclosed between two very long ridges of high- lands, from which several branches extend quite to the Saint Lawrence, forming cither protnontories, or lengthened banks of great height and steepness. In other parts level spaces of various extent intervene between the highlands and the river. The province of Upper Canad.i, lying on the northern side of the Saint Lawrence and its vast lakes, is in general a level country, consisting of extensive plains bounded by hills of not a great elevation. In Canada in general the natural features are gigantic, and fill the mind, at first view, with ideas of grandeur : the vast and admirably majestic river interspersed with beautifully verdant islands ; the immense expanses of clear water in the lakes, diversified in like manner with islands interspersed ; the stupendous cataracts, particularly the unequalled fall of Niagara ; the lofty chains of mountains, clothed with wood, visible to those who sail along the river ; and the stately and almost boundless forest, from which comparatively very little space has as yet been reclaimed by the industry of man. The primeval forest indeed, from the mouth of the Saint Lawrence, through a great extent of territory up its chan- nel, still, in the beginning of the nineteenth century, occu- pies all to the river's brink ; and even farther upward, where colonization and culture haVe place, *' the strip of cultivated CANADA. m ground, viewcil from the river, is so small, compared with the high wood-covered mountain!} in the bacic-ground of the picture, that it is scarcely enough to takeoff the appearance of complete savage wildness. The sombre hue of the pine , forest is a strong contrasfit to the lively verdure of the corn fields."* The naii'-ow border of cultived land is however in some places thickly inhabited. " Nearly all the settlements in Lower Canada arc situated close upon the borders of the rivers. For several leagues below Montreal the houses stand Si) closely together, that it appears a» if it were but one village, which extended the whole way. It is pleasing beyond description to behold one of these villages opening to the view, as you sail round a point of land covered with trees, the houses of it overhanging the river, and the spires of the churches sparkling through the groves with whicli they are encircled, before the rays of the setting sun. The scenery in various parts is very fine. It is impossible, in- deed, but that there must be a variety of pleasing views along a noble river ; the Saint Lawrence, winding for hundreds of miles through a rich country, diversified with rising ground^), woodlands, and cultivated plains."f In Upper Canada, which promises at no very distant time a more nu- 'merous population, as being favoured with a more fertile soil and a warmer temperature, extensive scenes of smiling culture may in future ages be expected ; but as yet the colo- nized spots bear to the dreary wilderness a quite diminutive proportion. CHAPTER V. ♦ Graf, p. 37. f W«ld,T0l.I, 330, 339. Z 2 ISO CANADA. CHAPTER V. Sra^ons. , In Canada are felt the extremes of heat and cold, but the air hin ^neraldryand salubrious. In the lower province the winter commences in November, and the earth remains covered, during six months, with snow, the general depth of which is about from four to seven feet above the surface of the ground. The Saint Lawrence itself is frozen quite over above Quebec ; but, opposite to that city, the opera- tions of the tide, and of the current rendered impetuous by confinement, are such, as to prevent that circumstance from taking place oftener commonly than once in ten years. Here, as elsewhere in the northern climates, the cold acquires its greatest rigour in Januar), when Fahrenheit's thermometer falls sixty degrees below the freezing point, sometimes even to that degree at which mercury freezes : but in general the medial temperature in this month and in December is marked by twenty-two under the point of congelation. After the faljs of snow in the early part of winter, the sky is com- monly clear, the sunshine bright, and, except the cold, the weather extremely pleasant, as in Russia : but sometimes a temporary thaw takes place, which is attended with unplea" sant circtimstances and much inconvenience. In May the snow disappears beneath a schorching snn, and summer, with" a rapid vegetation, succeeds, without an interval of spring. In July and August the thermometer rises to eighty degrees, and sometimes above ninety, sometimes to ninety- six. The heat is more mild in September, which seems to be the pleasantest month, yet partakes more of the natuiie of summer than of autumn. The latter season indeed ap- pears not, iti Lower Canada to have any place. The frosts begin to be feit in October ; but the influence of the sun A. 18t still continues to be such as to render the air in the day- obaptbr time tolerably warm.* - ■'■'■ — In Upper Canada the temperature partakes of that of those territories of New York and Pensylvania which lie to the west of the great Apallacliian ridge, where the cold is mitigated by a southerly wind^ as I shall have occasion to state in treating of the Virginian regions. The winter therefore is shorter here than in the lower province^ although^ from' the superior elevation of the land, the cold might naturally be expected to be greater. Thus at Niagara, the highest part of the platform, the severity of the winter's cold is felt only during about two months. Even at Montreal, in Lower Canada, but in the vfcinity of the Upper, the duration of the snow is near -two months shorter than at Quebec. This diminution of cold in these countries has been much promoted by tlie partial destruction of the woods, by wlitch avenues have been opened for the admis- sion of the warm southwesterly winds. Hence, from the extension of colonial settlements, a still further diminution may in future times be expected. Even tbroughout the lower province the influence of this cause has already be- come evident, '' since the period of the river's being closed against navigation by the ice is near a month later tlian it was when Canada was first colonized ; and instead of insu- ring vessels on condition of their leaving the river by the end of November, as used to be specified in the beginning '- ' * Gray, p. S4i, 263—256, 982, 399—801, 312, 313. Weld, vol. 1, p. 389, 398. IS2 CANADA. CHAPTER y. Hiitory. of the last century, the clause in the policies is now extended to the 26th December."* The heat of the summer in Upper Canada is said sometimes to raise the mercury in the thermometer even above the hundredth degree. The discovery of Canada is ascribed to Jacques Cartier^ a French mariner, who, in. the year 1535, sailed up the great river, to which he gave its name from having entered it on the day dedicated to Saint Lawrence. Of the etymology of Canada, the name of the country, we have no certain ac> count. No permanent settlement however was formed till the year 1608, when Samuel de Champlain founded the city of Quebec, in a situation most judiciously chosen. The growth of the colony was slow, as it was much neglected by the French government, and as the trade for fiirs, the first great object of the colonists, was fettered by monopolies ; beside that the hostilities of the Indians contributed greatly ' to retard the progress of improvement. This progress was also interrupted by hostilities with the English colonists, who conquered the country in 1629, but restored it on a treaty of pacification, in 1632. In consequence of some at- tention given to its transatlantic subjects, by the court of France, who sent thither a small force to awe the savages in 1662, the colony assumed a more thriving aspect in the latter part of the seventeenth century. Three expeditions* planned for its conquest by the English, in 1690, 1709, and 1711, proved abortive, the two former by the treachery of their Indian allies, the last by the misconduct of its com^ *' Volney's View of the United SUtef),«ro. London, 18Q4, p. 151, HO, CANADA. 188 inander, appointed by favouritism^ \iiliiout rcpfard to merits by the villainous tory ministers of Queen Anne. Though the Canadians escaped aconquest, their condition, after the war which ended in 11 \4, was so miserable, that many of ^^them were furnished with no other apparel than tlie skins of beasts, from their inability to purchase the manufactures of Europe : but afterwards, from a long enjoyment of peace 'with the English colonists and the Indians, the set- tlement attained a considerable degree of prosperity, inso- much that in the space of forty years it more than quadru- ])led its population. The Indians had been conciliated by the labours of the French missionaries, who, with ardent and indefatigable zeal, had endeavoured to convert them to the Roman Catholic religion, and by the condescending manners of the colonists, many of whom Imd intermarried uith the savages, and adopted their modes of life. The ambition of the French court, which had formed a bold and insidious plan for the conquest of the English colonies in Americfl, kindled a new war, in which Canada was con> quered in Vtbd by the arms of Britain. The heroic Wolfe, the British commander, fell at Quebec, in the moment of a victory, by which the contest in that country was decided. The possession of all Canada, resigned by France in the onsuing treaty of peace in \76% has been since retained by the British crown. CHAPTER V. As the parts of this vast country as yet reclaimed by colo- nial labour are, in comparison of the whole, of trifling extent, the indigenous are still the predominant products. In the countless variety of useful trees^ which composfs an VegeUbleH IM CANADA. CHAPTER V. immense continuous forest^ are observed the beech, the oak^ the elm, the ashj^the pine, the sycamore, the chesnut, the hiccory, the cedar, the maple, the cherry-tree, and the birch,, of each of which again diiierent species are discovered. The pride of the Canadian forest is the white pine, which grows to the height of a hundred and twenty feet, with a, diameter of four. The oak is accounted excellent, superior to the Scandinavian, yet, in durability, inferior to that of England. As this species of timber is never found other- wise than straight In this country, no knees of ships can be made from it ; but the roots of the pine are applied to that purpose. The species of maple, which yields a saccharine sap grows here in great plenty. The sap, extilling from a gash, or hole, made in the tree, and received in vessels placed beneath for the purpose, is boiled till the aqueous parts evaporate. The residuum is a cake of coarse sugar, capable of being manufactured into as fine a sort as that of the cane. Each tree, with management, is capable (A fur* nishing five pounds of sugar annually during twenty years. Two sorts of this tree are found in Canada, the one growing in low or swampy ground, the other in more elevated or dry situations. The juice of the former is more copious,, but less rich in the quantity of sugar procorable from it. Among the indigenous fruits are very fine ra^berries, which abound in the woods, ^^nd sour grapes not much larger, than currants. Among the indigenous plants is the gin- seng, so highly valued by the Chinese. The fruits of Europe, as apples, peaches, apricots, and plumbs^ thrive to perfection in the gardens, tnore especially OAMADA. J85 %i Mohtreiil and in Upper Canada. As fine grapes for the table as those of Portugal grow under the protection of firamei of glass. Gooseberries^ currants, and other small fruits, are in abundance. The soil, generally a loose earth of a dark hue, ten or twelve inches deep, with a substratum of cold clay, has proved very fertile in the kinds of grain which have been cultivated In it, as maize, wheat, oats, and * -barley : but the wheat alone, which is of an excellent quality, more especially in the upper province, is sown in such quantitres as to be an article of exportation. The sort commonly cultivated is that which is called spring wheat, comnritted to the ground hi May, and reaped in August or Septeniber. The farmers in the lower province, descended from iUxe 'French, have as yet been silovenly, both in 'the neglect of manure, (hough mart is abundant, and in the cleaning of the grain, when thrashed. The tobacco of this country -is esteemed for its mildness, but fSae quantity raised is very small. The soil is well adapted to the pro- dutition 180 CANADA. CHAPTER vr' Antmts. The domestic quadrupeds and poultry of Europe hwre been imported into Canada^ and thrive in general. The horses are spirited and remarkably hardy. Dog8> yoked either singly, or in one or more pairs together, are aj^lied to the drawing of carts, and other wheeled carriages, in summer, and sledges in winter. Various sorts and sizes of these animals are used in drawing, each with a weight pro- portioned to its strength : but the strongest is a particular breed, resembling what is called the dog of Newfoundland, but broader across the loins, and with shorter and thicker legs. The indigenous quadrupeds are in general the same with those of the northwestern regions of America, already noticed,; but here they have been reduced to a compara- tively diminutive number, since the establishment of a colony on the banks of the Saint Lawrence, by the indefiiU- gable pursuit of the Indian hunters, for the furnishing of iiirs and peltry to the demands of European merchants. Sometimes Tast nuraberaof bears migvate from the more northern regions, through Canada, southward, crossing the Saint Lawrence in its narrowest parts, particularly the stnuts. between the vast lakes. This kind of migration is always accounted an infiEdlible prognostic of excessive severity of cold in the ensuing winter. Squirrels also sometimes, in tike manner, changing their places of abode, pass through this country in prodigious numbers; but their course is sometimes northward, as well as in the opposite direction. Also pigeons, resembling the wood-pigeon of Britain^ but Imaller, are observed, commonly once in seven or eight yearsj to migrate from the north to the souths passing over the Saint Lawrence and the lakes, in numbera so immense as might be thought incredible. Land birds in the woods, and water fowl on the lakes and rivers, in a great variety of species, are seen in vast numbers in summer ; but when winter comes, they almost all disappear, as the frost pre- cludes them from the means of subsistence. Among the few which remain in the winter is a species called by some the spruce partridge, by others the pheasant, which procures itii food from the spruce fir. This species resembles the British partridge in its external appearance, except, that it is larger; and (he British pheasant in the taste of its flesh. These birds are so stupid that, when one of a flock is killed by a shot, the rest remain undisturbed, insomuch that the fowler may shoot several more, perhaps the whole flock, in sue- cession. 187 cAArrKK v. \n[iong the reptiles of this country is the rattle snake, from which however Lower Canada is said to be extempt, but which swarms to a very dangerous degree in several parts of the Upper, particularly in the desert idands of the great lakes. The rattle snake here is of two species. The one, seldom longer than thirty inches, is of a 'deep brown colour, clouded with yellow. The other, nearly twice as large as the former, is of a greenish yellow, clouded with brown. Fish; in vast variety, abound iu the Saint Law* rence and the lakes. Among these is the sturgeon, which here is not considered as well flavoured for food, but is valuable for its oil. The salmon swarms in an extraordi- nary degree. The Indians kill this and other species of large fish, with spears, at night« with the aid of torches. ' 3a3 . 188 CAKADA. CHAPTER Foiiib. or (WA in a canoe one lAeera and paddles, while the other, standing over a flambeau placed iii the head of the canoe, strikes dexterously with hir spear^ the fiih which come around, attracted by the light.* In Canada, where the great object moit continue to be agriculture, until a more numerous population shaN have augmented the deroandt ot the colonists, and furnished workmen for other pursuits, little attention has been gf ven to the exploring of fossil wealth, which appears to be co» pieus, and may in future times furnish large matter for exportation. The ore of iron has been found in many part% but in one place only has a mine of it been worked. That of co|q>er is abundant in the remote parts of Upper Canada, as about Lake Superior, and in its islands, where it can be procured in vast quantities with little trouble. Even virgin copiper, apparently as pure as any which has uadergtone the usual action of fire, has been seen in great plenty in aeveial of the more eastern of these islands, and on the borders of a river which flows into the southwestern side of the lake. Among the few fossils as yet discovered may be noticed fine pieces of quarts, called also rock crystal, which are brilliant like diamonds, and cut gfau» in like manner. At Quebec, at Cape Diamond, which received its name from these substances, great numbers might be procured, mostly of a pentagonal form, and terminating each in a point.f • Graj, p. 140, 311. Weld, toI. 1, p. 9H vol. S,p. 43—40^80, 140, 156, 16l , ^'f Grey, p.M. Weld,t«l. 1, p. an,fol.«, p. 71. CAHAOA. )89 Tlie commerce of Canada is maintained on one tide with (he Indians by canoes, and on the other with the British dominions in Europe and the West Indies by ships, beside ft considerable traffic with the people of the United States of North America by boats and land-carriage. The trade with the Indians for peltry and furs has been already no- ticed in my account of Northwestern America. This trade has been chiefly in the handi* of an association of merchants, styled the northwest company, whofle business is managed by men resident in Montreal. Among the skins imported into the country by their agents, in one year ^ere a hun^ dred and six thousand skins of beavers, thirty-two .''ousiEind of martens, seventeen thousand of musquashes, six thou ^nd of lynxes, four thousand six hundred of otters, and thn thousand eight hundred of waives. The supply of this merchandize muM, in comrRe of time, diminish, according to the decrease in t'lie mimber of quadrtipeds by the activity •f the hunters. The skins and furs, procured from the !»• dians of the northwestern regions, in exchange for blankets^ guns, ammuniti in which the people sleep and eat ; for they have cooking utensils, a fireplace, and beds, such as they are. After the wood is sold, the float and house are also disposed of."* . 191 OBAPTER V. Various kinds of boats, some of which are termed canoes, are employed in the carriage of merchandite on the rivers and lakes of Canada. Next to the raft in its nature is the «eoi0, *' a vessel with four ^des, an oblong square, in length forty to fifty feet, in breadth thirty to forty, and from four to. five deep, flat-bottomed. Tlie sides are not perpen- dicular : they are inclined outwards for the purpose of car- rying a greater weight. The scows are buih on the lakes in Upper Canada. A large one will carry five hundred barrels of flour, and costs fifty pounds. They are built for the farmers, for the purpose of transp so far as that its clergy retail^ their ecclesiastical properties, and can recover by legal pro- cess the dues and tythes which they possessed before the Kdigini, m CANADA. OHAPTBR V. i: li Mamcii* conqueit, except on lands belonging to ProteitAntf. Tytbev are still levied from such lands held by Protestants, as were formerly subject to this kind of rent for the support of the Romish worship ; but the amount of them is paid into the hands of a receiver general, for the maintenance of Protes- tant dei^men of the Church of England, actually resident in the province. For the maintenance of the same the se« venth part of all waste lands, granted by the king, is reserved and without a clause of reservation to this purpose no grant IS valid. To constitute benefices, and to endow them from this fund, a power is vested in tlie governor with the advice -of the executive council. In the beginning of the nineteenth century the jdergy of the Church of England, in both pro- vinces, w«e only thirteen in number, including the bishop of (Quebec; those orf^ the Church of Scotland three ; those of the rRomish Church two hundred. A late traveller* flays, " no where do the Roman Catholics apd Protestants live on better terms than here. They go to each other's manriages, baptisms, asd burials, without scruple ; nay, they have even been known to make use of the same Church tor religious worship, one party using it in the forenoon, and the other in the afternoon. There is something truly christian in all this." 'Inhe Canadians of British Mood are, in persons and man- ners, like otlier British pet^le, but the French Canadians are of ailifl^rent character . Of the lower classes of these , many appear tinctured with ftidian blood, and some are stiU * Gnjf p. 00. CANADA. \9t: found dwelling in tlin villages of the Indians^ and mjurried to Indian women. They are generally inclined to a roving kind of life, apt to prefer the chase, the fishery, and the management of boats in commereial voyages, to the settled business of agriculture. From their resemblance to the aboriginals in sUoh propensities and habits, these have been, and still continue to be, more attached to the French Cana- dians than to any other European colonists who have settled in America. No bolder navigators,' nor hardier men, per- haps are to be' found in any country, than those of these colonists who navigate the canoes in the trade of peltrjr. The smoking of tobacco is incessantly practised by these and others of the lower classes, insomuch that they compute tho distances between places by pipes. By a pipe, which is commonly about e^ual to a Russian verst, or three quarters of an English mile, is meant the space through which they may move while a pipeful of tobacco lasts in smoking. The common people in general are blindly devoted to the dic- tates of their priests, and superstitious in the extreme. For instance, they believe, that a consecrated candle, while it bums, completely protects all in, the house, where it is, from thunder, tenipests, sickness, and every other evil. CHAPTER V. < ■ j- Consonant with the superstition of the French Canadians is their extraordinary ignorance. Few among this people can write or even read. Strange as it must appear, this is the case with many members of the house of assembly. The little acquaintance with literature discoverable among them is chiefly possessed by the fair sex. The opinions of these are regarded as of such weight, that the men geiierally con- MO CAKADA. CHAPTMR I I •• .^ Bult their vriVes in the management oraffkiri, and are gtiided by their advice. "8onuM>t' tlie lower claases liaveallthe gaityand vivacity of the people of France. Othora, to up- pearance, have a great deal of that MillcniieM and hhmtnH«a in their manners characteristic of the peopl(> of the Uniltid States. Vanity however is the ascendant feature in the chu- racter of all of them> and by working upon that you muy make them do what yo\i please."* Their amiable beha- viour to strangers must be considered as atoning for many fiiults. There is not a farmer, shopkeeper, nay, nor oven a Mtigneur, or country gentleman, who, on being civilly ap- plied to for accommodation, will not give you the best bed in the house, and every accommodation in his power. The Canadians seem to huvc brought the old French politeness with them to this noimtry, and to have handed it down to the present generatioii. One is more suprised to And here courtesy and urbanity, from the little likelihood that such plants would exist, far less flourish, in the wilds of Canada."f Notwithstanding, however, the general politeness of this people, thcs indolence of the meu in the lower onlera causes (Vtcat part of the labouri of agriculture to fall to the lot of the softer sex. ClMtOIM. The customs and modes of life of the Canadians, both French and British, depend much upon the nature of their air and seasons. During the long winter, while the earth continues covered with snow, which in tlie lower province is not less than six months, all business, except the carrying • Weld. vol. If p. 338. i Gray, p» 1S7. CANADA. aoi of g^oodii to market, ii luiiMiulml, and tlio people devote (heir time to amuioment and festivity. The laliouring clamf §, in great proportion, are tliui obliged to maintain themselvoa the whole year on the oamingt of the half : yet they are aa well clothed, and appear to live aa comfortably, as those of their mnk in any country in Europe. The rooms nro vfanned with stoves, as in Russia, and the cuttle intended for the provision of winter are killed at the commencement of that season, and their flesh is preserved from taint by the frost. A species of amusement iiiuch practised by the gentry is driving in open sledges on the ice or frozen snow. In these tdo ladies appear superbly dressed in furs. These sledgeSf termed " ean'oles, glide over the snow with great amoothness, and so little noise do they make, that it is ne- cessary to have a number of bells attached to the lmrn(>t«, or a person continually sounding a horn, to guard against accidents. The rapidity of the motion, with the sound of these l)ells and horns, appears to be very conducive to cheer- fulness, for you seldom see a dull face in a cariole."* I'he body of tliis vehicle, placed on what are called runnen, which resemble in form the irons of a pair of skaits, is of Tarious shapes and sizes, and is applied to various uses'; some sorts serving as carts to bring goods to market, others as carriages for travelling or pleasure. CIIAPTRH v. Those who travel on foot in winter in this country use vhat are called snow-shoes. Theiie are made of a kind of TnivcIUoc. • Wfld, vol. 1, p. 101^ € C Wi CANADA. CHAI*TB|l V- • / net-work, fixed on fmiiMt, about two feet loh|^, and eighteen inches broad, ihappd .Kke the pnper kites uted by boya. From Iheir ^extent of nir&oe they siiik not deeply in the anew. These vbo avail Iheinselves of hones in ttaivellin^ over ice or snow generally sit in a cariole. Such is the ex- pedition of this mode, that " there have b«en instances of a pingle horse having drawn a oaride, with two people in \i, not less than ninety miles in twelve iiourSj which is more than mail-coach rate, with ail 4heir changes."* > Whai two horses are yoked to one of those vehicles, they are placed in a Mne, tbe one before the other. The most mitraoidinary paTt of Canadian travelling is on the ice of great sheets of water, such as lake Champlain, Oiver which carrii^'s fre<- quently run in the intercourse, between this country and the territories of the United States. Weak spots of the jce ar6 apt to give way under the tieet of the horses. The animaU, in that case, ifiUl into the water, and sometimes drag the ■carriage and its contents to the bottom with them ; but in ■general the men leap flrom the carriage on the unbroken ice, and pull the horses out For this purpose, on the neck of each horse is fixed a rope with a running noose, by the yi<4ent pulling of which the animal is strangled. No sooner is this effect produced on these quadrupeds, '' than they rise in the water, float on one aide, are drawn on strong ice, the noose of the rope is loosened, and respiration re- commences. In a fcwjniautesthe horses are ou their feet, ^ much alive as ever/'f * Gray^ p. tQ9. i Gnj, p. 378. . CANADA. 80S The towiM of Canada are as yet rery few and of ftmall size. The third in magnitude, named Trois Rivieres, con- tained only about three hundred houses in the beginnindf of tlie nineteenth century. It standi on a bank of the Saint Lawrence^ at the influx of a great auxiliar stream, the Saint Maurice, which is so divided at its mouth by two islands, as to display to passing navigators the appearance of tliree distinct rivers. The only two towns of considerable magni- tude, Quebec and Montreal, are situated at nearly equal dis- tances from this, and on the same side of the Saint Lawrence, the northwestern. Montreal lies on the southern end of an island of the same denomination, near thirty miles long and ten broad, at the mouth of the Utawas river. The number of inhabitants may be about ten thousand, of whoip the greater part dwell in the suburbs outside the wall of the city, which, being useless sinctf the Indians have ceased to be formidable, has been suffered to become ruinous. The streets are narrow, but regular. Except some built of wood in (he suburbs, the houses are of stone, and instead of shingles, are mostly covered with plates of tiik, to prevent conflagration. For the same purpose, the doors of many, and the outside flutters of the windows, are covered with sheets of iron. CHAPTBR .v. Towni. MoBtreri. The present capital of Canada, and most probably the future, is Quebec, most advantageously situated forstrengUi, commercial convenience, and the beauties of majestic sce- nery. It is built on a vast calcareous rock, the end of a promontary, which contracts the Saint Lawrence to the ■ 2c 3 Qnebec. li^l SOi CANADA. CHAPTEIl V. comparatively diminutive breadth of a mile, but forms below this fluvial strait, at the influx of the river Saint Charles, a noble horbOiir, called the bason, capable of containing, in a commodious, manner, above a hundred sail of the heaviest ships of war. The town consists of two parts,, the upper and lower. The upper town stands on the top of the rock ; the lower at its foot. The two parts communicate by a winding street, in which some stain are cut at the sides for the accommodation of passengers on foot. The fortifica- tions are stupendous, beside that the natural steepness of the rock obviates, in many places, the necessity of walls. The ])erpendicular height of the rock at Cape Diamond, which forms pari of the outline, is at least three hunddred and fifty feet. The number of inhabitants is about twelve thousand. The streets are in general, more especially in the lower tbwn, rather narrow and im^lar. The houses are mostly built of stone, and are covered with boards or shingles, ex- cept a numberof the best dwelling-houses and most valuable "warehouses, which have a beautiful covering of plates of tin, <2uebec, which, firom its situation, must be regpunded as the key of Canada, and seems intended in future ages for the capital of a great empire, is remarkable for the grand di- vermfied, and beautiful scenery, which the eye commands from several parts of the upper town. " In the variegated expanse that is. laid before you, stupendous rocks^ immense rivers, trackless forests and cultivated plains, mountains^ lakes, towns, and villages, in turn strike the attention, and ihe senses are almost bewildered in contemplating the vast- nera of rhe scenes The river itself, five or six miles wide« CANADA. is one of the most beautiful objects in nature, and oir a fine still summer's evening it often wears the appearance of a vast mirror, where the varied rich tints of the sky, as well as the images of the difierent objects on the banks^ are seea reflected with incom^vable lustre."* 205 OBAPTBR V. f Wtld^ Tol. 1, p. S«i. CHAPTER VI* ' • (• m HUDSONS The mouths of all the rivers in Hudson's Bay, aire ^ed with shoals ; excq)t that of Church-hill, in which the largest ships may lie : but ten miles higher it id obstructed widi sand-banks. . All the rivers, as far, as they have been navi< gated are full of rapids and cataracts, from ten to sixty fitet perpendicular. Down these the Indian traders find a quick passage ; but their return is a bbour of many months.* As far inland as the company have settlements, i. e. 60d miles to the west of a place called Hudson's stone in lat. 53, long. 106° 27, the' country is flat ; nor is it known how far to the eastward the great western chain <^. mountains branches off-f The sun rises and sets wifh a, large cone of yellbwish light. The hurting of the rocks by the froi^, is altogether terrific. Like many heavy cannon fired together, and 'the splinters thrown to an amazing distance. All the grous* kind, ravens^ crows, titmouse, and Lapland finch brave the severest winters. CHAPTER VI. * P^niwaf s Arctic Zoology, p. 394; t Idem, p. 206. SOS LABRADOR. CHAPTEft VI. Tbe northern part has a strait coast facing the bay^ guarded by a line of isles innnmerable. The eastern coast is blirren beyond the efforts of cultivation. The surface is every where covered with masses of stone of an amazing size. It js a country of fruitless vallies and firightful moun- tains^ some of them of an astonishing hefgbt. There is a chun of lakes spread throughout formed not from q^rings, but from rain and snow. Their water is so chilly, as to be productive of only i^ few small trout. On those mountains there are thinly scattered a few blighted shrubs, or a little moss. In the vallies there are crooked, stunted trees, pines, firs, birch« cedar, or rather a species of juniper. In latitude 60, on this coast v^;etation ceases. The whole shore like that of the west is ^ed with islands, at some distance from the land. The people among the mountains are Indians. Those on the coast Esquimaux. The dogs of the former are small ; those of the latter are^ headed like the fox. They ,have a few rein-deer ; but use their dogs for drawing.* The Labrador-stone, which reflects all the colours of the peacock is found in loose masses. • FUi. Traot. LXIV. S73, 380^ NOVA SCOTIA. 20» CBAPTEft VI. Toe face of the country is in general hilly, but not mountainous. It appears to be a lowered continuation of that chain or spine which pervades the whole continent. The land is not favourable for agriculture ; but may be excellent for pasturage. The summer is misty and damp. It abounds in extensive forests ; but not in large timber^ none fitted for large masts^ nor even for the building of large ships. Here is an inexhaustible fund of lumber for the sugar plantations. The situation for fishing here is little inferior to that of Newfoundland. Cape George terminates the coast to the east. It is iron-bound, and 4:^ feet above the sea. 'Par from every part of Nova Scotia extends a skirt of land with deep water and fine anchorage. The harbours here form very secure retreats ; and the tides in the bay of Fundy are from fif%y to seventy-two feet anJ. flow with prodigious rapidity. Hogs perceiving its approach run away, at fult speed. Dd 2U CHAPTER VII. VIRGINIA. Virginia~-^le — Coa8t'~^Coatour-~-River8-^Lake3-^ Swamp9--^ring8 — Subterranean excavations— Tempc rature and Seasons— Face— History^ Vegetables— Ant' mals-^FossUs — Commerce — Area^Population—Govem' ment — Division— Religion — Towns — Roads— Bridges Jnns — InhabitantS'^-Slaves — LUerature"'- Manners- Island, VIRGINIA, OR United I^ates, Under which general denomination, for geog^raphical convenience, are comprehended the territories possessed by the United States of North America, isa r^ion of vast dimensions, but of not accurately determined boundaries, extending from the borders of New Briinswick and Canada, and the lakes Ontario and Erie, southwestward to the fron- tiers of Florida, and from the Atlantic ocean, westward be- yond the river Missisippi, to tracts approximating the Spa- nish colonies in New Mexico. The settling of the limits of this great portion of the American continent will depend on . gD 2 CHAPTER VII. Site. •-* «!1I CHAPTER Vll. ComU TIRGINIi. futuro political transactions. At present tlie widest interval between thia and the neighbouring countries, is found on the side of the territories comprised under the appellation of New Mexico, where vast marshes and desart plains, desti- tute of trees, like the steppes of Tartary, intervene between the occupied parts of the one and -the oilier region. Prom its northern limit, the coast of this vast country is in general high, rocky.^imd heiie and- Uiere bordered with reefs,. as far toward the south as the vicinity €>f Long IsJand : but thenc^ to its southern teripinalion it is so Aat and iow» as not tohedisceniiiDle fcoin ships on the ocean until their very near approach to the land.* it is bfolcea throughout by uumerous inlets, in which are many safe receptacles for ship- ping. The greatest are in the southern parts, as Delaware Imy, Chesapeak guM", and Albeinade sound. Far the most extensive of these is the gulf, improperly called the bay, <^ Chesapeak, which advances about two hundred and seventy miles within the cootuient, with a, breadth of from seven ta eighteen miles, and a depth of commonly, about nine fa- thoms. Ck»toiir> The land ef this r^ion riseis westward from the Atlantic and eastward iVom the Missisippi, by gradations which are- various and mostly insensible, to the interior or middle parts, which are occupied by long ridges of mountains, running generally toward the northeast and southwest, nearly pa- rallel to one anqther> and remarkable f«»r an evenness or. • Voliiey>» View of the CTnUtd Statety London^ 1804^ tro. p. 19. N xmovmC ilnifortftily unvaried by Buoh peaks atitT nt»^^ firec'r^ices ai divertify the mountains of Europe and Asia. Titis extraof dinarycon^^eries of mountainous^ protuberances, which ap>- pear to be nattimi terraces of prodigious eion^tion, forms^ a tract of above a ttiousand miles in lcn(;tb, and comtnonly from about seventy to a hundred and twenty miles broad. AmoTi^ the extensive ridges of this tract, froni^ which nu- merous brandies run in vaiHous directions, three principal are distinguishable, thediflRerent parts of which are variously denominated. The appellations of the Apalachian or Al- leghany mountains, which is sometimes extended to the • whole assemblage, belongs, in strict propriety, to the great- est ridge, termed also the endless chain, which, unbroken by any watercourse, forms thv spine of this portion of the ' American continent, separating the streams which descend eastward to the Atlantic froin those which How westward to* the Missisippi. These mountains are not of more than a moderate height. The medial elevation of the Apalachian chain above the ocean's level is only two thousand, or two thousand four hundred feet, though in some parts it is com* puted to rise to the altitude of between three and four thous- and, and even to si^ven thousand eight hundred in one part, a part detached from the nuun ridge, in the province of Now Hampshire, called the white mountains, sometimes visible &t sea at the distance of thirty leagues^ On the eiMtem side, between the system of mountains and the At- lantic, the country is rough with hills as fstr toward the south a» Long Island ; but thence throughout it is a flat or shelving plain, varying in breadth from fifty to a hundred and eighty miles> encteasing ia width: as it approaches the 213^ CHAPTKR VII. ■>'■ S14 vnaiNiA. CHAPTER south. On Ahe western side^ to the banks of the Missisippi, it consists -of plains of vast extent, traversed by low ridges in various directions. To the north of the river Ohio, the land, denominated the northwestern territory, forms an immense plain; or gently undulating surface, bo elevated as to give source to rivers whose waters are conveyed in op- posite directions, some to the south by the Missisij^, others to the north by the Saint Lawrence.^ Km I >c:. As the highest or middle region of this part of America displays a peculiarity in the arrangement and conformation of its mountains, so also has it some uncommon circumstan- ces by which the courses of its rivers are affected. .These^ after having flowed, for some space, along the vallies, be- tween the ridges of mountains, in streams parallel to them, turn suddenly into directions transverse to these ridges, through deep gaps, in which they pour their waters, whence they descend into the plains. Appearances strongly indicate, that; in times of antiquity, many vallies in the mountainous region formed vast lakes, the waters of which, in a course of ages, forced passages from their confinement, bursting their way, where the resistance was weakest, through the vast . biurriers by which they were pent, aiid thus forming those gaps through which the rivers are now seen to rush with such impetuosity. In this manner appear to have been scooped the channels of the rivers Hudson, Delaware, Sus- quehannah, Potowmak, and James, which traverse the ridges between the Atlantic and the spinal or properly called Apa- * Volney, p. IA--43. See aUo the Tqvn of Bnrnaby, Sinith| Chaitel> lux, Weld, &c. &c. Timonii« fin hdiitii chain ; and luch appears alia to have been the ca«& with the Ohio, which seema to have pierced the mounds between the ^ne and the Missisippi. The most remark- able, or at least the most remarked, of the gaps through which the formerly imprisoned waters escape to the plains, is the breach through which the Potowmak runs, formed in the ridge called the Blue mountains, a breach above a thousand feet deep, and near four thousand wide, presenting,, in some points of view, a fine object to the eye by the sub- limity of the scene, and the mingled beauties of rocks anil erdure.* ' CHAPTER VII. I; The rivers named above, flowing with Vfat bodies of water, in broad and deep streams, together with several* others, form- an extensive inland navigation, which has been- already much improved by the excavation' of canals, and will doubtless, in fiituretimesi with the encrease of wealth, be improved much further. Except in some parts whero- are portages or carrying places^ where navigation is inter- nipted by cataract» or otfier impediments, these rivers aro navigable by boats almost throughout, and those which fall* into the Atlantic- are navigable by sliips of burden far above their months, as the Hudson which enters the ocean at Long Island, the Delaware which is received by a bay of the same denomination, and- the Susquehannah, the Potow- mak, and the James) which- disembogue into the gulf of tho Chesapeak. Of atl these the Potowmak is of the easiest navigation. On this any ordinary mariner,, who has once Volnejr,. p. 74— 95» iU CUAPTQt VII. / ' VIBfilMUcv imAc tho ptBSRgek m«]raaMy> Htiihoiit' a pilots eorai4nfr)« vessel. dra)viii{p only twdvio het imler^ from the Chflwpnili tQ tlie aty oi VVa0|iiigtou»a.GqursQo^ aihundMtml 6»fif{ ifiikss In, tUc SQuUieni. piMrU the ciyeni \«hi«l^ nun tolbfi A^iuUio ajre so b»rr«4 by sh^iaU amli itnd buiki at aol.to ^drnit beav oiiJes, to tiie Misaisippi, on xytueh sueh venela may proses eute their voya^eto the gulph of Mexico. Indeed^ when all tine windings ace taken into the acooHAt, the length of the navij^tioQ, from Pittsburgh on the Ofato taNew.CMsans on the Missisi(^t is reckoned above two* tlio^and railes^ In the provinces of Kentucky and. Tenessee the soiiiis.of such a nature that tlie brooks and even considerable rivers^ are apt «uddenly to disappear, sinkings to a stratum of cal- careous rock> along which^ as on a nearly horizontal floors they pursue their course in subterranean channels.* 1 .* Vdhwy, p. 33— M. Weld'i TlrtTcts, 8vo. London l^fiO,T6l. 1,- p. W^ 03, 375. Mone's Americao Geography ind Gvettecr, &c. &c. tfuctmii. HIT Tbc lakeBj wliich lie within the territoviM of the United Sl&tM, are m mttly inferior in «cq to the imineiiso liason of water in their vicinity, on the nortliweatem quarter, a«i not to attract comparatirely much notice. YeC lake Champ* lain, which, on one end, leceirea a stream from lakcQeorgpo, and, on the other, diachargea its redundant waters by an outlet to the river Saint Lawrence, is account<>d two hun- dred miles \ongt and from one to eiglitcen broad;, has a depth of water sufficient for the largest vessels, and contains abovtl sixty islands, one of wliicb i» twcnty«four miles in lei^h, and from two to four wide. Lake George itself, whose water is supposed to be a hundred feet higher than that of Champlaiu, is thirty-iix miles long, and from one to seven broad. The lakes Cayuga ami Seneca, each nearly forty mikea long, communicate with each other, and, by an effluent stream* with the great Ontario. Thi» also is the ca«e with lome smaller lakes, as the Oneida, and one called the salt lake, whose water is impregnated strongly with sail. ClIAPTEa vn. •icf i: < f ■t ,-.(l From the nature and position of the ground in many parts of these regions, the waters form hoga of a species called swamps, which are commonly overspread with a very (hick growth of reeds, shrubs, and treesj of various kinds. Of these the most noticed is one called the Dismal swamp, situ^ ated in the low country which bordera on the Atlantic, between Virginia proper and North Carolina, ecitending thirty miles in length, with a medial breadth of ten^ covered mostly with a dense forest of enormous treea whieh yield valuable timber, and bordered in many parts, especially toward the south, with a kind of meadows occupied by Be DWtmps. ■■■• ' i. i-, •^18 VIIMIMI*. CHArriR VII. .41 * • reodfe, ^hich aflbrd the inoet nuuridiitiip food fot oarU& The waters of a canal, cut in this dreary tract, are of < Um colour of brandy, and accounted rather salubrious 4han otherwise, which is supfKieed to be caused by the roots of juniper, or other trees. In the center is a lake or pond; about seven> miles in length. Some spacel> in tlie south have been cleared, and are found fertile u\ rice : but fiir the greater portion, consisting of an undrainable quagmire, is incapable of culture. For the production of rice* hirge ti-acts have been reclaimed in another wide marsh, called also the Dismal, by some tlie Great AUgator swamp, which lies to the south of Albemarle sound, and contains a lake eleven miles long. In the province of Georgia, on the borders of Florida* is the Ekanfiuioka marsh, supposed t« be three hundred miles in circuit, forming in rainy seasons a lake, and containing several islands, which are said to bo inhabited, and concemiug which the neighhouriug savages lelate some fabulous stories.^ ,i> 1 Thermal waters of vaiious qualities are found in the mountainous parts, particuUrly in those which belong to Virginia proper, as in. Botecourt county, where are those wihich.are called the Sweet Spnings, held in ia from brink to brink about «gbty feet. . u.^ .< Of the caverns the most noted is (hat which b callcil Maddison'a cave, situate also in Virginia proper, about fifty miles northward of the natural bridge, in a hill of aibout two hundred feet in elevation, forming on ohe side a preeipke, washed at the foot by a river. In the steep side is found tiie entrance of the cavern, which exterkls about three hun- dred feet into the earth, dividing into two branches^ which irregularly descend till they terminate each in a pool of un» known dimensioiiB. The two pools are suspected to com- • WeM, vol. 1, p. 9«0>->Mff. Set slio Jeftison'i Notes on Tlittotm' / mimicftte with eeeah ofh^r and with th© Vitftr. The height df the eav6m is comnioitly liroiti ftbout twenty to fifty feet, and the »ide8 and roof are of soKd liineslone. The jfttalac tites in Home parts form massy pillars, and in otiiers han^ from the ceiling Ulce et^^ant drapery.* In lemitenituire and tetson* this port4» of Amefito dif* fyti widely from the western countries of the Old Continent between thd same pamllels^ and has this pticuliarity, that its maritime lowlands, washed by the Atlantic, are colder than those of the interior, beyond the moontainouii region; in the same degrees of latitude. From the contour of thid vast country, and its position with respect ta the gulf of Mexico and other tracts of water and of land, tk most judi*^ ciooft traveller has in great measure accounted for the stat« of its atmosphere f la the modification of the temperature and weather the winds are the great agents, which are here more general, or blow unmterrupted ovei^ a greater extent of surfkee, than in finrope. Those which hetie predominate are the noi^hwest, southwest, and northeasi; Insomuch^ that, if we MippoM the year divMed into thirty-six equal parts> *'wemay lay that these tliree hute taken to them- selves thirty or thirty^two, the n/>r(hwest and southwest twelve each, the noitheMt» with tV ^ft^i s^xor eight. The rest are distriboted among the southeast, ftouth, and west, since due north may be reckoned ahnost as nothing." T6 form a right idea of thrtemperature of this vast country, we must conceive it to be divided longittidittally, by lines rant- i2l ORAPTBR Vtl Teiiiprratnrv • WeM, T4t. t, p< SSA-fSOb t Voloijr, p. ISd^SM. \ ^as TIRGINU. CUAPTRR VII. ning in a direction froni northeast to louthwest, into three regions, the eastern washed by ttie Atlantic, |he middle or the mouutaiaous, and the western or the vall«y of the Mk' "iwpi- •' -. i ; -y,', ... f.,..?i The Atlantic region, which, except its northern part, is level throughout, or a shetving plain between the moon- tains and the ocean, resembles, not only in temperature, but even in soil, those parts of China and Tartary which arp similarly situated, or between the same parallels. Here the cold of winter and the heat of summer, are very sensibly greater, more especially the former, than in^ the western countries of- Europe and Africa under the same degrees of latitude. The territories of New England^ situated between the latitudes of forty-two and forty«five ^iegree^, correspond- ing to the south of France and the north of Spain, are so covered with snow forlhree or. four months in winter, as to render the use of, pledges general anc(i habitual. Fahren>f lieit's thermometer commonly varies in -tliis season between the freecing point and eighteen or twenty^wo degrees be- low it, and sometimes sinks lower to thirty and even forty degrees under that mark. In the same territories, for forty or fifty days in summer, the mercury in this instrument is frequently seen to rise to the eightietli, eighiyrsixth, and even ninetieth degree j and few summers pass without it« being found sometimes to rise to iiinet)-iune or a hundred and one, which is the temperature of the coasts of the Per-* siangulf, or the lowlands of Arabia. In the middle prpr vinces, between north and south, as Pensyivania, the dura- tion of the cold is less, aud th^t of the beat greater, but the mtomiA. S33 intensity of both renuiini nearly the ufn^. ' The river 0el«- ware, notwithitanding^the>rimiig of the tide to the height of six feet, is frozen entirely over, where it is & mile brOad^ in twenty-four hours, aad, except two or three intervals of thaw^ continues obstructed about thirty, and soinettmes forty days. It has been known to be so frozen in the space of even ten hours, as to.bear peopleto walk across it. Fora long time afler the summer solstice, and twenty days before it, the heat is so violent, that the streets of Philadelphia are totally de- serted from noon till five o'clock in the evening. VII. •r r In these qniddle provinces the annuiU variation between the usual maximums of cold and heat amounts to a hundred and three or a lumdred and eight degrees- of Fahrenheit's thermometer, and in the northernto a hundred and fourteen,: but in the southern only to seventy-two or seventy-six, as the difference naturally diminishes in approaching the equa-^ tor, under which it quite ceases to have existence. In even the southern^ provinces- V smart cold is felt in winter, but fon four months in. summer the mercury of Fahrenheit is com^ nonly at between eighty and eighty-six degrees, and some-* times rises &t Savannah to even a hundred and eight. Notf only are the annual variations of temperature far greatep than in Europe, but also the diurnal, particularly in the middle territories- between north and souths as- Pbnsylvania and Maryland. The changes from cold to hot, and fromr hot toxoid, are great and sudden^ The thermometer fre- quently varies, in the space of eighteen hours, fourteen, twenty*eight, and sometimes, even in a, single nigbtj> thirty degrees. It has been known^ to fall even for ty*niae degrees m CHAPlMI VII. J4- ■» vmoiKUi in SAeen UamK vaA twt nt)r v'khin an Hour liid a half. Tkk ^xeemvt vamblmicaiof the weather is thui dswribcd by jin American writer.* ** It appMfi that the ollmate of Pen- sylvania is a eompouad of most of thd cHmate« in the MrurM. Here we have the moistiire of Britain in the Rpriiig, the heal of Africa iu Kiminer, the temperature of Italy in June« the •kyvhioh in general stop the course of the southwesterly wind, preventing its passage to the eastern coasts. Tliis current of air appears to be in fact a portion of the trade-wind of the Atlantic, which, having rushed into the vast bason of the Mexican gulf, forces thence its way, like the gulf-stream, by its easiest outlet, the vale of the Missisippi, where that of the Ohio somewhat changes its direction. The north- >vest wind, fraught with sharp cold from frozen desarts and the icy ocean, is supposed to glide, in a diagonal current, over the aerial lake fonned by the southwestern in the vast coifcaves or vallies oflhe Missisippi and Ohio, to pass oyer >the summits of the Apalachian ridge, and thence to descend into the Atlantic region, the cold of whose portion of the atmosphere is thus augmented. i V f '' > ^ft eH^ITRR VII. viiraiiiiA» «flAi>tfea vn. •■■■■■■■Mriaai .te- Though cerftun windi aVe habitually prvyikht in this por- tion of Am^ricai their currents are much mote inconstant or ▼arlablethan in Europe. Yolney tays^ *' I can venture to^ affirm thitt, durinfp a residence of Bear three years, I never ■iw the same i*ind blow thirty hours together> or the ther» mom^r continue at the same point for ten. The currentt tf air are perpetually varying, not one or two points merely^ but from one quarter of the compass to its opposite^ : and these changes attract notice to much the more^ since the alterations in the tempcratiHe are as great as they are waA'^ den." The changes in the aTr from dryness to humidity are not less quick and violent. Though the air is> dryer« and the number of iair days much greatcr> than in the west of £urope, yet the quantity of water- which falls in raiu* vwthia Ae year, is much g^reater. Tlie showers are commonly sudr den. and prodigiously heavy« and tbeevaporatioa extremely quijck. The dews are aba excessively copious. The air is highly chai^gcd ^ilh electric matter. Of this, say»tbe same- traveller, " sttrnns aibrd Very terrifying proofs- in the loud- «eM of tibe claps of thunder* and theprodigious vividness of Ihe flaaliesi of Kghtning. When i fimt saw tliunder storms at Phikdelphia, I semarked, that the eleotrie- ibid was sa eopioue, as t» make alt the air appear on fire by the cont*^ kued succeanoil of Ihe flashes* Their arrowy and wigug, Wcit& weve of a breadth and length of Mihich 1 badoBO ide» ;, ttnd tJie pulsations of the electric fluid were !bo strong, that they seemed t»my eat and to my face to be^the light wind: produced by the flight of somo nocturnal bird. These ef* fects are not confined to^the eye and ear; for they frequently occasion, melandioly accidents.'^ People are frequently^ viftoixii. sn killed, and other damages sustained/ fay Ihe lif|;htning. Hurricanes are most frequent in April and October, and most commonly produced by a northeast wind. " These hurri- canes have this peculiarity, that their fury Is genenUiy dis- played in a narrow spaee, little more than half a mile broad, ■ometimes less, and only four or five miles in length, in this qwce they tear tip by the toot the trees of the forest, and make (^ranings through the woods, as the sickle of a reaper would in passing over a few furrows in a corn-field." At other times, but these are rare, they traverse the whole length of the continent of North America. CIIAPTBa VII. In (his vast region, as in the North American continent in general, three seasons only fill the year, as here spring has no (dace. Though the cold is more severe than in Eu- rope, the winter is more taidy. This season commences not fully, till the middle of Decemrber, or a little before At -solstice, even in the northern territories, though some inter- vals of bad weather ooeur more earfy. ' The difference of latitude between the northern and southern territories is so great, a difference of fifteen degrees, that the difierence of iemperature tn every season must be very considemble. In ^ northern and middle parts, the earth is covered with firost and snow at the brumal solstice. A thaw frequently has ' place in January, but this is succeeded fay a cold more in- tense; Iri February the snows are most abundant, and the cold most piercing. March is tempestuous and chilling, with Aowers of snow ; nor, tin the beginning of May, even in Virginia proper, is vegetation so revived that the trees of 2f2 !?28 ▼IRGIMA/ CHAPTER VII. tbe forest redotbe themselves wilh leaves; '^ which is th9 more astonishing, since the rays of the meridian sun are in* suflTerably scorching from the middle of April." Thus from cold to violent heat the transition is sudden, *' with tlie in^ con!;ru6us circumstances of a freezing wind and a scorching suii/a winter'a landscape and a summer'ssky. When vege- tation at length bursts, forth, its prog^es» is extremely rapidt Flowers are quickly succeeded by fruit, and this ripens more speedily than with us. When the sun, rising highest above the horizon, heaAs the whole continent; the northerly winds are repressed by those of the south and southwest, June brings on the most intense heats ; July the heats of longest continuance, with the most frequent storms ; August and September the heats most oppressive, on account of the calms with which they are accompanied; At length tlie autumnal equinox again arrives, and the seriea already stated recommences ; thus dispensing to this country, ia the course of a complete solar revolution, four months of • heat, five or six of cold and storms, and only two or three of temperate weather." The last have place in autumii, which is more serene and pleasant than tbe other seasons. Some change is. found to have, beea effected in the seasons;, however, since the arrival of European colonists in these countries^ by the partial destruction of the woods. " The winters are shorter, the summers longer, and the autumns later, but« without any abatement of intenseness in the winter's cold." From tlie extension of the cause, tbe clear- ing of the ground, by an cncreasing population, still greater changes may be expected in future times. TIMmiA. 229 When such alterations shall have been efTectecl^ tire conn' try will display a different face from that which it wears at present. The following i» a sketch of the appearance which it exhibited at the end of the eighteenth century. " Such is the general aspect of the territory of the United States ; an almost uninterrupted. conlin(>ntal forest : five great lakes on the, north : on the west extensive savannahs : in the cen« tcr a chain of mountains, their ridges running in a direction parallel to the sea coast, and sending off to the east and west rivers of longer course, of greater width, and pouring into the sea larger bodies of water, than ours in Europe, most of them having cascades or falls from twenty to a hundred and forty feet in height, mouths spacious as gulfs, and on the southern coasts marshes above two hundred and fifty miles in length : on the north snows remaining four or five months in the year : on a coast of three himdred leagues, extent ten or twelve cities, all buili of brick, or of wood painted of diflferent colours, and containing from ten to sixty thousand inhabitants: round these cities farm houses^ built of trunks of trees, and termed log-houses, in the center of a few fields of wheat, tobacco, or maiee ; these fields separated by a kind cf fence made with branches- of Irees^ instead of hedges, for the most part full of stumps of trees half burned, , or stripped of their bark and still standing ; while both houses and trees wd6 enchased as it were in the masses of forest, in which they are swallowed up, and dimi- nish both in number and extent the farther you advance into the woods, till at length from the summits of the hills you perceive only here and there a few little brown or yel- low s(}uares on a ground of green* Add to this a fickle and CHAPTER VII. ■ lfM«. ^30 VUMMU. 'X *^ CHAPTKE variable iky, an atmoaphera alternately very inoiit and very dry, very miHy and very clear, very hot and very cold, and a temperature ao changeable, that, in the lame day, yon of Plymouth in Massachusetts wae' founded in I6S1 by a hundred and fitly English adventurers, wha braved all< the terrors of the wilderness and its rij^orous and m(Nrbific atouispliere. The sad liardships and mortality, sustained by these colonista. vere not suificient to deter #therfii, who were animated with a liJco spirit, from foUowinf^ ^32 •irilAMTEK V!|. VIROIIIIA. rtieir example. The intolerance of the government of Charles tlie First so encreased emigration, that, Ijefore the- ond of the year 1630, four other towns were founded in New England, one of which was Boston, since become the capital. The emigrations would have been greater, if they ■ had not been stopped by the tyranny of Charles, who em- ^Mirgoed the ships destined for America, neither suffering his subjects to enjoy liberty of conscience at liome, nor to -seek it in the wilds of the transatlantic hemisphere. Thus were prevented from bidding an eternal adieu to their na- tive country Cromwell, Hampded, and others, who weir6 afterwards instigators of a revolution at home, which de- prived this monarch of his crown and fife. The enthusiasm .for tlieir favourite modes of worship, which prompted the .«ariy colonists of New England to encounter the perils and ufflictious of such an exile, inclined them to deny, in their new settlements, that toleration to others, the want of which they had found so grievous in the land of their nativity. Hence arose dissentions among the colonists, many of whom removed to other parts of this region, whei^ they established settlements under jurisdictions distinct and sepa- rate from that of the original colony. A gloomy spirit of tanaticism, and still far more an unhappy belief in witch- craft, caused a long time distractions in this country, which •at length were quieted by a sense of the evil occasioned by .the delusion. . As New England was planted by puritanic protestants, so another part, denominated Maryland, in honour of Henrietta Maria, the Queen of Charles the First, received, in the yestr ▼momA'C SSS^ 1633, a coldnyof Roman Ottholics, who found their situt* tion uneasy in England,- where the laws andpopniaf ptrju" dices were adverse to their sect. The leader of the emi*' grants, who originally consisted of two hundred fimiilies,i was Lord IMtimore, whose conduct was honouraUe to the^ religion which he professed, as, by his libend toleration of all sects, he rendered' the colony prtMperoUs. A small plan*' tation of Swedes, who had made a settlement In the vicinity of New England, became incorporated with one much larger, or more powerful, formM by the Out^h. This was conquered in 1664 by the En^ish, who retained possession/ and gave to the acquired territories the names of New^ York and New Jersey. The colony instituted on the fiuresti principles was that of Pensylvania, founded in 168S by William Penn, a celisbrated quaker, who, for a debt duec from the crown, had obtained a grant of the country fromt Charies tb^ Second, with ample powers of l^siation. Nott thinking himself entitled to the property of the famd by tho royal patent alone> he purchased that property ftom thei aboriginal inhabitantSi with whom.he entered into a formaK treaty. This treaty, anya, Voltaire, " was the only on». ever concluded between savagea and christians which was^ not ratified by an oath, and the only one which was never brpken." For above seventy years indeed, or in iiu^ ^so long as the quakers retained tfie chief power in the governf ment of Pensylvania, the peace and amity promised in tbi9 compact remained inviolate. . .. CHAPTBa VII. Carolina, so denominated from Charles the Slecond, was^ )l»y.a charter.obtainedfromlluamoiiarch.in.^ phmte^^ fig S34 TIPQIMIA. (:iIA1>TSft VII. by a society of noblemen and othen, who were vested with at once the property of the soil and the political jurisdiction. Though the colony was funiislied with a code of Uws for its government, composed by the celebrated John Lucke, such distraclions among the colonists, and such hostilities with the Indian^ were the consequences of roahidministra- tion, that the interference of the British Parliament iiras at length found necewary. The proprietors accepted* in 1788^ a compensation of twenty-four thousand pounds for the surrendry of their rights : the government of the colony Vras new modelled : and the territory was divided into the two provinces of North Gsrolina, and South Gsiolina, with separate administrations. This was the wra of prosperity to these provinces, which have sin6e improved rapidly ip riches and population. A similar fortune attended the plan- tation of Georgia, so denominated in compliment to George the Second, and colonised under the inspection of General Oglethorpe in 17SS. Such dissentions arose from political defects, that the colony was on the point of dissolution^ when, in I7&19, the grievances ef the planters were removed by the British GovemmenI, wha roformed the constitution en the model of the Gsrolinaik The histories of tike several colenies aiSori for a tong^ time little matter which am be at present very interetting:,, such as wan with the savagei^ intestine troubles, invasions ef some of their charters by the kii^ of the Stuart iace> and the restoration c»f their liberties in consequence of the British revolution under the auspices of William. From wan between France and Britain arose hostilities between VIUOIIIIA. ^b those colonies tod those of the French in Canada. Dis- putes were at different times adjusted by treaties between the mother countries ; but at length the court of France formed a plan, which was brought near to completion, for the destructbn and subjugation of the British settlements in America. This was the forming of a chain of fortresses from the Saint Lawrence river to the Missisi^i, which would have confined tliese settlements within very narrow bounds, and enabled the French to lay them waste, with the assistance of the savages, the entire force of all whose tribes they would thus be empowered to employ. The plan was frustrated by a war, hfi which the British troops Gonquf , id Canada in the year 1759, and annihilated the FrencI power in the North American continent Unfor- tunately the British government, whose am^s had protected its American subjtets, looii adopted, under a new reign, that of George the Third, very aibitrary measures, and turned its arms against these subjects, in a war which terminated in the establishment of the independence of the colonies from every sort of subjection to the king of Britain. These had so prospered under Iheir free constitutions, that their ^pulation had enoreaaed to two millions, and was still in a state of rapid progression. The scheme of the British ministry for the abolition of their liberties appears to have been part of a plan for Uie establishment of despotism over the British nation, which plan became abortive by their successful resistance. The ministerid pretext for the inva* uon of the rights of the colonies was the raising of a royal revenue from them in addition to that of Great Britain and Ireland. ' CHAPTKR VII. im Tnanm-/ CHAPTER VII. These colonies were governed internally by their sevend assemblies of elected representatives, hi which presided governors nominated by his Britannic Majesty, and had never been taxed otherwise than by their own represented tive bodicfli, in lilce manner as Ireland by its own pariiament. External taxation, on the system of commercial restrictions^ the right of which was not disputed, had been exercised by the pariiament of Britain toward these dependent stales*' ^* Customs had been imposed on certain enumerated goods, if carried to some other place instead of Britein ; and when, q^ific artides, the produce of one odony, were to be ex*" ported to another, they paid a duty. To these imposts,' considering them merely as regvkOioHB of trad^ and not as te«e«, the colonies had submitted." r'f To impose internal ttoMt on these states> by the mere authority of the British pariiament^ could never have been- the wish <^ any minister who was wise^ and consequently honest. The clear and comprehensive mind gularities in their trade with Eur(^ : for, by encouraging tiiem to an extenuve growing foreign commerce, tftkqf gain Jive hunared thotuatut pounds, / am eoMomcedj fAal^. vmeiMtt. 237 tri tmo years afterwards, full two hundred and Jljfy tkou» sand pounds of their gain will be in his Majesty's excho' pur, by the labour «id product of this kingdom ; as im- mense (j^uantities of every kind of our manufactures go thi- ther, and, as they encrease in their foreign American trade, more of our produce will be wanted. This is taxing them more agreeably to our own constitution and to theirs." This was doubtless the most productive mode possible of drawing a revenue from the colonies. Two millions annu- ally were computed to accrue to the royal treasury from their trade, and th1» income^ from the rapid augmentation of Uieir population and commerce^ might doubtless have en- creased to an incalculable pitch. So (ar indeed were the whig ministers of the first and second George from impos- ing taxes on them, that they procured for them consider- able sums from parliament to compensate their services in< wars against France. CnAPTBE VIL ' The merit or demerit of giving^ commencement to a series of aggressions on the free constitutions of the American states rest» with Qeorge Grenville, who, previously to his imposition of an internal tax on the colonies,.took measures to- render them les» able than they had been, to contribute, by any impost, to the augmentation of the royal- revenue. A clandestine traffic had longbeea maintained between the English and Spanisli cdonies> to^ the great advantage of both, more especially of the former, and greatly to tiie emo- lument of Britain also^ as British maniifiuitures were by this channel conveyed into the Spanish settlements, andlarg^- quantitiea of silver received in letum. To this beneficial 2.18 VlROIIflA. CHAPTER VII. commerce^ contrary not to Britidi laws, but merely to Spa- imh, a termination was put, in 1764, by the minister of kln^ George, who acted on this occasion as if he were an officer of t)ie custom-house for the Spauish monarchy. Un- der the pretence of measures for the prevention of smug- gling, for which he had made laudable regulations in Eu- rope, he stationed a line of armed ships, the commanders of which seized all yessels employed in the prohibited trade with the Spanish plantations. Bemde the adoption of this extraordinary measure, an act of parliament was procured for granting of certain duties on goods in the colonies, and a declaration of the expediency of imposing also in them ceilain duties, by means of stamped paper, which should be rendered necessary in pecuniary transactions. The passing of this declaration into a law was postponed till the succeed- ing year, that the Americans might have time to ofiera com« pensation for the reTenue which such a tax might produce. Hiese Ameiicans had sustained a tremendous war horn the tribes of savages in their neighbouifaood, whp, after the pacification with France, had secretly entered into* general combination, and had perpetrated the most horrible devasta- tions and butcheries, bdbre they could be compelled to ac« cept a peace. Wantonly dq>rived, on one ri^, of thdr lucrative commerce vnth Uie Spanish settlements, and deeply impressed on the other, with a sense of grievous losses sus- tained from the savages, the colonists were in a state of great irritation. " While such was the state of the public mind in America, while the yell of Indian carnage was yet in their ears^ and the amoke of their ruined habitations yet in thar ▼mciniu. eyes, their nige and despair were further enflamed by the arrival of the Britiih resolutions for imposing tuxes. A more unfavourable moment could not have been selticted." They saw in these resolutions the first apptitarance of an ex- tensive plan formed against their liberties and propert'is. They determined therefore to strike at once at the basis of it '* by denying the right of the mother country to impose taxes on the colonies, which, not being represented in par- liament, did neither really nor virtually consent to the im- position/'* 839 CBAPTBR yii. Notwithstanding all the dissuasuve arts of the eorT!ni8fs>. who employed agents to present petitions in England against the proposed taxation, a bill, called the stamp-act^ was passed by the Britisb parliament, in 176&, for the rais- ing of an internal tax in America. The chief of these agents- was Doctor Benjamin Franklin, the planner of oppositions to the ministerial schemes of American mancipation. ** Bred a printef, this extraoidinary man, thvough gBniu» and in- dustry, regulated and directed by judgement, rose to* a high' pinnacle of physical discovery. He soon shewed that the mind, which could eKcit ire from the heavensi could con- verge and reverbemte the rays of moral and political light.*.'i; On the notification of the stamp-act iD> America, the colo- nists, from sullen displeasure, were roused into overt acts of violent resentment. Resolutions were formed throughout the states not to in^rt any of the merchandize of Britain *' 1 ii 1 • AdolphoD, Kit. G«oyge (be TMrd. i BiMft, BtoU Gtotgt tk« TMid. % MO TIMIIIIA. CHAPTRK VII. until tife obnoxious bill should have been repealed. De^. claratibns were voted by the provincial assemblies in con- demnation of the impost. So general a combination wal formed to prevent by force the use of stamped paper, thai none dared to attempt ^ther to (llstribiite or to receive it^ Ministers, taking a middle course between two opposite parties, the fevourers of liberty and the planners of despo-. tism, procured, in 1766, a repeal of the offensive bill, and at' the same time a vote asserting the right of parliament to tax the colonies. In the following year duties were imposed on some articles, payable on importation into America. To frustrate this pUn the colonists resolved not to import any of those articles. After various disputes, and a riot at Boston, between th6 mob and the soldiery, in which a few of the former were killed, tranquillity was in great measure restored by th6 repeal of the censurable imposts, in 1710, except one very moderate of three-pence a pound on tea, which was retained for the maintenance of the right arrogated by the pariif* ament. Detemuned always to resist such a claim, thb Americans adhered to their former agreements of non-impoi^- tation with respect to tea, but rescinded their resolutions concerning all the other articles. Great discontents arosis in Massachusetts in 1778, and the succeeding year, from innovations in their political constitution, and the discovery of hostile sentiments entertained against them. These dis- contents were communicated to the other colonies by means of corresponding committees. Amid the seneral ferment intelligence arrived, that many cargoes or tea were con- VIRGINIA. tdgpied from England ko the porta of Amorioo, undor llie im- post q;>ecified above. Measures so effectual were every wbere taken, that in no place was the sale of this merchan- dize permitted. Without attempting to land it many ships returned to Europe. Where its landing was effected, it perished unsold in warehouses. At Boston, where thego-^ vemor consented not to the return of the cargoes to Europe, a mob, disguised in the garb of Mohawk savages, boarded the riiips, and committed all the tea to the waves of the ocean. ^l CIlAPTBa VII. When all attempts for the taxation of the Americans, by the mere authority of the British legislature, were thus ren- dered abortive, ministers had recourse to coercive measures, for the attainment of their ends by the terror or force of arms. Boston and the province of Massachusets were the first objects of ministerial resentment. Bills for this purpose were enacted by pariiament ; one for the closing of the port pf Boston, or the total suspension of the commerce of that city, until it should demonstrate full proofs of its obedience j another for such a chatige in the constitution of the province, as to abrogate its charter, and to render it virtually subject to the arbitrary will of the king or of his deputy ; and a third for the empowering of the governor to send for trial to England any persons accused of murder, or ^ny other capital crime, committed in the execution of the laws. This was in &ct a bill of indemnity for all violences perpetrated by the ad- herents of the crown in tlie enforcement of obedience. The unexpected intelligence of these proceedings spread asto- nishment and ahirm through the colonies. The punishment ' H h 11*1 I 9i8 CHAPTER Via tlMlllU. of one proviiuy) for bavins tan^tmJ m ua whici all haf rt- aisted wai a maaifett indicatioa of danfer to idl. Deputies from all the provincet, except Georgia, met in general ctmgreiM at Philadelphia, in 1774, on the fifth of September, to coniult for their coiumon safety. They framed a deeU- ration of the principles and objects of their association, a petition to the king and addresses to the people of Britain and the colonies These were compositions of a masterly kind. " Perhaps never subjects oflfered to their sovereign an address consisting of stronger and more comprehensive reasoning, with more impressive eloquence."* The sum of their demands amounted to the restoration of their constitu- tional and chartered rights ; but all their applications were treated with imperious contempt, and an army was sent to Boston for the reduction of Massacbusets, the prime object to ministers of coerck>n and puoishment. A skirmish at Lexington, in 1775, on the nineteenth of April, between a body of militia and a detachment of the British garrison at Bostoo, seut to destroy American stores at Concord, was the commencement of a civil war ia Ame- rica of seven years' duration. To give here a narrative of the various events of this unhappy war, unjutitly waged by the mother country against her children, comports not with the plan of this publication. Of these I have written a brief account in my history of the Jlritish Islands, f The general- issimo of the colonists, in tius rueful contest, was George « BiMt. f Gordon's Hittmy of the Britiih Idudt, Oftat Britain and IieiuUi jointly, vol. 4, cinjp, 7 L nnd 73. TnunmA. 2M Washington, a native of Virginia proper, who had lervctl in the American militia in the war against Prance, in wluch he had evkieed strong military talents. This leader, like the Roman Fabiin, was obliged long to confine his operations to defensive warfare, from the great inferiority of his troops in disctpline, equipment, and even in number. He avoided the shock of battle, and, while by various means he impeded the enemy's progress, he endeavoared to prerorve his men by retiring from post to post And indeed nothing can ^w more forciUy the zeal of his soldiers in the cause of freedom, and his inffuenee over them, than the hardships to which they were persuaded to submit " His troops were in a 4tate of such deplorable misery, that sometimes their mareh, from one ptsce of encampmenf to the other, might' be (raced by the blood which their bare feet left in the snow, and hundreds Were without blankets/' in these distress^I movemetits. CHAPTBa VII Though cotisti^mation, from the successes of the royal arms, pervaded the Americans, the congress, who fled for safety in 1T76, from Philadelphia to Maryland, liever in the least betrayed any symptom of despondency, but made vigo- rous exertions for a renovation of the contest, atld' published an ftppe^l well calculated' to resuscitate the sphits of the people. The effiMrts of the congress were in no small de- gree seconded) by the conduct of the British commanders, who drove by despair to the ranks of rebellion multitudes well inclined to the British government. Above all the atrocious behatvieur of the Getman menieniiries in Brithh pay, partieullurly in New Jersey, filled* vrith desperation 2n2 S44 TIMI1IU. CHAPTER Vll thoM who were willing to reunite with the mother country. Detaili of the enoemilfes were taken on oath and publiahe ▼iRonnA. 24B bliihed hatred of the colonists to th«ir hte lOTereign and his partisans, whom Ihry considered as having employed' erer) possible mode of barbarous Mrarfare for their destruc- tion, the burninj^ of their towns, the derastation of their territories, the frightful licentiousness of the ferocious mer- cenaries from Germany, the instigation of slaves to murder or desert their masters, and the diabolical fury of the canni- bal Indians. Of the butcheries perpetrated among the colonists one in particular has stained the British annals with indelible infamy. A band of sixteen hundred Indians and American royalists, denominated tories, invaded the settlement at Wyoming, situate in a delightful tract on the river Susqodiannah. Gaining possession of some forts by treacherous promtsos, and of others by fbrce, they put to death all the inhabitants' of both sexes and every age, some ' thousands in number, inclosing some in buildings which they set on fire, and raasting others alive. They then maimed all the cattlie, and left them to expire in agonies, and converted the whole charming plantation into a finght- ftil waste. Such were the deods instigated by the ministers of a king, extolled to the highest pitch for compassionate demency, and paternal affection fbr his subjects. Tb^take vengeance on the Indians several parties of Americans made expeditions through the wilderness^ in a considerable degree successful. After various turns of fortlme, when the impossibility of conquest over the American states became too manifest to admit a doubt, their independence was established in the beginning of 1 783 by a treaty of general pacification. Botik. CHAPTER vn. m '^hi viBontu. en A Pica Vlf. Britain -and lier coloni«g sustained heavy losses by the war; and the condition of each party, atler its conclusion, was considerably worse than before its commencement Beside humiliating concessions to her old enemies, the Frendi and Spanish courts, and the vast expenditure of blood, Britain added a hundred and thirty millions to her public debt, and suffered an alarming dismemberment of her empire. She was burdened also with the maintenance of some thousands of American royaUsts, whose properties were confiscated by the governments of the United States for their hostilities against their compatriots. The expense of this to the Bri<* tish nation amounted nearly to ten millions. An indepen^ dence far less dehirable than a free constitution under the British crown, was acquired by the Americans, at the ex- pense of devastation^, a national debt of above seven millions contracted in the war, and a great lobs of people by the swords and by the expulsion of the royalists. Their population and riches have since rapidly increased, and wisdom directed their councils, so long rs the great Washt ington, who was elected their chief magistrate, held a, governing influence over their confederacy. For the exten^ sion of their commerce and agriculture by tlie possession, of the Missisippi and its fertile valley> they acquired the addition of Louisiana to their ahready vast territorial domi- nion, by purchase from France, in a treaty concluded in 1803. This country had been discovered by Ferdinand de Soto, a Spaniard, in 1558, and had been very feebly colo- nized, m the seventeenth and eighteenth centuiies, by the French, who called it Louisiana, from Louis, the name of theif sovereign^ and fotmded the towu^f New Orleausi i(« vnomiA. capital. By a treaty between th« courts of Spain and Prance, from secret motives, in 1763. the dominion of all this terri- tory was transferred to the Spanish crown ; but, forty years after, under Napoleon Buonaparte, it was sold, as French property, to the United States. M9 CRAPTBR Til. The natural productions, the spoatMieousgrowtli, of the VcgetaMa. vast territory of these states, such as they were (band by the irst colonists, and such as diey still remain where the face of the land has not been altered by agriculture, must vary, in a region of so great extent, with tine nature of the soil, and temperature of the atr. The indigenous trees, compo- sing the primeval forest, which, for the fiir greater part, still subsists, occasion, hy their diAerence, a distinction or divi- sion of this immense wood into three parts, the southern, middle, and northern. The southern forest includes in ge- neral the maritime tracts from the gulf of Chesapeak south* ward, " on a soil of gravel and sand, occupying in breadth from eighty to a hundred and thirty miles. The whole of this space, covered with pines, firs, larchesi cypresses, and other resinous trees, displays a perpetual verdure to the eye, but would not on this accounf be the less barren, if the sides of the rivers, hind deposited by the waters, and marshes, did not intermingle with it veins rendered highly productive by cultivation. The middle forest comprises the hilly part Of the Garolinas and Virginia proper, all Fensylvania, the South of New York, all Kentucky, and the northwestern territory, as far as the river Wabash. The whole of this extent is filled with different species of the oak, beech, ma- ple, walnut, sycamore, acacia, mulberry, plumb, aah, birch. Wi ViMuiniM. aaMafrat, and poplnri on the coaits of the Atlantic < and, in addition to those on the west, I he clirrrylrec, horaeciieanut, |Nip«w, magnolia, sumac, and othtirs, all of which indicate a productive soil, the true basis of the present and future wealth of this port of the United States. These khids of trees, however, do not any where exclude the resinous, which appear scaltered throug;!iout all the plains, and col- lected in clumps on the mountains. The third district, or northern forest, likewise composed of pines, firs, kirches, cedars, cyprvmes, and others such, begins fVom the confines of the former, covers the north of New York, the interior of Connecticut and Massachusets, gives its name to tlie dtate of Vermont,* ond, leaving to the deciduous trees only the Imnks of the rivers and their alluvions, extends by the ^vay of Canada toward the north, where it soon gives way to the Juniper, and the meagre shrubs thinly scattered among the desarts of the polar circlc."f The trees in general, howsoever lofty, are not very gross, Mldom exceeding thirty inches in diameter. In the low grounds, however, of Kentucky, and other parts of the, western territory, they are found much larger, sometimes eighteen or twenty feet in girth :| and in the warm climates of the southern provinces, where splendidly flowering trees and shrubs abound, some species grow to an cxtraonlinary siie. The white cedar of the swamps is gigantic. Sup- ported by four or five immense roots or stems, which unite * Ferd'tnoitl in French ; grecti'mouittain iu En|IUh. + Volney, p. »— II. t Weld, rol. 1, p. tSO. flROnilA. %i^ f(t About scroti ffot atiovo the g^roinul, (ho trunk of thin rises elglity or ninety feet, quite straight^ and without any branolif s, except At top, where they form a kind of beauti- ful umbrella. But the chief ornament of the sotithern forests is the great magnolia. This rinoN above a hundred feet in height, with a perfectly straight trunk, supporting a sliady cone of dark green branches, with purely white blossoms shaped like roses, whicli ar^ succeeded by crimson cones containing red seeds. Among the indip^nouM products of the soil are the cai)dlol)erry myrtle and the sugar maple. From the seeds of the former arises, by lieing boiled, to the ■urfuco of the water, a scum of a greenish colour, which, when purifieil. Is of a middle nature between tallow and wax, serving tbr the making of excellent candles, and for other purposes itill more valuable. The latter is a tree of about the siae of the oak, the saccharine sap of which, pro- curetl by extillation from in^'isions made for the purpose, yielded sugar by eva|)orations, in like manner as the juico of the saccharine cane. But neither the quantity of sugar obtained from this tree, nor of tallow from the myrtfe, \h sufficient for its becoming an article of export, or even to sij'pply the consumption of the inhabitants. Vines of various sorts are spontaneous and in plenty. One 8|iecics, quite like the vine which bears the common grape, is of so poison- ous a uulure, as to blister the skin, when touched in the morning while moist with dew. OHAmtR VII. The species of indigonotts plants are extremely numeroui, but require not hero particular notice. Beside cotton and tobaccoj and indigo in the south, the ohiof object of agri* I 1 i^50 CHAPTER vn. VIRGINIA. culture is com of various kinds, as wheat, barley, maize^ and rice, the last in the Carolinas chiefly and in Georgia. Tobacco, the favourite plant of Virginia proper, is much less cultivated now than formerly, since the crops of wheat have been found more profitable. To clear the land from wood^ and to render it arable, the practice in these regions is as elsewhere, to burn the timber, and to convert, its ashes to manure. To exhaust the vegetative powers of the soil by the mcessant culture, without a renovation of manure, and then to leave it waste in a state of sterility, has formerly been« but is not quite so much now, the custom. The lands thus abandoned, remain almost bare, or covered with use- less herbs, such as a kind of coarse grass or sedge, which is wholely rejected by cattle, and which turns yellow at the approach of winier. The fruits are mostly of the same kinds as in Europe, but, except where they are carefully cultivated in gardens, they are not of such quality as to deserve much praise, as the peaches, for instance, which are small and little succulent. In compariiijon of the English, the Amerip can farmers are accounted slovenly, insomuch that, even in Pensylvania, one of the most agricultural provinces, a farmer is said not to raise more from two hundred acres than one in the well cultivated parts of England from fifty.* In Virginia pr(^r, and the provinces situate farther south- ward, the works of the fields are performed by slaves. Among these are many, ou the estates of some planters, who are employed in handicraft works, such as those of car- penters, tanners, and wheelwrights. ♦ Weld, Tol. 1, p. 112, lis. V1R611IIA. 8dl The cattle and other doi^iestic animals of Giirope have been imported into the territories of the United States^ and are long naturalized in them. Of the indigenous kitlds^ ^hich are noticed in my accounts of Northwestern America and of Canada, some have disappeared, and some have be- come scarce, according to the extension of agriculture, and the destruction made by hunters. The deer, which had become comparatively few, have begun to increase again in the woods of this region, particularly in the province of New York, where laws have been enacted against the wan> ton waste of these quadrupeds, since the venatic savages have abandoned these territories, and retired far westward. The wild fowl, particularly on the great rivers, are vastly numerous, and excellent as food, especially a species called the white duck or canvass-back, which is eagerly sought by epicures. Snipes are seen in prodigious numbers in the marshes. Immense flights of wild pigeons pass sometimes here as in Canada The turkey buzzard, a kind of vtilture which devours putrid carcases, is, on account of its utility ih that respect, taken under the protection of law. in Caro« likia. The birds are in general quite different from those of Europe, though many of thetn have i^ceived tlie i^arae appellations from English colonists. Thtis a bird, called a partridge, from a similitude of its appearance, h»8 the size of only a quail. The singing birds in Virginia, proper are accounted the finest in America. " The notes of the mocking bird, or Virginian nightingale, are in parti- cular most melodious. This bird is of the cblour and abot^ the size of a thrush, but more slender. It imitates the song of every other bird^ but with iuc revised strength and sweet- CHAPTER VII. Animak. S58 CHAPTER VII. TIMINIA* Den. The bird« wfaoie song it mocks, generally flies away, as if conscious of being excelled by the other^ and dissatis- fied with its own powers."* On the whole amount, how- CTer, the feathered tribes in these for»:ts are inferior to the European in mdody. Some are highly brilliant in plumage as the blue bird, of about the size of a linnet, and the red bird, which is less than a thrush, and is of a vermilion hue> with a tuft on its head. A bird called whipperwill, from its loud and plaintive cry, resembling that articulate M>und» which it begins at the dusk, and continues through the greater part of the night, is so extremely seldom seen, tjut some have imagined the noise to proceed from some species of frog, and not from any animal of the featheriMl kind. The frogs of this country are of various sorts and make various kinds of noises ; some absolutely whistle, while the loud croaking of others is like the cry of a calf. This loud sound proceeds from ik» bull frog, which grows to the length of seven inches^ and moves with great agUity, making iMfHi of prodigious length. The serpents are also in great variety. Bpme species are harmless^ as the black snake, which is often six feet long, but very slender, and some beautifully vacicgated sorts, as the ribbon snake, the garter, and blueish grecn^ Some are venomous, as the rattlesnake moA the mocasaiik. The poison of the latter, called also the i:opper snake, is found less subtlethan that of the former, yet is mortal, without proper care. Among the insects is the fire-il)t, which iUuninatiis the nights in summer, in the aour •JS' • yiMt.wi i,f. isf. ▼IBOIMIA. t&3 them parts. To the iiidigenous tribes of ibis numerous clara of aniinaU hitvo been added some by accidental or designed importation. Thus the weevil, a species of moth, formerly unknown, has committed great havoc in com in the latter part of the eighteenth century, in the maritime tracts, as also the Hessian fly, supposed to have been im- ported in the baggage of the German mercenaries, in the war waged for the subjugation of the British colonies in America. Of a very different character is the bee, which appears to have been dengnedly carried here from the an- cient continent Of the countless tribes of aquutic animals, which swarm along the coast and in the rivers, I shall men- tion only one, the oyster, which abounds in the streams of fresh water. These oysters, until they have undergone the ac- tion of Are, are unpalatable to Europeans; while thoseof Eu- rope are not, in any state, well relished by the Americans, This region in general seems tar from deficient in a tbp riety of minerals and other fossils; but iron as yet is the only metal which has been drawn in great quantity from the bowels of the earth. The ore of this metal, wluch in Maryland, Pensylvania, and Virginia proper, is found ex* tiemely tough, and fit for casting, for the making of cannon and other purposes, is procurable in abundance, without much trouble, at little depth beneath the surface. Mines of lead, copper, and other minerals, have also been disco- vered, but not extePAvely worked. Vast and numerous beds of coal, stores for (he use of future ^^cuc>t4t«om, lie at present n>o8tly neglected, as wood, which us sc abundant, is preferreu for fuel. Fossil salt and saline springs are copious CHAPTBR Vll. FoHilw 254 CHAPTER VII. VIROniU. in many parts. Stone for building and other purposes ii procurable in general with convenience in sufficient plenty; According to the kind which forms ihe substratum of the soil in different parts, the territory of the United States is distinguished into diflferent regions.* The granitic region, where " the soil rests on beds of granite, which forms the skeletons of the mountains, and admits beds of a different nature only as exceptions," extends from Long Island to the mouth of the Saint Lawrence, and from the coast be- tween these limits to Lake Ontario. The region of sand-* stone comprehends the mountainous country, from the rivers Mohawk and Hudson, and the sources of the Sus- quehannah, southward to the northwestern angle of Georgia. The calcareous region, where the soil is found to rest on an immense stratum of limestone, occupies the land from the Tenessee to the Saint Lawrence, between the moun- tains and the Missisippi. A stratum, or low ridge, of talky granite, foliated si one, or Muscovy glass, from two to six miles broad, and nearly five hundred long, runs in a direc*- tion parallel, to the coast, from the banks of the river Hudson to North Carolina. " This ridge every where marks its course by the falls which it occasions in the rivers, on their way to the. ocean ; and these fiills are the extreme limits of the tide :" but it is chiefly remarkable for being the line of separation between two regions, that of marine sand and that of alluvions soil. The forr^er, in breadth from thirty to a hundred miles, between the ridge and the Atlantic, consists chiefly of the substance from Yolaey, p. 43—79. VIRGINIA. vvhicli it takes its name. The soil of the latter, between the ridge and the mountains, is composed of varioiiM Hub- stances, which appear to have been carried from the higb* lands by the rivers. 255 CHAPTER vn. The commerce of these regions has been, and may pro*- bably long continue to be, rapidly progressive, with the progress of population, and the extension of agriculture. The articles of export chiefly consist of the produce of the forests, of the mines, of the cultivated farms, and of the fisheries, beside the peltry obtained in traffic from the sa- vage tribes who inhabit vast wilds in the west. Thus we find these articles principally to be timber in various forms, bark for tanning and dying, pitch, tar, turpentine, potashes, iron in pigs and bars; wheat, maize, rice, tobacco, live cattle, beef, pork, dried and pickled fish, and skins and furs of various quadrupeds. The value of the exported articles, produced within the territories of the United States* amounted, in the year 1803, to above forty millions of dol- lars ; and that of the articles of foreign produce to above thirteen millions. The values of both had in 1801 been greater, more especially of the latter, which had even exceeded forty-six millions : but the trad encreased after- wards, insomuch that in 1806, the exports exceeded in value a hundred millions of dollars, or twenty-five mil- lions of British pounds. The imports consist chiefly of various manufactured goods from Europe, sugar and other products o( the West Indian regions, tea and other merchandize of southern Asia. The annual value of the imports from the British Islands alone had arisen to twelve millions of pounds, before the traffic was interrupted by Commare*. 256 TIMOmiA. CHAPTER VII. political disputes^ enrly in the nineteenth century. The tun- nage of shipping employed in the cominerce of the United States amounted in 1801 to above a million of tuns, of which not quite a hundred and fitly-eight thousand wore the property of foreigners. To what state it may arise in future ages, we caimot pretend to calculate with certainty, when the immense territory belonging to the United States shall have been furnished throughout with inhabitants. Area. Tliis territory extends above eleven hundred miles in length, since the acquisition of Louisiana, and perhaps still more in its greater breadth, if its western limits were deter- mined, and contains an area of about a million of square miles, or six hundred and forty millions of English acres. The population is ill proportioned to so vast an area, which is for tlie far greater part entirdy waste or very thinly Population, peopled. The best inhabited parts are the province of Mas- sachusets and others of New England, the southern territO' ries of New York, the interior of New Jersey, and the southeastern tracts of Pensylvania. In these on an average < the population may be estimated at nenr eighty persons to the square mile, or at the rate of about forty acres to each family. The whole amount of the population, or number of persons subject to the government of the United States, was estimated in 1804 at above five millions and nine hundred thousand, and may doubtless since be suppooed six millions. ^ Of these above a million were blacks and inulattoes, or peo- ple of colour, and of this number above a tenth were free- men, the rest slaves. Still within the territories regarded as under the dominion of this government are several tribes of 367 ■avagefl, eonjeclurecl:. towarcl the end of the cifcliteeitth cen* tury, to consist of sixty thoaHmd perBoni, but coiilinu«lly diminifihingf in number from cmimi nwigned elsewhere. The dtrision of the raet coantry of the United States is immediately connected with^ its goremment. In the rero- lutionnry war, in the defence of Hke colonial: conelitnttena against the aggression of the mother country, affiurs were conducted by a provisional administration, under the direc- tion of a congress^ and not till the year 178^ was a perma- nent system established. The go¥emment thus constituted isarepublie^ composed of a number of confederate states, each of which is separate and independent in its own internal administration. The sovereign power is vested in a president and two councils. The superior is called the senate^ the infe« rior the house of representatives. The former consists of members elected for six years, two from each state; the latter of members elected for two years, each representing from thirty-three thousand to fifty thousand people, aecoidti^tothe progress of population. The executive power is committed to th ^nvsident> the supreme magistrate of tbeoonfederaoy, eleet- ed for four yeaYs by a majority of electors nominated for the purpose by all the states severalty. He can pardon offences, except in cases of impeachment, but cannot form treaties with foreign potentates without the consent of two-thirds of the senators, who are also to advise in the appointment of ambassadors. A vice-president is also chosen, to supply, in emergencies, the president's place. The great outlines oB this government, only rendered more democratical, are taken from that of England, as also the law» in general ; Kk CilAFTEA VII. Qv !-. •I s^. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) A 1.0 i I.I Li 128 ■so ■■■ ■ 22 2.0 i.8 I III 1.25 ||U |,.6 < 6" » 0% ^ .N^ #/ '>^/ ^.^* > Photographic Sdences Corporation -^^^ 23 WIST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. MSSO (716) 872-4503 '^ ^, 358 CHAPTER VII. XNviiioH* VmCIMlA. but these in some degree vary in the different states^ each o^ which has its particular provincial constitution, governed commonly by a senate and house of representatives, elected every year. The judicial function is performed by one su- preme court of justice, and others of a subordinate rank, and judges are appointed during good conduct. The city of Washington, in the district of Columbia, a district be^- longing to no particular state, but to the whole confederacy in common, has been chosen for the residence of the presi- dent, and the seat of the federal government. The forces, of the confederacy, military and naval, must vary with cir- cumstcmcrs, as also the revenue,, the gross amount of which, has been stated at above twelve millions of dollars in 180^> but at little more than ten in the following year, at the rate of about four shillings and six pence to ths dollar. The national debt may soon much exceed twenty millions of British pounds^ ; .i/v - , The mimber of states composing this confederacy is liable to be augmented, according as the government, in the en- crease of population, may constitute new states, by confer- ring that honour on such provinces as may have become sufficiently populous to merit that consideration. In the revolutionary war the number of states was only thirteen ; but some have since been added, and others have grown inta a state of admission, so that we may reckon them at eighteen. These are Vermont, New Uampshirej Massachusets, Maine, Rhode-Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pen- sylvania Delaware, Northwest territory, Maryland, Vir- ginia proper^ Kentucky, North Carolina, Tenessee, South m TIItGINIAi ^ii9 Carolina, and Georgia. The six first of these are compre- hended under the general denomination of New Enj^land. The modes of subdivision are not the same throughout the states. Those of New England in general. New York, New Jersey, and Pensylvania, are subdivided into counties and townships ; and most of the townships in New England, are again subdivided into parishes and precincts. The territories of the states which are situated to the south of Pensylvania, are generally divided into counties only. The parts into which tlie lower country in South Carolina is divided are parishes, which are neaily of the same nature as counties elsewhere. The division into parishes, which was originally ecclesiastical, cannot be expected now to be regularly maintained throughout a country in which no national church exists ; for here all modes of faith and worship are quite in a state of political equality, the fol- lowers of none being excluded by law from offices in the ad- ministration. The sects are numerous ,- each supports its own clergy : and all maintain the same degree of concord as if they were members of one church. Doubtless they are all members of the church of Christy except some deists and a small number of Jews. :"., ■ r. , ,, CHAITER VII. Religion. A territorial subdivision into townships> incorporated dis- tricts, with or without towns, has place in the northern states. As town and township in these countries are synonymous terms, a European traveller may be often disappointed in his expectation of meeting with a town, where only some scattered habitations can be seen. Many towns within the dominion of the United States are as yet in their infancy, 2k 2 Towns. Sr'f I Pll i tm TIROINIA. CIIAPTBR VII. y/hWc some have arrived at the summit of their advance* ment, and some have fallen into a state of decline. In gene- ral those which are so situated, as to have a navigable com- munication at once mih the ocean and the interior country, are progressive in population and wealth ; while those which have a less favourable situation are in a stationary or retro- grade condition. Thus Williamsburgh, formerly the capital of Virginia proper, is fUlling to decay, while Richmond and JNorfolk, more especially the latter, arc augmenting ra- pidly. Many instances might be given ; but to be minute in the account of towns, in a country where changes are in such quick progression, that a totally different state of af- fairs may be expected in a time not far distant, seems not expedient. 1 siinll particularise a few, in the condition in which they stood at the beginning of Uie iiinoteenth cem- tury. itoatoo. Boston, the chief city of New England, in the county of Suffolk, and state of Massachusets, is sealed «n a small pe^ ninsula, at the bottom of Massachusets bay. With the ex- ception of two or three streets, it is irregtikriy bnilt, Intt displays a handsome prospect to s|)ectators in the liaFbO)iir» from which it rises in amphitheatric form, adorned' with spires, which are overtopped by a monttnvent,comnMmorative of the revolution, on the highest spot, called Beacon-hill. The number of its inhabitants has been estimated at from Dear fifteen to near nineteen thousand. Its harbour is excels lent, capable of containing Ave hundred ships in safety, but of so narrow an entrance as hardly to admit more than iwo abreast. From the want however ^ a navigable coin-< TlltniNiA. 861 ntunication with the interior country, this city, oiro of the chapter ©West in the United States, encreases very slowly iii trade ^— and population. New York, the second city of the United States in popu" N«w Yorkr lation and commercial windth, stands on the southwestern angle of York hland, an insular tract, fideen miles long, but not two in breadth, at the mouth of the Hudson river, washed also by the waters of the strait which separates Long Islaml from the main. With some exceptions, par- ticulariy a street called Broadway, which extends^ with a breadth of near seventy fcet, duo northward almost from shore to shore, this town is irregularly built and incomino* dious with uarrow lanes ; but by its vast extent of navigable intercourse vith the interior country, by the river Hudson, and other conveniences, it increases so much iti wealth and populati^m, and, in consequence of the former, improves to 8uch a degree in the taste of the builders that the additional Ijartsarc on a much better plan. Its inhabitants appear to have exceeded forty thousand in number at the oommence- ment of the nnieteenth century. The roofs of the houses> which are generally built of brick, are mostly covered with tiles. Here no bason fbrms a harbour ; but the river, and the shelter of the Long iaktnd, afford sufficient aceommoda^ tion tOAhippiT^. ,, ^ . , ; The greatest city as y^ in all the territory of the United' phiiadeiphhr*. States is Philadelphia, the capital of Pensylvania, situate between the rivers Delaware and Skuylkil, five miles above their conflux, founded by WiUiam Penn in 1683. Thf? n If 2m nnaistk. CIIAPTEH V'll. space planned, by the founder, for the groundplot of tlj« city >vas a rightangled paraJklogram, two miles lon;»- a"'l one broad, cxtendin<^ to the banks of both rivers ; but suc- ceeding generations have so widely deviated from this plan, that the iJweHings extend near three miles along the Dela- uare, and nowhere more than to the distance of a mile from its bank ; and a part, called wa-ter-street, has been built along the river, between the bank and margin, in so low a situation as to have, by neglected filth, generated malignant distempers. The houses, which stand outside the original groundplot, are said to be in the liberties, as they are ex- empt from the jurisdiction of tlie corporation. In the liber* ties the streets are very irregular : but in the city, accord- ing to the projector's design, they all intersect one another at right angles, and are from fifty to eighty feet broad, except the principal one, which is a hundred feet wide. They are tolerably well paved with pebble stones in the middle, and with bricks for footways at the sides. Except a few of wood, >the houses are of brick, but very few are elegant. With "very little exception, the public buildings are heavy tasteless piles of red brick, ill according with the blue mar- ble, with which they are ornanoented. The population of Philadelphia may have encreased to above fifty thousand, and may still encrease to a much greater pitch, from its advantageous position on the Delaware, which is navigable to this city by ships of war of seventy-four guns, by sloops thirty-five miles higher, and by boats of nine tuns a hun- dred miles still farther, beside an extensive navigation on ihe Skuylkil. - .^ ^ , .. "%-,-*• V!' TIRGINIA. 26S The greatest town in Maryland, though not accounted the capital, is Baltimore, which from an assemblage of some huts of fishermen, grew in thirty years into a population of sixteen thousand, and doubtless now contains above twenty thousand persons. The river Patapsco, on which it is situated, and which faUs into the Chesapcak inlet, forms a harbour called the bason, capable of holding within it two thousand merchant vessels, but sliips mostly stop, for greater convenience of wind and depth of water, at a place termed Fell's point, above a mile lower, where has been founded another town, encreasiiig &st in magnitude. The public buildings in Baltimore are tnean, as are also the greater part of the private houses, which are mostly, however, con- structed of brick : but the plan of the town is good, resem- bling that of Philadelphia. The streets intersect mostly at right angles, and are from forty to sixty feet broad, be- side that the principal one is near eighty : but some are not paved, and consequently not cle£|,n.^ r.^j" *<^' Alexandria, seated on the southern bank of the river Patowmac, in Virginia proper, is at present small, but ex- pected to be of considerable magnitude in future times, from the ^d-vaiitages of its situation, whence it was origi- nally denominated Belhaven. It is as yet remarkable only for its extraordinary neatness in comparison with other towns in these countries. The houses are mostly of brick, and many of them extremely well built. The streets intersect one another at right angles, are well paved, and coni- modious. us -ni iVM 'Sib .,*;'? HM CHAPTER VH. Baltimore. ..i .1; Alexandriaw i!6t vinaiNU. CHXPTEt Vll. Vwltiiigtop, Washington city, thus iiarn«il from Ihe j^rtxit Icnckv of tho revolutionary Amorican troop»j intended (or the neat of ^overninent of all the United BtateB, and thence also deno- minated the federal city, is in a situatiou most happily chosen, »H beings central between tho northern aod southcru tracts, nnd convenient for a navigable coinmnnicution witli the At- huitic, and an immense extent of cotmtry. It is seated on the Potamac, in the fork formed by thatj^reat river with what is called its eastern braiKli. The plaiv of thi» town, which is as yet in its inftuicy, but promises to he, in some tiiture age, one of the greatest and most magaificent in the worlit has been maturely studied, and is supposed to be superior td that of any other hitherto in existence. The streets, from ninety to above a hundred feet broad, cross one another at right angles ; beside which arc to be avenues, a hundred Atid sixty feet wide, intersecting the streets oblic]uely, and hollow squares, at the mutual intersections of these avenues, destined for the reception of future uionuinents or decora- tions. Among the public buildings are the capitol, or house of congress, the parliament-hnuse, as it were, t^C the United States, founded in a central sfK>t, the highest in the city ; and, a mile and a half tirom this, the palace of the j)rcsident, also in a commanding, and most beautiful situa-* tion. chMieHown. Charlcstown, the capital of South Carolina, stands at tho confluence of the rivers Ashley and Cooper, whose streams united form a capacious harbour. The ground plot is flat and low, and the water brackish ; yet from ventilation of sea-breezes and from cleanliness, tlie air is accounted M TiRdiiiiA. wliolesome. The streets, from about tliirty-five to sixty-six feet broad, in general, are tolerably regular. The houses are in great part neat, built of brick, and covered with tiles. The number of inhabitants, which has probably since en- creased, amounted, toward the close of the eighteenth cen- tury, to between sixteen and seventeen thousan^l, of whom nearly eight thousand were slaves. In a country as yet containing so few towns of consider- able magnitude, and situated at so great distances asunder, the roads cannot be expected to be in general gosd. They are mostly indeed in very bad condition, particularly in low soft grounds, called bottoms, where they are often formed, as in Russia, of trunks of trees, laid transversely, side by side, which are apt to sink into the yielding soil, or to break by the repeated attrition of the wheels of waggons. Nor in general are the bridges in much better plight than the roads. The bridges are mostly of wood. Many of them, covered with loose boards, totter Under the carriages which pass over them. Some of a doating kind are well contrived, of which we find three in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, over the river Skuylkil. ** The floating bridges are formed of large trees, which are placed in .3 water transversely, and chained together. Beams ar& Uren laid lenn;'^ways upon these, and the whole boarded over, to render the way con* venrenf fcft passengers. On each side there is a railing. When very heavy carriages go across these bridges, they sink a few inches below the surface of the water ; but the 265 CHAPTER VII. if lil (loaili. I firidgeit I li^ CHAPTER VII TIRGINtA« pnswigo IN hy no mcnnn iliui;i|;croiis. They «ro kept in an cvfMi (liroctioii acrosH tlio rivor by means of chniiiH and anchors, in diiruront parts, ami arc ojso strongly Bccnrcd on hoth sliorcs, Over that part of the river where the ciiannol lies, they are so contrived that a piece can bo removed ^<^ allow vessels to puss through. These bridges are frequently damaged, and sometimes entirely carried oway> during, flooils, at the breaking up of the winter, especially if there happens to be much ice floating in the river. T<^ guard against this, when danger is apprehended, and the flood comes not on too suddenly, they unfasten all the chains, by which the bridge is confined in its proper place, and then lei the whole float down with tlie stream to a convenient part of the shore, where it can be hauled up and secured."* Bridges supported by boats are also in use, like that of Rouen in France, as at Richmond iu Virginia proper, oven the river James^ JUini> Travellers are not better accommodated with inns than with roads and bridges. " The mode of conducting them is nearly the same every where. The traveller is shewn, oa arrival, into a room which is cotnmon to every person in the house, and which is generally tlie one set apart for breakfast, dinner, and supper. All the strangers, who hap- I)en to be in the house, sit down to these meals promiscu* ously, and, excepting in the large towns, the family of the. house also forms a part of the company. It is seldom that a. private parlour, or drawing-room, can be procured at any ♦ Weld, ?ol, I, p. SSc T1R01NIA. 867 I. of Iho taverni, even in the townii i and it is always wiili re* ciiaptkk hictanco that breakfaiit or diiinor in served up separately to ' any individual. If a sinj^le-betl room can be procured, more ought not to bo loolted for ; but it is not always that even this is to be had, and those, who travel through the country, must oHen submit to be crammed into rooms wlicre there is scarcely sufficient space to walk between the beds."* Often also " at each house there are regular hours for breakfast, dinner, and su])per ; anil if a traveller arrives somewhat be< fore the time appointed for any of these, it is in vain to call for a separate meal for himself : he must wait patiently till the appointed hour, and then sit down with the other giiustH who may happen to be in the hou80."f - Descendants all of emigrants from Great Britain and fre- lohabitand. land, except an admixture, small in proportion, of colonists from some other European countries, mostly from Germany, the people of the United States are almost wholly English in persons, language, manners, and customs. The dc'via« tions from this standard are slight, the consequences of local and political causes. They seem to be in general of shorter lives than Europeans, and are almost universally subject to a very early decay of the teeth. The former may in great measure arise from the great and sudden changes of tempe- rature in the air, which cause repeated colds and coughs, debilitating the frame. The latter is attributed, and both seem in a considerable degree attributable, to the constant use of salt meat for food, the indigestions occasioned by too I • Weld, Tol. I) p. 38. f Idctfl, toI. 1. p. 41. 2 L 2 K.'i ^^''^^ S68 CHAPTEJl tlMIKlA. * frequent ehVings and the drinking of tea and other Kquids in a hot state. Local differences, however, have place among^ them. Thus in the lowlands of Virginia proper, the Care- Ijnas, and Georgia, the lower classes of people have a sallow complexion and sickly aspect ; while in the northern terri- tories and the highkinds throughout, more especially the latter, they. are florid and of a keahhy appearance. Beside the descendants of Europeans, two other kinds of people inhabit the territories of the United States. Indians and Negroes. The former very few, and becoming annually still fewer, are elsewhere described. The latter, very nu- merous in the southern provinces, not in the northern, are partly freemen, but mostly slaves* SlavM.' The slaves are difierently treated according to the dif- ferent disposition of their owners and the situations of affairs. In Virginia proper, "^ the ^vea on the large plan- tations are in general very well provided for, and treated with mildness. Their quarters, the name whereby their liabitationa are called, are usually situated one or two hun- dred yards firom the dwelling bouse, which givea tlie apr- pearance of a village to the residence of every planter. Ad- joining their little habitations they commonly have small gardens and yards for poultry, which are all their own property. They have ample time to attend to their own concerns, and their gardens are generally found welLstocked^ and their flocks of poultry numerous. Beside the food which they raise for themselves, they are allowed liberal rations <^ salted pork and Indian corn. They are forced to work certain hour» m the day : bat^ itn teium, they are . ^S^^^ TIMIMIA. clothed, dieted, mid lodged comfortably, and sored alt anxiety about provision fur their oflfspring. Still, however, as long as the slave is conscious of beitig the property of another man, who can dispose of him according to the dic- tates of caprice, particularly amid people who are constantly talking of the blessings of liberty, he cannot be supposed to feel equally happy with the freeman. What is here said respecting the condition and treatment of slaves appertains to those only who are upon the large [rfantations in Virginia proper. The lot of such as are unfortunate enough to fall into the hands of the lower class of white people, and of hard taskmasters in the towns, is very different. In the Ca- rolinas and Georgia, again, slavery presents itself in very difterent colours from what it does even in its worst form in Virginia proper. It is no uncommon tiling there to see gangs of negroes staked at a horse race, and to see these unfortunate beings bandied about from one set <^ drunken gamblers to another, for days together. How much to be deprecated are the laws whieh suffer such abuses to exist I Yet these are the laws enacted by a people who boast of tiieir love of liberty and independence, and who presume to- say, that it is in the breasts of Americans alone that the blessings of freedom are held in just estimation."* 269 CnAPTER VII. This furnishes an idea, for from favourable, of mannen in the southern provinces. In fact the use of slaves, where- ever it prevails, is observed to contaminate the morals of the people ; nor can literature be supposed to have extensive Litentare* ♦ WeU, ToL Vp. 149—191. 1 4. "7 3* 270 CHAPTER VII. yiRGUUA. influence in such a state of society. The use of letters indeed, so far as the reading and writings of the English language, is almost uuiversaliy diffused, especially in the northern parts, and books in abundance are procutable from England. Yet literature, comparatively with Britain, was in a very low state at the conclusion of the eighteenth century. The colleges deserved rather the title of grammar schools, and were in every respect very mean anu poor.**^ These, however, have since increased in numbei and in merit. Academies have been established, whose discove- jries and observations are regularly published. Information is much diffused by magazines and newspapers, though doubtless of inferior value, as in the British Islands ; and with growing wealth and population, where the press is quite free, we may expect a growing knowledge and taste in literature. Mannen. -■V'Ji' In maimers the inhabitants of these countr'es, denominated collectively Anglo-Americans, are as yet i mch inferior to the people of the British Islands, as heh t in a state of society more immature. This difTerence much more conspicuous \h the lower than in the highe classes, and more in some provinces and cities than in of jrs. Society may be naturally expected to improve, and iture ages to present a picture different from the presen ; but we can only state affairs as they are described in our "n times, or at least toward the commencement of the nineteenth century. In politeness, hospitality, and the pleasures of conversation • Weld, Tol. I, p. ler, 168, 919. V; -y'lii} W»««,..a»..^..«rJ • ; VlROlRtA. and social intercourse, the gentry of Phihidclpliia are ac counted the most deficient. Here^ " among the uppermost circles^ pride^. haughtiness, and ostentation are conspicuous. In the manners of the people in general there is a coldness and reserve, as if they were suspicious of some designs against them, which chills to the very heart those who come to> visit them. In their private societies a tristesse is apparent, near which mirth and gaiety can never approach. It is no^ unusual thing, in the genteelest houses, to^ see a parly of from twenty to thirty persons assembled, and- seated round' a room, without partaking of any other amusement than> what arises from< the conversation^ most frequently in whis- pers, which passes between the two persons who are seated' next to each other; The party meets between six and* seven in the evening: tea is served with much form : and at' ten, by which time- most of the company are wearied with having remained so long stationary, they return to their homes. Still, however, they are not strangers to music, cards, or dancing. Their knowledge of music, indeed, is at a very low ebb ; but in dancing, which appears to be their* most favourite amusement, they certainly excel."* This doubtless is not in unison wvth the system of the quakers, the* founders of this city and colony : but the population is so' altered by the influx of other sects, that quakers now con* stitute hardly a fourth part of the inhabitants. 271 CHAPTER VII. ! i The conduct of affairs in the theatre of Philadelphia- gives not an idea of refinement in manners. * A shocking; 'v • Weld, Tol. 1, p. 22,. 872 TIRGINIA. CHAPTER VU. ■■r-y custom obtains of smoking tobacco in the house, which at times is carried to such an excess, that those to whom it is disagreeable are under the necessity of goii^ away. To- the people in the pit, wine and porter is brought between the acts, precisely as if they were in a tavern. The actors are procured^ with very few exceptions from Grd Britain and Ireland. None of them are very eminent performers, but they are equal to what are usually met with in the country towns iu: England,"* The gentry in Virginia pro- per appear to be higher in the scale of civilization. In the rural parts they closely resemble their English progenitors, especially in the lowlands, where they are celebrated for their politeness and ho^itality toward stra^ers^ The <;itizeQS of Baltimore in Maryland have a similar reputa- tion, as ak> the gentry in other parts of this province : but the citizens of New York " have long been distinguished above those of all the other towns in the United States, un- less the people of Chariestown should be excepted, for their politeness, gaity, and hospitality,;, and indeed, in these points, tliey are most sirikkigly superior to the inhabitants of the other kurge towns." In general the people of the sea- ports, open to the Atlantic, are more improved in manners than those of the interior. With the exception of some sea-poits> the people of the lower classes in general are remarkable for an extreme rude- ness of demeanour, an exLtraoniinary selfi^ness, a restless- ness with pei^ct to their ^huxsk of abode, a vexatioualy f Weld, vol* I) p. 84; vntoiHik: 275 \ : impeitfkmt ottriosity, iind a pronenesK (o faction. This rudieiteflB itoMrried to iM hig^hest pitch in Philadelphia. The tuAgiir " l^ttim f ode ttiid impertinent answers to questions coached in thetrfost dvil terms, and will insult a person whb betitsr the appenfance of a gentleman, on purp6se to shew htfit much they consider themselves upon an equality with him*. Civility CMnot beporchased from them on any termst. They seem to think Aat this Is incompatible with freedom, and that^here-is no crthet way of convhicing a strangei^ that hc^is really in a latikd of liberty, but by being durly and ill mitnttercd in hh presence.^' A ^uflen and disobN^ng be- hi^kMilr hr practtosd Hiemi by fh6sb whd are appointed to at- tend'th« ^mfH dtfiins* ^ 1^eVeil!he1e^ they will pockei yotif M0Aey wHh th« utmMt tetidincss, thdUgh without thiMkSMg y^ f6t k. (X alt beingsr oid ^i^th Americans are tbcf mbM interC8«ei$ Attd' CovetO'u^." {i'rom the character eft tesihteiheisi and oi a^lidUs spirit the cotonists froni €«rmAtty wee ^cCpted' :f but *' by the desire of m&king mo- ttey btfth' the GermMsr alnd Americans, of eVery class and (fesbriptiort, tttfg actuated ki tltti tHeir mbvemehts. Self-'inte- ' r«^ i^ alWtiyr lippetmost ^n'thcir thoughts : it is the idoi whibh tttey Vrdj^liip, and at its shrine thousands and thou- sands would be fdund, \ii all pikrts of the country, ready to make a sacrifice of every noble and generous sentiment wliidi can adorn thfi human mind."^ This thirst of gain is the' cause of the restless and migratory di^sitionof the people, who are perpetually on the search for bargains of laiid, remoymg irbiTi place to place in quest oC their great jobjeci. > ; * Weld, Tol. 1, p. SO, 115, 127» I ■■ .. ■ Mm CHAPTER vn: • ^ aT4 CHAPTER VII. VIAGIKIA. Ifi pursuit of this great end "the American is whCtHy- re- gardless of the ties of consanguinity. He takes his wife with Iiim, goes to a distant part of the country, and buries himself in the woods, hundreds of , miles distant from the rest of his family, never perhaps to see them again* In the back parts of the country you always meet numbers of men prowling.about to buy cheap land : having found what they like, they immediately remove : nor, having once removed, are these people satisfied : restless;, and discontented with what they possess, they are forever changing. It is scarcely possible, in any part of the continent, . to find a man, among the middling and lower classes of. Americans,, who has not changed . his farm, and residence many different times^ Thousands of acres of waste land are annually taken up in unhealthy and unfruitful parts of the country^ notwithstand- ing that the best settled andheakliy parts of the middle states would maintain, five times the number of inhabitants which they maintain at present The American, however, in every change, hopes to make money."* The qiirit of migration, which we find to have prevailed among the Pface- nicians, Greciansi» and other nations of antiquity, by what 'one«yc/ Thp islapids, whiqh Ite along tiie coast of'this vast region^ ^re mostly of small importaiiice in comparison of the jm-- mense extent of territory ta which they are politically^ attached. On the coast of Maine i» H^qumt-de^ATt tdMid, fifteen jQaites I(Hig, and twelve broad^^ aofl cPOtoining^, ia thia .;fu:2W,^ * Weld, ToU y, p. 19S. The aecoaat.here giTen;|^ir]ien I iMre qaoted onl J one traTcller) i* tmiraied by aevend oOnitiL TiMnriA. 2^7 J0W \700i betwocn seven ttnd eight hundred persons. Two isles, called Cranberry islands, situated on the southeastern Mde, assist to form.- a harbour where an inlet penetrates i«to the land. CHAPTER VIL Nantucket,.politicaHy belonging to the state of Massa-> ehuaetSy extending fifteen miles in length, with a medial breadth of about four; and containing, a harbour, is inha"- bited by near five thousand people,, who chiefly subsist by fishing, particularly for whdesi in the taking of which they are in the highest degree expert. The ancient woods have been totaHy destroyed, and the Indians, who formerly amounted to near thre^ thousand, have, without any wars with, the colonists, beebme extinct by diseases and the use of rum» ■ ' Martha^s vineyard, belonging also to Massachnset9> twenty-one miles long and six broad, contains between three and four thousand inhabitants, who subsist by fishing, by.f^ricalture,and by tfie breeding of cattle. ' -^-^ Block Ishmd, and Fisher*^ Islandi the former of which, belonging poKtically to the continental state callied Rhode faftan^ is mhabiled by near seven faundved people, aire qoHe inconsiderable; The latter is r^rded as- an appendage of Long Island,. far the greatest of all on these coasts. liMig I^Mid, parted> from the continent by a stmit or awiad kwt three- to twenty-five miles brocid/ stretches to tt< £78 CHAFTKR VII. VnOfKIA. length of a hundred and forty miles, with a medial breadth of ten. The land in the northern parts is rougli with hilts ; in the southern low, with a liglit sandy tioil. Tracts of salt meadow abound on the coast. Near the center of the island isHampstead plain, sixteen miles long and eight broad, never known to .produce other vegetables of qion- taneous growth than a iparticular kind of grass and some^ shrubs, although the soil, which is black, is apparently rich. Eastward of this .lies brushy plaiu, overspvcad with brush- wood, which gives shelter to a vast number of grouse and deer. About the middle of the isle is a lake or pond, termed - Rockonkama, about a mile in circuit, which is said to ebb andilow regularly in periods of years, from some uaknoorn cause. The number of inhabitants, who are generally of Dutch descent, is estimated at near forty-two thousand, of whom near five thousand are slaves. This island, which belongs to the state of New Yoric, is divided into three counties, which are subdived into nineteen towndvips. Staten Island^ isituated nine jniles southward >ef New York city, extends about eighteen miles in length, with a medial breadth of six or seven. It is rough with hills, ex- cept/a level. tract on the southern ade. Its inhabitants^' mostly of Dutch and .French descent, are estimated at nearly four thousand in number. The rest of the islands are too isconsiderable to merit a description. A chain of insulated stripes of land, or sandy beaches, ^bove a buodred miles long, but hardly a mile fnu3wu. f7» t>road, noidy covered with small trees or bushes, ftom the boundary and shelter of Pamlico sound, on the coast of North Carolina, from the Atlantic ocean. Ranges of small islands, at a short distance from the continent, are seen along the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia. OBAPTBft VII. Ai- S8l CHAPTER VIII. THE BAHAMAS, Termed also the Lucayas, form a numerous group of small islands, extending near seven hundred miles, in a northwesterly direction, from the vicinity of Hispaniola to that of Florida, parted from the vast island of Cuba by a sea called the Old Bahama Channel, and from the American continent by another sea, improperly denominated the gulf of Florida. The greater islands, including clusters of isles, arc estimated at fourteen in number, the smaller at least at seven hundred. The latter consist in great part of rocky islets and what are called quays by mariners. These quays or keys are small sandy isles, appearing a little above the surf of the water, and destitute of other vegetation than a few shrubs or weeds. The Bahamas in general are nar- row slips of land, and, with little exception or variety, low in surface, but rising almost perpendicularly from the bot- torn of the ocean, in such a manner as to be immediately surrounded with unfathomable water. Many of them are environed, altogether or in part, by reefs of rocks parallel to the shores, and at a small distance from them, imme- diately outside of which the ocean often admits no soundings, N n - ■ vi CItAPTKR VIII. H mi CHAPTER VIII. .' THE DAIUMA8. but inside is found a bottom of fiiio white sand, or of rockn covered with sea weed. Groat part of the tract of ocean over which these isles nre scattorMl if occupied by two exten- sive shoals, called the great and little Rank, of which the (•d<;08 are in many places marked by quays or islets, and the bottom of white sand, visible at the depth of twelve or twenty feet, g;ives a kind of a lig^ht colour to both the sea and sky. The g;reat bank iu the south seems three hundred leagues in circuit : 4he Utile bank iu 4b« •uorUi not half so much. Althougb, from the light oolour of the bottom, and the Iranepareiicy of the viater, navigation, witii due attention, is easy and safe on tlic Innks, yet these islands to navigators are dangerous in the extreiHe^ particularly in the season of winter, from the violence and uncertainty of the currents and eddies. Often while the mariner is steering one course, he is carried by the current in au almost opposite direction, and finds his vessel in a desperate situation before he is aware. The island called the great Inagua,. situated near ^e moutli of the chaunel between Cuba and Hispaniola, termed the windward passage, i& quite infamous for ship- wrecks On a dangerous reef, at some distance from its shore, many ships have been driven to inevitable destruc- tion. So perpetually expected are shipwrecks, that forty sail of small vessels, denominated vareekerst manned with expert seamen, well acquainted with every isle and channel, are licensed by the British government of the Hahamas to keep the sea in all weathers for the saving of the lives and properties of wrecked mariners, who pay salvage for the goods preserved by their exertions. THE nAIIAMAN. TUe extraorUiuary dangera of navigation among these iHlamits nd it a convenient retreat on account of the' shoal wate on the banks, and the numerous quays inaces- sible to large vessels, and of dangerous approach to any. The most infamously daring of this crew was John Teach, nicknamed Blackbeard, whose successful audacity was so alarming, that in 1718 the British government sent a re- spectable force to quell the depredators and reduce the colony to order. Since that event the colony of New Providence has remained under British government with little interruption, and has encreased in wealth and numbers/ but the rest of the islands continued almost desert till the conclusion of the American war in 1783, when many loyal Americans emigrated to them from South Carolina and Georgia, and formed plantations in them. I ■ -• THE BAHAMiB. * So little succrsBfiil have these new colonists been in their agricultural prnject8, that many, after years of trial and the ruin of their propcilics, have deserted the ungrateful soil to try their fortunes cUowherc, insomuch that, without some unexpected turn in their favour^ these islands seem to threaten to become again desert. " Although nature in all these islands spontaneously brings forth many vegetables hn*h curious and beautiful, she has hitherto refused to resign herself to continued cultivation. The exotics, which arc introduced, seem feebly and unsuccessfully to struggle with cold winds, the droughts, and unfriendly seasons ; while a crop of hereditary and worthless weeds takes possession of the soil prepared for cultivation, and extracts all its nourish- ment to administer fertility, as thoy decay, to the native and unprofitable forest trees succeeding them/' The planters have not found any of the indigenous vegetables fit objects of culture. Among these is the wild lemon, the wild coflPee, the viM tobacco, the wild pimento, the wild cinnamon, the cascarilla, the candlewood, which is so bituminous as to an- swer in some respects the purpose of candles; the butter- bough, the greasy leaf of which is nutritious for cattle ; the cork wood, which is so %ht as to be a substitute for cork ; and the braziletto, which aifords a beautiful scarlet dye. The timber, particularly the mahogany, is large enough for being formed into the ribs and beams of small ships^ but not into boards and sheathing'. Cotton, the staple object of culture in the Bahamas, was a product of- the soil before their discovery by Europeans, but the sorts which are cul- tivated are exotic. Reside that the soil becomes in a few years effete for the proiiuctioiv.Qf this vegetable the crop is 285 CHVPTER VIII. i? I 286 tat BAHAMAS. dHAPTER VHI. often damaged or destroyed by insects called the red hug and the chenille. The Ants are also destructive to the plantation!^. The chief artieincs« and ciaaJbevries. No trees are here prodtioed, but much of wiiat is called beach^gmss, wild pess, and iother vegetsibles, iho food of horses, fi9WS, 994 bf gs, which hoM acb wiU in n, state of natuce. GHAJPnHt VIUU' . r » X 9 H^'i - . ^M CHAPTER VIII. '"nm^-%-ns'm''^ OapeaBntoii. THE ISLANDS OF SAINT LAWRENCE, .«■-' 'SlBATBb in the sea of Saint Lawrence, improperiy teniied a gulf under the same appellation, consist of the isles of Cape- Breton, Saint John or Prince Edward, Anticosti, and some- others of inferior magnitadie> all under subjection to the British crown. The firsts termed also Ite R^le by the French, is parted from Nova- Scotia by the strait called Fronsac Passage or the gnt of Canso, about half a league- wide. This island, colonized early in the eighteenth cen- tury by the French, was conquered by the English in the^ year 1758, under whose governinent it still remains. It extends about a hundred miles in length and sixty in breadth, but is so deeply indented as to be divided into two peninsu- las, connected by an isthmus about half a mile broad. Its coast, envinoned by pointed rocks, some of which are visible above water, is high and almost inaccessible on. the northern side, but aflbrds many receptacles for shipping on the eas- tern, all of which have a turning toward the south. One of these, the harbour of Louisburgh, with an. entrance of four hundred yards in width, a winding length of four leagues>. and a depth of at least seven fathoms every where, is one of the finest in the northern regions of Aiherica. The land is- mountainous in the interior, and so abounds in lakes, that the lower grounds appear to be half covered with waten. From these, which remain long frozen, and from the thick. THE SAINT LAWRtNCB 11118. 29S forests which intercept the sun's rays, the air is col'd and foggy, though not supposed unwholesome. From such- a state of the atmosphere, and the poverty of Ae thin soil, which yields little else than moss, the land is little fit for either agriculture or the breeding of cattle. The inhabitants therefore, who are few in number, depend for subsistence on the fisheries in their neighbourhood. Mines of coal abound, also of plaister of Paris, and some say of iron. The go- vernor, at once a civil and military officer, resides at the little town of Sidney, accounted the capital. The irie of Saint John, Ititely denominated Prince Edward's island, is severed from the continent by a channel called the Red sea, from three to- six leagues- wide, and from- nine to twenty>five fathoms deep, but of dangerous navigation on account of rocks which border its northern bank. The island, above a hundred and ten miles long, but scarcely ten broad, where widest, and deeply indented by many inlets, bends into a figure approaching that of a crescent, and terminates in two points, that of North cape in the northwest, and that of East point on the eastern side. The numerous inlets form many harbours and roads- for anchorage, several of which are commodious. The winter is long, and intensely oold> as in all the neighbouring countries, but the' air is healthy> although subject to fogs. The land is of a level nature, well watered, and fertile, furnishing cqpious supplies of excellent timber, and go«xl pasturage, and productive, where cleared, of all the kinds of grain of northeni Europe. The crops however are oft injured by fogs which cause mildew, and by destructive insects, which swarm in the heat of summer. CnAPTBI VIH. Saint Ma. i t^« nil. TUB g^Nt UWRBNCB itlBS. This Mland« coloniBed by the French ia 1719, was«erzod ia J 758 by the fing^tial^ by whom it ia am retained. It baa been gianted by the Sritiah fovemroent to leveral proprie- tiH-B in districts of twenty thousand acres each, caUed town- ships, and ako in siatdler called haU townships. An en- creasing^ colony has thus been eitablished, the number of 'Whose people was computed some yeans ago at seven thou* sand. The seat of its government, subordinate to that of Nova Scotia, is Chdrleatowa or Cbarlottestown, aeated near the middle of the southera coast. AnHcirti. Anticosti, sitaated «t the mouth of the vast river Saint Jjaiwrenoe, extends in length above one hundred snd twenty miles, and in breadth, where it is widest, thirty. The coast isdestitule of harbours, although the sea is very ^«ep close to the shore ; and flat rocks, which stretch far into the wa- ter from «acfa extremity, reader to shipping the approach hazardous. From the shores, whkh are flat, the bind rises gently towaml tlie central parts, but not so high as to dorm hills. Jt is Yory scantily watered^ containing only some 'paoAa and rivydbts, tbe^ianiieisof wkiw:h are dry in summer. The sandy aoil mixed WKith rocks, is barren, yielding only bunted wood and plaats. The whole is of little value. It is destitute of inhabitants, except that it is occaaiooally •visited by savages engaged in hunting or the fishery. The fMFopevty of the land, which belongs to some fomilies ia Quebec, under British govemmeat, might be purchased ior a smaH sum. .'■V ' !->'•: ^■■t- .V: .'it'" iiij.';,;^:-' THI lAlNT LAWMINOB I8LU. 896 The smaller isle» consist of those of Saint Faul, the Mag- dalenes, the Bird isles. Saint Peter, and Miquelon. The first is qiitte dtfsert, parttd frorq the northern «ttremity of Cape-Breton by a safely navigable channel, four leagues wide. Of the Magdalene islands, eight in number, situated twelve leagues to the north of Cape-Breton, the lai^est, containing a deep harbour, consists of a rock, covered with a thin stratum of earth, inhabited by « tew fishermen. The Bird isles are two roeks, rising more than a hundred feet above the sea, and terminating above ia flat surfaces^ covered with the dung of immense flocks of birds, which fre- quent them chiefly in the breeding season. Tlia isles of Saint Peter and Miquelon lie near the southern coast of Newfoundland. They are barren and of no value except as convenient stations for the fishery. The former, two leagues in length, is furnished with a good harbour for small vessels^ of which it can contain thirty. The latter is somewhat larger, wad is less barren, as it produces more wood. JMi- quelon however is conceived to- consist of two islesi, the greater and the less. The latter, situated southward of the- former, is more woody, but otherwise not valuable. CHAPTBa Snulkr Mm. 896 j;.? iU"» •ifW »llii.'4 CflAPTBa VIII. '*0 NE WFO UNDLAND, iKiiJ.il )]>< \' Forming on one side the boundary of the sea of Saint Lawrence, is parted from Labrador by the strait of Belleisle, Mrhich affords every where good anchorage in a depth of thirty or forty fathoms, but is of dangerous navigation in the night on account of the force and uncertainty of its currents. By a multitude of inlets, some of which penetrate very deeply into the land, the coasts of this great island are broken in so extraordinary a manner as to form a vast number and variety of capes and peninsulas. Of the two greatest and most remarkable of the latter one extends far northeastward from the western side, constituting the northwestern portion of this country, which nearly approaches a triangle in figure. T*he other, advancing from a very narrow isthmus toward thb southeast, is itself so pierced by two opposite bays, that its eastern part forms also a peninsula. Of the multitude of inlets, by which the coast of Newfoundland is every where indented, so many are commodious for the reception of ships, that no country h known, in proportion to its size, to furnish so great a number of safe and convenient harbours. To enumerate all such would be to frame a large catalogue. To particularize two or three may suffice. In the western side of the great northwestern peninsula lies a bay termed by the French Ingornachoix, which tVoin a narrow, but per- fectly safe, entrance divides into two branches, of which the northern, called port Saunders, is preferable on account of MB.WrOUMOUKO. its deeper water, but the whole fonni one of the noblett harboun in the world. Far inferior in aiatc, thoun^ noar six miles in length, ii Ci^ielin bay, on the eastern side of the great southeastern peninsula, but not inferior to any in safety and convenience. Near this lies the smaller harbour of Perryland, the inner part of which, called the Pool, is as completely sheltered from all winds as a dock. i^ CHAVTKB VIII. The coasts of this island are generally nigged, and ser* rated with rocky promontories. One of the most remark- able is Cape Broyle. near Capelin bay, which presents to distant mariners the appearance of an enormous saddle. The interior parts exhibit a mid and dreary scene of bleak mountains and hills, marshy plains, quagmires, lakes, and dark forests. Many of the mountains approach the shores as those which border the bay of Saint George in the south- western quarter, and the chain which is denominated Blow- me-Hdown hills, in a more northern part of the western coasts The lakes uid marshes, which occupy so great a portion of the surface, furnish waters to many rivers, of which none seem to be navigable by ships through any considerable length of course. They have however been little explored. The greatest is the Humber, which, issuing f 3m a conge- ries of waters in the northwestern peninsula, flows toward the southwest, nearly parallel to the western coast, through a course of sixty leagues, to the bay of iriands in that quarter. The river Main, the drain of extensive lakes and marshes, whidi falls into the bay of Saint George on the same coast, is broad and of considerable depth, hut of extremely difficult entrance to boats on account of a bar of sand across its mouth^ p p 'I ■ :i ) I I . "% ^m ' CHAin^KH nit. on whldi i\w Wttwn brpiik with grpiit vioIfc»ic<^. Amon(|; the cfttnmetR in one diillod thn Hpout, oh the euntRm coast olf tho ^M Hoiilhrniitcirn pcDiiiNiihi, formed l)y a hotly of water impellfHl throufi^h a tiMiire of a rock, and falling fVom mielt a height an to exhibit the appearance of volcanic smoke, visi' Ne tar at sea, and thns t\irnishiNg a bndmark. The winter in Ncwfonndland is intensely cold, and of so long' duration that tiio summer in tot^ Hhort for the hringhig of corn, and other oltjects of agriculture, to maturity. 'VUv atmosphert; is tempestuous, and in. summer extremely foggy. Yet the air is wholesome in an uncomm >nly high degree. The fogs oltcn render navigation dangerous, yet a circum* ^aiH'c has been observed concerning them which appears to be peculiar. " it otlcn occurs that Uie whole of the ocean around Newfoundland is enveloped in so dense a fog, thai it is apparently impossible for a ship to proceed on. her course, without incurring the most imminent danger of ship- wreck : but, at the same time, there is generally a small space, within* a mile or two of the shore itself, entirely clear of the vapour, and, as it were, forming a sone of lightiaround- the coast : so thai a (lerson, acquainted with this singular |>lienoinenon, will, in some cases, be enabKnl to attain his port ; while a stranger, on tlie other hand, is afraid to ap- proach the island/'* From the bleakness of the atmo»pherc, and the poverty of the thin soil, the eftbrts of agriculture would be vain for the sustenance of mankind. Moss, trees, and shrubs are the chief s|)ontancou8 products. The timber • Chuinwirs Voy«gr to Newfoundland, r. 63. MSWrOUMDUND. nectns ill general noithcr large, nor of much value except for fuel. Tiio IrecH by which the country ii in general oversproatl, , are tnoHtly pino, npruce, fir, Uroh« and birch. iFrom an infuMon of (lip tender braiiclies of Uiu spruce, iiiingied with inqlumeH, a wholeRomo beverage 19 made by (he inhabitants. Among the shrubs is the juniper, and other kinds which yield berries of dilfercnt species. Berries which ui'o delicious in tarts or puddings may be found in inai'shy grounds in proiligious quantities. ,, OUAPTBR viu. Where the land is so little productive, quadrupeds, except the aquatic sorts, cannot bo numerous. Hares, deer, squirr rcis, poroupines, and bears are found in the woods. The reindeer and others of the venison are scarce. The porcu- pines lire in plenty, and their flesh is much esteemed. Wolves, foxes, lynxof«, and martins are natives of the island. 8omo of the fox< s in (lie northern parts are said to be black. • Seals abound along the coast, and beavers and otters inhabit the borders of the lakes and rivers. Tame quadrupeds are very few except dogs, the genuine ipecies of which, deno- iiiiniitfd from , this island, so highly esteemed for docility^ [Nitieiice uf cold, and endurance in the water, has become very scarce. Dog^.are here the beasts of draught, employed in (he drawing of, loads, particularly of wood for fuel. Aquatic birds fire in vast number around ,the coast and in the lakes and murshesof the interior. Those which frequei^t the fresh water are chiefly, ducks and geese. Partridges ar^ in great plenty. A species, culled tlie spruce-partridge from its feeding on the bark of (he spruce, resembles the . . 2 p a •$00 VIII. m W MVMWtAIw* «6nilii piously stored, especially with cod. Of the fossils of this island, as no search has been made for them, we can only say that porpliyry of several eolonrs has been found, and tiiat beds of coal are sujf^iosed to be abundant. This great island is valuable only for the abundanee of eodfish around its coasts, and on the Great Hank, or vast submarine tableland, in its vicinity, already noted- in the General View prefixed to this work. These fish are taken biy hook and Kne. The bait used in this business is either the henlng or the capeli:^. The latter seems to be peculiar to tlie coasts of this country and of Labmdor. It is a smdl iiMt delicate fish much resemhling the smelt. For the de- positing of ils ^wtt on the sandy beaches it visits these coa»te about August and September in such shoals that ettdb often darkens the sea through the space of a mile or tnore^ lliey tnsh ^th such violence to the shores, that: ttituiy of th«m tepire on the dry sand, unable to regain their native element. The fiiriiery of «od, which commonly Commences eariy itti May, and terminates at the close of Bc^tembef, is prosecuted chiefly on the great bank, but also .f. HEWFOVNOtANV. 301 on all tho coasK of the iiland, except the northwetteni, to which thia animal is saiTRa VIII. . Newfoundland wash discovered* in 1497, or the following year, by an English aquadroa- under tha command of John Gabot, or Sebastian, his son. In some time after this, some £n^ish fisherineo began to firequeot the eastern coasts* To give a govenuneiit to sucb^ for the prevention of disputes •Ch«pp«M,p. ISP. If "^ d02 CHAPTER VIII. NEWFOUNDLAND. among theni. Sir Humphrey .Gilbert, in 1583, took posses- sion of these parts under a commission from Queen Eliza- beth. Encouraged by the success of the English, the French formed settlements on the northern and southern coasts, particularly at the great bay of Placentia. Afteir various disputes for the dominion of the island, the whole was surrendered by France to England by the treaty of Utrecht in 1713, with a reservation to the French of a right to fish on the great bank, and of the possession for that purpose of the unfortified isles of Saint Peter and Miquelon. .Since that time tliis country has constantly remained und^ the dominion of the British crown, but the French and Anglo-Americans are permitted to fish on the banks in itis vicinity. The government is vested in a vice-admiral of the British navy, in whose absence, which has place in winter, when the harbours are frozen, his authority devolves to a military officer styled the lieutenant-governor. In case of the letter's deatli the power is exercised by the chief justice until the vacancy is filled. The area of this triangular island, of which the southern base extends about three hundred miles, and the altitude from south to north near two hundred and eighty, may con- tain, with alipwance.made for its inlets, full twenty-four mil- Jioni^ of acres. The population is iU proportioned to such a space. The inhabitants consist of Europeans, and a very small .npmb^r of indigenous people. Subsisting solely on the profits, of the finery, the lonuer dwell only on the coasts, almost all indeed on the eastern. Of these the greater part are not permanent inhabitants, but return at .jS' , mfllfni NEWFOUNDLAHD.' 303 ^e end of the fisliinn; Reason to Europe, "Where they remain during the long winter. Of the permanent settlers, " the lower classes are generally composed of turbulent Irishmen, whose unwearied industry during the fishing season in sum' mer, is forcibly contrasted with their unbounded licentious- ness in winter. Indeed all ranks of society appear tu con- sider debauchery as the only antidote to the tcedium vita, whieh prevails between the month of December and the recommencenietit of the fishery in the May following."* Of the number of Europeans in either summer or winter I- can find no estimate on which we can rely. A> colony of Miemacs, settled in Saint George's bay, emigrants from Cape-Breton and the neighbouring parts> are indigenous Americans, though not aboriginals of Newfoundland. They They have so intermarried with Europeans that in ISld, the number of purely indigenou» exceeded not fifty persons of all ages and both sexes. Indeed the whole of the inhabitants around this bay, amounted not to more than two hundred and nine. The truly indigenous, termed Red Indians from a red colour witli which they tinge the hair and skin, are extremely few, inhabiting the interior, and the northeastern, northern, and northwestern parts. Barbarously treated by ignorant fisliermen, these savages, who at first were found friendly and obliging, have conceived so implacable an enmity to Europeans as completely to avoid all kinds of intercourse with them. They " study the art of conceal- ment so ei&ctnally, that, although often heard, they are seldom seen :"f aiul, when seen, they run away, and ex- pertly disguise their tracks from the discovery of pursuers, * Chapp«ll, p. 52. f Idem, p. 180. CHAI*TBR viir. .v*C^ il mik GHAPTER VIU. MEwrMmMAm. The tbwa of Svat John, the capital, and indeed the onljr cdlection of houses in the ishiad which can merit the titl^ of a town, in seated on the eMstern coast of the great soutfi- eastern peninsula, on an eioelleBt hariKMir, with a lon|f and narrow, but safe apd not dtflteult entrance, between roeky precipices of enormous hdg^ on the northern side, and ^; rugged m^tain on the southern. The town, which may perhaps be in a state of io^Mrovement, has hitherto con- sisted of one street, narrow, mean-looking, and dirty, com- posed chiefly of wooden houses, and extending all along one side of the harboir The number of its bihabitauts fluctu- ates and is uncertain. They are numerous in summer, but few in winter. Placentia, situated on a bay of that name, is small, but next to Saint John's in size and population.* Many small islands lie around the coast of Newfoundland, of whidi none appear to have permanent inhabitants, nor to have been well described, except those which hare been already mentioned, and probably very few can desenre a particular description. They are doubtless in general rocky, Ueak, and barren. • Cha^l ;H«3re*s Brief Relation of the Newfoondlud ; WUtbeonie's Dtocoone) ''f. of I9ewfoandUBd. I SOS BELLEISLE, Am island, which gives name to a strait separating La- brador from Newfoundland, situated northeastward of the northwestern peninsula of the latter country^ seems hardly so large as Miquelon, and is high, rugged, and barren, unin- habited and apparently not habitable. Beneath the preciw pitous rocks which line its coast, and against which the bil- k)ws foam with tremendous fury, monstrous icebergs are often grounded, and form a strong contrast with black cliffs behind. CHAl^TER VHI. i^a^ss; « q