THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
Education
GIFT OF
Professor
George C. Kyte
PH-ICAL
CATEC
UNIVERSITY REPRINTS
NUMBER ONE
PATTILLO'S
a
GEOGRAPHICAL CATECHISM
EDITED BY
N. W. WALKER
and
M. C. S. NOBLE
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
DECEMBER, 1909
COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY
N. W. WALKER
AND
M. C. S. NOBLE
Education
GIFT
PREFACE
In tliis reprint of Pattillo's Geographical Catechism the orig-
inal text has been reproduced line for line and page for page.
The spelling, punctuation, and capitalization also remain as
in the original. The only liberties the editors have taken
consist (1) in substituting the modern style for the old-style
"s" and (2) in correcting a few typographical errors. The
changes made are as follows :
"Equinoxical", p. 7, 11. 19-20, has been changed to
"Equinoxial".
".Q 13", p. 8, 1. 11, has been changed to "Q. 13".
"africa", p. 11, 1. 16, has been changed to "Africa".
"lighter", p. 20, 11. 17-18, has been changed to "light-
est".
"grant", p. 21, 1. 16, has been changed to "grand".
"more that once", p. 26, 1. 37, has been changed to
"more than once".
"Q. 41", p. 37, 1. 11, has been changed to "Q. 91".
"Setna", p. 40, 1. 36, has been changed to "Aetna".
"Lariffa", p. 41, 1. 10, has been changed to "Larissa".
"Augsbury", p. 42, 11. 4-5, has been changed to "Augs-
burg".
"Their", p. 47, 1. 4, has been changed to "Their".
A few errors have been allowed to remain: as, for instance,
"Q. 56" which is repeated on page 17. Spellings like "rug-
gid", p. 7, "Labrodor", p. 9, "chearfully", p. 26, and
275
many others have not been regarded as typographical errors
and have been left as in the original.
So far as the editors have been able to learn there are only
two copies of the original edition of the Catechism that can
be located: one (an imperfect copy) is in the library of the
University of North Carolina; the other belongs to Dr. Ste-
phen B. Weeks, Trinity, N. C., who has kindly furnished
the editors those parts which are missing from the University
copy.
THE EDITORS.
Chapel Hill, N. C.
INTRODUCTION
A peep into any schoolroom typical of any age or method
of teaching is always of great interest and value to the pro-
gressive teacher. A close perusal of this work of Henry Pat-
tillo, a North Carolina Preacher-Teacher of the 18th cen-
tury, takes the reader into a schoolroom of over one hundred
years ago and gives him a clear view of how our great-grand-
parents were taught. The book shows us the old-time
teacher and his pupils on recitation, and from start to finish
the reader is struck not only with the quaint style of expres-
sion but with the steady stream of information poured forth .
The title-page and the preface together give us a clear-cut
description of what is to be found in the text, and from these
we learn that the author hopes (1) to make the study of
Geography easy for ambitious youth; (2) to enable the
farmer and his family to read intelligently descriptions of
foreign lands; (3) to bring all to know something of the
works of God; and (4) to receive in the end "a few dollars
which will be welcome visitors." This book, like all text-
books written by teachers, is the fruitage of the author's
experience in the class-room, and it reveals clearly and dis-
tinctly the pedagogy of his time.
A good old Scotch Presbyterian preacher of Granville
had a class of "three lads" and began to teach them the fas-
cinating subject of geography. He had no beautifully illus-
trated text- books, nor wall-maps, nor blackboards with
which to do effective work ; and so with question and answer
he leads his "three lads" around the world, and to the stars,
to distant lands and through far off space, describing every
land and star and phenomenon with a style and method that
do not fail to catch the eye and the ear of even the modern read-
er. And on nearly every page he puts into the answers to his
ponderous questions an humble reverence for the Deity, as
on page 29-30 in speaking of comets: "No part of God's
works that have come to my knowledge, astonish me more
than the infinite wisdom, foreknowledge and divine art of
the Deity, in throwing from his creating hand more than 40
enormous globes, whose paths oppose and cross each other
for thousands of years, in every direction, without the rapid
fiery comet once touching or interrupting a single planet ?
which must have frequently happened had the planet been
in that part of its orbit in which it was before the cornet
passed, or would be soon after. Adore ye sons of men, and
in humble gratitude acknowledge the power, wisdom and
goodness of GOD ! If he is thus tremendous in one of his
works, who can stand when HE ariseth? Make peace with
him whilst thou art in the way; for he is as gracious to
returning penitents, as he will be terrible to the sinner in
his crimes." M. C. S. N.
SKETCH OF PATTILLO
(1726-1801)
Henry Pattillo was an eminent Presbyterian preacher and
teacher who lived and labored in the counties of Orange and
Granville from 1765 until his death in 1801. He was born
in Scotland in 1726 "of pious parents well situated in point
of religious privileges." About 1740 he with his brother
George emigrated to America and settled in Virginia. Heat
first engaged with a merchant as clerk but soon gave up this
occupation in order to study for the ministry. He was
licensed to preach about 1757, and in 1765 moved to North
Carolina. He carne from an ancient and honorable Scotch
family residing at Balermic near Dundee. The original
name of this family was Pattullock, of which name there are
at least eighteen variations or modifications ranging in
spelling from Pattillo to Petilly. The subject of this brief
sketch married in 1755 Miss Mary Anderson of Virginia. His
descendants are now living in North Carolina, Virginia,
Georgia, and Canada.
Henry Pattillo was a man of large public spirit and took a
deep and active interest in all matters relating to the welfare
of his state and nation. He was a man, too, of:-great energy
and force of character and he exerted a strong influence upon
the political as well as the religious and educational life of
his state. Because of his prominence he was chosen one of
those sent by Governor Tryon to pacify the Regulators.
During his brief residence in old Bute county (now Warren
and Franklin) he was sent as a delegate to the Provincial
Congress at Hillsboro in 1775. He was chosen one of the
chaplains of that body and was called to preside in the Com-
mittee of the whole. He also served as a member of the
Committee of Safety for the Halifax District.
He began his teaching career in Virginia while studying
for the ministry. After coming to North Carolina he con-
ducted schools at Hawfields, Williamsboro, and at Gran-
ville Hall, a school "incorporated in 1779 when the coun-
try was convulsed in war, ' ' the exact site of which is not
now known. He doubtless taught at several other places —
wherever, in fact, his pastoral duties called him to reside.
Mr. Pattillo is said to have been an excellent classical
scholar for his day and opportunity. In recognition of his
varied talents and scholastic attainments Hampden-Sidney
College conferred upon him in 1787 the honorary degree of
A.M. He wrote a good deal, but because of the limited
facilities for printing, published but little. He left many
manuscripts which have never been published. In 1787 he
published in Wilmington a volume of Sermons; in 1796 his
Geographical Catechism, the first text-book written in North
Carolina, appeared; his only other publications consist of a
few pamphlets.
N. W. W.
A GEOGRAPHICAL
CATECHISM,
To assist those who have neither Maps nor Gazetteers,
TO READ
NEWS-PAPERS, HISTORY, OB TRAVELS;
With as much of
The S c i E N c E of ASTRONOMY, and the DOCTRINE of the AIR,
As is judged sufficient for the FARMER, who wishes
to understand something of
The Works of GOD, around him;
And for the studious YOUTH, who have or have not a prospect of
further prosecuting those SUBLIME SCIENCES.
BYHENRY PATTILLO, A.M.GRANVILLE.
The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have
pleasure therein. Psalmist.
Lord how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all.
Sun, Moon and Stars, praise ye the Lord.
For ever singing as they shine,
' 'The hand that made us is divine. ' ' Adison .
HALIFAX: P R i N T E D BY ABRAHAM HODGE,
M,DCC,XCVI.
GRANVILLE, November 27, 1795.
TO
GENEBAL DA VIE.
SIR,
I RELY on your goodness to admit this address, without
any previous notice. Though I write not for the learn-
ed, yet I wish my book to pass through the hands of such.
They only are judges of literary merit. It is only the
learned who know the work of science ; and what a ruggid
steep they had to climb, to attain but a moderate share of it.
A writer expects more mercy, and even more gratitude from
men of real knowledge, than from an hundred of the less
knowing, for whose sake he writes. If your kindness in-
clines, and your numerous avocations permit* you, to pe-
ruse these sheets before they go to the press, they will re-
mind you of the road you once travelled, as far as they go;
and cause you to recollect the time when you would have
joyfully received such an introductory assistance to the study
of these sciences. If my little book meets with your appro-
bation, sir, and in your judgment answers the design of the
writer, expressed in the title page, any way you please to
take to express that approbation to the numerous and re-
spectable circle of your acquaintance, will be agreeable and
obliging to
SIR,
Your most obedient humble servant,
HENRY PATTILLO.
PREFACE.
THE following Catechism is designed to smooth the way
to the study of Geography. What put it in the way of
question and answer, was, that I intended three young lads
then under my care, should commit it to memory. It is
published in the same order, that others may take the same
advantage. This was my first view. My second arose from
this consideration, that as news-papers are happily and pret-
ty generally circulated among us, there must be many honest
farmers and their families who must be ignorant of many
countries, towns, rivers and seas mentioned in them; and
my book would enable them to read with more intelligence.
Though these were laudable and sufficient motives for its
publication, yet I acknowledge a third, and a more power-
ful reason, knowing what false and absurd ideas the bulk of
mankind entertained of the works of God around them, and
consequently how dishonourable such opinions are to the
Deity, and how unworthy of that wisdom and beauty mani-
fested in his works; I judged it a duty I owed to my Crea-
tor and to my fellow-creatures, to attempt to lead common
readers to some more just conceptions of the divine works;
and this in so small a compass that the size of my book should
not deter them; and I hope in a manner suited to their un-
derstandings. If I did not add a fourth inducement for pub-
lishing, my reader would for me. I did, and still do hope
my book may bring me in a few dollars, which will be wel-
come guests when they arrive.
The reader will readily discover the intimate connection
betwixt Geography, and its elder sister Astronomy. I hope
that hard word will fright no reader. It signifies no other
than the doctrine of the heavenly bodies, of which the Sun,
Moon, Planets and Comets, compose the part we are most
nearly connected with. A moderate share of acquaintance
with these, must constrain us to say, 0 the depth of the wis-
dom and knowledge of God! And sure I am, the more he is
known in his works, as well as in his word, the more he will
be adored and loved by his creatures.
A large
[ vi ]
A large volume on these sciences, that condescends not
to a low beginning, distresses the teacher, and discourages
the learner. My book is designed to pave the way for au-
thors who enter deeper into science; therefore all youths at
our seminaries, will find their advantage from them; while
the planter, and those youths who are not intended for the
learned professions, will perhaps satisfy themselves with what
is here offered to them.
Knowledge is the cure of ignorance : Let it not therefore
spurn the hand of its physician. Leave it, my dear reader,
to a few silly women, to cry down a book for assertion that
the planet Jupiter is a thousand times as large as the Earth —
that the human body is pressed with thirty thousand weight
of air — that the Earth and Moon fly one million and an half
of miles daily — that the Sun is larger than ten millions of the
Moon. These are well known and established truths; and
those who cry them down as impossibilities, only betray an
incurable ignorance. Farewell, courteous reader. My best
wishes attend you through my book; through life, death
and the whole of your existence.
AGEO-
A GEOGRAPHICAL CATECHISM.
\ T /HAT is the meaning of the word Geo-
Questionl. \\ graphyj>
Answer. It is compounded of two Greek words, Ge, the
Earth, and graphe, a description; and is the science that
describes the Earth, or the globe of sea and land.
Q. 2. Why do you call the sea and land a globe?
A. Because it is round as a globe or ball.
Q. 3. How is the land on the globe divided?
A. Into four quarters or large continents.
Q. 4. What are their names?
A. Asia, Africa, Europe and America.
Q. 5. How are these situated, with respect to each other?
A. Asia on the east, Africa on the south, Europe west
of Asia, and north of Africa, and America to the west of all.
Q. 6. How are places on the Earth known, as to their
situation?
A. By their latitude and longitude.
Q. 7. What is latitude?
A. Latitude counts the distance of places, from the Equi-
noxial, north or south, in degrees, minutes, seconds, &c.
Q. 8. What is longitude?
A. Longitude counts the distance of places east or west,
from some given point, called the first meridian, and is also
reckoned in degrees, minutes, &c.
Q. 9. What is a degree and a minute?
A. A degree is the 360th part of the Earth's circumfer-
ence; a minute is the 60th part of a degree; a second the
60th part of a minute, &c.
Q. 10. Why are lines of longitude called meridians?
A. Because when the Sun is on any particular meridian,
it is mid-day to all who live under that line, on the same side
of the globe, and midnight to all who live on the opposite
meridian.
Q. 11. Are degrees of latitude and longitude the same?
A. On the Equinoxial only; there a degree of each is
69i of our miles: latitude is the same every where; but lon-
gitude decreases from the Equinox, north or south; so that
in the lat. of N. Carolina 37°, a degree of longitude in only
48
[ 8 ]
48 miles; and continues to decrease to the pole, where all
the meridian lines meet.*
Q. 12. What is the Equinoxialf
A. The Equinoxial is that part of our globe that is at an
equal distance or 90 degrees from both poles. Sailors call
it the line, and it surrounds the Earth where its diameter is
the greatest. When the Sun is on the Equinox, in March
and September, the day and night is equal, all the world
over. There is no latitude at the line, for there that reck-
oning begins.
Q. 13. What are the poles?
A. They are those two spots on our globe, that lie di-
rectly under the poles in the heavens, and where there is no
longitude : So that were a rod to pass from the north pole
in the heavens to the south, it would enter the Earth at its
north pole; pass through the center, and out at its south
pole, to the south polar star, and be in fact what it is called,
the axis of the Earth, the pole stars being its supporters.
Q. 14. What is the diameter of the Earth?
A. The distance from side to side, passing through the
center. This line would be about 8000 miles in length,
and half of it, the semi-diameter. Consequently the cir-
cumference, or line that would surround the Earth at the
equinoxial, where it is largest, would be 25,000 miles, for
the one is to the other as 7 to 22.
Q. 15. You say the Earth is divided into land and water;
how are the waters divided?
A. Into oceans, seas, gulfs, bays, lakes, straits, rivers
and canals.
Q. 16. What is an ocean?
A. An ocean is one of the largest collection of waters.
Q. 17. What are the principal oceans in the globe?
A. I. The Pacific ocean, or great South sea; which
lies betwixt the western coast of America, and the eastern
coast of Asia, where it is called the Eastern ocean. It is ten
thousand miles over.
II. The Atlantic ocean, which lies from the eastern coast
of America, to the western coast of Europe and Africa, and
is about 1000 leagues, or 3000 miles over.
III. The Indian ocean, on the east of Africa, and south
of Asia.
IV. The Southern ocean, towards the south pole.
* They are marked thus, a degree °, a minute ', a second ". As 25°
37' 42", 25 degrees 37 minutes 42 seconds.
V. The
[ 9 ]
V. The Northern or Frozen ocean, to the north of Asia,
Europe and America.
Q. 18. What is a sea?
A. A sea is a smaller collection of water than an ocean.
I. The Mediterranean sea, which has Europe on its nor-
thern shore; Africa on its southern, and Asia on its eastern.
II. The Euxine or Black sea, which has Asiatic Turkey
on the south, Turkey in Europe and Grim Tartary on the
north, and communicates with the sea of Asoph, through
the straits of Kaffa,
III. The Baltic sea, surrounded by Denmark, Sweden,
Russia and Poland.
IV. The Red sea, which has Africa on its western ahore,
and Arabia on the eastern, and hence it is called the Ara-
bic gulph.
V. The Caspian sea, a large collection of fresh water
near the middle of Asia.
There are many other seas that are named from the
countries they lie on ; as the German sea, betwixt Germa-
ny and Britain : The Irish sea, betwixt England and Ire-
land, &c.
Q. 19. Whatisa&ayf
A. A bay is a part of the ocean, that has land on each
side, but a wide entrance; as
I. The bay of Biscay, which is that part of the Atlantic
that washes the western coast of France, and the northern
shore of Spain.
II. Chessapeak bay, which washes the shores of Virginia
and Maryland, and receives all their great rivers.
III. Hudson's and Baffin's bays, large arms of the sea, in
the high latitudes of North America, &c.
Q. 20. What is a gulph?
A. A gulph is a collection of water, nearly surrounded by
land.
I. The gulph of Mexico, which has the continent of A-
merica on the north, west and south, and the West-India
islands on the east.
II. The gulph of Saint Lawrance, which has Labrador
or New-Britain on the north, Nova-Scotia on the west, and
the islands of Newfoundland and Cape Breton on the east.
III. The gulph of Venice t betwixt European Turkey on
the north-east, and Italy on the south-west, formerly called
the Adriatic sea.
Q. 21.
B
[ 10 ]
Q. 21. How does a gulph and a bay differ?
A. A gulph has a narrow entrance, and a bay a wider, in
proportion to the water within: hence the Mediterranean,
the Euxine, and the Baltic seas, are all real gulphs; for
they have narrow entrances, and widen greatly within.
Q. 22. What is a lake?
A. A lake is a piece of fresh water, surrounded by land;
some of which receive rivers, but emit none; as those two
famous lakes in Asia, the Caspian, which receives the Vol-
ga, and many other rivers; and the lake of Sodom, or the
Dead sea, into which the Jourdan mouths and is lost, after
running through the sea of Tiberias. Africa has few lakes
that are known. Europe has the lakes of Constance, Ge-
neva, and some in Sweden, Russia and Ireland. But the
American lakes, which divide the British dominions in Ca-
nada from the United States, are the most remarkable: —
they are lake Superiour, lake Huron, lake Michigan, lake
Erie and lake Ontario, through which the river St. Law-
ranee runs,
Q. 23. What is a strait?
A. A strait is a narrow passage betwixt two lands; as the
straits of Dover, betwixt France and England; the straits
of Gibraltar, betwixt Spain on the north, and Morocco on
the south; the straits of Babelmandel, at the mouth of the
Red sea, betwixt Arabia on the east, and Abissinia on the
west; the straits of Magellan, betwixt Patagonia on the
north, and Terra del fuego, the southern part of America;
the straits of Bellisle, betwixt Labrador north, and New-
foundland south; Davis 's and Hudson's straits; the sound at
the entrance of the Baltic, &c.
Q. 24. What is a river?
A. Rivers have their origin in the bowels of mountains
or hills, from whence flow springs, which uniting form
brooks, creeks and small rivers, which pouring themselves
into a large bed, are thus united, conveyed to the sea.
Q. 25. What is a canal?
A. A canal is a large ditch, into which water is conveyed,
for the carriage of vessels with goods and passengers ; and
the banks are earth, wood, brick or stone work.
Q. 26. Tell me how the land on the globe is divided?
A. Land is divided into continents, islands, peninsulas,
mountains, capes, promontories, isthmuses, hemispheres,
zones, and climates.
Q. 27. What is a continent?
A. Aeon-
[ 11 ]
A. A continent is a large surface of earth, not divided by
water, and answers to an ocean, not divided by land.
Q. 28. What is an island?
A. An island is land, wholly surrounded by water, and
agrees to a lake, wholly surrounded by land.
Q. 29. What is a peninsula?
A. A peninsula is, as the word signifies, almost an island,
joined to other lands by an isthmus, and answers to a gulph
or bay.
Q. 30. What is an isthmus?
A. An isthmus is a narrow neck of land, betwixt two
larger tracts, and answers to a strait by water.
Q. 31. What are the most noted isthmuses on the globe?
A. I. The isthmus of Suez, betwixt the northern end of
the Red sea, and the Mediterranean; about 60 miles of
land ; which is all that prevents Asia and Africa from being
islands, and renders them two vast peninsulas.
II. The isthmus of Darien, betwixt Panama, on the Pa-
cific ocean, and Porto Bello an the gulph of Florida, but 60
miles over; from which America widens into two mighty
continents, north and south; and being every where else
surrounded by water, they are also very large peninsulas.
Q. 32. What is a mountain?
A. A mountain is a large hill, standing either alone, or
joined to others, and then it makes part of a ridge. Moun-
tains are the sources of fountains and rivers ; the beds of
metals, minerals, and building materials; the refuge and
shelter of man and beast; the girdles or hoops of the earth;
the boundaries of nations, and frequently their best defence;
the collectors and condensers of clouds and vapours, and the
checks and barriers of furious storms. They beautifully va-
riegate the scene; strike the beholder with awe, and enter-
tain his eye with their majestic glories.
Q. 33. What is a cape?
A. A cape is a point of low land that makes out into the
sea, and a promontory does the same, but is high and rockey.
Q. 34. What is the hemisphere?
A. If you cut an apple through the middle, at an equal
distance from the stem and the flower, it will represent the
Earth divided at the Equinoxial, into the northern and south-
ern hemispheres, or half globes, as the word signifies: or
if you cut the apple through the stem and the flower, it will
represent the Earth, divided by the two opposite meridians,
into the eastern and western hemispheres.
Q. 35.
[ 12 ]
Q. 35. What are the zones?
A. The Earth is divided into five zones, or girdles, to
wit, 1. The two frigid, or cold zones, that lie one round
the north, the other round the south pole, and extend 23°
30' from them all round. 2. The two temperate zones, so
called from their lying betwixt the extremes of heat and cold.
The northern temperate zone, extends from the arctic cir-
cle to the northern tropic; the southern temperate zone,
from the antarctic circle, to the southern tropic, and are
each of them 43° in breadth. 3. The torrid, or burning
zone, which extends from tropic to tropic, 47° in breadth,
with the equator in the middle of it.
Q. 36. What are the tropics?
This question brings us to
THE YOUTH'S AND FARMER'S ASTRONOMY.
Answer. The tropics are two circles, supposed to be
drawn round the earth, parallel to the Equinoxial, and at
23° 30' from it; the one north of the line, called the tropic
of Cancer; the other south, called the tropic of Capricorn.
Q. 37. Why are they called tropics?
A. From a Greek word, that signifies to turn. For when
the Sun, at our longest day, has arrived at the tropic of Can-
cer, he begins to turn, or gradually lowers, towards the
southern tropic of Capricorn, when all on the south of the
line have their longest days, and we the shortest.
Q. 38. What mean those words, Cancer and Capricorn?
A. Cancer is the most northern sign of the Zodiac, or
that cluster of stars that has some resemblance to a crab.
Capricorn is the most southern sign or constellation in the
Zodiac, which is called the horned goat.
Q. 39. What is the Zodiac?
A. The Zodiac, so called from a word that signifies living
creatures, is that imaginary broad belt in the heavens, with-
in which lie those 12 constellations, or clusters of stars, that
are called the twelve signs of the Zodiac, and generally call-
ed by the names of creatures.
Q. 40. What are the names and marks, by which these
constellations are known?
A. The names are Latin : the marks are arbitrary; both
which I recommend to you, to commit to memory, at this
place, that you may know them on sight. The Sun enters
the twelve signs in the following order :
1. T
[ 13 ]
1. T Aries, the ram, in March
2. tf Taurus, the bull, April
3. tt Gemini, the twins, May
4. © Cancer, the crab, June
5. £7 Leo, the lion, July
6. W Virgo, virgin, August
7. — Libra, balance, Sept.
8. Wl Scorpio, scorpion, Oct.
9. ^ Sagitarius, archer, Nov.
10. %> Capricorn, goat, Dec.
11. sas Aquarius, water bearer, Jan.
12. X Pisces, fishes, Feb.
Q. 41. Why are these constellations called by such ani-
mals' names?
A. Those who divided the starry heavens into constella-
tions, must call them by some name, to know and distinguish
them by; and the several clusters thus laid off, probably
bear some resemblance to the animals on Earth whose names
they wear.
Q. 42. What do you mean by the Sun entering the 12
signs?
A. When the Sun is said, for instance, to enter Aries,
the meaning is that he then comes between the Earth, and
the first degree of that sign .
The names and order of the twelve signs, may be easily
remembered by the following verses of Dr. Watts:
The Ram, the Bull, the heavenly Twins;
And next the Crab the Lion shines,
The Virgin and the Scales:
The Scorpion, Archer, and He Goat;
The Man that bears the water pot,
Audfish with glittering tails.
Q. 43. What is the Ecliptic?
A. The Ecliptic, so called from eclipses happening under
it, is that circle, supposed in the middle of the Zodiac,
which crosses the Equator at an angle of 23° 30', and is the
path the Sun describes, and never quits, while he passes
through the twelve signs, as above described.
Q. 44. What causes an eclipse of the Sun?
A. An eclipse of the Sun can never happen, but at the
change of the Moon ; and as the Moon continually wheels
round the Earth left about, and completes her revolution in
her month; so it will sometimes happen, that in passing
from the east to the west of the Sun, she must come betwixt
him and the Earth, and hide a part, and sometimes, though
very seldom, the whole of his disk from us.
Q. 45. How can the Moon come between us and the
Sun? Are they not both at an equal distane from us?
A. The distance of the Moon from the Earth, is 240,000
miles ;
[ 14 ]
miles; the distance of the Sun, is about 96,000,000, which
is 400 times as far. Now though it would take several mil-
lions of Moons to make a globe equal to the Sun, yet she
can hide his light from us, by the same law of nature that
your finger held near your eye, will cover a whole field; and
if you were on a mountain, might hide 100 miles from you.
Q. 46. What causes an eclipse of the Moon?
A. This can never happen, but when the Moon is full,
and in direct opposition to the Sun . Now as the Moon has
no more light than a clod, unless the Sun shines upon her,
if any body large enough, comes between, and intercepts
his rays, she must be in darkness. When the Moon then,
for example, rises full in the east, and the Sun sets in the
west, the Earth is betwixt them; and if exactly betwixt
them, she must prevent the rays of the Sun from falling on
a part of the Moon, or, in other words, the Moon must
pass through the shadow of the Earth ; and if it be a central
eclipse, that is, if the centers of the Sun, Earth and Moon,
be in a direct line, the Moon will be totally darkened as long
as she would be running thrice the width of her own body
in her monthly course round the Earth ; for the shadow of
the Earth at that distance, would contain three such Moons
by the side of each other.
Q. 47. What is the horizon?
A. The horizon is either sensible or rational. 1. The
sensible horizon is as far as a person can see around bim by sea
or land: Every part of the Earth's surface has its horizon,
and the more elevated the station, the more it is extended.
2. The rational horizon surrounds the Earth at 90° from a
person every way around him, and thus divides it exactly in-
to two hemispheres, the pole of which, or point over head,
is called the Zenith; the opposite point the Nadir.
Q. 48. What is a climate?
A. Climates are imaginary lines, that run parallel with
the Equator north or south of it, where the day is half an
hour longer. Now as the day is always 12 hours long at the
Equinoxial, to complete the first climate, that is to arrive
where the day is 12 1-2 hours long, you must travel above
500 miles north or south of the line, and then be in the 8th
degree of latitude. But this distance greatly lessens as you
proceed; for as high as the 10th climate, where the day is
17 hours long, you will arrive at the llth climate, only by
going north or south 150 miles. And from the 20th to the
21st climate, 20 miles will make the day half an hour longer.
Q. 49.
[ 15 ]
Q. 49. What gives us day and night?
A. Why, do not the Sun, Moon and Stars rise in the east,
and wheel round to the west and back again, every twenty-
four hours.
Q. 50. So it evidently seems to every body, but some de-
ny it : what say you?
A . They must not deny what appears so plain ; and you
can convince them directly, by pointing to the meat on the
spit, around which the house and the fire turn like a wheel, till
it is roasted; and to the turkey hung by the line, round
which the fire and hearth turn millstone-fashion, to give eve-
ry side its due share.
Q. 51. But this is not so, and it is absurd to talk of it.
How do you say it is?
A. Let us be satisfied it is not one way, before we try ano-
ther. When you wish for a good view of the adjacent coun-
try, you climb a hill, and on the eminence you stand quite
still, till the whole prospect turns round you, do you not?
Q. 52. No: I am not fool enough to expect such impossi-
bilities. I turn round and round again, and view the whole
at my leisure. Why do you ask me such a question?
A. Because I only wish you to allow the Almighty Crea-
tor to be as wise as you and your cook ; for to save the whole
creation from turning round a little spot, HE has command-
ed the Earth to turn all its sides to the Sun and Stars, every
twenty-four hours, and thus to have day and night alternate-
ly.
Q. 53. This is new indeed; but can you make me under-
stand it?
A. The daily motion of the Earth is easily understood.
Have a ball of cotton or wool — dark will best suit the colour
of Earth. Run a wire exactly through the middle. Stand
in the sun, and point one end of the wire towards the north
star. Turn your ball gradually to the east about; and if you
stick a pin deep in the ball, it will represent yourself. You
will then see, that when the sun first touches the pin, it west
and he east, you have sunrise. When the pin and sun are
in a line, you have midday. When you in the east lose sight
of the sun in the west, you have sunset. When the pin
comes opposite to the sun, you have midnight, and so on a-
gain to sunrise.
Q. 54. This would be very beautiful, and convenient in-
deed ; but how can things avoid falling off, when the Earth
turns her sides downwards?
A. This
[ 16 ]
A. This childish fear arises from the silly notion of an uni-
versal ivp, and an universal down, through the whole crea-
tion. Whereas the Earth has its own particular up, and
particular down. From the center, or middle point to the
surface in any direction, is up; and from any spot on the sur-
face, towards the center, is down. Thus it is with the Sun,
the Moon, and all the planets, with which I hope you will
presently be better acquainted. Nothing therefore can fall
from the Earth, till attraction ceases to operate.
Q. 55. What is attraction?
A. Attraction is that property, power or law the Great
Creator has given to all material bodies, to draw all other
bodies towards them ; and this in proportion to their distance
from each other, and their quantity of matter. It is this
law that gives weight to all bodies; for weight is nothing
but the Earth's attraction, drawing every thing to it; not
in proportion to the bulk, but quantity of matter. It is by
this law the stone you throw up, is again drawn to the Earth,
which would otherwise fly off in a straight line, and could
never cease to fly. This power acts in all directions: for
if you throw up a stone at six in the morning, and another
at six in the evening, they both return by the same law ; the
Earth's attraction quickly overpowers the force you gave
them; and yet these two stones were thrown to directly op-
posite points in the heavens. Cease then, your ridiculous
fears for the inhabitants of Asia, on the opposite side of the
globe: the ignorant among them are as apprehensive, that
you must/a^ up to the skies, as you are for them; for the
the same law of nature keeps you both steady to your places,
as well as operates through all the visible creation. The
Sun attracts the Earth and all the other planets ; and they
attract him, and each other.
Q. 56. Then I should suppose the largest would draw all
the others to it. How is this prevented?
A. Your supposition is very natural, and the Earth would
be quickly drawn to the Sun, by his vastly superiour attrac-
tion, had not infinite wisdom given the Earth a circular mo-
tion round the Sun, that exactly balances his attraction, and
keeps the Earth and Moon continually at or nearly the same
distance from him. To have some idea of this, tie two
weights to a string, to represent the Earth and Moon, the
one ten or twelve times as large as the other: face the south,
and turn them round you, left about. Your hand will be
the Sun — the string acts as the centripetal force, or the con-
stan
[ 17 ]
stant inclination of the Earth and Moon to draw near the
Sun by the force of his attraction — the circular motion you
keep the weights in, will represent the centrifugal force,
or the constant inclination of the Earth and Moon, to fly off
farther from the Sun : but from their wonderful adjustment,
neither of these can happen, but by the will of HIM that
made them. Every turn you give the cord, will represent
the course of the Earth and Moon round the Sun, once a
year, called the annual orbit.
Q. 56. Is the speed of the Earth, in her yearly course
round the Sun, known?
A. You will see hereafter, from the distance of the Sun,
that the Earth flies every year more than 500 millions of
miles ; and of course about a million and an half every 24
hours.
Q. 57. Prodigious! Is not such speed inconceivable?
A. It is so. But consider that you have hitherto believed
in a speed 365 times swifter. For you believed that the Sun
flew round the Earth every day and night. Thus you gave
him the task every day, that the Almighty has assigned to the
Earth and Moon in a whole year: for we must travel that
mighty circuit in a year, or the Sun in a day. And what infi-
nitely adds to the absurdity, the fixt stars, the nearest of which
are several hundred thousand times farther from us than the
Sun is, they must join in this useless whirl, with a velocity
past the conception of angels; and all this to twinkle on us,
in a clear night, when one little additional Moon could have
given us more light than all of them together. Never be-
lieve fuch folly can proceed from the God of wisdom , who
performs all his works in the easiest and most simple, that is,
in the wisest manner possible.
Q. 58. I cannot reconcile the annual motion of the
Earth round the Sun, to complete her year, and her daily
motion round her axis, to receive day and night.
A. The Earth's two motions are easily reconciled. —
When the rolling hogshead or the carriage wheel go the
road, consider a moment, whether they have not the same two
motions which the Earth has. One of these is round their
axis, on which they could be moved, though lifted from the
ground — by the other they proceed forward, the extent of
their own circumference every turn. If you throw a ball
from your hand, it has the same two motions, both in the
air, and on the ground; and if you roll your ball with the
wire
C
[ 18 ]
wire in it along the floor, it will not be an unapt resemblance
of the real thing.
Q. 59. I thank you sir, I see it plainly, and admire the
beauty, ease and harmony of the Earth's double motion;
but I do not see by what law the Moon accompanies her, in
the annual orbit?
A. The Earth's superiour attraction draws the Moon
with her, and would soon draw it to her, had not creating
wisdom given the Moon a circular course around the Earth,
once in a lunar month, left about, which exactly balances
the Earth's attraction: the Moon also attracts the Earth
with force sufficient to raise great tides, as well in the ocean
as in the air; and at the full and change, when the attrac-
tion of the Sun and Moon act together, or in straight lines,
the tides are highest.
Q. 60. When I think of the Earth's diurnal motion on
her axis, I find every part must fly swiftly, and at the Equi-
noxial, one thousand miles each hour; I should think there
would be always a furious wind blowing from the east, that
must level every upright thing on the surface; but when the
annual motion is added, at the rate of a million and an half
of miles each day, I wonder anything is left on the face of
the Earth.
A. I am glad you make the objection; it is a very natu-
ral one, and proves that you think as we proceed. What
you mention would happen in a moment, if the great Creator
had not given the same motion to the air that he gave to the
Earth, and made it as much a part of our world, as the wa-
ters of the sea are. The air in your room would remain
undisturbed, could the house fly off from the Earth a thou-
sand miles in a minute, you would be quite insensible of any
motion — you would step as far, and move as easily the one
way as the other, and a drop of water would fall as perpen-
dicular as if the house was at rest. All this is verified in the
cabin of a ship under sail; while sailors experience no
difference in their motions or actions, whether the ship is sail-
ing or at anchor. They are insensible of the ship's motion,
when sailing out of harbour ; for it is the land that appears
to retire from them, and not they from the land; and if they
sail past any thing at rest, it is that thing which seems to have
all the motion the contrary way.
Q. 61. This, sir, removes several difficulties that had
occured to me. I could not account for our flying so fast,
and not be sensible of any motion : and if I threw a weight
upwards,
[ 19 ]
upwards, I judged it ought to fall a great way to the west;
nor could I see how the clouds or birds could ever fly to the
east. But if the air moves with us, as a part of the Earth,
and if I might fly in a close house with the lightning's speed,
and not be sensible of any motion at all, it removes my diffi-
culties ; but it seems to require that the air should have some
weight, to cleave so close to the Earth in her swift moti-
ons, which is a thing I never thought of; for we common-
ly say, as light as the air or the wind.
A. The wind has weight enough at times, to level with
the ground, the stubborn oak and stately pine; for the wind
is only air in motion. And to engage your attention I tell
you, that the air is so heavy, whether in motion or still, that
in clear weather, it presses on every middle sized man with
a weight equal to thirty thousand pounds.
Q. 62. I am learning not to oppose my ignorance to the
works of the Creator, seem they ever so strange; but you
must allow me to wonder, that we can be pressed with such a
weight, and not suffer by it, nor be sensible of it.
A. I honour your modesty; and to encourage and reward
it will assure you that I have told you nothing, and dare tell
you nothing, but what is strictly true. Had I no regard to
the God of truth, nothing could induce me to publish to the
world, what a thousand learned men could refute to my con-
fusion. Your present difficulty respecting the pressure of
the air on the human body, and on every thing of the same
size on the face of the Earth, will be removed by a maxim
in philosophy, that action, and re-action are equal. The
blow you give is repelled with just the force you give it.
The ball strikes your hand just as hard as your hand strikes
the ball. The waggon draws back to an ounce, what the
horses draw forward, whether 1000 weight on a level, or
2000 on an ascent; for they cannot possibly draw more at
the time, than they have to draw: and if you increase the
weight, you increase the resisting power. Apply this rule
to the case in hand. Creating wisdom has exactly balanced
the pressure of the atmosphere on our bodies, by the resist-
ance of the air ivithin us; and the lower air repels, or pres-
ses upward, with a force just equal to all the weight or
pressure of the upper air, that bears on it by the Earth's
attraction . But to assist you in this important subject, I must
acquaint you with some properties of the atmosphere.
I. The air surrounds the whole globe of sea and land, a
number of miles high.
II. The
[ 20 ]
II. The air being as proper a fluid as the water, but
very elastic or springy, which the water is not; it must be
thickest or heaviest at the Earth's surface, and becomes
lighter or thinner the higher it ascends.
III. The weight of air to water is nearly as 1 to 1000;
and though this may appear light, yet could a vessel, a foot
square, be erected to reach the top of the atmosphere, the
air in it would weigh as much as the water in a vessel a foot
square and 33 feet high. This is known to every pump-
maker; because the pressure of the air on the surface of the
well, will force the water to rise in the pump 33 feet, and
no more without another valve.
IV. The air differs in its weight, at different times.
When the weather is quite clear and serene, the air is hea-
viest, and our bodies and minds feel the most agreeably.
When the weather is foggy or cloudy, it is a proof that the
air has become lighter. In rain it is lighter still, and light-
est of all when stormy. This is proven by the barometer,
a long glass tube filled with quicksilver, which rises in the
glass in clear weather, by the pressure of the air on the little
vessel of quicksilver, in which its lower open end stands;
but sinks on the approach of rain, from the decreased weight
and pressure of the air. Rhumatic, ruptured, asthmatic,
and other ailing people, are very sensible of this change in
the state of the atmosphere, by their pains and complaints;
which they, by a great mistake, ascribe to, the thickness or
weight of the air; whereas the true reason is, they are de-
prived of at least 2000 weight of that 30,000 that braces
them up in clear weather, and gives them more agreeable sen-
sations. And as the surface of the human body measures about
14 or 15 square feet, so every thing on Earth of that size loses
also 2000 in rainy weather. This abatement of weight is,
on the whole very great : the air becomes too light or thin ,
any longer to support the watery vapours above; conse-
quently they must descend, form themselves into clouds, and
fall in rain. Heat is the common instrument of lightning
the air.
V. From the elasticity or springiness of the air it is, that
it may be compressed into much less space than it naturally
fills, or expanded into vastly greater. Your pop-gun has
taught you, that all the air in it could be compressed into an
inch or two, till the spring of the condenced air forced out
the lower plug with a little crack. The elastic or expansive
property of the air, you have proved, or may prove, by
holding
[ 21 ]
holding a well-tied bladder to the fire, with apparently no
air in it. You will presently, however, see it dilate till it
not only fills, but bursts the bladder with a great explosion.
VI. The air is the medium of breathing, to every living
creature. — It is the great instrument of conveying sounds;
of conversation; of all the instruction you give or receive
by the voice; of speaking comfort to the distressed; and of
praying to and praising GOD. Sound is conveyed through
the air 383 yards in a second — a thread and weight 39 inches
long will count seconds, 10 1-2 inches will count half se-
conds; thus you may know the distance of a great gun by
the flash, and of a thunder cloud by the lightning. Fires
cannot exist without air— and on it pumps and many other
useful engines depend. It takes up all filthy effluvia from
the Earth, that would otherwise destroy us; yet winds and
tempests purify it for our use. Air is the grand agent in
sailing the ocean , and of conveying the productions of the
most distant nations to each other. The air is the grand
medium of sight, as well as hearing. It is the atmosphere
that receives, conveys, retracts and reflects the rays of light;
and without it, if we could live a moment without it, the
Sun would appear a glaring spot, and he and the Stars be
seen through the blackest darkness at midday. No tree nor
vegetable can grow or live without it, more than creatures.
It turns thousands of mills every day, and all bellows have
their use from it. Supported by it, the birds wing their
way; and you move through this mighty fluid with the
same ease and celerity, with which the fishes cut the stream.
Q. 63. I thank you, sir: I shall think more of the air
than I ever have, study its properties, and adore its Crea-
tor. Wonderful! to think that I am at the bottom of such
a vast ocean, that is of such use and advantage — that I am
pressed by it up and down, and on all sides with such a weight,
and yet by the resistance and re-action of the air within me,
I move through it with as much ease as if I could move on
its surface. Surely the wisdom and goodness of the Deity
are manifested in all his works, could we study and under-
stand them. But before we leave this wondrous element,
pray inform me how deep the ocean of air is ; or in other
words, how high does the atmosphere arise above the sur-
sace of the Earth and sea, all round the globe?
A. The height of the air cannot be exactly ascertained,
on account of its gradual increasing rarity as it ascends. But
two things we are sure of. 1. That if the atmosphere ex-
tends
[ 22 ]
tends to the orbit of the Moon, it is there so very rare,
that it does not affect the Moon in her monthly course round
the Earth. 2. We know the air has density enough about
50 miles high, to bend the Sun's rays down to the Earth,
an hour before he rises, and as long after he sits. The
grateful twilight then, is another blessing we owe to the at-
mosphere, otherwise we should have pitchy darkness the
moment the Sun was out of sight, and till he appeared a-
gain in the morning.
Q. 64. At what rate does the air lighten, or become
rare, as it ascends from the Earth's surface?
A. The regular rarefaction of the air, has been disco-
vered by experiments on the air pump, and by carrying the
barometer up mountains. As they ascend, they perceive the
mercury or quicksilver to sink gradually in the tube, and
proves that the air lightens or rarefies as they mount. Now
as you already know, that 33 feet of water in a vessel of an
inch or a foot square, is equal in weight to the whole atmos-
phere, of the same size or base, so 14 inches of quicksilver
is equal to the whole weight of air, of the same base; for
mercury is to water as 14 to 1 in weight. When they rise
about 1200 feet high, the mercury will sink an inch, and
the air will lose a thirtieth part of its weight. There the
air would force water up a pump but 32 feet high. At five
miles up, the air loses half its density; at seven miles up, its
weight is about as 1 to 4; at 14 miles high, it is as 1 to 16;
at 21 miles high, as 1 to 64; at 28 miles high, as 1 to 256;
at 35 miles high, as 1024 to 1. That is, a cubic foot of air on
the Earth, would expand into 1024 cubic feet at the height
of 35 miles from the Earth's surface.
Q. 65. Pray sir, does the water increase in its weight,
according to its depth, as the air does?
A. In the same exact proportion, but with much quicker
transitions, from the wa.ter's superiour weight, which you
know is to air as 1 to 33. When men descend 33 feet in the
diving bell, they feel the weight of two atmospheres, one
of air and one of water; at 66 feet deep they have three,
and at 99 feet deep they have four atmospheres upon them,
1 of air and 3 of water, and so down to any imaginable
depth. Carious gentlemen at sea, have sunk a bottle, with
a large cork fixed two-thirds of its length, in the mouth;
and from the depth of 50 or 100 fathom, have drawn it up,
and found the whole cork pressed into the bottle.
Q. 66. I acknowledge the pains you take with me, sir,
and
[ 23 ]
and beg to be indulged with one question more : Is it possible
to know the weight with which the air presses the whole ter-
raqueous globe ; or what the whole body of air weighs?
A. It is not only possible, but yourself shall do it, by
plain multiplication. Remember, if the Earth were co-
vered with water 33 feet deep, it would just equal in weight,
the whole incumbent atmosphere. Now a cubic foot of wa-
ter weighs 63 pounds, which multiplied by 33, makes 2079;
the number of pounds that the air presses on every square
foot on the face of the globe. That multiplied by 9, gives
you the weight on a square yard. Multiply 1760 by itself,
and that product by the weight on a yard, will give you the
weight on a square mile. That multiplied by 200,000,000,
the square miles on the face of the globe, which, if I have
figured right, will read thus, 11 trillions, 595,824 billions,
720,000 millions, gives the whole weight of the air in
pounds; and if the air descends two or three thousand miles
down, and the calculation could follow it, I doubt not it would
be found as heavy as gold, which is to water as 19 1-2 to 1 ;
and consequently to air on the surface, as 20,000 to 1.
Q. 67. How wonderful the works of GOD, in this one
element the air! But let us now descend to the Earth, if
we can find our way, after so long a voyage.
A. The Earth's attraction will secure our way, if we
can but arrive with whole bones, without the help of the
little Spaniard's geese, which carried him to the Moon and
back. We have, and are now on a more solid element.
Q. 68. I have, sir, as you directed, procured myself a
ball, and have run a wire through it pretty exactly. I have
tried it in the sun and by the candle ; but I find the light al-
ways shines on the same parts, which would make the days
and nights constantly of a length . Pray tell me what makes
them of different length, and gives the different seasons?
A. I rejoice to have a pupil that labours for knowledge:
the teacher has then as much pleasure as the learner. Your
own industry must make your ball supply the place of a small
terrestrial globe. You know that round the Earth either
way, is 360°, consequently, from pole to pole, or from
wire to wire is 180°. Cut a slip of paper that will reach
from wire to wire; half of that lay off into nine equal divi-
sions, and each of these into nine more, which will give you
90° or a quadrant. At 90° degrees from each pole, wrap
two white threads round your dark ball for the Equinoxial,
and if the ball is white, wrap black threads. 23 1-2° from
which ,
[ 24 ]
which, wrap a thread, parallel to the Equator, for the
northern tropic, and another at equal distance south, for the
tropic of Capricorn. If they are exact, they will be every
where 47° asunder, and include the torrid zone. 43°
from each tropic, or 23° 30' from each pole, stick a
white thread around, for the two polar circles. Thus you
have the two frigid zones, round the two poles; the two
temperate zones, betwixt the polar circles and the tropics,
and the torrid zone from one to the other tropic, and the
Equator betwixt them. Now tie your thread to one wire,
and passing close by the other, bring it quite round; this
gives you two meridians, but as you need four, wrap it round
again, at an equal distance from the other two, and you di-
vide the globe into 4 quarters, each quarter 90°, as well
where narrowest as widest. Tie your thread to a pin, and
run it into the ball, where one of the meridians crosses one
of the tropics; thence conduct it diagonally to where the
next meridian crosses the Equator, which it will do at an
angle of 23° 30'; thence to where your second meridian
crosses the opposite tropic, and there stick another pin, with
the thread round it. Then carry it to where the third me-
ridian crosses the Equator, and thence to your first pin, to
which fasten it. This gives you the Ecliptic. Stick ano-
ther pin half way into the ball, where one of the meri-
dians crosses the north polar circle; and another where the
opposite meridian crosses the other polar circle, and these
will be the axis of the Ecliptic, 23° 30' from the axis of the
Earth. Procure a large wire, 9 or 10 feet long, and bend
it into a circle; or if that cant be had, tough hoop- wood,
cut small, may do. Have 12 slips of paper, of equal length,
that will go round the hoop; set on them the marks of the
12 signs, and divide each into 30°. Fix these on your hoop,
touching each other all round, in the order mentioned a-
bove. Set a candle on the table, and raise the hoop even
with the blaze; having bent one end of your wire into a hook,
and hung it to a thread, twisted so as that the ball will turn
left about, or opposite to the hands of a watch laid on the
table; you can carry it round, left about too, for the an-
nual motion, while the thread untwisting, gives you the di-
urnal motion. But thus you have day and night still equal,
and no change of seasons; because you cannot make your
ball turn on its axis, and at the same time incline or lean
23° 30', as the Creator has the Earth. To obtain an idea
of the seasons, and different length of days, let those who
hold
[ 25 ]
hold the hoop, a little raise the side ©, and the other a lit-
tle depress the side <6 ; T and — being exactly in a line with
the candle. Now if you suspend your ball in Aries, the
light will shine to both poles ; and you have the vernal equi-
nox, or day and night equal in spring, and your equator
will be in a line with the hoop. Then steadily conducting
your rolling ball, so that the middle of it shall always be in
a line with the hoop ; you will see how gradually the light
arises on the north polar circle, and sets on the southern,
till when you arrive at Cancer, the whole arctic circle is en-
lightened, and the antarctic all in darkness, and the tropics
are in a line with the hoop, and we have our longest days.
As you proceed through Leo and Virgo, the days gradually
decrease; the north polar circle loses, and the southern
gains light, till your ball arrives at Libra, your equator a-
gain in a line with the hoop, and we have day and night
equal, at the autumnal equinox. Thence rolling through
Scorpio and Sagitary, our day continues to shorten, theirs
to lengthen, till in Capricorn, the north polar circle will be
all in darkness, the southern all in light; we have our
shortest days, the southern hemisphere the longest, and the
tropics are again in line with the hoop, at the winter sols-
tice. Proceeding now through Aquarius and Pisces, the days
gradually lengthen to us, and shorten to the south, till you
again arrive at Aries, have the vernal equinox, your equa-
tor and the hoop again on a line, and your ball supposed to
have turned 365 times during the revolution through its an-
nual orbit. This is as good a representation as can be given
without an orrery. The candle is the Sun, the hoop the
ecliptic among the fixt stars, and the ball the Earth. The
candle seems to move into the sign opposite to the ball, tho'
it remains at perfect rest. So to a spectator in the Sun, the
Earth alone would be seen to move through all the 12 signs,
and the Sun at rest in the centre.
Q. 69. I will study this great subject, as you direct, that
your labour may not be lost on me. But as you have sun-
dry times mentioned the planets, it is time for me to know
what they are?
A. Yes; the very proper time. The planets are a num-
ber of globes, that revolve round the Sun, as the Earth
does; some less than the Earth, some vastly larger, some
nearer to him, others much farther from him, some prima-
ry, others secondary; and the Sun, Planets and Comets com-
pose the SOLAR SYSTEM.
D Q. 70
[20 ]
Q. 70. What is the distinction of primary and seconda-
ry, among the planets?
A. The Earth is a primary planet; the Moon a second-
ary, called a satellite, guard or attendant; and so of the
rest.
Q. 71. How I long to know the names, sizes and distan-
ces of the planets, and the length of their days and nights!
A. I will chearfully gratify your wishes in the plainest
and briefest manner I am able. The Sun © is the grand
center of the system, around which all the planets move;
and when they have accomplished the revolution, they
have completed their year.
I. Mercury § , the planet nearest to the Sun, revolves
round him in 88 of our days, which is his year, at the dist-
ance of about 35,000,000 of miles from the Sun. The dia-
meter of this planet is 2600 miles, and he moves in his orbit
95,000 miles each hour. He has seven times the light and
heat that we have ; so that our water would there quickly
evaporate, and our earth be in flames. From his constant
vicinity to the Sun, nothing can be seen on his surface, to
ascertain the length of his day and night.
II. Venus 9 , the next in course, is our morning and
evening Star, about the size of our Earth, or 8000 miles in
diameter. She revolves round the Sun at the distance of
60,000,000 of miles from him; and flying at the rate of 70,000
miles each hour, completes her year in 225 of our days;
though she turns so slow on her axis, that she has had but 9
days and nights in all that time. As seen through a telescope,
she has all the appearances of the Moon, at her different a-
ges. You must not judge it contradictory, when you see
Venus to the west of the Sun, as morning star, or to the
east of the Sun, as evening star, really longer than her
whole year; for the Earth is flying the same way, though
with a slower course, and in a larger circle. If any person
and you agree to walk round a small house, he 20 yards from
it and you 30; he takes three steps for your two, you will
see that he surrounds the house more than once before he is
hid behind it; and when he appears again on your other
hand, he will be much longer in your sight than he is mak-
ing his whole round. Continue this for a few circles and you
cannot fail to understand it. You are the Earth, the other
person Venus, and the house the Sun.
III. The Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and
revolves round him, as you have seen, in 365 1-4 days, at
the
[ 27 ]
the rate of 60,000 miles each hour, and at the distance of
96,000,000 of miles from him; while her secondary or sa-
tellite, the Moon, attends her through the whole of her an-
nual course, but partakes not of her daily motion round her
axis: instead of which, the Moon has an orbit of about
1,400,000 miles around the Earth, from change to change;
and consequently travels so much more than the Earth eve-
ry month. The diameter of the Moon is about 2200 miles,
and she moves in her monthly orbit 2300 miles each hour,
besides the 1,500,000 she daily travels with the Earth. To
have the course and different appearances of the Moon re-
presented, set a candle at one end of the room, for the Sun,
and you set a few yards from the other end, for the Earth —
let a person hang a ball betwixt you and the candle, to re-
present the Moon at her change: and if directly betwixt
your eye and the candle, it is the Sun eclipsed. Let the
person gently move the ball left about in a circle, of which
your head is the centre; you will soon see a narrow streak
of the enlightened part, as the new Moon. While he moves
on you will see more and more of the enlightened part, till
she comes a quarter round, when you see half; and still mov-
ing round, you see more and more of her clear side, till she
comes directly opposite to the Sun, and the Moon is full. If
you would have a lunar eclipse, let the ball pass through the
shadow of your head. Thence proceeding on, you see eve-
ry day less of her enlightened part, till she comes to her
third quarter, and on again to the change. A few rounds
will make a whole room full of people understand it. You
will see that the Sun always enlightens one half of the
Moon — that at the change, or when she passes from the east
to the west of the Sun, her dark side is towards the Earth;
and when on the opposite side of her orbit, you see her whole
enlightened side. In other parts of her course you see her
light increasing from the change to the full, and decreasing
from the full to the change. Remember the Earth is a Moon
to the Moon, and reflects much more light on her than she
does on it, from the Earth's superiour size. It is by the
light the Earth reflects on her, that the whole of the Moon
is always visible, when the tenth part of what the Sun shines
on cannot be seen. The Moon turns once on her own axis,
during her monthly course; for she always keeps the same
side to the Earth, which can never be seen from the Moon's
farther side. Lastly, the Earth is to the Moon the best
time-keeper it can have by turning every day all its seas,
conti-
[ 28 ]
continents and islands to her. The Lunarians may very
probably breakfast on China and Japan, dine over Europe
and Africa, sup with America, and sleep through the whole
Pacific ocean.
IV. Mars cf is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the
first above us, or exterior to the orbit of the Earth. His
distance from the Sun is about 140,000,000 of miles, and by
travelling 48,000 miles each hour, he completes his course
round the Sun in 687 of our days, and in 668 of his own,
which are 40 minutes longer than ours. His diameter is
about 5000 miles. He has a thick atmosphere, but no
Moon yet discovered. He appears among the stars of a red
fiery colour, has but half the light and heat that we have,
and the Sun appears to him but half as large as to us.
V. Jupiter 2l, the next from the Sun, and fifth in the
system, is the largest of all the planets. His distance from
the Sun is 495,000,000 of miles, and he finishes his course
in a little less than twelve of our years, by flying 30,000
miles each hour. His diameter exceeds ten times the length
of the Earth's, which makes his bulk above a thousand times
the size of our Earth; and yet he turns so amazingly swift
on his axis that his day and ni^ht are equal to but 9 hours
and 56 minutes. He has but the thirtieth part of light and
heat that we have from the Sun : but he has a quick return
of day, and at least four Moons* to enlighten him; some of
those Moons larger than our Earth. What a glorious scene
of wonders does that mighty Planet, with so many attend-
ants, present to all who are disposed to admire the works of
GOD! His Moons are of great use to seamen, in discover-
ing their longitude. Jupiter is the brightest star in the hea-
vens, next to Venus, and he has been visible for some months
past, and will be to the end of the year.
VI. Saturn ^ the sixth, and till lately judged by all a-
stronomers the highest and most distant of all the planets, is
900,000,000 of miles from the Sun; and by travelling 18000
every hour, completes his revolution in 29 1-2 of our years,
which is the length of his. He is 67,000 miles in diameter,
so must be 600 times the size of the Earth. The Sun ap-
pears to him one ninetieth part of the size he does to us ;
but the gracious Creator has given him five moons to en-
lighten him, besides a vast luminous arch or ring 21,000
miles
* / have been told, that the famous Dr. Herchell has by the superi-
our power of his glasses, discovered two more Moons attending Jupiter,
interior to all the former.
[ 29 ]
miles wide, and about the same distance from the body of
the planet all round. Nothing can be seen on this planet
to determine his revolution on his axis, consequently we are
ignorant of the length of his day.
VII. The seventh and most exterior of all the planets
was discovered a few years ago by Dr. Kerch ell, which in
honour of the British King, he calls the Georgian Planet.
Its distance from the Sun is 1565,000,000 of miles, and
moving in its orbit 7000 miles each hour, accomplishes its
year or revolution in 83 of our years, and 5 months. His
diameter is 34,000 miles, of course he is as large as 80 of
our Earth. Two moons have been discovered attending
him; and this is all that is yet known of him.
Q . 72 . You have drawn a glorious plan of seven primary
and fourteen secondary planets or moons, which revolve
round the Sun and each other, and receive all their light
and heat from him; but vast as this system is, you mention-
ed also comets, as belonging to it. Pray what are the co-
mets or blazing stars, as they are commonly called?
A. The comets, more than twenty of which have come
within observation and calculation, have their regular
course round the Sun, as the planets have; but in orbits
very different. The orbit of comets generally resemble the
handle of a gimlet, or two sugar loaves butted together,
and the Sun nearly in one end of them. They are named
from a Greek word that signifies hairy or bearded, from
their appearing with beards and long tails, which are judg-
ed to be oily vapours carried from the body of the comet by
the Sun's rays. Comets are not vapours or meteors, as for-
merly imagined, but exceedingly hard and solid bodies, ca-
pable of bearing the greatest extremes of heat and cold;
through which they pass in their progress round the Sun,
and at the mighty distance they fly off from him. The or-
bits of the comets differ from those of the planets, not only
in their very eliptical or oval shape, but in their direction.
The orbits of the planets lie all nearly in the same plane or
level: but those of the comets lie some the same way, some
crossing the orbits of the planets, and some directly against
their course. No part of GOD's works that have come to
my knowledge, astonish me more than the infinite wisdom,
foreknowledge and divine art of the Deity, in throwing
from his creating hand more than 40 enormous globes,
whose paths oppose and cross each other for thousands of
years, in every direction, without the rapid fiery comet
once
[ 30 ]
once touching or interrupting a single planet, which must
have frequently happened had the planet been in that part
of its orbit in which it was before the comet passed, or
would be soon after. Adore ye sons of men, and in humble
gratitude acknowledge the power, wisdom and goodness of
GOD! If he is thus tremendous in one of his works, who
can stand when HE arisethf Make peace with him whilst
thou art in the way; for he is as gracious to returning peni-
tents, as he will be terrible to the sinner in his crimes.
Q. 73. I thank you sir, for your observations on a sub-
ject so uncommon ; and shall impatiently wait for the awful
glories of the next comet. But please to remove another
difficulty. I observe as the planets are placed farther from
the Sun, and consequently have longer journeys round him,
they move, slower in proportion to their distance. This does
not appear natural, but I dare not say it is not wise.
A. Your objection would have weight if all the planets
moved round the Sun in the same space of time, like a num-
ber of weights tied to a stick and moved round you; for then
indeed they will travel faster in proportion to their distance
from your hand. But it is very different with the Sun and
planets. You should remember that the centripetal force,
or the Sun's attractive power on a planet, and the centrifu-
gal circular force which constantly inclines the planet to fly
farther from him, exactly balances each other. NOWT as at-
traction acts in proportion to the distance betwixt the attract-
ing and attracted bodies, so the Sun's attraction must act
strongest on the planets nearest to him; of course they must
wheel round him the more swiftly, to prevent falling down
to him; whereas the more distant planets can move more
slowly without any such danger. Had Mercury the slow
motion of Saturn, or the Georgian, he would be drawn to
the Sun in a few days; but if either of them had the rapid
motion of Mercury, it would quit its orbit and fly off fore-
ver through the voids of space. If you tie a weight to a
string four feet long and let it represent Mars, which tra-
vels 48,000 miles per hour, and swing it round your hand
with just force enough to keep it going; and then to repre-
sent Mercury, which travels with twice the speed of Mars,
swing it round with half the length of string; and you will
see how swiftly you must turn it to keep it going at all.
Hence you will discover the necessity of the swifter motion
of the interior planets, and the slower progress of those that
are more remote from the Sun .
Q. 74.
[ 31 ]
Q. 74. I now plainly see that the planets must move
quicker or slower in proportion to their nearness to, or dist-
ance from the Sun , and ardently wish I had a plan of the
Solar System, as you called it: I would study it with plea-
sure, till it became familiar.
A. That could be easily drawn on paper, but it would
require a particular plate which printing-offices are not ex-
pected to be furnished with : however, you can do it your-
self.
Q. 75. You have a higher opinion of my apprehension
than it deserves; but I will attempt it with your direction.
A. A large rough draft will suit you best at first. If you
are on a floor with which you can make free, and a piece of
chalk at hand, make a round spot for the Sun, in the middle.
Then if you will allow an inch for 17 or 18,000,000 of miles,
draw a circle two inches from the Sun for the orbit of Mer-
cury; only remember the planets move through pure ether,
and leave no tract behind them; but you must for the present,
imagine they do. Three inches and an half from the Sun
draw a circle for the orbit of Venus, and an inch without
that draw the orbit of the Earth, and a very small circle
round the Earth for the orbit of the Moon. Eight inches
from the center draw the orbit of Mars, and about 27 inches
from the Sun draw the whole or a part of the orbit of Jupi-
ter, and six small circles for his Moons. Fifty inches from
the centre draw a part of Saturn's orbit, and his five Moons,
the outermost of Avhich is so distant from its primary, that
it is believed to have a Moon attending it. Eighty-six
inches from the Sun draw a part of the orbit of Georgian,
with his two Moons. After this you can proportion it so
as to draw it off on a sheet of paper; and you will value it
more as your own work, than if you could have it from the
press. Let me inform you, that the orbits of the planets
are not exactly circular, but a little oval or egg-like, as the
word signifies; and the Sun in their lower focus, or nearest
to one end ; in which part of their orbit all the planets fly
swiftest.
Q. 76. Can you make me understand the orbits of the
comets?
A. Try three that are best known. The comet of 1661
has appeared since, but I forget the year. It is first seen in
the south, in the thirtieth degree of Sagitary. It crossed
the orbits of all the planets but Mercury, passed round the
Sun to the right, betwixt the orbits of Venus and Mercury,
and
[ 32 ]
and disappeared in the southeast, in the seventeenth degree
of Aquarius, about forty-eight degrees from where it was
first seen. This comet has a wide orbit, and therefore not
a long one. The comet of 1682, whose period I have also
forgot, was first discovered northwest, in the thirtieth degree
of Leo, and having crossed the orbits of all the planets, but
that of Mercury, it turned round the Sun to the left, and
disappeared in the fifth degree of Cancer, fifty-seven degrees
from where it entered , and has a wider orbit than the for-
mer. But the most remarkable comet of the system appear-
ed in 1680 in the north, the nineteenth degree of Gemini;
it crossed the orbits of all the planets, and turned round the
Sun to the right, so close to his surface as to imbibe a heat,
that scarcely anything on Earth could bear the thousandth
part of. Its period is 575 years; and its orbit so exceed-
ingly narrow that it falls almost perpendicularly to the Sun
for 280 odd years, and acquires the amazing velocity of
880,000 miles in an hour. It was accurately observed by the
great Sir Isaac Newton. The orbit of this comet is more
like two tapering sticks butted together, than sugar loaves
like the other two.
Q. 77. You have given me the dimensions of the prima-
ry planets, is the size of the Sun known?
A. The maritime powers of Europe have sent their best
astronomers with proper instruments, to various parts of
the Earth, to observe the passage of Venus over the face
of the Sun, in the years 1761 and '69. Many important
purposes in astronomy and geography were to be answered
by their observations, and providence favored their lauda-
ble endeavours, by sending a clear day every where, dur-
ing the planet's passage. Such was the accuracy observed
by a thousand telescopes, and the best time-keepers, that
the Sun was discovered to be not 82, but 96,000,000 of
miles from the Earth. His distance and visible diameter be-
ing known, his real diameter is found to be equal to 100
times the diameter of the Earth, or 800,000 miles through
his body. But to have a juster idea of his dimensions, let
me bring him nearer. Suppose the Earth could be remov-
ed, and the Sun brought into its place; before the center
of the Sun arrived where the center of the Earth is, you
would see him push the Moon out 160,000 miles, and extend
the same distance all round, just as your ball would fill a hole
of the same size, cut in a sheet of paper.
Q. 78. Prodigious! The idea terrifies me. Pray in-
form
[ 33 ]
form me of the necessity there is for the Sun being such a
vast globe?
A. Could you have a steelyard only 100 feet long, and
40 different weights suspended on it from end to end, some
of them 100 weight, and the three nearest the farther end
1000 weight each; consider what a weight must that be
which all these could not move. But in this very position
all the planets were 600 years ago. Hence conjecture the
necessity for the vast weight and dimensions of the Sun, which
has to rule, attract, and keep in their stations, so many
enormous globes, at such distances from him, and be but
little affected by their motions and attraction.
Q. 79. Has the Sun no motion at all?
A. The Sun has certainly two motions. The attracti-
on of the superior planets draws him a little from his place;
so that he makes a small circle as they move round him ; and
by spots observed on his surface, he is known to move round
on his center in 25 days. The great Herchell has publish-
ed to the world, that the Sun moves 1,500,000 miles every
day. If so, he must carry all the planets and comets with
him, as his satellites; and is probably himself a primary pla-
net to some vastly more enormous center.
Q. 80. What are fixt stars?
A. As they appear through the best telescopes smaller
than they do to the naked eye, and mere shining specks, their
distance from our system is past all calculation ; and our Sun
appears to them a luminous spot, as they do to us. They
therefore receive no more light from our Sun, than he does
from them; and must be just such luminous bodies as he is,
giving light and heat to a system of worlds floating round
them, as he does.
Q.81. More and more wonderful! at this rate there is
no knowing the extent of the creation, or what are its limits.
A. Nothing can set limits to infinite power, which has
infinite space to work in.
Q. 82. But what can all the supposed worlds be made
for? and particularly what can the planets be created for?
A. To prevent you and me from stumbling of a clear
evening, when they happen to be above the horizon.
Q. 83. Pray sir, be serious, for my question was such.
A. Seriously then, I refer you to your own thoughts on
the subject.
Q. 84. Let me consider. When I think for instance,
of the planet Jupiter; that he is 1000 times the size of the
E globe
[ 34 ]
globe I live on ; that he is enlightened by the same Sun ;
that he is kept in his orbit by the same attraction ; that he
has so many Moons to reflect the light of the Sun upon him ;
that he has more than two days and nights for one on the
Earth, and different seasons from his position to the Sun;
that he appears in all these respects to resemble the world I
live on, and as well accommodated for the dwelling of liv-
ing creatures as it is, I must conclude he is an inhabited
world, and appears a most desirable dwelling for rational
creatures, if his little light and great cold do not prevent it.
But is my reasoning just?
A. To me, and to such as know much more than you
and I do, it is perfectly just; all but your trifling objection
respecting the cold, and the want of light. HE who made
man's eye, could have formed it to see as well by the Moon
or the Stars as by the Sun. Allow him the same power and
skill in the upper planets. The light of the Sun even in
Saturn, is a thousand times as great as the light of the full
Moon with us; and in Jupiter it is 3000 times as great.
And as for the cold, either warm exhalations from his body,
or the temperature of his atmosphere may render it a very
comfortable dwelling; or divine wisdom has formed the bo-
dies of the inhabitants so that cold shall be as much their cho-
sen element, as the frigid zones with us, are the region of
numerous creatures that could not live in a temperate cli-
mate.
Q. 85. But what are we to think of the other planets,
and their use in the creation?
A. I return your question: employ your own thoughts
upon them.
Q. 86. I am afraid to say, Mercury is too hot to be in-
habited; because I am sure divine power can form creatures
to live in fire as happily as others live in water. Their bo-
dies therefore, if bodies they have, are much more refined
than ours, and perfectly suited to their warm station. Ve-
nus seems a most delightful habitation for vigorous spirits,
whether with or without active bodies. Mars is 15,000
miles in compass, and I must not suppose that part of GOD's
creation is left destitute of rational and animal life. And
we have already seen that cold may be the proper element
for the inhabitants of the upper planets. But what are we
to think of the Moons?
A. The Moons you know are all made of green cheese,
and fit for nothing but mites te live in.
Q. 87.
[ 35 ]
Q. 87. You make merry sir, with my ignorance; but
still my question is unanswered.
A. You can answer it yousrelf, after attending to a few
facts. Our Earth was never seen since the creation, from
either of the three upper planets or from their Moons ; for
this plain reason their Moons were never known on our
world to have existence, till 200 years ago, when telescopes
were invented ; and yet some of their Moons are much lar-
ger than our globe. The Georgian and his two Moons have
been known to the learned but very few years ; and yet that
planet is 80 times the size of our Earth. They are not
made then for our use, no more than we are made for theirs.
All the Moons in the system have as much light and heat
from the Sun as the primaries they attend ; and receive much
more light from the larger planet than they can reflect on
him. If our own Moon, the least in the system, has all these
advantages, and a circumference of near 7000 miles, with
mountains, valleys, pitts, and level plains, and some other
Moons be more than twenty times her size — now solve your
own question.
Q. 88. As the SUPREME BEING has made nothing in
vain: as he delights to multiply his creatures, and to render
them as happy as their conduct toward him and each other
will admit; and as he has formed fourteen secondary pla-
nets that appear to be as well suited to the accommodation of
rational and animal life as the primaries are, I must believe
the great CREATOR has stockt every Moon in the system
with creatures capable of enjoying his goodness, and ador-
ing his wisdom and power. Is my reasoning just and conclu-
sive?
A. You will soon be able to teach me. The most learn-
ed astronomers on Earth have long drawn the same conclusi-
on from the same sure premises. All the creation of GOD
abounds with proofs of his infinite power, wisdom and good-
ness. But all would be vain and useless without rational
creatures to behold and to study, to wonder and adore. Yes,
my dear pupil, you are surrounded with wonders. Never
lift your eyes to the glories around you,
* 'Those bright temptations to idolatry . ' ' Young.
But with the most humble adoration ; for
"An undevout astronomer, is mad." Young.
You have now a plan to go by. You will see the Earth
turning her side to the Sun in the morning, and your meri-
dian towards him, till it comes directly in a line with him at
midday,
[ 36 ]
midday, and turns from him till he disappears in the west,
and rises to enlighten other nations. You will see the Moon,
from the change to the full, travelling to the eastward, be-
twixt you and the planets and the fixt stars; and leaving
them behind her to the westward, about 50 minutes in 24
hours; and back again on the other side of her orbit, de-
creasing in her light till she passes again betwixt you and the
Sun at her change. You will commence acquaintance with
the planets; their rising, southing, setting, conjunctions,
and oppositions. The planets are sometimes stationary, or
seem to stand still in their course: at other times retrograde,
or seem to go backward among the fixt stars; and their mo-
tions appear accelerated, as they seem to go faster than they
really do. The planets never stop, never move back, nor
faster in one part of their orbit than another, that a naked
eye can discern; but these appearances arise from the Earth's
motion in the several parts of her orbit, as well as from
the motion of the inferior planets in theirs. If you will
walk round a tree on your left hand, at 20 yards distance ;
and another person 100 yards on your right hand, the same
course, but with a slower step, you will see this illustrated
respecting the upper planets. The tree the Sun, you the
Earth, the other person Jupiter. Then if you change pla-
ces, and call yourself the Earth, and the other man Venus
or Mercury, you will see it as it takes place in the inferior
planets; for by a few rounds you must understand it.
Q. 89. The labour you bestow on me sir, and the expe-
riments you set me on so easy and without cost, claim my
gratitude. But you have not yet told me the dimensions nor
uses of the comets?
A. And for a very good reason; I am not acquainted
with them myself. But take what little I know of them,
which does not merit the name of knowledge. They are
larger than our globe. Their uses are mere conjecture.
Some judge them the seats of punishment, where sinners suf-
fer the extremes of heat and cold. Mr. Whiston says, a co-
met approaching the Sun , brushed the Earth with its tail ,
and caused the deluge ; and that another will cause the con-
flagration. Some say they finally fall into the Sun, and supply
him with fresh fuel. Others ascribe great utility to them, by
supplying the planets as they pass through their orbits, with
recruits of water, and other useful fluids; and perhaps car-
rying the filth of the whole system out of the way of doing
injury. They are surely not made in vain ; but we can only
guess at their use, while confined to Earth.
Q. 90.
[ 37 ]
Q. 90. Having surveyed wonders sufficient to bring an
infidel to his knees, and to animate the devotion of the
most devout; may we now return to Geography, if , 'any thing
on our globe be worthy of notice, after the more illustrious
scenes we have passed through?
A. It is true our world is but a speck in the creation,
and yet it has wonders of power and wisdom belonging to it,
sufficient to employ the deepest researches of the wisest of
men, and fresh wonders discovered every day; and it has
one thing to glory in, above all the creation of GOD.
Q. 91. What is that pray?
A. It is that great gospel truth, GOD so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in
him should not perish, but have everlasting life. A world
thus redeemed, is well worthy of our notice. We return
then to Geography, or that description of countries, cities,
and seaports, without the knowledge of which, no person
can read a news-paper, nor follow a traveller by sea or land.
Q. 92. Where will you begin sir?
A. With the smallest, but most improved quarter of the
world, Europe, and with the most western part of it, Spain
and Portugal. This last mentioned little kingdom borders
on Spain to the east and north, and on the west and south
it is bounded by the Atlantic ocean. Its most frequented
ports are Lisbon, the capital city, near the mouth of the
Tagus, and Oporto on the Douro. Their chief exports are
wine. It has several other ports, as St. Ubes, Lagos, Faro,
&c. Its population 2,000,000 of souls; 300,000 of whom are
said to be ecclesiastics of both sexes.
Q. 93. Has Portugal any foreign dominions?
A. It owns Brasil in South America, which extends 2 or
3000 miles north and south, on the Atlantic to the east; the
river Amazon on the north, and La Plata on the south, the
two largest rivers on earth. From St. Salvador, the chief
city, and other towns, they send to Europe gold, diamonds,
pearls, Brasil wood, tobacco, hides, sugar, drugs, &c.
Brasil is supplied with negroes from the Portugese colonies
in Africa. The other foreign dominions of Portugal, are
the Madeiras, famous for wine; the Azores, or western
Islands, the chief of which are St. Michael, Tercera, Fay-
al and Flores. They are very fruitful. The island of Goa
on the Malabar coast, is their chief port in the East Indies.
Spain is a very large kingdom, 700 miles in length, and
500 in width, including Portugal; it is bounded on the north
by
[ 38 ]
by the bay of Biscay, on the west by the Atlantic ocean and
Portugal, on the south and east by the Mediterranean, and
on the- northeast by the Pyrenean mountains, which divide
it from France. It is composed of 14 small kingdoms. The
capital city is Madrid, in the middle of Spain, and lies about
3200 miles east of Philadelphia. The principal seaports on
the north and west, are St. Sebastian, Bilboa, Ovcido, Fer-
rol, Corunna and Vigo. On the south, without the straits
of Gibraltar, are St. Lucar, Seville, and the famous port
of Cadiz. Within the straits, in the Mediterranean, are
Malaga, Carthagena, Alicant, Valencia, Barcelona, Pala-
mos and Roses, with three islands off the coast, Majorca,
Minorca and Yvica. Its inhabitants are 9 or 10,000,000.
Q. 94. Has Spain any foreign dominions?
A. Spain claims as much territory in North America,
as thrice the United States; extending from the isthmus of
Darien, to the polar circle; and from the Pacific ocean on
the west, to Canada, Missisippi and the gulph of Florida,
on the east. In such a vast extent of coast they have many
ports and harbours, the chief of which are New-Orleans,
on the Missisippi; Vera Cruz, Campechy, Honduras, St.
Jago and Porto Bello, on the gulph of Florida; and Aqua-
pulcho and Panama, on the Pacific. These dominions con-
tain Mexico, New-Spain, and many other provinces. Spain
owns in South America, from the Carribean sea to the straits
of Magellan, near 5000 miles north and south, and about
600 miles wide, containing the large countries of Terra
Firma, New-Granada, Amazonia, Peru, Chila, Paragua,
La Plata, &c. The chief places of trade are Quito, Cusco,
the capital of Lima, Potosi, rich in silver mines, Valparissa
and Baldavia, on the Pacific ocean: and Carthagena, St.
Martha, Venezuela, on Terra Firma. In Paragua, As-
sumption, St. Jago, and Buenos Ayers, the capital. The
maritime powers of Europe supply the Spaniards with vast
quantities of goods, for their American dominions; and of
course carry off the greatest share of the returns in gold, sil-
ver, cocoa, cotton, sugar, cochineal, Jesuits bark, and
other productions of Spanish America. And the Spaniards
are so just and honourable, that they never have deprived
foreigners of their share, though they should be at war with
the nation they belong to. This nation also owns Cuba, the
largest island in the West-Indies, with its famous port of
Havanna. Their part of Hispaniola they have ceded to the
French republic, in their late treaty of peace. To Spain
also
t 39 ]
also belong Porto Rico, Trinidad, and some other American
islands; and the Philippines, with their capital, Manila, in
the East-India ocean.
Q. 95. Are not the Spaniards, with such amazing ex-
tent of territory, the most powerful nation on earth, and
formidable to all their neighbours?
A. Their aversion to industry, and their dependence on
other nations for what their own would abundantly produce,
is the grand reason why they are neither a populous, rich,
nor powerful nation. Their bigotted attachment to Pope-
ry, drove off millions of industrious Moors, who had long
resided among them: America has drained the mother coun-
try of millions more; and the multitude of clergy and nuns,
who never marry, are a great drawback on the population
of Spain.
Q. 96. What country will you next describe?
A. France, that is separated from Spain, only by the
Pyrenean mountains, and lies northeast of that country, is
600 miles in length, and 500 in breadth; and was formerly
divided into a number of provinces.* But since the revolu-
tion France is divided into departments, which cannot be
understood without a map. However, as our principal con-
cern is with their seaports, I shall describe them, after ob-
serving that France is bounded on the north by the British
channel, on the west by the bay of Biscay, on the south and
southwest by Spain and the Mediterranean, and on the east
by Italy, Switzerland and Germany. The capital city is
Paris, up the river Seine. The chief ports and trading
towns in the north of France on the channel, are Dunkirk,
Calais, Bologne, Abbeville on the river Somme, Dieppe,
Havre de Grace near the mouth of the Seine, Rouen and
Paris higher up the stream; Caen, Lifeux, Cherbourg, St.
Malos, Dinnan, Moiiaix. On the Atlantic, the famous
port of Brest, L' Orient, Vannes, Nantz on the river Loir,
Rochelle, Rochfort, the islands of Bellisle, Ree and Oleron,
Bourdeaux on the river Garonne, and Bayon, near the bor-
der of Spain. French Ports on the Mediterranean, are Per-
pignan, Narbonne, Aries on the river Rhone, Marseilles,
Toulon, Antibes and Nice. Britain has taken from France
during the present war, the islands of Corsica, Bastia, its
capital, and Pondicherry, in the East-Indies; Martinique,
and some other islands in the West-Indies; most of which
they
* 2he idea of starving them out is given up, and the British are re-
duced to the distress to 'which they attempted to bring the French.
[ 40 ]
they have retaken. They still retain the islands of Bourbon
and Mauritius, in the Indian ocean, east of Madigascar.
The French in 1794, conquered the ten provinces of the
Austrian low countries ; and brought the seven provinces of
the United Netherlands to a compliance with all their wishes.
Heaven grant they may not be crushed at last, especially by
the powerful naval force that Britain has afloat this year.
The exports of France are numerous and valuable, particu-
larly in wines, the best and greatest varieties the world pro-
duces. The population of France is estimated from 20 to
24,000,000 of souls.
Q. 97. Whither turn you next?
A. To Italy, which, with Spain and European Turkey,
make the southern division of Europe. This fine country is
about 800 miles in length, from northwest to southeast;
and from 120 to 400 in breadth. It is separated from France
and Switzerland on the N. W. by the Alps, the highest moun-
tains in Europe; on the east by the Adriatic sea, or gulph of
Venice; and on the south and west by the Mediterranean.
The chief Italian islands are Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica & Malta.
Its southern parts compose the kingdom of Naples, or of the
two Sicilies; Naples the capital, and most populous city in
Italy. In the middle part lie the state of the Church, the
Pope's dominions, the capital cities Rome and Bologna.
The grand dutchy of Tuscany, Florence the capital. The
two noted republics of Venice and Genoa. The dukedoms
of Modena, Parma and Milan. The upper parts of Italy,
are the dutchies of Savoy and Piedmont, Turin the capital,
whose Duke has the title of King of Sardinia; the chief
town of which island is Cagliari, or Calari. The principal
ports in Italy are Nice, Oneglia, Finale, Genoa, Lucca, a
a small republic, the most industrious people in Italy, and
extremely jealous of their liberties; Pisa, Leghorn, Piom-
bino, Civita-Vecchia, Naples, Salerno, Rhegio, Squilace,
Farento, Ravenna and Venice. In Sicily, Messina, Cata-
nea, Syracuse, Trapano, and Polermo the capital. Aetna,
the famous volcano, is in Sicily, and Vessuvius, the other
is within 7 miles of the city of Naples. The Knights of
Malta keep some gal lies, and by their vow, are obliged to
be at constant war with the Turks, Algerines, &c. The
productions of Italy are corn, oil, wine, marble, silk, fruits,
cheese, and others. Its population may be about 18,000,000.
Q. 98. Whither next?
A. Across the Venetian gulph to TURKEY in Europe,
which
[ 41 ]
which is about 1000 miles in length, from Chotzim, near the
border of Poland, to the southern point of the Morea; and
from Oczakow, on the Nieper, to Dalmatia on the Adriatic,
nearly as wide. This empire contains the ancient Pelepon-
nesus, now Morea, Achaia, Greece, Macedon, Illyricum,
Bulgaria, Wallachia, Moldavia and parts of Tartary. The
capital of the whole empire is Constantinople. Its princi-
pal cites and ports are Asoph, Kaffa, Precop, Oczakow,
Belgorod, Nicopoli, Silistria, Adrianople, Constantinople,
Salonichi, Larissa, Athens, Lepanto, Misistra, Corinth,
Butrinto, Durazzo and Ragufa. Its chief rivers are the
Don, the Nieper, the Neister and the Danube. The
Turkish islands are Crete, now Candia, Cyprus, Rhodes,
Negropont, Samos, Scio, Mitelene, Lemnos, and many
others in the Archipelago. This empire in Asia, contains
Asia proper, Pontus, Capadocia, Cilicia, Galatia, Bythinia,
Caria, Lydia, Mysia, Syria, its famous ancient capital An-
tioch, and Judea, its capital Jerusalem now a little town,
without the old walls. In Africa it claims Egypt, its capi-
tal Grand Cairo, and some other ports on the mouths of the
great river Nile. The Turks are Mehometans, but many
Christians and Jews among them.
We now turn northwest to Germany, which lies east from
France, and is about the same dimensions.lt is divided amongst
perhaps 300 sovereign Princes, of whom the Emperor is Chief;
and he is chosen by the votes of eight Electors ; three of whom
are spiritual and five secular, viz. the Archbishop of Mentz,
Treves and Cologne; the Electors of Saxony, its capital
Dresden; of Bohemia, its capital Prague, though this has
now no vote, as it belongs to the house of Austria; the
Elector of Bavaria, its capital Munich; of Brandenburg,
who is also king of Prussia, capital city Berlin; of the Pa-
latinate, capital Heidelburg; and of Hanover, whose Elector
is also King of England. To these are to be added a num-
ber of Princes, Dukes, Marquisses, Counts, Bishops, Abbots,
and several free cities and hansetowns, who are all repre-
sented in the great Diet of the empire, held at Ratisbon.
Vienna is the capital of all Germany; it stands on the Da-
nube, and is the imperial residence. This large and popu-
lous country is divided into ten circles: Upper Saxony,
Lower Saxony, Westphalia, Upper Rhine, Lower Rhine,
Franconia, Bohemia, Austria, Bavaria, and Swabia. As
Germany lies in the middle of Europe, it has but few sea-
ports; yet it carries on a great trade by its noble rivers, the
F Danube,
[ 42 ]
Danube, and its numerous branches; the Rhine, which di-
vides it from France; the Moselle, the Weser, the Elbe,
and the Oder. On the Danube are the cities of Belgrade,
Buda, Presburg, Vienna, Lintz, Ratisbon, Ingolstadt, Augs-
burg and Ulm. Up the Rhine, from the United Provinces,
stand the cities of Cleves, Wesel, Dusseldorp, Cologne, Co-
blentz, Mentz, Worms, Spire, Strasburg, Brisac. On the
river Ems, Enden and Munster. On the Weser, Jade,
Bremen, Verden, and Osnaburg. On the Elbe stand Ham-
burg, Dam, Lunenburg, Magdeburg, Wittenburg, Dres-
den: and on the Spree, a branch of Elbe, stand Potsdam
and Berlin, and betwixt these rivers, the trading cities of
Lubec, Wismar, Rostock, and Stralsund. On the Oder,
Cammin, Stetin, Custrin, Frankfort, &c. The other Frank-
fort lies on the Maine, a branch of the Rhine. The popu-
lation of Germany is about 21,000,000.*
Q. 99. What country comes next in order?
A. A country that claims the attention of all American
citizens, the famous Helvetic Union, or Cantons of Switz-
land; but we must climb to come at them, for their dwelling
is among the lofty show-crowned Alps, which they cultivate
trom bottom to top, with a degree of industry, which no-
thing but their love of freedom, and their independent spi-
rit could inspire. This brave, hardy, and virtuous people
compose thirteen small states, viz. Berne, Zurich, Schaff-
hausen, Basil, Lucern, Underwalden, Uri, Switz, Friburg,
Zug, Soleure, Apenzel and Glaris. The Orisons, Geneva,
St. Gall, and some other small republics, are allies of the
Switzers. Every man here is bred a farmer or tradesman,
but surely a soldier. As gaming and luxury are prohibited
among them, their youth go from the war-like exercises of
wrestling, running, throwing and shooting, to books; which
laudable custom they follow through life, and are a very
knowing people. As to religion, some are Papists, but the
greatest number are Calvinists. They are so very jealous
of their liberties, and so well prepared to defend them, that
no nation has given them disturbance for ages past. Neither
are they cursed with the spirit of conquest, but perfectly
contented with their romantic mountains, and fruitful val-
lies, both which they have rendered a paradise. Some of
their cantons are Aristocracies, where the nobles rule;
others are Democracies, where the people chuse their legi-
slators
* The religion of this empire is Papist, Lutheran, and Calvinists,
and many Jews.
[ 43 ]
slators and rulers, as in the United States; others are a mix-
ture of both these ; and some of their small cantons are Oli-
garchies, where every man votes in legislation, and admi-
nistration. Yet such is the virtue, harmony, equality of
fortune, and love of their country that prevails among them,
that we hear of no discontent; no pretended friends, or se-
cret foes, to raise a clamour against their government —
and if any disputes arise, they are quickly quelled by reason
and authority. They have generally kept a number of their
youth in foreign service, to have them thoroughly acquaint-
ed with the military art. The population of Switzerland
is estimated at 2,000,000.
Q. 100. Whither will you descend from this highest
ground in Europe?
A. To the very lowest, the seven provinces of the United
Netherlands, commonly called the States of Holland. They
were called Republics, but they had too much of Monarchy
in the person of their Stadtholder, and too much of Aristo-
cracy in their high and mighty Lords, the States-General,
to deserve that name. The provinces are Holland, chief
city Amsterdam; Overyssel, chief town Daventer; Guel-
derland and Zutphen, chief town Nameguen; Friesland,
chief town Lewarden; Groningen and Utrecht, towns the
same name; and Zealand, chief town Middleburg. These
states were part of the seventeen provinces of the Low
Countries, that revolted against the oppressions and persecu-
tions of their Sovereign, that gloomy bigot, Philip II, King
of Spain; and by the assistance of England, after a long and
very severe struggle, secured their independence, while the
other ten were again reduced under the Spanish yoke, and
so continued till the Duke of Marlborough, in 1706, con-
quered them for Charles IV, Emperor of Germany. France
soon after reduced some of them, and all the remainder in
1794. Their names are Brabant, capital city Brussels; Ant-
werp, Malines, Limburg, chief town Maestricht; Namur,
Hainault, chief town Mons; Luxemburg, Cambresis, chief
town Cambray; Artois, chief town Arras; Flanders, chief
towns Sluys, Ghent, Bruges, Courtray, Ypress, Tournay,
Lisle, Dunkirk, &c. These provinces form the most re-
markable country on the globe. Part of them are gained
from the sea, by vast banks of earth, raised and kept up at
great expence. A large proportion of it was mere swamp,
among the mouths of great rivers : they have confined the
rivers with dykes, and drained the country with a thousand
canals,
[ 44 ]
canals, which are now their public roads, as they travel
chiefly in covered boats. These seven little spots, scarcely
the size of seven of our counties, by their bravery, industry,
and spirit of adventure, arose to an eminence that astonished
the whole world. The fleets they fitted out both for war
and commerce, enabled them to form settlements in all parts
of the world, and to make head against all the naval power
of Britain, in numerous desperate engagements. From their
possessing the Molucca and Banda islands, and Ceylon in the
East-Indies, they have supplied the world with all the rich
spices for ages past; and their possession of Cape Good Hope,
the southern point of Africa, enables them to preserve all
their eastern settlements. They have made Batavia, in the
island of Java, the finest city in Asia. They possess Surinam,
in South America; and Curazza, Eustatia, and some other
ports in the West-Indies, exceedingly profitable to them;
but which no other nation would have thought of improving.
One third of the commerce of the world has been in their
hands 200 years. Though their taxes are higher than those
of any other nation, yet they all lay up money. They are
said to catch eight millions sterling worth of herrings annu-
ally, on the coast of Scotland, and in the channel. Their
soil not being firm enough to build their cities on, they drove
numberless trees pointed at one end, into their ground for
a foundation; and one single building, the state house in
Amsterdam, has more than 13,000 such poles under it. The
Dutch in their turns saved England from popery and arbi-
trary power, by sending over their Stadtholder, William
Prince of Orange, with a fleet and army, who drove off the
popish King James II, his father-in-law, a,nd had the British
crown for his pains. Their population is estimated at two
millions and an half, which on so small a spot, makes it five
times as populous as so much of England. The Dutch are
Calvinists, but all nations and religions are tolerated among
them, though only Presbyterians have a share in the Govern-
ment. Their immense trade has rendered these provinces
the emporium of Europe. They have lately expelled their
Stadtholder, and declared themselves a Republic. War
with Britain must prove extremely pernicious to the Dutch,
as their fleets must pass very near to Britain, whether
through the channel or north about, before they can arrive
at home, from any of their foreign settlements. How they
are to get through this year, secure their trade from the
British cruisers, and establish their infant republic, America
waits with anxiety to know. Q. 101.
[ 45 ]
Q. 101. Whither stear you next?
A. Due west, and 90 miles of sea will bring us to the
coast of England, the southern division of Britain, Scot-
land being the northern.
England has on the east the German sea, on the south the
British channel, on the west St. George's channel and the
Irish sea, which separates it from Ireland, and Scotland on
the north. Its length 380 miles; its greatest breadth 300;
but it narrows all the way north to Berwick. It contains
near 50,000 square miles. London the capital, stands on
the river Thames, in lat. 51 30, that is 1000 miles north
of this state, and more than 3000 east. Since we now have
a right by treaty, to enter the British ports, it is of import-
ance to Americans to know them. As you sail up the chan-
nel, France on the right and Cornwall on the left, you have
Pensance, Falmouth, Penryn, Tregony, Fowey, east and
west Looe, and Saltash. In Devonshire are Plymouth,
Dartsmouth, Totness, Torbay, Exmouth, Topsham and Ex-
eter. In Dorsetshire, Lime, Portland, Weymouth, Dor-
chester, Wareham and Pool. In Hampshire, Lymington,
Southampton, Gosport, the famous harbor of Portmouth,
and some ports in the Isle of Wight. In Sussex, Chichester,
Hastings, Winchelsea and Rye. In Kent are Romney, Hyth,
Dover, Deal, Sandwich, Chatham, Rochester, Gravesend
and Woolwich. In Middlesex, London; and higher up the
Thames are Kingston, Hampton, Windsor, Reading, Wal-
lingford and Oxford. In Essex, Maiden, Colechester and
Harwich. In Suffolk, Ipswich, Aldborough, Dunwich and
Lestoff. In Norfolk, great Yarmouth, and Lynn Regis.
In Lincolnshire, Boston, Grimsby and Burton. In York-
shire, Hull, Scarborough and Whitby. In Durham, Har-
tlepool, Sunderland and Shields. In Northumberland, New-
Castle, Morpeth, Alnwick and Tweedmouth. We now
follow the line that separates England and Scotland, up the
Tweed, and along the Cheviot hills to the Solway frith,
the English and Welsh ports on the Irish sea, St. George's
channel, and up the river Severn, are Carlyle, Cocker-
mouth, Whitehaven, Kirby, Kendall, Lancaster, Preston,
Liverpool, Chester, St. Asaph, Bangor, Carnarvan, Har-
loch, Cordigan, St. David's, Haverford-West, Milford-
Haven, Pembroke, Landaff, Cardiff, Gloucester, Bristol,
Bridgewater, Barnstable, Camelford, Padslow and St. Ives.
The population of England 6 or 7,000,000.
We now turn to Scotland, the northern part of Britain.
Its
[ 46 ]
Its length 300 miles; its breadth where widest 190. It has
England to the south, the German sea to the east, and other
parts of the Atlantic to the north and west. Its chief ports
on the east are Berwick, Haldington, Leith the port town
of Edinburg the capital city, at the mouth of the Clyde;
St. Andrews, Dundee, at the mouth of the Tay. Perth
16 miles higher up the river. North from the Tay are
Ardbroath, Montroses, old and new Aberdeen, Forres,
Inverness, Nairn, Dingwall, Dornock. North of Scot-
land are the islands of Orkney and Shetland. On the west
are the islands of Lewis, Skye, Mull, Jura, Isla, Contyre,
Arran, and many others, abounding with excellent fishing
ports, though but little trade, till you come to the river
Clyde, where stands the noted port of Glasgow, other trad-
ing towns, and the famous canal, that goes from the Clyde
to the Forth. The chief ports on the south are Wigton,
Kelly, Kirkudbright and Dumfries. The population of
Scotland must exceed two millions.
We now pass to Ireland, 60 miles west from England,
and 20 miles southwest from Scotland. It is bounded on
the north, west and south by the Atlantic, and on the east
by the Irish sea and St. George's channel. It is divided
into four provinces, Munster on the south, Leinster on the
east, Ulster on the north, and Cannaught on the west. Its
chief ports on the east, from south to north, are Kinsale,
Cork, Cloyne, Lismore, Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow,
Dublin the capital, Drogheda, Dundalk, Dundrum, Down-
patrick, Belfast, Corrickfergus. On the north, Bally castle,
Colrain, Londonderry. On the west, Donegal, Sligo, Kil-
lala, Galway, Limerick on the river Shannon, and Dingle.
On the south, Bantry, Baltimore and Ross. The exports
of Ireland are beef, pork, butter, tallow, hides, wool,
woolen yarn, fish, but above all, vast quantities of linen
cloth. The Irish assert that their population is three millions.
The English church is here established.
The British dominions abroad are numerous and expensive.
In North America, Canada, Nova-Scotia, St. John's, Cape
Breton, Newfoundland, and some settlements in Hudson's
bay. In the West-Indies she owns a number of islands, too
well known to need being named. In Spain they hold Gi-
braltar. Some forts and settlements in Africa. Very ex-
tensive dominions in the East-Indies, by conquering the
Princes of the country, under various pretences; and it is
supposed they have now 15,000,000 of the inhabitants their
subjects.
[ 47 ]
subjects. However, in the late treaty, they have granted
to the ships of the United States, access to their ports in that
rich and extensive country ; for which America has no equi-
valent to grant. Their chief ports there are Bombay, Pon-
dicherry, Madrass, Calcutta, and many others on the bay of
Bengal, and the famous river Ganges; and Bencoolen in
the island of Sumatra.
We now cross over the German sea, to Denmark, on the
east of it. This northern kingdom has Norway on the north,
Sweden over the sound on the east, and Germany to the
south. It lies at the entrance into the Baltic sea, and re-
ceives toll from all ships that pass. Denmark is 240 miles
in length, and about 100 broad. Copenhagen the ca-
pital, lies in the island of Zealand, and is the residence of
the King, and the chief place of trade, though they have
many other good ports. Norway belongs to Denmark, and
from its chief town Bergen and other ports, it sends abroad
vast quantities of all kinds of timber and naval stores. This
country owns Tranquebar in the East Indies; St. Thomas's,
St. Cruiz, and St. John's in the West-Indies; and several
islands in the Baltic. It claims a part of Lapland, the islands
of Iceland, east and west Greenland, and Spitzbergen; and
carries on a considerable trade in the Mediterranean. Den-
mark figures as a maritime power, and can fit out 50 or 60
ships of war. The population of all the Danish dominions
may be estimated at 2,400,000. The religion of Denmark
is Lutheran.
Sweden is separated from Denmark on the west, by the
sound, and from Norway by impassable mountains. It has
Lapland on the north, the Russian empire on the east; and
on the south the Baltic sea, and by that arm of it that makes
up to Petersburg, in Russia, called the gulph of Finland.
Sweden is 800 miles in length, and 500 in breadth; but fro-
zen lakes and mountains render great part of it uninhabita-
ble. It produces not grain sufficient for home consumption.
The principal ports in Sweden are Abo, Wasa, Ulea, Torne,
Pithea, Sunwald, Stockholm the capital of Christiansand, &c.
and Gothenburg; from which they export large quantities of
iron, copper, lead, timber for all uses, hides, furs, potash,
flax, hemp, cordage, fish, sail cloth, &c. They have ports
in the Baltic islands of Rugen, Ocland, Gothland and Alland.
Stockholm lies in lat. 60, the same parallel with Petersburg,
in Russia, Bergen, in Norway, and Hudson's bay, in N. A-
merica; so it is 1600 miles north of this state, and 4000 to
the
[ 48 ]
the eastward. In the reign of that military madman, Charles
XII, Sweden lost nearly all her dominions in Germany,
while Peter of Russia took from it the fruitful provinces of
..Livonia, Esthonia, Ingria, Careliaand others. The Swedes
have no foreign colonies; but they trade in their own bot-
toms, and frequently sell ship and cargo. That they have
not lost all the martial spirit of their ancestors, appears from
their late naval engagements with the Russians; in which,
though they lost some ships, to superior numbers, yet they
were a dear purchase to their enemies. The population of
Sweden does not exceed three millions. The Lutheran re-
ligion is here established.
Q. 102. What country will you next describe?
A. Russia or Muscovy, which is bounded by Sweden and
the Baltic on the west, by the frozen ocean on the north,
and including Siberia and Russian Tartary, on the east by the
eastern ocean, and on the south and southeast by Poland,
Turkey, the Euxine sea, Georgia, the Caspian sea, and
Chinese Tartary, This mighty empire is as large as all the
rest of Europe; but its present Sovereign Catherine II, not
content with her immense dominions, has conquered some
valuable provinces in Turkey; and to the disgrace of all
Europe has divided Poland with two other free-booters, the
Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia. She has done
many popular things in her own country; and had she con-
fined her great talents to the arts of peace, her memory
might have been blessed, could the world ever have forgot
her concurring in the murder of her husband, Peter III, and
usurping his throne, which he has filled these thirty-three
years. Russia has a considerable fleet of ships of war, both
in the Baltic and Black seas ; which with a mighty army
by land, are the terror and annoyance of all her neighbours.
This empire carries on a great trade by land to China and
other nations; and from the seaports of Archangel, on the
White sea, Cola on the North sea; from Wiburg, Peters-
burg the capital, Narva and Rovel on the gulph of Finland;
and from Perneau, Riga and Mittau on the Baltic, they ex-
port furs and skins, linen, iron, copper, timber, naval
stores, hemp, flax, sail cloth, wax, honey, tallow, linseed
oil, potash, train oil, musk, rhubarb, raw silk, &c. The
three ports conquered from Turkey, on the Black sea, Kaf-
fa, Precop and Oczakow, are made free ports. Were
Russia as populous as Holland or China, half the people on
the globe might reside on it; but from 20 to 24,000,000 are
its
[ 49 ]
its estimated population, without including her usurpations
in Poland and Lithuania, which must amount to five or six
millions more. The religion of Russia is the Greek church.
The last nation not described in Europe, is abandoned,
lost and ruined Poland, a country more than 600 miles
square, containing 14,000,000 of inhabitants. It is called
a Republic, because the nobles are every thing there. They
own the soil, and the peasants on it, just as they do the
cattle. The common people own no property, and are not
known in their laws. The Polish nobles however, will have
a King, and the Russian Court generally influences their
choice, which is made in a full Diet of the nobility; and
there must not be a dissenting voice, as the minority are in
danger of being instantly cut in pieces. Their present King,
Count Poniatowski, they choose from among themselves:
he has wore their crown 32 years; to him a crown of thorns,
under the title of Stanislaus Augustus ; but too limitted in
his power to do the good he is inclined to. Popery is the
established religion of Poland; but they have among them
a number of dissenters whom they call Dissidents, who,
twenty odd years ago, claimed some privileges, which were
denied them on account of their religion. A bloody civil
war ensued. Russia and Prussia interposed, and insidiously
assisted the Dissidents, till by war, famine and pestilence,
three millions of people were cut off, or fled the country;
and then Russia, Prussia and Austria very graciously deter-
mined, that Poland was too large to be governed, and they
condescended to divide nearly one half of it among them.
In the part left to Poland, the King had influence sufficient
to prevail with the princes and noblesse to declare the com-
mon people no longer things, but men, whose lives should
no longer be at the mercy of tyrants; but should be
known in law, become tenants and own property. This step
toward human liberty alarmed the three aforenamed pow-
ers, who fearing their drudges might expect equal indul-
gence, and coveting the remainder of Poland, have actually
divided it among them; the Russian tyranness having confin-
ed the dethroned King to Grodno, under pretence of keep-
ing him out of harm's way. A vigorous protest of the ma-
ritime powers, would have prevented this grand breach of
the balance of power in Europe; yet no nation interposed,
but the Turks, who greatly suffered for their kindness, by
bringing all the vengeance of Russia upon them. It would
now appear just, for Heaven to suffer the Russian empire to
G subju-
t 50 ]
subjugate half of Europe; which indeed they seem in a fair
way to do; whilst America, safe in her distance from the
bloody scene, in the wisdom of her government, and in the
unparalleled increase of her population and improvements,
views with safety, the catastrophe, and pities human infatu-
ation. Poland carried on a great trade by her rivers, the
Devina, the Boristhenes or Neiper, the Bog, the Neister,
but especially down the Vistula, to the famous port of Dant-
zic, which, with the city of Thorpe, the late Frederick of
Prussia seized upon, and bought up the immense quantity of
grain that came down to them, with base metal, and sold it
out for good coin. But kings may do that with impunity,
which would hang ten thousand petty rogues. Whether
these plunderers will quarrel about the division of their
spoils, or whether the Turks, S weeds and Danes may have
power sufficient to restore Poland, is very doubtful; but
surely there is a God who rules in the earth, and will, soon-
er or later, vindicate the cause of oppressed nations. The
chief cities of Poland are Warsaw the capital, Cracow,
Dantzic a free city, dependent on Poland, Thorne, Guesna,
Lernburg, Caminieck, Lucho, Brisici, Bielh, Grodno, Wil-
na, and Rasiem. Poland being a level and rich soil, abound-
ing with timber, of course exports vast quantities of grain,
flesh meat, and wood for all uses. Thej7 have mines of silver,
copper, iron and coal; and the wonderful salt mines near
Cracow, before the German tyrant seized on them, were
the principal support of the crown. Many springs are boil-
ed into salt. The waters of one fountain preserve the lives
of the neighbouring inhabitants from 100 to 150 years. The
water is as inflammable as the most ardent spirits. The flame
does not heat the water; but if neglected, makes sad de-
struction among the adjoining lands and timber.
Q. 103. Whither turn you next?
A. To Asia, the largest quarter of the globe, on which
man was first created, and still the most populous. Here the
human race were first propagated after the deluge. Here
laws were first framed; government was established, and
the sciences cultivated, while the other quarters of the globe
were the range of wild beasts. Here the Almighty gave to
a chosen people, a divine law, and preserved among them
that great foundation of all truth — the unity of the Divine
Being. In Asia the SON of GOD became incarnate, lived,
suffered, died and rose again, and propagated the Christian
religion to all nations. The air, the soil, the fruits, and
produc-
[ 51 ]
productions of Asia, both above and below the surface, as
well as their manufactories, excel those of all nations. This
quarter of the world is about 4500 miles each way, bounded
on the west by the Red sea, the Mediterranean and Europe;
on the north by the frozen sea; on the east by the eastern;
and on the south by the Indian ocean. It contains the ex-
tensive countries of Siberia, eastern and western Tartary,
and Arabia— the empires of Turkey, Persia, India and
China. Its islands are numerous and very large. They are
Japan, the Philippines, New-Guinea, Celebes, Borneo,
Sumatra, Java, and numerous others. The island of New-
Holland is as large as all Europe; to Botony bay in that
island, the British banish all their rogues and republicans.
Asia is believed to contain 500,000,000 of souls, which are
half the number on the globe; and of these, China is said
to contain 200,000,000. Pekin is the capital of China; and
its two great trading cities, frequented by Europeans and
Americans, are Nankin on the east, and Canton on the south.
In Asia are some Christians, some Mahometans; but the
greater number are Pagons and gross Idolaters.
Africa offers next, more remarkable for size than for cul-
tivation or improvement. Bounded on the east by the isth-
mus of Suez, the Red sea and the Indian ocean; on the
south by the southern ocean; on the west by the Atlantic,
and on the north by the Mediterranean. The kingdoms of
Egypt, Syrene, Numidia, and the famous republic of Car-
thage, made a great figure in ancient history. But the scum
of Arabia and Turkey now possess those fertile countries,
under the names of Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers and Morocco,
so many nests of pirates, who keep all trading nations under
contribution; or they will make prizes of their ships, and
slaves of their crews. This quarter of the globe extends
from the Mediterranean, on the coast Tunis and Algiers, in
lat. 37 north, to Cape Good-Hoop, in lat. 34 south, near
5000 miles in length; and froin the entrance of the Red Sea
on the east, to the mouth of the Niger and Senegal on the
west, nearly 4000 miles. Its internal parts are little known,
and as yet unexplored by travellers. Most trading nations
have forts and factories on the western coast, from whence
they procure slaves, gold dust, ivory, gums, <fec. Mada-
gascar on the east, is the largest African island; though no
European power has settlements on it.
We come in the last place to the freest, happiest, most
plentiful part of the globe; and the farthest removed from
tyranny,
[ 52 ]
tyranny, wars, and those commotions that curse and agita
the nations. We come to a land in all its youthful vigou
undebilitated by the luxury, vices and old age of the easte
nations: a country in which the Laws rule, and not me
where life and property are in perfect security, and wh(
the happy inhabitants may confide in those who legislate,
those who rule, and in those who judge; because they c
remove them all at their pleasure. — A country in which i
ligion is unrestrained; morality in repute; education
moted; marriage honourable, and age reverenced.
Q. 104. Pray sir, where lies this terrestrial paradise?
A. Within the limits of the UNITED STATES; a
the spot you stand on, makes a part of it. This quarter of t
globe was discovered by the adventurous genius of Christop,
Columbus, and should be called by his name, as he was seve
years prior to Amerscus Vesputius. If this change of nai
should ever take place, the Congress must do it; but I apprehefj
every state in the union can annihilate those names of pla
that insult our ears with discarded royalty; reduce them
a true Columbian nomenclature, and let the name and th:
sink together. Europe is the mother country of Americ^
but that Britain and Ireland take the lead in its populate
is evident, from the amazing uniformity with which
English language is pronounced through the whole uni(
from the mountains to the sea ; a thing unknown in any :
or nation; as a river or a ridge of hills have different
lects on each side of them — and people from distant shim
England can with difficulty understand each other.
middle and southern states were chiefly settled by colon
under proprietors, or the crown: But New-England
settled by real refugees, who sought an asylum from
persecutions of Archbishop Laud, his suffragans and bigo
King Charles I. Wherever Europeans landed, they foi
the bays and borders of rivers occupied by numerous tri
of hostile Indians, whose very names are forgotten,
whose broken remains are driven to the westward. By <
tivating a liberal soil ; by the arrival of fresh adventur^
and by exporting their superfluities, the fruits of their
nest labour, the colonies grew up towards vigorous yoi
although the King and proprietors nominated the Go
nors, Council, or upper House of Assembly, and the Judg
and although religious establishments, those usurpations
the Divine Prerogative, and chains of conscience and 1
ral thought, had taken place in most of the colonies.
[ 53 ]
in made laws to regulate our trade, and secure it to her-
If, to which no opposition was made; for there were not
more loyal people on earth than the inhabitants of the
ie colonies. Laws formed by our representatives, must
ive the advantage of Britain evidently in their face, or
tey would not pass the consent of those limbs of royalty,
<e Council and Governor; and even after their concurrence,
must pass the approbation of the King and his Council at
restminster. Thus the crown had three votes in four, for
e passing of every law. But not satisfied with the quan-
;ies of goods of all kinds, we took off their hands, on
Mch they laid what prices and what duties they pleased ;
>r with their vast gains from the valuable raw materials
at them annually in return, they made an attempt for
ore direct revenues, by sending in stampt paper, to sell at
high price, and on which all business was to be transacted,
wspapers printed, &c. To this the colonies made such
position, that not a single sheet was sold. Parliament re-
eled the act, but passed a clause in these words, "That
:itain had a power and right to bind the colonies by laws
her making, IN ALL CASES WHATSOEVER." When this
It, which annihilated our assemblies, and reduced us from
|bjects to slaves, was attempted to be reduced to practice
an experiment on tea, the cargoes were either sunk in
sea, or suffered to rot in warehouses; and not a single
und was sold. Britain backed her claims with a fleet and
iy, and the devoted town of Boston felt the first venge-
ce of offended royalty. 0 my dear country! never for-
t your then situation . Without an army ; without a Ge-
jral bred in the school of war; without great or small arms
to to oppose the unconquered forces of Britain ; without a
i-asury; without an ally; without a single frigate, to op-
Ise the first naval power on earth; a power deemed our
)ther, among whom we had a million of relations, friends,
|d correspondents — to oppose a King, whom we honoured
idolatry! ! At this awful period CONGRESS met, under a
of public cares, inconceivable by all but patriots. It
|zed the helm — it became a center of union and of motion,
the scattered colonists; and made a common cause with
iton. The continent, as by an electrical shock, caught
jj noble enthusiastic spirit of liberty and resentment. Hea-
pointed out GEORGE WASHINGTON, as the instru-
nt by whom it would save his country; at the call of
ich he hastened to head the brave, but fresh troops col-
lected
[ 54 ]
lected near Boston, who had driven the British from Lex-
ington, and had made so brave and obstinate a defence at
Bunkers-hill, and he drove the enemy from that distressed
town. Congress petitioned, remonstrated, protested, and
appealed to heaven and earth, with a force and energy our
language had never before experienced. But all in vain:
King and Parliament were hardened againt us. The storm
increased: dangers collected on every hand. Powerful
fleets wafted over numerous bands of British, and their hire-
lings. Congress had no resources, but in their own steady
fortitude, and the spirit of the inhabitants. Our losses by
sea, however, were immense; our trade ruined; our sea-
ports possessed by the enemy; our armies defeated in almost
every engagement; a civil war raging in our bowels, tory
against whig and whig against tory; our slaves by invitation
joining the enemy by thousands, and our paper money
scarcely worth the hundredth part of its nominal value.—
Amidst such a complicated scene of distresses, our public vir-
tue began to flag. The militia had lost their best arms, and
were backward to the service. The regulars were badly
cloathed, and worse paid. But when they saw their belov-
ed Chief, sharing in all their dangers and sufferings, they
drew courage from his eye; instruction and confidence from
his lips. In this darkest day in the American horizon, GOD,
who was incessantly revoked by every thinking inhabitant,
gave us credit with some French merchants, who supplied
our armies with great and small arms, ammunition and
cloathing. But this was not all. HE who intended Ame-
rica for what it now is, and promises to be, would not do
his work by halves; but put it into the heart of the King
of France, an absolute Sovereign, and at that time ruling a
people devoted to him and monarchy, to take by the hand,
on the broad basis of equality, a number of colonies, deem-
ed to be in wanton rebellion against their lawful Sovereign ;
make a common cause with them; send fleets, armies, and
all things necessary; and to continue a vigorous co-operation
with America, till her independence should be secured. I
again call on my country to remark a coincidence of pro-
vidence never to be forgotten. A plan was concerted be-
twixt America and France, to entrap Lord Cornwallis in
Virginia. A French fleet arrived at Rhode-Island, with
all things necessary for a siege; a superiour British fleet lay
at New- York. Another French fleet was ordered to Vir-
ginia from the West-Indies. General Clinton could have
rein-
[ 55 ]
reinforced Lord Cornwallis; but was diverted from it by
the address of the American General, who threatened to
attack New- York. Had the British fleet intercepted the
French on their passage from New-Port — had contrary
winds prevented DeG rasse's arrival in the Chesapeak — had
he not defeated the fleet that was sent to drive him from it —
had he not been furnished with ships, to carry the combined
army from the head of the bay to James-Town , the whole
plan must have miscarried; Britain would have escaped the
greatest blow it ever received; the war been protracted,
and its issue rendered doubtful. But this surrender, with
its attendant losses, had in time the desired effect: the Bri-
tish nation became tired of the war and its enormous expen-
ces. A general treaty took place, in which Britain acknow-
ledged the independence of the American States, which the
other nations of Europe did soon after. A constitution was
formed by the united Avisdom of our country, which after
some time was adopted by all the states. Under its happy
influence they have flourished ever since in peace, prosperity
and reputation — and the population of our western territory
has never been equaled since the first ages of the world.
O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint
Americanos! Virgil.
But we have those who know not their happiness, or who
knowing, would blast it. I must here bear my testimony a -
gainst a late production of a malignant pen, who treats the
first character of the age with a degree of scurrility, which
nothing but malace and envy could dictate; and shall only say
of him, what the Spectator does of the author of a discourse
on Freethinking : "If ever man deserved to be denied the
common blessings of fire and water, it is the writer of a
piece signed BeUisarius." The boundaries of the states, as
fixed by treaty, are as follow: From the mouth of the river
St. Croix, in the Bay of Fundy, up the said river, and con-
tinue a, north course to the ridge tha.t divides the waters that
run into the Atlantic, from those of the St. Lawrance; and
along the same a southwest direction to lake Champlain ; and
thence a western course to the river St. Lawrance, the
boundary line betwixt the United States and the British do-
minions in Canada being supposed to run through the mid-
dle of the lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, lake Superiour, and
to the lake of the Woods ; from whence it takes a western
course to the head waters of the Missisippi, and down that
river to lat. 31; thence an east course to the mouth of the
river
[ 56 ]
river St. Mary's, leaving east and west Florida to the south.
On the east the United States are everywhere bounded by
the Atlantic ocean. As to their extent, the post roads along
the eastern coast, measure 1470 miles; but from the north-
east corner to the southwest on the Missisippi, must be 1800;
and from the mouth of St. Mary's to the northwest corner
cannot be less. An east and west line from the mouth of the
Delaware to the mouth of the Missouri may be 800 miles.
The United States resemble the printed Y — the lower end
of the stem, the south line; the Atlantic ocean on the right,
Missisippi on the left, and Canada the part cut out betwixt
the points, but with a wider angle. New-England composes
the northeastern division of the United States, New-Hamp-
shire, Massachusets, Vermont, Rhode-Island and Connecti-
cut constitute this division : Maine is considered as the north-
ern part of Massachusets. In length about 550 miles, and
200 in breadth. Bounded on the northeast by Nova-Scotia,
on the north by Canada, on the west by New- York, and o
the east by the Atlantic. Their rivers are the Penobscot
Kannebeque, Saco, Piscataway, Merimac, Patuxent, Thames
and Connecticut. The last river runs through, and is o
vast use to the states of New-Hampshire, Massachusets anc
Connecticut, where it mouths. Their principal bays anc
harbours are Penobscot, Casco and Piscataway bays — the
fine harbours of Boston, West-harbour and Rhode-Island i
The chief places of trade and navigation are Penobscot, Hal
lifax and Wiscasset on the Kennebeque, Brunswick, Casco,
Wells, York, Piscataway, Portsmouth the capital of New-
Hampshire, where that state touches the Atlantic — Salisbury
on the Merimac, Ipswich, Salem, Charles-Town, Boston in
lat. 42 25, Cituate. Plymouth, Sandwich, Barnstable, the
island of Nantucket. In Rhode-Island, Newport and Pro-
vidence. In Connecticut, New-London on the Thames,
Lyme and Hartford on the great river, and farther west are
New-Haven, Milford, &c. This virtuous and industrious
people make a wise and proper use of the advantages their
soil and seaports give them. As they abound with fine tim-
ber and naval stores of all kinds, they carry on ship-build-
ing to a great extent, which enables them not only to ex-
port their own numerous productions and manufactures, but
to be the carriers for other states, and even for Europe.
By this they carry on a most extensive fishery, from the
whale to the herring, for thousands of leagues along the
coast of North and South America; which fish and oil they
send
[ 57 ]
send to Europe, and sell ship and cargo. Education is much
encouraged in those states. The religion of New-England
is chiefly Calvanistic and Presbyterian, as might be conjec-
tured from the first inhabitants flying to the asylum oi frozen
forests and Indian savages, from the oppressions of the Eng-
lish church: but religious liberty is the glorious peculiarity
of the United States. In the year 1790, the inhabitants of
these states amounted to 1,010,000 souls, and not 4000 slaves
among them. They send 29 members to the Congress
House of Representatives. It has been remarked, that dur-
ing the very heat of our contest with Britain, the Assembly
of Massachusets passed an act establishing a philosophical
society, for the promotion of the study of the natural histo-
ry, and antiquities of America; and to promote agriculture,
commerce, and every art and science, that may promote the
honour, interest and happiness of a great and free people. —
Boston is defended by a strong castle, at the entrance of their
spacious harbour.
New-York offers next, 300 miles in length, extending
from the mouth of Hudson to Canada, north and south, and
150 miles in breadth, from New-England on the east, to
New- Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the lakes on the west and
south-west. This state owns Long-Island and Statan-Island .
The city of New- York stands on York-Island, in lat. 40 40,
at the mouth of Hudson's river, a noble stream three miles
wide at the city; up and down which they carry on a great
trade with the city of Albany, 150 miles up; and with
many other places towards the lakes and Canada. The
productions and exports of this state are nearly the same
with those of New-England ; large quantities of provisions,
naval stores, furs, pot and pearl ashes, &c. The population
of New-York is about 340,000, 21,000 of them slaves,
which entitles them to ten members in the representation
of the United States. Religion in New- York is perfectly
free.
New- Jersey follows next, 160 miles in length and 55 in
width, bounded on the west by Delaware, on the south and
east by the Atlantic, and on the north by Staten-Island
sound, Hudson's river and New- York. Its rivers are De-
laware, Passaick and Raritan. Its towns are Burlington,
twenty miles above Philadelphia on Delaware, north lat.
40 8. Trenton still higher up; and on the east and north-
east Doncaster, Amboy; Brunswick and Elizabeth-Town.
New-Jersey being a peninsula, is very convenient to navi-
H gation.
[ 58 ]
gallon. But New- York on one side and Philadelphia on
the other, draw the trade to them. They however ex-
port provisions and lumber, and they possess the richest cop-
per mine in the United States. In the year 1746 a College
was established with university privileges, first at Newark
and now at Princeton. It has greatly flourished under the
Presidents Dickinson, Burr, Edwards, Davies, Finlay,
Witherspoon, and now does under the presidency of Dr.
S. S. Smith, lately and unanimously chosen to that import-
ant station. Religion is free in Jersey; and their number*
by the census taken in 1790, were 185,000, slaves making
the 17th part. They send five representatives to Congress.
Pennsylvania comes next in course, about 280 miles in
length, from Delaware river which separates it from Newr-
Jersey and New-York, on the east, to the lands ceded to
the United States by the treaty this year, on the west; and
from Maryland on the south, to the Six Nations on the north,
220 miles in breadth. This extensive and fruitful state has
much land carriage; but by their fine rivers Delaware,
Schuylkill and Susquehanna, they are excellently situated
to export their numerous and valuable productions, to wit,
ships and provisions of all kinds. The farmers are chiefly
cloathed with their own manufactures. Their towns are
not so numerous as those of New-England; but Gen nan -
Town, Chester, Y'ork, Lancaster, Carlisle, and some others
are populous and thriving. But Philadelphia on the Dela-
ware is the most regular and populous city in America . It
lies in the 40th degree of north latitude, and 75 20 west
longitude from London; which by my calculation, brings
it 3450 miles west, and 800 south of the capital of England.
Their population in 1790 were 435,000, of whom the slaves
made about the 120th part. No religious establishment ever
took place in Pennsylvania. On the basis of civil and reli-
gious liberty, did that wise legislator and statesman William
Penn, lay the foundation of his infant colony, which drew
such multitudes from Europe, especially Presbyterians from
the north of Ireland, by whom the western parts of the
middle and southern states are chiefly peopled. This state
is represented by thirteen members in Congress.
The three counties of Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex, com-
pose a little maritime state by the name of Delaware, as they
lie to the south-west of the bay of that name. It is bounded
by Maryland on the west and south. Its chief town is Wil-
mington. It is so like Pennsylvania it needs no farther de-
scription.
L 59 1
scription. It is in length 90 miles, in breadth 24. Its po-
pulation 60,000, of which slaves make near 9000; and has
one representative in Congress.
Maryland has Pennsylvania on the north, Delaware state
and the Atlantic on the east, on the south and south-west it
is separated from Virginia by the river Patomac, and has
the Apalachian mountains to the west. Its length from east
to west 210 miles; its width is very unequal, but where
widest 140 miles. The rivers of Maryland are the Sassa-
frass, Severn, Patuxent, Patomac, and many smaller
streams, which with Chesapeak bay piercing it from side to
side, renders it, like its neighbour Virginia, but one great
harbour. The productions of both states shall be mentioned
together. The first settlement of Maryland was by a colony
of Roman Catholics, who were brought over by the propri-
etor Lord Baltimore, who had prudence and moderation
enough to grant liberty of conscience to all professions,
which drew great numbers to Maryland, who have greatly
improved it and built some towns, Annapolis the capital,
but Baltimore the chief place of trade. In this state the city
of Washington is laid off and building, as the seat of govern-
ment of the United States. Their population five years ago
was 320,000, of which the slaves made nearly one third.
They have eight members in the Congress House of Repre-
sentatives. Religion is free in Maryland; but all who are
appointed to lucrative offices must subscribe their belief of
the Christian religion.
Virginia is bounded on the north-east by Patomac, on
the east by the Atlantic, on the south by North-Carolina,
and on the west by Kentuckey. Its length was originally
from the Atlantic to the Missisippi 750 miles, but Kentuckey
being cut off it may be half that length, and 240 miles wide.
The great rivers Patomac, Rappahannock, York and James
river, with their numerous branches, and many other
streams, render this state as convenient for navigation as if
it was an island. The exports of Virginia and Maryland
are tobacco, wheat, Indian corn, flour, pork, beef, lumber,
naval stores, iron, &c. Sir Walter Raleigh first sent a co-
lony to Virginia, but they were cut off, as were several suc-
ceeding adventurers; till Lord Delaware came over in per-
son, with such supplies as established the colony, the first
that was settled by Britain in America. Their tobacco ren-
dered this country numerous and wealthy, though all religi-
ous professions had to support established Episcopacy, and all
British
[ 60 ]
British America belonged to the diocese of London. Vir-
ginia took a leading part in all the contests of America with
Britain; and during the grand struggle, the Assembly though
mostly Episcopalians, wisely and generously let down their
church to a level with their Christian brethren. Their nu-
merous rivers being accessible to shipping an hundred miles
up, renders great towns unnecessary in that large state;
they however, carry on a great trade from Norfolk, Pe-
tersburg, Richmond, Manchester, Fredericksburg and other
towns on their fine rivers. The population of Virginia in
1790, was 750,000; in this number the proportion of slaves
to whites is as one to two and an half. This state sends
nineteen members to the House of Representatives of the
United States. Latitude of Richmond about 38°.
North-Carolina has Virginia on the north, by a dividing
line in 36° 30', South-Carolina on the south, and the At-
lantic ocean on the east. It extended to the Missisippi, but
the Assembly gave up its western territory to the United
States. The southern line is in 35° till it turns to the south-
east, and extends on the sea coast about 200 miles. Its
chief rivers are Pasquotank, Chowan, Roanoak, Tar-river,
Neuse and Cape-Fear. Its rivers and exstensive coast, ren-
der it as convenient for trade as any of its sister states, if
the entrance from the ocean were not shallow and sandy ;
which confines the trade to small vessels; but Cape-Fear ad-
mits ships of any burden. The productions of this state are
numerous and valuable. It sends by land to Virginia annu-
ully, 6 or 7000 hogsheads of tobacco; and exports a number
from its own inspections. Its other exports are wheat,
flour, pease, beef, pork, butter, cheese, lumber, pitch, tar,
turpentine, and I wish I could add to the exports of my
country pot and pearl ashes, which it is well calculated to
produce. The numerous landings in this state, are also un-
friendly to large towns. It has however, some small towns
on navigation, as Halifax, Edenton, Washington, Tarbo-
rough, Newbern, Fayetteville, and Wilmington, besides
some inland towns that are represented in the Assembly. The
seat of Government is fixed at the city of Raleigh, in Wake
county, in latitude thirty-five and an half, where the Legi-
slature hold their Assemblies, and the officers of Government
chiefly reside. A University is established by act of Assem-
bly, in Orange county, with liberal appointments by the
state, and numerous benefactions. It is yet in its infancy,
has about sixty students, and is under the government of
good
[ 61 ]
good and learned men, must prove an extensive blessing, as
well as an honour to the state. What can more loudly call
for the prayers of all good people, than that GOD's blessing
may reside on our principal seat of learning, from which
fountain are to flow those streams, that must poison, or pu-
rify and nourish our country. Its short progress has been
rapid ; may its success be glorious ! The population of this
state in 1790, was 394,000, and the proportion of whites to
slaves nearly as three to one. North Carolina sends ten re-
presentatives to Congress, besides two Senators, which is
common to all the states. Religion is here also happily
free.
South-Carolina is bounded on the north and north-east by
North-Carolina, on the south and south-west by Georgia,
and on the east by the Atlantic, with a sea coast about 200
miles, from North-Carolina to the mouth of Savanna river,
which separates it from Georgia. My map gives it a fron-
tier to the Missisippi of two degrees in width, but Georgia
claims a large part of it. The chief rivers of this state are
Pedee, Santee, Cooper, Ashly, Edisto and Savanna. The
Carolinas were first granted to proprietors, but the Crown
bought them all out, but Lord Granville.
Charleston was the first spot the adventurers pitched on
for a residence, and it has grown up to a beautiful city, and
a place of great trade. It has some other towns, as Cam-
bridge, Camden, George-Town, and Columbia their seat of
Government. The productions of this wealthy state are rice,
indigo, wheat, Indian corn, pease, tobacco, cotton, beef,
<fec. Charleston lies in latitude 32 45. Some attempts have
been made to establish seminaries of learning in this state,
but with little effect. Education is however encouraged in
private academies, and gentlemen's sons finish at some north-
ern college. Five years ago the population of South-Caro-
lina was 250,000, and nearly five whites to two blacks;
which gives them a representation of six members in Con-
gress.
Georgia is about 500 miles in length, from the Atlantic
ocean on the east, to Missisippi on the west; and from the
line that divides the United States from east and west Flori-
da, in latitude 31, to the southern line of North-Carolina,
is four degrees or 278 miles on a meridian ; but I am yet to
learn how much of this Georgia claims. The principal ri-
vers of this state, are Savanna, which separates it on the
north-east from South -Caroli na ; Ogeeche, Altamaha, and
St.
[ 62 ]
St. Mary's which divides it from Florida. These all flow
into the Atlantic. On the west it has Apalachicola, Mobile,
Pearl river, and others, that flow into the gulph of Mexico;
and the Yasoua that runs into Missisippi. The productions
and exports of this state are the same with those of South -
Carolina. The Altamaha and Savanna rivers make good
harbours. Their towns are Savanna, Fred erica and Sun-
bury, on the coast; and Augusta, the seat of Government,
a great distance up the Savanna . In the census taken in
1790, the inhabitants of Georgia were 83,000, and the pro-
portion of slaves to the whites as 30 to 53. This state sends
two members to the Congress House of Representatives.
The South Western Territory contained 36,000, of whom
not quite a tenth were slaves.
The United States five years ago contained in round num-
bers, 4,000,000 of souls; the slaves were 700,000; free
people of colour 60,000. The slaves were then to the free
as 7 to 33, a little more than one to five. Mr. Hodge's
new Almanack will gratify political arithmeticians, not only
in the proportion of the sexes, but it will prove the age of
sixteen to be a good medium, at which to divide the living
numbers of the human race. Of sixteen and upwards, the
white males 824,000; under sixteen, 803,000. White fe-
males of all ages, 1,560,000. This proclaims a superin-
tending providence over the sexes, as in all ages and nations
more males than females are born. With us, the difference
is about as 32 to 31. It is sometimes as high as 21 to *20: —
A most wise provision for the hazardous occupations of the
males by sea and land, in war and peace! If it be granted
that we double our numbers in twenty-two years, without
any supplies from other nations, I must believe, from the
many omissions that must have happened when the numbers
were taken; from the vast increase in our healthy inhabit-
ants; and from the numerous arrivals from the despotism of
Europe, I must believe, I say, the number of souls within
the United States, at the close of 1795, must equal or ex-
ceed 5,000,000.
May piety, virtue, honour, truth and justice increase in
full proportion; and let all the people say, AMEN.
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