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The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmte A des taux de reduction diff6rents. Lorsque Ie document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clich6, il est film6 A partir de Tangle supArieur gauche, de gauche A droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant Ie nombre d'images nicessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mithode. by errata ned to lent une pelure, fapon d 1 2 3 32X jr'-P'M lliimpi' mmm-^ z^-- .\i^ t-.*. WITH Contaiuing AN ACCOUNT OF SEVERAL OF THE INDIAN TRIBES, VND THE PRINCIPAL MCjSIONARY STATIONS, Sic ALSO, A LETTER TO Jtf. JEAJV BAPTISTS SAY, ON THE COMPARATIVE EXPENSE or FREE AND SLAVE LABOUR. By ADAM HODGSON, Esq. of Liverpool, Eno. Collected, arranged, and published by SAMUEL WHITING. NEW- YORK 1823. %■ ■} \ {4 I -; «^«*4S Soutlitrn Oistrtvt vj iSni- t'urx, u. BK IT RKMKMBERKI), That on the first day ol Nuveiubei', in tlie lorly-«;ij;iili year of the liutepeiiilencn of thu IJniteil Stiiles of America, Samuel Whiting, of the said l)i9trict, hath deposited in this otKce the title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as author and proprietor, in the words followiiij;. to wit : •' Remarks during a Jouriitiy through North America, in the years 1819, 1820, and 1821. In a scries of letters : with an appendix containin?; an acrou.nt nf several of the Inilian I II a ^*UrK'S Ul IfTiici-^' n iLii III n}r)>ciitii A i.,«iiiaiuiii^ ni. ... . .^. .,, ,,,«. .(...lu,, Iritips, and the principle missionary .^laiions, 8ic. also a letter to M. Jean Baptiste Say, on the iiimparative expense of free and slave labour. By Adam Hodg.son, Esq. of Liver- pool, Kng. Oorrectcd, arranged, and puhli-lied by Simiiel Whiting." ,. — r......:,.. >,. .1,,. t„i ..r # „ , f ifj,, |i,|jiei] ^,tates, entitled. An Act for the In coiiforinity to the Act of (.'ongrt'^.^ i.i 'm: fuMcu .iLaic-s, imjihicii, •■ ^ii Acciorme eui'ouraiii'ineul of l/camiuj?. by securing the copies of Alaps, Chart.s, and Books, to the au- thors and proprietors of such copie?, dnri'i,';. the time therein menlioiiad." And also to an Act, entitled " an Act, supplemt^ntaiy to an Act, entitled an Act for the encourage- meril of I,earniuv;, by securing the copies of Map-J, t'lwil". ami Books, to the au'hnr.i and proprietors of such copies, ilurinr; thi iml'il' lliereoffo lUc.nil'; of de'iguin - —I .- — -... And also an Act, supplemt^ntaiy to an Act, entitled an Act for the encourage- ' ~ •• - • ■• 'laps, t'lmil". ami Books, to tliftau* tiULOs (herein nieiitinncd, and extendiii;: the be- le'iuuin^. enpraving, and etching hi.-.torical and other prints " JAMtjlJII.L, Chrk nf lUr Southern UiHrirt nf p;oi-Y,irk: •1. HiifMOU'p, pi-iiiier, l'.' .'ohii iH»(;' w^m:.'-'Ww^-'>^-;f^'r « t ADVERTISEMENT. In presenting to the American public the pre- sent vohime, the Editor flatters himself that he is subserving the cause of truth, benevolence, and piety. The Letters of Mr. Hodgson, written during his extensive journeyings through this country, were originally published in the [London] Christian Ob- server. Emanating from a source so respectable, and communicated through a medium of such high authority, the publication of these Letters may be considered as the commencement of a new and bet- ter era, in the views and feelings of the people of Great Britain towards the United States — feelings, which every good man will rejoice to find are tri- umphing over the old and inveterate prejudices of other days. To these Letters, the Editor has added an Ap- pendix, containing two other interesting documents from the same hand. The first is an account of the American Indians^ or rather of those Tribes which the author visited in his tour, viz. the Creeks, the Choctaws, the Chickasaws, and the Cherokees; and an interesting view of the Missionary esta- blishments at Elliot and Brainerd : this part of Mr. ■*4- '.< * ,6^- fe^- . . v" * .;.' * " . I V^ % • IV ADVERTISKMEN T. Hodgson's book will be read with high gratification by tlie friends of Missions to the Heathen ; and it is hoped also, with profit^ by those who have been either indifferent or hostile to these benevolent ef- forts to civilize, and to christianize, the poor be- nighted and degraded children of the forest. The other document is " a Letter to M. Jean Baptiste Say, on the comparative expense of Free and Slave labour." This letter involves a question of vast impor- tance to the cause of Africa, and the emancipation of the millions of her wretched and injured sons. The facts and reasonings adduced by Mr. Hodg- son, must have a powerful tendency to correct iome of those fake premises and worse deductions which con- stitute the strong hold of JVcgro Slavery,, and which do still oppose the principal obstacles in the way of universal emancipation. On the whole, it is presumed that the present vo- lume will be received with peculiar favour by the American public. The writer is a partner of a mercantile house of extensive business, liberal views, and great respectability, in Liverpool. And those who shall read what he has here written, will not require to be told that he is a scholar, a philan- thropist, and a Christian, I New-York, Nov. 1, 1823. I COi\TExM> Ll.llfcR I. i'iiiidclL'lpliia. Emigration, t(. the Vinwr Mates, »'> (..iiiud.i— difticulties and expenses — govLiiiineiital ;;raiiis ol land — Ices of oflir.u— hardships of new settlers, tiieii i;raflu;il iiniaoveimiu, kr. ]ui<^e 't LettbII 2. Philadelphia. Canada, its iinpoitnncc, soil, si.uiuMy, 'liniaic-- comparison with Southern imbils — state of IVew-Yoik. 1" Letter 3. Norfolk. Emigiation— Uirkbeck's si:ttlenn;iit — ctroncous esti mates — agriculture — domestic manufactures. 21 Letter 4, Norfolk. Birkbetk's seltlcmont — error ciir>r( ted — nianuf.iL- tures — Ohio, its advantages, produce, and value ol land^ — CiiiUicoiin;, boarding-school — depreciation of real estate— provisions — labour — valui- of slaves at Norfolk. ^^ Letter 5. New-York. .FourneytVom naltiinorr — V'ork — l.icc of the tonn- ^ try — buildings — Germans — stage-driver — cheapnr-s of hiboor — C'rrck Val Joy — value of estates Sustjuehaiuiali — l,ani:a,tur — Liiil.heck — Pliiladi'l- phia. »<» Letter 6. New.York. nrliy,ion and morals of the rnilcrl Stairs — The- ological Institution at Andover — Hartford — Ncu-Haven — Vale Collet;e — Dr. Morse — Dr. Worcester — Bisiiop Wliito — Siiuday-uchiuil for iiliuks at Baltimore — preaching in capitol at Wasliin;;ton — tomb of (Jen. VVashinjj- ton — Judge Washii.gton — (Jolonizatiou Society — f"hri tian slavrs-Misn Smelt — negro funeral and sermon — Clarke's Bible — Divine service in tlic woods — Missionary settlement at Brainerd and Valoo L!u.-lia--\h. Kings- bury — midnight scene — a comparison — style of preaching — iiitlucnce of a missionary spirit — New-Orleans — a contrast. 1" -Hos- Kev. tjti Letter 8. Salem. Unitarianism — Dr. Morse's pamiiidi;l—Chap(ds- ton — reasons of the e.xtension of Uiiitariaiiisiii — opposing; inlliiiiH «•- Mr. Dwight — Dr. .Tarvis — Cambridge Cullege, \:c. Letter 9. Salem. Morals tad mamicvs of thr l.nitHiJ Sntr, divnsiiy of — intemperonce — female dcrorinn — crimes, coiiHastf'd — Cjusiom-hoiise- bribes, unknown — smuggling — insolvent laws — lo!ti,ri''.---/,amniMi;j, ^lio;,- — profanity — beauties of tiie iVIississipni scenery, cnntrafltd wiili its moral pollutions— a A'ew-Eiiglaiid town. '•''^ Letter 10. Philadelphia. American rluiracter— lewdutionaiy iifiui'.--- political characters — ladico — lower classes — roldnfss ol' nuuiii'M.s — variety — inquisitivencss — spitting — profusion at rjieals- IcMidnecs ami iio^piuility — false ideas of American character — po'.v(:r of (Jhrictian syn.pathy — Ca- nada and United States, a cuirtrust. )^l Letter 11. Charleston. Missouri i|Uf:lioii Alexandria — Ocfi'jua:. — Fredericksburgh — liichnioiid — inns — land!or(li--lo'^-h' :i.ie; --.lavi- | uiin!:! - tiau — renectiuns — the Capitol — Peti':-i;iii};h — dcjti/plioii of a .louiliein inn— tobacco — Virginia estates — l^'leivh — I''ay'.'t!'HddR — ('ha r If. tun ■• mail coacli — misrepresentations of lajgli.-h tiavellcrs — faro of tiio Loiui'ry — clearing land — turpentine — larpi'a — view of Chaiirfton. 9*! Letter 12. Charleston. Rice plantation of '-pu. , iir aMn-:-* iiubits and treatment of slaves — viewi — aOLiuty — races — .aiiunior e.sci.'!- uns — yellow fever — sale of slaves — reHectious — IIumiKldt's T; tract. ;Cls II l.f'l rKK }'t. Mobile. CliarlestPn--Sabl3th^-^iavr ., tiujr lu; loias — ;-^i- K.ii.i_-;ifi,;...iprc — murdfrar yf D/- r«uii':-iv — .Mri, li;i.>iisi'v — Cci. Lumvus -i ■sUff VI ONTKNT^. r i li -Savatiniili — rue — donations — Augusta, face of the ((uiiiiry — liotel—c (un- paiiy — cotton phtntalion — lefliictioti.s — journey to JVew-Oileans — country inn — schools — hooks -Ian; — Ogpchcc river — Sabbatli negro worshii)— Millffl(»i'villc' gn'at fiei.hi'1 piiwiniMb employment of blaves— Fort Hawkins — OukinuJui.'c — ('iirek Iiolians — ;;anii,s of slaves — Flint rivnr — Te- cunistli, liis iiidntiiie over thf Creek Indians in the late uar — refluclions — Lime Creek — erninranls. — crossing rivpis — Point Comfort — had roads — Fort Dale — library — Indian nniriiers — Mnnlri (^reek — road to Blakoly — public >chools — solitary liarren — hurricane — swamps— nigiit scenes — fire iliiis — Blakely— Mobile. lf}» l.BTTKR 14. JVntrlirr. Blakely nnd Mcihile — prospertivc wealth of Ala- bama — men and manners — treatment of siaviv^ — yellnw fever — passanc to New-Orleans — bay of St. Louis — the Mississippi — population and manners of New-Orleans — l)()trdini;-h(nise — pnnishnu.nl of slavi's — improviiifi, -tate of inoralF — passage to Natchrz — views — moiitlis of the Mississippi — alli- gators — plantejs and sawyers — anivalat Natchez — hoarding-huuse — fo- rest trees — state of society — shooting slaves — rellections. l.'i Letter 15. Natchez. Slave trade — reflections — riifijcultiesof eniancipn- tion — increase of slaves — preaching to slave.'-— inslructifui of slaves pr tlifi co\irso o( (Jip yi emigration had become so interesting hefore I left England, that it was natural that Ifi a journey of nearly 8000 miles in the New World, ;ihout I BOO o( whicli I performed on horseback, that subject should en- U'age much of my attention. 1 was by no means qualified, either by previous habits or intbrmation, to avail myself fully of the valuable opportunities of observation which I enjoyed ; but I made a few general remarks on the subject, in my «;orrespondence with my brother ; and having found, on my arrival a( home, that he had preserved my letters, it has occuired to me, that, su- perficial as my knowledge was on many parts of the subject, I might possibly add something to the general stock of information on a question .so peculiarly interesting at a time in which so many persons have beeu under the painful necessity of deciding on the eligibility of expatriating rliemsclves, in order to find in the new world a freedom from those cares under which they were sinking in the old. If on perusing the letters I send you— which are copied, I believe, without any alteration, except where there are personal allusions — it should be compatible with your plans to insert them in the Christian Observer, they are quite at your service. At a future time I may, perhaps, trouble you with some remarks ou the religion and morals of the United States, if I persude myself tliey will be of any interest. Although I most decidedly prefer my own country, I feel that very great injustice has been done to America by most of our travellers and journalists ; and I was gratified to perceive, that the Christian Observer, in the true spirit which becomes its character, was the first to endeavour to establish a more correct, as well as a more candid and liberal appreciation of that interesting and powerful, though in some respect-j Aivnl nation. \DA^I HODCwSOV \V wmM'-i'^^'^' r#^. *i/f A^i^ ^^^ REMARKS, &t. LETTER I. Philadelphia, JVov. C, 1820. Neither am I able to write to you as Cully as I could desire on the subject of emigration to the United Slates^ upon which you say you should wish to hear what occurs to me. On this difficult and interesting topic, I will enter more particular- ly shortly ; and, in the mean time, will send you the result of my observations on the inducements which Canada appeared to me to offer to English labourers and other persons of little or no proper- ty. Those observations were necessarily both ra- pid and superficial ; and my information is propor- tionably scanty, although I endeavoured to seize every opportunity of obtaining intelligence. The lands which the Government is at present distributing in Upper Canada lie parallel to the St. Lawrence and the Lakes, and constitute a range of townships in the rear of those already granted. They are said to be no where above ten or fifteen miles distant from the old settlements. Land offices are established in ten different dis- tricts, in order to save the emigrants the trouble of going up to York ; but their power is restricted to grants of a hundred acres. When an emigrant .Ju <^[|^jrTm^^3^1^1ie townalR) in \^^icn ne wishes to s^ S S^^W IM^tfrWwPffcCTPwtth the necessary f'ormali- Ijl^lp t^lftop ation-ticket for a par- icfeR^^^a a condition that he is not to dispose of them for three years. The title is not given till he has performed his settling du- ties ; which are, to clear five acres in each hun- dred, and the half of the road in front. Now these certainly appear to be very easy conditions on which to obtain the fee-simple of a hundred acres: and the proposal to emigrate must therefore be a tempting one to a starving labourer or mechanic. The real ind'icements, however, are so much less than the apparent ones, that although many wouKl wisely emigrate even with a full conviction of the difficulties they had to encounter, I believe that, at present, there is not one emigrant in five hundred who does not feel bitterly disappointed on his arrival at Quebec, .'nstead of finding himself, as his confused ideas of geography had led him to expect, on the very borders of his little estate, he learns with astonishment that he is still five hun- dred miles from his transatlantic acres; and, if he h;is no money in his pocket, he may probably have to encounter, in reaching them, more severe dis- tress than he ever felt at home. There is indeed much benevolent feeling towards emigrants both at Quebec and Montreal ; and societies have been formed in each of these places, to afford them in- formation and relief; but the inhabitants are be- ginning to complain that the requisitions for this purpose are becoming more burdensome than even the English poor-rates. The steam-boat compa- « / / ^ % « • 11 nios are also liboral ; (indeed almost every man oi property feels a personal inter'est in the e'nOTtir- ^ ai;ement of emigration ;) hut an emigrant must be unusually forturmte who reaches the Land Office in Upper Canada, without expending at least 5/. after landing at Quebec. The emigrants who ac- companied us in the steam-boat in which I ascend- ed the St. Lawrence, were some of those lately sent out free of expense by our GovcrruTient; but there was or e, a smart shoe-maker, not of that number, wh«) had been detained some weeks at Quebec earning money to carry him up the river. When thp emigrant arrives at the Land Office of the district where he proposes to settle, deter- mined perhaps in his choice by the hope that his lot will place him in the vicinity of an old acquaint- ance, he may probably have to wait some weeks before the next distribution takes place; during which he must be supporting himself at an expense increased by his ignorance of the manners of the country. He then learns, perhaps for the first time, that there are certain fees to be paid at the different offices through which his papers must pass. I have a list of these before me, in which they are stated to be, For 100 Acres - - - £ 5 14 1 200 do. - - . 16 17 6 300 do. . - . 39 19 9 1000 do. - - - 78 10 2 1 was however informed, by several persons from York with whom I crossed Lake Ontario, one of whom said he was in the habit of transact- inff this business fur the eniiirrat)1s. llmt. for a hiin- \ f 12 dred acres, the fees were 13/. \0s. This 1 men- i tiaflfed to the Sheriff and several of the principal merchants at Montreal, who did not dispute it ; •one of them observing only that he believed there had been cases in which grants of 50 acres were made without fees.* It is much to be regretted that where land is said to be gratuitously bestow- ed, awy fees should be deemed necessary; as the boon, when accompanied with this demand, is calculated to produce discontent rather than gra- titude, especially where the emigrant finds that his fees amount to one half the sum at which he could select and buy the same quantity of land, without the delay attending the grant, and un- shackled with any conditions or clearing dues. The surveyors receive their compensation in land, and generally secure the most valuable portions. When I was in Canada, they would sell their best lots at one dollar per acre ; while 13/. \0s. the fees on a hundred acres, amount to more than half a dollar per acre. I never met with any one person among all those with whom I conversed on the subject, who did not agree that, if a settler had but a very little money, it would be much more to his advantage to buy land, than to receive it from government. Supposing the emigrant to be able to pay his fees, he may still have the misfortune to find that his allotment (for he can only choose his township, not his estate,) is not worth cultivating. In this case he has to pay two respectable persons for ■^ •'' I believe grants ofSO acres are generally, or alway?, to be obtain- ed without fees. IJ 1- li i e e d e 3 I ■it surveying and certifyihg it to be irreclaimable f and he is then permitted to take his chance in the next distribution. Generally speaking, I believe he may expect to find himself in his own forest from three to six weeks after his arrival at the Land Office in Upper Canada. Even then his situation is most dreary, especial- ly if he has no neighbour within a reasonable dis- tance, and has to purchase and carry his provi- sions from a remote settlement. But if he has no money to procure food ; if he has a wife and family to provide for, without the forlorn hope of parish assistance; if he is a weaver or a spinner, accus- tomed to warm rooms, and to employments little calculated to impart either the mental or physical qualifications essential to his very support; if he is, in fact, of a class to which a large proportion of the poor emigrants from Great Britain belong, i can hardly conceive any thing more distressing than his sensations, when, arriving on his new es- tate, with an axe in his hand and all his worldly goods in his wallet, he finds himself in the midst of a thick forest, whose lofty trees are to be dis- placed by a labour almost Herculean, before he can erect the most humble shelter, or cultivate the smallest patch. And if at such a time he has fur- ther to anticipate the rigours of a long Canadian winter, his situation must be deplorable in the ex- treme. Under such circumstances, which I should ima- gine are the ordinary circumstances o( the poorc.sl emigrants to Canada, I can conceive of no resource, nor could I hear of any. except that of hiring them- 14 Selves to some older settler, in the hope of saving a trifle in order to be able, in the course of time, to pay for clearing an acre or two of their forest farm, or to buy provisions while they attempt a task for which they are little qualified. Some- times a few will join, and one half hire themselves out to obtain provisions for the other half while felling the trees. If they surmount the difficulties of the first year, they may expect at its termination to be in possession of an adequate supply of food for their families ; and with the prospect, if they are industrious, of bring independent and progres- sively prosperous during the remainder of their lives. Those, however, who have money enough to provide for tlieir immediate wants, and to pay the expense of clearing a moderate proportion of their land, (possessing 100/. to 200/. or .500/. for instance,) may, in a single year, be very comfortably settled in a decent log-iiouse with out-buildings, and with every prospect of a liberal supply of all the sub- stantial comforts of a farm. Every year would add hirgely to their abundance, and to their facili- ties for improving and extending their estate; but they would accumulate money but slowly, unless they had, as they probably would have, an occa- sional foreign market for their grain besides the West Indies. They may also derive some little profit from pot and pearl ashes, which Mr. G of Montreal told me he received on consignment from Ohio ; a distance of 800 miles, by way of Lake Erie and Ontario. The situation of the Up- per Canadas ia further said to be favourable to 15 the (3uUure of" hemp, notwithstaiifling the failure hitherto of the most promising experiments. Grain, however, will be their staple commodity ; and although the large body of settlers who arrive annually may afford a temporary market, they will soon produce far more than they consume, and under ordinary circumstances will depress the prices very nearly to a level with the cost of pro- duction. Indeed I heard the farmers of Lower Canada complaining that their markets were glut- ted with the produce of the Upper Province. For several years the average price of wheat in Upper Canada has been about five shillings for sixty pounds; but on the American shores of the Lake we found it at twenty-five to thirty-three cents; and although its introduction into Upper Canada is either prohibited or shackled with hea- vy duties, it of course will find its way into the province whenever the price there is materially higher than at home. In the Lower Province, when our ports are open, they consume American grain, and export their own ; as it is necessary their shipments should be accompanied with cer- tificates of Canadian origin. Any interruption to the timber trade would di- minish the market for grain ; since a very large body of consumers are found in the raftsmen, who collect and convey the timber from the lakes and rivers to Quebec, and in the crews of five or six hundred vessels who replenish some part at least of their stores at that port. The raftsmen are in a great measure the link of communication be- tween the Montreal and Quebec merchants on the 16 one hand, and the emigrants and back-woods^men on the other — the channels through which British manufactures flow into the interior, and country produce to the coast. Although, therefore, I have a list before me of fourteen heads of families, with eighty-six children, who, beginLiing the world with nothing but their industry, have, in the course of fifteen or twenty years in Canada, accumulated an aggregate amount of property of 35,500/., about 2500/. each, I conceive that a farmer removing thither from Europe, for the purpose of making money rapidly, would certainly be disappointed. On the other hand, if his object were to prevent the diminution of what little property he actually possessed, and to secure independence for himself and a career of prosperous industry for his children — to pur- chase, by the sacrifice of the many comforts of an old settled country, the advantages of a less crowd- ed population and a cheaper soil — to withdraw from the burdens, without retiring from the pro- tection, of his native land, and without assuming those obligations to another government which might make him the enemy of his own — to settle* though in a distant colony, among his countrymen and fellow-subjects, within means of instruction for his children and opportunies of public worship for his family ; — if these were his objects, and he could bring with him health, temperance, and in- dustry, and one or two hundred pounds, I am per- suaded that in the ordinary course of things, he would be remunerated a thousand fold for his pri- vations. 17 M And, notwithstanding all I have said of the diffi- culties of the early settler without money, a young man of industry, enterprise, and agricuiiural ha- bits, without family, or with the means of leaving them for a year or two with his own or his wife's friends, who should come out to Canada, and hire his services till he could have a log-house built, and two or three acres cleared, would probably find himself in the prime of life an independent farmer on his own estate, with abundance of the necessaries of existence, and with prospects bright- ening as he advanced towards the evening of his days. But the sickly, the shiftless, the idle, the timid, and the destitute, with large families, will, I have no doubt, sutler far less in living from hand to mouth in England, than in encountering the difficulties of emigration to Canada. The soil of Upper Canada is generally extreme- ly good, and the climate, with the exception of a long and severe winter, unobjectionable. To per- sons on the spot, possessed of accurate local infor- mation, opportunies, I have no doubt, occur of making advantageous investments of capital in land on speculation ; but the inducements to such projects will probably be limited, and to a cer- tain degree accidental, while Government con- tinues to grant lands either gratuitously or as a reward for military services. ^ ' 'i 18 LETTER II. < I * Philadelphia, Nov. 2J, 1820, My last letter conveyed to you pretty fully the ideas which occurred to me, in my visit to Cana- da, on the subject of emigration thither. I think 1 did not overstate the privations which emigrants must undergo ; but I am persuaded that, in spite of them all, while it continues under the British Crown, it will be a happy asylum for thousands, who will gradually arrive, through various degrees of suffering and disappointment, at comfort and independence. The facilities and intrinsic value of Canada — the fertility of its soil — the beauty of its scenery, and the salubrity of its climate, greatly surpassed my previous ideas, and, as far as I had an oppor- tunity of judging, the ideas generally entertained in England. Americans also appear to me univer- sally to return to Canada with far higher ideas of its importance than they had before conceived ; though I am strongly of opinio;? that, as an acqui- sition to the United States, riciiher the American government nor people regard it as particularly •* 'i'he cabin, or lending liitn a little (n(li;in corn. These trifling services, especif»lly toan emigrant who has no money with which to pay his lees in Canada, are not only very seducing in prospoct, but essentially contribute to lessen the first and severest difficulties of a new settler. Ultimately, however, I am disposed to think they arc disad- vantageous in the majority of instances; the New- Y'ork settler having to begin .to provide for rent and instalments, (which, even under the alleviated pressure of his situation, it would require both self-denial and good management to save,) at the very time when the Canadian settler is emerging from his greater difficulties, and deriving a liberal subsistence for his family from his own unburden- ed estate. I have been told, that very few per- sons under the former system ultimately maintain possession of their lands; but that, after support- ing themselves and their families in greater or less abundance, they are compelled to abandon their improvements for arrears in rent or instalments, and, joining the forlorn hope on the frontiers, to repeat their laborious and interminable efforts to convert the wilderness into a fruitful field. In passing through the State of New- York, 1 heard a great deal of the distress which at present exists from inability on the part of the emigrar>ls to pay their rents and instalments, and of the hard names which the agents had to bear for proceeding to extremities. Still, however, an active, prudent man, would, under ordinary circumstances, suc- ceed under the system, and probably af^ rapidly at 21 least as in Canada ; but it would require greater self-denial to impose the necessary severities on himself in New-YofiC, than to submit to therawhen unavoidable in Canada. The general observa- tions which I made concerning the classes to whom emigration to Canada would prove a real benefit, are equally applicable to emigration to the United States ; but in a future letter I wiil en- deavour to give you some idea of what farmers, who bring with them a few thousand, instead of a few hundred, pounds, may expect to do in differ- ent parts of the United States. I will, at the same time, tell you all 1 can learn respecting Mr. Birk- beck's settlement. I had not intended to confine this letter to such dry statistics ; but it is too late to begin on any other subject. — ^Jimes, 1 believe, is disposed to think, that he is better at home than in America ; except in his present capacity, in a city where his wages might be ten pounds per annum higher than in England, and where his wife^s services as a dress-maker, fine washer, &c. would be produc- tive. LETTER in. Norfolk, (Virginia,) Dec. 12, 1820. As engagements of various kinds begin to thicken upon me previously to embarking, and I have little chance of any opportunity of writing to vou as I wish^ I must continue to snatch little I 07> intervals as they present themselveti, and write to you as 1 can. You are already in possession of our " person- al narrative" to a late date. I will now continue my remarks, scanty and superficial as I know they are, on the subject of emigration. 1 do not recollect that 1 omitted any thing at all material which occured to me during my hasty progress through the country, with respect to the induce- ments offered to the poorer classes, who are anx- ious to obtain a little land, from which they may derive a subsistence for their families by personal exertion. On the more difficult subject of the advantages which agriculturists, with a capital of a few thousand pounds, would derive from com- ing to this country, I shall enter with greater re- luctance ; because it is one in the minutiae of which I feel still less at home, although I have taken pains to obtain such information as would lead me to conclusions on which I could rely. The fact is, that of the more recent settlements, (even of those less remote than Mr. Birkbeck's,) little is known on the coast, and the accounts which you receive from casual visiters are usual- ly as vague and 'naccurate as those derived from persons interested are exaggerated and partial. Opinions respecting all the settlements, is easy enough to collect ; but facts, on which to found opinions entitled to any consideration, it is ex- tremely difficult to obtain. I have met with two persons only who have actually been at Mr. Birkbeck's settlement; one in the course of the last summer, the other |ps5 4 i«Mm ** i \U !1 h 11 1 k I' \i '2(i than eight weeks since. They both state, that he has now a very comfortable house, excellent fen- ces, and from 60 to 80 acres of Indian corn ; but that he has raised little or no wheat, finding it more desirable, on the whole, to purchase flour at Harmony, eighteen miles distant. 1 have not Mr. Birkbeck^s book before me to refer to, in order to see whether this is his third or fourth year ; but, in either case, the result dif- fers so widely from his anticipations, as to render it difficult for him to elude the charge of being a vild and sanguine speculator. fn one of his estimates, he stated the following as the quantity of produce which a settler on 640 acres, may expect to raise in the first four years : — 1st year, 100 acres of Indian corn. 2d year, 100 ditto ditto. 100 ditto Wheat. 'Ad year, 200 ditto Indian corn. 100 ditto Wheat. 4th year, 200 ditto Indian corn. 200 ditto Wheat. This estimate was made not later, / believe, at any rate than in 181 7, (you can refer to his book :) and yet in the autumn of 1820, he hps little or no wheat, and only 60 or 80 acres of Indian corn, though possessing unquestionably, in his skill and resources, more than the average advantages of new settlers, and stimulated to extraordinary ex- ertions by a regard to his reputation. So much for quantity. With respect to price, in his esti- mate of profit, he takes wheat at seventy-five, and •Jy Indian corn at forty, cents per bustiel. 1 cannoi hear of any actual sales on the Wabash, to fix the prices on the spot; but in both Kentucky and Ohio, wheat is at twenty five to thirty-three, and Indian corn at twelve and a half cents per bush- el : while the fact that he regards it as more de- sirable to buy and transport flour eighteen miles, than to raise it at home, furnishes a strong pre- sumption that he can derive little profit from its cultivation. The gentleman whom I mentioned, as being there a few weeks since, told me that Mr. Birkbeck was preparing to sow a little wheat this winter ; but that he regarded grazing as the most profitable object of his future attention. Of the price of labour, and of foreign articles of domes- tic economy, I could obtain no satisfactory infor- mation. I lately met a gentleman who has been travelling extensively through the western coun- try. He did not visit Mr. Birkbeck^s settlement, but saw two English families returning from it sickly and debilitated ; their inability to preserve their health there being, as they alleged, their principal reason for leaving the colony. He also met an English gentleman of property who had been to examine the place, with a view of taking his family thither : he said, the sight of it, and a conviction that it was unhealthy, decided him at once to relinquish the idea ; that he considered the selection a most unfortunate one for Mr. Birk- beck, and that the number of the colonists did not exceed two hundred. I have heard others speak rather favourably of the healthiness of Mr. Birkheck^s particular spoU k ft *' If i I 28 to which his draining-fences will contribute ; but all represent Illinois in general as a most un- healthy state, where the people for the most part are pallid and emaciated, and exhibit the languor and apathy which follow frequent or long-continu- ed intermittents. I became sadly too familiar with this melan- choly spectacle on my south-western route: scarcely one family in six in extensive districts in the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, being exempt from fever and ague; and many of them exhibiting tall young men of eighteen to thirty moving feebly about the house, completely unfitted for exertion, after fifteen or eighteen months' residence, or rendered indolent or inefficient for the rest of their lives. In Geor- gia and Carolina, we were told in a jocular way, that it was not uncommon for a person who was invited to dinner on a particular day, Wednes- day for instance, to begin reckoning " Monday — Tuesday — Wednesday — No ; I cannot come to you on Wednesday, for that is my fever day." — The two gentlemen who had visited Mr. Birkbeck agreed in stating, what has often been denied, that he has a well of excellent water. On the whole, \ am disposed to think that Mr. Birkbeck's sanguine anticipations have been grie- vously disappointed, and would have been proved by the result to have been extravagant, independ- ently of the recent changes in the circumstances of the country. At the same time, i have no doubt that even his present views of his situation and prospects, moderated as they must be by his 29 past experience^ embraces advantages which in his estimate far outweigh the privations and sa- crifices attending his removal hither, and lead him still to congratulate himself warmly on his change of country. And, indeed, in possession of all the substantial comforts of physical life: re- moved beyond the sphere of those invidious com- parisons which would render him sensible to ar- tificial wants ; exempt from present anxieties, and with a reasonable prospect of leaving every mem- ber of his family independent and prosperous, his situation, in a worldly point of view, is a very comfortable one. I am iiichned however to think, that independently of his ambition to found a colony, and his apparent anxiety while on the move to get as far as possible from his native country — an anxiety for which true English feel- ing finds it difficult to account — he might have in- vested his property in some of the Atlantic States, with as much or more advantage to at least one or two generations of his family, and with a far less sacrifice of present comfort. Should his fam- ily, however, retain any large quantity of land, a growing density of population in the western country, and even in Illinois, notwithstanding its present unhealthiness, may render it a source of wealth in future years. In the ordinary course of things, without a Eu- ropean market, agricultural profits in this country must be extremely small ; among other reasons, because so large a proportion of the population, compared with most other countries, will be land proprietors, and so small a proportion dependent ^'■4imm!^.i- ap= 30 ■I on others tor their agricultural produce ; and bie- cause the great fertility of the soil will leave an unusually large supply, alter maintaining the la* bouro -9 employed in its cultivation. It appears to me that the natural tendency of this state of things among an industrious and enterprising people, is to encourage domestic manufactures; I mean manufactures really domestic — made in the family — the produce of that labour which higher agricultural profits would retain in the field, but which there appears to be no induce- ment to employ in the cultivation of produce which will sell for little or nothing when raised. This is a species of manufacture in a great mea- sure independent for its prosperity on governments or tariffs ; for it is of little importance to the small farmer, that foreign manufactures are tolerably low, if his produce will neither command them, nor money to buy them. He can obtain his clothing in exchange for his leisure hours; but then it must be by employing those hours in ac- tually making his clothing, and not through the intervention of agricultural produce. I am sur- prised to find to how great an extent this spe- cies of maimfactures is carried, and how rapidly the events of the last two years have increased it. in some parts of the state of New-York, I was told the little farmers could not make a living without it. In Pennsylvania, it is perhaps still more gene- ral ; some of the lower descriptions of East In- dia goods having almost entirely given place to a domestic substitute actually made in the family ; and the importations of Irish linens having been M most seriously checked by the greatly increased cultivation and manufacture of flax in the imme- diate vicinity of Philadelphia. In Virginia and North Carolina, I had opportunities of seeing these domestic manufactures as I passed in the stage : and on my horseback route it was a con- stant source of surprise — to you I may add, with- out danger of being suspected to be a Radical, and of gratification ; for this combination of agri- culture and manufacture in the same family ap- pears to me to form a state of society of all others the best adapted to produce a happy, independent, and domestic population. If I mistake not, Ameri- ca will exhibit this combination in a greater de- gree than any nation with which I am acquaint- ed, unless the permanent removal of our corn laws should give a new stimulus to her agricultural labour ; and even then, the immensity of her fer- tile territory might enable her to supply our wants without checking her in any material degree in the career I have anticipated for her.—- But 1 did not intend to enter on these speculations. I have sometimes wished you could see what a pretty family picture a mother and two daughters make ; the mother spinning, and keeping a daughter on each <>fde most actively occupied in carding for her. — In the hope that this picture will play around your imagination, and lead you to forget how dry a letter you have been reading, I will conclude for the present, especially as I am arri- ving at the end of my paper. I intend, if I have time, that another letter shall accompany this. 1^ ^, mm im Si»0&1a.i. .-SKr^iw 3:2 LETTER IV. ih 1 Norfolk, {Virginia) Dec. 13, 1820. The little digression into which I was insensi- bly led in ray letter of yesterday, prevented me from completing my remarks on Mr. Birkbeck. I have already mentioned some of my reasons for supposing that, in the ordinary course of thinr^s, agricultural profits will be generally low in this country. Nor am I aware of any peculiarities in Birkbeck^s situation which would form an excep- tion in his favour in this particular. It must not be forgotten, that while the imminent danger of flour turning sour at New Orleans, his principal market, is to be set against the advantages he may possess over the farmers in the Atlantic States; in his competition with the graziers of Ohio, his great distance from the Atlantic cities may more than counterbalance the benefit of a readier access to extensive prairies. At present I am told, that the expense of conveying flour from Illinois, and selling it at New Orleans, would leave little or nothing for the grower of the wheat; and I have been assured, on the authority pf sev- eral persons who have passed through Kentucky and Ohio this autumn, that in many cases the far- mers would not cut their wheat, but turned their cattle into it; and that in others, the tenants would hardly accept of the landlord's moiety of the produce which they had stipulated to give him for rent. *~jtii 3a Mr. Mellisli, the traveller and geograplier, whom I frequently saw in Philadelphia, showed me a letter from Mr. Birkbeck, in which he says: "There is an error of some importance in my Letters ; and I wish that a correction of it could accompany the publication. In my estimate of the expenses of cultivating these prairies, I have not made sulficient allowance of lime for the innumerable delays which attend a new establish- ment in a new country. I would now add to the debtor side a year of preparation^ which will of course make a material deduction from the profits at the commencement of the undertaking." On the whole, I am disposed to believe that ex- perience will suggest to Mr. Birkbeck some mode of making money, though far more slowly than he expected ; and I think the general estimate of the merits of his situation, by the natural reaction of his exaggerated statements, is at present a lit- tie beloio the truth. I should not be surprised if a new and exten- sive market were gradually opened to the wes- tern farmers among a population employed or cre- ated by manufacturing establishments beyond the mountains. Wool may be raised on the spot with tolerable facility ; and I have already mentioned the low rate of freight at which, in Ohio, they can obtain cotton from Louisiana and Mississippi in exchange for wheat, which will scarcely grow at all in the southern countries. As the Waltham factory, near Boston, can sus- tain itself so well against foreign competition, I do not know whv cotton mills should not Nourish ')l •tMOBl M in Ohio, where mill-seats are numerous and ex- cellent, provisions low, labour moderate, and the protection contemplated by the duty on foreign articles increased by distatice from the coast. Hitherto capital has been wanted, commerce and land-speculations absorbing all that could be beg- ged or borrowed; but the India trade is at present discouraging, the land mania has partly subsided, and money is readily to be had on good security for five per cent. From what I hear of Ohio, I know of no place where a young, enterprising, skilful cotton-spin- ner, with from 5000/. to 15,000/. capital, fond of farming, and exempt from those delicate sensibi- lities which would make his heart yearn towards the land of his nativity, would pass his time more to his mind, or be in a fairor way of realizing a large fortune. To the mere farmer or agricultu- rist also, I should consider it an inviting btate. 1 was told by the late governor of Ohio — one of the earliest settlers in that State, and for many years one of its representatives in Congress, a very ac- tive, intelligent man, with whom I have already made you acquainted — that unimproved land is to be had at 1^ to 2 dollars per acre, for good quality; improved with buildings, and pretty good, 6 dolls, and 20 .to 30 dolls, for the best in the country. He considers that farming capital, well managed by a practical hard-working farmer, as- sisted by his family, produces six to nine per cent, at the low prices of \2^ cents for Indian corn, and 25 cents for wheat, and fifteen to twenty per cent, at 25 cents for Indian corn, and 50 cents for ■i •J # :vj wlieat. I should imagine this was too hi^h a nv turn to calculate upon where labourers were to be hired, and the capital large ; but he seemed to siy it was not. and added, that grazing would pay much betler interest, the cattle being sold to drovers from Philadelphia, with herds of cattle which they had purchased from the Indians 1 000 or 1200 miles from their destined markets. I asked a very respectable and intelligent resi- dent in Ohio, how he would recommend an En- glishman, coming to settle in that State as a farm- er to employ his .WOOL supposing that to be his capital. He said he would purchase a farm and stock with 500/. leave 2000/. in government or bank securities bearing interest to bring in a cer- tain income, and the remaining 2.')00/., he would invest judiciously in land to be left to improve in value as a speculation. On this last, he would venture to underwrite a profit of 100 per cent, in ten years, asking no other premium than the ex- cess above 100 percent. Many bargains are now daily offering. He said, if a person vested 1000/. in a farm and stock, and in making his house comfortable, 2000/. in government securities, yielding six per cent, interest, and 2000/. in land to lie idle, improving in value ; the six per cent, which he might safely calculate on making from his farm, besides maintaining his family on its produce, added to the six per cent, for his 2000/. in money securities — together 180/. — would en- able him to keep a carriage and two horses and three servants, and to enjoy many of the comforts of life. This, too, I consider highly coloured, after mmtmmmm Mi H ! '■ M Tnnking every allowance for the diffbrence be- Iwreii his estimate of comforts and ours. His would prohfibly exclude wine, and tea, and cof- fee; or at least his coffee would probably be pale enough when every pound cost one or two bush- els of wheat. English ideas also as to clothes, even on a peace-establishment in the western wilds, and still more as to education, would pro- bably differ widely from those of my informant. The expense of a good boarding school or " sem- inary" for boys or girls, (in this country they have as few schools as shops^ except Sunday-schools, though as many seminaries and academies as stores^) is 35/. per annum near Chillicothe. He has some of his family at school on these terms ; nnd I think he said that at the female " seminary" Latin was taught, if desired. In dress and manner he is of about the same " grade," as the Americans would say, as a respectable Yorkshire farmer, possessing an estate of 8000/. or 12,000/. and lives, I should imagine, somewhat in the same style, with a table perhaps more profusely spread with domestic produce, — such as beef, mutton, venison, turkeys, game, and fruit, — and more restricted in foreign wine and colonial luxuries. He spoke of going over to England to bring two or three hundred people with him to Ohio, where " he would make them so happy;" but his family attachments bind him to home. Such men as the overlooker of your mill, or others equally steady and experien- ced, but more acute, would prosper well in Ohio under his auspices. They would be growing rich, while the poor settler on land would be only # .t: cointbrtnble and independent ; a condition, how- ever, by no means to be despised, espeeially when capable of suggesting such poetical ideas as the following : — Tis 1 can delve and plough, love, And you can npin and stw ; And We'll sfttlr^ on the hunks Of the pleasant Ohio. The present is a most favourable season for in- vesting money in this country ; and a judicious capitalist, who would take time to look about him, and watch opportunities, might lay out his money to great advantage. The depreciation of real es- tate throughout the Union is perfectly astonishing, and sales are occasionally tbrced at sacrifices almost incrtdible. You will have seen in the American newspapers, the various plans before Congress, and the recommendation in the Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, tor remitting part of the price, and extending the time of payment to those purchasers of the public lands whose in- stalments are not yet paid up. This proposed re- lief will probably prevent the Alabama settlers from executing the intentions, which in my letters from thence I mentioned having been so generally expressed to me, of relinquishing their purchases, and forfeiting the instalments already paid. In Richmond, where the disastrous results of the Bank mania have been pre-eminently conspi- cuous, and where real estate has fallen .OO to ITt per cent, there having been srv^jral instances in which property having been s^»U^ payable in three or four instalments, has, after the payment of all the previous instalments, been transferred to the r^ :i« seller to discharge the last. Ft is estimated thai, more than one half of the city and its immediate vicinity is mortgaged to the banks. Ill Baltimore, ahoul one-third is similarly situa- ted, and property there i.s only prev-rjted from exhibiting a depreciation nearly equal to that of Richmond, by the policy adopted by the banks of holding it, in the expectation that its gradual advance will pay them a better interest for their money than could be obtained from investments or discounts, if thev were to force a sale. A house and store were pointed out to me in Baltimore, in the principal commercial street, which about 1816 were let for 2000 dollars per arinum, but are now let at only 600. This is an extreme case ; but taking the city generally, it would probably be correct to estimate the decline in rents at from 40 to .00 per cent. Real estate has fallen from 33 to 00 per cent ; the interruption to the intercourse between the United States and the West Indies, having raised the calamities of this town to a level with iV.^ general distress in which it might other- wise have participated less deeply than some of its neighbours, from having been visited less se- verely with those worse than Egyptian plagues, bank discounts of accommodation notes, renewa- ble ad infinitum. Labour here, as in all slave States, falls almost exclusively on the slaves : and the porterage of the town, the loading and discharging of ships, &:c. are performed by those who are either hired out by their masters by the week, or allov,ed. on pay- ing their masters a certain sum, generally at»ont ■*. * 39 two dollars per we<^k, to find work lor themselves and retain the surplus. Allowing for the diflTerent effects of a system of this kind and a system of free labour, and fully aware how slowly, though certainty, the price of labour follows the price of provisions, 1 was surprised to find that while the latter has fallen two-thirds, the former has declined less than a fourth. This is owing partly to the circumstance of the owners of the coloured labourers being able to hold out on any particular occasion against an attempt to reduce their wages; an attempt which can seldom be eflfectually resisted by persons whose daily labour must obtain their daily bread ; partly to conscientious scruples, which deter many holders of hereditary or domestic slaves from trafficking in humun flesh, and others from buying their fellow-creatures to hire them out like cattle; but principally to such an irregularity of demand as renders it impossible to adjust the supply lO its casual fluctuations, and induces a necessity of in- cluding in the remuneration for the hours employ- ed, some compensation for those lost in waiting for employment. Slaves, who in Norfolk are now worth on an average 300 to 100 dollars each, receive from the merchant who engaj2;es their services, seventy-five cents per day, and their food. These are enor- mous wages, where turkeys, weighing five or six pounds, will sell for Is. 9d. sterling, and wild ducks at 2s per couple; and where flour is four dollars per barrel, Indian corn, their favourite food, forty I'cnts per bushel, and beef and mutton five to 1 11 iF''mmmimmmmmi''mmmmmmm 40 eight cents per poutul. As sailors, the master can obtain for their slaves ten dollars per month : and there are many families in Norfolk, especially many widows and orphans, whose property con- sists entirely of hereditary slaves, whon they hire out as the only means of obtaining an income. '? LETTER V. New -York, Dec. ai, lliSO. 1 "WROTK to you two long lettersfrom Norfolk, which have not yet found a conveyance ; and on the 22d I addressed to your care a long letter to , with an account of our visit to Norfolk and return to Baltimore. We left that city on the 1 8th, at three o'clock in the morning, in an open stage waggon, having decided to return to Philadelphia through York and Lancaster, instead of the old steamboat route, as it would occupy no more time. The morning was bitterly cold ; and as the roads were a sheet of ice, and our horses unprepared, we ad- vanced only three miles an hour, for several hours, when we arrived at a German's, where we pro- cured breakfast and fresh horses. The face of the country, the thirty miles we continued in Maryland, presents, like almost eve- ry other part of that State which I ^have seen, a beautiful specimen of hill and dale, of which from one-third io one-half is woodland, young vigorous trees of second growth, so nearly of the same size, and so regularly disposed, that they perpetually suggest the idea that they have been planted by 41 the liand of man. 1 know no part of England which would give you a precise idea of Maryland hill and dale. Sometimes the scenery reminded rae of the forest lands near Loughborough ; but the undulations are bolder, and succeed each other in interesting variety, as far as the horizon; sometimes of Derbyshire — Ashbourne for instance — but the hills are less frequently broken by ab- rupt and precipitous cliffs, or the dales contracted into deep romantic valleys. About thirty miles from Baltimore, we entered York county, in the State of Pennsylvania. For the first few miles the houses were of hewn log and plaster, like those of Maryland; afterwards of stone and brick. As we advanced, the face of the country, still beauti- ful, principally hill and dale, began to exhibit a much higher state of cultivation, and the houses assumed a more comfortable and prosperous ap- pearance. We now obtained a sight of the fine barns for which the Germans are celebrated, and of which we had heard much. The land was worth from 10 to 50 dollars per acre, in farms of from fifty to two hundred acres, occupied almost exclusively by Gernirin proprietors. The instan- ces of land being rented were rare; and in those cases the landlord usually received half the gross produce for rent, 1 was told, (and although I do not vouch tor the entire accuracy of all the "o« f/«V*" I send you on subjects like this, I seldom give them uriless I have had an opportunity of cross examination,) that the less opulent farmers in this neighbourhood expend scarcely any money in articles of consumption, either vesting their I J """"-"^p 42 H i i property in land, or hoarding it in a safe place. They are stated to make tlieir own cotton and woollen clothes, their stockings, shirts, and sheet- ings, — exchanging wool with the hatter for hats, leather with the tanner for shoes, substituting rye i'or coffee, (now partially employed even in some of the cities, where it is sold in the shops,) using no tea, and very little sugar, which little they pro- cure in exchange for the produce of their fine or- chards. The best informed of them teach their children in the evenings ; and sometimes they agree to board a schoolmaster at their houses gra- tuitously, and in succession, thus enabling him to reduce his terms to a mere trifle. They are said to be sociable, and very sensible of the comibrt and independence of their condition. Our driver on this part of the road had emigrat- ed from Macclesfield, in Cheshire, where he drove a chaise, and knew many of our friends there. For some time he drove the Lancaster mail from Pres- ton. He came out, he said, in his '''•uniformal dress of an English coachman," with a broad hat, long great coat, woollen cord breeches, and jockey boots; all which he has discarded for uncharac- teristic, shabby, yet pretending, blue coat, black waistcoat, and blue pantaloons. He procured employment in two days ; and his gains have av- eraged for the last two years 2H dollars per month, with part of his board. I told him that I hoped, when he made his bargain, he did not count upon any money from the passengers : he said, " Oh no ! ' Please to remember the coachman' would not do here : it would be degrading to ask ; althougli 43 ■| genteel people sometimes press me to take some thing, which I do not refuse." After this hint, I did not hesitate to follow the natural impulse I felt to give an old Lancaster driver some refresh- ment. As he seemed a very decent, sensible man, 1 asked him various questions, in such a way as to give no particular direction to his answers, and found his ideas of the country and people were very similar to my own. To a (question whether he found the Americans more or less civil than the English, he replied, " I think they are more accommodating and friendly, and more ready to oblige either a stranger or one another; — but, H be sure, they have always been in the habit of helping a neighbour, and have never known the depravity like of a condition which made them obliged to look to themselves. I was surprised to see them so friendly to every body." He quite agreed with me that labourers, gener- ally speaking, have no reasonable prospect of im- proving their condition, however uncomfortable, by coming hither, — I mean to the jithntic States : in the Western country, industry and self-denial will force their way. Very superior merit, or sin- gular good fortune, may still raise some to inde- pendence ; but five out of ten may wander about for weeks, or months, in the agricultural districts of Pennsylvania, without findirjg regular employ- ment, or the means of supporting themselves by their labour. One of our pissengers, a respecta- ble looking man, said, that a friend of his had been applied to by a i,'-oor/ labourer of character, whom he had long known, offering to work till the spring T. iM 41 s J: ^i 1 i tor his food, which offer was declined. In the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, I heard of many instances of less skilful labourers making similar applications in vain. About 3 o'clock we stopped to dine at York, a town not unlike Loughborough at a distance. We were not expected ; and though there were only two passengers who dined, the landlord made many apologies lor producing only a beefsteak, veal cutlet, and tart, instead of the turkey, ham, and two or three joints of meat usually set on the table, even for a small party. — Immediately on leaving York, we entered a beautiful and interest- ing valley, called " Creek Valley," where the land is said to be as good as in almost any part of the United States. On each side of the road were fiiie large fields, in a high state of cultivation. One of the passengers, well acquainted with the neighbourhood, mentioned to me the value of the several estates as we passed. The first, rather more than three hundred acres in extent, with a house, and large and extensive barns and stabling, which together cost erecting about 10,000 dollars, were sold two years since at 260 dollars per acre. It would, even now, bring 200, the fatal effects of the paper system having been almost entirely averted from this district, either by the prudence of the Bank Directors, or, what is more likely, the inveterate habits of the German farmers, which did not readily become reconciled to a flimsy sub- stitute for gold. The next farm consisted of twen- ty-five acres, with a new brick house, and a de- cent frame barn, which together would cost erect- U) ib- )n- e- Ict- I ing, my informant thought, more than 4,000 dol- lars. A gentleman, whom he pointed out to me, had just offered 7,000 dollars for the whole, which were refused. The next farm was one of a hun- dred and fifty acres, with out-buildi igs, but in high cultivation, one-fifth woodland, it had been sold the preceding week at 140 dollars per acre. In this well settled country, woodland is dearer than cleared land. The next was a large estate, which a German had just sold to his sons at 105 dollars per acre, that they might give their sisters as a marriage portion their equal share, as is usual with them. The sons-in-law thought the sale too low. All these estates are within fifty miles of Balti- more, which the farmers consider their market, and speak of as very near. Ten miles from York we passed the beautiful and classical Susquehanna, on a fine bridge, a mile and a quarter broad ; but the night was clos- ing in, and the clouds, which obscured the moon, prevented our seeing the scenery of this noble river distinctly. We had been frequently gratified during the day, by the view of a distiiict chain of the Blue Mountains in the horizon. We reached Lancaster, a fine old town, (all things are by com- parison,) at nine o'clock, having been eighteen hours in completing the seventy miles from Balti- more. We left Lancaster at four o'clock the next morning, and proceeded in the dark fourteen miles to breakfast. To my great mortification, it was so cloudy and misty during a great part of the day, that my view was circumscribed. We still con- tinued, however, to see handsome barns, substan- ftm Hi !!l! 'h I '*- ft'' tiaJ houses, and beautifully cultivated fields. From the Jime we left Lancaster, we were on the great Pittsburgh road, which leads us to Philadelphia, through the "Great Valley," as it is called ; the land is for the most part excellent, yielding from twenty-five to thirty bushels of wheat, and thirty to forty of Indian corn, to the acre. The farmers in the county of Lancaster, uidike those of York, are, I was told, deeply in debt; the treacherous paper system having been incautiously admitted. The country through which we passed during the day's ride, as far as we could see on each side of the road, (the fog contracting our view within narrow limits,) might be compared with the rich- est part of England, reminding me sometimes of Craven — sometimes of Warwickshire — sometimes of Gloucestershire. The best houses and barns are of stone, the largestbeing generally taverns; and the buildings on the farms (which are from two to three or five hundred acres in extent) are perhaps from 4,000 to 20,000 dollars in value. There were few (till we reached Philadelphia scarcely any) that could be called gentlemen's houses, or which give one the idea of being in the vicinity of educated, or well-bred society. One, between thirty and forty miles from Philadelphia, exhibited traces of taste and elegance in the front of the house and gar- den : the out-buildings seemed complete and ex- tensive. My companion said, the whole of the buildings might cost, with the house furnished, 7,000 dollars; and one hundred acres of land, in high cultivation, in the vicinity, .5,000 dollars more. Now, I think, with good management on the farm. i: the ill pm. 51 family might live comlortably with 18,000 dol- lars ill addition; not with less than that sum, nor with so little, if there were boardinoj-school ex- penses to pay, or any charges except those strict- ly domestic. Now let us suppose that Mr. Birk- beck had settled there : — his family, except as regards society, would scarcely have been con- scious that they were transplanted : he would have felt at home in a cultivated country, instead of a novice in the prairies, and his agricultural skill might have been profitably exerted in a con- genial sphere: 30,000 dollars, out of the 3.'»,000 which he is said lo have brought with him, would have been disposed of in a form at least as con- vertible as at present. 1 much doubt whether his whole property, at the end often years, including the 5,000 dollars left to accumulate with com- pound interest, would not have been of more va- lue than it will now prove, and have commanded as many cultivated and uncleared acres in Illinois, as he will possess at the expiration of that pe»iod. If he should not be benefited, or be ordy partially so, by the remissions of price proposed by the Government to be afforded to purchasers of pub- lic lands, (which will depend on the state of his instalments.) or if his settlement continue unpop- idar, he may actually lose by his lands, the reduc- tion from one and a quarter to two dollars by the Government for vacant lands, of course reducing the value of those he has entered. This, however, is a speculation for which I have no sufficient da- ta; but 1 was led to think a little on the subject on passing these fine Pennsylvania farms, ft ap- • r.^4fr^* in ' .t pears to me that the *' aliquid immeiiHUin intini- tumque," which played round the youthful imagi- nation of Cicero, and conducted that celebrated orator into regions of truth and beauty, had taken possession of the mind of Mr. Birkbeck, and led him, less courteously, into the prairies of Illinois, where I have no doubt it has long since vanished, like an ignis fatuus, leaving the agriculturalist not a little mortified Jit having been beguiled by an in- sidious phantom, which beckoned him to fame and fortune in the Western wilds. We reached Philadelphia, 60 miles from Lan- caster, at four o'clock in the afternoon, and found our party at the boarding house increased by the arrival of a gentleman and lady and three daugh- ters from Lexington, Kentucky, who having hasti- ly left a comfortuble estate in the vicinity of Lon- don, had become tired of the Western wilderness, and had returned to the Atlantic States, beginning to think that, to persons in their easy circumstances at least, there was no phce like old England after all. LETTER VI. JVew-York, Feb. IBt'l. A LONGKR rei^iJence in the principalities of the United States, and a more intimate acquaintance with their inhabitants, have given me a better op- portunity than I had previously enjoyed, of form- ing the estimate you request from me of the pre- sent state of religion and morals on tliis side of th(^ 1 49 Atlantic. Vou must, however, make great altow« ance for errors in so difficult and delicate an uo- dertaking, and will receive with peculiar caution, on such a subject, any general conclusions de- duced from the observations of an individual tra- veller. You may, however, consider the favoura- ble representations which I made, in a letter from Boston last autumn, with respect to opportunities of public worship, and the prevalence of evangel- ical preaching, as applicable to all the principal towns and cities from Portland to Savannah. But churches are not religion ; nor are the mi- nistrations of a pastor an unerring criterion of the piety of his hearers. In a country, however, in which contributions to places of public worship are for the most part voluntary, a liberal dissemi- nation of sacred edifices is a very favourable symp- tom ; while the number of faithful ministers, and the frequent occurrence of large congregations listening attentively to unwelcome truths from pastors appoirited by their own election, and de- pendent on them for support, afford something more than a va;^ue presumption of the existence of no inconsiderable degree of vital piety in the community. My favourable impressions were strengthened as I proceeded, by noticing the attention generally paid on the Atlantic coast to the external obser- vance of the Sabbath; by meeting continually with Bibles, and other religious books, in the steam- boats and houses of entertainment ; and by wit* nessing the efforts every where apparent for the extension of Christian piety. 7" .00 1! Theological institutions for tlic education ot mi- nisters, extensive, well-endowed, and respectable, frequently arrest the attention of the traveller as he passes along the road ; while a very little in- tercourse with society convinces him that associa- tions of a more private nature, for preparing indi- gent young men for missionary services, together with Bible Societies, Missionary Societies, and Sunday School and Tract Societies, are liberally scattered. I felt neither disposed nor called upon to de- prive myself of the pleasure I derived from these favourable indications, by reflecting that they were no accurate measure of the degree in which personal religion prevails. I was quite aware that, in many cases, and especially where there is no establishment, churches are sometimes multiplied by the very dissentions of a congregation ; ihat a proportion of the active effort engaged in the pro- motion of religious objects, is often very little con- nected with Christian principle ; and tliat respect for the form of godliness may survive its power. But at the same time I felt persuaded that, al- though a love of popularity may enrol thf? worldly in the list of contributors to religious societies, or engage them as public advocates in a sacred cause, still that diligei't performance of the rou- tine of official duties, and those self-denying and persevering efforts, to which religious societies are usually indebted both for their origin and prosperity, imply, in most cases, the existence of a higher principle, and spring from a purer source. dl My subsequent experience lias convinced me that I was not incorrect in the persuasion in which I indulged myself as I passed alotig, that I was al- ways in the vicinity of some at least who were united in Christian sympathy with the whole church militant on earth, ami were travelling to a better country amidiit the hopes and fears, the trials and consolations, which chequer the lot and form the character of the Christian in every quar- ter of the globe. Dmetimes, in the course of my route, some little incident would give peculiar force to this persuasion, or the surrounding sce- nery impart to it a particular interest. On my return from Canada through Vermont and New Hampshire, I visited the Theological Institution at Andover; where the handsome col- legiate edifice, the spacious grounds, the houses of the professors, and the excellent inn in some degree attached to the establishment, bore as am. pie testimony to the muinficence, as the object of the institution to the piety, of its founders. It is from this establishment that the American Board of Missions has drawn nearly all its labourers. After tea we adjourned to the college chapel, where religious intelligence fron. various parts of the United States was communicated by the stu- dents or professors. We had then prayers, after which we separated. It was a beautiful star-light night in autumn ; and while looking out of mj window, at midnight, on this quiet scene — where many who were then labouring in distant regions of the globe first felt those ardent aspirings after extensive future usefulness, which prompted them If / ; A 52 to encounter the trials of a missionary lite, and ivhere many were then preparing for the same honourable enterprise — I could not but contrast the privileges of a life thus early and entirely de- dicated to the noblest cause, with those of the most successful commercial or political career, where the flame of piety, if not extinguished by the very atmosphere which surrounds it, is expos- ed to a thousand blasts from which the religious zeal of the missionary is sheltered by his peculiar situation. At Hartford, in Connecticut, in a church so richly adorned with "Christmas" (either winding round the pillars, or hung in fiestoons,) as to ap- pear almost like a grove, I was gratified by a ser- mon in vindication of our Liturgy ; and my heart warmed when I heard the minister enumerate among its claims to the affectionate regards of the congregation, " the opportunity which it afforded them of worshipping in the very words in which saints for centuries had breathed their devoiions in the land of their fathers, and of still offering their incense in the same censer with their breth- ren in Britain, that brightest star in the firma- ment of the Reformation." — In the afternoon I at- tended the Presbyterian chapel, where the mini- ster announced, at the close of the service, that it was the wish of many of the congregation that the following Friday should be set apart for prayer and fasting, and that it was expected it should be 80 observed by the members of the church. I felt that I was among the descendants of the puri- tanic eiiKes, (for exiles may many of them be con- 63 sidercd rather than emigrants;) and I could not but breathe a wish that the spirit of an Elijah might Hnger in the land which still preserved these vestiges of more devotional times. At Newhaven, in the same state, after visiting Yale College, in the iiurary of which I was pleased to recognise, under the titles " Berkeley," and "The Dean's Bounty," substantial proofs of the liberality of our celebrated countryman, Bish- op Berkeley, — I spent the evening with Dr. Morse, whom I found engaged in drawing up a report on the state of the Indians, to be submitted to Con- gress. He had been selected by the President to travel among the Indians with reference to this object, in consequence of having been long em- ployed by a society in Scotland in the promotion of their benevolent designs among some of the northern tribes. He has devoted a very long and very active life to the interests of literature and reHgion in his infant country, combining the at- tainments of a scholar with the apostolic zeal of a missionary, and often exchanging domestic endearments and literary ease for the perils of the wilderness, and the privations of solitary journeys in swamps and forests. When Mr. Hall's sermon on Infidelity appeared, he printed an edition at his own expense, although in very moderate cir- cumstances, and has since endeavoured to intro- duce among his countrymen a high standard of practical excellence, by exhibiting to their view that extraordinary combination of the lowly and the splendid virtues of the Christian character which adorned the life, and has embalmed the memory of the late Mr. Reynolds of Bristol. ^ ,(. ti'i 'w?:j 54 At Boston I had the pleasure of an intervie\V with the late venerable Dr. Worcester, the secre- tary of the American Missionary Society, and re- ceived mucli interesting intelligence from the Missionary Board, and its excellent treasurer. There I found an association of young men, who have set apart a portion of thei"* income for the establishment of a missionary press at Jerusalem. There also I had the gratification of seeing Henry Martyn in an American dress, going forth in the character of a departed saint, to advance in the West the cause in which he himself f^II so early and lamented a sacrifice in the East ; to fan, in the very scenes where his beloved though un- known Henry Brainerd had laboured and ex- pired, the missionary zeal which that eminent man had kindled; and to animate every succeeding American missioiiary by an affecting proof, that a ray of fervent piety, though emanating from the solitudes of an American forest, may penetrate even the cloisters of Cambridge, and revive a faint- ing bosom in the deserts of Persia or Hindostan. While visiting a friend in New- York, I was in- formed that it was in the adjoining room that the agents of the African Colonization Society, and their supporters, assembled for prayer the night previous to the sailing of the first expedition, of whose melancholy fate we had just received the intelligence. In Philadelphia, the Sunday after my arrival, I heard our excellent Liturgy for the first time on these western shores; and the impression it was calculated to make on my mind was deepened by Oi> T s the circumstance of its being sacrament Sunday and by the stillness and decorum which I had never witnessed even in England Here I was also much gratified by meeting with the aged Bishop VVhite, one of the bishops who went over to England after the Revolution, to be consecrat- ed, in order that episcopal authority might be transmitted to the latest generations of America, through the legitimate channel in which it had flowed since the laying on of Apostolic hands. Our excellent Granville Sharp, and liis meritorious ef- forts in his cause, came forcibly to my recollec- tion. While drinking tea with a friend in Baltimore, one of the females of the family came in, who I learnt had been attending an adult school in which there were 180 Blacks. She told me there were 000 Blacks in the Sunday schools in the city; and that they had lately formed themselves into a Bi- ble Association, and been received into connex- ion with the Baltimore Bible Society. At the same place, a letter was shewn to me just re- ceived from the Black person on whom the man- agement of the expedition of the (Colonization So- ciety devolved, on the White agents falling a sa- crifice to the dreadful mortality with which the settlers were visited. On a desert shore, depriv- ed by death of the White conductors, to whom he and his companions looked for protection — de- pressed by the successive deaths of his Black friends, and harassed by the delays, irregularities, and suspicious conduct of the native chiefs — he writes in a strain of fortitude and piety, deserving ;} .ib feV of imitation. '• But, thank God," lie says, •' though cut oflT from my friends, and relations, and family, and the comforts of civilized life, our people drop- ping off* daily, myself labouring under great bodi- ly weakness, and an important charge lying upon me, I can truly sfiy that I rejoice that I came to Africa. O that what few days 1 am spared in this world, it may be to do good !" And yet this per- son, I was told, was once an American Slave. At Washington, I attended Divine service in the House of Representatives ; a magnificent hall in the capital, which is always appropriated to this purpose on Sundays. The sermon was an impres- sive one, from the words, " The glorious Gospel of Christ;" and you will readily believe, that the promulgation of this Gospel in the capital of this vast continent, in the new chamber of its Legisla- ture, under the fostering care of its popular Gov- ernment, was well calculated to excite the most interesting reflections. The scene reminded me of the period when " they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God ;" and when I recollected how long the Star had appeared in the East, before it shed its radiance on the darkness of these Western shores, — whose very existence a few centuries since was unsuspected, and which had long been abandon- ed to Indian superstitiotis, which had only just ceased to linger in the primeval forests which surrounded us, and on the banks of rivers which yet bear their Indian names, — I seemed admitted I ] m to a closer view of that mysterious progression by which " the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever." This train of thought, the place, the congregation, the sur- rounding scene, conspired to give a peculiar in- terest to the verses with which the service was concluded. How liappy are our ears," he To enter fully into my feelings, you must recol- lect my distance from the scene where we have usually sung tliese words ; and that when I hear of the East, 1 do !iot here think of India and China only, but include Europe and Africa, and with them dear England, in the idea which is present to my imagination. On my return to my inn, I dined in company with my friends the Indian Deputation of the Creeks and Cherokees, to whom I have already introduced you. In the afternoon, I sat in the seat next to the President's in the Episcopal Church, where we had an excellent sequel to our morning's sermon, from the words, How shall we escape if we neglect so great sal- vation .'*" When visiting General Washington's tomb, in his favourite retreat at Mount Vernon, on the banks of the Potomac, ray black attendant in- formed me, that the domostirs, — about thirty 1 believe in number, and principally slaves, — as- sembled morning and evening for family worship, at which the Hon. Bushrod Washington, the pre- sent occupier of Mount Vernon, and a Judge of the Supreme Court, presides. Wlien I was shown 8 t,i ' I 4 ill 58 into the Judge's study, Scott's Bible and Dr. Dwight's Theology were before him, as ifjust laid aside, and gave rise to a little conversation. In speaking of the African Colonization Society, of which he is the President, he remarked, that the most interesting light in which he regarded it, was as an instrument for the conversion of the Africans to Christianity ; that he conceived this would ulti- mately be accomplished by native teachers ; and that the Colonization Society, by the introduction into Africa of social arrangements and religious institutions, was calculated to raise up a supply of native instructors, and thus to form an impor- tant link in that chain of secondary causes which are to establish the kingdom of the Messiah in every quarter of the globe. At Charleston, in South Carolina, at the Epis- copal Church, at the door of which I counted sever leen carriages, 1 had the gratification of see- ing some slaves receive the sacrament at the same table as their masters, some of whom were of the very first rank of Carolinian planters. At Augusta, in Georgia, I thought with much interest on the late excellent Miss Smelt, whose Memoirs I had read in England : and although I could not find her grave in the church-yard, it was with great pleasure that 1 passed a solitary Sab- bath in this foreign land amid the scenes where her early piety was cherished and matured. The following Sunday, in a remoter part of Georgia, near the borders of the Indian Nation, my feelings were still more strongly excited. I attended a Negro conajregation assembled in the .)'J woods, to hear a funeral sermon from one of their own number, himself a slave. It consisted of about 200 slaves, sitting on little planks under a large elm-tree; and 1 foufid I was the onlj White per- son, and the only freeman, in the assembly. The preacher first gave a sort of general address, ex- plaining the occasion of the meeting. We then had prayer ; then sung the hymn, " Why do we mourn departed friends ?" and then had a sermon from the text, " The Lord is a sun and shield;" a text which the preacher assured them was somewhere in the Bible, al- though " he could not undertake to tell them where." It was with mingled emotions that I be- held these degraded fellow-creatures, after draw- ing near to the Throne of the Creator of the uni- verse, the Mercy Seat of our common Father, disperse to their several plantations, to resume on the morrow their extorted labours, and to smart under the lash of a fellow-mortal. Even in that land of darkness, the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, in Mobile, until lately a nest of pirates, and still without a Protestant place of worship, I found, to my surprise, " The Dairy- man's Daughter," and '■ Little Jane," in a book- seller's shop. In tlie seclusion of the forests of the Mississippi, I have seen a solitary planter take down a number of Dr. Clarke's Bible, and in- quire, with great interest, if I could tell him any particulars of so good a man : his wife listening attentively, and pronouncing a eulogium which would have made the Doctor blush. I have attended divine service at the confluence I 60 ol'two beautiiUi rivers in East Tennessee, wliert the congregation was so numerous that we were compelled to adjourn from the meeting-house in- to the adjoining woods, where tables were laid under the trees for communicants, who were flock- ing from miles in every direction, as in Scotlandf and to whom the sacred ordinance was adminis- tered by four clergymen, of serious deportment, and apparently of respectable acquirements and fervent zeal. At the foot of the Alleghany moun- tains, where I slept in a little log-hut, kept by a poor old woman and her only son, our hostess gladly availed herself of the accidental presence of a young minister, in his way to Brainerd, to have family prayer and reading : and, in a large popular inn in Virginia, I was asked whether I would like to retire to the private apartments of the family, who assembled morning and evening at the domestic altar. But it was at the missionary settlements at Brainerd and Yaloo Busha, that my feelings were most strongly excited. Never shall I forget my sensations the two nights I passed in Mr. Kings- bury's little room, which was kindly and courte- ously assigned to me during my stay. A log- cabin, detached from the other wooden buildings, in the middle of a boundless forest, in an Indian country, consecrated, if I may be allowed the ex- pression, by standing on missionary ground, and by forming at once the dormitory and the sanctu- ary of a "man of God;" it seemed to be indeed the prophet's chamber, with " the bed and the table, and the stool and llio candlestick.*' It con- 61 lained, also, a little hook-case, with a valnahle selection of pious books, periodical, biographical, and devotional ; among which I found many an old acquaintance in this foreign land, and which ena- ble Mr. Kingsbury, in his few moments of h isure, to converse with many, who have long since join- ed the spirits of just men made perfect, or to sym- pathize with his fellow labourers in Otaheite. Africa, or Hindoostan. Mr. Kingsbury spent a great part of the second night in my room, inquiring with great interest, about England, and other parts of Europe, with respect to which his intelligence had been very scanty since his seclusion among the Indians. About midnight, we became thirsty with talking so much ; and Mr. Kingsbury proposed that we should walk to the spring at a little distance. The night was beautifully serene after the heavy showers of the preceding evening, and the cool- ness of the air, the fresh fragrance of the trees, the deep stillness of the midnight hour, and the soft light which an unclouded moon shed on the log-cabins of the missionaries, contrasted with the dark shadows of the surrounding forest, im- pressed me with feelings which I never can forget. We looked cautiously around us, lest we should be surprised by wild beasts; and Mr. Kingsbury stopped to point out to me a plant, which, if swal- lowed immediately after the attack of a rattle- snake, proves an effectual antidote to the poison. He said that he never stirred from home, without some of it in his viaistcoat pocket : and that in the Slate of Mississippi, it was commonly carried by i ;'^i ;^i 62 1 *, all ptM'soiis who traversed llic forest. I could not help regarding this as a fresh illustration of that providential kindness which so frequetitly ordains the proximity of the bane and antidote. The preceding particulars will convince you that some indications of genuine, iniluential, reli- gious principle occur, even to the rapid traveller in almost every part of the United States. During my residence in Boston, New-Vork, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Charleston, I have seen that there is in each of them an extensive society of exem- plary christians ; and 1 have had the pleasure of forming an acquaintance with many whose virtues I would gladly emulate, and whose characters arc an ornamefit to their profession. But you will wish to know in what degree vital piety prevails in the community ; and I regret that I cannot tell you more explicitly ; the subject docs not admit of precision. The extent in wiiich re- ligion prevails here is known only to the Searcher of hearts; but there is the strongest reason to be- lieve that it is very considerable. Indeed I am disposed to think, that a cursory traveller visiting England and America, without prejudice, and wilh equal opportunities of observation, would draw a more favourable inference, with respect to the state of religion in the jithintic cities of the latter, than in the towns or cities of the former. Whe- ther a long residence in the respective places, would not lead to some change in his opinions, or at least hold thom in suspense, I am at a loss to decide; but I believe it would. ti;; 1 coiiHne my supposition to the Atlantic cities, hccause tlie beiiiglited shores ofthe (jlulf of Mex- ico, and many portions of" the western wilds, pos- sess tow teatures in common with our favoured country, and should rather be compared with our colonial possessions in the East or West Indies; — indeed I might include extensive districts in the back parts of many ofthe Atlantic States, where populatioti is thiidy scattered, and opportmiities of public worship occur only once or twice a month. In some of these, I thought I observed great coldness in religious concerns; the unfre- fpiency of public ordinances rendering the inhab- itants rather less willing than more so to avail themselves of them when ottered. I felt more disappointed in such districts, than in the frontier settlemerjts. In the latter some spiritual as well as temporal privations are naturally to be expect- ed ; though I thought their inhabitants exhibited much greater solicitude for schools and churches than those ofthe former. In fact, the new settlers from the Atlantic States have, in many cases, par- ticipated in the advantages of that general revival of religion which promises to be the characteris- tic of modern times ; and before their zeal has had time to cool in solitude and separation, it has often secured a provision for those religious ordi- nances by which it may be cherished and sustain- ed. But the back parts of Pennsylvania and Vir- ginia were settled in less auspicious days ; and we must not be surprised if the flame of piety, burn- ing less brightly at that time even on the coast, should grow pale and sickly when removed into ;;;i if 1l 64 an atmosphrro which ministrrcd littlo to its sup- port. Generally speakins;, it has appeared tome, that the style ofpre.ichinj; in this country is more Cal- vinistic! than with us, anil ihat there is also less oppositiorj to the peculiar doctrines ofthe'Gospel among men of the world. It is owing partly to this circumstance, that i\w profession of religion in- volves less of that mitigated persecution of mo- dern days, which a decided Christian must often encounter with us in the regrets or reraonstrunces of opposing friends, or the ridicule or distance of sneering companions. A religious profession might, therefore, be supposed to be more com- mon ; and perhaps may be rather so, though this has hardly struck me. Whatever may be the actual state of religion in this country, [ am quite satisfied that it is on the advance. There may be local exceptions ; but my inquiries and observations in every part of my route have led me to a confident conclusion as to the general fact. Many of the societies for the promotion of religion are of recent origin; but they are gradually diffusing themselves over the Union, and the sympathy which was first kindled by commiseration for the Otaheitan or Hindoo, instead of being exhausted on distant objects, seems to derive fervour from its very expansion, and is now visiting the hut of the Aborigines, the log-cabin of the Back-woodman, and the habita- tion of the careless and uninstructed " neighbour." In New-Orleans, in March, 1815, there was not a Bible to be found, either for sale, or to be given (i!i away; aiid the only fVoleslanl place ol" wui'Hlii{» wad ill an upper roum belungini; to an individual. Now, a LouiHianian Bible Society is in re^ulal• operation, and the inhabitants have a handsome Episcopalian and Presbyterian Church. The Sab- bath is still dreadfully and generally profaned there ; but it is religiously observed by many, the influence of whose example is daily extending. At the boarding liouse where I lodged, were se- veral naval and military, as well as mercantile gentlemen ; and I remember an officer who had been drilhng his rifle corps one Sunday, remark- ing on the strong representations which the Pres- byterians had been making to him on the subject. He defended the practice by those arguments ul" expediency which have been worn thread-bare by the commanders of our volunteer corps. A {ew years since, no remonstrance would have been hazarded ; or if hazarded, the summary ar- gument of a pistol would probably have silenced the interference. Unhappily, however, while religion is extend- ing its boundaries in the United States, Unitarian- ism is but too successfully urging what we con- sider its conflicting claims ; but this, and the state of morals, must form the subject of another letter. This letter is already sadly too long. 9 I j t _ ^ I '^1 ()«> LETTER VIII. I Salem, '2-llk Feb. 18«1. I.N rny lust, after giving you, I think, what you would consider an encouraging picture of the pre- sent state, and still more so of the future prospects, of religion in this country, I expressed my regret that Unitarianism had acquired so much influ- ence, and promised to say more on the subject in my next. From all I can learn, it appears that Unitarian opinions have been entertained in New- England for fifty years at least, and perhaps rriucli longer. Generally speaking, however, they were not very openly avowed, till much more recently ; some of those who held them concealing their sen- timents because they were unpopular, — others he- cause they felt indiflTerent about them, — and others, mcie reflecting and philosophical, because they conceived that their extension would be most effectually promoted at that particular time by reserve and caution. The first Uniiorian congre- gation formed in America, was established in the King's Chapel soon after the Revolution. Thie was the chapel in which the Governor worship- ped ; but becoming afterwards private property, and the majority changing their sentiments, they expunged from the church prayers all allusion to Trinitarian doctrines, and openly denounced the Trinity. The minority of course retired. In 1792 a Unitarian <'oiigregation was formed in Portland. ill tlic dcbtrict of Maine: and another at Saco. a spects most of the duties olhis responsible office, the most accomplished, Episcopal clergyman in America. He has a high standing in society, possesses great personal respectability, and wns appointed some months since to the new and Ml If ■T»> 72 It " 74 lifiiulsoine Kpiscopal church in the most tushiun- able part of Boston. Many of the most respect- able inhabitants of Boston have joined his con- j^jregation — not a few from Unitarian societies. — Many famihes are divided in their religious sen- timents; some of the members attending Episco- pal, others the Unitarian churches. The most portentous feature in the history of the present state of Unitarianisin in this coun- try, is the strong hold it has obtained in Cam- bridge college, near Boston ; the most extensive, and, in a literary point of view, the most respecta- ble college in the Union ; in whicii also a large proportion of the most iiiduential persons of the nation are educated. Many parents are prevent- ed by religious considerations from sending their chddren thither; but I wish I could say the ob- jection was more general. This, and perhaps Transylvania university at I^exington, are hap- pily the on\y colleges under the influence of Uni- tarian sentiments. Yale College, Princeton, Co- lumbia, and all the others that I am acquainted with, are opposed to them; and Yale College has the happiness of having its principal professors men of decided piety. Bui the noble Theologi- cal Institution at Andover, liberally endowed, formed for the express purpose of raising up able champions to contend earnestly for the faith at home, and accomplished missionaries to dirtuse il abroad, blest with learned and pious professors ardently engaged in the great objects of their in- stitution, presents perhaps the most cheering view. 'J'he onlv confident assurance, however, of .1 d 73 the triumph of truth, is to be found in the pro- mises of Him wlio has iiifallihiv predicted its u li- vprsal reception. — I am gl «d I have done, it i-^ a painful office to remark oii what appear to be the doctrinal errors of others, when conscious of so many practical errors of our own. But 1 could not refuse your request. I.ET'I ER IX. S(tle,n, Febuary 26, 1821. h my letter of the 24th I had no room to ad- vert to the state of morals and manners in the United States; and as tlicse were among the to- pics on which you requested information, I aviil myself of a little leisure to-night to comply with your wishes. * I must, however, remind you, that I do not pretetid to give you an accurate pi< 'ure of American morals, (a task to which I feel ay- self incompetent, although I purposely deferred writing on the subject till on the very eve of em- barking,) but merely to send you the observations of a solitary traveller — the impressions I have re- ceived in passing rather hastily over this exten- sive country. If I were writing to a less judicious friend. I would also remind him that I do no* feel myself responsible for any general conclusions he mii;ht draw from particular facts, or bound to reconcile the discordant inferences he might deduce fron my statements. I am ansvvorable for the ficts Qnli^ ; and if they sometimes leave you in an nii- W h V t i^ 71 satislactory fstate of suspense, IVoiii which you are strongly tempted to relieve youraelf by jumping to a conclusion, I can only assure you, that I am often in the same pretlicament, and would gladly relieve us both by some bouncing assertions, it' I could do it with sincerity; but there have been AoM/jrr* enough on the subject of America already. Tlie state of morals differs so much in different parts of America, that no general description would be applicable to the whole. Indeed, one might almost as well attempt to include in any general description the various countries of Eu- rope as the United States of America ; for al- though a uniform system of government produces many prominent features of a common character in all the members of this great confederation, yet the wide range of climate embraced by its ex- tensive limits, the great variety of habits, objects, and feelings, and especially of political and reli- gious sentiments, which prevailed among the first settlers of the ditf*erent States, the diversified pursuits and occupations of the present inhabi- tants, the admission or proscription of slavery, and a thousand other circumstances, have con- tributed to establish the most marked distinctions, and often to present the most striking contrasts, between the several sections of the Union. All this must render any general account of American morals a little prolix and perplexed. I will rely, therefore, on your indulgence, and will com- mence with what has long been considered a crying sin tin-oughout the Union — intemperance. The habitual use of ardent spirits is indeed very general. Even in the Eastern States it it> 75 not uncommon ; but in the Middle, and still more in the Southern States, it prevails to a lamentable extent. Under the denominations of anti-fo^ma- tics, mint julep, and gin sling, copious libations are poured out on the altars of Bacchus, by vota- ries who often commence their sacri 'ces at an early hour in the morning, and renew them at intervals during the day ; and yet I have not seen six instances of brutal intoxication since I landed in America, — nor, except among the poor cor- rupted frontier Indians, twenty cfises in which I had reason to believe the faculties were in any degree disordered. The decanters of brandy which are placed on the dinner tables at the inns for the guests to help themselves, without addi- tiotial charge, I have never seen used but with moderation ; and, on the whole, I would say de- cidedly that, taking America generally from Maine to Louisiana, (you know that I have seen few of the Western States,) the sin of drinking to ex- cess, prevails less extensively there than in En- ;;land — that, whatever may be the injury to the constitution from the common use of spirits instead of malt liquor, there is less derangement of the faculties, less waste of time, and perhaps of mo- ney, and far less misery entailed on suffering fa- milies from intemperate drinking in this country than in our own. There is, indeed, a far more dreadful squandering of time in bar-rooms in ma- rjy parts of America; but it is in cigar-smoking, and is not generally attended with pinching effects, or a deserted wife, or hungry children. Drams are taken, as it were, '• en passatit," so- litary. a!id in a parenlhosis : not in a social circle t,, ^ 70 roiitul a blazing fire, where I at this luonient see John Bull sitting in an old arm chair, a thrce-leg- gpd deal table before him, his heart expanding as his blood warms, one hand on the knee of his next neighbour, or patting him on the back, the other pijihing round the common tankard, the bond of good fellowship, which after a few more circuits will too probably convert this exhibition of rude enjoyment, into a melancholy scene of intoxica- tion, in which man defaces the image of his Maker, and degrades himself to a level with the brutes. In the higher classes, there is great moderation in the pleasures of the table, in the Eastern and Middle States at least : and as far as my experi- ence goes, in the highest circles in the South, lir Boston, New-York, and Philadelphia, even parties seldom dine later than three o'clock, (there are some exceptions,) and they usually disperse, after taking two or three glasses of wine. What may be the case at ihe parties of dissipated young men, or at public dinners j whether there is a Madeira gmge for Republicanism, as we measure loyalty by Port, I do not know. At a public agricultu- ral dinner, at which I was present, where there were one or two hundred persons in the compa- ny, there was the greatest order and moderation : and all rose to return home in about an hour after diimer. With regard to some other immoralities, if they exist in the same degree as with us, which I am disposed, fiom the prevalence of early marriages, to question, it is under the shade of secrecy ; tor the cities, except New-Orleans, present nothing *)f the disguslHig ertrontcry and unblushing profli- 77 ,» « gucy which the streets of our large towns cxiiibil nCtrr dark; and in the country, as you nio} have observed in ray letters, the female manoers ore distinguished by a very reranrkable degree of pro- priety. Indeed, I hardly know any thing which has struck me more in America than the respect- able demeanor of the females of all ranks of life, and the evident attention in the domestic eco- nomy even of taverns or inns to exclude them from situations in which they might be exposed to insult. In New-Orleans, indeed, the picture is al- most totally reversed. It must not be forgotten, however, that New-Orleans is still in many res- pects rather a French or Spanish, than an Ame- rican city, and that it is improving just in propor- tion as it becomes American. The French in- habitants have still an ascendancy in the councils of the city; and the effect is no.less conspicuous in the dirty streets and tainted air, than in its mo- ral pollution. Before long, I trust, its streets will be cleansed by conduits from llie Mississippi, for which it is admirably situated, and its moral at- mosphere purified by the benign iniluence of reli- gion, which the Christians in the Eastern States, with their accustomed activity, arc exerting them- selves to extend. Pilfering, house-breaking, highway robbery, and murder, are far less common here than with us : the last three, indeed, are very uncoujmon, al- though I have heard of the mail being robbed al least twice since I have been here, and once (in the wild parts of the country, where it is carried on a horse.) with murder, and aggravated circum- 78 tttanr^s of cruelty. Duelling, except in the East- erii States, is more common, and more deadly. The bribery of subordinate custom-house offi- cers, so disgracefully common in England (not in- deed to defraud the revenue, but to obtain des- patch) is very rare here. 1 have been informed by active respectable merchants in New-Vork. and Philadelphia, that they never knew an in- stance, and should be extremely surprised to hear of one; that in the only case in which they had known of it ever being offered, the olFicer consid- ered himself insulted, and knocked the offender down. In Boston, I omitted to inquire on this sub- ject ; but in point of morals there is every reason to infer that it stands at least as high as New-York and Philadelphia. To what extent smuggling, slave-trading, and privateering, under Spanish colours, are carried on, I found it difficult to learn; since these prac- tices, though by no means uncommon, are consid- ered as disreputable as with us, and shun the light. The instances of breaches of trust in res- ponsible situations, especially in banks, of which I have heard in the last twelve months, are dis- gracefully numerous. This ( attribute principal- ly to the wretched system of the insolvent laws in this country, and the laxity of morals in pecunia- ry matters which they are calculated to produce. For the particidars of this system, so repugnant to the general intelligence and morality of the coun- try, I refer you to your commercial friends. It is a perfect anomaly, and Cannot long exist. Indeed, the Bankrupt Bill has already passed the Senate ; and although other business may interrupt its pro.- M 79 tl, i>.- gress through the House of Representatives, it musl, in some form or another, ere long become a law, and supersede a system over which, were I an Ameri- can, I should never cease to mourn, deprecating it as calculated to injure the reputation of mj' coun- try, and to depress her moral tone. Lotteries and horse-racing are not uncommon here : the latter is most prevalent in the Southern States, where private race-courses are frequent. Gambling, in the Middle States, 1 should imagine from all I saw, is about as common as in England : it is far more so as you proceed to the southward, and dreadfully prevalent in New-Orleans, where a license to authorize gambling-houses is sold ei« ther by the city or the state authorites : I forgot to inquire which ; though in the one case it would throw the blame on the French, — in the other, on the Americans. The licenser is reported to real- ize a large income from this iniquitous traffic ; and the Kentucky boats,which for above a mile line the shores of the Mississippi, are said on Sundays to form one line of gambling-shops. These, with the open theatres, the dances of the slaves in all the environs of the city, and the week-day work which is going on at the wharfs, to perhaps one third of its ordinary extent, present a Sunday-evening pros- pect you would be grieved to witness. Indelicate and profane language is less common in the Eastern States than with us, perhaps equal- ly prevalent in the Middle, and far more so in the Southern Atlantic States, but it is prevalent to an awful degree on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. These indeed are emphatically, in a moral sense, Ihe benighted regions of Acnerica : and yet their I »' m natural aspect is bright and beautiful. Often, wheti at New-Orleans, walking out at sunrise, on the banks of the Mississippi, which a few hours be- fore had been parched and cracked by yester- day's meridian fervour, but were then saturnt«»d with the heavy dews, which at that season fril nightly like showers on the mown grass, I hive thought tliat 1 had never before seen so much to delip-ht the eye, regale the senses, or kindle the imagniation ; — orange groves with their golden fruit and fresh green leaves; hundreds of cattle half hid in the deep wet clover, which grows wild and luxuriant on the rich alluvion ; the sugar and cotton plantations on the opposite bank ; and the forest behind them stretching to the boundless prairies of the Attacapas and Opelousas ; — above all, the noble Mississippi flowing majestically to the sea, and carrying the imagination thousands of miles up its current, to the sources of some of its tributary streams, near the rocky mountains. I have before alluded to the beauties of the close of day, in a climate so delicious, at that hour, and the succeding ones, when the vault of heaven has a deeper blue than with us, when " MiWiT moons disperse ser^ner licht, And brtgtjter beauties decorate th** ni^ht." And yet when I think of the moral pollution which pervades New-Orleans, and the yellow (ever which annually depopulates it, or of the intermittents and slavery which infest its vicinities, the rocky shores of New-England have a thousand times more charms for me. There I see on every side, a hardy, robust, industrious enterpriscng popula- 81 tion; better (c(\, better clothetl, better etliicatcd than I ever saw before, and more intelligent, and at least as moral as the corresponding classes even of our own countrymen. Instead of a succession of slave plantations, whose owners, by supplying them wholesale, prevent the existence of villages or towns, except at very distant intervals, (the 2000 slaves of one slave-holder, like General , would make at least, one respectable village of themselves,) I find handsome thriving country towns, on every side ; and 1 have alrtady told you how beautiful a New-Et»gland town is, with its white frame-houses, its little courts, its planted squares, its tine wide streets, or rather avenues, and most especially its numerous spires. From one spot I have counted more than twenty-five spires; and yet I have been asked, in England, it there were any churches, or places of worsjiip in America I LETTER X. Philadelphia, Oct. 181f). As I am now resting a little after my wanderings. 1 am anxious to take th*? earliest opportunity ol" complying with your wishes, and ofgiviiigyou i\\r impressions 1 have received of the American cha- racter in the course of my route. I might indeed have done this at an earlier period, but it would have been with less satisfaction to myself Indeed. 1 have occasionally been KhI to doubt whether I have viewed the sul)ject with impartiality, oilher n i\r 'tl- 82 \' ■« 't I \ilule receiving the kind attentions which I have so generally met with, or when exposed to the in- conveniences incident to travelling in the unsettled parts of the country. I have sometimes heen ashamed to find how much my opinions were in- fluenced for the moment by humour or circum- stances, and how necessary it was to guard against forming ideas of a peculiar town from the recep- tion which I might happen to meet with, or the circle into which I might accidentally fall. I shall in future have little confidence in any general con- clusions respecting a country, founded on the ex- perience of a single traveller; since, however candid may be his representations, they must ne- cessarily be drawn ("rom a range of observation comparatively limited ; and be tinctured, at least in some degree, with his own mental peculiari- ties. Having thus prepared you to receive my state- ments with caution, I will give you my impressions without reserve. If, in opposition to their repub- lican principles, we divide the Americans into classes, the first class will comprehend what are termed the Revolutionary Heroes, who hold a sort of patent of nobility, undisputed by the bitter- est enemies to aristocracy. Their numbers, indeed, are few, but they have too many peculiar features to be embraced in the description of any other class of their countrymen. Many of them were educated in England ; and even those who never travelled had generally the advantage oi the best English society, either colonial or mili- tary. They were formed in the English nchool ; were embued with English associations; and. 8J however active tlioy were in resisting the en- croachments of lliC mollior country, they are. many of them nt least, delighted to trace tiieir descent to English families ot" rank, and to boast of the pure English blood which Hovis in their veins. In the iamilies of these patricians, in which 1 have spent many agreeable hours, 1 met with nothing to remiiid me that I was not in the society of that class of our well-educated country gen- tlemen, who occasionally visit the metropolis, and mingle \\\ fashionable or political life. The old gentlemen of this class arc indeed gentlemen oi the old school ; and tlio young ladies are parti- cularly agreeable, retined, accomplished, intelli- gent, and well-bred. The second class may include the leading po- litical characters of the present day, the more eminent lawyers, the well-educated merchants and agriculturists, and the most respectable of the novi homines of every profession, it will thus comprise the mass of the good society of Ameri- ca ; the first class, which comprehends the best, being very limited, sui generis, and about to expire with th*^ present generation. The manners of this second class are less polished than those of the corresponding class in England, and their education is neither so regular nor so classical ; but their intellacts are as actively exercised, and their information at least as general, .".llliough less scientific and profound. The young ladies of this class are lively, modest, and unreserved ; easy in their manners, and rather gay and social in their dispositions ; at the same time, they are very ol)servant of the rule- of female propriety : u t* ■ I, lit and il' ihey ev(M- displease, it is rather from indil- ference titan from cither bashfulness or effrontery. Their appearance is generally geiiteel and agree- able ; their figures are almost uruversally good ; and they dress remarkably well — in this city, in- deed, more to my taste than in almost any place I recollect; for which they are indebted partly to the short passciges h*om Europe, which wait across the Atlantic the latest fashions from London and Paris; partly to their accomodating taviff, which places within their reach the beautilul Canton crapes, and all the most elegant material? for dress which American enterprise can collect ill the four quarters of the globe ; and partly to the simplicity of the Quaker costume, which has had a happy and sensible intlueiice on the taste and habits of the community at large. Their tone of voice, which is generally a little shrill, and their mode of pronouncing a few particular words, are the peculiarities of marmer which f think would be most remarked upon in the best society in England. Generally speaking, also, the style of female education in America is less favourable to solid acquirements than with us. The young ladies here go earlier into society than ni England, and enter sooner into married life : they have not, therefore, the same opportunities for maturing their tafetc, expanding their intellect, and acquiring a rich store of well-arranged and digested knowledge, as those have who devote to improvement *he longer interval which climate or custom has with us interposed between the nursery ajid the di-awlng-room. in the highest U,i, 8j class, especially in Carolina, there are many ex- ♦U'ptions to this general remark ; and among the youijg ladies of Boston there appeared to me to be, if less refinement than in the Carolinians, yei a very agreeable union of domestic habits and litci-ary taste, and great kindness and siniplicily of manners. The third class may comprehend all below the Hocond ; for m a country where some would per- haps resent even the idea of a second class, this division is sufficiently minute. This class will mclude the largest proportion of the American population; and it is distinguished from the cor responding classes of my countrymen (the litth- farmers, innkeepers, shopkeepers, clerks, niechan ics, servants, and labourers) by greater acuteness and intelligence, more regular hahits of reading, a wilder range of ideas, and a greaiter freedom from prejudices, provincialism, and vulgarity. It is distinguished, also, hy greater coldness of ninnncr ; and this is the first of the charges against the na- tion, generally, on which 1 shall remark. As respects the highest classes, I think this charge is in a great measure unfoinided ; their re- ception of a stranger, at least, appearirig to me as frank and as warm as in England. To that part of the population which I have iiicluded in the third class, the charge attaches with strict propri- tty, and in many cases iheir coldness amounts to the English " cut direct." At first it incommoded me excessively, especially in tlie women iri the country, wiio showed ii the most ; and 1 have some- times been disposed to ride on. not in the hesi 86 leinper, when, arriving at an inn, after a long stage before breakfast, and asking very civilly, "-Can we have breakfast here ?" I have received a shrill " I reckon so," from a cold female figure, that went on in it& employments, without deigning to look at us, or to put any thing in motion to verily its reckoning. In due time, however, the bread was baked, the chicken killed, and both made their appearance, with their constant com- panions, even in the wildest part of America, Jiam, eggs, and coffee. The automaton then took its place; and if I had been an automaton also, the charm would have remained uid)roken ; but I do not remember an instance in which the figure did not converse with good humour before 1 rose. Very often, however, our reception was warm and friendly ; and the wife or daughter who poured out my cofTee was frank, well-bred, obliging, and conversible. The coldness of the men, also, I soon found to be conlined principally to their manner, and to indicate no indisposition to be sociable and accommodating. On the contrary, In a route of more than 7000 miles, of which I travelled nearly 2000 on horseback, and the rest in steamboats and stages, 1 have found the various classes as accommodating and obliging as in Eng- land: sometimes, I confess, I have thought more so. Some parts of Georgia and the Carolinas might suggest a slight qualification of this remark ; v\hile East Tennessee, and the valley of Ihe She- nandoah, might almost claim a warmer eulogium. In the course of my route, I have met with oidy one instance of pers^onai rudeness, aiid that too slight I * 87 > 4 I I to be mentioned, except for the sake of lilrral ac- curacy. My servatit'.s impretsioiis correspond uitli mine. On questioning him, at the termination of our route, he said "'•he thon<^ht the Americans quite as ready to serve ns and one anolli(?r as tlic Englisli ;" and that they were continually express- ing their surprise to tiiul Enjijlishmen so civil. Now our civility was nothing more than wouhl naturally be suggested hy a recollection of" ihe institutions of tiie country through which we were travelling, and a general desire to he pleased with friendly intentions however manifested. Tiie coldness of manner of the Americans, Ijowever, is a great defect, and must prejudice travellers till they understand it a little. With regard to the ra>:ilt/ which is charged up- on them: this foible is admitted by all their sensi- ble men, who are dirigusted with the extravagant pretensions maintained in inflated language in their public prints. I have heard some of them jocosely say, that tliey expect their countrymen will soon begin to assert that they are not only the most powerful and the most learned, but the oldest nation in the world. In good society, however, I have seldom wit- nessed this vanity in any remarkable ilegree, and I really think I have seen more of it in the Ameri- cans I have met with in England, tl»afi in the whole range of my observation since 1 landed in this country. When I have made the concessions to which I thought the Americans fairly entitled. I have not often observed a disposition to push tlieir claims too far, but, on the contrary, a readi- f ; I' \H I iiV, iiess lo suggest some point olcomparHon in wliltii (ircnt Britain has obviously the advantage. And, without attempting to defend an acknowledged defect in their character, 1 must confess the Ame- ricans have some excuse for their vanity. De- scended (wliicli of us will dispute it ?) from most illvstrious ancestors^ possessing a territory perhaps iiiiequalled in extent and value, victorious in the infancy of their history in a struggle for their in- dependence, and rising w»th unprecedented ra- pidity in the scale of nations, they must he mon; than mortal if they were not elated with their condition ; and if sometimes they may appear to draw too heavily on the future, and to regard America rather as what she is to be, than what she is. I must own that I never yet met with an American who carried his views of her future greatness so far as I should be disposed to do il she were my country, and if I could be satisfied of the predominating influence o^ religious principle in her public councils. As for the inquisitiveness of the Americans, I do not think it has been at all exaggerated. They certainly are, as they profess to be, a very iufjuir- ing people; and if we may sometimes be dispon- ed to dispute the claims of their love of knowiinr to the character of a liberal curiosi/i/^ we must at least admit that they make a most liberal use of every means in their power to gratify it. I have sehlom, however, had any difliculty in repressing; their home questions, if I wished it, and without oflending them; but I more frequently amused myself by putting them on the rack ; civilly, and Jti «9 apparently unconsiously, eluding their inquiries for a time, and then awakening their gratitude by such a discovery of myself as I might choose to make. Sometimes a man would place himself at my side in the wilderness, and ride for a mile or two witliout the smallest communication between us, except a slight nod of the head. He would then, perhaps, make some grave remark on the weather; and if I assented in a monosyllable, he would stick to my side for another mile or two, when he would commence his attack. " I reck- on, stranger, you do not belong to these parts." " No, sir, I am not a native of Alabama." " I guess you are from the north." " No, sir, I am not from the north." "■ I guess you found the roads mighty muddy, and the creeks swimming. You are come a long way, 1 guess." " No, not rfo very far ; we have travelled a few hundred miles since we turned our faces westward." " I guess you have seen Mr. , or General " (mentioning the names of some well-known indi- viduals in the middle and southern states, who were to serve as guideposts to detect our route;) but, " I have not the pleasure of knowing any of them;" or, " I have the pleasure of knowing all," equally defeated his purpose, but not his hopes. '• 1 reckon, strai ger, you have had a good crop of cotton this year." '* J am lold, sir, the crops have been unusually abundant in Carolina and Geor- gia." " You grow tobacco, then, I guess," (to track me to Virginia.) " No, I do not grow to- bacco." Here a modest iiKjuircr would give up in do'^pnir. and trust to the chapter of accident-. 1-2 l,r * H- 00 lodevelope my name and history ; hut I general- ly rewarded his modesty, and excited his grali- liule, by telling him I would torment him no longer. The courage of a thorough-bred Yankee* would rise with his dithcuitics; and, alter a de- cent interval, he would resume : " 1 hope no of- fence, sir; but you know we Yankees lose no- thing for want of asking. I guess, stranger, you are from the old country/' " Well, my friend, you have guessed right at last, and I am sure you deserve something tor your perseverance; sind, now, 1 suppose it will save us both trouble if I proceed to the second part of the story, and tell you where I am going. I am goijig to New-Or- leans" This is really no exaggerated picture: dialogues, not indeed in these very words, but to this effect^ occurred continually, and some of them more minute and extended than I can venture up- on in a letter. I ought, however, to say, that ma- ny questions lose much of their familiarity when travelling in the wilderness. " Where are you from ?" and " whither are yon bound ?" do not appear impertinent interrogations at sea; and of- ten in the western wilds 1 Ibund myself making in- quiries which i should have thought very free and e.ipy at home. And, indeed, why should that be deemed a breach of good manners in JVorth America, which in South America is required by the rules of common politeness ? " The Abi- pones of Paraguay,*' says DobrizholTer, " would * In Anu-rica, tlie term Yankee is applied to the natives of New- Enc^.inJ oii'y, and a gLnerally used uitli an air of pleasantry. •apv Ui tlimk it quite contrary to the law^ ol^ood breed- incf were they to inetH any one and not to nnk him where he was iJ^o\ufr; so that the won! iniekaucf* or iniekuiK hit.; ? wher«' are )ou going re- soundH in the streetn." The next American hahit on wliich I will re- nmrk, which always oflJ-nded me extremely, is the almost universal one oi' spilfing. without regard to pi ace, or cirrumslances. Vou must excuse could nol m time my alluding to such a topic; but I could not i candour omit it. since it is the most olTensiv<> pe- culiarity in American manners. Mai y, who are really gentlemen in otljer respects, otlend in this; and I regretted to observe the practice even in ihc diplomatic parties at Washington. Indeed, in the Capitol its(Mr, the «lignity ol the senate is lot down by this vile habit. I was there liie tirst session alter it was rebuilt; and as the magnificent and beautiful halls had been provided with splendid carpets, some of the senators appeared at first a little daunted ; but alter looking about in distress, and disposing of their diluted tobacco at first with timidity and by stealth, tliey gathered by degrees the courage common to corporate bodies, and be- fore I left Washington had relieved themselves pretty well from the dazzling brightness of the brilliant colours under their feet! It was morti- fying to me to observe all this in an assembly whose proceedings are conducted with so much order and propriety, and in chambers so truly beautiful as the Senate and House of Represen- tatives — the latter the most beautiful hall I ever saw. 1 ^. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) Jo /L 1.0 I.I Ua iM |2.5 1^ 12.2 1^ 124 I 2.0 1.8 11.25 il.4 f /: '>> 7 Hiotographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14SS0 (716) 872-4503 4^ i^ i/.. <^ ^1^ % 92 ¥'■ t ; W\ I: I Another thing which has ilisf^^leased ine, is the profusion and waste usually exhibited at meals. Ex- cept in the very best society, the plate is often loaded with a variety of viands, which are dis- missed half-eaten. An Enghshman is shocked at the liberal portions allotted to the young ladies, till he finds they afford no measure of the appe- tites of those to whom they are sent, who appear to be as abstemious as his own fair country-wo- men. Still this exhibition of waste is always dis- pleasing; and when viewed in connexion with the sufierings of so many of the population of our country, is also distressing. But the necessaries of life are here produced in abundance, and, with very few exceptions, are within the reach of every one. I only recollect seeing three beggars since I landed. After touching on these points, I do not feel willing to conclude my letter without reminding you of the kindness and hospitality, the good sense and intelligence, which I have every where met with ; and of that frequent exhibition of philan- thropic and religious feeling which has given a peculiar interest to many of the scenes through which I have passed. The American character, to be estimated correctly, must be regarded as a whole ; and as a whole it has been calumniated to a degree derogatory both to the intelligence and the generosity of my country. The Ameri- cans have been exasperated into unfriendly feel- ings by our real jealousy and apparent contempt ; and their very sensibility to our good opinion, which they cannot conceal, has rendered the mis- 93 representations of our travellers and journalists the more irritating. Americans have often asked me if we do not in England consider them a horde of savages; and when the question has heen pro- posed to me by a fair lady, in a handsome draw- ing room furnished with every article of luxury which money could procure in London or Paris, I found no difficulty in acquiescing in the conclu- sion which she seemed to draw from a hasty glance around her, that "such an idea would not be quite just. On such occasions I have often thought how many of my candid and liberal fe- male friends would blush, if they could be intro- duced for the evening, to find how erroneous were their previous ideas of trans-Atlantic socie- ty. But it is when joining in religious worship with exemplary and eminent Christians, or wit- nessing the extent and variety of their benevo- lent efforts, that I most keenly feel the apathy with which in England we are accustomed to re- ga d our American brethren. I really am not without hopes, that it may yet become the fashion for ladies of the two countries to reciprocate visits across the Atlantic. Then, and perhaps not till then, will my countrywomen learn to do justice to their Western sifters ; and leaving it to us, their knights-errant, to maintain their own supe- riority, as in duty bound, will begin to think it possible at least that intelligence, refinement, and piety may combine, even on this side of the Atlan- tic, to form characters justly entitled to esteem and atTeciion. The supercilious disdain with which, in many circles, the very idea of polished K. i '- f I i ii^ 4 9t society in America is rejected, wouM be riiippresis- ed by a more correct estimate of American man- ners ; and prejudice would be succeeded by can- dour and liberality. Christian sympathy also would be awakened towards those unknown dis- tant friends, who, sprung from the same stock, and speaking the same language, profess also the same religion ; and who, strangers and pilgrims on the earth, like their European brethren and sisters, are travelling a thorny road to that better country where all true Cliristians will be for ever united in one common family. My very sensibility to the unrivalled excellen- cies of my fair countrywomen makes me addition- ally solicitous that they^ at least, should be exempt from those unchristian prejudices, which some of m) countrymen appear to regard as proofs of pa- triotism. The pleasure and exultation with which I have just been listening, in a large party, to warm eulogiums on Mrs. Hannah More and Mrs. Fry, and some other of our illustrious fe- males, have rendered me at this moment pecu- liarly susceptible on this point; and you must excuse me if I write with corresponding earnest- ness. The conversation afterwards turned on the signs of the times in both countries; and on our rambles in Canada, where many of the party had spent the summer. It was very pleasant to com- pare our adventures and impjcssions. Montreal and Quebec are so much like old European towns, and differ sc widely from the airy, expan- sive cities of the United States, that an American frels as far from home on his first arrival in a ^^^ ^te' 95 Canadian city, as I did in the forests on the Mis- sissippi. As he looks round him, he feels more and more in a foreign land ; and the foreign lan- guage and gentle manners of the native Canadi- ans confirm the impression. The pomp of mo- narchy, even when dimly seen in the regalia of a viceroy : the aristocratical distinctions apparent even in a colony : the vestiges of the feudal sys- tem to be traced in the surrounding seignories ; the nunneries, and the Catholic churches, with their vesper and matin bells ; the Catholic cler- gy walking in the streets; and the boards of ple- nary indulgence suspended from the walls, are all calculated to recall impressions connected rather with the old world, than with the newly disco- vered continent, where man still shares his divid- ed empire with the beasts of the forest. Here no gray tower meets the eye, to call back the imagi- nation to scenes and incidents of elder times ; no monastic edifices, to revive the memory of ancient superstitions; no regalia, transmitted through a line of kings ; no feudal magnificence ; no baro- nial splendour; no sacred depositories of the ashes of generations who have slept with their fathers during a thousand years : all is new, fresh, and prospective; and if the mind will take a re- trospective glance, it is but to expatiate in the re- gions of fancy, or to lose itself in the clouds which rest on the early history of the aborigines. But I shall have tired you. ^i I V 96 LETTER XI. Charleston, JV. C. Feb. 19, 1820. The celebrated Missouri question continued the great subject of discussion, both in and out ol Congress, as long as 1 remained at Washington. The debates, both on the constitutional difficul- ties involved in the question, and on the expedi- ency of the proposed restrictions, were very in- teresting; the former, as developing the spirit of the constitution, and requiring a constant refer- ence to the original principles of the confedera- tion ; the latter, as exhibiting the views of the most enlightened men in the country with regard to the probable effects of the admission of slave- ry into Missouri. I left Washington on the 24th ult. proceeding only to Alexandria, six miles distant, where 1 slept, and where I had been not a little surprised to meet Joseph Lancaster a few days before. 1 set off" the next morning at three o'clock, in what is called the mail-stage, the only public convey- ance to the southward, and a wretched contrast to the excellent coaches in the north. It is a co- vered waggon, open at the front, with four horses ; and although it was intensely cold, I was obliged to take my seat by the driver, in order to secure a view of the country during the remainder of the day. The road !ay across woody labyrinths, through which the driver seemed to wind by in- ■ \ L.. 'H 97 I, 1820. ntinued il out of lington. diificul- expedi- very in- pirit oi' t refer- red era- of the regard f slave- leeding here 1 rprised ore. 1 n what onvey- 9ntrast s a co- lorses ; bliged secure of the rinths, by iu- stii.ct; and we often jolted into brooks, which were scarcely fordable. Leaving Mount Vernon, which I had previously visited, to our left, we reached Occoquan, tweniy-three miles, to break- fast. Occoquan is romantically situated on a ri- ver of the same name, which winds below masses of rock, that my companion compared to those of the Hot-wells at Clifton, but they did not appear to me to be so high. We then proceeded by Neapsco, Dumfries, the Wappomansie River, Ac- qnia, Stafford, and Falmouth, to Fredericksburgh, a small town on the Rappahannock, which we crossed by moonlight. Our journey this day was fifty miles in sixteen hours. The next morning at three o'clock we left Fredericksburgh, and, pass- ing the Bowling Green, Hanover Court-house, and the Oaks, reached Richmond at seven o'clock, sixty-six miles, in seventeen hours. At Hanover Court-house, at least IDO horses were standing fastened to the trees, all the stables being full, as it was a court day. This gave me a good oppor- tunity of examining the Virginia horses, which ap- pear to deserve their reputation. After we left Alexandria, the country assumed an aspect very different from any which I had be- fore seen. For miles together the road runs through woods of pine, inter/ningled with oak and cedar; the track sometimes contracting within such narrow limits that the vehicle rubs against the trees; at others expanding to the width of a London turnpike-road, yet so beset with stumps of trees, that it requires no common skill to effect a secure passage. On emerging, at Interval*. 13 i \m from loiesils vvhicli you liave l>cgnii to Tear luay prove intcriniiiablc, tlic eye wanders over an ex- tensive country, thickly wooded, and varied with fiill and dale ; and the monotony of the road is further reheved by precipitous descents into ro- mantic creeks, or small valleys, which afford a passage to the little rivers which are hastening to the Atlantic. Every ten or fifteen miles you come either to a little village, composed of a few frame houses, with an extensive substantial house, whose respectable appearance, rather than any sign, de- monstrates it to be a tavern (as the inns are call- ed,) or to a single house appropriated to that pur- pose, and standing alone in the woods. At these taverns you are accosted, often with an easy civi- lity, sometimes with a rep'dsive frigidity, by a landlord who appears perfectly indifferent whe- ther or not you take any thing/or the good of the house. If, however, you intimate an intention to take some refreshment, a most plentiful repast is immediately set before you, consisting of beef- steaks, fowls, turkeys, ham, partridges, eggs, and, if near the coast, fish and oysters, with a great va- riety of hot bread, both of wheat flour and Indian corn, the latter of which is prepared in many ways, and is very good. The landlord usually comes^in to converse. with you, and to make one of the party ; and as one cannot have a private room, 1 do not find his company disagreeable. He is, in general, well informed and well behaved, and the independence of manner which has often been remarked upon, I rather like than other-, wise, when it is not assumed or obtrusive, but ap- ■ii ■1 in I tH> 9 ^9 pears to arise iiatiirallv Ironi rasy cMr*'uiiis(aii(ri<. and a consciousiipss that, bulli with rospoct (o situation and intelligence, lie is at least on a levrl ■with the generality of his visiters. At first I was a little surprised, on inquiring where the stage stopped to breakfast, to be told, At Major Todd's — to dine? At Col. Brown's — but 1 am now be- coming familiar with these phenomena of civil and political equality, and wish tu communicate my first impressions before they fade away. Between the villages, if such they may be call- ed, you see i'ew habitations, and those are almost exclusively log houses, which are constructed as follows : Trunks of trees, about a foot or a foot and a half in diameter, generally with the bark on, are laid on one another, indented a little at each end, to form a kind of fastening ; their length determining the length and width, and their number the height of the buildifig. The intersti- ces are usually filled with clay; though some- times, especially in barns, they are allowed tore- main open, in which case you can generally see daylight through both walls. Situated in a thick wood, with a little space cleared around them, where the stems of last year's Indian corn are still standing among the recently decapitated stumps of trees, these dwellings exhibit as strik- ing a contrast as can well be imagined to an Eng- lish cottage with its little garden. Sometimes, however, as in England, you may see a neat,, nio- dest-looking cottage girl standing at the door, whose placid, cheerful countenance, seems to smile with good-natured satire on the external de- As I l(H> fv, 1 k f.orations olrank and fashion ; and rvcn tlio Idack laces of the little slaves, the more frequent iidiabi- tants of these primitive cabins, are often irradiat- ed with a smile of playfulness atul satisfaction. Our gradual approach to the southward has been strongly indicated by a great increase in the proportion of the Black population. I believe you are aware that the importation of Slaves into the United States has been prohibited by law since the year 1808 ; and thaf; in many of the Northern states, slavery is either extinguished already, or will be so on the arrival of certain fixed and ear- ly periods appointed by their respective legisla- tures. The states, however, to the south of Penn- sylvania, with the exception, I believe, of Dela- ware, have made no provision for its extinction, and are termed slave-holding states; and although their legislatures may profess to be, and perhaps are, opposed to slavery in the abstract, yet, con- ceiving that the climate renders the use of Ne- groes indispensable to cultivation, and that their emancipation would be attended with difficulties which have hitherto appeared insurmountable, they may be regarded as practically contemplat- ing the perpetuation of slavery to the remotest pe- riod to which their political views extend. We will hope, however, that some ray of light will break in on this gloomy prospect, even though it should condemn to perpetual sterility the arid sands and pestilential swamps on which the Ne- groes are employed. You will believe that it was not without the most painful emotions that I for the first time con- t ■V) 'I I Id Ne- J 1 'i Ternplrtird tlir r«'volli?inj spnclnclo ol inaii in l>(iii- dagc to his linllow-maii, and thai. I toit mysoW sur- rounded by unhappy victims for whom nature and humanity seemed in vain to urge tlic unanswera- ble plea, " Am I not a man and a brother?" Un- happy indeed we must regard them in their de- graded condition ! — although I have no doubt that they may sometimes pass through hfe with as little actual suffering as some of their free brethren. I have hitherto conversed with but few slaves, com- paratively, on the plantations ; but I have been sur- prised with the ease, cheerfulness, and intelli- gence of the domestic slaves. Their manners, and their mode of expressing themselves, have gener- ally beeri decidedly superior to those of many of the lower classes in England. The servants at almost all the hotels in the Southern states are slaves; some belonging to the landlord, others to farmers in the neighbourhood, who let them out by the year. The first 1 talked with was at Wash- ington, where he came into my bed-room to make my ure. On seeing me disposed to converse with him, he leaned his arm on the chimney-piece with considerable ease, and said he was to be free in three months, when he should be twenty eight years of age; that he liked the thoughts of it, but did not suppose he should be better ofT than at present; that in fact, he should have to do pre- cisely as he did now, except that lie might change his master, if he had a bad one : to set against which was the consideration, that now his master was obliged to maintain him, and then lie must starve if he was idle: — but that •' he understood '1 t fei \' t- i ': if: ii>.: ihr <:ninn)ori peopli' in /;>>/ con nrv wcrr s(» op- pressed that they were worse oil' ihaii the shives in America !" Here I eiideavoiued to extricate him from his egregious hhiitder. Three out of four of the Black coachmen we had the other day (all slaves,) I found very intel- ligent. Tliey said, All they wanted was good masters ; but that their liability to be sold to bad ones, and to be separated from their families, was a cruel part of their condition ; — that in that part of the country (Virginia) they had Sunday to tiiemselves; one holiday in April, one in May, and four at Christmas; — that they had public worship on Sundays, and on one evening in the week; — that many of them could read ; and that some of their preachers were Slaves. 1 cannot describe my feelings when sitting by the side of a fellow-creature and talking to him of his own price! Often did a little verse, with which our children are familiar, recur to my recollection, with some sense, I hope, of the gratitude which it ought to inspire. " I was not born a little Slave, To labour in the sun, And wish I were but in my grave, And all my labour done." Highly as I have ever appreciated the privi- lege of claiming as my native country the most fa- voured corner of the globe, I think I never en- tertained so strong a sense of this blessing as since more extended observation has enabled me to feel its magnitude by comparison with other countries ; and especially since I have had the opportunity of contemplating a class of my fellow- -1 ^>l r,0sai^':u!Ssa!lsu:SSSti^ »..«^«.-ri -iriii-jiii,;,— — io:i er en- ing as ed me other d the llow- '■4 r.rratures rxrludcd from th<' hfnrfits olflu* sorial r.ornp.act — not vohiiitarily reliiKjiiishii's; a portion (tl their natural lihrrty to sccnirr (he tre** ♦•niov- inent of the remainder, but toreibly. and lor ever, deprived of all; who see in law but a lei;ali/ ■A: KIB i'l ■> m riie high to proviroduce nuallv; and that the excavations are emptied live or six times in the season, which lasts from about May to September. We also saw the tar-pits, where tlie tar is extracted from the dead wood of the pine trees in a particular state. In the night we frequently passed parties " camping out" in the woods, by large fires ; and occasionally saw trees, accidentally set on fire by their embers, gradual- ly consuming like a torch. I forgot to say, in speaking of the clearing of land, that we had a striking instance of the rapidity with which a set- tlement is occasionally effected. The mail stage stopped for breakfast one morning at a very com- fortable log-house. The land was cleared lor about the space of an acre, and, in addition to the house, there were two out-hnuses; a stable, in which were the four mail horses; and a granary. 'J^hirteen days previously this was the middle of a wood, and not a tree was cut down ! My companions were delighted with the frog concerts in the woods, and hailed them, as we i\o the cuckoo, as the harbinger of spring, i opened my window the first night, supposing these choris- ters were birds, and it was a night or two before I was undeceived. I have not thought them mu- sical since I discovered my mistake. In the course of our route from Petersburgh we have crossed many rivers and creeks, frequently by ferries in the middle of the night. In South Caro- lina we have passed through several large swamps, where the monotony of the pine barrens was relieved by a variety of beautiful green shrubs, among which the magnolia was moet conspicu- sSft Ill ft if s ii h t i \ ^ if 0U8. As we approached the coust, ( sow ^reat abundance ol' the vegetable drapery which coverH the trees like a fine cubweb, or hangs from them like streamers. Its botanical name, f believe, is tellandria usneaoides. It is frequently said to mark the limits within which the yellow fever confines its ravages, but this is incorrect, lor it is found every where within the tropics. We saw the first rice plantation at Georgetown, about sixty miles from Charleston, and began to be shocked with the vacant looks and ragged ap- pearance of many of the slaves we met. But, abating the painful sensations excited by the ap- pearance of slavery, our first approach to this city was calculated to give us very favourable impressions, after our long monotonous ride through the pine barrens. On arriving at the fer- ry opposite Charleston, a little after sun-rise on a clear fresh morning, we crossed an extensive bay, from which we had a fine view of the open sea, and in which several ships were riding at ari- chor, loaded with rice and coffee, ready to sail for England with the first fair wind. Small boats of various kinds, sailing in every direction, gave animation to the scene ; while the glittering spires increased our curiosity to see this metropolis of South Carolina, of which we had heard much. On entering the city, we seemed to be transport- ed into a garden. Orange trees laden with ripe oranges, peach trees covered with blossoms, and flowering shrubs of a description which I had been accustomed to see only in hot houses, gave me impressions similar to those which I suppose ■# III Mn artaon naw ito i fl'i a wn ^ti' 1 1 , . vou oxpf rioiiml on visiting some of the cities on the Mediterranean, i had no sooner sat down to breakfast at the hotel, than I found one black slave at my elbow fanning away flies with a flap- per, and three or four covering the table with a profusion of dishes. On sallying out after break- fast, J fo.und the streets filled with well-dressed and genteel-looking people, and carriages driving about in every direction. But 1 must reserve a description of Charleston and its inhabitants till 1 have become better acquainted with them. < J (>(• LETTER Xlf. ;/ . ( ;,: ; ( -i Charleston, South Carolina, 26tk Feb. 1820. i I WROTE to you on the 19th inst. and soon after- wards received an invitation, which I gladly ac- cepted, to accompany a gentleman to his rice plantation, about thirty miles distant. With the interesting character of this excellent and venera- ble friend, 1 have already made you acquainted. Descended from one of the old patrician families, who form as it were the nobility of Carohna, edu- cated at one of our English public schools and universities, and enjoying a high reputation, ac- quired in arduous military and diplomatic situa- tions, he would be regarded, I am persuaded, as second to a few in Europe, as a statesman, a scho- lar, and a gentleman. I took an early breakfast with him, at his handsome town-house, whence we proceeded to the ferry. After crossing the bay, we found the General's carriage waiting for T^r' mm . om \ iir> us, with a i'ew periodical publications in it, uiui with led horues, in case we should wish to vary our mode of coiive^'ance. We stopped at noon to rest the horses, and to take a little rei'reshinenl in the woods, and reached the plantation to a late dinner in the evening. The road lay through a pine barren, such as I have already described ; and we scarcely passed a creature in the course of the day, except my friend's sister, an old lady, and her two nieces, who were on their way to Charleston, in a large family carriage and ibur, with a black servant on a mule behind, a negro woman and child on the footboard, and three or four baskets of country provisions hanging from the axle-tree. They inquired how far they were from the springs where we had been resting, and where they proposed to take their alfresco repast. In the morning, I strolled out betbre breaklast into the plantation, and saw about twelve female slaves, from eighteen to twenty-eight years of age, threshing rice on a sort of clay floor, in the same manner as our farmers thresh wheat. It was ex- tremely hot, and the employment seemed very laborious. After breakfast, the General took me over the plantation ; and in the course of our walk we visited the little dwellings of the Negroes. These were generally grouped together round something like a farm -yard ; and behind each of them was a little garden, which they cultivate on their own account. The huts themselves are not unlike a poor Irish cabin, with the addition of a chimney. The bedding of the Negroes consists simply of blankets, and their clothing is generally in rorifincd to u sorl ofnanncl ^nrriients, made tip in dirterenl Ibrms. Those whom I saw at lioine were cowrrinjB; over a fire, although the day was op- pressively hot, and the little Negroos were svtmitiir themselves with great satisfaction about the door. They all seemed glad to see my friend, who talked to them very familiarly, and most of them inquired after their mistress. I was told that their provi- sions were prepared for them, and that twice every day they had as much as they anked for of Indian corn, sweet potato, and broth, with tiic occasional addition of a little meat. Benidt's this, they frequently prepare for themselves a little supper from the produce of their garden, and fish which they catch in the river. On many planta- tions it is usual to give out their allowance once a week, and to let them cook it for themselves, their fuel costing them nothing but the trouble of gath- ering it. A nurse and doctor, both negroes 1 believe, are provided for them : and making al- lowance for the sick, the children, &c. I was told that on the rice plantations in that neighbour- hood, half the gang, as they are hideously called, were effective hands. I heard my benevolent friend order wine, oran- ges, &c. for some of the invalids ; and I believe that I have seen a very favourable specimen of Negro slavery. Yet the picture must ever be a dark one, and, when presented to an eye not yet familiar with its horrors, must excite reflections the most painful and depressing. Humanity may mitigate the sufferings of the wretched victims of the slave system, and habit render them less sen- M ■'^}- 11 '5^ *^ .^^^^.^-«fc^.C^p,,, '" ?Pi« ! ' MM i ^,Bil^||gltl|> ill l^Wl j| || i ;y,.)WIW. l|p !|] i. yj p . I ^'i I n« sihie to Ihnir Hrp^radation : out no tendernrgs can eradicate from slavery the evils inherent in its very nature, nor familiarity reconcile man to per- petual bondage, but by sinking him below the level of his kind. The Negroes usually go to work at sunrise, and finish the task assigned to them at three or four, or sometimes five oi* bl^r o'clock in the evening. They have Sunday to themselves, three days at Christmas, one day for sowing their little crop in spring, and another for reaping it in autumn. In the West Indies, I understand that the slaves work under the lash a certain number of hours in the day, instead of having task-work ; and that they are not generally supplied with food by the mas- ters, but have a certain portion of time to plant their own provisions, during which they are still under the driver's lash. The mode of treatment, however, varies greatly in the different islands. In the course of the morning we saw several other plantations in their neighbourhood; and on some of which were very handsome residences, with grounds resembling an English park. The live oaks profusely scattered, and often standing alone, contributed greatly to this resemblance. These noble trees form a very striking and interesting feature in a Carolinian landscape, especially when at distant intervals they cast their broad shadows on the level spacious tracts of cleared land, which stretch to the distant forest without a fence, or the smallest perceptible undulation or variety of surface. They are not tall, but from twelve to eighteen feet in girth, and contain a prodigious T-l, I. ^m^ PS3 can in its to per- ow the ise, and or foiiFf evening, days at crop in mn. In es work 5 in the lat they he mas- to plant are still eatment, lands, several and on idences, iTheiive ig alone, These [eresting lly when shadows 1, which fence, or iriety of ^elve to )dio:ion!« III) quantity of timber. At the distance of fifteen or eighteen feet from the ground, they divide into three or four immense limbs, wliich grow nearly in a horizontal direction, or rather with a gentle curve, to the length of forty or fifty paces. The wood is almost incorruptible ; and on this account as well as from its furnishing, in its natural state, almost every curve which is required in the con- struction of a vessel, it is invaluable for naval purposes. We dined at a neighbouring plantation, aiid after tea I had a pleasant tete-a-tete ride home through the woods with my venerable friend. We spent the evening very agreeably, in general conversation on American and European poli- tics, and in examining various works on the botany and ornithology of America. My friend had an excellent library, comprising many recent and valuable British publications, and a more exten- sive collection of English Agricultural works than I ever saw in a private library before. The house is a very handsome one, and covers more ground than houses on a similar scale in England, as it is thought desirable in this climate to have only one room deep, with a profusion of windows, which do not put one in good humour with our window-tax. From the windows of the librarv and dining-room, the eye wandered over exten- sive rice-fields, the surface of which is levelled with almost mathematical exactness, as it is ne- cessary .to overflow them at particular periods iVom various canals which intersect them, and wliich communicate with rivets whose waters arf \V « )A i K m-^. ■■TV. ^**%. ?t ' JU U.IU I IilllH i RVpflh^^^^^nMlnMl 120 I ;'i thrown back by the flowing of the tide. At six o^ciock this morning I left my hospitable friend, who sent me in his carriage hall-way back to Charleston, to a spot where my servant and horses met me. The few days previous to this excursion had been spent principally in visiting the different families with whom I have already made you ac- quainted, and who were particularly attentive to me. The best society here, though not very ex- tensive, is much superior to any which I have yet seen in America, it consists of a few old patrician families, who form a select circle, into which the •^ novi homines," unless distinguished by great per- sonal merit, tind it extremely diflicult to gain ad- mission. Strangers well introduced, and of per- sonal respectability, are received with much liberality and attention. Many of the old gentle- men were educated at English colleges, and re- tain something of their original attachment to the mother country, notwithstanding their sensibility to recent calumny and misrepresentation. Their manners are extremely agreeable, resembling the more polished of our country gentlemen, and are formed on the model of what in England we call •• the old schoo? " They are, however, the last of their generation, and will leave a blank much to bo deplored when they pass away. The young ladies of the patrician families are delicate, refined, and intelligent, rather distant and reserved to stran- gers, but frank and affable to those who £|re fami- liarly introduced to them by their fathers and brothers. They go very early into company, are At six friend, back to i horses ion had Jiflferent you ac- ntive to very ex- lave yet >atriciaii ich the •eat per- jain ad- of per- 1 much geutle- and re- it to the Dsibiliiy Their »ling the md are we call e last of ch to be ig ladies led, and stran- re fami- »rs and iny, are I % 121 frequently married at sixteen or eighteen years of age, and generally under twenty, and have retired from the vortex of gay society, before even the fashionable part of my fair countrywomen would formerly have entered it. They often lament that the high standard of manners to which they have been accustomed, seems doomed to perish with the generation of their fathers. The fact is, that the absence of the privileges of primogeniture, and the repeated subdivision of property, are gradually etlecting a change in the structure of society in South Carolina, and will shortly efface its most interesting arid characteristic features. I arrived at Charleston immediately after the races, which are a season of incessant gaiety. They usually take place in February, when all the principal families visit their town-houses in Charleston, for three or four weeks, collecting from their plantations, which are at a distance of from 30 to 150 miles. During this short interval, there is a perpetual round of visits. About the beginning of March, they return to the retirement of their plantations, often accompanied by the strangers with whom they have become acquainted. As a large proportion of the plantations are in the swamps, where a residence in the summer months would probably be fatal from a fever of a bilious nature, from which Ihe natives themselves are not exempt, the families return about the beginning of June, to the city, where they remain till the first frost, which is looked for with great anxiety to- wards October. They then go back to their plantations until February. Some instead of com- I \ ii \l i^r^-- "''^H' W^fv * — 4 MMoiW-olMMMMUkawllWUMnnMVWnpMMNIM l-'i ♦ .« J i»g into the city in June, retire to tlie mountains, or to the springs of Ballston and Saratoga, in the state of New- York, where a large concourse of persons assemble from every part of the United States and from Canada, and by the reciprocation of civilities, and a better acquaintance with each other, gradually lose their sectional and colonial prejudices. Although these springs are from a thousand to fifteen hundred miles from the South- ern States, the inhabitants of Georgia and Caro- lina speak of them with as much familiarity as our Londoners speak of Bath or Cheltenham. Some of the planters spend the hot months ou Sullivan^s Island, at the mouth of the bay, where even strangers may generally remain with impu- nity. When those who decide to spend the sum- mer in the city are once settled there, it is consid- ered in the highest degree hazardous to sleep a single night in the country. The experiment is sometimes made, and occasionally with impunity : but all my informants concurred in assuring me that fatal consequences would generally be ex- pected; and a most r'spectable friend told me, that if his family suspected him oi' such an inten- tion, they would almost attempt to prevent it by actual force. The natives, however, may pass to and fro between the city and Sullivan's Island without risk. Of late vears it has been discovered that there are certain 'healthy spots, even in the country, during the most sickly months. These are in the pine barrens at a distance from the swamps. To be safe in them it is necessary that the land be as barren as possible, and that not a _^-»'*»» • '■ "•>.■' i'l.i tree be cut clown except to leave room lor the house. Even a littk garden it is considered would eiitail some risk. I saw several of these retreats, which are occupied by the overseers of planta- tions. The preceding remarks respecting liability to sickness, apply to the natives, who, you are aware are generally exempt after the age of from ten to fifteen years from the yellow or stranger^s iiever, their apprehensions being confined to what they term the " country fever," and " fever and ague." With regard to the yellow fever, I understand that, generally speaking, the probabilities would be greatly against a stranger escaping its fatal effects, who should remain in Charleston or Savannah during the sickly season. There are two points connected with the yel- low fever here, which are subjects of animated, and sometimes angry controversy: 1st, Whether it is contagious ; and, 2d, Whether it is imported, or originates at home. With regard to the first point, I believe the negative is supported by the best authority. A most intelligent friend told me tha^ he had slept in the same bed with a person who had the fever in the stage of black vomit, without suiferiiig: and. Dr. , who lived in Sir William Jones's family in India, informed me that he was in Philadelphia, under Dr. Rush, 1 think in 1798, and attended the hospital where upwards of 5000 patients were admitted, whom he visited daily, and that he never took the lever ; that he once saw a young man swallow, with im- punity, a tea-spoonful of black vomit, and take ^ !'•.' 124 ( k ^ if a f ( arge quantities out of the stomachs of those who had died, and rub it over his arms, and that he had seen the patients eject it in large quantities on the nurses. With respect to the origin of the fever, I believe the weight of authority, both in numbers and respectability, is strongly against the idea of its being imported; but here 1 am on de- licate and uncertain ground. In passing through Charleston, at present so animated and gay, and with a climate at this sea- son so delicious and so pure, it is melancholy to think of the stillness and desertion which will soon pervade its streets, when the heats will almost suspend all intercourse among the natives, and when the stranger who has been so rash as to remain in this infected region, will move with fearful and trembling steps, his imagination filled with apparitions of " the pestilence that walketh in darkness," and his heart sickened with the "de- struction which wasteth at noon-day." Having visited Cadiz and Lisbon, you are no stranger to the melancholy tieelings excited by a view of the graves of our countrymen who have fallen victims to an epidemic on a foreign shore. " No voice ivell known, through many a day, To spi'Hk the. last, the parting word. Which, when all other sounds decay. Is still like distant music heard. That tender farewell on the shore Of this wide world, when all is oVr, Which cheers the spirit, ere its bark Puts off into the unknown dark." But the real plague-spot of Charleston, is its slave population ; and the mixture of gaiety and splendour with misery and degradation- is too in- b'4 i2:» lose who that he uantities In of the both in ainst the n on de- esent so this sea- icholy to lich u'ili ?ats will J natives, rash as )ve with ion filled walketh the "de- Having anger to w of the ti victims 3n, is its liety and is too in- congruous not to arrest the attention even of the superficial. It always reminded me of the deli- cate pink peach-hlossoms which surround the black hovels of the slaves on the plantations. I shall never forget my feelings on being present for the first time, at the sale of human flesh, which took place here in a public street through which I was passing the other day. Turning from a fashionable promenade, enlivened by gay parties and glittering equipages, I came suddenly in sight of at least 80 or 100 Negroes sitting on a large heap of paving-stones; some with most melancholy and disconsolate faces, and others with an air of vacancy and apathy, apparently insensible to what was passing around them. Several merchants and planters were walking about, examining the unhappy creatures who were to be offered for sale. A poor woman, apparent- ly about 28 years of age, with a child at her breast, her two little boys from four to six years old, and her little girl about eight, composed the first lot. They were mounted on a platform, (with the auctioneer,) taking hold of each other's hands, and the little boys looking up at their mothers face with an air of curiosity, as if they wondered what could make her look so sad. The mother then spoke a few words in a faltering voice to the auctioneer, who repeated them aloud, in which she expressed a strong desire to be purchased by some one who lived near Charleston, instead of being sent to a distant plantation. They were then put up like cattle, with all the ordinary auction slang, and finally knocked down at 350 lasaKMta Ivfr I-J6 dollars round. As soon as they came down Ironi the platform, many of the iNegroes crowded around the mother, inquiring if she knew who had bought her, or whither she was going: but, alas ! all that she knew of her future destiny was, that a new owner had obtained possession of her and her offspring for 3/)0 dollars each. I could not stay to see the repetition of the hateful process on the person of a iield-iabourer, who composed the next lot, and who appeared depressed and deject- ed beyond what 1 had conceived. The melan- choly feelings with which 1 quitted this scene were not diminished by the reflection, that it was my country which tirst transported the poor Afri- can to these western shores; that it was when they were the shores of a British colony that sla- very was first introduced, by British ships, British capital, and with the sanction and encouragement of a British parliament. Would that I could for- get that in a single year (1753) no less than 30,000 slaves were introduced into America by a hundred and one vessels belonging to Liverpool alone ; and that the efforts of many of the Ameri- can states to abolish the importation of slaves, were long defeated by the royal negative which ^vas put on those acts of the colonial legislature which had for their sole object the extinction of the slave Trade; and that Burke was but too well justified in stating in parliament, that *^ the refusal of America to deal any more in the inhu- man traffic of Negro slaves, was one of the causes of her quarrel with Great Britain !" Would that 1 could forget that if America has still her slave- ry -t 127 holding states, we free Brilons have also our slave-holding colonies ; and that in neither the one nor the other has one step yet been taken to- wards the emancipation, however remote, of the injured Africans ! Do not think me insane enough to overlook the diHicuit part of this subject. I am insensible neither to the consideration due to those whose pioperty is invested under legislative sanc- tions, nor to the cruelty of liberating slaves till they are prepared for freedom; but surely no men, much less a freeborn Briton or an American re- publican, can rest satisfied in the horrible conclu- sion that slavery is. to be regarded in any region of the globe, as necessary, irremediable, hopeless, and perpetual. The time 1 hope is not far distant when a better order of things will prevail in this respect, even where the prospects are now the darkest; when this blot will be eflfiiced for ever from the fair creation of that common parent who '• hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth." Everyday are the horrors of slavery rendered more appa- rent by contrast with the free institutions which are rising on every side in its immediate vicinity, and by the brighter light which the diffusion of the Gospel is shedding over the globe. Every day does slavery become more abhorrent from the com- mon feelings of Christian communities, and more inconsistent with the spirit of the times. Thus by the blessing of God on the benevolent atten- tion which is now attracted towards this subject, which will give birth to suggestions, plans, and experiments in different quarters of the globe. kl SSSga \'2ii !♦« 1 v/ ll r every thing is to be hoped. But 1 tbrgel hovv long a letter I am sending you, and yet I cannot resist the temptation of copying for you the fol- lowing interesting extract from Humboldt^s tra- vels. '* We observed with a lively interest the great number of scattered houses in the valley inhabited by freedmen. In the Spanish colonies, the institu- tions and the manners are more favourable to the liberty of the Blacks than in the other European settlements. In all theire excursions we were agree- ably surprised, not only at the progress of agricul- ture, but the increase of a few laborious popula- tion accustomed to toil, and too poor to rely on the assistance of slaves. White and Black farmers had every where small separate eslabiishments. Our host, whose father had a revenue iif 40,000 piastres, possessing more lands than he could clear, he distributed them in the valley of Aragua among poor families who chose to apply them- selves to the cultivation of cotton. He endea- voured to surround his amp^e plantations with freemen, who, working as they chose, either on their own land or in the neighbouring plantations, supplied him with day-labourers at the time of harvest. Nobly occupied on the means best adapted generally to extinguish the slavery of the Blacks in these colonies. Count Torur flattered himself with the double hope of rendering slaves less necessary to the landholders, and furnishing the freedmen with opportunities of becoming farmers. On departing for Europe he had parcel- led out, and let a part of the lands of Cura. Four ilt- I -J!* Years after, at Wn* rrturn to Amrrica, lir Ibiirid on this spot, finely cultivated in cotton, a little hamlet of thirty or forty houses, which is called Punta Zamuro, and which we afterwards visited with him. The inhabitants of this hamlet are nearly all Mulattoes, Zumboes, or free Blacks. This example of letting out land has been happily fol- lowed by other great proprietors. The rent is ten piastres for a vanega of ground, and is paid in money or in cotton. As the small farmers are often in want, they sell their cotton at a very moderate price. They sell it even before the harvest; and the advances thus made by rich neighbours, place the debtor in a state of depend- ence, which frequently obliges him to offer his services as a labourer. The price of labour is cheaper here than in France. A freeman work- ing as a day-labourer (Peor) is paid in the valleys of Aragua and in the Llanos four or five piastres a month, not including food, which is very cheap on account of the abundance of meat and ve- getables. [ love to dwell on these details of colonial industry, because they prove to the in- habitants of Europe, what to the enlightened in- habitants of the colonies has long ceased to be doubtful, that the continent of Spanish America can produce sugar and indigo by free hands, and that the unhappy slaves are capable of becoming peasants, farmers, and landholders." I am sure you will thank me for this extract. 17 ■■■ ■p^paPH I M\ LKTIEW XIII. i' ■ i i]- Mohilf, on thf Gulf of Mexico, '6d Ai>rU, Mid. It was with much regret that I left several kind and interesting lncnd» whom I had met with at (y'harleston. Our last day there was Sunday ; and the diminution of carriages at the church door evinced that the fashionable society was dispers- ing, and that many families had already retired to their plantationsafterthe races. The placesof wor- ship appeared well filled ; but many of the streets were noisy, and exhibited as little of a Sabbath scene as Hyde Park or Piccadilly. I was told also that gambling was going on to a great extent, in a detached building belonging to the hotel where I was stay ing; but as I have sometimes heard the same rumour when staying at the York House in Bath, or an hotel in the west of London, let us hope (if we can) that it was in both cases, a libellous re- port. I was pleased to see the slaves apparently enjoying themselves on this day in their best attire, and was astonished in observing the efforts they make to preserve as a body that self-respect which they know is not felt for them by their pro- prietors. They generally use Sir and Madam in addressing each other, make the most formal and particular inquiries after each other's families. They frequently adopt the names of the families in which they live. Thus, the principal male ser- vant in Col. F.'s family, is Col. F. ;, the principal female servant, Mrs. F. ; while half a dozen Miss F.'s will give their names to as many chamber- ii i I -m \M inaidH, irthev have them. In iho evpiiiiii; I visil- ed the prison, as 1 have done in most towns wherf I had the opportunity; but the turnkey was in- toxicated, and 1 could obtain little int'ormatiofi as to the general plan of management. The prison- ers, I understood from an assistant, have a liberal allowance of meat, bread, and broth daily ; but no work, and no instruction except from occa- sional visits of the clergy, of whom the Black ministers are the most assiduou-^. I saw one earnestly engaged in prayer with the Black pri- soners, one of whom was just committed for the murder of his master. The Black are separated from the White prisoners, the male from the fe- male, the greater from the lesser crirainali?. I saw and conversed with the murderer of Dr. Ramsay, the historian. I was told that the crime occur- red under the following circumstances. The man having shot a lawyer whom he had retained on some business. Dr. Ramsay had given evidence that he was insane ; which the maniac learning, watched an opportunity, and shot him also. He has been confined in prison ever since, and is a pitiable object. If you are as well acquainted with the character of Mrs. Ramsay as, from its uncommon excellence, 1 hope you are, you will be interested by this allusion to her husband. !f vou have never met with her " Memoirs," let me ft ' entreat you to forego no longer the gratification and improvfoient you can hardly fail to derive from them They exhibit a character which will not shrink trom a comparison with that of the most eminent female (christians of any age or i >Mbi M„l„„lggf,l,„iitl,i^f^j^^^ I :i2 t t/ fe /!> are never free from the npprelmisioii of an insurreciiau of the Slaves in the confusion of a premeditated or ac- cidental conflagration. The |j>'e fire in Savannah produced many instances of individual generosity, as well as proofs of general liberality in the other States. A letter of the Mayor, returning the New- Vork contribution, of nearly 3000/. because it was accompanied with a request that it might be im- partially distributed among the Black and White sufferers, a request which imphed a reflection which the southerners resented, was not general- ly approved. It shows, however, very strongly the sensitive state of lieeling on the subject of sla- very between the Northern and Southern States. Of the society at Savannah I saw little, except of the merchants in their counting-houses ; and, after spending a short time at an extensive rice plantation in the neighbourhood, I set off in the stage for Augusta on the 11th. My servant had gone forward the preceding day, when the stage was filled with gamblers returning in ill humour from Savannah, where the inhabitants, in conse- quence of their recent calamity, had decided that there should be no races. In proceeding from the coast to Augusta, 200 miles in the interior, we pass for forty or fifty miles along a level plain ; the greater part of which is covered with lofty forests of pine, oak, elm, tulip, plane, and walnut. About one third of this plain consists of immense swamps, which, interlocking with each other, form part of a long chain which stretches for several hundred miles along the coast of Georgia and tlie Carolinas. j)ejietrating i;{(i ! t: '. { / 4 Irom ten to thirty miles into the interior. In these swamps, in addition to the trees above men- tioned, you meet with cypress trees of an enor- mous growth, beech, maple, the magnolia grandi- flora, azaleas, andromedas, stalmins, and a variety of flowering shrubs, whose names I would send you if I were a botanist. Soon after leaving the plain, you reach what are called the Sandhills, 200 to 300 feet above the level of the sea, when extensive forest plains and green savan- nahs, and occasional ascents of more or less ab- rupt elevation, succeed each other, until you ap- proach Augusta. There you find yourself sur- rounded by immense cotton plantations, and all * the pomp and circumstance" of commerce; carts coming in from the country with cotton, and crowding the streets, or rather avenues, of this rural town; tradesmen and agents bustling about in different directions ; wharves loaded with bales; and steam-boats darkening the air with their black exhalations. At the hotel where I lodged, there were seventy persons daily at table ; but Gener- al , who was there with his lady and staffi gave me a polite invitation to join his party, of which I occasionally availed myself. On the 13th, I went to visit a very extensive and opulent cot- ton planter, a few miles from Augusta. I found him quite alone, having come from Charleston to superintend his plantation for two or three weeks. He was a mile or two from home when I arrived, and a little Slave was sent to help me to find him in the woods. As the little fellow walked by the side of my horse, I asked him if there was any church that the Slaves aitended on Sunday. He 137 said no, there was none rietir eiioiigii, and he liad never seen one. I asked him if he knew where people went to when they died, and was mnch af- iiected by the simple, earnest look with which he pointed to the sky, as he replied, " To Fader dere." I remained with my host till the following day, and found him very sensible and intelligent, and full of information with respect (o the present and former state of the country. I enjoyed my icte-d- /(5/c visit greatly ; although the side-saddles whicli I saw in the log-stable, and the ladies' names in the books which composed the little library, oc- casionally seduced my imagination from our dis- quisitions on the expense of producing rice and cotton, to the reading and riding parties which Were to give interest and animation to tliese sylvan solitudes as soon as the summer should drive the female part of the family from the city. The fact is, this residence is a wooden house with a conve- nient establishment, erected in one of the healthy spots which 1 have described as occasionally found in the pine barrens; and, although there appeared to be only just room for the house to stand, my host was regretting that a few trees had been unnecessarily cut down in his absence, and he had planted others in their room. I observed too that the vegetable matter under the trees was carefully raked together, in order to be removed: and with these precautions my host told me his family were able to sperul the summer months tiiere, while others were driven to town. He said if I would come back in the summer, instead 18 ¥ HiS^ gtssij^^ii^ J Mi I u Bl; ; * t. v) oi (Jniiing liirii an old baclielor, I should see him with a merry family of twelve or fifteen young people about him. Scenes like these have great- ly impressed my mind with the equitable charac- ter of the arrangements of Divine Providence as respects soil, climate, and similar allotments, in which good and bad, convenience and incori.e- nience, are usually blended ; and also to recon- cile me to the atmospherical vicissitudes of Old England, where, if we have not the bright sky and luscious fruits of some of the south-western parts of the United States, neither have we pine barrens and jungle exhalations winged with fever, and putrescency, and death. After purchasing a couple of horses for myself and my servant, I left Augusta on the 17th, with the intention of proceeding overland to Mobile or New-Orleans. We were a little disconcerted, on rising early that morning, to find the rain falling in torrents. As it cleared up, however, about twelve o'clock, we determined to set out ; and with our long-tailed grays, our saddle-bags, our blankets, and our pistols, we made, I assure you, no despi- cable appearance. After travelling about twen- ty-eight miles, we stopped for the night at Mrs. Harris's tavern, a small country inn by the way side. Two female Negroes were hand-picking cotton by the kitchen fire, where I took my seat, till I was unexpectedly invited to another room, where a fire had been made for me. The first question my landlady asked me was the price ol" cotton at Augusta ; a question which was eager- ly repeated wherever I stopped. Indeed, the ■■-<.... ipr^'^yf" 1 .19 fluctuations in this article catne lion»e to " tli«» business and bosoms" of the poorest family, since every one is concerned more or less in its culti- vation. While my hostess poured out my coffee, I asked her if there were any s'^hools in the neigh- bourhood. She said, Oh, yes ; that there was an academy to which her daughter went when cotton was thirty cents per pound ; that she paid three hundred dollars. per annum simply for board, and fifty more for learning the pt-a-no ! but that, as cot- ton had fallen to fifteen cents, she could not af- ford to buy an instrument, and supposed her daughter must forget her music. I could not help thinking of the farmer Mrs. Hannah More men- tions in her last work, who said he had " French- ed his daughter, and musicked her, and was now sending her to Paris." We set off at six o'clock the next morning, and went twelve miles to breakfast. Here, as usual, I found several books on the chimney-piece; among which were a Bible, a Testament, a Hymn- book, a book of Geography, Rett's Elements, Lord Byron's Poems,, and the Life of Harriet New- ell, — the last of which 1 found, from a note in a blank page, was a gift from the minister of the neighbourhood to the landlord's wife. I mention these books, as they form a sort of average of those which you generally find lying about in the country inns, and which are frequently merely stragglers from no despicable library in the land- lord's bed-room. A pleasing young woman, the innkeeper's wife, sate down to make breakfast ibr me ; and I greatly enjoyed this quiet tcte-n-tcle hi ' / m i i w ¥•?■ * 1 10 in the counlry, alter the promiscuous assemblage of sixty or seventy persons at the taverns in the towns. In stopping to breakfast, however, in the Southern States, you must never calculate on a detention of less than two hours, as your enter- tainers will prepare dishes of meat or poultry for you, and both make and bake the bread after your arrival. In the evening, about five o'c' , after travel- ling thirty-three miles, we arrived at Mr. Shi- rens's, a neat quiet house, on the Ogechee river. Mr. .Shirens is a cotton planter, a miller, a farmer, and an innkeeper. I took a letter of introduction to him, which secured me a good reception. As the following day was Sunday, I remained with this good John Anderson and his help-meet, and their two generations of children, till Monday, >Hit was disappointed to find there would be no service at their church. The minister preaches three Saturdays and Sundays at three churches a few miles distant ; but, on the fourth, which was unfortunately the case when I was there, he is beyond their limits. I found out, however, a Ne- gro congregation, who were to assemble in the woods, of which I have already sent an account. In returning from the spot where we had assem- bled, I passed the church, where, as is usual on those Sundays on which there is no service, there was a meeting of the young persons in the neigh- bourhood, for tlie purpose of singing psalms. I did not join them, but counted ninety-five horses under the trees, nearly one half of them withside- caddles: and yet the country, in passing through • fl ' V - ■■*<^ ■ .-«#■-"*■ «»v^ Ill il. fioemed bv no means tliicklv setllcd. our road being on a pine ridge ; but the Americans, al- though enterprising and migratory, have a great aversion to walking. In the evening three rough back-woodsmen ar- rived from the Mississippi with a wretched ac- count of the roads ; the bridges over the creeks having been almost all washed away, and the swamps being nearly impassable. Their horses were quite exhausted ; and they strongly urged me not to attempt the expedition. Had 1 seen them before 1 set out, I should probably have been discouraged, as they appeared to be hardy, reso- lute, and experienced foresters ; but 1 was now determined that nothing but very formidable ob- stacles should induce us to return. Heavy rains prevented our proceeding till eight o'clock the following morning; but we arrived at Milledge- ville, the capital of Georgia, at half past five o'clock, thirty-six miles, after spending half an hour with Governor , who has a good house a iew miles distant. We found with him two tra- vellers, quite exhausted, who told us tha* for ma- ny days they had to swim their horses over most of the flooded creeks on the road which we were going. The Governor said that the freshets had not been so great since the celebrated Yayoo freshet, more than twenty years ago. From my window at the inn at Milledgeville I saw the re- mains of a bridge which broke down a fortnight since with a waggon and six horses upon it, all of which were lost. The Oconee is here nearlv \l-2 N ';!■ .,,ii' i If' i iii !;' twice as broad as the Lune under Lancastei* Bridge. At Milledgeville there is a very handsome pri- son or penitentiary, which would do credit even to Gloucester; but the critical situation of the flooded creeks rendered it imprudent to stay to inspect it. And here I recollect that I omitted to mention, that in the Charleston and Savannah jails, besides numerous pirates, there were many slaves in confinement for not giving their masters the wages they had earned. In order that you may understand this, it is necessary to tell you, that when a person has more Negroes than he can employ, he frequently either lets them out on hire, or sends them to seek employment, bringing him a proportion of what they earn. Sometimes he will set them to obtain for him a certain sum per week, and allow them to keep the remainder. You will be surprised to learn, that children who are thus situated, generally prefer chimney sweep- ing, as they can earn more by this than by any other employment ; at least, so I was informed at Mr. ^s plantation, while reading to the ladies after supper the miseries of climbing boys in Eng- land, in the last Edinburgh Review, — not indeed to reconcile them to the miseries of slavery, but partly to show them that we do not expend all our critical castigation on their side of the Atlan- tic. This choice of the children does not speak much for slavery, in which chimney-sweeping is an object of competition, in order, perhaps, to avoid the stripes which would ensue if the re- quired sum was not earned and paid in to the I 4.{ iriKster. iStill ihe system orallowiria; tlie Slaves to select their own work, and to look out tor em- pioyment for themselves, notwithstanding the fre- quent hardship and injustice attending it, is a great step toward emancipation, and an admira- ble preparative for it ; and may we not regard it as one of tlie avenues through which the African will ultimately emerge from his degraded condi- tion, and arrive at the full enjoyment of his violat- ed rights. Surely the warmest and most prejudi- ced advocates oi' perpetual slavery will not contend that a man who is capable of taking care of his family while compelled to pay his owner a premi- um for permission to do so, will become less com- petent to manage his concerns when exonerated from the tax, or that he will relax in his efforts to improve his condition, because a stranger no long- er divides with him the fruit of his toil. Experi- ence will doubtless prove that slavery is a state which cannot very long consist with a general dif- fusion of that consciousness of their own strength with which the habit of self-dependence will in- spire the Negroes, and which, when combined with a large numerical superiority, must ensure ultimate success to their struggles for freedom. Earnestly is it to be hoped, that long before the arrival of such a crisis, the humanity and justice, or, if not, the self-interest, of the master will spare all parties the horrors usually attendant on such struggles, by laying the foundation for a safe and beneticiai emancipation. We left IVlilledgeville at eight o'clock, on the 2 1st, and arrived at Fort Hawkins, 32 miles dis- rT»' '\ w * V III tanl, at I o'clock in the aftoniooii. In the courstf of the day, we passed several settlements, and oc- casionally our eyes were regaled with a lew acres of peach trees in full hlossom. The cleared land, however, seldom extended into the forest above a lew hundred yards from the road, and occurred hut at distant intervals. Towards evening we passed six waggons, conveying ninety Slaves be- longing to General , from his plantation in Georgia, to his settlement on the Cahawba in Ala- bama. { mention these little occurrences to put you more familiarly in possession of the habits of the country. Fort Hawkins is a small quadrangle of wooden buildings, supposed, during the late war, to be of some importance in intimidating the Lower Creek Indians, some of whom took part with the British. The whole tract cleared for the fort, and a house of entertainment for travellers, is perhaps half a mile square; and from the fort the eye looks down on an unbroken mass of pine woods, which lose themselves on every side in the horizon about twenty miles distant. We left Fort Hawkins at seven o'clock, on the 22d, having taken care to secure our breakfast, as we knew that we should not see a habitation till we arrived at our evening (|uarters. About a mile from Fort Hawkins we crossed the Oakmul- gee, and entered the Indian nation of the Creeks. The Oakmulgee, in conjunction with the Oconee, forms the Altamaha, and is the last river we cross- ed which empties itself into the Atlantic. In the rourse of the day we passed some Indians with ^ h / n the st, as ■dii till out a kmul- eeks. onee, cross- n the with II.) llu'ir guns cinil hlankets, and scvituI WHj^gtMis of emigrants Trotn Georgia ant) Carolina to Alabama. We also saw many gangs of Slaves whom their masters were transporting to Alabama and Mis- sissippi, and met one party returning from New- Orleans to Georgia. We were astonished to meet this solitary oarty going against the stream. Their driver told me that tlieir master had re- moved them to New-Orleans, where they arrived three days before Christmas. \u less than a fort- night he found he did not like the place, and or- dered them back again to Georgia. They set out on the 1st .January, and on the 22d March were oidy thus far on their way. In the course of the day we did not pass a single house or settle- ment; but our pine avenue was literally without interruption for thirty miles. We stopped at night on the banks of the Flint River, which, with the waters of the Chetahouche, forms the Apalachi- cola, which falls into the Gulf of Mexico. Of our very interesting route from this place through the Indian nation to the white settlements in Alaba- ma, I have sent you a long account in other let- ters. I forgot, however, to mention, that our host at Fort Bainbridge told me that he was living with his Indian wife among the Indians when the celebrated Indian warrior, .Jecumseh, came more than 1000 miles, from the borders of Canada, to induce the Lower Creeks to promise to take up the hatchet, in behalf of the British, against the Americans and the Upper Creeks, whenever he should require it ; that he was present at the mid- night convocation of the chiefs which was held 19 f ipp 1:: ,' t IKi *■■ /* t on the occasion, and which terminatnd, alter a most impressive speech I'rom Jecumseh, with a unanimous determination to take up the hatchet whenever he should call upon them; that this was at least a year before the declaration of the last war: That when war was declared, Jecuni- seh came again in great agitation, and induced them to muster their warriors and rush upon the American troops. It was to quell these internal and insidious toes, that the campaign was under- taken, during which the small stockaded mounds which I have mentioned, were thrown up in the Indian country by the Americans. It was with mingled sentiments of shame and regret that I re- flected on the miseries which we have at different periods introduced into the very centre of Ameri- ca and Africa, by exciling the Indian warrior and Negro king to precipitate their nations into the horrors of war; but I endeavoured to dispel these melancholy feelings by the recollection of our Bible and Missionary Societies, and of that faithful band of veterans who, through evil report and good report, amid occasional success and accumulated disappointment, still continue the undismayed, uncompromising advocates of injur- ed Africa. We bade adieu to the Indian nation on the evening of the 28th, crossing Lime Creek, the western boundary, in a boat. We had travelled tliat day about 40 miles, and had passed, as usual, many large parties of emigrants, from South Caro- lina and Georgia, ai»d many gangs of slaves. In- deed, at the edges of the creeks, and on the hanks n hf ii: ol' tlio rivers, we usually i'ountl a curious coUor- lion ol'sans soucis, sulkies, carts, Jersey waggons, heavy waggons, little planters, Indians, Negro horses, mules, atid oxen ; the women and Httle children sitting down frequently for one, two, or three, and sometimes for five or six hours, to work or play, while the men were engaged in the almost hopeless task of dragging or swimming their vehicles and haggage to the opposite side. Often a light carriage, with a sallow planter and his lady, would bring up the rear of a long caval- cade, and indicate the removal of a family of some wealth, who, allured by the rich lands of Alaba- ma, or the sugar plantations on the Mississippi, had bidden adieu to the scenes of their youth, and undertaken a long and painful pilgrimage through the wilderness. We left Lime Creek early on the 2nth, and, af- ter riding a few miles, arrived at Point Comfort ; a fine cotton plantation, v.hose populous neigh- bourhood, and highly cultivated fields, reminded us that we were no longer travelling through a na- tion of hunters. Indeed, the appearance of oaks in the place of our pine woods, was indicative of" a material change in the soil ; and we soon open- ed on some of the beautiful prairies which yoti have frequently seen described, and which, as they were not large, reminded me of our meadows in the well wooded parts of England. As travel- lers, however, we paid dearly for the advantages offered to the landholders by the rich soil over which we were passing. Our road, which had hitherto been generally excellent for travellirjg on I' 'K^JflMB*** \ \ p j IJH horseback, became as wretchedly bad ; and we passed through three swamps, which I feared would ruin our horses. They were about a mile long each; but we estimated the fatigue of cross- ing any of them as equivalent to at least 15 or 20 miles of common travelling. They were oversha- dowed with beautiful but entangling trees, with- out any regular track through the verdure which covered the thick clay in which our horses fre- quently stuck, as much at a loss where to take the next step, as how to extricate themselves from the last. Sometiiiies th(;y had to scramble out of thr tieep mire upon the trunk of a fallen tree, from which they could not descend without again sink- ing on the other side. Sometimes we were so completely entangled in the vines, that we were compelled to dismount to cut our way out of the vegetable meshes in which we seemed to be en- trapped. These swamps are ten times more for- midable than even the flooded creeks, over two of which, in less than three miles, we had this day to have our horses swum by Indians, whose agili- ty in the water is beautiful. The traveller him- self is either conveyed over in a boat, or, if the creek is very narrow, crosses it on a large tree, which has been so dexterously felled as to fall across and form a tolerable bridge. We slept that night at a poor cabin just erected, and set- ting otr early on the 30th, and passing by Pine Barren Spring, and two very bad swamps, stop- ped to breakfast at a solitary house, where our host's talkative daughter made breakfast for us. She could not refrain the expression of her sur- \ \ ^ 1^!« we ared mile ross- or20 rsha- with- vhich !S fre- te the in the of the , from 1 sink- ere so e were of the be en- re for- Br two is day |e agili- r him- if the e tree, to fall |e slept ittd set- »y Pine |s, stop- re our for us. er sur- > • 4 •* 1 1 < 1 » ^ __■* ■V 4 prise at the sight of a White servant, having ne- ver seen one before, and was much more asto- nished when 1 told her that the White and Black servants in my country eat at the same table. We arrived in the evening at a few palings which have dignified the place with the appella- tion of Fort Dale, where travellers are accom- modated tolerably on a flourishing plantation. Our landlord was an intelligent man ; and among his books I saw the Bible, the Koran, a Hymn book, Nicholson's Encyclopedia, Sterne, Burns, Cowper, Cfelebs, Camilla, and the Acts of the Alabama Legislature, of vvhich he was a member. The next morning we breakfasted at a retired house 20 uiiles distant, kept by one of three fami- lies who came out of Georgia two years since to settle and to protect each other. The husband of one of the party has since been shot by the In- dians in the woods. He died in three hours after he was found weltering in his blood, and was at- tended by the woman who gave me the account. The wife of another of the party was murdered by the Indians a few days ai'terwards, when on a visit to some friends fifteen miles distant, where live women and four children were hutcher(Hl and scalped; and the house of the narrator was soon afterwards burnt to the ground by the same ene- my, provoked probably by some injury or insult offered by travellers through their nation, which they would retaliate on the Whites whenever they had an opportunity. We passed in the af- ter noon by "Indian Path;" and about twilight arrived at Murder Creek, a deep glen, where we r I« ; ! ^ u 1 i;,o took up our abode for tlir nisjht. The nnine sounded rather terrilic, alter the dismal stories we had heard in the day ; but as the man and his wife, my servant, two travellers in a bed, and tliree in their blankets on the floor, all slept in the same room as myself, a single glance in any direction was sulficient, with the aid of the glim- mering of our wood fire, to dispel any fearful visions of the night. This little creek and valley derive their name from the murder of 18 or 20 Whites by the Indians, fiftt;en years since. They were camping out when the Indians fell upon them; and the scene of the massacre is marked out by a black stump ir) the garden. We left Murder Creek by mooidight, at four o'clock on the 1st inst. : and passing by Burnt Corn, where we quitted the usual road to Mobile, we took the nearer but more solitary route to Blakely. We breakfasted with a very pleasing family in the middle of the forest. They were the first whom I heard regret that they had quit- ted Georgia ; they said that although they could do better here than in Georgia, the manners of their neighbours were rough and ill suited to their taste. They stated, however, that things were improving; that the laws respecting the observ- ance of the vSabbath were enforced ; and that they hoped much from the liberal provision made by Government, in the sale of the public lands, for an extensive school in the centre of every township of six miles square. Their children were attending /gratis (as is customary) the school ^n their township, which is already established, ■p<* * - I :> I altliuugh the population is as yet vcr} scanty. The master, who teaches Latin, and, 1 believe, French, has a salary of 700 dollars per annniu, and the neighbours are providing him with assist- ant tutors. This liberal provision for schools in all the newly settled countries, does great credit to the American Government : and it is impossi- ble to estimate too highly its probable ultimate effects. Our host and his family gave us a little provision for the night ; as they told us that we must not expect to get '• a bite" for ourselves or our horses in less than fifty miles, and we had already travelled thirteen. Our road again lay through a most solitary pine barren on a high ridge. The only thing which attracted my atten- tion during the morning, was a finger-post of wood fastened to a tree and pointing down a grass path, and on which was written " To Pensacola." I felt more lonely and more distant from home at that moment, than at any time since I lost sight of my native shores. In the afternoon we were surpris- ed by one of the most sublimely dreadful specta- cles I ever beheld. Thousands of large pine trees lay torn and shattered on each other, only one in four or five having been left standing, by a dreadful hurricane which occured a fortnight be- I'ore, and the ravages of which extended nearly twelve miles. Some had been thrown down with such prodigious violence, that their thick trunks were broken in two or three pieces by the fall ; others were splintered from the top nearly to the bottom, while others were lying on each other lijurorfive feet thick, with their branches intert win- ill II '-I I 1.02 f'd as il' they liiui been torn up by the roots in a body. But it is in vain to attempt to describe the spectacle. I will only say, that the most dreadful tossing of" the ocean never impressed me so strongly with the ideaof uncontrollable power, as this magnificent scene of devastation. Ojjr road was so completely buried that we had to hunt our track at some distance in the woods. My servant observed, " What a many hundred miles people in England would go to see such a sight !" It is such hurricanes as these that Volney describes, as twisting oflT and laying level the largest trees within the limits of their range; and he very aptly compares their course through the forest to that of a reaper through a field of wheat. We had intended to stop at sunset, as in these latitudes there is little or no twilight ; but as usual we could not persuade ourselves that the night would close upon us immediately, and the ground was so wet on the Table-land of the ridge, that we proceeded in order to discover a better place to rest for the night, till we found ourselves benighted among the swamps, our horses sinking and stumbling, and frequently passing through water two or three feet deep, out of which we could scarcely see our way. The damps of the night in this watery region, prevented our alighting to try lo make afire, till the moon should enable us to proceed ; and indeed we did not think it prudent to dismount, on account of the alligators, which abound here : we had about siujset passed very near one. Our ears were IJJ stunned with the frog concerts, which now and then arose, and depressed our spirits, by intima- ting that we were approaching another swamp, although it was too dark to see it. What differ- <'nt emotions the frog concerts in Africa excited ill Mungo Park, who hailed them as symptoms of his approach to the water, for which he was pant- ing. This was the first time 1 had really felt in an awkward situation, and my servant's spirits liegan to fail him. He told me afterwards, that for two hours, the perspiration was dropping from his face, and his knees where shaking as if he was in an ague; the more so as he was afraid that our pound of bacon, which was in his saddle-bag, would allure the alligators lo him. We were suddenly surprised by a number of moving lights, which led us to suppose that some persons were scouring the forest ; but we heard no^oise : even when many of them appeared to be moving round us within a few yards distance, all was silent when v»^e stopped our horses. At last it flashed across my mind that these moving lights must proceed from the beautiful fire-flies we had often heard of, but which I had supposed were confine.! to the East. Even at such a mo- ment I was delighted with their beauty, evanes- cent as it was; for they soon disappeared. Oc- casionally we were again deluded by a solitary fire-fly at a distance, which twinkled like a light from a cottage window, and to which we several times bent our steps, our spirits depressed by every successive disappointment. At last, just as the moon rose, we reached an . f ir. I ^ /I i r,-»«*i*,.„ is • (i I.')! • \' ■M olevateu I 11 \j I;, < • /,■ / (;, ill^ Imy, covered willi reetls lour or five feel liitjli, anil their shores loaded with rat't-wood, which wat then floating down the hay in immense quantities, had a most desolate appearance. In the morning we found ourselves in the Gulf of Mexico, but ^vithin sight of land, and with a number of peli- cans flying around us. As the wind was fair, we stood out longer than usual on the outside of a chain of low flat islands, which forms with the main land a channel, through which, vessels draw- ing not more than oix feet water, may reach New- Orleans by Lake Borgne and Lake Portchartrain, w ithout entering the Mississippi. On the 5th, we waw the sun rise and set with cloudless splendour in the Gulf of Mexico; and I could not help re- flecting how ill the moral darkness of this aban- doned region accorded with the clear sky. which was spread over us, and the glassy surface of the vast expanse in which we were encircled. On the 6th we sailed between the islands I have alluded to and the main shore, which was a dead flat, of little interest, except towards the beautiful bay of St. Louis, to which the more opulent inhabitants of Louisiana retire during the sickly season. The shores are for the most part covered with fine forests, which stretch to the water's edge. Indeed it is observed by Derby, that considerably more than one half of all that part of the United States south of latitude 35 deg. east of the Mississippi river, and bounded south by the Gulf of Mexico and Florida, is covered with pines. It is a com- mon opinion in many parts of America, that these pine lands are incapable of cultivation, and are i;jH (Icbtinod to continue forever in their native eon II r 162 V I I the best boarding-house in New-Orleans, had been of a different character. Unfortunately, my room adjoined hers ; and I heard her at four or five o'clock in the morning, calling for her cow-skin to square the preceding day's account with her Ne- groes. She was in bulk like a large English land- lady ; and I have heard the heavy blows of her brawny arm, and the piercing cries of the wretch- ed slave succeed each other till she was complete- ly exhausted. Had I had reason to believe that I should avoid such disgusting occurrences by re- moving, I would have left immediately ; but such exhibitions were too general to be escaped. I have no doubt, however, that the moral aspect of the town is improving, although the gambling houses are sanctioned by Government, who farm out a general license to an individual, to be sub- divided at pleasure — with more consistency cer- tainly with the manners and institutions of the community, than can be pleaded by the patroniz- ers o{ our public lotteries. The rapid prosperity of this rising city, is now attracting a class of settlers far more respectable than those whom bankrupt fortunes or battered characters formerly drove thither. There are now two Protestant congregations ; and 1 have no doubt the whole structure of society will undergo a rapid change : but until lately public worship was generally neg- lected ; and licentiousness, profaneness, and disre- gard to the Sabbath, have hitherto found there but too congenial a soil. Let those who feel any doubts of the efficacy of the public ordinances of religion, or of the necessity of missionary efforts. IkiA been room )r five ikin to iv Ne- > land- of her retch- iplele- ^e that by re- it such aspect mbling lo farm be sub- cy cer- of the itroniz- sperity lass oi' whom )rmerly )testant whole hange : \y neg- d disre- there eel any mces of efforts. once nee to what depths of depravity hiuimn na- ture will slide even in civilized society, where there is no regular annunciation of Christian truths, and then declare if they are of the opinion that they can reconcile their indiflference to the diffu- sion of religious instruction with an enlightened interest in the improvement of the human race. I left New-Orleans on the 1 9th, in a steam-boat. and arrived here, 320 miles, early on the 23d, after a most interesting sail through the very singular country through which the Mississippi flows. For many miles above New-Orleans, the banks of the river are enlivened with cotton and sugar planta- tions, and c lamented with the beautiful gardens and orange-groves which surround the neat white frame-houses of the planters. The plantations stretch from half a mile to a mile into the forests with which they are hemmed in; and they are formed on the rich borders of alluvial soil, which have arisen from copious depositions of the river, while within the reach of its inundations. They are now protected from the annual flood by a large artificial embankment, thirty or forty yards from the natural bank of the river, four to six feet high, and six to nine feet broad at the base. This bank extends 130 miles on the eastern, and about 170 on the western side of the river; and its preserva- tion is secured by the obligation which the law imposes on every individual to maintain in good repair that part which is before his own land — an obligation which is enforced by commissioners who are appointed to inspect and direct repairs. A breach in the sorce. or a rrevmar. as it is called. -1 i ►: I i « h^ i,l .-^mfift. J(il ditiuses getieFal alarm. Mr. Bracken bury thus describes it. " The waters rush from the river with indescribable impetuosity, with a noise like the roaring of a cataract, boiling and foaming, and bearing every thing before them. Like the break- in-- out of a fire in a town, it excites universal con- eUrnation. Every employment is abandoned for miles above and below, and every exertion is made night and day to stop the breach, which is sometimes successful, but more frequently the hostile element is suffered to take its course." In this case, " it svfeeps with wide inundation over the most valuable tracts of cultivated ground, on which houses and buildings of every description are erected, and destroys in one moment, the improvement of years." Large tracts of waste country are annually flooded. It is estimated that below the thirty-third degree of north latitude, to the mouth of the Mississippi, a distance of about 60 miles, the country liable to be overflowed, is nearly 12,000, and the country actually submerged annually, .5000 miles. One great peculiarity of the I'ver, are its nu- merous outlets. The first of these which we ob- served was La Fourche, about 80 miles above New-Orleans. About thirty or forty miles higher is the Plaquemine, seventy yards wide. But the main outlet is the Atchafalaya, which leaves the Mississippi, about 200 mil*'s above New-Orleans. It is said to be more than 100 yards wide where it diverges from the parent stream, and 180 miles in length ; and the tides, which are never more than two and a half, or three feet in the gulf, flow lU.i up the Atchai'alaya, 150 miles. At a very shori distance above this outlet, (I think both were in sight at once,) the Red River, after a course of ld()0 miles, pours its broad stream into the Mis- sissippi. The confluence of these two rivers is beautiful. There is little doubt that the Atcha- falaya once formed the channel of the Red River, which then preserved its identity till it reached the ocean. Indeed one very peculiar feature of the country bordering on this part of the Missis- sippi, is the number of old channels which the river has left as memorials of its former course. It winds extremely ; one bend of fifty miles bring- ing us within four miles, and another of thirty-five miles within one mile of our former course. It thus forms numerous peninsulas, till the neck of land becomes so narrow, that the river forces its wav through, leaving its former circuitous channel either to be choked up with raft-wood, or to be- come a lagune of stagnant water, with which per- haps it again communicates during the floods. Where it has changed its course less suddenly, and new land has been gradually added to the side from which it has receded, it is curious to ob- serve the comparative height of the new trees, rising in regular gradation from two or three, to sixty or seventy feet high. Hemmed in by the dark forests which overshadow the river on both sides when you have passed the limits of cultiva- tion, you are not sorry to have the deep solemni- ty of the scene relieved occasionally by a younger growth. At night especially, sitting alone on deck, as I often did till morning, the solemnity would liavp hppu overpoworinu without tho variety ^': fi -1^ m l\n f - a*. V- i**^ ».A«^3^ I r.h.( I; (t '' ' i )t>b atlbrded by those natural plantations, and the wooded islands which stud the lakes formed by the expanding current and sinuosities of this majestic stream. We had an unclouded moon while we ascended the Mississippi ; but her beams scarcely penetrated the forest, the dark recesses of whicli were often illuminated by beautiful fire- flies, sailing silently on the " liquid air," like the planetary orbs which we saw reflected from the bosom of the river. During the day, many of the party amused them- selves with shooting at the alhgators, which abounded, and which we continually passed, as they were either swimming slowly on the surface, or lying half out of the water on logs of wood, which they much resemble. We employed ourselves also in looking out for what the navigators call planters and sawyers. The former are trees which, floating down the river, have fixed themselves at the bottom, with their tops pointing up the stream, and often concealed under water. The sawyers are trees, which have carried with them a large mass of earth when detached from the bank, by the weight of which the roots are kept at the bot- tom of the river, while the top pointing down the stream, preserves a vibrating motion, as the pres- sure of the current, and the reaction of the weight at the roots, alternately elevate and depress it. Bradbury observes, " that the period of its oscil- latory motion is sometimes of several minutes du- ration. The steersman this ii^stant sees all the surface of the river smooth and tranquil, and the next he is struck with horror on seeing the sawyer It)7 belbre him raising his terrific arms, and so near that neither strength nor skill can save his vessel from destiuction." On my arrival at Natchez, I took up my abode at a comfortable boarding-house in the upper town ; the lower town being a perfect VVapping, crowded with Kentucky boats, and an odd miscel- laneous population of back-woodsmen and others from the western country. At the boarding-house, I found the Governor of the State ; a worthy old gentleman of handsome property, and of a highly respectable family in Virginia. He took his meals at the common table, where there was a promis- cuous assemblage of merchants, agents, and clerks; and I kept my letter of introduction to him in my pocket two days, little aware that I was in his company. I mention the circumstance, as a trait of the manners of this part of the country, which surprised me a little, as 1 had met at Wash- ington Governors of other states, with far less solid titles to personal and hereditary respectability, aristocratical enough in their behaviour. When I had delivered my letters to him, he insisted on sending his servant and horses with me in my calls on some of the principal planters in the neigh- bourhood, for the roads through the forests are intricate, and you seldom meet any one to set you right, if you take a wrong direction. Our boarding-house is near the Mississippi, •which is now falling a foot every day ; the spring flood having reached its height while I was at New-Orleans; but the flood from the Missouri has nol yet arrived. Nearly opposite the win- • 1 '^1 M li Iff ibB dows of the room in which I atn writing, the river takes one of its noblest sweeps, under what are called the Bluflfs, from which you look down over it upon a dense forest, which stretches to the hori- zon, and in which the sun seems to extinguish his latest rays. On these Bluffs I generally take my evening walk, and please myself with the idea that a few hours previously you may have been watching t e setting of this glorious luminary be- hind our favourite hills; for in " These lands, benpath Hesperian skies, Our daylight !>ujourn3 till your morrow rise." Indeed there is something in the vicinity of Natchez which perpetually reminds me of home. The thick clover, the scattered knolls with their wood-crowned summits, differing only from those most familiar to me in the magnificence of the fo- liage with which they are shaded, and the neat husbandry of the intervening plantations, give the whole country the appearance of an English park. An Irishman with whom I was riding last night re- marked, that the roads strongly resemble those through the large domains in Ireland. I leave you to make due allowance for our anxiety to trace every little resemblance to our native land. At this distance from home we are not solicitous by too accurate a discrimination to dispel an illu- sion, if it be one, which affords us so much plea- sure. You remember Humboldt's beautiful ob- servation : ^' If amid this exotic nature, the bellow of a cow or the roaring of a bull were heard from the depth of a valley, the remembrance of our rounlrv was awakened suddenly at the sound. •» TJ I ll)i> fn They were tike distant voices resuuiidin^ I'roiii beyond the ocean, and with magical force trans- porting us from one hemisphere to the other." But the gigantic plane and maple trees, a large proportion of the seventy or eighty different spe- cies of the Am rican oak, the Sassafras, the Hic- cory, the Pride of India, the Catalpa, the Liquid Amber rftyraciflua, the Liriodendron Tulipifera. above all, the Magnolia G rand iflora, one hundred feet high, with its deep green leaves and broad white flowers expanded like a full-blown rose, re- mind us that we are far from home, while at night the brilliancy of the stars, the delicious fragrance of the surrounding woods, and especially the fire- flies which sparkle on every side, seem almost to transport us into the regions of eastern romance. We are also often gratified with the sight of many beautiful birds which are strangers to us, and sometimes catch a glimpse of the wild deer. A day or two since, 1 rode close past a rattlesnake in the woods which we afterwards killed, and cut oflTits rattle. It was about four and a half feet long. There is much in the plain friendly man- ners of many of the planters in this neighbour- hood with which 1 have been greatly pleased ; and if slavery were banished from their domes- tic and agricultural economy, I should envy their retired, unostentatious, and independent mode of existence. The men are generally hospitable and well in- formed as respects the common concerns of life, and the women modest and obliging, although rold in their manners at first acquaintance. Ma- ♦>•> m. hi J 70 w fit' , \ I, uy peiHuitb with incomes ol 2000/. to 3000/. per annum, live somctiiing in the style of our second and third rate farmers; the White joiners and ar- tificers whom they may be employing eating with them, and forming part of the family. If you take them by surprise, they make you welcome, but of- lier no apology for their common fare. They ge- nerally, however, offer you a bed ; and if you re- main till the next day, assiduously furnish you with a most plentiful table. I visited an old couple who had settled nine children in their neighbourhood, (a term which here often com- prises a large district,) giving each of them about 1000 acres of land and a stock of Negroes, and retaining for themselves only just sufficient for their wants, and to supply a little occupation. In the higher ranks of the plain planters, you find a state of society which I think must strongly resem- ble that of our second-rate country gentlemen or yeomanry seventy or eighty years since ; the females being brought up strictly, with little knowledge, and great attention to personal neat- ness and propriety, and the men filling alternate- ly the situation of soldiers, justices, and planters. There are, however, some families in the neigh- bourhood of Natchez, who live much in the style of the higher classes in England, possessing po- lished manners, and respectable literary acquire- ments. Their houses are spacious and handsome, and their grounds are laid out like a forest park. In the society of some of these families I passed a few days very agreeably ; and while listening to some of our own favourite melodies on the har|» •'**r<'.': I 171 and piano t'ortc, I could have i'ancied niyselt'on tli«r banks of the Lune or the Mersev, rather than on those of the Mississippi. The younger branches of many of these fami- lies have been educated, the young men at the colleges in the northern and eastern States : and the young ladies at boarding schools in Philadel- phia ; and some of them have formed matrimonial connexions with northern families. The tastes and feelings, as well as the accomplishments and literature, of the north, are thus gradually intro- duced into these southern regions ; and one hap- py consequence is a degree of repugnance to the slave system on the part of some of the younger members of the community, and a growing desire to mitigate its severities on the.part of others. In- deed, it is impossible that, assimilated as many of them must be in mental habits and moral feelings to the society in which they were educated, and in which slavery is an object of abhorrence, they should become reconciled at once to the violation of the natural rights of an unoffending class ol* their fellow-creatures, or capable of witnessing, without horror, the dreadful scenes occasionally exhibited here. The other day I passed a plan- tation whose owner a few months before had shot one of his slaves ; and I conversed with a mild young planter, I think not twenty-two years old, who had also shot a slave within a year. The of- fence, in both cases, was stated to be running away, and no notice whatever was taken of either of the murders. A friend of mine who has resid- ed here some time, told me that calling: one morn* i;4 i I I ' il i 'syrfi,,7ii^^ )7'2 lug on a luoHt rcHpectablc planter, a man of emi- nently humane and amiable manners, he was snr- prised to sec him sitting in his virandah with his gun in his hand, eaniestly watching a slave in the court, who was looking up at him with great emo- tion, as it' meditating an escape. By and by the overlooker came and took the slave away. My friend turned to the planter, and asked him what was the matter. He replied, '•'' While I was at breakfast, that Negro came and delivered him- self up, telling me that he had run away from my plantation, to avoid a threatened flogging, but that, as he had returned voluntarily, he hop- ed I would intercede with the overseer and get him excused. I told him I seldom interfered with the overseeri but would send and inquire into the circumstances. I sent for him, but the Negro in the mean time, apprehending the re- sult, looked as if he would dart off into (he woods. 1 ordered my gun, and if he had attempted to stir, I should have been obliged to shoot him dead ; for there is no other way of enforcing obedience and subordination.'^ A very short time since, a cruel wealthy plan- ter tried to work his slaves half the night as well as the whole of the day. They remonstrated with the overseer and became refractory, on which the planter undertook to control them. — He took his seat on the trunk of a tree to in- spect them, with his gun in his hand, to shoot the tirst who should shrink. About twelve o'clock at night he fell asleep. The slaves seized his gun. shot him, and burnt him to ashes 17;{ oil the tires which he was compelling them td make at midnight^ of the wood ihey were em- ployed ill clearing. The case was 8o glaring, and the planter^s cruelty so notorious, that the matter was hushed up as h(>1I as it could be, and the slaves were not punished ; though while at Charleston 1 saw an account of a young Negro woman being burnt to death in South Carolina the week before, for murdering her master. An acquaintance of mine told me he was staying at the time at an inn in the neighbourhood, from which many of the company went to see the hor- rid spectacle. On so serious a subject as this, I am particularly guarded in mentioning to you no- thing for which I have not unquestionable au- thority. The following fact rests on the evi- dence of my own senses. At a dining party of five or six gentlemen, I heard one of the guests, who is reputed a respectable planter, say, in the course of conversation, that he shot at one of his slaves last year with intent to kill him for running away ; that on another occasion, finding that two runaway slaves had taken refuge on his plantation, he invited some of his friends out of town to din- ner and a frolic ; that after dinner they went out to hunt the slaves, and hearing a rustling in the reeds or canes in which they believed them to be concealed, " they all fired at their ^«me, but un- fortunately missed." — Does not your blood cur- dle ? Yet he did not appear to be sensible that he was telling any thing extraordinary, nor to un- derstand the silence of astonishment and horror, f could extend this sad recital: but whv shouhl 171 I harrow up your feelings? No incident could supply, indeed iiuAgination could scarcely con- ceive, a more striking and decisive proof than is afforded by the last anecdote, of the degree to which the Negro is degraded in the public esti- mation. If any place is allotted to him in the scale of humanity, it is so low, and ho distant from that occupied by his White brethren, as for the most part to exclude him from their sympathy. Experience proves, what reason would antici- pate, that it is impossible to regard the same ob- jects one moment as merchandise or cattle, and the next as fellow-men. The planter whom ex- ample and h;ibit have led to believe, that he must render the Negro industrious by the use of the lash, and obedient by shooting the refractory, acts as you and 1 should probably have acted under similar circumstances; but is not that a horrible system which can so eradicate from men of edu- cation and liberal attainments all fellow feeling for their kind ? Nothing but familiarity with the degradation and sufferings of the Negroes could induce their White masters, many of whom are respectable, liberal, and humane in the ordinary relatione of life, to tolerate the constant use of the iash. You continually see the overseer stalking about with his long lash whip, while the poor slaves are toiling with litlle rest or respite from morr» to night — for here I observe they seem to work m.iny hours longer than in Carolina. A friend told me, tint while walking on the Leves in his mind, where desolation reijrns, Fierce as his clime, uncultured as his plains, A soil where virtue's fairest flowers mii^lif shoot, And trees of scierire bend with glorious fruit; Sees in his soul, iiivulved in thickest night, An emanation of eternal light. Ordained midst sinking worlds his du^t to Are, And shine for ever when ilie stars expire. But I must lay down my pen for the present ; though I have much more to say on the subject, and shall resume it before I leave this place. — f am, &c. i I f ; ( •23 I7« LETTHFl X\. il t 1 n I ' -: ! d i( ^Yaiclie:, Stulf oj'.\1i>>si.ssipiu. I NOW resume the afflicting Rubject on which I was aiUlressing you. An extensive Slave-trade is carried on between these regions and those wesi- ern parts of the States of Virginia, Marylaiid, the (Jarolinas, and Georgia, in which they find it more profitable to breed slaves for the market, than to raise the appropriate produce of the soil. I have already mentioned the numerous gangs which I continually fell in with in my route from the Atlan- tic to the Gulf of Mexico: and I have understood that from Maryland and Virginia alone, from 4000 to 5000 per annum are occasionally sent down to New-Orleans ; a place, the very name of which seems to strike terror into the slaves and free Ne- groes of the Middle States. I was asked by a very intelligent free Black serva^ at the house where I lodged in Philadelphia, to tell him rcu/li^ whether the free Negroes whom the Colonization Society were professitig to send to Africa, were not actually sent to New-Orleans; as it was said, that as soon as the vessel was out of sight of land, she steered her course thither; that he knew there were IViends to the Negroes in the Society, who would not agree to deceive and sell them, but he thought they might be deceived themselves, and that nothing but this apprehension had prevented him from offering to go to Africa, as he much liked the plai!. Inslaiicf'S are not rare of Slaves destroyiiig them- tvFi i;!» them- selves, by cullinjr llieir throats, or other violent measures, to avoid being sent to Georgia or New- Orleans. An instance is on reeoru of a poor Black woman, in the winter of 1815, torn from her hus- band, and destined for transportation to Georgia, throwing herself at daybreak from the third story of a tavern in Wasiiington ; and slaves are march- ed in open day in manacles, on their melancholy journey southward, past the very walls of the Ca- pitol, where the Senate of this free Kepublic con- duct their deliberations. Indeed, this trade be- tween the Middle and Southern States has given rise to the horrible practice of kidnapping free black men, and has introduced into the heart of a country pre-eminently proud of her free institu- tions, a sort of tejjria, or man-stealing, which one liad hoped was confined to the deserts of Africa. It is stated by Mr. Torrey, an American physician, in a work which he has published, called " Anu'ri- can Slave Trade," that under the existing laws, if a " Free Coloured man travels without passports certifying his right to his liberty, he is generally ap- prehended, and frequently plunged (with his pro- geny) into slavery by the operation of the laws." He observes ; " The preceduig facts cl.'.irly exem- plify the safety with which the free-horn (Black) inhabitants of the United States may be oflered for sale, and sold, even in the metropolis of liberty, as oxen, even to those who are notified of the fact, and are perhaps convinced that they are free.'''' But why do I enter into these sad details .•* Is it to reproach America with a stain with which our own inunaculat<« count rv is unsulli<'«i ^ I have rK>f 'i ' t 1 i* ,* ' 180 so forgotten the nature of our own colonial bon- dage, nor the melancholy fact that Britons first in- troduced slavery on these western shores. Is it, then, to place her capital in humiliating contrast with the metropolis of my native land? I can see no distinction in principle between selling a gang of Negroes in the city of Washington, and executing in the city of London a bill of sale of a similar gang in our own West India islands. Is it then to stigmatize slave-holders in general, as lax in their moral principles, savage in their dispositions, and dead to every feeling of justice and humanity ? Nothing is farther from my inten- tion than to insinuate an imputation so belied by facts. Among those who have the misfortune to be slave-holders, I can number some of the most enlightened and benevolent individuals it has ever been my lot to know. And were it otherwise, can I forget that General Washington was a Virginian slave-holder ? Why, then, do I enter into these sad details ? why but to disclose to you the innate deformity of slavery itself, the evils inherent in its very nature ; to exhibit to your view the dark aspect which it assumes, and the horrid atrocities which it gives birth to, even under a government pre-eminently free ; in the bosom of a young and enlightened people, and in the bread daylight and sunshine of benign and liberal institutions. And is this a sys- tem which England and America, pre-eminent among the nations, can justify and uphold ? Is this a system which they are willing to perpetuate ? Is this a svstem which in our dav and generation, a /'t li;l day and generation of Bible Societies and Mis- sionary Societies, we can be content to hand down to posterity without one note of reprobation, one evidence of contrition, one step towards its ulti- mate, even though remote, extinction ? Do we glory in having aboHshed our Slave-trade, and shall we smile with complacency on slavery itself? Shall we, the younger sons of our highly favoured island, glorious in arts and arms, resplendent with literature and science, but yet more resplendent with the flame of philanthropy, and most of all with the bright light of Christianity, — shall we deem it sufficient to glow with admiration of the labours of our illustrious compatriots, instead of stretcli- ing forward to catch their mantle, imbibe their spi- rit, and humbly^ but resolutely, follow up their work ? If to reduce the African to slavery was a violation of his natural rights^ to hold him in bondage one moment longer than is necessary to prepare him for freedom^ is to perpetuate and participate in the injustice. And what though the sacrifice should be a costly one, and the task of emancipation perplexing and difficult r* no sacrifice is so costly as the sacrifice of justice and humanity; no expectation more unfounded and puerile than that of returning without pain and effort from the dark and devious labyrinths of er- ror. " Facilis drscensu.. Averni ; Sed revocare gradiim supcrasqne evadere ad auras, Hoc opus ; hie labor est. ." But even if principle did not require the sacri- fice, an enlightened view of sell-interest would sug- gest it. If ihe GordijMi knot bo not untied, if will Ite ■I "■>»^*v_. " la I«2 ' i ■ J' i. rtif. *• I tremble for my country,'' saiil the late Pre- sident, Mr. Jefferson ; '"' 1 tremble lor my country, when I reflect that God Is just.^^ • And who that views with a dispassionate eye the state of our West India colonies, and of the slave- holding states of America, can imagine that the present system of things there can be of very long duration? That emancipation is a most diflicult and perplexing problem, I readily admit; but that it is visionary and impracticable no one can main- tain who believes slavery to be at variance with the laws of our Creator, and obedience to his laws the duty of his creatures. And are there no in- stances on record to prove its practicability ? none in the contemporaneous history of the South Ame- rican provinces ? none in the annals of the United States.** none in the gradual revolutions of society in Europe.^ none in the progress of liberty in Great Britain herself.'^ In the New-England States, once polluted with slavery, not a trace now remains of that odious system; and even so long since as the year 1770, in a suit on the part of several Slaves in Massachu- setts against their masters for their freedom, and for wages for past services, the Negroes obtained a verdict, which gave a death-blow to slavery there. In New-York and Pennsvlvania, emanci- pation has been proceeding systematically for years, and in three or four years the fixed period will arrive when it will be complete. In other parts of America, slavery exhibits itself in those intermediate and transitive states, which are at (. : t vFll IM.S DiM'.e a gradual Mpproach to (reedoni, ami an ex- cellent preparation for it. In England, slavery, which once blackened her lair fields, " was not ploughed up by revolution, or mown down by the scythe of legislative aboli- tion, but was plucked up, stalk by stalk, by the progressive hand of private and voluntary enfran- chisement. Slavery ceased in England only be- cause the last Slave at length obtained his manu- mission, or died without a child. VVhy, then, should not the iuture extinction of slavery in the colonie?* be accomplished by the same happy means which formerly put an end to it in England — namely, by a benign, though insensible, revolution in opinions and manners; by the encouragement of particular manumissions, and the progressive melioration of the condition of the Slaves, till it should slide in- sensibly into freedom?" Not that the planters should be required to maiuimit their Negroes, es- pecially on a sudtlen, without compensation. It would be robbery, under the garb of merry, to compel one class of individuals to atone for the in- justice of a nation. But the planters may, and ought, to be required to ado|)t such plans for im- proving the social, moral, and intellectual condi- tion of their slaves, as may, and wjII, facilitate their ultimate emancipation. That much remains to be done in this respect in.imerica^ is evidetit from the facts I have detailed from a cursory glance at the Code Noir, and from the general neglect and dis- couragement (not, however, without many excep- tions) of education and religious instruction among the Negroes. That still inorr remain's to be doiir 4) ■ ! .1 1 . til • ) MM '.') in our own ^'f.st-liul/u islands, is evident Mom tlie non-increase, or scarcel}f perceplible increase, of the numbers ol the Negroes, wliile in I lie country iroiu wliici) I am writitig, in a climate much less favourable, anti in occuptitions at least as delete- rious, they multiply at the rate of three lo five per cent, per annum. The annual returns now making will show the precise ratio. Lfjst Sunday at the church (till lately there was no church here,) two Methodist ministers from Ohio pnMchcd, having stopped hereon tiieir way down the river to New-Orleans with produce. At the close of the service one of them rose, and said, that they did not come there to interfere with the institutions of society, or to excite commotion or confusion, but that it was their wish to address the Black population in the evening, if the planters should make no objection ; that they knew it would not be gen( rally agreeable to the planters, but they called upon them solemnly to consider the dreadful responsibility thry would incur if they prevented their Negroes from hearing the message sent by our gracious Creator to the whole family of the human race. A deep silence followed, no planter opposed, and, to the surprise of many pre- sent, the ministers were allowed to preach to the Slaves. I lately saw in the newspapers a notice from the mayor of one of the principal cities in the South, presenting an extract from the law which prohi- bits the instruction of Slaves, expressing his regret to observe that this law had been infringed upon in several instances lately, by teaching the Slaves \SCt to rca<3 ami write; and declari.ig his iiitcntioti to indict tho penalty if the olfeiice ."-hould he repeat- ed. And yet in the Northern States, among the most astoiiithinir ohjects which I saw were the schook; in which some hundfeds of tree Black Al- ricans were receiving the elements oi'a somewhat liberal education, and where they exhibited both industry and intelligence. I am sure I shall not have wearied, however much I may have afflicted you, with the Ibregoing communications; but it is time I should now turn to other subjerts. You ask me to inform you at what price a planter can afford to sell his cotton. To this question it is diificult to reply without cu- tering into mnny particulars; since, paradoxical as it may appear, the expenses of production de- pend in a great measure on the current value of cotton, and follow the more material fluctuations in its market price. Thus, when cotton rises, the value of negroes advances in about the same pro- portion. Indian corn, their principal article of subsistence, follows, but at a little distance, be- cause it tan be imported from other states; and land at a still greater, because almost every plant- er possesses more than he actually cultivates. Cor- responding effects are produced by a fall of cot- ton in foreign markets. It is evident, therefore, that a planter may realize at very different prices of cotton the same interest in his capital, under- standing by his capital the sum which his land and Negroes would command at the respective peri- ods, or which if would be necessary to invest in land and Negroes, in order to produce the same 24 s I I ■f , \ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) /. Z 1.0 I.I 1^ 1^ 12.2 1-25 i 1.4 I 1.6 ^. /a < i , ( . > LETTER XVII. Richmond, Virginia, June 20, 1820. I CONCLUDED my letter this morning, because I did not wish to inflict more than two sheets upon you at once ; but it did not bring me so far on my route as 1 intended. I however pass over a few days of my narrative, as they aflR>rded no very peculiar occurrences. In speaking of East Ten- nessee, a delightful country, of which I have the most agreeable impressions, I forgot to say that the inhabitants are anticipating considerable advan- tage from improvements in the land communica- tion between the Tennessee and the Black War- rior. They have also some prospect of the com- pletion of two canals, which have long been pro- jected, and appear in the maps of the United States, and which would connect the waters of the Tennessee with those of the Tombigbee and the Alabama, and afford a passage for the produce of East Tennessee to Mobile and the Gulf of jmtlf^ I ..^ jitoi*" i'ii<* M: i j ■-*-"'^- — — — 20i> Mexico. This would supply a great stimulus to industry; as Mobile at present obtains a large proportion of her flour from New-Orleans, by way of Lake Borgne and Port Chartrain, — a channel of communication rendered so expensive by a heavy tonnage duty, that flour was selling at Mo- bile when I was there extravagantly higher than at New-Orleans. ; f It.':.- ;i We had for some days been almost insensibly ascending the Alleghany mountains ; but to the 12th we saw nothing which indicated any extra- ordinary elevation. On that afternoon, however, we had a very extensive, though not a particular- ly interesting, view ; and the air was so cool, that I was glad to ride in my great coat. Our moun- tain ride gave us an appetite before the end of our day^s journey ; and we stopped to take coflee at a small house on the ridge, where we were de- tained till it was nearly dark, — the universal cus- tom of making and baking fresh bread for you be- ing a sad detention to travellers, who ought ne- ver to order breakfast or tea unless they can af- ford to stay two hours. About nine o^clock we ar- rived at the bottom of one of the little valleys very common among the Alleghany mountains, and took up our abode for the ni^ht at the ferry-house on the Kanawa, a large river, which falls into the Ohio. We crossed it in a ferry-boat at half-past four o'clock the next morning (the 13th,) and breakfasted at Major 's, a fine friendly old gentleman who I found sitting in his neat white porch, and whose respectable appearance ren- dered me almost ashamed to ask if he entertain- I'' M *. # - '.-jf'., -S: I' ^ ■«-• »-■ 206 i i' «fe-. ed ii avcllers ; although I am now pretty irell ac- customed to consider neither the imposing aspect of a house, nor the sounding title of its inhabi- tants, whether Dr. , Colonel , Judge — ' — , or Parson , as any indication that they do not " keep private entertainment.^* The old gentleman was much interested in hearing about England, the native land of his grandfather. His wife, who made breakfast for me, was a sensible well-read gentlewoman, who might fairly pass in any society, incredible as this may seem in the wilds of America within twelve miles from the summit of the Alleghany. One of the daughters, a nice modest girl, sat by Dr. Kingsbury, my mis- sionary friend, who had called here on his way to Brainerd, and left the ** Life of Harriet Newell,^ which had greatly interested all the family. Soon after breakfast we reached the top of the Allegha- ny, where to our surprise we found a turnpike- gate, the first we had seen for many months. The view was extensive, though disappointing as a whole : the loss of one magnificent prospect, how- ever, was far more than compensated by the suc- cession of beautiful and interesting valleys, through which we continued to pass for several days, surrounded by ranges of lofty mountains at different distances. Soon after we began to de- scend, we stopped for some cold water at an at- tractive inn, where we found the people assidu- ously and cordially civil, like our honest and best kind of inn-keepers at home. They offered to fetch us some seed-water if we would wait a few minutes. The long steep descent from the top of % T' w 207 tlie Alleghany rendered us very sensible of tlie truth of an observation I had frequently heard here, that the land on the eastern side of the range is lower than that on the jwestern. In the course of the day, we several times crossed the winding Roanoke, which we viewed with a sort of affection, as a distant link connecting uB in some degree with our native home, it being tiie first ri- ver discharging its waters into the Atlantic which we had seen since we left the Oakmulgee on our Alabama route in March. In the evening we passed through Salem to the house of a well-mean- ing awkward German, (the German houses are always recognised by their flower-gai dens,) in- tending to sleep there ; but my intentions were frustrated by little assailants, who had no mercy on a tired traveller, but drove me at midnight in- to the porch, where I dozed a little before day- break. I was glad to feel myself on horseback again before sun-rise (14th,) though more tired than on my arrival the preceding night. At Lock^s, where we staid and breakfasted, tea miles distant, I went to bed for an hour, as the country was far too beautiful to be wasted on a sleepy traveller. We were now fairly in the val- ley between the North mountain and the Blue ridge ; the whole of which is often indiscriminate- ly called the Valley of the Shenandoih, although the inhabitants confine the name to that part of it which is watered by the river, and which coui- mences a little above Staunton. With the rich- ness of this luxuriant valley I kno^v you are al- ready acquainted ; and of the sublimity of its V M tr \i n f # >■ f-** I '? ^* kl : ; i I 20U mountain scenery, it would be in vain to attempt a description. Our host and his habitation were truly English ; and it required no great stretch of imagination to fancy myself near Windermere. We left Fincastle a little to our right, and pro- ceeded to Judge *s, to whom I had a letter of introduction from the Governor of the State of Mississippi. I found him without his coat in the middle of his corn-fields, gladdening his heart and relaxing his brows by contemplating the benefi- cence of nature, whose favours, or rather those of her Almigfity Creator, appeared to be liberally scattered over his farm. As soon as I delivered my letter, he led me up to a large substantial brick-house, where he insisted on ordering din- ner; for the family had dined. I found him a well-read reflecting old gentleman. He was en- gaged in stidying the history of England at the period of the Revolution, and seemed to think we were now approaching an era at least as eventful. Thus you see the operations of our Radicals have penetrated «ven the tranquil valley of the Shenan- doah, and awakened its more intelligent inhabi- tants to phibsophical reflection on the destinies of our native land. The Judge was a little dis- pleased that I would not stay all night ; which I wished much to do, but found, on looking forward, that, in connexion with calling at Mr. Jeflerson^s at a proper hour, it would cost me an entire day. I left his house about five oVlock, and rode for some distaice, surrounded by the most magnifi- onnt scentrv I had seen in America ; the Blue 209 empt were ich of mere, i pro- letter tale of in the irt and benefi- tiose of berally Uvered stantial ing din- 1 him a was en- d at the hink we eventful, jals have Shenan- inhabi- destinies ittle dis- ; which I forward, efferson's an entire I rode for magnifi- the Blue t / ridgo with tlio p* nks ol Otter being very near. Towards night I cr»»sed James's river, anif 'h\ , \ ^1 'i 210 must have appeared a little startling to such readers as have been seduced into a belief that the horrors of slavery are extinguished ; that, under the mild and mitigated systems which are said to have been generally adopted, the Negro slave has been elevated to a level with the Euro- pean peasant, in all that respects his physical en- joyment, his social comfort, and his opportunities of intellectual and religious improvement ; that nothing is lell of slavery but the name ; and that the waters of bitterness which the slaves are sup- posed by visionary philanthropists to drink, are rendered palatable at least, if not sweet and deli- cious, by the cordials poured into their cup by the overflowing kindness of their free and sympathizing brethren. Since sending you the above letters, I have received a fresh illustration of the erroneous nature of such ideas, and of the light in which slaves are regarded even in Maryland — a state whose northern limits form the line of demarkation be- tween the free and slave-holding states of America; within the influence, one woiiid suppose, of those fresh and genial gales of freedom which the agita- tion of the pure atmosphere of Pennsylvania would occasionally waft over the boundary line (a line discernable only by a most striking contrast be- tween a free and slave population,) and within sight of the capital of Washington, the temple of freedom, to which she sends her delegates to repre- sent her, and whose walls I have so often heard resound with the declaration of the first principle of their goveriunent ; Jill men are by nature free^ equals und independent. The illustration to which I refer J •r 217 occurs in a letter which I sometime since received from a friend at Baltimore. The suhject of slavery is introduced quite incidentally by my benevolent correspondent, w ho is giving me an account of the proceedings of" The Young Men's Bible Society." I send you the extract with the more pleasure, because, while it illustrates the general feeling with respect to the Slaves, it indicates also the progress of benevolence, and afibrds evidence of those philanthropic efibrts by which many of the inhabitants of Baltimore are eminently distinguish- ed. My friend observes : "1 an? very certain it will give you much plea- sure to learn that the coloured part of our popula- tion are beginning to benetit by the very great and general exertions that are now making in this country to ameliorate the condition of the wretch- ed. 1 can speak more particularly of the state of Maryland. As an instance, application was made at our board of directors of the Young Men's Bible Society, for a donation of Testaments for a Sun- day-jchooi in a distant country, under the follow- ing circumstances. A gentleman who had a num- ber of slaves, determined to teach them to read the Scriptures, and for ihat purpose formed them into a Sunday-school, the superintendence of which he took on himself So strong were the prejudices of his neighbours against him, that for some time he was compelled to go armed to his school for his own protection ; but persevering in his good work, of teaching his ignorant servants, and such others as cou^ be received by him, he at length overcame all opposition: and his neigh- I M ^1 t] ^\ 218 i 1 '(-.i '*i * f r M^ bours, from being inveterate opposers, became his most zealous supporters. His school increased to 1 50 learners, and more schools were organiz- ing in the same and adjoining counties. It is un- necessary to say, that a very generous donation was made by our Bible Society." While a master cannot teach his slaves without being armed against the attacks of his free White brethren, can we wonder at the suspicions of the acute aborigines, conveyed in the following inter- esting little narrative, recorded by Dr. Boudinot ? " The writer of these sheets," remarks Dr. Bou- dinot, " was many years ago, one of the corres- ponding members of a Society in Scotland for pro- moting the Gospel among the Indians. To fur- ther this great work, they educated two young men of very serious and religious dispositions, who were desirous of undertaking the mission for this purpose. When they were ordained and ready to depart, we wrote a letter in the Indian style to the Delaware Nation, then residing on the north-west of the Ohio, informing them, that we had, by the goodness of the Great Spirit, been favoured by a knowledge of his will as to the worship he required of his creatures, and the means he would bless to promote the happiness of men both in this life, and that wliich is to come ; that thus enjoying so much happiness ourselves, we could not but think of our Red brethren in the wilderness, and wish to communicate the glad tidings to them, that they might be partakers with us. We had therefore seUt them two ministers of the Gospel, who would teach them these ^rtai % .. .»'. f- tai 219 things, and earnestly recommended them to their careful attention. ** With proper passports, the missionaries set off, and arrived in safety at one of their principal towns. On their arrival, the chiefs of the natives were called together, who answered them, that they would take the subject into consideration; but in the mean time they might instruct the wo- men, but must not speak to the men. They spent fourteen days in council, and then dismissed them very courteously, with an answer to us. This an- swer made great acknowledgments for the fa- vour we had done them. They rejoiced exceed- ingly at our happiness in being thus favoured by the Great Spirit, and felt very grateful that we had condescended to remember our Red brethren in the wilderness. But they could not help re- collecting that we had a people among us, who, because they differed from us in colour, we had made slaves of, and made them suffer great hard- ships, and lead miserable lives. Now they could not see any reason, if a people's being Black en- titled us thus to deal with them, why a Red colour should not equally justify the same treatment. They therefore had determined to wait to see whether all the Black people amongst us were made thus happy and joyful, before they put con- fidence in our promise; for they thought a people who had suffered so much and so long, by our means, should be entitled to our first attention ; that therefore they had sent back the two mission- aries, with many thanks, — promising, that when they saw (he Black people amongst ns restored ' iii' ' «i i- •<* 220 to freedom and happiness, they would gladly re- ceive our missionaries " Such was the moral lesson which these wild sons of the forest, these uncultivated heathens, read to enlightened Christians. We slighted their lesson, and, as if to silence these untutored moni- tors, and drown the voice of truth and nature, we overcame their virtues, we corrupted them by our example : and I found slaves held in bondage by the Indians themselves — in the nations of the Creeks, the Choctaws, the Chickasaws, and the Cherokees. I am, &c. • I i '! LETTER XVI. f'oitsmoutk, JWijv-lhimpshire, I'Jlh Feb. \'62l. My last letter mentioned our safe arrival at Portland. The house in which we obtained beds at last, was a second-rate tavern, filled with se- cond, or rather fifth or sixth-rate legislators, who had left their app opriate callings in the field, the shop, or the laboratory, for the more splendid but not less arduous duties of legislation. Not indeed that they appeared to think them arduous, or to suppose that there was much mystery in the af- fair. Not one of our own Radicals could pro- nounce with more self-complacent familiarity on those difficult questions of law or government which the wisest statesmen and philosophers have approached with diffiderjce, and decided upon with hesitation. In (he public room into which 1 re- 221 was shown, I found three or four of them sitting, who from their appearance, I supposed to be Kmall farmers ; and there was nothing in the pro- Ibssional titles which I soon heard echoed about, such as colonel, major, doctor, &c. to remove the idea. They were discussing the propriety of abolishing the Court of Common Pleas, and throwing all the business into the Supreme Court : some of them conceiving that a supreme and sub- ordinate court savoured too much of aristocracv, and that by diminishing the number of courts, they should diminish the number of trials and clip the profits of the lawyers, who are at present in ra- ther bad odour in the young state of Maine. One of them (I think it was ihe colonel) took the op- posite side of the question. For his part, he said, " he did not like to throw great criminal cases and petty suits into one hopper ; and that, as far as his information went, history presented no instance of it." His opponent replied, that " that was no reason at all why they should not do as they pleased." He rejoined, that he thought it was ; for though they were an independent state at last, he did not see why they should set themselves up as wiser than all the other states : and tnat, though little causes ought to be settled with as much correctness as great ones, he, for one, should oppose their being thrown into one hopper ! Other questions were decided with equal pro- fundity ; and if the young man who was sent into a European cabinet to learn with how little wis- dom the world is governed, were still alive, and required a second lesson, I would recommend !i! iii I } 222 him to the *< Portland tavern," in the state of Maine, *^ during the sitting of the legislature." In this same state of Maine 1 feel a particular inter- est, from having been present at the discussion at Washington on the subject of her admission into the Union, and from her name being intimately as- sociated with the important decision on the Mis- souri question; and I grieve to see her in the hand of such young practitioners. If such men form the majority of her legislature, it must be " per varios casus per tot discrimina rerum," that she obtains political eminence, if she ever obtain it. To a traveller, there is something extremely grotesque in the aspect of the legislatures in the newly formed states, whose legislators must at first be of a very motley character : especially if the population be so scanty, or of such a cast, as to supply (ew men of liberal education. A friend told me, that at Corydon, the metropolis of Indi- ana, he attended the sitting of the legislature, when a member rose to propose the removal of the seat of government to some other place, on the plea that the price of board and lodging at Corydon was extravagant — 18s. per week — and the fare bad. The representative from Corydon replied sharply, and told him that he got better living in that place than' he ever got at home; and that if he would be satisfied with such food as he was accustomed to at home, the tavern- keeper would maintain him for half price. This important discussion continued so long that it was adjourned till the following day. 3- 223 Such exhibitions are surdy a very legitimate source of amusement; but then they should not lead us, as they too frequently do, to fix our at- tention upon them exclusively — to regard them as the rule, not as the exceptions^-as the ordinary and prominent features of American Republican- ism, rather than as accidental excrescences in the extremities, which are soon outgrown and disap- pear. They should be received also in connex- ion with the more dignified proceedings, the ma- turer counsels, and the higher order of talent to be found in the legislatures of many of the older states ; and in connexion with the practical re- sults of the free institutions of America, as evinc- ed by her past and present prosperity. Not that I impute that prosperity exclusively to her form of government. Probably no other nation was ever blessed with such rich materials of na- tional prosperity; and bad indeed must have been the government, and despicable the popula- tion, which had not flourished with such advanta- ges. Whether a confederated republic is the best form of government for a country so exten- sive as America, and under circumstances so pe- culiar as hers, I do not pretend to decide; but I confess, for our country, 1 much prefer our own. The American government is however a beauti- ful theory; and, in its leading features, I think a very successful experiment in politics. I will merely mention one or two of the practical evils, which 1 think I have observed in passing, in this system of government. One of these is the introduction into the state legislatures of members obviously incompetent to I \' ! i'l I '2U llic task of'legiHluiiuii. Natural dagacil^ alone i;» not su/ficient, even it' that were always to be tbuiid. Many of the topics which of necessity frequently occupy the attention, even of the state legislatures, fl^maud a degr^ of iniortiiation and habits of re- search very foreign indeed to the pursuits of a large proportion of the inetnbers. The conse- quence is, thatignorance, a spirit of opposition, an impatience even of intellectual superiority, and a desire to appear to their constituents to be Joints somethings i'requently defeat the most important and judicious measures of the enlightened minority; while that minority is diminished by an unwilling- ness on the part of the members of the community who are best qualified for the station to enter the list vviL I noisy demagogues, whose declamationB too ol'«'n drown the voice of truth. It is particu- larly unfortunate that the most diiiicult questiofis — those which arise in forming or establishing their constitution, and arranging the judiciary — are among the first which present themselves to the consideration of the legislatures of newly erected states, when it is reasonable to expect a more than ordinary proportion of raw and ignorant legisla- tors, and a deficiency of practical skill even in the wisest. It really excites a smile to imagine the legislature of Indiana, after settling the question whether they should remove the seat of govern- ment to some town where the tavern-keeper would charge them 13s. 6d. instead of 18s. per week lor their board, turning to the graver and more appro- priate subjects of legislation, — iiujuiring what pro- portion of democracy they should iiirase into their I t im iwiii III r I' M iW 225 constitution, ntui what collateral effects wouM re- sult from each of the various modes of accomplish- ing their purf)ose — what should be the number and nature of their courts of justice, whether they should be established on the principle of concur- rent or appellate jurisdiction, whether their judges should be removable at pleasure, their salary be liable to diminution, and numberless other intri- cate questions. It is a happy circumstance for the newly erect- ed states, that they may always have access to the more matured systems of their neighbours, and that the effects of their own errors are confined to themselves. Indeed, I think it is not one of the least advantages of the Confederation, that it ad- mits of a course of experiments in legislation in each of the particular states, without the slightest danger of interrupting the movements of the gene- ral machine, and enables all, at the hazard only of their individual inconvenience, to contribute their quota of political experience to the common stock. Another of the evils to which I referred, as flow- ing perhaps of necessity, froai the democratical institutiogs of America, is the subserviency to po- pular opinion which they appear to entail on the legislative and executive officers. I had no idea of the degree in which popularity was made a pri- mary and avowed object of pursuit here : nor of the extensive sacrific'-^vfpersonal independence which are made at her h-ine. In this free government, many of the senators and representatives are far 29 U2(> h I It'Sb the servant than the slaves of their constitu- ents: and they must be fond indeed of public ho- nours who are willing to buy them at the price they frequently cost. Eminent talents indeed, combin- ed with patriotism and disinterestedness too une- quivocal to be suspected, will command popularity ; but common men, if they would attain popularity, must make it their pursuit. ! Iiave seen nothiig to lead me to suppose that the intluence of suc'.i a pursuit on individual character is at all more enno- bling or elevating on the western than on the east- ern shores of the Atlantic, or to convince me that public spirit and patriotism are the natural and necessary results of republican institutions. But, independently of the injurious moral effects of an insatiable appetite for popularity in the in- dividual, a constant reference to popular favour imposes very inconvenient trammels on the repre- sentative, in the discharge of his legislative duties. He is too apt to consider himself as addressing his constituents rather than the legislative assembly, and to thiiik less of the efTect his speech is likely to produce in favour of his argument in the capi- tol, than in favour of himself at home. As an in- centive to activity, this may have a good effect: but the efforts to which it prompts, especially in the way of oratorical flourishes, do not always pro- duce advantages to the public, commensurate with the care and trouble, "the anxious days and sleep- less nights," they may have cost the individual. I was informed that it is common for the new mem- bers to make great exertion soon after the meet- ing of congress, to send home a speech to their con- \. le, imparts to the eloquence of a British P;uTii:ineiil. n 228 if ¥ : I ^ LETTER XIX. ' Hartford, Connecticut, 1st March, "[^21. In my last letter I mentioned our arrival in Portland on the 16th ult. I will now give you a brief sketch of our journey from Portland to U 'rt- ford. At Portland I found, at a respectable boarding- house where I lodged, among other persons, the Governor of the state, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and eight or ten of the most respectable members. There was a common table at which all ordinarily assembled ; and a common sitting-room, where they seemed to pass their leisure in reading the newspapers and smok- ing segars. For the very lirst time since my arri- val in America, I had actually at this boarding- house a parlour to myself, which arose from the circumstance of its being, in the first instance, designed for my bed-room. It was a luxury in- deed to feel alone, and likely to remain so, with- out shutting myself up in my bed-chamber, in which 1 have lived for the last year when not in society or on the road. My hopes of retirement in my parlour, however, were soon shaken; for the landlord brought a gentleman to me, who, after conversing a few minutes, said, he was come to take me into the dining-room, to introduce me to the company. He was a young lawyer, gentle- manly in his manners, and, I found afterwards, had been educated at Harvard College, Cam- bridge. As we sat down to dinner, at one o'clock, 1. 229 T, m bot in iment ; lor who, Icome ;e me ntle- ards, iCam- ;lock. he introduced me to most of the gentlemen by name, and, among others, to tho Secretary oi' the State. The rest of the company, although 1 doubt not intelligent and acute, 1 certainly should not (at least on my first arrival in America) have guessed to be a body of legislators. The landlady presided, with Mrs. , the wife of the speaker, on her right; and the landlord sat down towards the close of dinner, after having waited on his guests, and assisted the waiters till all the com- pany were helped. He was very civil, and came into my room hall-a-dozcn times in the course ol the evening to loot at my fire, and see if I wanted any thing. An English landlord could not have been more respectful and attentive. In the course of the evening, the youug lawyer also paid me a second visit, with real good nature, bringing in a friend " lest I should be lonely." I give you these little incidents to shew the habits of the country. As they found me busy writing, however, th<'y stopped only half an hour, and retired, saying, they would not interrupt me, but would attend me to any church in the morning to which I liked to go. In the morning, accordingly, the young lawyer accompanied me to the Episcopal church, where a young minister preached on the importance of contending for the faith once delivered to the saints; a subject suggested by the activity of Unitarian eflforts, and by an act then betbre the legislature, which it was supposed would operate unfavourably on the interests of religion. The church was profusely adorned with festoons of ( \ r 2;jo I C ■I ■■ 1 ' I " Christmas;" and on one side of the pulpit was neatly printed, in large letters of spruce, " Unto us a Child is born ;" on the other, " Unto us a Son is given." The congregation was respectable in numbers and appearance. In the afternoon we went to the Calvinistic Congregationalist church (places of worship of all denominations are here called churches,) where we found a congregation still more numerous. An elderly minister gave us a logical, metaphysical, scriptural sermon, on " the immutability of God." On my return home, among my landlord's books I found Scott's Bible, Burder's Village Sermons, Baxter's Saint's Rest, Watt's Hymn Book, and Saurin's Sermons. I add- ed to them the Dairyman's daughter, a favourite travelling companion of mine; since, independ- ently of the deep interest of its simple tale, and its exquisite and touching picture of rustic piety, it places so distinctly before me the village spires, rustic cottages, and sequestered lanes of my native country, and the hoary locks and venerable tigures of her aged peasants. I think I told you how delighted 1 was at finding this little tract in a shop at Mobile, in that land of darkness, the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. While in Portland I found the snow in many places two feet deep for a great distance, and perhaps fourteen inches deep where it was the thinnest. I counted twenty-two sleighs at the church door on Sunday. 1 saw the town under unfavourable circumstances ; but it had a very respectable appearance, many of the houses being larjie and handsome, with extensive courts beibre |many and IS the It the mder very |being »eibre 23 r tlic doors, ornamented with shrubs and grass-plots. Thr bay and the adjacent scenery are very pictn- resqiic. We left Portland, at five o'clock in the morning, on the 19th. The roads were so blocked up with snow, that the mail and passengers were obliged to be carried in an open sleigh : it was very cold : the thermometer, I should think, not being above zero: but the moon shone so bright- ly on the new fallen snow, that we should have been sorry to have missed this beautiful winter scene, by being cooped up in a close carriage. We reached Saco, fifteen miles, to breakfast, when it was determined to dispatch us in two sleighs, our unicorn equipage being found incon- venient in the snow drifts, from having two horses abreast. James and I were put up into a tandem sleigh, about as large as a parlour coal-box, op a little larger, the driver standing up to drive. Our two companions followed with one horse in a similar sleigh ; and avvay we went over the snow- drifts, the music of our bells resemblirjg a concert of Jews'-harps. Sometimes the bells of our com- panion suddenly ceased, or literally "f/roy?/;" for, on looking behind, we used to find that their horse had partially disappeared, — his chin resting on a snow-drift, and his countenance exhibiting a most piteous expression of helplessness. At other times our horses fell through, ^nd it was with great difficulty we extricated them; the snow being sufficiently frozen to be of a very inconvenient consistence, although not always hard enough to carry us rapidl> on its surface. Our horses ■ i f i J were sometimes prostrate three or four times in twenty yards. Once we were obliged to be cut out, and at another time to have mere than twenty men and several oxen to clear our way, the drifts on the road being from six to twelve feet deep. As we had excellent drivers, however, who drove with great rapidity where the road would admit of it, we reached Portsmouth, sixty miles from Portland, at four o'clock — eleven hours — after an amusing and agreeable, and in some degree ad- venturous, ride. The cold morning was succeed- ed, as is often ihe case in this fickle climate, by a beautiful warm day : and although the road, ex- cept in the vicinity of the pine hills, is rather level, the fir groves and large masses of rock often com- bine with the open sea, which is almost constant- ly in sight, to form rather interesting views. The country is tolerably well settled, and we passed through several little towns ; but the houses beinir less frequently painted than in other parts of New-England, have neither the same neat nor flourishing aspect. The people, however, seem every where busy and robust. Portsmouth is a noble harbour on the Piscata- qua, which is so deep that the vessels discharge along the wharf; and so rapid, that even in this winter, the severest which has been known in America for at least forty years, its navigation has never been interru|fted. A navy yard is estab- lished near the town, where " The Congress," and other ships of war were built, and where they are now building a seventy-four gun frigate. As the best boarding-house in Portsmouth was full, I 'I 233 ;^ent to the stage inn, rather a dirty scrambling tavern; where I found at breakfast the next morning, amid a motley group, one of the judges and several lawyers. The supreme court was to be opened early in the morning ; and as it was be- fore my hours of commercial calls, I attended to hear the jury sworn in, and the judge's charge. Both the grand and petty jury, in the appearance of which I could discern no difference, seemed to be composed of respectable yeomanry, of about the same rank as our farmers of 300/. to 500/. per annum. They listened with great attention while the judges read (not spoke, which took greatly from its effect,) a plain sensible charge, much to the point. The aspect of the court in general pleased me, from the homely suitable appearance of those of whom it was composed ; home-spun clothes, with large buttons and long waists, waist- coats with the old triangular indenture or pointed Haps, and hats with good broad respectable brims; the absence, in fact, of all affectation of fashion, or awkward attempts at city spruceness. This has pleased me particularly throughout New-Eng- land, and forms a contrast with the style of dress which meets the eye generally in passing alo.ng the road on the sea-board of the middle and south- ern states, where blue coats, black waistcoats, and blue pantaloons, produce a monotony far less agreeable and picturesque than a variety of dress adapted, or apparently adapted, to the various employments of the wearers. — I had little oppor- tunity of seeing the society of Portsmouth, as my stay was so short : but 1 met with some whose man- 30 : i fi \ 234 H V I'-; fe tiers convinced me that I should have found a re- fined and polished circle there, if I had remained. From Portsmouth we reached Newburyport, where I walked down towards sun-set (or sun- down, as it is always called in this country,) to the mouth of the Merrimack, and had a noble view of the open sea. The roads in this part of the country are excellent, and the finger-posts are so like ours pointing to Salisbur" iswich, &c. that it was easy to imagine myself in tu • South of England. In most towns in New-England the houses generally stand alone in a court or garden, with lofty trees in their immediate vicinity. The inn was a large brick house, in which I had a spa- cious bed-room, as neatly furnished as at the prin- cipal inns at Bath or Cheltenham. I rose very early the next morning, and spent half an hour in a churchyard in the neighbourhood, in the hope of seeing the sun rise clear out of the Atlantic, a few hours after he had risen on you all in the East; but a little invidious cliflf intervened. The ocean, however, was beautiful; and this quiet churchyard on a foreign shore gave *rise to many solemn and very interesting reflections. — The 22d was Washington's birth-day, which, in the princi- pal cities, generally gives rise to public dinners and balls. Here the afternoon seemed to be made a holiday, and the young men turned out in great numbers, very nicely dressed. On the 23d 1 left Newburyport for Salem, twenty-five miles distant, where we arrived at noon. The surface of the ground was generally well cultivated; but I often observed immense und a rc- remaitied. bury port, (or sun- intry,) to a noble is part of ger-posts wich,&c. South of ;land the r garden, ty. The ad a spa- the prin- [)se very I hour in he hope tlantic, a II in the d. The lis quiet to many rhe 22d B princi- dinners 1 to be d out in Salem, rived at snerally tnmense 235 rocks, apparently growing in the fields, and evinc- ing that the country immediately on the coast was more indebted to man than to nature for any appearance of fertility it might "exhibit. Indeed, I think a great part of the road between Newbury- port and Boston presetits a more rocky region than I ever before saw in a state of cultivation ; but every thing seems to yield to the proverbial perseverance of New-England. I have seen a New-Englander clearing what appeared to me a barren rock, for the sake of the narrow strips of soil in the crevices; and I could not help thi ik- ing with what a smile of contempt a Mississippi or Alabama planter would recall such a scene to his recollection, while standing with folded arms over his slaves as they hoed his rich alluvion. But both his contempt and pity would be sadly misplaced. The loose gray stone walls, instead of the rail fences so common throughout all Ame- rica South of Rhode Island or New York, and the spreading tress standing single in the fields — for, except on the road side, we have long been accustomed to see them either grouped, as in our |)lantations, with no power to expand, or losing their individual character in the depth of forests — recalled my thoughts to Yorkshire or Derbyshire. Before we reached Salem we passed through Ipswich, venerable in this country for its age, for it was settled in 1632, twelve years after the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers. From Salem I rode over to Marblehead, to see some old friends. They gave me a warm recep- tion, and their welcome had m it much of JScotch if 236 cordiality. Sterne says, he pities the man who can travel from Dan to Beersheba, and say it is alt barren. 1 much pity his ill fortune, who can tra- vel from Maine to Georgia, and say the Americans, men and women, have no hearts. He will indeed in taverns and bar-rooms meet with many whose manners are calculated to give him that impres- sion ; but a little acquaintance with American so- ciety must shew him that it is an erroneous one. Indeed, I deliberately think that a cursory tra- veller must be struck with the evidence of more good nature, and a greater spirit of accomodation in the stages here than with us, and certainly of more uniform and marked respect to female tra- vellers, though often under the most cold and for- bidding manners. 77ms 1 was not prepared to ex- pect; and often, in making these favourable repre- sentations, I have to cross-examine myself, and ask, " Are these things really so ?" Sometimes where the case is doubtful, 1 bring my opinions to a se- verer test. I wait till the next time that I find my- self in circumstances not particularly calculated to excite good humour; and if, when sitting in a bar- room, while they are lighting a fire in my chamber, (and I never sit there longer, though it is often the only sitting-room,) enveloped in segar smoke, and watching my companions pour down their throats the liquid flame that is to consume their vitals ; if, when received in sufferance by a frigid landlord, who seems afraid to degrade himself by being civil (a case which has happened, though you will have seen from ray letters not very frequently ;) or if, when more than usually annoyed (for it is a daily ? <«*.*i«<»'- —■"——' 237 nn who it is all :an tra- Bricans, indeed r whose impres- can so- >us one. yry tra- jf more odation ainly of lale tra- and for- d to ex- e repre- and askf 15 where to a se- ind rny- ated to a bar- lamber, ten the ke, and throats als ; if, ndlord, ng civil II have ;) or if, a daily Hnd grievous annoyance,) by the very general and most disgusting habit of spitting, without regard to time, place, or circumstance ; if at such times [ find my faith in my favourable sentiments un- shaken, and feel convinced of their correctness, 1 place them as Mr. Cecil placed his tried charac- ters, upon the shelf. But if fresh circumstances should arise to excite a suspicion that,* after all, my impressions are erroneous, I wait till provoked by the malicious misrepresentations of the state of things in my own country, or by ill-natured remarks on acknowledged defects in her institutions ; and if I still feel bound by sincerity and candour to make my former admissions, I seldom suffer myself again to call them into question. Marblehead, the second town in the common- wealth before the revolution, is now comparative- ly " the top of a rock, a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea." It is from this place principally, that the Newfoundland fishery is car- ried on. The trade, however, has latterly been very unproductive; and 1 saw the fishing craft, which was now drawn on shore, very generally advertised for sale or charter. On the 27th I dined with an old friend at Salem. Our conversation turned a good deal on the re- maining traces of the primitive manners of the Pilgrim Fathers. One of these I found was the substitution of a thanksgiving day in November, instead of Christmas day, and the renunciation of so heretic a dish as mince-pies, as connected with that day, as associated with ecclesiastic institu- tions which the Puritans held in abhorrence. i I » «( m 238 ( . •'> 'I ■■f, > s I * Christmas day, however, is now observed more and more generally every year, and mince-pies we find in every tavern. Another Puritanic custom (which f was informed still lingers in Boston also,) is the commencement of the Christian Sabbath on Saturday night, and its termination on Sunday evening, at five or six o'clock (^* the evening and the morning were the first day.") My friend told me, that in a very strict family in Connecticut in which he was brought up, (a clergyman's family,) Saturday evening was observed with the greatest strictness and rigidity, and Sunday also till after tea, when the orthodox lady invariably brought out her knitting. — Before I leave Salem I should add, that it is a singular little town, of astonishing wealth, and formerly had sixty or seventy ships in the India trade, employed principally in carrying the produce of China and the Eastern Archipela- go to the various parts of Europe. Indeed, most of the large commercial fortunes I have observed in America, some of them almost without a paral- el in Europe, have been made in those branches of the East India trade rvhich our East India Com- pany never engaged in, but from which their mo- nopoly entirely excludes British subjects. We reached Boston at 10 o'clock at night, and lay on two chairs at the stage-house till two, when we set off for Northampton, 100 miles distant, where we arrived at ten o'clock in the evening, afler passing through Worcester and Leicester. The following day we set out for Hartford. The part of the valley of Connecticut through which we passed is generally admitted to be one of the 239 more lies we sustom 1 also,) >ath on junday ng and nd told ticut in amily,) reatest [I after )rought should nishing ships in arrying hipela- d, most )served I paral- anches ia Cora- leir mo- ht, and when distant, vening, icester. The which of the tinest portions of the cultivated regions of Ame- rica, and the panoramic views from some of the eminences, will, I hope, be one day rendered more familiar to British imagination, cither by the pen- cil or the pen. We rode a great part of the day on the very brink of the river, which appeared to be from a third to half a mile broad. The ground was covered with snow ; but the day was bright, and every twig was enclosed in a sparkling icicle. On this day^s route we saw some of the finest Ame- rican elms we have observed in the country. They are very different from ours, far more lofly and expanded ; and every branch is like a separate tree. I think I almost give them the preference over either the live oaks or magnolias of the Caro- linas, or the tulip trees or sycamores of the west- ern country. The timber on the Atlantic coast, with the exception of the pine, does not generally exceed ours in size; at which I was much disap- pointed at our first arrival ; but as you proceed westward it improves in magnitude, till it reaches the stupendous size of those tulip or sycamore trees, at the sight of which we have often stopped our horses almost instinctively, and sat lost in as- tonishment. Indeed, a person travelling from Bos- ton to Savannah along the coast, which is the or- dinary road, will know as little of the fertility, beauty, or magnificence of this highly favoured country, as he will of the society, if his observa- tions are confined to steam boats, stages, or hotels. How often have I wished for you in the autumn, to show you an American forest, in its coat of many colours ! i do not exactly know the reason !i 240 (it is stated to be the early occurrence of frost) ; but the foliage here seems to assume its varie- gated autumnal appearance before the leaves be- gin to fall, and the beautiful tints and mellow hues, far deeper and more diversified than ours, often blended harmoniously in the same tree, or con- trasted with the deepest green of a kindred branch, appear too healthy and vigorous to be precursors of dissolution or symptoms of decay. The late Dr. Dwight has remarked that he was surprised that this beautiful appearance was not described by Thomson in his seasons; but, upon inquiry, he found that it was unknown in Great Britain. The bright yellow of the walnut, the scarlet of the maple, the fresh green of the laurel, and the som- bre brown of the cedar, are often the most promi- nent colours ; but these are mingled with a variety of others more soft and delicate, which melt im- perceptibly into each other, and throw a rich and luxuriant beauty over the gorgeous forest. I have already said so much of the extreme clearness and transparency of the atmosphere in this country, that I dare scarcely allude to it again to tell you how much it adds to the beauty of the natural scenery. Indeed a common landscape is often rendered beautiful by the extreme distinct- ness with which every outline is defined, or the vivid colouring with which, at sunset, the air itself seems suffused. I do not know whether the pu- rity of the atmosphere does not add still more to the beauty of a moonlight scene. A winter moon- light night in America, when the ground is cover- ed with snow, is really like enchantment. On a beautiful autumnal dav, w ith not a cloud to inter- 2U frost) ; ; varie- k^es be- /v hues, 3, often )r con- [)ranch, cursors tie late rprised scribed inquiry, Britain. ?t of the he som- t promi- variety iielt im- ich and xtrenif ►here in it again y of the cape is listincl- or the ir itsell the pu- niore to r moon- s cover- On a o inter- cept the rays of the sun, I have seen a planet quite distinctly at three o^clock in the ^ifternoon ut Boston. I am not, however, enamoured of ihe cHmate ; or at least, I have deliberately decided in favour of our own, — the vicissitudes here being very sud- den, and the extremes formidable; but there are (and very frequently) days so beautiful that [ feel as if I would pay almost any price for the enjoy- ment ihey bring. When at Montreal in August, we had the thermometer one day at 99 deg., and in Boston, in September, at five o'clock in the evening at 93 or 9t deg.; it having risen 17 de- grees in nine hours. At New-Haven, in Connec- ticut, when I was there last month, the thermo- meter was 12 deg. ; at Springfield 23 deg. ; and at Northampton 26 deg. below zero. In the Caroli- nas and Georgia, a variation of 20 degrees in 24 hours is common. In Charleston, on the 17th March, 1819, the thermometer fell 33 deg. in 12 hours; in 1761,46 deg. in 16 hours. At the same season of the year, the heat in different latitudes of this continent varies to a great extent In Feb- ruary last, while we were opprestsed with heat amidst the orange groves of Charleston, and eating ^reen peas grown in the open air, they were sleighing in the streets of Philadelphia, and the mail from New-Yor!i was stopped two or three days by snow. On the 6th ol February, the pre- ceding year, the thermometer was 33 deg. below zero at Montreal, and 67 deg. above at Savannah- • I am, k\\ 31 il 2 J2 lettp:r XX. i We left Hartford in Connecticut, on the 2(1 of March 1821, in the Albany stage or sleigh, to visit the Missionary School at Cornwall ; and at the distance of about six miles crossed what is call- ed " the Mountain," from the summit of which we had a charming view of the Connecticut valley on the one side, and of another extensive and very beautiful valley o'- the other. The descent into it was very steep; and soon after we had crossed the high land which forms its opposite boundary, we passed through some very romantic glens, in one of which New-Hartford is situated. Here we dined; and as the road to Cornwall now branched off from the Albany road, we were obliged to obtain a private sleigh. It was an open one; and although the day was extremely cold, we were not sorry to have nothing to interrupt our view. The country became dreary and unin- teresting as v/e approached Goshen ; but on drawing near to Cornwall about sunset, we had some beautiful mountain scenery, very similar to some of the mountain scenery in Tennessee, near Brainerd. It one respect, indeed there was a striking contrast. In both cases the hills were clothed with wood ; but the valleys, which in Ten- nessee were hidden under a sombre mantle of un- broken forest, were here enlivened with the ap- pearance of cultivation, and animated with all the cheering indications of civilized life. *To the eye of an Englishmen — to whom the siirlit of wood.'? 21:5 V le 2d o< , to visit 1 at the is call- hich we alley on nd very ;ent into crossed )undary, glens, in Here all now ye were an open ily cold, nterrupt nd unin- but on we had imiiar to ee, near was a lis were I in Ten- e of un- \ the ap- 1 all the the eye f wood^ usually suggests ideas ol'shade and shelter, ol' ru- ral beauty or of such sylvan solitudes only as are sedulously preser; ed to afford protection to game, to add variety to park scenery, or to con- trast with rich cultivation in their immediate vi- cinity — the trees which generally cover the Ame- rican mountains, even to their summits, detract somewhat from the sublimity. In the imagina- tion of an American, on the contrary, they invest them with whatever of dreary desolation, desert magnificence, and savage nature, he has learned from infancy to associate with his interminable forests, and with the wild beasts and savage In- dians which inhabit them. With him, wc jdland scenery, even of a milder character, partakes of the sublime ; and if mere cultivation be not beau- ty, it is closely allied to it in his imagination ; and from its intimate connexion with utility, which en- ters largely into his idea of beauty, it awakens many kindred associations. Every acre reclaimed from the wilderness is a conquest of " civilized man over uncivilized nature ;" an addition to those resources which are to enable his country to stretch her moral empire to her geographical lim- its, and lo diffuse over a vast continent the phy- sical enjoyments, the social advantages, the poli- tical privileges, and the religious institutions, the extension of which is identified with all his visions of her future greatness. As we descended into the little valley in which the Mission School is situated, the distant moun- tains were fading from our view ; but we had just daylight enough to see the steeple of the rhurrh> l!l I :i and the very tievv houses which seemed to (com- pose this little village, or rather this little detach- ed part of a little village. The snow contributed to prolong our twilight, and assisted us in discern- ing about a quarter of a mile before we reached the school, a retired buryirjg ground, with many upright slabs of white marble, over which the evening star, the only one which had yet appear- ed, seemed to be shedding its mild light. Here, as we afterwards learned, lay the remains of the lamented Henry Obookiah, a pupil of peculiar promise, from the Sandwich Islands. His compa- nions, Hopoo, Teimooe, and Honooree, returned some months since to their native island with the mission which was sent thither. Tamoree. King of Atooi, in a letter to his son at Cornwall, had expressed himself very desirous that missionaries should be provided, and great expectations are excited of the success of the mission. Being informed that a Mr. though not keeping a regular inn, sometimes received those who visited the school, I applied to him in prefer- ence to taking up my quarters at a very uninvit- ing tavern. We soon obtained admittance into a neat little chamber, where I sat up till a late hour, indulging the very interesting reflections natural- ly excited by my situation, in a deep retired ro- mantic valley, where so many heathen youths were collected from different parts of the world to be instructed in the principles of the Christian religion, and qualified as far as human effort could qualify them, to diffuse the light of the Gospel over the benighted lands of their nativity, f '% it >■•- 24 ;> to ring of 1 in the trica of subse- y them to l»ecoine useful missionaries, physicians, school- masters, or interpreters, and to communicate to the heathen nations such knowledge in agricul- ture and the arts, as may prove the means of pro- moting Christianity and civilization/' Is not this a truly noble object ? My hostess was the grand-daughter of the former pastor of the village. Her eldest daugh- ter, a pleasing yourjg person of a serious dispo- sition, seemed much interested with Mr. Leigh Richmond's " Little Jane," which 1 left with her. It was a great pleasure to me to read it in this lit- tle valley, with all the associations with which it seemed so well to harmonize. We left Cornwall at ten o'clock, on the 3d, in an open sleigh. Our road, for three or four miles, lay through a natural grove of hemlock, spruce, and cedar, which made an arch over our heads, and whose matted boughs and dark green leaves, formed a fine contrast with the new fallen snow which rested upon them in masses, or fell through, and gave a softer appear- ance to the frozen surface over which we travel- led. A rapid brook, which we sometimes heard below dashing over the rocks, and to the brink of which the road occasionally descended, improved the scene. Soon after crossing the Housatonic, we ascended a mountain, from which we took our last view of this consecrated spot, whose scenery, 1 reflected, would be carried to almost every part of the world, in the breasts of the young missionaries, associat- ed in many instances with interesting recollec- tions of early piety, and of vows which, made in .-2sr 21 }{ ■h- > .1 l\' 'I 1 f. I tlie first tipivoiir of tlieir ilevotioii lo the sacrcJ cause, would often be recalled in far distant scenes, to sustain their fainting spirits, or re-animate their slackened efforts, in the meridian or evening o\' I heir days. When we descended the mountain on the other side, we were gratified by a long succession of scenery which reminded me more of the high moor- lands of our own country than any thing we had lately seen. The little valleys which lay between them were very level and richly cultivated, and the small farm-houses had mure oi" the cottage and less of the parlour style in their appearance than is usual in New-England — perhaps 1 ought to say, more of the kitchen style, for the picturesque cot- tage of Old England is seen here as seldom as the miserable hovel or crumbling mud cabin. Soon after passing Sharon, we entered the state «r New-York ; and it was not without regret that I bade adieu to New-England, where I had ibund so much to please and to interest me. I first entered New-England, in the state of Ver- mont, which I crossed in the autumn, and with which 1 was much delighted. It well deserves its name ; and 1 do not think that I have had a more inlpresting ride of the same length since my arri- val in America, except perhaps in the valley of the Shenandoah, — and there there were some slaves at least, while here the "Green mountain boys" are as free and independent as in the times which Mrs. Grant describes, and perhaps a little more enlightened. We found schools in every town- ship, and there are various colleges in i-he State. Suii^!S-'ff^^^:i iXSss;;z3Stf 24H sacrcul |. scenes, te their ening ol' le othor :ision ol' h inoor- we had )etweei» ed, and age and ce than to say, ue cot- 1 as the le state ;t that [ d found of Ver- id with rves its a more ny arri- y of the aves at ys" are which e more town- ' .State. 'i> The attention of the clergy to their duties is most exemplary, and non-residence is said not to be knoum among them. I scarcely saw an inn without a Bi- ble in the parlour; and I several times found a volume of Scott's Bible in my bed-chamber. At one place where we changed horses, were the life of Harriot Newell, (a present from the minister to the innkeeper's daughter,) Whitfield's Sermon's, Young's Night Thoughts, &c. ; and at another Walter Scott, the Pastor's Fire-side, Blair's Lec- tures, Paley's Philosophy, Darwin's Botanic Gar- den, French Grammar, and some others, — and this in one room in a country inn. The face of the country sometimes reminded me of the richest meadow land in Craven, sometimes of the most romantic part of Derbyshire, and very often of a valley to us more dear and beautiful than can be found in either. The houses, either when group- ed in villages or standing alone, are clean white frame houses with Venetian blinds. The churches are of white frame also, with lofty spires ; simple, pretty, and, better than all, very numerous. I re- member as we crossed the Connecticut river,whic!t there divides the states of Vermont and New- Hampshire, I asked the driver, a young man of about eighteen years of age, whether we should find the New-Hampshire people as civil as the " green mountain boys ?" He said, — " No ; you will not find them quite as civil, and certainly not so enlightened : as their land is so poor in general, that they have not the same opportunities of im- provement, although there are schools in every district, and everv one can read-" Indeed, the tl •.^2 I ; :ii5o I I number of schools which you observe as you pass along the roads in New-England, and the neat ap- pearance and respectable civil manners of the children going or returning with their little books under their arms, are very pleasing. Mr. Webster was quite correct in his remark on this subject, in his eloquent oration at the second centenary of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers on the Plymouth Rock. " Although," said he, " the representatives of the kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland listened to a gentleman of distinguish- ed character (Mr. Brougham) with astonishment and delight, when detailing his plan of national education, we hear no principles with which we ourselves have not been familiar from youth : we see nothing in the plan but an approach to that system which has been established in New-Eng- land for more than a century and a half. It is said, that in England not more than one child in fifteen possesses the means of being taught to read and write: in Wales, one in twenty; in France, until lately, when some improvement was made, not more than one in thirty-five. Now it is hardly too strong to say that in New-England every child pos- sesses such means. That which is elsewhere left to chance or charity, we secure by law. For the purpose of public instruction, we hold every man subject to taxation in proportion to his property ; and we look not to the question whether he him- self have or have not children to be benefited by the education for which he pays. We regard it as a wise and liberal system of policy, by which property, and life, and the peace of society are se- 4 if)ki-i ii/il DU pasb leat ap- of the e books nark on second lerson "the Britain nguish- shment lational lich we th: wc to that w-Eng- issaid, 1 fifteen ad and e, until ie, not d\y too ild pos- 3re left or the ry man perty; e him- ted by ^ard it which ire se- cured. VVc seek to prevent in some measure the extension of the penal code, by inspiring a saluta- ry and conservative principle of virtue and of knowledge at an early age. We hope for a securi- ty beyond the law, and above the law, in the pre- valence of enlightened and well-principled moral sentiment. We hope to continue and prolong the time when in the villages or farm-houses of New- England there may be undisturbed sleep within unbarred doors. And knowing that our govern- ment rests directly in the public will, that we may preserve it, we endeavour to give a safe and pro- per direction to that public will." All this is to be ascribed to the peculiar character of the first settlers of New-England. It has been well ob- served, "The scattered settlements along the shores of Massachusetts and Connecticut, which in the map of the now extensive empire of Ameri- ca can hardly be made visible, were not inhabit- ed, as is often the case in a new colony, by men of forlorn prospects and ruined character, or by desperate expelled outcasts, but by gentlemen and yeomen of England, who, in a period of stern re- ligious dissent, went into a voluntary distant exile to preserve what they considered the truth. These men, who had been bred in the antique cloisters of Oxford and Cambridge, united all the learning of the schools to the piety and zeal of confessors and martyrs." " Poetry," says Mr. Webster, "has fan- cied nothing in the wandering of heroes so distinct and characteristic. Here was man, unprotected indeed, and unprovided for on the shore of a rude and fearful wilderness : but it was politic, intelli- iH f I ■» 11 U'l » .» .-,.1 ^tuU and educated man. Kvery thing was civiliz- ed but the physical world. Institutions, contain- ing, in substance, all that ages had done for hu- man government, were established in a forest. Cultivated mind was made to act on uncultivated nature ; and, more than all, a government and a country were to commence with the very first foun- dation laid under the divine light of the Christian Religion." ?« • « To the superior advantages of education trans- mitted by their learned for;:.fathers to the inhabi- tants of the Eastern States, ns well as to the po- verty of their soil, is to be ascribed that spirit of emigration which has rendered New-England the officina gentium of North America. You remember how beautifully the connexion between superior intelligence in the population of a comparatively poor country and a spirit of adventure and emi- gration are portrayed by Dr. Currie, in his re- marks on the Scottish peasants. But to return to my narrative — A little circumstance which I will mention, will show you the difference between the state of man- ners in Connecticut and that part of the State of New-York on which we had just entered. The snow had so far disappeared from many parts of the road that, after tugging along in the mud, and availing ourselves of every little patch of snow on the road side, we were obliged to part with our sleigh and obtain a waggon. While they were pre- paring this little vehicle, 1 went into the house of the person who undertook to convey us ; and, in speaking about his coming home the same night. i'-^ ^. if -ji.^ •^1^. 20.* (it was Saturday,) or making an allowance tor hiu staying at Poughkeepsie the following tlay, his wife said, ^* Oh, people donH think so much about the Sabbath here. In Connecticut they take any body up that travels on Sunday ; but here weVe in a loose township,whcre people think little about religion — I was not brought up so." Now in that part of Connecticut where 1 hired the sleigh it was considered quite a matter of course " to tarry on the Sabbath," as they termed it, and to include it. in their calculation of expenses. The owner and driver of the Jersey waggon was of German extraction, though a " native born''' Ame- rican, and was very conversible. He told me that his father and his brother had remained in Upper Canada, where they found the land excellent, and that he would go there too, but his »* woman^s father" was loth to lose his daughter; that he resigned a commission he held in the American army during the late war, on finding his company ordered to the Canadian frontiers, as it seemed unnatural to fight against his neighbours, and stilt more against his own kin. We stopped towards night to feed our horses at a place called Pleasant Valley, where there was a larger circle than usual sitting round the fire, and fewer persons standing about the bar, which I attributed to our being in a German neighbourhood. They were talking about " a caucus" which had been held, or was going to be held, for the appointment of some petty officer. I will explain this proceeding toyou wlien we meet. We have long been familiar with it, as a prelimi- nary movement in the election of president; but 1 254 J was not aware when I left England that it extend- ed to the election of very subordinate officers. It was starlight for two hours before we reached Poughkeepsie, where i met with a very frigid re- ception from a very surly landlord, who seemed to suppose he was conferring a favour by allowing one to cross his threshold. I obtained a comfort- able little room however, and saw my frosty friend only once while I staid. I rose early next morn- ing, and found, to my satisfaction, that my window looked over the noble Hudson to the high land on the opposite side ; and, on going out, I found my- self, as I expected, in sight of some of the finest mountains in North America. These are the Cats- kill, the fine northern range, in which the Allegha- ny and the Blue Mountains terminate : they are the most picturesque range that I have seen in America (except, perhaps, one range in Virginia, from the valley of the Shenandoah, and I do not know that I ought to except that.) Their round- ed summits and towering peaks give them a strong resemblance to our mountain scenery, and form a striking contrast to the unbroken continuity and horizontal outline of the American mountains ge- nerally, and especially of the Alleghany. They are not higher than the fine range of the Lake Mountains which we see from Lancaster Castle, nor, I think, either more beautiful or sublime ; but it is difficult to compare objects, where the one is present to the eye, the other only to the imagina- tion. It was a very fine morning, and the sun threw a rich red tinge over their snowy sides when he rose. To the south« the Fishkill Mountains, 25j which are also very remarkable ones, were dis- tinctly visible, and in the vicinity of this fine scene- ry — by many persons considered the finest in North America — I had arranged to pass my last Sabbath on these western shores. To how many interesting reflections, prospective and retrospec- tive, that single consideration gave rise, I must leave you to imagine. In the Episcopal Church, a little plain building, we had a good sermon from the words, '^ All things are yours," &c., and in the afternoon in the Bap- tists^ Meeting on a kindred subject from the text, '•*■ All things work together for good to them that love God, that are the called according to his pur- pose." We had a glorious sun-set, and as the sun went down I appeared to take leave of America ; for I anticipated little time either to think or feel during the ensuifig week of preparation. / JVew-Yorkt March Ith. We left Poughkeepsie at four o'clock the next morning in the stage. This is principally a Dutch town, as is very evident in the structure of the buildings and the construction of the men and wo- men; the former of smaller, the latter of ampler, dimensions than are common in America. The ride to New-York, 80 miles, is one of the most striking in this country. In the space cf 20 miles, through and over what are called the Highlands, or the Fishkili Mountains, I saw more of nature's ruins than in my whole \ik before : — ,*. tmti^«mSmmmSim i III It ' (■ //' ',■ 2c>t) Rucks, iuoumUs, and knolls, cunfiisttdly iiurl'd, The fragments uf an earlier world. Many of the smaller defiles resembled the Troa- sacks, but were far wilder. [ will, however, at- tempt no description. I will only say that for two days 1 was revelling in magnificent scenery, and adding largely to those chambers of imagery from which I hope during life to be able to summon at pleasure the most sublime and beautiful forms of nature. I had a very fine view of the passage which the Hudson has forced for itself through the Fishkill mountains, as the Potomac and Shenandoah through the Blue Mountains in Virginia. We were within a short distance of the Hudson during a great part of the day ; frequently on its banks ; and as the day was bright, and I sat by the coach- man till it was dark, I saw the country to great ad- vantage. I had before sailed through the High- lands by moonlight, on my way to Canada. We reached New- York after midnight (this morning;) and 1 am now writing my last letter to England in the house where I slept the night we landed, six- teen months since. I can hardly believe that only sixteen months have elapsed since I first hailed "These lands heneath Hesperian skies, Where daylight sojourns till our morrow rise." Every week indeed has glided rapidly away ; but the new sources of interest which have opened to me on every side, and the various scenes through which I have passed, have given to the intervening period an apparent extension far beyond its real limits. In liUlo more than a vear I have visited 2;i7 • Tros- er, at- for two y, and •y from moti at •rms of ich the ^ishkill oiiidoah e were iring a banks ; coach- eat ad- ; High- i. We rning ;) land in ed, six.- at only liled y; but ned to hrough vening its real visited Upper and Lower Canada, and traversed the Unit- ed States from their nordiern to their southern ex- tremity, comprehending in ray route the States of Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode-Island, Connecticut, New-York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee, i have crossed the Alleghany in Ten- nessee, the BJue Ridge in Virginia, and the Green Mountains in Vermont. I have sailed on those in- land seas, and traversed those boundless forests, which are associated with our earliest conceptions of this Western world. I have seen the St. Law- rence precipitate its nighty torrent down the Falls of Niagara, reflect from its calm expanse the frowning battlements of Quebec, and then flow ma- jestically to the wintry shores of Labrador ; and the Mississippi, rising in the same table land as the St. Lawrence, rolling its turbid waters for three thousand miles to the orange groves of Louisiana, and, at last, falling into the Gulf of Mexico, under nearly the same latitude as the Nile. I have con- versed with the polished circles of the Atlantic cities; the forlorn emigrant in the wilderness ; the Negro on the plantation ; and .the Indian in his na- tive forest. In successive intervals oi' space I have traced society through those various stages which in most countries are exhibited only in successive periods oi time : I have seen the roving hunter ac- quiring the habit of the herdsman ; the pastoral state merging into the agricultural, and the agri- cultural into the manufacturing and commercial. I am now on the eve of embarking for the old world '*^ ■ h:-: ^ '2r)H ¥ iT 1 . i Need 1 add that I shall return, ill am spared, with undiminished affection for the friends I left behind; with unshaken fidelity and attachment to the land of my nativity ; and, if possible, with a deeper sense than ever of the glory and privilege of hav- ing been born " o British^^'' as the interpreter of my Indian hunters would say ? Indeed, you need ne- ver fear that my country will have too few attrac- tions for me, while she produces so many male and female worthies. Who would renounce the ho- nour of being compatriots of her living ornaments, to say nothing of her long line of illustrious dead? But even her woods, her rivers, and her mountains have not lost one charm by comparison. Our woods and rivers will appear more diminutive, perhaps, than before, but not less picturesque; and Ingleborough and Lunesdale, Coniston Fells, and our Lake scenery, are surpassed by nothing which I have seen. You must not be surprised, however, if i feel a strong emotion on bidding a last adieu to these western shores ; to a country where I have passed many happy hours : where I have found so much to stimulate and gratify curi- osity ; and where I have experienced a degree of attention which I never can forget. In the inter- est which I must ever feel in the destinies of this favoured land, in her European, her African, and her Aboriginal population, I seem as if 1 were en- dowed with a new sense. I see in the Americans, a nation who are to show to generations yet un- born, what British energy can accomplish when unfettered by the artificial arrangements of less enlightened times, and the clumsy irgchinery of li.OM the old complicated system of commercial policy; when combining with the elastic vigour of* reno- vated youth the experience of a long and spirited career of prosperity and glory; and when bringing to the boundless regions of a new world, fair and fresh from the hand of its Creator, the intellectual treasures which have been accumulating for cen- turies in the old. It is in this light that I wish to regard America ; as a scion from the old British oak — not as a rival, whose growing greatness is to excite jealousy and apprehension, but as the vigorous child of an illus- trious parent, whose future glory may reflect lus- tre on the distinguished family from which she sprang, and who should be solicitous to prove her- self worthy of her high descent. May her future career evince both her title and her sensibility to her hereditary honours ! May the child forget the supposed severity of the parent, and the parent the alleged obstinacy of the child ; and while, as two independent nations, they emulate each other in glorious deeds, may they combine th^r com- manding influence to promote the lasting interest of the human race ! » ». , I tl APPENDIX. (■'roni the T/ondOD Missionary Hegistcr fur Nov. and Dec. I0:;1. Journey among the Creeks, ChocktawSf Chickasaws, nmf Cherokees. In our last survey under the head of North American lii- fiians, we inerJioned a journey whicli had been taken by a friend, among these Indians. This Gentleman (Adam Hodgson, Esq. of Liverpool, Treasurer of the West-Lan- cashire Association of the Church Missionary Society^ fa- voured us, a considerable time since, with a Narrative of his journey; and we regret that our limits, which we find in- creasingly inadequate to the important matter that presses on us from all quarters, have obliged us to defer so long an account of his tour. We have taken the liberty of giving that authenticity to his interesting narrative, which will at- tach to ivfrom the insertion of his name. Mr. Hodgson set out on this visit to the Indians on the 17th of March, I8i0, from Augusta, in the north-east part of Georgia, bordering on South Carolina. He travelled on horseback accompanied only by a servant ; and reached Mobile in Cast Florida, on the 1 5th day; having crossed the state of Georgia in a south-west direction, a distance of 450 miles. Taking his passage at Mobile on board a schooner for New-Orleans, he arrived at that city on the 7th of April ; and proceeded thence up the Mississippi, in a steam-boat to Natchez. On the 10th of May, he left Natche?., on horseback, accompanied by his servant, with the intention of proceeding through the Wilderness, as it is termed — that is, the western and northern parts of Georgia :«tC '' iHl aws, lean I li- en by 11 (Adam Bst-Lan- iety) fa- ve of his ■ find in- t prpsses long an )f giving I will at- on the east part travelled reached crossed stance of board a y on the ppi, in a he left ant, with s, as it is Georgia and the state of Tennessee— to Richmond, in V'irginia, a distance of about 1240 miles. In this ronte he passed through the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Cherokee Nations; and visited the Missionary Settlement of £lliot among the Choctaws, and that of Brainerd among the Cherokees. Soon after leaving Brainerd, Mr. Hodgson crossed the Tennessee, which there forms the boundary of the Cherokee Nation : quitting here the Indian Territory, he crossed the Alleghany Mountains, and reached Monticello, the seat of Mr. Jefferson, late President of the United States. On the 20th of June he arrived at Richmond, the horses having accomplished the 1240 miles from Natchez, in six weeks, wl;!.out difficulty. We extract Mr. Hodgson's account of his reception at Monticello, and the reflections there made by him on the journey which he had just accomplished : — Monticello, the well-known seat of Mr. Jefferson, is finely situated on an eminence which commands a magnificent prospect. Here I experienced a very polite and hospitable reception, from this retired and philosophic Statesman ; whose urbanity and intelligence can scarcely fail to make a favourable impression on a stranger. While conversing with him in a handsome saloon, surrounded by instruments of science, valuable specimens of the fine arts, and literary treasures of every nation and every age, I could not help contrasting my situation with some of those which I had occupied a few weeks before, when taking my cup of coffee with a Chickasaw or Choctaw host, or dandling on my knee a little Imiian Chieftain in his national costume. In less than five weeks, I had passed from the recesses of thick forests, whose silence had never been broken by the woodman's axe^ to a richly cultivated country, where cattle were grazing in extensive meadows, and corn-fields waving in the wind; where Q'ommerce was planting her Towns, Science founding her Universities, and Religion rearing her Heaven-directed Spires. In the same space, I had traced man through every stage of society ; from the hunter, whose ideas were bounded by the narrow circle of his daily wants, to the philosophic statesman, who had learned to grasp the complicated interests of society, and nenetrate tlm mvsteriojis sv'tPin of the universe. H^' \ , Jt>2 We subjoin, with pleasure, Mr. Hodgson's remarks, made in the course of this and other journeys, on the cha- racter of the American people; as we trust that they will contribute to the increase of friendly feelings on both sides of the Atlantic : — Although, in this narrative I have confined myself almost entirely to an acccount of my route through the Indian Nations, I cannot conclude without expressing my deep regret at the erroneous ideas which prevail in England on the subject of America generally. With a decided preference to the manners and institu- tions and form of government of my own country (h pre- ference only confirmed by opportunities of comparison,) it has been impossible to avoid perceiving, that those ideas are in many respects as unjtut to the United States, as they are discreditable to Great Britain. To what cause we are to attribute the ignorance and prejudice of my enlightened and generous country on almost every topic connected with America, it is foreign to my purpose to inquire. The sub- ject is a very interesting one ; but it would lead to a discus- sion for which I have neither abilities nor leisure. I should, however, do great injustice to my own feelings, if I did not state, that, in the course of a journey of be- tween 5000 and 6000 miles, in which I passed through the States of Vermont, INew-Hampshire, Massachusetts. New- York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee, and mixed rather ex- tensively with society, I received impressions of America and its inhabitants, very different from those which prevail among a large portion of my countrymen, or which are to be derived from our books of Travels or Reviews. I appeal, therefore, to the candour of my countrymen, whether, if those representations were true, which in many cases are most erroneous, the tone and temper with which the subject of America is sometimes discussed among us, are either courteous or liberal — whether Ihey are calculated to elicit or o!)scure the truth, to extinguish or inflame ani- mosity — whether they are becoming the dignity and mag- nanimity of Great Britain — whether they are consistent with Christian Principle!? — and whether in their result, they are likely to confirm or to invalidate that combination of the benevolent efforts of the two countries, so favoura- ble to the cansp of Humanity and Roliffion '' J«i3 remarks, the cha- they will loth sides ?lf almost le Indian my deep igland on cl institu- y (h pre- irison,) it ose ideas s, as they se we are lightened rcted with The sub- a discus- I feelings, ley of be- rough the itts. New- llaryland, Alabama, rather ex- America ch prevail lich are to untrymen, 1 in many i^ith which among us, calculated flame ani- and mag- consistent eir result, mbinatioii » favoiira- It is witli reluctance that we omit any part ol" Mr. Hodg- son's Narrative ; but our limits oblige us to abridge it in a few places. In the present Number we shall »?ive his a( count of the Creeks : that of the Chortaws. Chickasaws, and Cherokees, will be reserved for the next Nun her. Creek Indians. In his journey across Georgia, from Augusta to Mobile, Mr. Hodgson passed through the territory of the Creek In- dians, in the central parts of that State. On crossing the River Ockmulgee, he entered the Nation, and proceeded forward to the '' Agency,'' or residence of the person who acts as Agent between the United States and the Indians of Georgia, which lies on the Flint River. Pine forests of many miles extent lie in the way, and stretch to the horizon on every side. Of the state of the people, and of the scen- ery, our readers will find a very interesting description. Cabins are placed throughout the Creek Nation, at dis- tances of about thirty miles, for the convenience of travel- lers. Of the first of these which he met with, Mr. Hodgson says . — As we approached it. we saw some Indians in their wig. warns on the road-side. One was lying asleep before the door, his head covered with a blanket ; and when I pointed to him, a woman, who was sitting over him, said, " Whis- key sick — Whiskey sirk." Some had brought their little parcels of Indian corn from an Indian town about eight miles distant, nnd were selling it to the people of the inn. The young men were shooting at small birds with their bows and arrows ; and the little children who appeared very active, were trying to walk on their hands, as the children in England occasionally do. The Maitre d''Hotel of our little cabin, was a white man, the partner of an Indian Chief; — the Creek Indians allow- ing no white person to settle in their nation, except as their partners, as husbands of Indian women, or as, in some way or other, closely connected with themselves. He gave us some coffee, and Indian-corn bread, and bacon ; a plain substantial fare, which you seldom fail to obtain, through- out the nation, sometimes improved by the addition of su- V, m f ^|pif— JH-4 hh 'I \ 11 ^itr aiiri cream and biilter, and soinetiniost varied by llie iii- itoductioti ofwild venison, ur wild turkeys. As we purposed sleeping in llie woods that night, there being no cubin within a convenient diaiance, we had here to lay in provision for our horses. At (bur o'clock, we set out — my servant carrying a handkerchief full of Indian- corn leaves, the substitute for hay in this country, being tied behind nie on my horse, half as high as my shoulders. On the banks of several streams, we saw parties of In- dians, who had settled themselves there for a few days, to assist travellers in swimming their horses ; but, as tlie wa- ters had subsided, we did not require their assistance. Their rude dwellings were formed of four upright saplings, and a rough covering of pine-bark, which they strip from the trees with a neatness and rapidity wliich we could not imitate. Before them, the women were sitting, dressing Indian corn or wild venison ; the men lying by their side with intelli- gent and happy countenances, graceful in their attitudes, and grave and dignified in their address. Some of the par- ties whom we passed in the glens at sun set, had a very pic- turesque appearance. . We rode nearly two hours by moonlight, before we could find water for our horses : at length observing some fires at a distance in the woods, we struck toward them ; but they were surrounded by Indians, to whom we could not make ourselves intelligible. At last we discerned a stream of water, and near it two or three parties of travellers ; who had already lighted their fires, by which they were toasting their bacon, and boiling their cofTee. We invited ourselves to join one, consisting of a little Alabama cotton-planter and his daughter, whom we had met in the courise of the day. He was in a situation of life corresponding, perhaps, with that of our second or third-rate farmers ; and was bringing his daughter tVom school atMilledgeville ii: Geor- gia, from 300 to 400 miles from hence. They travelled in a little Jersey Waggon or (Dear-born, or Carry-all, or Carry- half, as this humble vehicle is variously denominated) — '' Camping out^' every night, and cooking their bacon and cofTee three times a day. Some stragglers from the other parties joined us, for a little chat before bed-time; and were consulting on the pro- priety of proceeding directly to the end of their journey, or staying for a season, as is very common, to '^ make a crop^' on some of the unappropriated public lands. When thev were gone, our Alabama friends sal reading by the 7 ' 'JG5 y the iit- ht, tliere i;i(J here k, we set Indian- y, being loulders. Bs of Ill- days, to the wa- e. Their crs, and a I he trees t imitate. Jian corn ih inteili- attitudes, f the par- very pic- we could le fires at but they not make stream of ers ; who i toasting ourselves n- planter se of the , perhaps, and was ; it: Geor- relled in a or Carry- inated) — )acoii and us, for a n the pro- r journey, " make a s. When iig bv the lire, for an iiour or twf» before they retired to rest , wlien the little girl ascended the waggon and her father covered her with a blanket, and spread an umbrella over her, to protect her from the dew. As for ourselves, having secured our horses and given them their supper, and contributed our supply to the stock of wood for the night, we lay down in the blankets which we always put under the saddles, to prevent our horses* backs being galled ; taking our saddle- bags for pillows, and placing our pistols by our side. In the course of the night, a few Indians paid us a visit ; walking round us, and examining us very attentively, but without speaking. The novelty of the scene, however, prevented my sleeping much. On my left hand, were my friend the Alabama planter, and his daughter, with her coffee-pot, and her " Tales of my Landlord," at her fa- ther's feet. About 100 yards from us were the Emigrants from Georgia and Carolina, with their five or six little fires ; alternately decaying till they almost disappeared, and then bursting torth with a vivid flame which illuminated the in- tervening space, and flashed on the horses and waggons ranged around : on our right were the Indian wigwams ; and before us, at a distance, some acres of pine woods on fire. Yet, notwithstanding the strong light which occa- sionally emanated from so many sources, and the features of the grotesque which the picture certainly contained, the stillness of the night, the deep blue of the sky above us, and the sombre colouring of the heavy forests in which we were enveloped, imparted to this novel scene a character of so- lemnity which preponderated over every other expression. We set off as soon as it was light ; and, passing several creeks, arrived at the extremity of a ridge, from which we looked down into a savannah, in which is situated the Indian town of Cosito, on the Chatahouchy. It appeared to con- sist of about 1 00 houses, many of them elevated on poles from two to six feet high, and built of unhewn logs, with roofs of bark, and little patches of Indian corn before the doors. The women were hard at work, digging the ground, pounding Indian corn, or carrying heavy loads of water from the river : the men were either setting out to the woods with their guns, or lying idle before the doors ; and the children were amusing themselves in little groups. The whole scene reminded me strongly of some of the African towns, described by Mnngo Park. In the centre of the town, we passed a large building, with a conical roof, sup- ported by a circular wall about three feet high : close to i* 34 ^ ^P^ i'60 k it wiis a juudrangiilar space, enclosed l>> Tuiir open buildings, wiili runs of beiiclies rising above one another : the whole was appropriated, wc were informed, to the Great Council of the town, who meet, under shelter, or in the open air, nccordiiig to the weather. Near the spot was n high pole, like our Aln y-poles, with a bird at the top, round which the Indians celebrate their Green-Corn Dunce. The town or township of Cosito is said to be able to muster 700 war' riors, while the number belonging to the whole Nation is not estimated at more than t3500. About a mile from tlie t'jwn we came to the Chatahou- cby, a beautiful river. We were ferried over by Indians, who sang in response ; the Indian Muses, like their Eastern Sisters, appearing to "love alternate song." Their dress frightened our horses ; and, as we were pushing from the shore, a young hunter leapt into the boat, with no other covering than his shirt and bell, and his bow and arrows slung behind. We arrived at Ouchee Bridge about one o'clock ; and our horses being rather tired, we determined to rest the re- mainder of the day at a stand kept by a young man from Philadelphia, whose partner is a half-breed. I slept in a log-cabin, without windows ; and supped with my host and several unwashed artificers, and unshaved labourers, who, according to the custom of this part of the country, even when not within Indian limits, sat down with us in their shirt-sleeves, fresh from their labours. Our host had killed a panther a few days previously, within twenty yards of the house. Ouchee Creek, which is here to form the boundary be- tween Alabama and Georgia, when the Indian title is ex- tinguished, derives its name from the Ouchees, a conquered tribe of Indians ; many of whom were long held in capti- vity by the victorious Creeks. We saw several of them, who exhibited in the subdued and dejected expression of their countenances, indications of their degraded condition. We left Ouchee Bridge on the 26th of May ; and early in the afternoon, arrived at Irish Bainbridge, where we found a stand in which the "" Big Warrior" is a sleeping partner, and a head waiter from one of the principal inns in Washington, the efficient man. There is, however, another partner, whom I found highly interesting. He had lived fifteen years in the heart of the Indian country, having married an Indian wife, and adopted the manners of the natives. He appeared to unite great mildness and iu- ■I buildings, the whole t Council open air, ligh pole, which the e town or 700 war- Nation is /hatahou- Y Indians, ir Eastern heir dress ; from the no other id arrows ock ; and est the re- man from slept in a f host and rers, who, itry, even us in their had killed irdsof the ndary be- tle is ex- conquered 1 in capti- 1 of them, iression of condition, and early where we I sleeping cipal inns however, ing. He I country, nanners of ;ss and in- 367 t»>lliir My host regretted, in the most feeling terms, the injury which the morals of the Indians have sustained from inter- course with the Whites ; and especially from the introduc- tion of whiskey, which has been their bane, fie said that female licentiousness before marriage is not attended with loss of character; but that conjugal infidelity is punished by whipping, shavingthe head, and perpetual exile; ilie busbfuid being liable to suffer the same severities, if he connive at the return of his oflending wife. The murderer is now public- ly executed ; the law of private retaliation becoming gra- dually obsolete. Stealing is punished, for the first oflence, by whipping; for the second, by the loss of the cars ; for the third, by death — the amount stolen being disregarded. My host remembers when there was no law against stcalintr ; yA I * m M HI 2C8 if ♦. the crime itself being almost unknown — when the Indians would go a hunting, or " froiicking," for one or two days, leaving their clothes on the bushes opposite their wigwams, in a populous neighbourhood, or their silver trinkets and ornaments hanging in their open huts. Confidence and', generosity were then their characteristic virtues. A de- sire of gain, caught from the whites, has chilled their libe- rality ; and abused cr^ulity has taught them suspicion and deceit. He considers them still attached to the English, although disappointed in the little assistance which they derived from them in late wars. This, however, they at- tribute, rather to the distance of the British, which renders them less valuable allies than they expected, than to a treacherous violation of their promises. Whatever the first glow of British feeling may dictate, on hearing of their attachment, enlightened humanity will not repine, if, under their present circumstances, they are becoming daily more closely connected with the American government, which has evinced an active solicitude for their civilization. Our recluse told us that they have a general idea of a Supreme Being; but no religious days, nor any religious rites, unless, as he is disposed to believe, their Green-Corn Dance be one. Before the corn turns yellow, the inhabit- ants of each town or district assemble; and a certain num- ber enter the streets of what is more properly called the town, with the war-whoop and savage yells, firing their ar- rows in the air, and going several times round the pole. They then take emetics, and fast two days ; dancing round the pole a great part of the night. All the fires in the townsli'p are then extinguished, and the hearths cleared, and new fires kindled by rubbing two sticks. After this, they parch some of the new corn, and, feasting a little, dis- perse to their several homes. Many of the old Chiefs are of opinion, that their ancestors intended this ceremony as a thank-offering to the Supreme Being, for the fruits of the earth, and for success in hunting or in war. The more reflecting of the Creeks think much, but say little of the change which is taking place in their condition. They see plainly that, with respect to their future destiny, it is a question of civilization or extinction ; and a ques- tion, the decision of which cannot be Jong postponed. They are therefore, become very solicitous for the estab- lishment of Schools ; and the introduction of the various arts, from which the whites derive their superiority. In fnme of these, they have already made considerable pro- 209 wo days, ngwams, kets and ence and-. A de- leir libe- suspicion English, lich they , they al- h renders than to a tever the ig of their if, under ally more nt, which ion. idea of a religious reen-Corn e inhabit- tail; num- called the 5 their ar- the pole, ing round res in the IS cleared, IVfter this, little, dis- Chiefs are mony as a I its of the but say condition, •e destiny, d a ques- lostponed. the estab- he various ority. In rable pro- grc^js ; and the nation at this time exhibits the very inter' esting spectacle of society in several of its earlier stages. The hunter, who still spends much of his time in his fa- vourite pursuit, is the possessor of perhaps several hundred head of cattle ; and, if the warrior do not literally turn his tomahawk and scalping-knife into pruning-hooks, he is sa- tisfied to regard them as mere articles of dress, till hostili- ties shall again call him into the field j and is ambitious to attain distinction in agricultural pursuits. I saw several neat and flourishing little farms, as i passed through the nation ; but my pleasure was alloyed by observing, that the labour generally devolved on either the African negro, or the Indian wife. As few of the Creeks are rich enough to purchase many negroes, all the drudgery is performed by the women ; and it is melancholy to meet them, as we con- tinually did, with an infant hanging on their necks, bend- ing under a heavy burden, and leading their husband's horse, while he walked before them, erect and graceful, ap- parently without a care. This servitude has an unfavour- able effect on the appearance of the women ; those above a certain age being generally bent and clumsy, with a scowl on their wrinkled foreheads, and an expression of countenance at once vacant and dejected. We did not leave our little cabin at Irish Bainbridge, un- til the 28th of May, the 27th being Sunday. It is situated on the ridge which separates the waters of the Chatahouchy from those of the Coosa and Jallapoasa. I was a little surprised to find there, the son of the owner of one of the principal inns in Preston in Lancashire, projecting the in- troduction of a woollen manufactory among the Creeks, under the sanction of the natives. Soon after leaving our friends at Irish Bainbridge, we passed Caleebe and Cubahatchee Swamps ; and, in the evening arrived at Lime Creek, which we were told forms, at that place, the present boundary line between the Creek Nation and Alabama. Choctaw Indians. In the morning of the third day after leaving Natchez, Mr. Hodgson entered the Choctaw Nation. He proceed- ed on what is called the " Natchez" or " Kentucky Train ;" that is, the road by which the inhabitants of Kentucky or Tennessee return home from Natchez througrh i I- . iiil 270 I' (0 I'j', sVif I ■ In the Wilderness, wlien tliey have broken up the rude bout-i in which the produce of the Western Country is conveyed down the Mississippi. *' Stands," as they are called, or houses of entertainment, are placed at the distance of tiiir- ty or forty miles from one another, throughout the Na- tion. While resting at one of these places, on the first Sunday after he had entered the Nation, Mr. Hodgson says — We were visited by many Indians, some of whom were rather importunate for whiskey or tobacco. In the woods, about half-a-mile distant, 50 or 60 were collected to revenge the death of a woman, who had been murdered a few days before as a witch ; but matters appeared likely to be compromised without bloodshed : we afterward saw, however, by the newspapers, that the dispute terminated in a bloody conflict. Toward evening, ten or twelve travellers dropped in — a noisy set. W^e ail slept on bear-skins on the floor. Our host told me that there were not five nights in the year, in which some travellers did not sleep there, and that seventy or e'^^hty occasionally called in a day. He removed from North Carolina about nine years ago, and has acquired considerable property. Set off early on the 15th of May ; and finding that at the cabin where we purposed to stop, tliey no longer received travellers, we had to go twenty-five miles to breakfast. Here we got some coffee in an Indian hut, where the inha- bitants could not speak English. As soon as it appeared to be twelve o'clock by the sun, three of the Indian women covered themselves with blan- kets, and approached a little spot in the garden, enclosed by six upright poles, on the highest of which were suspend- ed several chaplets of vine leaves and tendrils: here they either sat or kneeled (the blankets preventing our seeing whicii) for about twenty minutes, uttering a low monoto- nous wailing. This mournful ceremony they repeat, at sun-rise, noon, and sun- set, for ninety days, or three moons, as the Egyptians mourned for Jacob threescore and ten days. 1 have since been informed, by a very in- telligent Indian, that the period of mourning is sometimes extended to four or five moons, if the individual be deeply regretted, or of eminent rank ; and that it is occasionally determined by the time occupied in killing the deer and other animals necessary for the great feast which is often given at the pulling up of the poles. .1 y7i At the celebrated ceremony of the " pole-pulling," the family connexions assemble from a great distance; and, when they are particular in observing the ancient customs, they spend two or three days and nights in solemn preps ration and previous rites. They then all endeavour to take hold of bcme pr\rt of the poles, which they pluck up and throw behind them without looking, moving back- ward toward the East. They then feast together, and dis- perse to their several homes. It was impossible to hear this simple recital without thinking of the account in Ge- nesis, 1. 1 — 14. Till within ten or fifteen years, the Choctaws generally killed the favourite horses or dogs of the deceased, and buried them, with his gun and hatchet, in his grave. They still sometimes bury the gun ; but it is too frequently sto- len : and they now satisfy themselves with believing that the spirits of the horses and dogs will rejoin that of their master at their death. The settlement of White people among them, and occasional intermarriages, have under- mined many of their customs. The Choctaws formerly scaffolded their dead, in a house appropriated for the pur- pose, in their different towns ; and in these houses, the va- rious families were kept distinct. Sometimes they bury them in their dwellings, like the ancient Egyptians. Mr. Hodgson describes, at large, the Indian Dance and Ball Play. The game resembles cricket, and gives scope to such an exhibition of agility and strength, as would have been hailed with loud applause in an ancient amphi- theatre. All violence on these occasions is forgiven ; and I was informed that it is the only case, in which life is not gener- ally required for life. The Law of Retaliation is still almost in full force among the Choctaws ; the nearest relation of a fugitive murder- er being liable to expiate the offence. An intelligent In- dian told me, however, that the Choctaws are becoming more anxious than formerly, that the offender himself should suffer; and that his family and that of the deceased generally unite, if necessary, to prevail on him to kill him- self. He said, that three or four instances of this kind usu- ally happen in a year, in the circle of his acquaintance ; but that it is more common for an Indian, who has killed another by accident or design, to remain with the body till he is found, lest his relations should suffer. He nien- ^. «*, 4 r F <** 272 li 't ,^ * '( k ■4 tioiied a circumstance of difficulty, which was then pend ing in the neighbourhood. A woman, being greatly in- sulted and defamed in the presence of her husband, and threatened with a blow from a knife, stabbed her assailant to the heart : doubts have arisen whether she is bound to kill herself, her family insisting that circumstances justifi- ed the deed. We left the Indians in the middle of their game ; and re- joiced to think of the blessings which missionary efforts are preparing for them. We slept about 18 miles distant. The following morning we set off, as usual, about four oVlock ; and breakfasted at the house of an Irishman, who left Waterford 30 years since, to carry on the Fur Trade, buying the furs from the Indians, and selling them at Mo- bile and Pensacola. The embargo interrupted his trade, and he is settled here with his Indian wife. Mr. Hodgson here left the Kentucky Trace, with the in- tention of visiting the Missionary Settl«ment, among the Choctaws, at Elliot, about 60 miles from the road. Of this visit he gives the following narrative : — Our course was through the woods, along a blazed path about a foot broad ; and, as it was necessary to procure a guide, our host rode with us till he had engaged an Indian, who, for a dollar, attended us 25 miles on his little horse. At night we reached the cabin of a half-breed, who took us in. We found him setting a trap for a wolf, which had at- tempted, a few hours before, to carry off a pig in sight of the family. In the course of the evening, one of the missionary bre- thren arrived from Elliot, for some cattle, which were rang- ing in the woods ; he promised us a hearty welcome at the establishment. The following day we set off early, our friends having procured us an Indian to take us the first twelve miles : he could not speak English ; but, having received his quarter of a dollar, and parted from us at the appointed place, he returned to draw our track in the sand, pointing out all the forks and little cross- paths, and again left us. After pro- ceeding about a mile, where we were a little embarrassed, we were surprised to find him again at our side, making motions to direct our route. Again we shook hands and parted : but being again puzzled by a diverging path, half a mile distant, we looked round almost instinctively, and tlipre was our faithful fellow still watching our steps : he m i73 then came up and set us right — made signs that our road now lay in the direction of the sun — and then finally dis- appeared ; leaving us much affected by his disinterested solicitude. We had a delightful ride along our Indian Path, through a forest of fine oaks ; which, within ten or twelve miles of Valoo Busha, was occasionally interspersed \vith small na- tural prairies, and assumed the appearance of an English park, i felt as if 1 was approaching consecrated ground ; and the confidence which 1 had in the kindness of those on whom i was going to intrude myself (christian kindness is not capricious) relieved me from any awkwardness about my reception. If 1 had felt any, it would soon have been dismissed by the simple hospitality of the Missionaries. Soon after my arrival, we proceeded to the school, just as a half-breed, who has taken great interest in it, was pre- paring to give the children '' a talk," previous to return- ing home, 60 miles distant. He is a very intluential Chinf, and a man of compreliensive views : he first translated into Choctaw, a letter to the children, from some benevolent friends in the north, who had sent it with a present of u box of clothes : he then gave them a long address in Choctaw. When he took leave, Ije shook hands with me— - said he was glad to hear that the white people in England were interested in the welfare of their red brethren — that the Choctaws were sensible of their want of instruction, and that their teachers were pleased to say that they were not incapable of it — that they were grateful for what had been done; and were aware that it was their duty to co- operate, to the utmost of their ability, with those who were exerting themselves on their behalf. As soon as school was over, the boys repaired to their agricultural labours ; their instructor work: „( with them, and communicating information in the most afiectionate manner : the girls proceeded to their sewing and domes- tic employments, under the missionary sisters. They were afterwards at liberty, till the supper-bell rang ; when we all sat down together to bread and milk, and various preparations of Indian corn; the missionaries presiding at the difierent tables, and confining thomselves, as is their custom except in case of sickness, to precisely the same food as the scholars. After supper, a chapter Jn the Bi- ble was read, with Scott's Practical Observations. This was follomd by singing and prayer; and then all retired to their little rooms, tn their log cabins. .?5 274 % I I m 111 the morning, at daylight, the boys were at tiieir agriculture, and the girls at their domestic employments. About seven o^clock, we assembled for reading, singing, and prayer; and, soon afterward, for breakfast. After an interval for play, the school opened with prayer and sing- ing, a chapter in the Bible, and examination on the sub- ject of the chapter of the preceding day. The children then proceeded to reading, writing, accounts, and English grammar, on a modification of the British system. The instructors say that they never knew white children learn with so much facility ; and the specimens of writing exhibited unequivocal proofs of rapid progress. Many spoke English very well. Toward evening 1 was gratified by the arrival of the Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury, who has the general superinten- dence of the mission. He had been determining the di- rection of a path, to be blazed to another settlement, on the Tombigbee river, in Alabama ; and although he had slept in the woods in heavy rain the preceding night, he sat up in my room till after midnight, and the following morning rode with us seven miles, to see us safe across the Yaloo Busha. The immediate object of the Settlement of Elliot (called by the Indians Yaloo Busha, from its proximity to a little river of that name which falls into the Yazoo) — is the re- ligious instruction of the Indians. The missionaries are, however, aware, that this must necessarily be preceded or accompanied by their civilization ; and that mere preach- ing to the aduh Indians, though partially beneficial to the present generation, would not probably be attended with any general or permanent results. While, therefore, the religious interests of the children are the objects nearest to their hearts, they are anxious to put them in possession of those qualifications, which may secure to them an im- portant influence in the councils of their nation, and ena- ble them gradually to induce their roaming brethren to abandon their erratic habits for the occupations of civiliz- ed life. The general feelings of the nation, at this mo- ment, are most auspicious to their undertaking. For the reasons which I assigned when speaking of the Creeks, the community at large is most solicitous for civilization. In this they have made some progress; many of them grow- ing cotton, and spinning and weaving it into coarse cloth- ing. Of the iliree districts or towns into which its 15 or at their oyments. singing, After an nd sing- the sub- children English . The children ' writing Many 'al of the iperinten- ig the di- it, on the had slept he sat up morning he Yaloo lot (called to a little -is the re- aries are, eceded or re preach- ial to the ided with efore, the ts nearest possession ;m an inl- and ena- ethren to of civiliz- t this mn- For the 'reeks, the tion. In em grow- irse cloth- its 15 or 275 20,000 souls are divided, one has appropriated to the use of schools, its annuity for seventeen years, of 2000 dol- lars per annum, received from the United States for ceded lands; another, its annuity of 1000 dollars per annum, with the prospect of 1000 more : and one has requested the United States, not only to forbid the introduction of ammu- nition into the nation, that the hunter may be compelled to work ; but to send their annuity in implements of husband- ry. At a recent general council of the Chiefs, 1300 dollars in money, and upwards of eighty cows and calves, were subscribed for the use of schools, and the total contribution of the Choctaws to this object exceeds 70,000 dollars. Here is noble encouragement for active benevolence ! and the industry, judgment, and piety, of the seven or eight brethren and sisters at Elliot seem to qualify them in a pecu- liar manner, for their respond ibie ofHce. They have all dis- tinct departments — the Rev. Mr. Kingsbury being the superintendent ; another brother, the physician and stew- ard ; another, the instructor of the children ; another, the manager of the farm : the females also have separate and definite duties. At present, they are over worked ; and the Rev. Mr. Kingsbury greatly regretted that so much of his attention was necessarily engrossed by his secular cou- rerns. But, coming into a wilderness, in which the fust tree was felled but about eighteen months since, they have had something to do, to erect ten or eleven little log build- ings, to bring into cultivation 40 or 50 acres of woodland, and to raise upward of 200 head of cattle. A deep sense, however, of the importance of their object, and an unfalter- ing confidence in God's blessing on their exertions, have supported them under the diflicuUies of an infant settle- ment 'f and under tiie still severer trials of a final neparation from the circle of tlicir dearest friends, and a total renun- ciation of every worldly pursuit. And, indeed, tlicir situation is an enviable one. In n happy exemption from most of the cares and many of tlie temptations of common life — conversant with ilic most delightful and elevated objects of contemplation — stimu lated to perpetual a«:tivity, by an imperious sense -»f duty, and conscious of disinterested sacrifices in the noblest cause — can we wonder if they manifest a degree of cheer- fulness and tranquillity, seldom exhibited even by eminent Christians, who are more in the world ? I was particular- ly struck with their apparent humility, with the kindness of their manner toward one another, and the little attentions which they seemed solicitous to reoiprocatp. o t ;. b i L»fl u)> f! u * I ») 276 They spoke very lightly of their privations, and of the trials wiiich the world supposes to be their greatest ; sensi- ble, as they said, that these are often experienced, in at least as great a degree, by the soldier, the sailor, or even the merchant. Yet, in this country, these trials are by no means trifling. L^ing out, for two or three months, in the woods, with their little babes — in tents which cannot re- sist the rain, here falling in torrents such as I never saw in England — within sound of the nightly howling of wolves, and occasionally visited by panthers, which have approach- ed almost to the door — the ladies must be allowed to require some courage ; while, during many seasons of the year, the gentlemen cannot go twenty miles from home (and they are sometimes obliged to go thirty or forty for pro- visions) without swimming their horses o\'er four or five creeks. Yet, as all these inconveniences are suffered by others with cheerfulness, from wordly motives, they would wish them to be suppressed in tlie missionary reports if they were not calculated to deter many from engaging as missionaries, under the idea that it is an easy retired life. Their real trials they stated to consist in their own im- perfections ; and in those mental maladies, which the retire- ment of a desert cannot cure. In the course of our walks, Mr. Williams pointed out to me a simple tomb, in which he had deposited the remains of a younger brother ; who lost his way in the desert when coming out to join them, and whose long exposure to rain and fasting laid the seeds of a fatal disease. It was almost in sight of one of those Indian mounds, which I have often met with in the woods, and of which the oldest Indians can give no account. They resemble the Cairns in Scot- land ; and one of the missionaries mentioned having seen a skeleton dug out of one of them. Three young ladies were staying at the settlement, and assisting in its establishment, until the husbands of two of them should return from the Arkansaw, where they are ex- ploring the country, to fix on an eligible situation for a mis- sion to those Cherokees, who have been induced to sell their lands in Georgia to the government of the United States, and to seek a subsistence in the wilder forests beyond the Mississippi. I was highly gratified by my visit to Elliot — this garden in a moral wilderness ; and was pleased with the opportu- nity of seeing a missionary settlement in its infant state, before the wounds of recent separation from kindred and i t'riends had ceased to bleed, and habit had rendered the missionaries familiar with the peculiarities of their novel situation. The sight of the children also, many of them still in Indian costume, was most interesting. I could not help imagining, that, before me, might be some Alfred of this western world, the future founrier of institutions which were to enlighten and civilize his country — some Choctaw Swartz or Elliot, destined to disseminate the blessings of Christianity, from the Mississippi to the Pacific, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Frozen Sea. I contrasted them in their social, their moral, and their religious condition, with the straggling hunters and their painted faces, who occasionally stared through the windows; or, with the half-naked savages, whom we had seen in the forests a few nights before, dancing round their midnight (ires, with their tomahawks and scalping knives, rending the air with their fierce war whoop, or making the woods thrill with their savage yells. But they form a yet stronger contrast with the poor Indians, whom we had seen on the frontier — corrupted, degraded, and debased by their intercourse with English, Irish, or American traders. It was not without emotion that I parted, in all human probability for ever in this world, from my kind and inter- esting friends, and prepared to return to the tumultuous scenes of a busy world ; from which — if life be spared — my thoughts will often stray to the sacred solitudes of Yaloo Busha, as to a source \>( the most grateful and refreshing recollections. I w as ahnost the first person from a distance, who had visited this remote settlement ; and was charged with several letters to the t'riends of the missionaries. I be- lieve they had pleasure in thinking that I should probably in a tew weeks sec those, the endearments of whose society they had renounced for this world : it seemed to bring them nearer the scenes to which they had recentljf bid a last adieu. I felt a strange emotion, in being thus made the link of communication between these self-devoted fol- lowers of our blessed Lord, and the world which they had for ever quitted ; and when I saw with what affection they cherished the recollection of many, whose faces they expected to see no more in this life, I turned with peculiar pleasure to our Saviour's animating assurance — *' There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or lands, for my sake and the gospel's, but he shall receive a hundred-fold now in thi^ time, and in the world to come life everlasting." 278 \) : r^' 1 left with them a Inte number of the Missionary Register, -and another of the Christian Observer, which I had just re- ceived from England. After parting with the Rev. Mr. Kingsbury on the banks of the 1 aloo Busha, we proceeded through the woods, along an Indian path, till evening, when we reached the dwelling of a half-breed Choctaw, whose wife wns a Chicka- saw, and whose hut was on the frontier of the two nations. We found him sitting before the door, watching the gam- bols of fifty or sixty of his horses, which were frolicking before him ; and of more than 200 very fine cattle, which at sunset were ' nming up as usual, of their own accord, from different parts of the surrounding forest, where they have a boundless and luxuriant range. The whole scene reminded me strongly of pastoral and patriarchal times. He had chosen this situation, he said, for its retirement (in some directions he had no neighbours for fifty or a hundred miles,) and because it afibrded him excellent pasturage and water for his cattle : he added, that occupation would give him and his family a title to it as long as they chose. He had a few slaves to cultivate as much land as was ne- cessary, and occasionally killed as many deer in as man y hours. Near the house were some bones of the buffalo ; but that animal has not been seen in this part of the country for many years. He p-ive us a hospitable reception ; and spread a bearskin for each of us in his only room, which we occupied for two nights, the following day being Sun- day. As our host spoke English very well, and was very in- telligent, our quiet meals gave me an opportunity of obtain- ing some information from him relative to the Indians. His wife, a pleasing young woman, ate with us, but would not or could not speak English ; and I often smiled to find myself sitting over a cup of cofiee between a Chickasaw and a Choctaw. He told me, that great changes had taken place among Indians, even in his time — that in many tribes, when he was young, the children, as soon as they rose, were made to plunge in the water, and swim, in the coldest weather; and were then collected on the bank of the river, to learn the manners and customs of their ancestors, and hear the old men recite the traditions of their forefathers. They were assembled again, at sunset, for the same purpose ; and were taught to regard as a sacred duty, the transmis- sion to their posterity of the lessons thus acquired. " And I, •Ml 279 tliou sliaU teach them dilig?ntly unto thy children, and shah talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thoa iiest down, and when tliuu risest up." He said, that this custom is now abandoned by all the tribes with which he is acquainted, except, to use his own words, ^' where there is, here and there, an old ancient fellow, who upholds the old way'' — that many have talked of resuming their old customs, which the whites have gradually undermined ; but are una- ble, from the loss of their traditions — that he supposes that these might be recovered, from distant tribes over the Mississippi ; but that the Ghoctaws are acting more wisely in seeking civilization. He told me that they had an obscure story, somewhat resembling that of Jacob wrestling with an angel ; and that the full-blooded Indians always separate the sinew which shrank, and that it is never seen in the venison exposed for sale : he did not know what they did with it. His elder brother, whom I afterwards met, told me that they eat it as a rarity ; but I have also heard, though on less respectable authority, that they refrain from it, like the ancient Jews. A gentleman, who had lived on the Indian frontier, or in the nation, fur ten or fifteen years, told me that he had often been surprised that the Indians always detached this sinew; but it had never occurred to him to inquire the rea- son. My half-breed Choctaw also informed me. that there were tribes or tiimiiies among the Indians, somewhat similar to the Scottish clans ; such as, the Panther Family, the Bird Family, the Racoon Family, the Wolf Family : he belong- ed to the Racoon Family, but his children to the family of his wife ; fuiniiies being perpetuated in the female line — an institution originating, perhaps, in polygamy. By mar- riage, the husband is considered as, in some degree, adopt- ed into the family of his wife; and the wife's brothers are regarded as, in some respects, entitled to more influence over the children than their own father. The suitor al- ways consults them (sending them the usual propitiating of- fering of a blanket) when he wishes to marry their niece ; and if they approve, the father consents as a matter oi' course. I have since had this confirmed by information from many different sources. Those of the same family or clan are not allowed to in- termarry ; although no relationship, however remote, can be traced between them ; and although the ancestors of the two IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // ^ ^o 1.0 1.1 |jo - — ■■■ ■^ Ki2 12.2 L£ 12.0 Hi I |l.25 |U 1^4 ■• 6" - ► <^ /; ^.^** ■> '/ Photogr^hic Sciences Coiporalion 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 '^'V^ >* y .V4 s>.^ i V\% I/. \ \ O ;\ ^ '^ 28U H parties may Iiave been living, for centuries, iii different and distant nations : a marriage between a brother and a sis- ter would nut excite a stronger sensation, or be more loud- ly condemned. Indeed, wherever any of the family or clan meet, they recognise one another as brothers and sisters ; and use one another's houses, though personally strangers, without reserve. With respect to the religious belief of the Choctaws, he said that it is a prevailing opinion among them that there is a Great Spiritj who made the earth, and placed them on it, and who preserves them in their hunting journeys, and gives them their " luck in life ;'' that, however, they do not often think of Him — that they believe that all who die, go to the Spirit Country : but that some suppose it is divided into two nations ; the one abounding in fine woods, and de^l*, and buffaloes ; and the other destitute of both — that these imagine, that when the spirit of bad men leaves the body, it proceeds on the same road as that of good men, till the road forks, when it takes the way to the bad coun- try, supposing it to be the other — that many expect a great day, when the world will be burnt and made over again, far pleasanter than it is now, when the spirits will return from the spik.; country and settle again upon it; atid that near the place where they were buried, will be their future home. He here pointed to a sermon book which he re- ceived from his white father (for he can read,) and said the following sentence conveyed the opinion of many Indians — " Wheresoever the body is laid till the resurrection, thither, as to a dwelling-house, death brings us home," — or, as an Indian would express himself, '* the Great Fire brings us home." On Sunday evening, two poor Indian hunters came in, with no covering but a little blanket round their loins. Our host immediately lighted his pipe, gave two or three puffs, and passed it to his Indian guests, who did the same ; when it was laid down again. Their tomahawks were so made as to serve as pipes; the back of the hatchet-head having a little socket attached to it, and the handle being bored. As soon BF, the strangers heard that I was " a British," they seemed much pleased ; and indirectly confirmed what I had previously heard, both in the Creek and Choctaw nations, of the lingering attachment of many of the Indians to their ancient allies. Before the hunters arrived, my host had been speaking on the subject ; and said that the older Indians had frequent- and • > 2Sl \y inquired ol' liini, where tlieir wiiiie people were gone — ■ lliat they hud fine times formerly, when their white people were among them, who used to give them handsome pre- sents lor nothing; but they disappeared suddenly, and no- body had ever seen them since : " however, may-be they'll come again.'' He said that many large districts had suf- fered severely, espe«ially during ilie late war, for refusing- to fight against the British ; and some individuals had been put to death, even by their own nation, after it had gone over to the Americans. Our hunters mentioned two old kings, who were still liv- ing, whose lives had been attempted for their unshaken fidelity to the English ; — a fidelity which induced them to decline any commission under the American government ; declaring that they would rather die in their huts, than se- parate themselves from their old friends, though they might never see any of them again. They, of course, have been stripped of their rank, and reduced to poverty. One of them walked to New-Orleans, whe.n he heard that the Brit- ish were approaching, in order to throw himself into their camp ; though one person he said could not >' do much good." He reached Lake Pont Chartrain just after the battle, and returned home much disappointed. My heart warmed at the recital ; and if I might have consulted my own inclination, my course, the next morning, would have been to their dwellings, 100 or 150 miles distant. AH I c )uld do was, to send them a little tobacco, which I had b ought with me to conciliate the Indians ; with some mes- sages, which the hunters said, would delight them as much as if they expected to see me after four sleeps (nights.) I told them of the death of King George ; who, among the Choctaws, is often spoke of with a degree of respect that must gratify a British heart ; although enlightened hu- manity forbids us to wish that they should cherish their former feelings, under circumstances which must render them productive only of disappointment. Our hunters, who conversed with us through the medium of our half-breed host, remained till late ; an Indian never thinking of leaving any thing that he is interested in, mere- ly because it is night, as they have no fixed engagements to prevent them sleeping wherever they please. We endea- voured to obtain one of them for a guide the next morning, as our track was a lonely one ; but he had hurt his foot. We accordingly set out alone, very early, as there was noi a habitation of any kind for the distance of fifty miles ; m r I) I m hi \ !l I) 2b2 which we were therelore to complete in the day, or lie lu the woods ; and as the day was wet, we preferred the ibrmer. We might perhaps have felt some apprehension also of wild beasts on such an unfrequented road ; since, although we were informed that wolves, unless nearly famished, are scared by the scent of a human being, a hungry panther is sometimes not intimidated, even by a fire. The danger, however, of being molested is extremely small. Our course, the whole day, was along an Indian path, about twelve or fourteen inches broad, through woods which protected us from the hot sun, when it gleamed be- tween the showers. It was twice crossed by hunter's paths, a lutle narrower than itself; and we were admonished, that if we deviated into these, we should perhaps come to no habitation for 100 or ISO miles. Cow-paths which had occasionally misled us, particularly in the swamps, arc found only near the settlements ; or it would have been un- wise to venture without a guide. We arrived safe at the end of our journey about sunset ; having seen only two Indian hunters, and two wolves, in the course of the day. I suppose our imaginations mag- nified these wolves ; as they appeared larger than those which we had occasionally seen in the shows. They were of a tawny colour. Rising in the brushwood, about 60 yards from us, they made tjwards an adjoining swamp, leaving us well pleased with the direction which they had taken. Chkkascm Indians. Our host, that night, was the elder brother of our half- breed, and kept a stand on the Kentucky trace, which we here regained. The shade before the house (for in this part of the country every tolerable house or cabin has a long projecting shade on the east and west, in which the family generally sit, according to the situation of the sun) was hung with saddles and bridles, side-saddles, with smart scarlet housings, rifles, shot-pouches, powder-horns; and deer, bufTalO; and bear skins. Several dogs were lying about, and a herd of cattle was coming up to be milked. Near the house were some cabins for the negroes, whom we saw working in the Indian-corn fields at a little distance. We were now in the Chickasaw nation ; but the descrip- tion is applicable to the better houses of most of the richer half-breeds, both among the Choctaws and Chickasaws. Our host was wealthv; and within about GO miles from this I k ' \ I tiH'6 larm, and witliiii tl»e Choctaw line, lie liad a cow-pen, witii several hundred head of cattle. He was mild and dignified in his manner, very friendly, but spoke little English. We slept on the kitchen floor, but could not obtain even two bear-skins; our host's niece, with her husband and fa- mily, having come to her uncle^s to be nursed, as is the cus- tom when indisposed. When we went in, she was sitting up, drest, on the only bed in the kitchen ; and looked very melancholy with her eyes fixed on the ground. When ;i female friend came in and sat by her, however, she was merry enough, and laughed heartily, perhaps at our ex- pense. I believe, however, this would be an unjust suppo- sition, as 1 never saw more civility and propriety than au^ong the Indians. The females, indeed, are distant; but I believe it is not the custom for them to converse even with Indian strangers, till some time after they have met. One of our horses being so violently ill with the colic (here a very frequent and dangerous disease) as to awaken us all with his doleful groaning in the night, we set off late the following day, and rode slowly about 26 miles. We had intended to reach the stand, about 28 miles distant ; but night came on so suddenly (for in this latitude there is little twilight) thnt we could not find our way through a dangerous swamp which intervened. We had accordingly to lie out, and could not raise a fire ; though we seldom travelled unprovided with tne means of obtaining a light. As we were riding along toward sunset, we saw many parties of Chickasaws repairing to a dance and ball-play. The magnificence of their dresses exceeded any thing that we had yet seen ; and the profusion of silver ornaments was far greater than among the Choctavvs. Indeed they cut a splendid figure as they galloped through the woods. The Chickasaws generally appeared to us neater in their persons, than our friends the Choctaws; on whom I mean no reflection, and I am aware that our opportunities of ob- servation were too limited, to justify any general conclu- sion. The Chickasaws seem, however, to expend in orna- ments, the savings and annuity of which the Choctaws ap- propriate a largQ proportion to their farms or cattle. Not that the Chickasaws entirely neglect agriculture or pasto- ral labours ; but their little patches are worse cultivated, and their herds less considerable. I was informed thai they have only one Chief; while the Choctaws are divided into three districts, under different Chiefs, f itmi, t Iv . I •: |) •284 f was toid that tiicv bury their dead in their house*. While getting a cup of coiTce at Amubee's, a full-blooded Chickasaw, a little negro girl, the only person about the house who could speak English, said, " Master's wife is lying behind you." On looking round, I saw nothing but a bed ; when the little girl told me to look under it. When she observed that I was disjippoiuied on perceiving nothing, she said, " Mistress is buried there; but don't speak loud, or master will cry." We set off early on the 25lh ; and breakfasted at an In- dian's, whose cabin has acquired the title of '* the dear house;" a distinction well deserved, and indicative of no common merit in the Indian nation. Soon after breakfast we crossed a swamp, which had been held up in terrorem before us for some days ; and took the precaution of passing it in company with some gentle- men who were acquainted with its intricacies. Our pru- dence, however, was unnecessary ; as the dry weather had rendered it far less difficult and troublesome, than several which we had previously crossed alone. In winter, it muat be almost impassable ; and one of our companions assured us, that he had to swim over many parts of it, and in others to plunge up to the saddle-skirls in mire at every step. The bottom is a stiii clay ; and horses sometimes stick so fast that they cannot be extricated, but are left to die. Although the weather for some days had been remark- ably dry, we had frequently to dismount several times in an hour, to drive our horses through creeks and stream^;, which would have embarrassed a Leicestershire Fen- hunter. One of my companions told me, that when tra- velling the route last spring; he had to swim his horse seven times in the course of a mile, and as frequently to unpack the pack-horse which carried his provisions. We were more fortunate, and our journey was attended with little difficulty or fatigue. In the course of this day's ride, we crossed the last wa- ters which fall into the Tombigbee ; and some little streams which taking an opposite direction, empty themselves into the Tennessee. We also passed, though ^till in the Indian nation, the boundary line between the Mississippi and Ala- bama. The country became more hilly ; and we were glad to exchange our muddy streams for clear pebbly brooks. At night, we slept in the woods ; and in the morning, crossed Bear Creek, a beautiAd romantic river. A few y-i 2^0 uiiios t'urilier, we came to tlip summit of a liill, Irom wliicli we had an extensive view of the country below us. The surface was broken into lofty ridf^es, amon;^ which a river Wound its course ; and the mass of forest which lay between "s and a very distant horizon, exhibited no trace of ani- mated existence, but a solitary cabin and one patch of In- dian corn. The view of this boundless solitude was natu- rally a sombre one; but, to us, emerging into light from the recesses of thick woods, in which for many days, our eyes had seldom been able to range beyond a narrow cir- cle of a few hundred yards, it imparted sensations of cheer- fulness which it would be difficult to describe. Not that we were tired of the wilderness. The fragrance of the woods, which enveloped us in a cool shade, and the melody of their warbling tenants, regaled the senses with a perpe- tual tieast : while the gambols of the squirrels, the cooing of the doves, the variety of large snakes which often crossed our path, birds with the richest plumage which he had seen only in museums, and, above all, the magnificent forest- trees which here attain their largest growth — all presented an unfailing succession of objects to interest and amuse us. The delicious climate also of the state of Mississippi gave to the morning and evening hours an ethereal charn), which some of your readers will understand : to others, no description would convey any definite ideas, where the re- ality would make a faint and feeble impression : — n- Tliey know not how the deep'ttinj trees, Dark glens, and shadowy I'ocks, can please, The morning blnsh, the smile of even : A^'hat trees, and lawns, and mountains mean, Tlie dying gale, the breathing scene. The midnight calm, the whispVing heav'n. fe^ pebbly Besides, there is something so soothing in the retirement oi these vast solitudes, that the mind is at first unwilling to be disturbed in its reveries, and to awaken from the deep, and perhaps, unprofitable musings into which it has suffered itself to be lulled. Yet although it would shrink from the glare of a daylight which would summon it to its ordina- ry cares and would start back from a sudden introduc- tion into the din and bustle of a Jarring world, it is refreshed by looking abroad on the face of nature, and is delighted to revive its sympathies with the rational creation, of which it forms a part, by glancing on the distant confines of civil- ized life. q ■ m I, i- 2HU Towards evening, we passed, and not without regret, tlie Hne which separates the present territory of the Chickasaw nation, from their last cession to the United States. Cherokee Indians. As I had previously learnt that my journey would not be extended by visiting the Missionary Settlement among ihe Cherokees, I determined to take Brainerd in my way; and proceeded through Alabama and East Tennessee, to the north-east corner of the State of Georgia, where it is si- tuated. It is not my intention to swell your pages by dwelling on this part of my route, interesting as it was to myself: I will only obhervo, that, in passing through the northern part of Alabama, I was particularly struck with the rapidity with which it has been settled. It is little more than two years since these public lands were sold. At that time not a tree was felled ; and now the road is skirted with beautiful fields of cotton and Indian corn, from 80 to 120 miles in ex- tent. Whenever I inquired, which I seldom failed to do as often as I stopped. I found tf"at there were schools and op- portunities for public worship within a convenient distance. I was gratified by receiving the same information through- out East Tennessee. In passing the Cumberland, Racoon, and Look-out MouQtains, we were delighted with a succession of roman- tic scenery — sometimes exhibiting the extended outline of a Highland prospect ; at others, presenting many of the in- teresting features of a home view, in the neighbourhood of Windermere or Keswick. To the eye of an Englishman, however, the woods which crown the summits of the high- est mountains in this part of America do not compensate for the blooming heath and naked granite of his rugged hills ; nor the foliage which covers the valleys with a heavy mantle of dark green, for the white cottages and yellow corn-fields, the smiling meadows, and the flocks and herds, which diversify and animate his native vale. At the foot of the Cumberland Mountains we slept in a solitary hut, where we found a neat old woman, of 70 or 80 years of age, very busily engaged in spinning. A young clergyman, who had been visiting Brainerd, was also driv- en in by heavy rain ; and his offers to conduct family wor- ship were thankfully accepted by our hostess and her son. We reached Brainerd early on the 1st of June, and re- mained till the following morning. The manner of pro- V-\ii I needing was so similnr to that at Elliot, that it is unneces- sary to ii> i6h (>, ft » if '•,1 fiJ 1^ waier tor our more honoured and enterprising brethren, our humble labours, feeble and desultory as they nre, and ever nttended by imperfections by which their eHicieney is much impaired, are stdl a link in the chain of Innnan agen- fy't hy which *iod is pleased to accompliiih his purposes of mercy to a fallen world. With respect to the degree in which the efforts of the missionaries have already been sueces'ful. in reference to the spiritual interests o( their heathen brethren, they do not expect the harvest, when only beginning to break up the soil. They are aware, also, that, in a subject in which their hopes and fears are so sensibly alive, they are in dan- ger of being misled by very equivocal symptoms: and even where they believe that they discern the fairest pro- mise, tdey shrink from the idea of blazoning forth to the world, as decisive evidence of conversion, every favourable indication of a change of heart. Still, however, even in this respect, and at this early stage of their exertions, they have the gratification of believing that their labour has not been in vain. Soon after leaving Brainerd, I crossed the river Tennes- see, which here forms the boundary of the Cherokee nation. Reflections on the state and prospects of the Indians. I now bade a last adieu to Indian territory ; and as I pursued my solitary ride through the woods, I insensibly fell into a train of melancholy reflections on the eventful history of this injured race. Sovereigns, from time immemorial, of the interminable forests which overshadow this vast continent, they have gradually been driven, by the white usurpers of their soil, within the limits of their present precarious possessions. One after another of their favourite rivers has been reluct- antly abandoned, until the range of the hunter is bounded by lines prescribed by his invader, and the independence of the warrior is no more. Even their present territory is partitioned out in reversion ; and intersected with the pros- pective boundaries of surrounding states, which appear in the maps, as if Indian title were actually extinguished, and these ancient warriors were already driven from the land of their fathers. Of the innumerable tribes, which a few centuries since, roamed fearless and independent, in their nativa forests, how many have been swept into oblivion, and al% with the generations before the flood ! Of others, not a trace re- 2BU iiiuins but in tradition, or in the person of soiiif solitary wanderer, lie last of his tribe, wlio hovers like a ghost among the sepulchres of his fathers — a spark still faintly gliinniering in the ashes of an extinguished race. From this gloomy review of the past history of these in- jured tribes, it was refreshing to turn to their future pros- pects ; and to contemplate those missionary labours, which, under the blessing of God, are arresting the progress of that silent waste, by which they were fading rapidly from the map of nations. Partial success, indeed, had follow- ed the occasional efforts of the American Government for the civilization of the Indians, but it was reserved for the perseverance of disinterested christian love, to prove, to the world at large, the practicability of an undertaking which had often been abandoned in despair. Moral obstacles, which had bid defiance to worldly policy or interested enterprise, are yielding to a simple confidence in the promises of God, and a faithful compli- ance with the divine commands — " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Christians of different denominations, are sending labourers to the task ; and it is animating, indeed, to contemplete the United States — in the name, as it were, and as the representative of the various nations who have participated in the wrongs inflicted on this injured race — preparing to offer the noblest compensation in their power, and to diffuse the gospel throughout the aborigines of this western world. And, surely, if any arguments were necessary in support of missions, in addition to those derived from the force of divine commands, and the suggestions of diffusive charity, we should find them in the history of the early intercourse of christian Europe with Asia, Africa, and America. Or if, viewing the wide range and growing energies of British missions, a deep sense of our defective efforts should at any time be insufficient to repress every feeling of self-compla- cence, we have but to recollect how large a portion of the past labours of our missionaries has been consumed, in eradicating the vicious habits which we have introduced into some heathen nations, or in dispelling the prejudices which our inconsistent conduct has diffused through others. It is not in our naval, our military, or our commercial character, that we have as yet appeared generally as a bless- ing to benighted nations. It is not when we press into the wars of christians, the tomahawk or scalping-knife of the Indians — it is not when, deluging his country with spi- 37 1 IM' h 4/ (I. ) ' ^'}l 2yo vitous liuuors in the prosecutioi. f an unequal truHic, w^ send fortnm moral pestilence, before which the frail virtues of the savage fall, like the dry leaves of his forests in the blasts of autumn — it is not when thus engaged, that we either conciliate his affections, or elevate his moral tone. The men who fertilize the moral wilderness and evangelize the heathen world, are animated by a higher spirit than the desire of conquest, or the lure of gain — by the spirit of our Mursdens, our Careys, our Buchanans, and our Henry Martins. These are the men, who at once the benefactors of their species and the representatives of christian Britain, secure for their native country the veneration of far distant tribes, while preaching on their mountains the glad tidings of salvation, or filling their valleys with hymns of praise. The time, I hope, will come, when not our missionaries only, but our naval and military commanders, our soldiers, our sailors, and our merchants, will all carry with them to every country where they hoist the British flag, unequivocal demonstrations that they come from a christian land ; and it is animating indeed, to regard our colonial establishments, our extended commerce, and our vast marine, as instru- ments, in the hands of Providence, to prepare paths for our missionaries, and to observe that sacred cause in which they count not even their lives dear. In that cause, it is scarcely possible to be neutral. The question of missions is now brought home to every breast ; and the influence of individual opinion on the social and domestic circle, carries into the most retired situations an awful responsibility, as to the decisions which may be form- ed, and the sentiments which may be expressed, on a sub- ject so deeply afl'ecting the highest interests of the human race. ' -* f- :u I LKTTER to i\r. JEAN-BAPTISTESAV, On the Comparative Expense of Free and Slave Lnbunr. Sir, It is with much concern that I observe, in your excellent and popular work on Political Economy, the sentiments you express on the subject of tlie comparative expense of free and slave labour. Accustomed to respect you higlily as an enlightened advocate of liberal principles, and to ad- mire the philanthropic spirit which pervades your writings, I cannot but regret deeply, that opinions so calculated to perpetuate slavery, should have the sanction of your authori- ty; and that while you denounce the slave system as un- justifiable, you admit, that, in a pecuniary point of view, it may be the most profitable. As this subject is of peculiar importance at the present moment, when efforts are making both in this country and in France, to eflect the gradual abolition of sluvecy in tl.f Colonies, I will not apologize for addressing you. The same regard to truth and candour, which secured your re- luctant assent to an opinion, little in unison, 1 am sure, with your feelings, will lead you to examine, with impartiality, any facts or arguments which I may adduce in my attempt to controvert it. Many of them, I am aware, must be familiar to you, but possibly even these may appear in a new light, and derive some additional force, from their connexion with others which have not fallen under your observation. The expense of slave-labour resolves itself into the an- nual sum, which, in the average term of the productive years of a slave's life, will liquidate the cost of purchase or rearing, and support in old age, if he attain it, with interest, and the sum annually expended in his maintenance. If we omit the case of purchased slaves, and s»ippose 4 11 292 ;l! h M them to be bred on the estate, (and as breeding is now admitted to be, under ordinary circumstance!^, the cheapest mode of supply, your argument will gain b*/ iit'ii supposi- tion,) the expense of free labour will resolve itself into pre- cisely the same elements, since the wages pp;;d tu free la- bourers of every kind, must be such as to enable them, one with another, to bring up a family, and continue their race. Now it is observed by Adam Smith, "* The wear and tear of a free servant, is equally at the expense of his mas- ter, and it generally costs him much less than that of a slave. The fund destined for replacing and repairing, if 1 may say so, the wear and tear of the slave, is commonly managed by a negligent master, or careless overseer. That destined for performing the same office with regard to the freeman, is managed by the freeman himself. The disorders which generally prevail in the economy of the rich, naturally introduce themselves into the management of the former; the strict frugality and parsim^^'^ious atten- tion of the poor, as naturally establish themselves in that of the latter.'' The Russian political economist, Storch, who had carefully examined the system of slavery in that extensive empire, makes the same remark almost in the same words. Hume expresses a similar opinion in decided terms; and I have now before me a statement from one of the slave districts in the United States, in which it is esti- mated that, taking the purchase-money or the expense of rearing a slave, with the cost of his maintenance, at their actual rates, and allowing fifteen years of health and strength, during which to liquidate the first cost, his labour will be at least 25 per cent, dearer than that of the free labourer in the neighbouring districts. It is observed by a planter, in a letter published by the Hon. Joshua Steele, a member of the council in Barbadoes, under the signature of Philo Xylon ; '' The truth is, that although we plant much more ground than should be suffi- cient to produce provisions to feed our labouring slaves, yet the negroes, feeling that they have no direct property in these crops, and that we must buy more to supply them if those crops fall short, the cultivation is negligently per- formed by them, and the produce is afterwards stolen by the Negro watchmen or their confederates, so that we sel- dom reap a third part of what should be the natural and probable produce. But if we could depend on their dili- gence and economy, in cultivating rented tenements, and their r and by the badoes, is, that )e suffi- slaves, roperty y them tly per- >len by we sel- ral and eir dili- its, and carefully storing their crops, they might undoubtedly be maintained better than they are, and at a much smaller ex- pense than it costs us at present ; not only by our wasting three times as much land as might be necessary for that purpose, but also by our cultivating it with a reluctant gang to our loss.'^ From inqul/ies made with reference to this subject, it appears that the average weekly expense in the Liverpool Workhouse, for provisions, including ale, wine, spirits, tea, sugar, butter, &ic. given to the sick, is 2s 6id per head, exclusive of rent; while the average weekly expenditure of seven families, taken from among the labourers of a respectable commercial house, is only Is 5id per head, exclusive of rent. From the preceding particulars, it appears highly proba- ble, that the cost of rearing and maintaining a slave, would render his labour, under ordinary circumstances, at least as expensive as that of the free labourer. Let us next examine which is the most productive. And here I shall again avail myself of the observations of Storch, the Russian economist : " As the slave is always labouring for another, and not for himself; as he is re- stricted to the bare necessaries of life, and sees no prospect of bettering his condition, he loses every characteristic of the effective labourer : he becomes a machine, and often a machine very stubborn and difficult to manage. A man who is not paid in prcportion to the labour he performs, will perform as little as he can. This is an acknowledged truth, confirmed by the experience of every day. Let a free labourer work by the day, and he will be indolent ; pay him by the piece, and he will often exert himself to the ruin of his health. If this observation is just with respect to the free labourer, it is infinitely more so in relation to the slave. As long as the ancient Romans cultivated their fields with their own hands, Italy was famed for its fertility and abundant produce ; but agriculture declined as soon as it was left to the slaves : then, instead of cultivating their lands, they turned them into pastures, and the inhabitants of this delightful country became dependent upon foreign provinces for subsistence. The petty landholders and farmers disappeared : and the very country that had once presented the smiling aspect of a multitude of villages, peopled with men free and happy, became one vast solitude, in which were scattered, here and there, a few magnificent palaces, that formed the most striking contrast with the ^1^ f' '■ ii 204 miserable cabins and subterranean cells which containeci their slaves. These facts, related by the Roman historians, are attempted and explained by Pliny, Columella, and Varro. " What was the cause of these abundant harvests ?" says Pliny, in speaking of the early times' of the republic. " It was this — that men of rank employed themselves in the culture of the fields ; whereas now it is left to wretches loaded with fetters, who carry in their countenances the shameful evidence of their slavery." That free labourers are superior to slaves, is granted even by masters them- selves, when they have intelligence enough to perceive the difference, and candour enough to acknowledge it. Call to mind on this subject, the passage of Columella* that I have quoted below, in which he depicts the negligence and reluctance of si /^-labourers. In the same chapter, this author lays it down as a fund'imental principle, that, what- ever be the species of culture, the labour of a free man is always preferable to that of a slave. Pliny is of the same opinion. •* Observe that these testimonies in favour of free labour, are rendered by Romans, by men who held slaves, and who were the greatest agriculturalists of their time." "■ In manufactures, the superiority of the free labourer over the slave, is still more perceptible than in the culiivaiiun of lands." " The more manufactures extend in Russia, the more this truth continues to be felt. In 1806, M. Pante- leyef, the agent of a cloth manufactory, in the district of Moscow, set at liberty all his slave-labourers, the number of whom amounted to 84. The same year M. Milioutin did the same." Brougham in his Colonial Policy fully concurs in these sentiments : '' It requires very little argument to prove, that the quantity of work which may be obtained from a labourer or drudge, is liable to be affected as much by the * *' Complaints as to the negligent and Traudulent conduct of slavc!<, are as ancient as slavery itself: read, for examplf, what Coluraell.t says of those of his times. * Maxima vi-xant servi, qui boves elocant, eosdemque t>t cEetra*' pecora mal^ pascurit, nee industrid terram ver- tunt, lon^^que plus imputant seminis jacti, quam quod screrint: sed nee quod terrae mandaverint, sic adjuvant ut rt-cte proveniat ; idque cum in arcam contulerunt, per trituram quotidie minuunt, vel fraude vei negligentia. Nam et ipsi diripiunt, et ab aliis furibus non custodiunt. Sed nee conditum cum fide rationibus inferunt.' f have often heard the same complaints from the mouths of Livonian land-holders, and one may hear them constantly repeated in tho West-Indies, III Hungary, and in the interior of Russia." 295 r, this what- rom a by the injurious treatment he receives, as by the idleness in which he may be permitted to indulge. VVhen this drudge is a slave, no motive but fear can operate on his diligence and attention. A constant inspection is therefore absolutely necessary, and a perpetual terror of the lash is the only prevention of indolence. But there are certain bounds prescribed, even to the power of the lash ; it may force the unhappy victim to move, because the line of distinction between motion and rr^t, action and repose, is definite; but no punishment can compel the labourer to strenuous exertions, because there is no measure or standard of acti- vity. A state of despair, and not of industry, is the never- failing consequence of severe chastisement ; and the con- stant repetition of the torture only serves to blunt the sensi- bility of the nerves, and disarm punishment of its terrors. The body is injured, and the mind becomes as little willing as the limbs are able to exert." Hume remarks, "1 shall add from the experience of our planters, that slavery is as little advantageous to the master as to the man. The fear of punishment will never draw so much labour from the slave, as the dread of being turned off, and not getting another service, will give a freeman." Koster, in his travels in the Frazils, observes, "The slave-trade is impolitic on the broad principle, that a man in a state of bondage, will not be so serviceable to the com- munity as one who acts for himself, and whose whole ex- ertions are directed to the advancement of his own fortune; the creation of which, by regular means, adds to the gene-' ral prosperity of the society to which he belongs. This undoubted and indisputable fact, must be still more strong- ly impressed on the mind of every one who has been in the habit of seeing the manner in which slaves perform their daily labour. Their indifference, and the extreme slowness of every movement, plainly points out the trilling interest which they have, in the advancement of the work. I have watched two parties labouring in the same field, one of free persons, the other of slaves, which occasionally, though very seldom, occurs. The former are singing, joking, and laughing, and are always actively turning hand and foot ; whilst the latter are silent, and if they are viewed from a little distance, their movementfi are scarcely to be perceived." Hall, adverting to the pernicious effects of slavery on the southern states of North America, observes, " Experience shows, that the quantity of labour performed by slaves, is much below that of an equal number of free cultivators." Ifj ■ii>*i fv m' 290 An intelligent American gentleman, to whom queries on this subject were sent out, remarks, *' I have in one of my answers, exposed the effect of slave-cultivation on the soil of our country, and on the value of real estate. 1 will here further observe, that independently of this, there is no fact more certainly believed by every sound mind in this coun- try, than that slave-labour is Hbstractedly in itself, as it re- gards us, a great deal dearer than labour performed by free men ; this is susceptible of clear proofi.'^ It is observed by Mr. Ramsay, who had twenty years^ experience in the West Indies, *' I am firmly of opinion, that a sugar plantation might be cultivated to more advan- tage, and at much less expense, by labourers who were free men, than by slaves. Dr. Dickson, who resided in Barba- does as secretary to the late Hon. Edward Hay, the Go- vernor of that island, observes in a letter published in his valuable work on the Mitigation of Slavery, " You need not be informed, that it has been known for many ages by men of reflection, that the labour of slaves, whether bought or bred, though apparently cheaper, is really far dearer in general than that of free men.'' The arguments which sup- port this conclusion, as applicable to modern colonial slave- ry, were long ago assented to and exemplified by men inti- mately acquainted with and interested in the subject.'' In another letter in the same work, he gives *' a calculation made under the guidance of M. Coulomb, an able mathe- matician and experienced engineer, who for many years conducted extensive military works both in France and the West Indies, and who has published the result of his obser- vations.'' From this he infers, " that field slaves do only between a third and a half of the work dispatched by reluc- tant French soldiers, and probably not more than a third of what those very slaves would do, if urged by their own interest, instead of brute force, as Mr. Steele experienced." In speaking of Mr. Steele's experience, in another place he remarks, " He has ascertained as a fact, what was before known' tb the learned as a theory, and to practical men as a paradox, That the paying of slaves for their labour, does actually produce a very great profit to their owners.''^ Again, this able and experienced writer observes, " The planters do not take the right way to make human beings put forth their strength. They apply main force where they should apply moral motives, and punishments alone, where rewards should be judiciously intermixed. And yet, strange to tell, those very men affirm, and aflirm truly, that a slave will do 297 more work fof^iimselfin an afternoon, than lie can be made to do for his owner in a whole day or more. Now what is the plain inference? Mr. Steele, thongh a stranger in the West Indies, saw it at once, and resolved to turn it to ac- count. He saw that the negroes, like all other human be- ings, were to be stimulated to permanent exertion only by a sense of their own interests, in providing for their own wants and those of their oiTspring. He therefore tried re- wards, which immediately roused the most indolent to ex- ertion. His experiments ended in regular wages, which the industry he had excited among his whole gang, enabled him to pay. Here was a natural, efficient, and profitable reciprocity of interests. His people became contented ; his mind was freed from that perpetual vexation, and that load of anxiety, which are inseparable from the vulgar system, and in " little better than four years, the annual nett clearance of his property was more than tripled." '■'' I must additionally refer,'' remarks the same intelligent writer in another place, '■'■ to an excellent pamphlet, enti- tled Observations on Slavery, (published in 1788, and now out of print,) by my late worthy friend Dr. James Ander- son, who shows that the labour of a West India slave costs about thrice as much as it would cost, if executed by a free- man. Taking another case, he demonstrates that the la- bour of certain colliers in 3<^otland, who, till our own times were subjected to a mild kind of vassalage, regulated by law, was twice as dear as that of the freemen who wrought other coal- mines, in the same country, and thrice as dear as common day labour.'' I think we might safely infer, from the preceding parti- culars, that under ordinary circumstances the labour of free men is cheaper than that of slaves ; but there are many other considerations which strongly confirm this conclusion. If slave labour were cheaper than free labour, we should naturally expect that, in a state where slavery was allowed, land, ceteris paribus^ would be most valuable in the dis- tricts where that system prevailed ; and that in two adjoin- ing states, in the one of which slavery was allowed, and in the other prohibited, land would be least valuable in the lat- ter ; but the contrary is notoriously the fact. In a late communication from America on this subject, from an in- telligent observer, it is remarked : " The system of slave cultivation, as practised in the United States of America, has likewise a most destructive efTect on the soil of our coun- try. The state of Maryland, though a slave state, has 3fi 208 if' if! If > ;: J*- roinparatively but few slaves in the upper Mr western part of it ', the land in this upper district is generally more bro- ken by hills and stones, and is not so fertile as that on the southern and eastern parts. The latter has also the advan- tage of being situated upon the navigable rivers that flow into the Chesapeake Bay, and its produrc can be convey- ed to market at one-third of the average expense of that from the upper parts of the state ; yet. with all these ad- vantages of soil, situation, and climate, the land within the slave district will not. upon a general average, sell for half as*niuch per acre as that in the upper districts, which is cul- tivated principally by freemen. This fact uiay be also further and more strikingly illustrated by the comparative value of land within the states of Virginia and Pennsylva- nia, the one lying on the south, and the other on the north side of Maryland ; the one a slave, the other a free state. In Virginia, land of the same natural soil and local advan- tages, will not sell for one-third as high a price as the same doscription of land will command in Pennsylvania. This single, plain, incontrovertible fact, speaks volumes upon the rfliUive value of slave and free labour, and it is presumed renders any further illustration unnecessary." It' slave labour wire cheaper than free labour, we might fairly infer that, in a stare in which slavery was allowed, free labour would be reduced by competition to a level with the labour of slaves, and not slave labour to a level witii the labour of freemen ; and that in two adjoining states, in the one of which slavery was allowed, and in the other prohi- bited, labour would be highest, rcnteris paribus, in that in which slavery was proscribed. But experience proves the reverse. Storch observes, that those who hire slaves in Russia, are obliged to pay more than they who hire free- u)en, *^ Unless they live in a place where the competition of free labourers reduces the hire of slaves and the wages of freemen to a level : both the interior of Russia, and the ca- pitals of that empire, furnish proofs of this assertion. In the cities, the competition of free labourers is greater ; for though wages there may be very high, the hire of slaves is, notwithstanding, less than in the interior ;" that is, that in Russia, slave labour, where slave labour is the lowest, is higher than free labour, where free labour is the highest, until reduced to the same level by competition with it. When in Norfolk, Virginia, in the winter of 1820, 1 was told, that many slaves gave their masters $2, or 9s per week, forper- mi:ssion to work for themselves, and retain the surplus. I Iji . ■» 290 also found, that the common wages of slaves who are hired, were 20s 3d per week and their food, at liie very time when (lour was 4 dollars, or 18s per barrel of 196lhs., and beef and mutton 3d to 4d per lb. Tive days afterwards, in travelling through the rich agricultural districts of the free state of Pennsylvania, I found able-bodied wiiite men will- ing to work for their food only. This, indeed, was in the winter months, and during a period of extraordinary pres- sure. I was told, however, that the average agricultural wages in this free state were five or six dollars per month, and food ; while, in Norfolk, at the time I allude to, thf?y were eighteen dollars per month, and food. If it should be replied, that, in the town of Norfolk, wages were likely to be much higher than in the country, 1 would ask, why they are not so in the principal towns of Russia P Jf slave labour were cheaper than free labour, we should naturally expect to find it employed in the cultivation of those articles, in which extended competition had reduced profits to the lowest point. On the contrary, however, we find that slave labour is gradually exterminated when brought into competition with free labour, except where le- gislative protection, or pec^liari}y of soil and climate, es- tablish such a monopoly as to admit of an expensive sys- tem of management. The cultivation of indigo by slaves in Carolina, has been abandoned, and the price of cotton reduced one-half, since these articles have had to compete in the European markets with the productions of free la- bour; and, notwithstanding an additional duty on East In- dia sugar, of 10s per cwt., and a transportation of three times the distance, the West-India planters are beyond all doubt reduced to very great distress, and declare that they shall be ruined, if sugar from the East Indies shall be ad- mitted on the same terms as from the West. If slave labour were cheaper than free labour, we might reasonably infer, that, in proportion as the circumsian< es of the cultivators rendered economy indispensable, either from the difficulty of obtaining slaves, or other causes, tlie peculiar features of slavery would be more firmly estubliah- ed, and that every approach to freedom wouhl be more se- dulously shunned in the system of culture. But it is found by the experience of both ancient and modern times, that nothing has tended more to nssimilate the condition of the slave to that of the free labourer, or actually to effect his emancipation, than the necessity imposed by circumstances of adopting the most economical mode of cultivation. (i;i 'i» i 3U0 in-' '*■ In ancient times," says Brougham, " a great part ot the population of the most polished states, was the personal property of the rest. These slaves were chiefly captives, taken directly in war, or purchased from other warlike na- tions, who had obtained them in this way. The constant hostilities which at that time divided the people of all coun- tries, rendered this a very fruitful source of supply. Dur- ing the rise of Athens and Rome, accordingly, when many foreign nations were by rapid steps conquered, and when others, still unsubdued, could sell the persons of their weak- er neighbours, there was never any scarcity of men in the great slave-markets. The cruelty of the treatment which those unhappy men experienced, was proportioned to the ease with which they were procured ; and we have already remarked, how intolerable their lot was, among the very people who called every foreigner a barbarian. As war became less common, and the arts of peace were more cul- tivated, this supply of slaves, of course, decreased ; and when the Roman Empire, tottering under its own weight, could think of nothing less than new conquests, there was an end of importing slaves. Accordingly, with the pro- gress of real civilization, but syll more with the diminution of wars and conquests, was introduced a milder system of domestic government, a greater humanity towards the slaves, and a more careful attention to breeding, when the stock could neither be kept up nor increased by other means. The laws added their sanctior to this salutary change, which no laws could of themselves have wrought. The rights of slaves came to be recognised, the conduct of the master to be watched, and the practice of emancipation to be encouraged. By degrees, the slaves were incorporat- ed with their masters, and formed part of the great free po- pulation, which was rather mixed with than subdued by the Goths. " To the slavery of the ancients, succeeded the bondage and villanage of their Gothic conquerors. But the differ- ence between the two was marked and important. The Gt'eek and Roman slaves were imported ; the Gothic slaves were the peasantry of the country, and born on the spot, unless during the wars which accompanied the first inroads of the northern tribes. Accordingly, we find no parallel between the rigour of the ancient and of the modern slave system ; and a foundation was laid in this essential differ- ence, for a much more rapid improvement of the whole society, than took place in Greece or Rome, notwithstand- 301 trig the superior refinement of the classic times. The slave first became attached to his master, not as his per- sonal property, but as a part of his stock, and astricted to the soil, to use the language of the feudal ages. By de- grees, the mutual interests of the lord and his villains, in the progress of national improvement, operated that im- portant change in the state of manners, out of which the modern division of ranks, and the privileges of the lower orders, have arisen in the civilized quarters of the Euro- pean community. First, the villain obtained the use of the land to which he had been annexed, and of the stock in which he had been comprehended, on condition that a certain proportion (generally one-half) of the produce should belong to the lord of the land, and proprietor of the stock. This great change, one of the most signal of those events which have laid the foundation of human im- provement, by degrees too slow for the observation of his- torians, was owing entirely to the master discovering, how much his interest was connected with the comfort of his slaves ; how necessary it was to treat well that race whose toils supported the community 'a ease, and whose loss could not be repaired ; how much more profitable it was to divide with the vassal the fruits of his free and strenuous exertions, than to monopolize the scanty produce of his compulsory toil. As soon as the right of property, and the secure enjoyment of the fruits of labour, were extend* ed to the vassals, the progress of improvement became constant and visible. The proportion of the fruits paid to the lord, was diminished according to an indefinite stand- ard ; the peasant, having been permitted to acquire pro- perty, provided his own stock, and obtained the power of changing his residence, and commuting the nature of his service. By degrees, the rent came to be paid in money, according to the number of competitors for a farm ; and they who could not farm land themselves, sold their labour to others for a certain price, or maintenance. Lastly, the legislature secured the lease of the farmer with the same cer- tainty with which it secured the property of the landlord, and recognised the one as well as the other for useful and independent subjects.'' " A similar progress will most probably be the result of that abolition, the supposition of which we are indulging — the abolition of the slave-trade. That tliis idea is not chimerical, the consideration of a few facts, very little known in the history of America, may convince us.'' fi' 303 u..% ** The peculiar rirnimstnnces in tiie ftitMRtinn ol' tli*- Spanish nnd Portuguese colonies of South America, have already partially operated some of those happy effects which we may expect from the abolition of the slave-trade. The high price of the negroes in the Spanish settlements, partly from absurd regulations of trade, p.trtly from the de- ficiency of the Spaniards in the practice of commerce and naval affairs, causes that want of hands, which would pre- vail in its full extent, were the African trade slopi. From these circumstances, and partly, no floubt, from the pecu- liarly indolent character of the colonists in those parts, there has arisen a much better sysfrm of treaiiru iit than any other European colonies can boast of. Other views of interest have conspired to ronfirm and extend tiiis sys- tem of mildness and equity towards the slaves; and the legislature has not failed, by evvry prudent interference, to assist the inferior race in the acquisition of rights and privi- leges." " Thus we meet wi return a certain quantity of gold or jewels, according to the nature of the ground. Every thing that remiiins over this ration, the negro keeps him- self, were the balance to be millions. The gold-mines of Popayan and Choro, in Spanish America, are wrought in the very same way. The finest pearl fisheries in South America, those of Panama for example, are in the hands of negro tenants, as it were. These are bound to give a certain number of pearls every week. The negroes in the towns are allowed to hire themselves out to services of dif- ferent kinds, on condition of returning to their masters a certain portion of their wages ; the rest they may spend or hoard up for their own use." " After a slave has, in any of these various ways, acquired properly, he endeavours to purchast' his freedom. If the master is exorbitant w. his demands, he may apply to a magistrate, who appoints sworn appraisers, to fix the price at which the slave shall be allowed to buy his freedom. Even daring his slavery, the behaviour of the master to- •JO.i Krom le pecu- (larts, pquired If the ]y to a le price edoin. wards liim is strictly wntched ; lie mny complain to the tna- gistiate, and ubtaiii rtjdress, whicii frenfrally consists in a decree, obli^in^ the ni:tster to sell him at a certain rate. The conse(|uences of all t'lese laws and customs are ex- iremt-ly liencfiiial to (lit; S^rniish and Portnp;nese power in America. While the sslaws are Ciithlid and Inliorious, the free negroes are numerons. and in f^eneral nnich more quiet, n^eful, and industrious, than in the oilier colonies. Most of the ariiiicers are of this class ; and some of the best troops in the New World are composed entirely of negroes, who, by their own labour and frugality, have acqijired their liberty.'" " It is hardly necessary to remark the striking analogy between the state of the Spanish and Portuguese negroes, and that of the European bondshien, at a certain period of their progress towards liberty. We find the same gentle- ness of treaimeiit, the same protection from the laws, the same acknowledgments of rights, the same power of acquir- ing property, granted to the American slave, which pre- pared the complete emancipation of the European vassal. In some particulars we observe another step of the same progress ; for in many parts the negroes are precisely in the situation of the coloni partiarii, or metayers, of the feu- dal times. In one respect the negro is even in a more fa- vourable situation : his reddendo, (if I may use the expres- sion,) is fixed and definite ; all the overplus of his industry belongs to himself. The metayer was bound to divideevery gain with his lord. The former, tiien, has a much stronger incentive to industry than the latter had As this diffe- rence, however, ari.-^es, not from the progress of society, but from the nature of the returns themselves, easily concealed, and with ditiiculty procured ; so, in some other respects, the negro is not in so favourable circumstances. But the great steps of the process of improvement are materially the same in both cases. Both have in common the great points of a bargain between the master and the slave ; privileges possessed by the slave independent of, nay in opposition to, his master ; the rights of property enjoved by the slave, and the power of purchasing his freedom at a jnst price. This resemblance, in circumstances so important, may fair- ly be expected to render the progress of the two orders al- so similar. In the negro, as in the feudal system, we may look for the consequences of those great improvements in voluntary industry, more productive labour, and the miti- i >1 1>i 111 I 1 JU4 gutiun and iiiiat abolition of slavery, when the slave shall have been gradually prep»red to become a free subject. " Some of the good efft'cts that have flowed from the na- tional character, and peculiar circumstances of the Span- ish and Portuguese, have been produced also in Dutch America, by that great competition of capitals, and those complicated ditHculties, which lay the Dutch colonies under the necessity of attending to the smallest savings. If, from this source, combined with the facility of importation, has arisen a cruelty unknown in other colonies, it may be doubted whether a compensation for the evil is not aflford- ed by another effect of the same circumstances : — the gene- ral introduction of task work, which the keen-sighted spirit of a necessary avarice has taught the planter of Dutch Guiana to view as the most profitable manner of working his slaves. Nothing, indeed, can conduce more immediate- ly to the excitement of industry, than the introduction of task-work. It seems the natural and easy transition from labour to industry : it forms in the mind of the slave, those habits which are necessary for the character of the free- man : it thus prepares him for enjoying, by a gradual change, those rights and privileges which belong to free- dom." Of that modification of slavery, under which the slave pays a tax or tribute to his master for permission to work on his own account, and to which such important effects are ascribed in the preceding extracts, Storch observes, *' This modification of slavery, has been permitted by different na- tions ; but I doubt whether it ever existed any where to that extent in which it is found in Russia. It is there one of the most effectual means of softening the direful conse- quences of slavery : and if its abolition should ever be se- riously intended, this system would present the means, the most simple, and the least subject to inconveniences.'' Now it would be difficult to find a stronger proof of the paralyz- ing influence of slavery on human exertion, than the bene- ficial results which have followed the substitution in its place of a system so oppressive as even this mitigated form of bondage is represented to be by intelligent travellers. Mr. Heber remarks, ^' The peasants belonging to the no- bles in Russia, have their abrock raised by their means of getting money. It then becomes not a rent of land, but a downright tax upon their industry. Each male peasant is obliged by law to labour three days in each week for bis proprietor. If the proprietor chooses to employ him the ao5 otli(>r iluysi, he may ; as. for iiistniice, in a manufactory, but he then fiiiiis him in foud and clotliing. If a slave ex- ercises any trade which brin^;!» him in more money than agricultural labour, he pays a higher abrock. The pea- sants employed as* drivers at the post-houses, pay an abrock out of the drink-money they receive for being permitted to drive ; as otherwise, the master tnight employ ihem in other less profitable labour, on his own account. Somctinies they {»ay an abrock for permission to beg." *' In despite," says )r. Clarke,*' of all the pretended regulations made in favour of the peasant, the tax he is called upon to pay on the la- bour he is compelled to bestow, depends wholly on the ca- price of his tyrant." Task-work, another important although earlier step in the progress from slavery to freedom, than a participation of earnini^s with a master, and another instance of the sub- stitution of a ciieaper for a more expensive system of culti- vation, I found to be almost universal in the Atlantic States of America, where tobacco, cotton, and rice, are the staple articles of production ; but I never heard of an instance of it in the sugar plantations of Louisiana, where great profits render economy less necessary. If slave labour were cheaper than free labour, we might confidently presume that estates would be rendered less productive than the emancipation of the slaves which culti- vated them ; but the presumption is contradicted by expe- rience. " A few Polish nobles, (observes Cox« in his tra- vels in Poland,) of benevolent hearts, and enlightened un- derstandings, have acted upon ditTerent principles, and have ventured upon the expedient of giving liberty to their vas- sals. The event has shown this to be no less judicious than humane, no less friendly to their own interests than to the happiness of the peasants ; for it appears that in the dis- tricts in which the new arrangement has been introduced, the population of their villages has been considerably in- creased, and the revenues of their estates augmented in a triple proportion. The first noble who granted freedom to his peasants, was Zamoiski, formerly great chancellor, who, in 1761, enfranchised six villages, in the palatinate of Ma- sorin. In 1777, the receipts of this particular district were nearly triple ; and Zamoiski, pleased with the thriving state of the six villages, has enfranchised the peasants on all his estates. • The example of Zamoiski has been followed by Chrep- towit/, Vice-Chancellor of Lithuania, and the Abbe Bry- 39 ^1 ^1 \ m I JOG Kolowski, with similar success. Prince Stanislaus, the king of Poland, has warmly patronised the plan of giving liber- ty to the peasants. He has enfranchised four villages not far from Warsaw, in which he has not only emancipated the peasants from their slavery, but even condescends to direct their affairs. He explained to me in the most satisfactory manner, that the grant of freedom was no less advantage- ous to the lord than to the peasant, provided the former is willing to superintend their conduct for a few years, and to put them in the way '^f acting for themselves. He intends giving the public a particular account of his arrangements, and will show how much he has increased the value of his estate, as well as the happiness of his peasants." If, then, it has appeared that we should be naturally led to infer, from the very constitution of human nature, that slave labour is more expensive than the labour of freemen ; if it has appeared that such has been the opinion of the most eminent philosophers and enlightened travellers in dif- ferent ages and countries ; if it has appeared that in a state where slavery is allowed, land is the most valuable in those districts where the slave system prevails the least, notwith- standing great disadvantages of locality ; and that in ad- joining states, with precisely the same soil and rlimate, in the one of which slavery is allowed, and in the other prohi- bited, land is the most valuable in that state in wliich it is proscribed ; tf it has appeared that slave labour has never been able to' maintain its ground in competition with free labour, except where monopoly has secured high profits, or prohibitory duties afforded artificial support; if it has appeared that, in every quarter of the globe, in proportion as the circumstances of the planter rendered attention to economy more indispensable, the harsher features of the slave-system have disappeared, and the condition of the slave has been gradually assimilated to that of the free la- bourer ; and if it has appeared that the mitrgation of slave- ry has been found by experience to substitute the alacrity of voluntary labour, for the reluctance of compulsory toil ; and that emancipation has rendered the estates on which it has taken place, greatly and rapidly more productive — I need not, 1 think, adduce additional proofs of the truth of the general position, that slave labour is more expensive than the labour ol freemen. And nere perhaps I might safely leave the question ; yet since your arguments, although of a general nature, and not restricted in their application to any peculiarity of circum- .-!(* "'^ :iO: * Vr li stances or situation, seem to be derived from a somewhat partial view of the state of things in the West Indies, I shall proceed to examine whether they afford any presumptioD that those islands present an exception to the general rule. The comparison which yon have made between the price of slaves and free labour in the Antilles, appears to me by no means to warrant the conclusion you have drawn from it. Where the proportion of free labourers is extremely small, and labour is rendered degrading, or at least disre- putable, by being confined principally to slaves, it is natu- ral that the wages of free labour should be high; and the question is not, whether at a given time and place, free or slave labour is the highest, but whether both are not higher than labour would be if all the community were free, and the principle of population were allowed *.o pro- duce its natural eHecton the price of labour, by maintaining the supply and competition of free labourers. The other argument which you adduce, appears to me equally inconclusive. You observe, that. '^ the obstinac}' with which the planters defend slavery, is of itself sufficient to prove that it is advantageous to them." And does man, indeed, then, always act with an enlight- ened view to self-interest ? Is he uniformly vigilant to ob- serve, and prompt to pursue his real good, however remote, and requiring whatever sacrifices of present ease and grati- ficatinn ? Does prejudice or passion never blind or mislead him .'' nor habit render him slow to follow the dictates of his belter Judgment r The conversion of the slaves in the colonies into free labourers, must be a very gradual work, demanding much patience and assiduity, — involving, possibly, some present risk, and requiring, it may be, lor its complete suc- cess, the consentaneous efforts of the planters. And is such a task likely to be undertaken spontaneously, by the body of West India proprietors whose roucerns are managed by hired overseers ? who consider their capital as invested, if not in a lottery, at least rather in a ujercantile speculation, from which it is speedily to be disengaged, than in landed property, which is to descend with all its improveaients, to their children's children.'' Is not the whole history of colo- nial cultivation ; is not the long and violent opposition of the planters to the abolition of the slave-trade ; is not the reluctance they evinced to breed, instead of purchase their slaves, when the latter plan was so notoriot^sly the most ex- pensive ; is not their unwillingness to adopt the enlightened and profitable suggestions of their able counsellor and ex- I M I —^■[«*i^j:S^%^ :^^> 308 ■k ' -^I'j'J! perienced associate, ** The Prolessional Planter ;'' are not all these irrefragable proofs, that the practice of a planter, like that of other men, ma}' be at variance with his interest, especially if in unison with his prejudices and his inclina- tions r* If you should require additional evidence, I refer you to Brougham's Colonial Policy, v» here the fact is il- lustrated and explained, in language somewhat less court- eous indeed, than I am willing to adopt, but with the usual force and ability of that powerful w riter. Ganilh expresses his surprise, that an author so intelli- gent as yourself, and so well acquainted with the progress of society in Europe, should maintain the general position, that slave labour is cheaper than the labour of freemen ; but he insinuates some doubt, whether the position may not be true when applied to the colonics. He gives no reasons, however, for this idea, ('for he scarcely offers it as an opi- nion,) which do not apply with the same force and propriety to the European system ; and after a careful examination of his argument, lean really discern as little connexion between the principles he lays down, and the inference he seems disposed to deduce from them, as between the so- lemn and repeated declarations of France, that she has. bonajide^ abolished the slave trade, and her extension of this traffic, in the eyes of Europe, to the very utmost limits of which her capital will admit. He observes, " as soon, therefore, as education has formed man for a particular mode of living, it is the height of imprudence to impose upon a freeman, all at once, the ideas, the feelings, and the inclinations of a slave ; or. upon a slave, the ideas, feelings, and inclinations of a freeman. In this respect, although it appears to us evident, that the labour of a freeman is more profitable than that of the slave, perhaps it is equally true of the colonial system, as it now exists, that the labour of the slave is more profitable than that of the freeman." Now this argument against the abolition of slavery in the West Indies, applies equally to the aboli- tion of slavery every where ; or rather, it is applicable, only to sudden emancipation any where. " By educating a man as a slave, you unfit him for freedom." Educate him then, as a freeman, and you unfit him for slavery. If the pre- sent generation of the West India slaves, are so tainted with the poison of slavery, that their moral constitutions cannot be regenerated, guard the next generation from the malig- nant influence of this viscious system, and you supply the islands with more productive labourers, agreeably to Ga- nilh's own admission. ,^.-- ..Jtjm^; 309 If he had founded his exception of the Colonies from the operation of the general principle, that the labour of freemen is cheaper than that of slaves, on some radical dis- tinction between the European and the African race, or between European and Colonial bondage, his argument would have been intelligible at least, if not conclusive. But he asserts, and 1 think most justly, *'that the nature of man — white, yellow, or black, is every where the same ; that the passions exercise the same empire over each colour, and that all equally obey the influence of moral and physi- cal causes ;" and with respert to any difference between European and Colonial bondage, he has not even alluded to the subject. I admit, however, that some striking distinctions exist between them ; distinctions so little creditable either to your country or my own. that I rejoice that my subject does not compel me to insist upon them. The argument I am pur- suing, leads me to dwell less on those points in which the two systems differ, than on those in wiiich they agree; and I trust it will appear from their coincidence in the few parti- culars in which I shall institute a comparison between them, that tb" principles from which slavery derives its malig- nant influence on human character, are common to both, and that the happy results which have followed its aboli- tion in the one case, may reasonably be anticipated from it in the other If in the West Indies and America, the wealth of a planter is estimated, not by the number of acres which he possesses, but by the number of his slaves, so it is in Europe. " Pea- sants belonging to individuals in Russia," says Coxe, " are the private property of the landholder, as much as imple- ments of agriculture, or herds of cattle, and the value of an estate is estimated by the number of boors, and not by the number of acres." " The peasants of Poland," observes the same writer. '* as in all feudal governments, are serfs or slaves ; and the value of an estate is not estimated so much from its extent, as from the number of its peasants, who are transferred from one master to another, like so many herds of cattle." If in the West Indies and America, the slave can possess no property, except at the will of the master, who may choose to appropriate it, neither can he in many parts of Europe. " A man," says Storch, " who belongs to another man, cannot possess any thing of his own. All that he produces, and all that he acquires, i° produced, and ac- V, y ;3J0 quired for his master." •' With regard to any capital,'* Coxe observes, '* which the Russian peasants may have acquired by their industry, it may be seized, and there can be no redress, as according to the old feudal law, which still exists, a slave cannot institute a process against his master. Hence it occasionally happens, that several pea- sants who have gained a large capital, cannot purchase their liberty for any sum, because they are subject, as long as they continue slaves, to be pillaged by their masters." "If the slave,'' says Dr. Clarke, " have sufficient ingenuity to gain money without his knowledge, it becomes a dan- gerous possession, and when discovered, it falls instantly into the hands of his lord.'' " The Russian boors," Tooke remarks, have no civil liberty ; their children belong not to them, but to their manorial lord, on whose will they de- pend J they also, with their children, may be alienated, sold, and exchanged. They possess no immoveable property ; but they themselves are treated sometimes as the moveable, sometimes as the immoveable property of another.'' If in the West Indies and America, the power of the master has too frequently, in practice at least, extended to the life of the slave, such has often been the case in £urope. In the state of Mississippi, iii 1820, a young planter was pointed out to me who had shot a runaway slave the preceding year, without ihe smallest notice being taken of it; and a similar circumstance had occurred on a neighbouring plantation about the same time. " In the west of Europe," says Storch, " under the feudal system, the condition of the slaves was much harder than it is in reality in Russia, as the master had the power of life and death over his slaves.' Coxe, in his travels in Poland, observes, '' Peasants belonging to individuals, are at the absolute disposal of the master, and have scarcely any posi- tive security, either for their properties or their lives. Until 1768, statutes of Poland only exacted a fine from a lord who had killed his slave ; but in that year a decree was passed by which the murder of a peasant was made a capi- tal crime ; yet, as the law in question requires such an ac- cumulation of evidence as is seldom to be obtained, it has more the appearance of protection than the reality." The same traveller observes, in his travels in Russia, "The lord, according to the ancient laws, had no power over the lives of the peasants, for if a slave was beat by order of his. master, and died within the space of three days, the latter was guilty of murder, unless other reasons could be % ■J^.i 3lt assigned tor his demise. But was not almost tliis a mockery of justice f For surely a man might be terribly chastised with< out suflfering death in three days, and if his vassal died within that space, and his master was a man of consequence, who was to bring him to justice?" If in the West-Indies and America, marriage may be rendered impracticable, or its sacred ties torn asunder at the caprice of a master, so they may in Europe. ^^ If the slave marries '' says Storch, '' it is because his master either wishes it, or allows it ; if he becomes a father, his children are born slaves, like himself: his authority over his wife and children is subordinate to that which his master exer- cises over them : he is first a slave, and then a man.'' " A peasant in the village of Celo Molody, near Moscow," observes Dr. Clarke, " who had been fortunate enough to scrape together a little wealth, wished to marry his daugh- ter to a tradesman of the city, and offered fifteen thousand roubles for her freedom — a most unusual price, and a nmch greater sum than persons of his class, situated as he was, will be found to possess. The tyrant took the ransom, and then told the father that both the girl and the money belong- ed to him ; and therefore, she must continue among the number of his slaves." If the negroes, (often active and energetic in their own country,) are accused of indolence and apathy in the colo- nies, so are the lively Kussians themselves when benumb- ed by slavery. " Other nations," says Dr. Clarke, " speak of Russian indolence, which is remarkable, as no people are naturally more lively, or more disposed to employment. We may perhaps assign a cause for their inactivity. It is necessary. Can there exist excitement to labour, when it is certain that a tyrant will bereave in- dustry of all its reward. The only property a Russian nobleman allows his slave to possess, is the food he cannot or will not eat himself. The bark of trees, chaff, and other refuse, grass, and fish oil." "With regard,'' says Mr. Herber, " to the idleness of the lower classes in Rus- sia, of which we have heard great complaints, it appears that when they have an interest in exertion, they by no means want industry. Great proprietcT., who never raise their abrock, such as Count Sheremotoff, have very rich and prosperous peasants." Again, '' We observed a strik- ing difference between the peasants of the crown, and those of individuals. The former are almost all in comparative- ly easy circumstances. Their abrock or rent is fixed, and i/l .■,'< ^..Il *"■' -^ I I ■ 1 ■^ 612 .^ ^ ,1 as tliey are sure it will never be raised, tliey are more in- dustrious. If the miseries of slavery in the Colonies occasionally exasperate the slaves to desperation, and impel them to atrocities, which diffuse general apprehension and alarm, the same thing occurs in Russia. ''In such instances,^' observes Dr. Clarke, " the peasants take the law into their own hands, and assassinate their lordsi To prevent this, the latter live in cities, remote from their own people, and altogether unmindful of all that concerns their slaves, ex- cept the tribute they are to pay." Mr. Birkbeck relates the following anecdote of a planter, whom he met in a tavern in Virginia, and Dr. Clarke informs us that Russia can supply many parallel cases. " One gentleman," says Mr. Birkbeck, '' in a poor state of health, dared not encounter the rain, but was wretched at the thoughts of his family's being for one night without his protection, from his own slaves. He was suffering under the effects of a poison- ous potion, administered by a negro who was his personal servant." Dr. Clarke observes, •' Many of the Russian nobles dare not venture near their own villages, through fear of the vengeance they have merited by their crimes.'' It has occurred to myself, while in the state of Mississippi, to hear a well authenticated instance of a planter, vi ho was compelling his slaves to work during a great part of the night, having been surprised asleep on the trunk of a tree, on which he had set down to inspect them, shot with his own rifle, and then burnt in the ashes of their midnight fires; and Mr. Herber remarks when in Russia, '^The brother of a lady of our acquaintance, who had a great distillery, disappeared suddenly, and was pretty easily guessed to have been thrown into a boiling copper hy his slaves." He adds, " domestic servants (slaves) sometimes revenge themselves in a terrible manner." If travellers in America find the prisons in the slave- states filled with slaves, (as I do almost universally,) Mr. Herber remarks, " the prisons of Moscow and Kastroma were chiefly filled with runaway slaves, who were for the most part in irons." If in passing from a free into a slave-state in America, the change i§ instantly visible, even to the most careless eye, and nature herself seems to droop and sicken under the withering influence of slavery ; the case is precisely the same in Europe. " The houses," says Hall, in his travel?, " in America universally shaded with large verandahs. 316 seem to give notice ot' a southern climate ; the huts around them, open to the elements, tell a less pleasing tale : they inform the traveller he has entered on a land of freemen and slaves, and he heholds the scene marred with wretched dwellings, and wretched faces ! And if the miserable con- dition of the negro leave him mind for reflection, he might laugh in his chains, to see how slavery has stricken the land with ugliness. The smiling villages and happy population of the eastern and central states, give place to the splendid equipages of a few planters, and a wretched negro popula- tion, crawling among filthy hovels. For villages, after crossing the Susquehannah, there are scarcely any : there are only plantations — the very name speaks volumes !" My own personal observation enables me to subscribe to the fidelity of this picture, and from a recent communica- tion which now lies before me from America, in reply to some inquiries transmitted to that country on the subject, I extract the following remarks : " It is believed that no country chu furnish a more full and clear opportunity, than the United States of America do at this time, of testing the eflect of domestic slavery upon the industry and pros- perity of a nation, and the relative value or profit of free and slave labour. The States of Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New-York, New- Jersey, and Pennsylvania, are now cultivated almost en- tirely by freemen. These States lie under a more rigorous climate, and possess u less fertile soil than the southern states, yet the prosperous situation of the country, the general comfort of the inhabitants, and the improved con- dition of agriculture in those free states, compared with the slave states, are so obvious as to strike the traveller im- mediately, as he passes from the one district to the other. In the one we find the whole country divided into small farms of from lOO to 500 acres of land ; on each of these tracts is generally erected a comfortable dwelling-house, with the necessary out-buildings, which are surrounded by well cultivated fields, in good order. In this district, the farmers, with but (ew exceptions, annually realize a small profit, by which they are enabled, as their children attain to manhood, to make respectable provision for their estab- lishment in business. In tlie other, we meet here and there, thinly scattered over a wretchedly cultivated district of country, a mansion-house, commonly in bad repair, sur- rounded by a number of dirty beggarly huts, crowded wiih ragged negroes and mulattoes, and the whole bearing the 40 ')( .« ! ■"i I ll I ...**. ■^* 314 strongest marks of oppression and suffering, in which the half-starved neglected cattle, and other domestic animais, evidently participate. In other words, in those districts where the system of slavery is in full operation, the popula- tion is couiposed'of the two extreme conditions of society, viz. : the rich and the poor : and we meet with scarcely any of that middling class which in all countries constitutes its most valuable members, and its most efficient strength/' It is observed of a slave district in Russia, in the ''Memoirs of the Court of St. Petersburg," " A few cities enjoy the pleasures of life, and exhibit palaces, because whole pro- vinces lie desolate, or contain only wretched hovels, in which you would expect to find bears rather than men." Coxe observes, in his journey from Stockholm to Carls- crona, " After having witnessed the slavery of the peasants in Russia and Poland, it was a pleasing satisfaction to find myself again among freemen, in a kingdom where there is a more equal division of property, where there is no vas- salage ; where the lowest order enjoy a security of person and pt'operty, and where the advantages resultii:g from this right, are visible to the commonest observer. Norway is blessed with a particular code, called the ' Norway Law.' " By this law — the palladium of Norway, the peasants are fret' ; a few only excepted on certain noble estates near Freiit-ricksiadt. The benefits of the Norway code are so visible, us to the general effect on the happiness, and on the appearance of the peasants, that a traveller must be blind who does not instantly perceive the difference between the free peasants of Norway, and the enslaved vassals of Denmark, though both living under the same government." If in the West Indies and America, you are often sur- prised and grieved by the strange assertion that the condi- tion of the slaves is as good as that of the labourers in Eng- land, as if mere animal sustenance were all that is necessa- ry for the happiness of a rational and immortal being, the same proof is often afforded in Russia, of the degree in which familiarity with slavery may degrade man in the es- timate of his fellow- man, and render a feudal lord insen- sible to all that constitutes the essence of freedom. •' There is," said one of the Russian princes to Dr. Clarke, address- ing himself to him with an air of triumph, " more of the reality " of slavery in England than in Russia." And if in the West Indies, there is a general prejudice against emancipation, and the idea of imparting to slaves the privileges of freedom is regarded as theoretical and vi. m V^SBJ, #■•#!>' 315 sionary ; similar errors and prejudices have prevailed, and perhaps still prevail in many parts of Europe. " The gene- rality of the Polish nobles," observes Coxe, "are not in- clined either to establish or give efficacy to any regulations in favour of the peasants, whom they consider as not enti- tled to the common rights of humanity !" '' I was much surprised to find that," says the same author, ' upon in- quiry, that no noble in Russia had franchised his vassals ; but I may venture to predict that the time is not far distant, although an almost general prejudice seems to prevail, with respect to the incapacity of the peasants for receiving their liberty. And this perhaps may be true in the literal sense, as many of them, unless properly instructed, would scarce- ly be enabled to derive a solid advantage from their free- dom, which might be considered by some as an exemption from labour, and permission for licentiousness. A century ago perhaps no one in Russia would have ventured to debate the que ■< (ion, whether peasants ought to be free," And yet emancipation has proceeded rapidly in Europe^ with what brilliant success let Ganilh himself inform us : " The emancipation of the people of Europe, has been fol- lowed by the clearing and culture of the soil ; by the con- version of cabins into cottages, of hamlets into villages, of villages into towns, and of towns into cities ; by the en> couragement of industry and trade ; by public order and social strength. The nations which have made the most shining figure, are the very ones which have first substituted the labour of the freeman for that of the slave ; and other nations have not been able to raise themselves to the same height of prosperity, but by imitating their example; would the era of financial and political improvement in modern Europe may be dated from the abolition of actual and personal servitude." And why may not the same glorious consequences fol- low the abolition of slavery in the West ? is it in Europe only that the mind can awaken from the lorpor of slavery to life and intelligence .'' What shall we say, then, to the abolition of slavery, under British auspices, in Ceylon, in Java, in Sumatra, and in St. Helena.'' Or is it the African alone who imbibes a poison from the bitter cup which no antidote can cure, but which flows in the veins, and attaints the blood of his latest posterity ? To you, Sir, it would be most unjust to impute such an opinion ; but if it should be entertained by any of your countrymen, I ^vould refer them to the experiment lately made in Colombia, where a I I ) i ii\ki great body of slaves have been emancipafed, who are said " lo have coiiduricd ihcrnselves with a de^rt'e of industry, sobriety, and order, highly creditable to theni '^ I would refer them to the instance of the American slaves who join- ed the British standard in the last w;ir, and who are now settled in Trinidad ; w here, under the protection of Sir Ralph Woodford, the Governor, •* they are earning their sul>>istence," Mr. Wilberforce informs us, "with so much industry and good conduct, as to have put to silence all the calumnies which were first urged against the measure." I would refer them to the testimony of a traveller, whose aoihority they will not dispute, the enterprising and phi- losophical Humboldt : " In all these excursions," he ob- serves, " we were agreeably surprised, not only at the pro- gress of agriculture, but the increase of a free, laborious population, accustomed to toil, and too poor to rely on the assistance of slaves. White and black farmers had every where separate establishments.'' 1 love to dwell on these details of colonial industry, because they prove to the in- liabitants of £urope, what to the enlightened inhabitants of the colonies has long ceased to be doubtful, that tlie conti- nent of Spanish America can produce sugar and indigo by free hands, and that the unhappy slaves are caprV''^ of be- coming peasants, farmers, and landholders." I would re- fer them to the interesting and Hourishing colony of Sierra Leone, that morning star of Africa, which beams so brightly on her sable brow. Or, lastly, I would reter them to a dark page in your colonial history, where the refutation of their opinion is written in characters of fire. Why, then, I would ask again, n.'3v not the same glorious consequences which followed the abolition of slavery in Kin'ope, follow its abolition in the West ? " The abolition of the slave-trade," says Brougham, " assi!^tedby subordinate arrangements, similar to those adopted in the ancient stutesy in the feudal kingdoms, and. in the American Colonies, will most undoubtedly alter the whole face of things in the new world. The negroes, pla<'ed in almost the same circum- stances with the bondmen of ancient Europe and the slaves of the classic times, will begin the same career of improve- ment. The society of the West Indies will no longer be that anomalous, defective, and disgusting monster of poli- tical existence, which we have so often been forced to con- temp'aie in the course of this inquiry. The foundation of rapid improvemmt will be securely laid, both for the -ivhites, the negroes, and the mixed race. A strong and 317 irioiis |ry in |lition vitiate •tutes^ will new fcum- [laves •ove- T be |poli- con- in of the and compact political structure will arise, under the influence of I fiiild, civilized, and enlightened system. The vast coiitiiiLiit of Africa will keep pace with the quick improve- ment of the world which she has peopled ; and in those regions where, as yet, only the w ar-whoop, the lash, and the - cries of misery, have divided with the beasts the silence of the desert, our children, and the children of our slaves, niiiy enjoy the delightful prospect of that benign and splendid reign, which is exercised by the arts, the sciences, and the virtues, of modern Europe.'' Su(!h, sir, is the animating picture of the future fortune? of (he negro race. It is drawn, not by a philanthropist in the tihuiies of retirement, but by a politician who had me- ditated deeply on colonial policy, who brought to the consideration of this diflicult topic, a mind second to few in J iipacity and vigour, and enriched with the most valua- ble information, commercial, political, and moral, on all topus connected with the interests of the colonies. It is a sketch fr(tm the hand of a master, but of a master more eminent for the distinctness of his conceptions, and the bold lineaments of his prominent figures, than for the em- bellishments of a luxuriant fancy, or the warm colouring of romantic or impassioned feeling. Nor was the expectation that the abolition of s!.«very, with all its beneficial results, would follow the abolition of the slave-trade, confined to Mr. Brougham. •' Not 1 only," says Mr. VVilberforcc, but all the chief advocates of the abolition of the slave-trade, — Mr Pitt, Mr. Fox, Lord Grenville, Lord Grey, and every other, — scrupled not to declare, from the very first, that their object was, by ame- liorating regulations, and more especially by stopping that influx of uninstructed savages, which furnished an excuse- for continuing a harsh system of management, and pre- vented masters from looking to their actual stock of slaves for keeping up their number, to be surely though slowly advancing towards the period when these unhappy beings might exchange their degraded state of slavery for that of a free and industrious peasantry.'' Mr. William Smith observes, -'That he scrupled not to avow and to maintain, nor had he ever, at any period of the slave-trade controversy, scrupled to avow and to main- tain, that the ultimate object of every friend of justice and humanity in this conntry. must and oucrhi to be, eventually to extend freedom to every individual within the dominions of Great Britain : that this freedom belonged to them of j' -»< ( >l i I i .;1 H 1. L> S18 f ''I right ; and that to withhold it beyond the necessity of the case, and especially to withhold it systematically, and in intention, /or ever, was the very grossest injustice. He ad- mitted, indeed, that immediatt emancipation might be an injury, and not a benefit, to the slaves themselves : a period of preparation seemed to be necessary. The ground of this delay, however, was not the intermediate advantage to be derived from their labour, but a conviction of its ex- pediency as it respected themselves. We had to compen- sate to these wretched beings for ages of injustice; we were bound by the strongest obligations to train up these subjects of onr past injustice and tyranny, for an equal participation with ourselves in the blessings of liberty, and the protec- tion of law : and by these considerations ought our mea- sures to be strictly and conscientiously regulated. It was only while proceeding in such a course of action, adopted on principle and steadily pursued, that we could be justified in the retention of the negroes in slavery for a single hour; and he trusted that the eyes of all men, both here nnd in the colonies, would be open to this view of the subject, as their clear and indispensable duty.^^ And why have so many years elapsed without any sys- tematic approach to that happy change in the structure of colonial society, which was so generally expected to fol- low the abolition of the slave trade .'' Is it not because the circumstances of the planters have never yet been such as to compel them to introduce those *' subordinate arrange- ments," those " ameliorating regulations," adopted by the ancient states, and feudal kingdoms of Europe .'* But the time is probably at hand, when necessity will force them to adopt the most economical mode of culture, however averse to change and innovation. The nation will not long consent to support a wasteful system of cultivation, at the expense of great national interests, and of an open- ing commerce with 60 to lOO millions of our fellow-sub- jecis ; and the slave labour of the West must fall, when brought into competition with the free labour of the East. Deeply impressed with this conviction, I dwell with pe- culiar pleasure on every view of this important subject, which illustrates the connexion between the interest of the master and the slave. And having had a near view of slavery in the United States of America, having seen the dark aspect which it assumes, and the apprehensions which it diffuses under a government pre-eminently free, in the bosom of an enlightened people, and in the sunshine of of tlic And in Head- be an period lUiid of /antage ' its ex- ompen- we were subjects cipation protec- ur niea- It was adopted justified t}c hour ; > and in bject, as any sys- icture of d to fol- ause the such as larrange- )d by the But the Irce them however will not Itivation, Ian open- llow-sub- ^11, when the East, with pe- subject, 1st of the view of seen the ?hensions free, in nshine of 319 benign and liberal institutions, I am persuaded that luch a system cannot exist long, in daily contrast with the enligh- tened policy of new republics of the West, and under the brighter light which the diffusion of the gospel is shedding over the globe. I rejoice, therefore, in the conclusion, that the satiie measures, — the mitigation and gradual abo- lition of slavery, — which are best calculated to avert a crisis which it is impossible to contemplate without dismay, are precisely those which, it would appear from the pre- ceding pages, are most adapted to promote the immediate interest of the planters, by diminishing the expenses, and increasing the produce of their estates. That the removal of the monopoly which they at pre- sent enjoy, will enhance the distress of the West-India planters, it is impossible to doubt ; and the distress of so numerous a body, comprising some of the most enlighten- ed and estimable members of the community, deserves a serious and dispassionate consideration. That sympathy is unnatural, which is excited only for sufferers at a dis- tance, and that sensibility defective, which can feel only for the slave. But it is the part of an enlightened legislator, when endeavouring to relieve one class of the conmiunity. to guard against the injustice of transferring the burden to another; and to require from those who solicit his inter- ference, not only that they make out a strong case of dis- tress, but that they prove that they are vigorously pursuing every means within their own power, to extricate themselves? from the difficulties of their situation. It is OH these grounds, and not on any vague idea, that Parliament is pledged to support them, that the West Indians should rest their claims. Even with respect to the abso- lute prohibition of a trade which Parliament had encou- raged, Mr. Pitt repelled the idea of the Legislature's be- ing restrained by a reference to the past, from exercising its free discretion with regard to the future. With how much greater warmth would he have rejected such an as- sumption, in the case of a protecting duty, which encou- rages a system of cultivation unnecessarily expensive, which acts like an oppressive tax on the export of our manufactures, and which operates with a most malignant and wideN '^tended influence on the industry, energy, and resources '♦n our Indian Empire. He observes, " It is chiefly on the presumed ground of our being bound by a parliamentary sanction, heretofore given to the African >lavc-trade, that this argument against the abolition is rest- 320 I'. » H 11 i ed. Is there any one regulation of nny part of our com- merce, whii'h it" this argument be vulirl, .uiy not equally be objected to, on the ground of its alTecting some man's patrimony, some man's property, or so.ne man's expecta- tions. Let it never be forgotten, that the argument 1 am canvassing. wouM be just as strong, if the possession af- fected were small, and the possessors humble ; for on every principle of justice, the property of every single individual, or number of individuals, is as sacred as that of the great body of West Indians. It is scarcely possible to lay a duty on any one article which may not, w len firsl imposed, be said in some way to affect the propery of individuals, and even of some entire classes of the community. If the laws respecting the slave-trade imply a contract for its per- petual continuance, I will venture to say, there do»s not pass a year without some act equally pledging the faHh of Parliament, and the perpetuating of some other branch of commerce." It is not then on the plea of a parliamentary pledge, but simply on the grounds of the extent of their distress, and their inability to relieve themselves, that the West-India planters should found their claims for support. But this inability, however real, will perpetually be call- ed in question, until they have introduced every practica- ble improvement into their system of cultivation. When they have relieved that system from its superfluous ma- chinery, and have made arrangements for the gradual ele- vation of their slaves to the condition of free labourers, they will have prepared themselves to come before Parlia- ment with a better case : and will have laid the foundation lor such a change in the structure of colonial society, as will ultimately contribute greatly to their prosperity, and will exhibit in our West-India Islands, another liappy illuj- tration of the truth of the position. tNn the labour of frec- jnen is cheaper than the labour of slaves. .-, a*fc. .-J&:^ "fHft. :i:i APPENDIX TO M. SAY'S LKTTER. Many of the following proofs and illustrations of the truth which 1 have endeavoured to establish, might proba- bly have been introduced with propriety into the preceding letter, i was, however, unwilling to interrupt the train of reasoning, by any additions to an accumulation of testi- mony, already, perhaps, sufficiently extensive, and some of the succeeding remarks did not fall under my observa- tion until the Letter was printed. 1 had no opportunity of seeing Mr. Ramsay's " Essay on the treatment and Con- version of African Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies," or Dr. Dickson'a tract " On the Mitigation of Slavery," until the preceding pages were in the press ; and I have, consequently, been enabled to introduce only a few brief remarks from these very valuable works. The latter con- tains so much that bears directly on the question at issue, that I am unwilling not to avail myself of it more freely ; and I shall, therefore, extract from it rather copiously in this Appendix, after adducing the testimony of Burke, Franklin, and Beattie, in favour of the position 1 have ad- vocated. Burke. " I am the more convinced of the necessity of these in- dulgences, as slaves certainly cannot go through so much work as free men. The "nind goes a great way in every thing, and when a man knows that his labour is for him- self, and that the more he labours, the' more he is to ac- quire; this consciousness carries him through, and supports him beneath fatigues, under which he would otherwise have sunk." — Burke on Euiopean Settlements. Franklin. "It is an ill-grounded opinion, that by the labour of slaves, America may possibly vie in cheapness of manu- factures with Great Britain. The labour of slaves can never be so cheap here, as the labour of working men is in Great Britain. Any one may compute it. Reckon, then, the interest of the first purchase of a slave, the insurance or risk on his life, his clothing and diet, expenses in hi> 41 1 f 'ft 322 H' 1* (. '-''V ^^ (■ s sickness, and loss of time, loss by his neglect of biisineiis, neglect which is natural to the man who is not to be bene- fited by his own care and diligence, expense of a driver to keep him at work, and his pilfering from time to time, (al- most every slave lieing from the nature of slavery a thief,) and compare the whole amount with the wages of a manu- facturer of iron or wool, in England, you will see that la- bour is much cheaper there, than it ever can be by negroes here." — Franklin on the Peopling of Countries, Dr. Beattie. " That the proprietors of West-India estates would be in any respect materially injured by employing free servants, (if these could be had,) in their several manufactures, is highly improbable, and has, indeed, been absolutely de- nied by those who were well informed on this subject. A clergyman of Virginia assured me, that a white man does double the work of a slave ; which will not seem wonder- ful, if we consider that the former works for himself, and the latter for another ; that by the law one is protected, the other oppressed ; and that in the articles of food and clothing, relaxation and rest, the free man has innumerable advantages. It may, therefore, be presumed, that if all who serve in the colonies were free, the same work would be performed by half the number, which is now performed by the whole. The very soil becomes more fertile under the hands of free men, so says an intelligent French author, (Le Poivre,) who, after observing that the products of Cochin China are the same in kind with those of the West-Indies, but of better quality, and in greater abundance, gives for a rea- son, that, ' the former are cultivated by free men, and the latter by slaves ;' and therefore, argues, * that the negroes beyond the Atlantic ought to be made free.' • The earth,' says he, ' which multiplies her productions with profusion under the hands of a free-born labourer, seems to shrink into barrenness under the sweat of the slave.' " The Honourable Joshua Steele. The honourable Joshua Steele, whose communications form so valuable a part of Dr. Dickson's work, was a very intelligent gentleman, of large West-India property, who, previous to visiting his estates in Barbadoes, lived many years in London, in habits of intimacy with persons of rank and character. He was vice-president of the London Society of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, and was SfeV -am:... 3i;^ oivre,) n China but of a rea- and the supposed to be one of the founders of the Dublin Society. Ue went to Barbadoes iate in life, where he was a member ofthe Council, and officiated some time as Chief Justice. He was also the founder ofthe 1' rbadoes Society of Arts, Manu- factures, and Commerce, and President, till it had acquired some strength, when the Governor became President, and Mr. Steele Vice-president. He arrived in Barbadoes in 1780. The Society was founded in ]781, and in 1787 and 1788, *' he contrived to give in the Barbadoes Gazette, (by his account of several conversations,) faithful copies of the material part of the manuscript minutes of the proceedings of the society in their committees," under the signature of Philo Xylon. In 1790, about 10 years after his arrival in Barbadoes, he writes to Dr. Dickson, who had also been a resident in that island as private secretary to governor Hay : '* Upon observing all this," (the abuses which still continued on his plantation, after his attempts to correct them in the ordina- ry way,) " 1 resolved to make a further experiment, in order to try whether 1 could not obtain the labour of my negroes by voluntary means, instead of the old method, by violence, and that in such a way as should be a proof against the insidious insinuations of my superintcndant ; when, for a small pecuniary reward over and above their usual allowances, the poorest, feeblest, and by character the most indolent negroes in the whole gang, cheerfully per- formed the holing of my land for canes, (generally said to be the most laborious work,) for less than a fourth part of the stated price paid to the undertakers for holing. Of this there is a pretty exact account given in Philo Xylon's eighth letter. I repeated the like experiment the following year with equal success, and on the 1 8th. Nov. ]789, 1 gave also my slaves tenements of land, and pecuniary wages, by the hour, the day, or the week, for their labour and services, nearly according to the plan described in Philo Xylon's ninth letter, and soon after dismissed my superintcndant." The account to which he alludes in Philo Xylon's eighth let- ter, is the following : " A planter offered a premium ot two-pence halfpenny a day, or a pistareen per week, with the usual allowance to holers, of a dram with molasses, to any twenty five of his negroes, men and women, who would undertake to hole for canes, an acre per day, at about ninety-six and a half holes for each negro to the acre. The whole gang were ready to undertake it, but only fifty of the volunteers were accepted, and many among those who .-^^-s3ie%s«:_ >f ■.».>*-^;» I' y 4 \ ■**: t V' .j24 on much lighter occasions, had usually pleaded infirmity and inability. But the ground having been nnoist, they holed twelve acres within six days, with great ease : having had an hour, more or less, every evening, to spare ; and the like experiment was repeated with the same success. More experiments, with such premiums, on weeding and deep hoeing, were made by task-work per acre, and all succeeded in like manner, their premiums being all perpetu- ally paid them in proportion to their performance. But af- terwards, some of the same people being put ("without pre- mium) to weed on a loose cultivated soil in the common manner, eighteen negroes did not do as much in a given time, as six had performed of the like sort of work, a few days before, with the premium of the two pence halfpenny. "But these heterodox experiments did not pass without censure. However, the plain answer is, that by the last experiment, where eighteen negroes, under the whip, did not do as much as six with the premium, the planter was clearly convinced that saving time, by doing in one day as much as would otherwise require three days, was worth more than double the premium, the timely effects on vegetation being critical. And moreover, it was remarkable, that during the operations under the premium, there were no pretended disorders, no crowding to the sick-house. But according to the vulgar mode of governing negro-slaves, they feel only the desponding fear of punishment for doing less than they ought, without being sensible that the settled allowance of food and clothing is given, and should be accepted as a reward for doing work : while, in task- work, the expectation of winning the reward, and the fear of losing it, have a double operation on their minds to ex- ert their endeavours.'* In Philo Xylon's ninth letter, to which he alludes, Mr. Steele shows, that by giving his slaves tenements of laud, and pecuniary wages, the expense of employing the labour of three hundred copyhold bond slaves, including the value of the land given to them, is only £1283 Ids Od While that of three hundred slaves under the ordinary management, is at £5 14s each . . 1710 Making a saving of currency Or sterling .420 5 334 9 3 The advantage of the plan pursued by Mr. Steele, is still more evident from the followiner extract, from the "Sup- ;f V ■*.« -I nittt ti kf <*<-—. ■•- •••»...- •■^— ---»•% ■-g V 32G :'"■ ,1 no estimate half so satisfactory as that given above, of the actual saving by the system recommended ; which saving is nothing else than the amount of what is lost, by attempting the impossibility of curing tht moral incapacity oj slaves by force instead of reward.^^ Mr. Botham. On the mode of cultivating a sugar plantation at 6,.tavia, &c. " It may be desirable to know that sugar, better and cheaper than in our Island, is produced in the EjlU Indies by free labourers. — China, Bengal, and Malabar produce quantities of sugar and spirits, but the most considerable estates are near Batavia. The proprietor is generally a rich Dutchman, who builds on it substantial works. He rents the estate ofi' (of 300 or more acres) to a Chinese, who superintends it, and relets it to free men in parcels of 50 or 60 acres, which they plant at so much per pecul (133ilb) of the sugar produced. The superintendant col- lects people to take off the crop. One set, with their carts and buffaloes, cut the canes, carry them to the mill, and grind them ; a second set boil the sugar, and a third set clay and basket it for the market ; all at so much per pecul. Thus the renter knows what every pecul will cost him. He has no unnecessary expense ; for when the crop is over, the last men go home ; and for seven montns in the year, the cane-planters only remain, preparing the next crop. By dividing the labour, it is cheaper and better done. After spending two years in the Ji est Indies, 1 returned to the East in 1776, and conducted sugar-works in Bencoolen on similar principles with the Dutch. Having experienced the difference of labourers for profit and labourers from force, I can assert that the savings by the former are very considerable. By following as nearly as possible the East India mode, and consolidating the distilleries, I do suppose our sugar Islands might be better worked than they are now by two-thirds, or indeed one-half of the present force. Let it be considered how much labour is lost by overseeing the forced labourer, which is saved when he works for his own profit, 1 have stated with the strictest veracity, the plain matter of fact, that sugar- estates can be worked cheaper by free persons than slaves,^'' " Marsden, in his history of Sumatra," says Dr. Dickson, " highly commends Mr. Botham's management of the sugar-works at Bencoolen by free labourers, and says that the expenses, particidarly of the slaves, frustrated many „A ..jm^ # Jf J27 former attempts of the English to cultivate the sugar-caue profitably at that place." sif:ura leonk. This Colony may be said to owe its origin to the liber- ality and benevolent exertions of the celebrated Granm n,i,i: Sharp. At the time when the decision of Lord Mansfield, in the memorable case of the Negro, Somerset, had estab- lished the axiom, that "ns soon as any slave sets his foot on English ground, he becomes free,'''' there Wt'/emany negroes in London who had been brought over by their masters. As a large proportion of these had no longer owners to sup- port them, nor any parish from which they could claim re- lief, they fell into great distress, and resorted in crowds to their patron, Granville Sharp, for support. But his means were quite inadequate to maintain them all, even if such a plan had been desirable for the objects of his compassion, and '• he formed a scheme for their future permanent support. He determined upon <:"nding them to some spot in Africa, the general land ol their ancestors, where, when they were once landed under a proper leader, and with proper provisions for a time, and proper imple- ments of husbandry, they might, with but moderate indus- try, provide for themselves. Just at this time, Mr. Smeath- man, who had lived for some years at the foot of the Sierra Leone mountains, and who knew the climate, and nature of the soil and productions there, who had formed a plan for colonizing those parts, was in London, inviting adven- turers, but particularly the black poor, to accompany him on his return to his ancient abode." Measures for this pur- pose were concerted by him and Granville Sharp, but Mr. Smeathman, who was to have conducted the black colonists, died before they sailed, and the care, and for some time the expense of this bold enterprise, devolved entirely on Mr. Sharp. Nothing could be more discouraging than the ca- lamities which befell the undertaking from its very outset. Of 400 bla< k people who left the Thames on the 22nd Feb. 1778, under convoy of his majesty's sloop of war Nauti- lus, not more than 130 (who were afterwards reduced lo 40) remained alive and in one body at the end of the rainy season, into which they had been thrown by the death of Mr. Smeathman, notwithstanding Mr. Sharp's strenuous efforts to avoid it. Disaster followed disaster. Famine, disease, discontent, desertion, succceeded each other with frightful rapidity, till the year 1 789, when the colony, again in a state ^ r. l A^ ^- - *- •m :vp. 3i8 oi' improvement, was almost annihilated by a hostile attack from a neighbouring chief. About that time a company was established in England for the purpose of carrying for- ward the benevolent views of the founder, which afterwards obtained a royal charter of incorporation. In 1792, about 1100 negroes arrived from Nova Scotia, under the com- mand of Lieutenant Clarkson. These were negroes who had been induced to enlist in the British army during the American war, by an officer of freedom, and " who were afterwards carried to Nova Scotia, under a promise of re- gular allotments of land, which promise had unfortunately not been fulfilled;'' the climate leing unfavourable to them, they solicited and obtaii.v.. ermission to join the colony at Sierra Leone. In the year 1800, their numbers were increased by the arrival of 550 Maroons, who, having risen against the colonists of Jamacia, and been induced, by the terror of blood hounds, to surrender, were carried to Nova Scotia, and subsequently to Sierra Leone. Of such elements, (to which have since been added the negroes liberated from the holds of captured slave ships,) was the colony of Sierra Leone composed ; and nothing less than the extraordinary energy, fortitude, and perseverance of our illustrious countryman, could have saved it from the destruction with which. it was so often menaced. "Cer- tainly without him the Sierra Leone Company would not have been formed, and had he not supported the colony, when it so often hung as it were by a thread, till the forma- tion of this company, all had been lost." This is not the place to follow it through all the vicissitudes of its subse- quent history, but as its actual condition is little known, I will give a few extracts from various authorities, which will enable the judicious reader to form his own opinion how far it is likely to realize the expectation of its illustrious found- er, and to be " one day the means of spreading the benefits of civilization and Christianity through a considerable part of the vast continent of Africa." On the 31st Oct. 1787, Granville Sharp writes, "I have had but melancholy accounts of my poor little ill-thriven swarthy daughter, the unfortunate colony of Sierra Leone." The following was the population in 1820 and 1822, as given in the Missionary Register of Dec. 1822. Julys, 1820. Jan. 1, 1822. European 120 ... 128 Maroons 594 . . . 601 oi«: ^. 9r f> 329 West Indians and Americans — — Natives 1046 NovaScotians 730 Liberated Africans . . . 8076 Disbanded Soldierd . . . 1216 Kroomen 727 Total n.'iOQ . 85 . 3526 . 722 .7969 . 1103 . 947 16.081 9wn, I ll have thriven jone." |22, as 11822. Is ll " The chief increase is apparently in the class of natives, while that of 1 iberated Africans seems to be somewhat dimi- nished ; but this is, in part, occasioned by a difference of ar- rangement in the two returns. The large number of natives in the native villages of the Peninsula, amounting in the last return to 1925, would have been divided, according to the arrangement in the return of 1820 — into natives, pro- perly so called ; that is, as we conceive, the aborigines of the Peninsula ; and liberated Africans, living in villages, but not under a superintendant. In the return of 1820, this distinction was made; and then the whole number, amount- ing to 1468, was divided into 400 of the first class, and 1068 of the second. Both classes being called ' natives^ in the last return, the number of liberated Africans ap- pears to have diminished ; while it has, in fact, greatly in- creased, independently of the addition of 1500 since the date of the last return. We collect from these data, that the number of liberated Africans, of all descriptions, in the colony, on the 1st of August, was upwards of eleven THOUSAND. " Still there is an increase of the class ranked as ' natives' in the last return, to the amount of nearly 1000 ; of these, about one-half are in Freetown, and the other half are chiefly resident in the settlements of the liberated Africans. This augmentation is derived, we conceive, from the influx of the people bordering on the colony; and is a gratifying indication of the growth of mutual confidence between the colony and its neighbours. IMPORTS. rrom Dec. 10, 1816, to Nov. 22, lfil7 Nov. 23, 1817, to Dec. 10, 1818 Dec. 1, 1818, to Dec. 31, 1819 Jan. 1, 1820, to Dec. 31, 1820 •Tan. 1, 1821, to Dec. .^1, 1821 42 Invoice Amount. £75,716 6 Oi 94,799 14 5J 80,863 6 1i:f 66,725 9 4 105.000 15 10 V ^i».i- -> ^y^n a »" .. t*^ -'> >^ »«iii^iX'». < 330 ftXPORTS. ^ c 'o of Vessels mployed In •xportiog. LoCinf Afri. can timber Tooiec. exported. Toil* or Rice export. From Jan. 1 to Dec. SI, lftl7 17 2990 — - ._ Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 1818 22 3659 1617 273 Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 1810 27 5875 S556 1228 Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 18S1 S6 6805 4736 42 Comparative statement or Duties collected in the colony of Sierra Leone, for the undermentioned periods. # From Jan. 1, to Dec. SI, ini7 Jan. 1, to Dec 31, 1818 Jan. 1, to Dec. 31, 1819 Jan. 1, to Dec. ."Jl, lUi'O * Jan. 1, to Dec. 31, 1821 £3086 3 7 5124 1 3 4656 2 0| 6153 5 6 6318 4 7 J. REFFELL. Acting Collector and Naval Officer. At the moment I am writing, there are at least three ves- sels on the birth in this port, for Sierra Leone. Extract from Commodore Sir George Collier's Second Annual Report upon the Settlements on the Coast of Africa, relative to the Colony of Sierra Leone. " Indeed the colony of Sierra Leone has been so diiTer- enily represented, so much has been urged against its rising prosperity, and proposals said to have been made for its abandonment, that I consider myself (as an impartial per- son) the one from whom opinions and remarks may be ex- pected. The climate of Sierra Leone is, like all other tro- pical climates, divided into a sickly season, and one not positively so, for it may be too much to speak of Sierra Leone as ever absolutely healthful." He then proceeds to speak of various topics particularly connected with the na- ture of his survey. Alluding to the schools and churchesj he says, " The manner in which the public schools are here conducted, reflects the greatest credit upon those concern- ed in their prosperity, and the improvement made by the scholars, proves the apltude of the African, if moderate pains be taken to instruct him. I have attended places of public worship in every quarter of the globe, and I do most conscientiously declare, never did I witness the ceremonies of religion more piously performed or more devoutly at- tended to than in Sierra Leone." In bis report dated 27th Dec. he observe?, "The public I ,* -«*^psi#i... jgfe -.. ...„m«^,. SSI buildings have not advanced so rapidly as I believe had been expected, but it is, nevertheless, gratifying to observe that the roads in the neighbourhood of Freetown and those in the mountains have been much improved, and that the bridges have been constructed of more durable materials than heretofore. Upon the whole, Sierra Leone may be said to be improving, and if the encouragement hitherto shown, shall be continued to the British merchant, no reason ap- pears to me why this colony shall not in the course of time, amply repay the anxiety, and care, and expense, so liber- ally bestowed by the mother country. Every year, some new prospect opens to the merchant. An intercourse with the interior of Africa now fairly promises ultimate success, and which must be productive of benefit to Great Britain^ and it may even be expected, that some years hence, caravans shall resort to the neighbourhood of Porto Logo, (on a branch of the Sierra Leone,) to convey articles of British manufacture into the very interior of the continent of Africa.^* Extract of a Letter from Capt, H. Turner, dated the 1th March, 1322. "I visited the colony of Sierra Leone in the year 1817. My stay among the recaptured negroes in the mountains then was very short, but sufficient to ascertain they were involved in heathen darkness and barbarity. "Having again visited them in December 1821, lam able in some measure to estimate the great change since the former period, both in a moral and religious point of view, through the exertions of your missionaries, and the blessing of Almighty God upon their labours, without which all would have been ineffectual. " Regent's Town, under the direction of the Rev. Mr. Johnson, was then but thinly inhabited. " Regent's Town now wears the aspect of a well-peopled village in our happy land ; its inhabitants civilized, indus- trious, honest, and neatly clothed. The ground allotted to each family is cultivated, each lot being distinctly marked out. I have frequently ascended an eminence near the town to behold the pleasing scene on the Sabbath-day ; hundreds pressing on to the house of God, at the sound of the bell, hungering after the bread of life. Nothing but sickness prevents their attendance now. What a lesson does this teach many in Britain, who count the Sabbath a burden, and either spend it in indolence and sloth, or in visiting und riot !"' t -w I '«*^\ whose idant of come, seen asked told in now !^ His excellency then pointed out to him the way he first came to this place, and the old trees lying about the town, cut down three or four years ago, as evidences of the truth ; but, said the captain, ^ What sort of people were they with which it was commenced ?' I pointed out to him some who were sent here in the beginning of November, that, looking at their emaciated state of body, he might form some idea of those with whom I began, and who only then were sixty two in number, twenty of whom died ere scarce- ly a month had elapsed ! He then inquired what method we had pursued to bring them to such a state in so short a time. ♦ No other,' said his excellency, ' than the truths of Christianity, which these gentleman were sent by the Church Missionary Society, to propagate : by this alone they have ruled them, and have raised them to a common level with other civilized nations ; and, believe ' me,^ added his ex- cellency, ' if you admit christain teachers into your island, you soon will find them become affectionate and faithful servants to you !' " Things as they now appear, humanly speaking, never wore so bright and pleasant an aspect ; for there were indi- viduals, and are now at this moment, who always were en- deavouring to undermine the credit of the society, as well as that of the Colonial Government, as it respects the captured negroes ; but sure it is, there never was such an opportunity for observation — never were the prejudices more effectually removed from the minds of many European colonists, and never had the society gained more credit in the colony, even in the minds of those individuals alluded to, than through the present events ; as you, I trust, will see in the report of the Sierra Leone Association in aid of the Church \iissionnry Society, the collections and con- tributions to which amount to nearly $200." Dr. Morse, a well-known, respectable, and intelligent American author, thus describes the settlement, in his Universal Gazeteer : "Sierra Leone, in 1809, contained 1500 persons, since which it has been flourishing, and is now the most important English colony in Africa, except the cape of Good Hope, the number of inhabitants in 1818 amounting to 10,014, of whom only about 100 were Euro- peans. The population consists almost entirely of African^; from the holds of slave-ships, and who, when they were introduced into the colony, were at the lowest point ot mental and moral depression. They now exhibit a very gratifying proof of the susceptibility of the Afrirancharar- ^ ^' i /' II ,'^,.."' '■^IM'' ■'•'*""v,*.,, *«>-? 334 ; w ¥ ter for improvement and civilization. From savages anU gross idolators, many of them have been converted into enterprising traders, skilful mechanics, and industrious farmers ; supporting themselves and their families in com- fort, and performing respectably, the social, and even reli- ffious duties. They discharge the duties of jurors, consta- bles, and other officers, with much propriety, and are a fine example of a community of black men living as free men, enjoying the benefit of the British constitution, regularly attending public worship, and gradually improving, by means of schools and other institutions in knowledge and civilization. This happy change has been effected by the blessing of God on the labours of English missionaries. In 1819, the number of children in the schools at the various settlements, was 2014." Extracts from the third Annual Report of the American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Colour of the United States. " What the society proposes to do with regard to coloniz- ing, is to procure a suitable territory on tlie coast of Africa, for such of the free people of colour as may choose to avail themselves of this asylum, and for such blaves as their proprietors may please to emancipate" " So far is this scheme from being impracticable, that one, resembling it in all respects, was accomplished by a private society in England, more than 30 years ago.^' •' In despite of every representation to the contrary, the colony of Sierra Leone boasts, at this moment, a greater degree of prosperity, than distinguished any one of the British Colonies, now the United States of America, at the same period after its first plantation. The population of Sierra Leone ; its commerce and navigation ; its churches, schools, and charitable institutions ; its town and hamlets ^ its edifices public and private ; surpass those of any one of these states, at any time within twenty-five years from its first settlement." It is for the reader to estimate the value of the preceding authorities, and to draw from them his own conclusions with regard to the present state and future prospects of Sierra Leone. It is for him also to decide how far the prosperity of a community formed of such unpromising materials, may be regarded as an exemplification of what the negro race may exhibit when rescued from slavery ; how far such a colony of Africans, of many nations and languages, educated on their own shores, with civil rights, li i rS Wi 335 political privileges, and religious advantages, and in fre- quent commr.nication with their countrymen from the inte- rior, is calculated to civilize Africa ; how far it may be expected to send forth, through a thousand channels, those fertdizing streams which will clothe the moral deserts of that injured continent with verdure and beauty.