#. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 4> % ^%^ \^ 1.0 I.I 1.25 I^|2j8 ||2.5 ^ U& 12.0 \\M. IIIII16 ^^? e ^. Vi /] ^;. 7 *% Hiotographic Sciences Corporation V ^^ *#^\ rv \ '^..1* ^«ec les conditions uu contrat de filmage. Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en papier est imprimis sont film^s en commen^ant par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la dernidre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration. soit par le second plat, selon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont filmis en commen^ant par la premidre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la dernidre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des syr.iboies suivants apparaftra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole — »>signifie "A SUIVRE ", le symbole V signifie "FIN". Los cartes, planch<)s, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmds d des taux Jie reduction diffdrents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clichd, il est filmd d partir de Tangle supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. rrata to pelure, 1 d □ 32X t 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 \ fi: ^ V -ly ■♦> '-t. jm^ I Philosophical and Political I I S T O R Y OF THE Britifii Settlements and Trade I N NORTH AMER] CA. V L u M E the Firs t* » ^^ I Philosophical anaPoLiTicAL H IS T OR Y OF THE BRITISH SETTLEMENTS AND TRADE 1 N NORTH AMERICA. From the French of Abbe RATNAL. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. EDINBURGH: Printed by C. Mac FARQjirHAR. Sold by the Booksellers. M.DCC.LXXVI. r>\ 1 ^v- ^ L/ -r . • -- • ,.' J CONTENTS O F T H E FIRST VOLUME. f .ii INTRODUCTION, Page 9 to 47 X. Firft expeditions of ihe Englifli in North Ame- rica, i. The continent of America is pecpled by the reli- gious wars thai diOurb England, Parallel between the old and the new world, Comparifon between civilized people and lavajres. In what ftaic the Englifti found North America, and what they have done there, BOOK I. 2 4 s 13 37 45 British Colonies fettled at Hudson's Bay, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New England, New York, and New Jersey. I Chap. I. Of HUDSON'S BAY, 48 to 66 I. Clim;>te. Cuftoms of the inhabitants. Trade. 48 a. Whether there is a paflage at Hudlon's Bay lead- ing to the Eaft Indies, ^p IChap. II. Of NEWFOUNDLAND, 66 to g6 I. Deicription, X. Fifheries, 66 7« Chap. CONTENTS. Chap. III. Of NOVA SCOTIA, 87 to 103 X. The French give up Nova Scotia r > Britain, after ^ having been a long time in pofllfHon of it them- ftlves, 87 ' a. Manners of the French who remained fuhjeft to the Britifh government in Nova dcotia, 93 3. Prefent ftate of Nova Scotia, ,, xoo Chap. IV. Of NEW ENGLAND, 103 to 126 I. Foundation, 103 a. Fanaticifm occaHons great calamities there, xo8 3. Government, population, cultures, manufa^iires, trade, and navigation, 114 Chap.V. Of NEW YORK and NEW JER- SEYy 126 to 141 I. New York, for nded hy the Dutch, pafles into the hands of the £nglilj\ ii5 a. Flourifliing ftatc of New York. Caufes of its profperity. 131 3. In what manner New Jerfcy fell into the hands of the Engliih. Its prefent (late. 137 BOOK II. ' ^ British Colonies founded in Pensylva- NiA, Maryland, Virginia, Caro- lina, Georgia, and Florida. Chap. I. Of PENSYLVANIA, 142 to 178 ■ I. 1 he Quakers found Pcnfyivania. Manners of that ic£V. ^ 1^2 • ft. Upon what principles Penfylvania was founded, 15* 3. Extent, climate, and foil, of PeniyWania. Its profperity. ,57 Chap. s. CONTENTS, Syto 103 tain, afier f it ihem- fahjc€t to 87 100 103 to 126 103 re, 108 ifa^ures, X14 EW JER- 126 to 141 into the rs of its lands of «37 ;hap.II. OfVIRGINIA and MARYLAND, 178 to 204 I. Wretched ftate of Virginia at its firft fettlcraent, 178 z. Aflminiftration of Virginia, 184 3. Maryland is detached from Virginia, 191 4. Virginia and Maryland cultivate the fame pro- ductions, 194 5. Of the Tobacco-trade, 199 205 to 221 ^SYLVA- Ca • RO- 2 to 178 ers of ded', Jts 14a »5» 157 Chap. :hap. III. Of CAROLINA, 1. Ori;;in of Carolina, 2. Syltem oi rctigiou- and civil government cfta- blilhcd by Lt>cke in Carolina. ib 3. Cliniaie aod produce ()1 Can»lina, an 221 to 230 Chap. iV. Of GEORGIA, '., I. FounrlaMon of f leoioia, 2Zi a. Im; cdiments that have prevented the pro^refsof Gcoroia, "^ 2SS Ihap. v. Of FLORIDA, 230 to 240 I. Hiflory. Its ccflio:) from the Spanl;iri!3 to ihc Uri- tifh. 230 1, By what means Briuin may render Tiorida ufcfiil to her, 237 I 4 1 yi ■ r Philosophical andPoLiTicAL 11 I STORY a F THE BRITISH Settlements and Trade in America. 1 I N T R O D U C T I O ^T I . Firjl Expeditions of the Englifi in North- Jmerica, ENGLAND was only known in Ame- rica by her piracies, which were often fuccefsful and always brilliant, when Sir Walter Raleigh conceived a project to make his nation partake of the ^y»-odigious riches which for near a century pad flow- ed from that hemilphere into ours. That great man, who was born for bold under- takings, caft his eye on the eaftern coaft of North- America. The talent he had for fub- duing the mind by reprefehting all his pro- Vol. I. B pofals -u .M » ! lo HISTORY OF THE BRITISH I r, * Vi pofals in a ftriking light, foon procured him aflbciates, both at court and amongft the merchants. The con)nany that was form- ed upon the alluiements of his magnificent promifes, obtained of government, in 1584, the abfolute difpofal of all the difcoveries that ihould be made ; and without any fur- ther encouragement, they fitted out two fhips in April following, that anchored in Roanoak bay, which now makes a part of Carolina. Their commanders, worthy of the truft repofed in them, behaved with re- markable affability in a country where they wanted to fettle their nation, and left the favages to make their own terms in the trade they propofed to open with them. Every thing that thefe fuccefsful naviga- tors reported on their return to Europe, con- cerning the temperature of the climate, the fertility of the foil, and the difpofition of the inhabitants, encouraged the fociety to proceed. They accordingly fent (even fhips the following fpring, which landed a hun- dred and eight free men at Roanoak, for the purpofe of commencing a fettlement. Part of them were murdered by the favages, whom they had infulted; and the reft, having been fo improvident as to neglc£l the culture of the land, were perifhing with mifery and hunger, when a deliverer came to their af« fdtance. a This . » :isH )cured him nongft the was form- lagnrficent t, in 1584, difcoveries It any fur- out two ichored in a part of worthy of d with fe- ^here they d left the ^. the trade ul naviga- ope, con- mate, the ofition of focietv to even fhips 'd a hun- k, for the nt. Part es, whom ving been ulture of ifery and their af- This SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA, ir This was Sir Francis Drake, fo famous among fe-amen for being the next after Ma- gellan who failed round the globe. The abi- lities he had fliewn in that grand expedition induced queen Elizabeth to make choice of him to humble Philip II. in that part of his domains which he made ufe of to didurb the peace of other nations. Few orders were ever more punctually executed. The Engliih fleet feized upon St Jago, Carthage- na, St Domingo, and feveral other important places; and took a great many rich fliips. His infl;ru6lions were, that, after thefe ope- rations, he fhould proceed and offer his af- fidance to the colony at Roanoak. The wretched few, who had fur.ived the num- berlefs calamities that had befallen them, were in fuch defpair, that they refufed all afliftance, and only begged he would convey them to their native country. The admiral complied with their requeft ; and thus the expences that had been difburfed, till that lime were loft. The aflbciates, however, were not difcou- raged by this unforefeen event. From time to time they fent over a few colonifts, who by the year 1589 amounted to a hundred and fifty perfons of both fexes, under a re- gular government, and fully provided with all they wanted for their defence, and for the purpofes of agriculture and commerce. B Z Thefe -4 I i! 12 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH Thefe beginnings raifed fome expectations, but they were loft in the difgrace of Ralegh^ who fell a vi£lim to the caprices of his own wild imagination. The colony, having loft its founder, was totally forgotten. It had been thus negleQed for twelve years, when Gofnold, one of the firft aflo- ciates, refolved to vifit it in 1602. His ex- perience in navigation made him fufpe«St, that the right track had not been found out; and that, in fteering by the Canary and Ca- ribbee iflands, the voyage had been made longer than it need have been by above a thoufand leagues. Thefe conjeClures indu- ced him to fteer away from the fouth, and to turn more weftward. The attempt fuc- ceeded ; but when he reached the American coaft, he found himfelf further north than any who had gone before. The region where he landed, fmce included in New-England, afforded him plenty of beautiful furs, with which he failed back to England. The fpeed and fuccefs of this undertaking made a ftirong imprefTion upon the Englifh merchants. Several joined in 1606 to form a fettlement in the country that Gofnold had difcovered. Their example recalled to others the remembrance of Roanoak •, and this gave rife to two charter companies. As the con- tinent where they were to exercife their mo- .nopoly was then known in England only by the nsii pe<51atIons, of Ralegh^ of his own liaving loil for twelve e firft afTo- His ex- m fufpe.El, ound out; ry and Ca- reen made 3y above a ures indu- biuh, and empt fuc- American north than ^ion where ^England, furs, with idertaking be Engliih d6 to form :)fnold had i to others i this gave s the con- ' their mo- ld only by tlie ** < SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 13 the general name of Virginia, the one was called the South Virginia, and the other the North Virginia Company. The firlt zeal foon abated, and there ap- peared to be more jealoufy than emulation between the two companies. Though they had biien favoured with the firft lottery that ever was drawn in England, their progrefs was fo How, that in 1614 there were not above four hundred perfons .in both fettle- ments. That fort of competency which was fufficient for the fimplicity of the manners of the times, was then fo general in Eng- land, that no one was tempted to go abiuad by the profpe£l of a fortune. It is a fenfe of misfortune, ftill more than the third of riches, that gives men a diHike to their native coun- try. Nothing lefs than an extraordinary ferment could then have peopled even an ex- cellent country. This was at length brought about by fuperitition, and excited by the col- lifion ol religious opinions. r 2. The continent of y^merica is peopled by the religious -wars that dijlurb England. The fjrft priefts of the Britons were the Druids, fo famous in the annals of Gaul. To throw a myfterious veil upon the ceremo- nies of a favage worfhip, their rites were never performed but in dark fecefles, and ge- B 3 nerally 14 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH nerally in gloomy groves, where fear creates fpecStres and apparitions. Only a few per- fons were initiated into thefe mylleries, and intruded with the facred doclrines ; and even thefe were not allowed to commit any thing to writing upon this important fubjetl, left their fecrets fhould fall into the hands of the profane vulgar. The altars of a formidable deity were Itained with the blood of human victims, and enriched with the moft precious fpoils of war. Though the dread of the ven- geance of heaven was the only guard of thefe treafures, they were always reverenced by a- varice, which the druids had artfully reprcfs- ed by the fundamental dodlrine of the efid- Icfs tranfmigration of the foul. The chief au- thority of government refided in the mini- flers of that terrible religion j becaufe men are more powerfully and more laftingly fway- ed by opinion than by any other motive. The education of youth was in their hands; and the afcendency they afiumed at that period remained through the reft of life. They Look cognizance of all civil and criminal caufes, and were as abfolute in their decifions on Hate affairs as on the private differences be- tween man and man. Whoever dared to re- fifl their decrees, was not only excluded from all participation in the divine myfteries, but even from the fociety of men. It was ac- counted a crime and a reproach to hold any converfe VISH 'ear creates a few per- ^teries, and > and even t any thing W^^t^, left nds of the formidable of human ft precious )f the ven- d of thefe iced by a- y reprcfs. the ei^d- ' chief au- the mini- ■aufe men g^y fway, ive. The nds; and Jt period 'hey Look I caufes, fions on nces be- ed to re- ed from •es, but was ac- old any onverfc SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 15 converfe or to have any dealings with him ; he was irrevocably deprived of the prote£lio*i of the laws, and nothinjj but deatb could put an end to his miferies. The hiftory of human fuperftitions affords no inftance of any one fo tyrannical as that of the druids. It was the only one that provoked the Romans to ufe fe- verity, as none oppofcd the power of thofe conquerors with fuch violence as the druids. That religion, however, had loft much of its influence, when it was totally baniflied by Chriftianity in the feventh century. The nor- thern nations, that had fucceflively invaded the fouthern provinces of Europe, had found there the feeds of that new religion, in the ruins of an empire that was falling on all fides. Whether it was owing to their indifference for their diftant gods, or to their ignorance which was eafily perfuaded, they readily em- braced a worfliip which from the multiplicity of its ceremonies could not but attra£l the notice of rude and favage men. The Saxons, who afterwards invaded England, followed their example, and adopted without difficul- ty a religion that fecured their conqueft by abolifhing their old forms of woiftiip. The effects were fuch as might be expec- ted from a religion, the original fimplicity of which was at that time fo much disfigured. Idle contemplations were foon fubftituted in lieu of adive and focial virtues ^ and a ftu- B 4 pid It HISTORY OF THE BRITISH - pid veneration for unknown faints, to the wordiip of the Supreme Being. Miracles daz- zled the ej^es of men, and diverted them from attending to natural caufes. They were taught to believe that prayers and offerings would at- one for the moft heinous crimes. Every fen- timent of reafon was perverted, and every principle of morality corrupted. Tbofe who had been at lead the promoters of this confufion, knew how to avail them- felves of it The priefts obtained that refpedl which was denied to kings ; and their per- ifons became facred. The magiftrate had no infpeftion over their condudt, and they even evaded the watchfulnefs of the civil law. Their tribunal eluded and even fuperfeded all others. They found means to introduce religion into every quellion of law, and into all ftate affairs, and made themfelves umpires or judges in every caufe. When faith fpoke, every one liftened, in filc;it at- tention, to its inexplicable oracles. Such v/as the infatuation of thofe dark ages, that the fcandalous exceffes of the clergy did not weak- en their authority. This was owing to its being already found- ed on great riches. As foon a:, the priefts had taught that religion depended principally upon facrifices, and required firft of all that of fortune and earthly poffeffions, the nobi- lity, who were fole proprietors of all eftates, em- s, to the acles daz- hem from ere taught ^ould at- 'Very fen- nd every romot?rs aiJ them- it refpea leir per- e had no hey even vil Jaw. perfeded Stroduce "^i and Jmfel yes When ilc;:t at- nch was hat the t weak- found- priefts cipaJJy ill that ; nobi- ftates, em- SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 17 cmployc'd their flaves to luiKi churches, and allotted their lands tc the endowment of thofe foundations. Kings gave to the church all that they had extorted from the people; and llripped themfelves to fuch a degree, as even not to leave a fufficiency for the payment of the army, or for defraying the other charges of government. Thefe deficiencies were ne- ver made up by thofe who were the caufe of them. They bore no fhare in the mainte- nance of fociety. The payment of taxes with church money would have been a facrilege, and a proftitution of holy things to profane purpofes. Such was the declaration of the clergy, and the laity believed them. The pof- feflion of the third part of the feudal tenures in the kingdom, the free-will offerings of a deluded people, and the price fet upon the prieflly offices, did not fatisfy the enormous avidity of the clergy, ever attentive to their own intereft. They found in the Old Tefla- rnent, that by divine appointment the pricfts had an undoubted right to the tithes of the produce of the land. This claim was fo rea- dily admitted, that they extended it to the tithe of induftry, of the profits on trade, of the wages of labourers, of the pay of fol- diers, and fometimes of the falaries of place- men. Rome, who at firfl was a filent fpeflator of thefe proceedings, and proudly enjoyed the ! 1 8 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH the fuccefs that attended the rich and haughty apoflles of a Saviour born in obfcurity, and who died an ignominious death, foon coveted a (hare in the fpoils of England. The firft ftep fhe took was to open a trjtde £pr relics, which were always ufliered in with fome flriking miracle, and fold in proportion to the credu- lity of the purchafers. The great men, and even monarchs, were invited to go in pilgri- mage to the capital of the world, to purchafe a place in heaven fuitable to the rank they held on earth. The popes by degrees affu- med the prefentation to church preferments, which at firft they gave away, but afterwards fold. By thefe means, their tribunal took cognizance of all ecclefiaftical caufes, and in time they claimed a tenth of the revenues of the clergy, who themfelves levied the tenth of all the fubftance of the realm. When thefe pious extortions were carried as far as they poffibly could be in England, Rome afpired to the fupreme authority over it. The frauds of her ambition were covered with a facred veil. She fapped the foun- dations of liberty, but it was by employing the influence of opinion only. This was fet- ting up men in oppofition to themfelves, and availing herfelf of their prejudices in order to acquire an abfolute dominion over them. She ufurped the power of a defpotic judge between the altar and the throne, be- tween TISH md haughty »nty, and oon coveted hefirftflep Hcs, which ^e flriking the credu- men, and in pilgri- o purchafe rank they grees afTu- eferments, afterwards unal took ^es, and in avenues of the tenth re carried England, • )rity over £ covered he foun- nploying was fet- •mfelves, dices in ion over defpotic )ne, be- tween • 7^ SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 19 * tween the prince and bis fubjecfls, between one potentate and another. She kindled the flames of war witb her fpiritual thunders. But fhe wanted emiflaries to fpread the terror of her arms, and made choice of the monks for that purpofe. The fecuhir clergy, not- withllanding their celibacy, which kept them from worldly connecftions, had llill an attach- ment to the world by the ties of interert, often flronger than thofe of blood. A fet of men, fecluded from fociety by fingular ir- Ititutions which muft incli^^e them tc fana- I ticifm, and by a blind fubmiflion to the dic- I tates of a foreign pontiff, were bed adapted ■ to fecond the views of fuch a fovereign. Thefe vile and abjec^t tools of fuperflition ful- filled their fatal employment but too fuccefs- fully. With their intrigues, feconded by fa- vourable occurrences, England, which had fo long withftood the conquering arms of the ancient Roman empire, became tributary to modern Rome. At length the paflions and violent caprices of Henry VIIL broke the fcandalous depen- dence. The abufe of fo infamous a power had already opened the eyes of the nation. The prince ventured at once to (hake off the authority of the pope, abolifh monaftcries, and aiTume the fupremacy over his own church. This open fchifm was followed by other alte- . HISTORY OF THE BRITISH alterations in tlie reign of Edward, fon and fucceflbr to Henry. The religious opinions, which were then changing the face of Europe, were openly difcufl'ed. Something was taken from every one ; many do£trines and rites of the old religion were retained ; and from thefe feveral fyflems or tenets arofe a new communion, diitinguiflied by the name of The Church of England. Elizabeth, who completeci this important v'ork, found theory alone too fubtle ; and thought it mod expedient to captivate the fenfes, by the addition of fome ceremonies. Her natural tafte for grandeur, and the defire of putting a flop to the difputes about points of do£lrine, by entertaining the eye with the external parad-e of worfhip, made her in^ dined to adopt a greater number of religious rites. But Ihe was retrained by political confiderations, and was obliged to facrifice fomething to the prejudices of a party that had raifed her to the throne, and was able to maintain her upon it. Far from fufpedling that James I. would execute what Elizabeth had not even dared to attempt, it might be expedled that he would rather have bef;n inclined to reftrain ecclefiaftical rites ?.nd ceremonies. That . prince, who had been trained up in the prin- ciples of the Frefbyterians, a fed v/ho, with much fpiritual pride, affected great, fimpli- city ITISH rd, fon and us opinions, he face of Something y dodrines - retained ; or tenets filed by the important ^btJe; and 'tivate the 'remonies. i the defire outpoints e with the e her in^ religious ' political > facrifice >arcy that was able !• would en dared that he reftrain That . heprin- 10, with • fimpJi- city J SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 2t jclty of drcfs, gravity of manners -iiv! 'ulle- J-itv of do(n;fine, and loved to fpeik ii- i'r.np- ture rshrafes, and to make ufe of :;one '-ut fcripture names for their children. One would have fuppofed that fuch an educa- tion mud have prejudiced the king againft the outwiird pomp of the catholic worfliip, and every thin^ that bore any ailinity to it. But the fpirit of fyilem prevailed in him over the principles of education. Struck with the epifcopal jurifdi£i:ion which he found eftabliOied in England, and which he thoiight conformable to his own notions of civil ^o- vernm.eot, he abandoned from conviQion the early impreflions he had received, and grew paiTionately fond of a hierarchy modelled upon the political occoncmy of a well confti- tuted empire. In this enthufiafm, he want- ed to introduce this wonderful difcipline into Scotland, his native country; and to unite to it a great many of the Englifh, who flill diflented from it. He even intended to add the pomp of the mofl awful ceremonies to the majeftic plan, if he could have carried his grand proje£i:s into execution. But the oppofition he met with at firft fetting out, woud not permit him to advance any further in his fyftem of reformation. He contented himfelf with recommending to his fon to re- fume ^is views, whenever the times iliould furnilh a favourable opportunity, and repre- fented '13' 22 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH fentcd the Prefbyterians to him as alike dan- gerous to religion and to the throne. Charles readily adopted his advice, which was but too conformable to the principles of defpotifm he had imbibed from Buckingham his favourite, the mofl: corrupt of men, and the corrupter of the courtiers. To pave the way to the revolution he was meditating, he promoted feveral bifhops to the highell dignities in the government, and conferred on them moft of the offices that gavv=: the greateft influence on public meafures. Thofe ambitious prelates, now become the mafkers of a prince who had been weak enough to be guided by the inftigations of others, betrayed that ambition fo ifamiliar to the clergy, of raifing up ecclefiaftical jurifdi£tion under the fhadow of the royal prerogative. They mul- tiplied the church ceremonies without end, under pretence of their being of apofloli- cal inftitution ; and, to inforce their obfer- vance, had rccourfe to royal adls of arbitrary power. It was evident that there was a fettled defign of reftoring, in all its fplendour, what the Protcflants called Romifh idolatry, though the moft violent means fliould be ne- ceffary to compafs it. This projedl gave the more umbrage, as it was fupported by the prejudices and intrigues of a prefumptuous queen, who had brought from France an immo- as alike dan- one. Ivice, which principles of 3uckingham :>f men, and To pave the meditating, the higheil d conferred t gavv=; the ires. Thofe the mafters ough to be s, betrayed clergy, of 1 under the They mul- thout end, F apoftoli- leir obfer- f arbitrary a fettled plendour, I idolatry, lid be ne- t gave the *d by the imptuous ranee an immo- SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 23 immoderate pallion for popery and arbitrary power. It can fcarce be imagined what acrimony Ithefe alarming fufpicions had raifed in the minds of the people. Common prudence would have allowed time for the ferment to fubfide. But the fpirit of fanaticifm made choice of thofe troublefome times to recall every thing to the unity of the church of England, which was become more odious to the diflenters, fince fo many cuftoms had been introduced into it which they confider- ed as fuperftitious. An order was iflued, that both kingdoms (liould conform to the worfliip and difcipline of the epifcopal church. This law included the Prefbyterians, who then began to be called Puritans, becaufe they profeffed to take the pure and fimple word of God for the rule of their faith and practice. It was extended likewife to all the foreign Calvinifts that were in the kingdom, whatever difference there might be in their opinions. This hierarcha! worfhip was en- joined to the regiments, and trading compa- nies, that were in the feveral countries in Europe. Laftly, the Englifti ambaffadors were required to feparate from all com- munion with the foreign proteftants ; fo that England loft all the influence fhe had abroad, as the head and fupport of the refor- mation. i In !' I f ■ M \ J4 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH In this fatal crifis, moft of the Puritans were clivicied between fubmiffion and oppo- fition. Thofe who would neither ftoop to yitld, nor take the pains to refift, turned their views towards North-America, to feek for that civil and religious liberty which their unjTjrateful country denied them. The ene- mies of their peace attempted to fliut this re- treat againfl: thefe devout fugitives, M'ho wanted to worfliip God in their own way in a dcfert land. Eight (hips that lay at anchor in the Thames ready to fail, were flopped ; and Cromwell is faid to have been detained there by that very king whom hr; afterwards brought to the fcafrbld. Enthufiafm, how- ever, ftronger than the rage of perfecution, furmounted every obftacle ; and that region of America was foon filled with prefbyte- rians. The comfort they enjoyed in their retreat, gradually induced all thofe of their party to follow them, who were not attro- cious enough to take delight in thofe dread- ful cataftrophes which foon after made En- gland a fcene of blood and horror. Many were afterwards induced to remove thither in more peaceable times, with a view to ad- vance their fortunes. In a word, all Europe contributed greatly to increafe their popula- tion. Thoufands of unhappy men, opprefs- cd by the tyranny or intolerant fpirit of their fovereign, took refuge in that hemifphere. I Let I: i JTISH he Puritans n and oppo- her ftoop to efift, turned rica, tofeek which their • The ene- fliut thisre- itives, v'ho own way in ay atanchor re flopped ; n detained afterwards lafm, how- leriecution, that region 1 preibyte- ed in their ^fe of their J not atrro- hofe dread- • made En- or. Many - thither in :ew to ad- all Europe -ir popula- 1, opprefs- rit of their -mifphere. Let SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 25 iCt us now endeavour to acquire fome infor- Imation refpedling that country. 13 . Parallel between the Old and the New World, It is furprifing that for fo long a time fo [little fliould have been known of the new world even after it was difcovered. Barba- frous foldiers and rapacious merchants were Inot proper perfons to give us juft and clear notions of this half of the univerfe. It was Ithe province of philofophy alone to avail it- ifelf of the informations fcattcred in the ac- jcounts of voyagers and miffionaries, in order |to fee America fuch as nature hath made it, iand to invefligate its affinity with the reft of the globe. It is now pretty certain, that the new con- tinent has not half the extent of furface as [the old. On the other hand, the form of |both is fo fingularly alike, that we might eafily be feduced to draw confequences from this particular, if it were always not right to [be upon ourguard againll thefpiril!*of fyltem, ; which often (tops us in our refearches after truth, and hinders us from attaining to it. The two continents feem to form as it were jtwo broad Hips of land that begin from the 'arctic pole, and terminate at the tropic of Capricorn, parted on the call and weft by the ocean that furrounds them. Whatever Vol. I. C may /^J / 26 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH mniybe the ftru6lure of thefe two continents, and the balance or fymmetry of their form, it is plain their equilibrium does not depend upon their pofition. It is the inconltancy of the fea that makes the folidity of the earth. To fix the globe upon its bafis, it feemed ne- ceffary to have an element which, floating inceflantly round our planet, might by its weight counterbalance all other fubftances, and by iis fluidity redore that equilibrium which the conflict of the other elements might have overthrown. Water, by the motion that is natural to it, and by its gravi- ty likewife, is infinitely better calculated to keep up that harmony and that balance of the feveral parts round its centre. If our hemifphere has a very wide extent of land to the north, a mafs of water of equal weight at the oppofite part will certainly produce an equilibrium. If under the tropics we have a rich country covered with men and ani- mals 'y under the fame latitude, America will have a fea full of fifh. Whilfl forefts of trees bending under the largeft fruits, the moil enormous quadrupeds, the mod popu- lous nations, elephants and men, prefs on the furface of the earth, and feem to abforb all its fertility throughout the torrid zone ; at both poles, are found the whales, with innu- merable multitudes of cods and herrings, with clouds of infedtS) and all the infinite I and I J SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 27 and prodigious tribes that inhabit the feas, as if to fupport the axis of the earth, and pre- vent its inclining or deviating to either fide; if, however, elephants, whales, or men, can be faid to have any weight on a globe, where all living creatures are but a trandent modi- fication of the earth that compofes it. In a word, the ocean rolls over this globe to fa- (hion it, in conformity to the general laws of gravity. Sometimes it covers and fometimes it uncovers a hemifphere, a pole, or a zone; but in general it feems to afFe£i: more parti- cularly the equator, as the cold of the poles in fome meafure takes off that fluidity which Gonditutes its effence, and imparts to it all its adion. It is chiefly between the tropics that the fea fpreads and is in motion, and that it undergoes the greateft change both in its re- gular and periodical motions, as well as in thofe kinds of convulfions occafionally ex- cited in it by tempeftuous winds. The at- tradion of the fun, and the fermentations occafioned by its continual heat in the torrid zone, mud have a very remarkable influence upon the ocean. The motion of the moon adds a new force to this influence 5 and the fea, to yield to this double impulfe, mud, it Ihould feem, flow towards the equator. The flatnefs of the globe towards the poles can only be afcribed to that great extent of wa- ter that has hitherto prevented our knowing C a any fi! t- -% ^ HISTORY OF THE BRITISH any thing of the lands near the fouth pole. The fea cannot eafily pafs from within the tropics, if the temperate and frozen zones are not nearer the centre of the earth than the torrid zone. It is the fea then that con- flitutes the equilibrium with the land, and difpofes the arrangement of the materials that compofe it. " One proof that the two regular (lips of land which thetwo continents of the globe prefent at firft view are not ef- fentially neceflary to its conformation, is, that the new hemifphere has remained co- vered with the waters of the fea a much longer time than the old. Befides, if there is a vifible affinity between the two hemi- fpheres, there may be differences between them as ftriking as the fimilitude is, which will deftroy that fuppofed harmony we flat- ter ourfelves that we fhall find. When we confider the map of the world, and fee the local correfpondence there is be- tween the ifthmus of Suez and that of Pana- ma, between the cape of Good Hope and cape Horn, between the Archipelago of the Eafl-Indies and that of the Leeward Iflands, and between the mountains of Ghili and thofe of Monomotapa, we are (truck with the fi- milarity of the feveral forms this picture pre- fents. Every where we imagine we fee land oppofite to land, water to water, iflands and peninfulas fcattered by the hand of nature ^ii to LITISH e fouth pole, within the frozen zones e earth than len that con- he Jand, and he materials hat the two ''o continents V are not ef- )rmation, is, emained co- fea a much les, if there ' two hemf- ces between le is, which ony we flat- : the world, . there is be- lat ofPana- ' Hope -and elago of the ard Iflands, li and thofe with the fi- M^lure pre- we fee land iflands and of nature to SETTLExMENTS IN AMERICA. 29 to ferve as a counterpoife, and the fea by its fluctuation conftantly maintaining the ba- lance of the whole. But if, on the other hand, we compare the great extent of the Pa-*- cific Ocean, which parts the Eafl and Weil Indies, with the fmali fpace the Ocean occu- pies between the coaft of Guinea and that of Brafil ; the vaft quantity of inhabited land to the North, with the little we know to- wards the South ; the dire£lion of the moun- tains of Tartary and Europe, which is from Eafl: to Wefl:, with that of the Cordileras which run from North to South; the min4 is at a (land, and we have the mortiScation to fee the order and fymmetry vanifli with which we had embelliflied our fyilem of the earth. The obfer.ver is ftill more difpleafed with his conjedlures, when he confiders the immenfe height of the mountains of Peru. Then, indeed, he is aftoniihed to fee a con- tinent fo high and fo lately difcovered, the fea fo far below its tops, and fo recently come down from the lands that feemed to be effe£lually defended from its attacks by thofe tremendous bulwarks. It is, however, an undeniable fadl, that both continents of the new hemifphere have been covered with the fea. The air and the land confirm this truth. The broad and long rivers of America; the immenfe forefls to the South ; the fpacious C 3 lakes 30 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH lakes and vaft moraffes to the North ; the e- ternal fnows between the tropics; few of thofe pure fands that feem to be the remains of an exhaufled ground ; no men entirely black ; very fair people under the line ; a cool and mild air in the fame latitude as the fultry and uninhabitable parts of Africa ; a frozen and fevere climate under the fame pa- rallel as our temperate climates*, and, lallly, a difference of ten or twelve degrees in the temperature of the old and new hemifpheres; thefe are fo many tokens of a world that is {lill in its infancy. Why (hould tne continent of America be fo much warmer and fo much colder in pro- portion than that of Europe, if it were not for the moifture the ocean has left behind, by quitting it long after our continent was peopled i Nothing but the fea can pofBbly have prevented Mexico from being inhabit- ed as early as Ada. If the waters that (lill moiften the bowels of the earth in the new hemifphere had not covered its furface, man would very early have cut down the woods, drained the fens, confolidated a foft and wa- tery foil by flirring it up and expodng it to the rays of the fun, opened a free paflage to the winds, and raifed dikes along the ri- vers : in fhort, the climate would have been totally altered by this time« But a rude and unpeopled hemifphere denotes a recent , ' world; SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 31 world ; when the fea, rolling in the neigh- bourhood of its coafts, ftill flows obfcur^ly in its channels. The fun Icfs fcorching^ more plentiful rains, and thicker and more ftagnating vapours, betray either the decay or the infiiRcy of nature. The difference of climat€, aniing from the waters having lain fo long on the ground in America, could not but have a great influence on men and animals. From this diverfity -of caufes muft neceflarily arife a very great di- vcrfity of efl^^ls. Accordingly we fee more fpecies of animals, by two third*, in the old <:ontinent than in the new ; animals of the fame kind condderably larger; fiercer and more favage monfters, in proportion to the greater in<:Tcafe of mankind. On the other hand, nature feems to hav« ftrangely ne- glected the new world. The men have lefs ilrength and lefs courage; no beard and no hair : they are degraded in all the tokens of manhood ; and but little fafceptible of the lively and powerful fentiment of love, which is the principle of every attachment, the firft inftin6^, the firft band of fociety, without which all the other fadlitious ties have neither energy nor duration. The women, who are ftill more weak, are neither favourably treat- ed by nature nor by the men, who have but little love for them, and confider them as the iuftrume^its that are to furniih to their wants; C 4 they 52 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH thev rather facrifice them to their own indo- 4 lence, than confecrate them to rheir plea- fures. This indolence is the great delight and fupreme felicity of the Americans, of which the women are the victims by the continual labours impofed upon them. It muft, however, be confeflcd, that in Ame- rica, as in all other parts, the men, when they have fentenced the women to work, have been fo equitable as to take upon them- felves the perils of war, together with the toils of hunting and fifhing. But their in- difference for the fex which nature has in- truded with the care of reproducing the fpe- cies, implies an imperfe£lion in their organs, a fort of ftate of childhood in the people of America, as in thofe of our continent who are not yet arrived to the age of puberty. This is a radical vice in the other hemifphere, the recency of which is difcovered by this kind of imperfe£lion. But if the Americans are new people, are tbey a race of men originally di(lin6t from thofe that cover the face of the old world ? This is a queftion which ought not to be ha^ {lily d jcided. The origin of the population of America is involved in inextricable diffi- culties. If we affert that the Greenlanders firfl: came from Norway, and then went over to the coaft of Labrador ; others will tell us, it is more natural to fuppofe that the Green- landers SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 33 landers are fprung from the Efquimaux, to whom they bear a greater refemblance than to the Europeans. If we fliould fuppofe that California was peopled from Kamtfchatka, it may be afked what motive or what chance could have led the Tartars to the north-weft of America. Yet it is imagined to be from Greenland or from Kamtfchatka that the in- habitants of the old world muft have gone over to the new, as it is by thofc two coun-. tries that the two continents are connected, or at leaft approach neareft to one another. Befides, how can we conceive that in Ame- rica the torrid zone can have been peopled from one of the frozen zones ? Population will indeed fp read from north to fouth; but it muft naturally have begun under the equa- tor, where life is cherilhed by warmth. If the people of America could not come from our continent, and yet appear to be a new race, we mult have recourfe to the flood, which is the fource and the folution of all difficulties in the hiftory of nations. Let us fuppofe, that the fea having over- flowed the other hemifphere, its old inhabi- tants took refuge upon the Apalachian moun- tains, and the Cordileras, which are far higher than our mount Ararat. But how- could they have lived upon thofe heights, covered with fnow, and furrounded with waters? How is it poffible, that men, who had 34 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH had breathed in a pure and delightful cli- mate, could have furvived the miferies of want, the inclemency of a tainted air, and thofe numberlefs calamities which mud be the unavoidable confequences of a deluge ? How will the race have been preferved and propagated in thofe times of general cala- mity, and in the fucceeding ages of a lan- guid exiflence ? In defiance of all thefe obdacles, we mud allow that America has been peopled by thefe wretched remains of the great dcvadation. Every thing carries the vediges of a malady, of which the hu- man race dill feels the effefts. The ruin of that world is dill imprinted on its inhabi- tants. They are a fpecies of men degraded and degenerated in their natural conditution, in their dature, in their way of life, and in their underdandings, which have made fo little progrefs in all the arts of civilization. A damper air, and a more marlhy ground, mud neceflarily infedl the very roots and feeds both of the fubfidence and multiplica- tion of mankind. It mud have required fome ages to redore population, and dill a greater number before the ground could be fettled and dried fo as to be fit for tillage and for the foundation of buildings. The «arth mud neceflarily be purified before the air could clear, and the air mud be clear be- fore the earth could be rendered habitable. The ■Ai SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 35 . The imperfedlion therefore of nature in A- merica is not a proof of its recent origin, but of its regeneration. It was probably peopled at the fame time as the other hemi- sphere, but may have been overflown later. The large foflil bones that are found under ground in America, ihew that it formerly had elephants, rhinoccrofes, and other enor- mous qnadrupeds, which have fince difap- peared from thofe regions. The gold and filver mines that are found juft below the furface, are figns of a very ancient revolu- tion of the globe, but later than thofe that have overturned our hemifphere. Suppofe America had, by fome means or other, been repeopled by our roving hords, that period would be fo remote, that it would ftill give great antiquity to the inha- bitants of that hemifphere. Three or four centuries will not then be fufficient to allow for the foundation of the empires of Mexico and Peru ; for though we find no trace in thefe countries of our arts, or of the opinions and cufloms that prevail in other parts of the globe, yet we have found a police and a fo- ciety eilablifhed, inventions and pra£iiceS| which, though they did not fhew any marks of times anterior to the deluge, yet they im- plied a long feries of ages fubfequent to this cataftrophe. For though in Mexico, as in Egypt, a country furroi^nded with waters, moun- r 36 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH mountains, and other invincible obftaclcs, muft have forced the men inclofed in it to unite after a time, though they might at firit live in altercations and in continual and bloody wars, yet iuwas only in procefs of time that they could invent and eflablifh a vtrorfliip and a legiflation, which they could not poflibly have borrowed from remote times or coun- tries. The fmgle art of fpeech, and that of writing, though but in hieroglyphics, re- quired more ages to train up an unconnected nation that muft have created both thofe arts, than it would take up days to perfecft a child in both. Ages bear not the fame proportion to the whole race as years do to individuals. The former is to occupy a vaft field, both as to fpace and duration; while the other has only fome moments or inflants of time to fill up, or rather to run over. The likenefs and uniformity obfervable in the features and manners of the American nations, plainly fhew that they are not fo ancient as thofe of our continent which differ fo much from each other ; but at the fame time this cir- cumfkance feems to confirm that they did not proceed from any foreign hemifphere, with which they have no kind of affinity that can indicate an immediate defcent. • » 4. Coni" A a SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 37 4. Compart/on betiveen civilized people and favages. - Whatever maybe the cafe with regard to t icir origin or their antiquity, which are both uncertain, a more interefting object of inquiry, perhaps, is, to determine whe- ther thefe untutored nations are more or Icfs happy than our civilized people. Let us, therefore, examine whether the condition of rude man left to mere animal inftin^l, whofe day, which is fpent in hunting, feeding, pro- ducing his fpecies, and repofing himfelf, is the model of all the reft of his days, is bet- ter or worfe than the condition of that won- derful being, who makes his bed of down, fpins and weaves the thread of the filk-worm to clothe himfelf, has exchanged the cave, his original aboile, for a palace, and has va- ried his indulgences and his wants in a thou- fand different ways. It is in the nature of man that we muft look for his means of happinefs. What does he want to be as happy as he can be ? Prefent fubfiftence ; and, if he thinks of futurity, the hopes and certainty of enjoying that blefling. The favage, who has not been driven to the frigid zones, is not in want of this firft of neceflaries. If he lays in no ftores, it is be- caufe the earth and the fea are refervoirs al- ways f ■' 38 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH vays open to fupply his wants. Fifh and game aie to be had all the year, and will make up for the deficiency of the dead fea- fons. The favage has no clofe houfes, or commodious fire-places; but his furs anfwer all the purpofes of the roof, the garment, and the (love. He works but for his own bene- fit, fleeps when he is weary, and is a ftranger to watchings and reftlcfs nights. War is a matter of choice to him. Danger, like labour, is a condition of his nature, not a profeffion annexed to his birth ; a duty of the nation, not a family bondage. The favage isferious, but not iTielancholy; and his countenance fel- dom bears the impreflion of thofe paffions and diforders that leave fuch fliocking and fatal marks on ours. He cannot feel the want of what he does not defire, nor ran he defire what he is ignorant of. Moft of the conve- nienckes of life are remedies for evils he does not feel. Pleafures are a relief to appetites which are not excited in his fenfations. He feldom experiences any of that wearinefs that arif^s from unfatisfied defires, or that emp- ti*:efs and uneafinefs of mind that is the oiF- fpring of prejudice and vanity. In a word, the favage is fubjecc to none but natural evils. But what greater happinefs than this does the civilized man enjoy? His food is more wholefome and delicate than that of the fa^ vage. • SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 39 vage. He has fofter clothes, and a hahitatioii better fecured againft the inclemencies of the weather. But the common people, who are to be the bafis and obje£l of civil fociety, thofe numbers of men who in all dates bear the burden of hard labour, cannot be faid to live happy, either in thofe empires where the confequences of war and the imperfec- tion of the police has reduced them to a (late of flavery, or in thofe governments where the progrefs of luxury and policy has reduced them to a ftate of fervitude. The mixed go- vernments fometimer afford fome fparks of happinefs, founded on a (hadow of liberty; but this happinefs is purchafed by torrents of blood, which repel tyranny for a time only to let it fall the heavier upon the devoted nation, fooner or later doomed to oppreflion. Let us but obferve how Caligula and Nero have revenged the expulfion of theTarquins and the death of C?efar. Tyranny, we are told, is the work of the people, and not of kings. But if fo, why do > they fufFcr it ? Why do they not repel the en- croachments of defpotifm; and while it em- ploys violence and artifice to enflave all the faculties of men, why do they not oppofe it with all their powers ? But is it lawful to murmur and complain under the rod of the oppreflbr? Will it not exafpcrate and provoke him to purfue the vi£lim to death ? The ' .;i |i i 40 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH ' The cries of fervltude he calls rebellion; and they are to be ftifled in a dungeon, and fome- times on a fcafFold. The man who fhould aflert the rights of man, would perifh in ne- gle£l: and infamy. Tyranny, therefore, mull be endured, under the name of authority. If fo, to what outrages is not the civilized man expofed ! If he is poilefl'ed of any pro- perty, he knows not how far he may call it his own, when he muft divide the produce between the courtier who may attack his eftate, the lawyer who muft be paid for teaching him how to preferve it, the foldier who may lay it wade, and the collector who comes to levy unlimited taxes. If he has no property, how can he be affured of a per- manent fubfiftence ? What fpecies of indu- flry is there fecured againft the vicifTitudes of fortune, and the encroachments of go- vernment ? In the forcfts of America, if there is a fcarcity in the north, the favages bend their courfe to the fouth. The wind or the fun will drive a wandering clan to more tempe- rate climates. Between the gates and bwrs that (hut up our civilized Hates, if famine, war, or peftilence, (houid confume an em- pire, it is a prifon where all muft expe£l fc perilli in mifery, or in the horrors of {laugh- ter. The man who is unfortunately born there muft endure all extortions, all the fe- t verities. I Settlements in America. 41 Verities, that the inclemency of the feafons and the injuftice of government may bring upon him. In our prbvirtces, the vafTil, or free mer- cenary, digs and ploughs the whole year iround, on lands that are nbt his own, and whofe produce does not belong to him ; and he is even happy, if his affiduous labour pro- Cures him a fliare of the crops he has Town and reaped. Obferved and harrafl'ed by a hard and reftlefs landlord, who grudges him the very ftra^ on which he reds his weary limbs, the wretch is daily expofed to difeafesj v»rhich^ joined to his poverty, make him wifli for death, rather than for an eipcnfive cure, followed by infirmities and toil. Whether tenant or fubjedl:, he is doubly a flave: if he has a few acres, his lord comes and gathers where he has not fown ; if he is worth but a yoke of oxen or a pair of horfcs, he muft go with them upon fervices ; if he has no* thing but his perfon, the prince takes hint for a foldier. Every where he meets with mafters, and always with oppreflion. In our cities, the workman and the aftift who have eltablifhments arc at the mercy of greedy and idle mailers, who by the privilege of monopoly have purchafed of government a power of making induftry work for nothing, and of felling its labours at a very high price. The lower clafs have no more than the fight VoL.L D . of mm ih I'' i! 42 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH of that luxury of which they are doubly the vi^ims, by the watchings and fatigues it oc- cafions them, and by the infoJence of the pomp that mortifies and tramples upon them. Even fuppofing that the dangerous labours of our quarries^ mines,, and forges, with all the arts that are performed by fire, and that perils of navigation and commerce were lefs pernicious'than' the roving life of the favageSy who live upon hunting and fifliing j. fuppofe that men, who are ever lamenting the forrows ^nd affronts that arife merely from opinion,, are lefs unhappy th-an the favagea, who never ilied a tear in the midft of the moft excruci- ating tortures V there would flill remain a wide difference between the fate of the civi- lized man and the wild Indian, a difference entirely to the difadvantage of fociai life. This is the injuflice that reigns in the partial didribution of fortunes and {Rations ; an in- equality which is at once the eScQ: and the caufc of oppreflion* In vain does cuftom, prejudice, ignorance, and hard labour, ftupify the lower elafs of mankind, fo as to render them infenfible of their degradation; neither religion nor mo- rality can hinder them from feeing and feel- ing the injuftke of political order in the dif- tribution of good and evil. How often have we heard the poor man expoflulating with Heaven, and aflcing what he had done, that .1^ he SETTLExMENTS IN AMERICA. 4^ lie fhould deferve to be born in an indigent and dependent ftation. Even if great con- flicls were infeparable from more exalted fta- tions, which might be fufficient to balance all the advantages and all the fuperiority that the focial (late claims over the flate of na- ture, Hill the obfcure man, who is unac- quainted with thofe conflicts, fees nothing in a high rank but that affluence which is the caufe of his own poverty. He envies the rich man thofe pleasures to which he is fo accuftomed, that he has loft all relifh for them. What domeftic can have a real affec- tion for his mafter, or what is the attach- ment of a fervant ? Was ever any prince truly beloved by his courtiers, even when he was hated by his fubje(fts? If we prefer our condition to that of the favages, it is becaufe civil life has made us incapable of bearing fome natural hardfhips which the favage is more expofed to than we are, and becaufe we are attached to fome indulgences that cuftom has made necefTary to us. Even in the vi- gour of life, a civilized man may accuflom himfelf tolive among favages, and return to the ftate of nature. We have an inflance of this in that Scotchman who was caft away on the ifland of Fernandez, where he lived alone, and was happy as foon as he was fo taken up with fupplying his wants, as to' forget his own country, his language, his D 2 name. 44 HISTORY OF THE BRITISrf and the name, and even the utterance of words^ After four yearsj he felt himfelf eafed of the burden of focial life, when he had loft all reflecSlion or thought of the paft, and all anxiety for the future. Laftly, the confcioufnefs of independence being one of the firft inflin^fls in man, he who enjoys this primitive right, with a mo- ral certainty of a competent fubfiftence, is incomparably happier than the rich man, re- ftrained by laws, mafters, prejudices, and falhions, which inceflantly remind him of the lofs of his liberty. To compare the ftate of the favages toihat of children, is to decide at once the queftion that has been fo warmly debated by philofophers, concerning the advantages of the ftate of nature, and that of focial life. Children, notwithfland- ing the reftraints of education, are in the happieft age of hum-rn life. Their habitual cheerfulnefs, when they are not under the fchoolmafter's rod, is the furell indication of the happinefs they feel. After all, a fingle word may determine this great queftion. Let us alk the civilized man, whether he is hap- py ; and the favage, whether he is unhappy. If they both anfwer in the negative, the dif- pute is at an end. Civilized nations, this parallel muft cer-* tainly be mortifying to you : but you cannot too ftrongly feel the weight of the calamities under SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 45 ifnder which you groan. The more painful this fenfation is, the more will it awaken your attention to the true caufes of your fuf- ferings. You may at laft be convinced that they proceed from 'the confufion of your opi- nions, from the defe£ls of your political conftitutions, and from capricious laws, which are in continual oppofition to the laws of nature. Afterthis inquiry into the moral date of the Americans, let us return to the natural ftate of their country. Let us fee what it was be- fore the arrival of the Englifli, and what it is become under their dominion. 5. In what flat e the EngUJlj found North A- mericdy and what they have done there. The firft Europeans who went over to fettle Englifli colonies, found immenfe fo-^ refts. The vaft trees, that grew up to the clouds, were fo encumbered with creeping plants, that they could not be got at. The wild beads made thefe woods dill more inac- ceflible. They met only with a few favages, clothed with the (kins of thofe monders. The human race, thinly fcattered, fled from each other, or purfued only with intent to dedroy. The earth feemed ufelefs to man ; and its powers were not exerted fo much for his fupport, as in the breeding of animals, D 3 more 46 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH more obedient to the laws of nature. The earth produced everything at pleafure, with- out aififlance) and without dire(Clion ; it yielded all its bounties with uncontrolled profufion for the benefit of all, not for the pleafure or conveniences of one fpecies of beings. The rivers now glided freely thro' the forefts; now fpreadthemfelves quietly in a wide morafs; from hence iffuingin various llreams, they formed a multitude of iflands, encompafled with their channeL. The fpring was reflored from the fpoils of au- tumn. The leaves dried and rotted at the foot of the trees, fupplied them with frefli fap to enable them to Ihoot out new blolToms. The hollow trunks of trees afforded a retreat to prodigious flights of birds. The fea, dafhing againft the coafts, and indenting the gulphs, threw up fhoals of amphibious mon- iiers, enormous whales, crabs and turtles, that fported uncontrolled on the defert Ihores. There nature exerted her plaftic power, ineeflantly producing the gigantic inhabitants of the ocean, and afferting the freedom of the earth and the fea. But man appeared, and immediately chan- ged the face of North America. He intro- duced fymmetry, by the afliftance of all the indruments of art. The impenetrable woods were inftantly cleared, and made room for commodious habitations. The wild beads weic SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 47 were driven away, and flocks of domeftic ani- Tiials fupplied their place; whilft thorns and briars made way for rich harvefts. The wa- ters forfook part of their domain, and were drained oflF.into the interior parts of the land, or into the fea, by deep canals. The cbafts were covered with towns, and the bays with ihips; and thus the new world, like the old, became fubje6l to man. What powerful en- gines have raifed that wonderful (Irudlur^ of European induftry and policy ? Let us pro- ceed to the particulars. 1)4 BOOK 48 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH * B O O K I, ENGLISH COLONIES SETTLED AT HUDS0N*8 BAY, NEWFOUNDLAND, NOVA SCOTIA, NEW ENGLAND, NEW YO ..vK, AND NEW JERSEY. CH AP. L * Of Hu p S ON*S Ba Y. I, Climate' Cuftcmis of the inhabitants* Trade, IN the remoteft part (lands a folitary objedl:, diftindl from the whole, which is called Hudfon's bay. This bay, of about ten de- grees in length, is formed by ^he ocean in the diftant ai>d northern parts of America. The breadth of the entrance is about fix leagues ; but it is only to be attempted from the begin-r ning of July to the end of September, and is even then extremely dangerous. This danger arifcs from mountains of ice, fome of which are faid to be from 15 to 18 hundred feet thick, and which having been produced by winters of five or fi:^ years duration in little gu!|,hs SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 49 gulphs coriftantly filled with fnow, are forced out of them by north-well wirtds, or by fomc other extraordinary caufe. The beft way of avoiding them is to keep as near as poflible to the northern <;oall, which muft necefTarily be Icfs obftrudled and mo^ free by thj natural dire£lions of both winds and currents. The north-weft wind, which blows almofl; conitantly in winter, and very often in fum- mer, frequently raifes violent ftorms within the bay itfelf, which is rendered ftill more dangerous by the number of flioals that are found there. Happily, however, fmall groups of iflands are met with at different diitances, which are of a fufficient height to afford a flielter from the ftorm. Befides thefe fmall Archipelagos, there are in many places large piles of bare rock ; but, except the Alga Ma- rina, the bay produces as few vegetables as the other northern feas. Throughout all the countries furrounding this bay, the fun ne- ver rifes or fets without forming a great cone of light ; this phenomenon is fucceeded by the Aurora Borealis, which tinges the he- mifphere with coloured rays of fuch a bril- liancy, that the fplendour of them is not ef- faced even by that of the full moon. Not- withftanding this, there is feldom a bright (ky. In fpring and autumn, the air is always filled with thick fogs; and in winter, with an infinite number of fmall icicles. ' • Though i 50 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH Though the heats in the fummer are pret- ty confiderable for fix weeks or two months, there is feldom any thunder or lightning, ow- ing, no doubt, to the great number of fulphu- reous exhalations, which, however, are fome- times fet on fire by the Aurora Borealis ; and this light flame confumes the barks of the trees, but leaves their trunks untouched. One of the efFe£ls of the extreme cold or fnow that prevails in this climate, is that of turning thofe ii*iimals white in winter, which are naturally brown or grey. Nature has be- ftowed upon them all, foft, long, and thick furs, the hair of which falls ofi^ as the wea- ther grows milder. In moil of thefe quadru- peds, the feet, the tail, the ears, and gene- rally fpeaking all thofe parts in which the cir- culation is flower beeaufe they are moft re- mote from the heart, are extremely fhort. Wherever they happen to be fomewb lon- ger, they are proportionably well Co.v,ied. Under this heavy fky, all liquors become fo- iid by freezing, and break whatever vefiels contain them. Even fpirits of wine lofes its fluidity. It is not uncommon to fee frag- tnents of large rocks teofened and detached from the great mafs, by the force of the froft. All thefe phenomena, common enough du- ring the whole winter, are much more ter- rible at the new and full moon, which in thefe regions has an influence upon the wea- ther. SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 51 ther, the caufes of which are not known. In this frozen zone, iron, lead, copper, mar- ble, and a fubftance refembling fea-coal,havc been difcovered. In other refpe£^s, the foil is extremely barren. Except the coafts, which are for the mod part marfhy,where there grows a little grafs and fome foft wood, the reft of the country offers nothing but very high mofs and a few weak fhrubs thinly fcattered. This ilerility of nature extends itfelf to e- very thing. The human race are few in num- ber, and fcarce any of its individuals above four feet high. Their heads bear the fame enormous proportion to the reft of their bo- dies, as thofe of children do. The fmallnefs of their feet makes them aukward r*nd totter- ing in their gait. Small hands and a round mouth, which in Europe are reckoned a beauty, feem almoft a deformity in thefe peo- ple, becaufe we fee nothing here but the ef- fects of a weak organization, and of a cold that contradls and reftrains the fprings of growth, and is fatal to the progrefs of animal as well as of vegetable life. Beiides this, all their men, though they have neither hair nor beard, have the appearance of being old. This is partly occaiioned from the formation of their lower lip, which is thick, fle{by> and proje£ling beyond the upper. Such are the Efquimaux, which inhabit not only the coaft cf Labrador, from whence they have taken ^ their 52 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH their name, but likewife all that traO: of coun* try which extends illelf from the point of Belle-Ille to the mod northern parts of Ame- rica. The inhabitants of Hudfon's bay have, like the Grcenlanders, a flat face, with fliort but flattened nofes, the pupil of their eyes yellow and the iris black. Their women have marks of deformity peculiar to their fex ; amonglt others, very long and flabby brealts. This de- fe£l, which is not natural, arifes from their cu- flom of giving fuck to their cliildren till they are five or fix years old. The children pull their mothers breads with their hands, and almoft fufpend themfelves by them. Il is not true that there are races of the Efquimaux entirely black, as has been fince fuppofed, and afterwards accounted for ; nor that they live under ground. How Ibould they dig into a foil, which the cold renders harder than (tone ? How is it poflTible they fliould live in caverns where they would be infallibly drowned by the firft melting of the fnows? What, however, is certain, and al- moft equally furprifing, is, that they fpend the winter under huts run up in hafte, and made of flints joined together with cements of ice, where they live without any other fire but that of a lamp hung up in the middle of the rued, for the purpofe of drefljng their game and the fifh they feed upon. The heat of SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA, si of their blood, and of their breath, added to the vapour arifiug from this fmall flame, is fufficient to make their huts as hot as ftoves. The Efquimaux dwell conftantly near the fea, which fupplies them with uU their pro- vifions. Both their conftitution and com- plexion partake of the quality of their food. The flefli of the feal is their food, and the oil of the whale is their drink; which produces in them all an olive complexion, a ftrongfmell of fifli, an oily and tenacious fweat, and fome- timcs a fort of fcaly leprofy. This lad is, pro- bably, the reafon why the mothers have the fame cullom as the bears, of licking their young ones. This nation, weak and degraded by nature, is notwithftanding mod intrepid upon a fea that is conflantly dangerous. In boats made and fewed together in the fame manner as goat-lkin bottles, but at the fame time fo well clofed that it is impofliblc for water to pene- trate them, ihey follow the (hoals of herrings thro* the whole of their polar emigrations, and attack the whales and feals at the peril of their lives. One ftroke of the whale's tail is fuffici- ent to drown a hundred of them, and the feal is armed with teeth to devour thofe he cannot drown; but the hunger of the Efquimaux is fuperior to the rage of thefe monflers. They have an inordinate thiril for the whale's oil ; which is nccclFary to prefer ve the heat in their 54 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH their ftomachs, and defend them from the fc^- verity of the cold. Indeed whales, men, birds, and all the quadrupeds and fifh of the north, are fupplied by nature with a degree of fat which prevents the mufcles from freezing, and the blood from coagulating. Every thing in thefe ar6^ic regions is either oily or gum- my, and even the trees are refinous. The Efquimaux are notwithftanding fub- je£l: to two fatal diforders; the fcurvy, and the lofs of fight. The continuation of the fnows on the ground, joined to the reverbe- ration of the rays of the fun on the ice, dazzle their eyes in fuch a manner, that they are al- nioft conilantly obliged to wear fliades made of very thin wood, through which fmall aper- tures for the light have been bored with fifh- bones. Doomed to a fix-months night, they never fee the fun but obliquely, and then it feems rather to blind them, than to give them light. Sight, the moft delightful blefling of nature, is a fatal gift to them, and they arc generally deprived of it when ^oung. A ftill more cruel evil, which is the fcurvy, confumes them by How degrees. 1 infinuates itfelf into their blood, changes, thickens, and impoveriihes the whole mafs. The fogs of the fea, which they infpire; the denfe and in- claftic air they breathe in their huts, which are lliut up from all communication with the external air; the continued and tedious inac- tivity SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 55 tivlty of their winters; a mode of life alter- nately roving and fedentary, every thing, in Ihort, ferves to increafe this dreadful illnefs; which in a little time becomes contagious, and, fpreading itfelf throughout their habita- tions, is but too probably tranfmitted by the means of generation, Notwithftanding thefe inconveniences, the Efquimaux is fo paiTionately fond of, his country, that no inhabitant of the moft fa- voured fpot under heaven quits it with more relu6lance than he does his frozen deferts. One of the reafons of it may be, that he finds it difficult to breathe in a fofter and cooler climate. The (ky of Amfterdam, Copenha- gen, and London, though conftantly obfcu- red by thick and fetid vapours, is too clear for an Efquimaux. Perhaps, too, there may be fomething in the change of life and man- ners ftiil more contrary to the health of fava- ges than the climate. It is not impoflible but that the indulgences of an European may be a poifon to the Efquimaux. Such were the inhabitants of the country difcovercd in i6io by Henry Hudfon. This intrepid mariner, in fearching after a north- weft paflage to the fouth-feas, difcovered three ftreights, through which he hoped to find out a new way to Afia by America. He failed boldly into the midft of the new gulph ; and was preparing to explore all its parts, when S6 HISTORY OF TIlE BRITlSrf when his treacherous fhip's company put him into the long-boat, with feven others, and left him without either arms or provifions expofed to all the dangers both of fea and land. The barbarians, who refufed him the neceflaries of life, could not, however, rob him of the honour of the difcoverv ; and the bay which he firft found out will ever be called by his name* The miferies of the Civil w^ar which foU lowed foon after, had, however^ made the Englifli forget this diftant country, which had nothing to attradt them. More quiet times had not yet brought it to their remembrance^ ■when Grofeillers and Radiflbn, two French Canadians, who had met with fome difcon- tent at home, informed the Englilh, who were engaged in repairing by tradd the mif- chiefs of difcord, of the profits arifing from furs, and of their claim to the country that furnilhed them. Thofe who propcfed the bufinefs fhewed fo much ability, that they were intrufted with the execution; and the firft eftabliftiment they formed fucceeded fo well, that it furpafled their own hopes as well VLB their promifes. This fucccfs alarmed the French ; whd were afraid, and with reafon, that moft of the fine furs which they got from the nor- thern parts of Canada, would be carried to Hudfon*s bay. Their alarms were confirmed 2 by SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 57 by the unanimous teftimony of their Cou- reurs de Bois, who fmce 1656 had been four times as far as the borders of the ftrait. It would have been a defirable thing to have gone by the fame road to at- tack the new colony ; but the diftance being thought too confiderable,notwithftanding the convenience of the rivers, it was at length determined that the expedition fhould be made by fea. The fate of it was trufted to Grofeillers and Radiflbn, who had been eafily brought back to a regard for their country. Thefe two bold and refllcfs men failed from Quebec in 1682, upon two veflels badly- fitted out; but on their arrival, finding them- felves not ftrong enough to attack the enemy, they were contented with erecting a fort in the neighbourhood of that they thought to have taken. From thij time there began a rivalfliip between the two companies, one fettled at Canada, the other in England, for the cxclufive trade of the bay, which was CO al^ntly fed by the difputes it gave birth to, till at laft, after each of their fettlrnients had been frequently taken by the other, all hoftilities were terminated by the treaty of Utrecht, which gave up the whole to Great Britain. Hudfon's Bay, properly fpeaking, is only a mart for trade. The feverity of the cli- VoL. I. E mate ^8 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH mate having deflroyed all the corn fown there at different times, has fruftrated every hope of agriculture, and confequently of po- pulation. Throughout the whole of this ex- tenfive coaft, there are not more than ninety or a hundred foldiers, or favors, comprifed in four bad forts, of virhich York fort is the principal. Their bufinefs is to receive the furs which the neighbouring favages bring in exchange for merchandife, of which they have been taught the value and ufe. Though thcfe (kins are of much more va- lue than thofe which come out of countries not fo far north, yet they are cheaper. The favages give ten beaver (kins for a gun, two for a pound of powder, one for four pounds of lead, one for a hatchet, one for fix knives, two for a pound of glafs beads, fix for a cloth coat, five for a petticoat, and one for a pound of fnufF. Combs, looking-glaiTeSy kettles, and brandy, fell in proportion. As the beaver is the common meafure of ex- change, by another regulation as fraudulent as the firft, two otter's ikins and three mar- tins are required inftead of one beaver. Be- fides this tyranny, which is authorifed, there is another which is at leail tolerated, by which the favages are conftantly defrauded in the quality, quantity, and meafure of what is given them ; and the fraud amounts to about one third of the value. From SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 59 From this regular fyftem of impofition it is cafy to guefs that the commerce of Hudfon's bay is a moijopoly. The capital of the com- pany that is in pofleflion of it was originally no more than 10,565!. 12 s. 6d. and has been fuccelFively increafed to 104,1461. 12 s. 6d, This capital brings them in an annual return of forty or fifty thoufand fkins of beavers or other animals, upon which they make fo ex- orbitant a profit, that it excites the jealoufy and clamours of the nation. Two thirds of thefe beautiful furs are either confumed in kind in the three kingdoms, or made ufc of in the national manufactures. The reft are carried into Germany, where the climate makes them a valuable commodity. 2» Whether there is a pajjage at HudforC^ Bay leading to the Eaft Indies, But it is neither the acquifition of the.e favage riches, nor the ftill greater emolu- ments that might be drawn from this trade if it were made free, which has fixed the attention of England as well as that of all Eu- rope upon this frozen continent. Hudfon's bay always has been and is ftill looked upon as the neareft road from Europe to the Eaft- Indies, and to the richeft parts of Afia. Cabot was the firft who entertained an idea of a north-weft pafiage to the fouth E 2 feas •, 6o HISTORY OF THE BRITISH. feas ; but his difcoveries ended at Newfound- land. After him followed a crowd of Englifli navigators, many of whom had the glory of giving their names to favage coafts which no mortal had ever vifited before. Thefe bold and memorable expeditions were more bril- liant than really ufeful. The mod fortunate of them did not ever furnifh a frefli conjec- ture on the end that was propofed. The Dutch, lefs frequent in their trials, lefs ani- mated in the means by which they purfued them, were of courfe not more fuccefsful, and the whole began to be treated as a chi- maera, when the difcovery of Hudfon's Bay rekindled all the hopes that were nearly ex- tinguifhed. At this period the attempts were renewed with frefh ardour. . Thofe that had been made before in vain by the mother country, now taken up with her own inteftine com- motions, were purfued by New England, whofe fituation was favourable to the enter- prize. Still, however, for fome time there ■were more voyages undertaken than difcove- ries made. The nation was a long time kept in fufpenfe by the different accounts of the adventures divided amongft themfelves. While fome maintained thepoflibility, others the probability, and others again aflerted the Certainty, of the paflage ; the accounts they gave^ inltead of clearing up the point, invol- ved SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 6i ved it in ftill greater darknefs. Indeed, thefe accounts are fo full of obfcurity and confufion, fo many things are concealed in them, and they difplay fuch vifible marks of ignorance and want of veracity, that with the utmoft de- fire of deciding, it is impoflible to build any thing like a folid judgment upon teftimonies fo fufpicious. At length, the famous expe- dition of 1746 threw fome kind of light up- on a point which had remained inveloped in darknefs for two centuries paft. But upon what grounds have the later navigators ta- ken up better hopes ? What are the experi- ments on which they found their conjedlures? Let us proceed to give an account of their arguments. There are three fa6ts in natu- ral hiftory, which henceforward muft be ta- ken for granted. The firft is, that the tides come from the ocean, and that they extend more or lefs into the other feas, in proportion as their channels communicate with the great refervoirs by larger or fmaller openings ; whence it follows, that this periodical mo- tion is fcarce perceptible in the Mediterra- nean, in the Baltic, and in other gulphs of the fame nature. A fecond matter of fa6t is, that the tides are much later and much weaker in places more remote from the ocean, than in thofe which are nearer to it. The third fa6t is, that violent winds, which blow in a diredion with the tides, make them rife E 3 above 6a HISTORY OF THE BRITISH above their ordinary boundaries; and that thofe which blow in a contrary direction re- tard the motion of the tides, at the fame time that they diminifh their fwell. From thefe principles, it is mod certain, that if Hudfon's bay were no more than a gulph inclofed between two continents, and had no communication but with the Atlan- tic, the tides in it would be very inconfid-t:- rable ; they would be weaker in proportion as they were further removed from the fource, and they would be much lefs ftrong whei '^ ever they had to refill oppofite winds. But it is proved by obfervations made with the greatefl (kill and precifion, that the tides are very high throughout the whole of the bay. It is certain that they are higher towards th? bottom than even at the very mouth of the bay, or at lead in the neighbourhood of it. It is proved, that even this height increafes whenever the wind blows from a corner op- pofite to the ftreight. It is, therefore, cer- tain, that Hudfon's bay has a communication with the ocean, befides that which has been already found out. Thofe who have endeavoured to explain thefe very ftriking fa£ls, by the fuppofition of a communication of Hudfon's bay with Baffin's bay, or with Davis's ftraits, are evidently miftaken. They would not fcruple to allow it, if they only conftdered, that the tides SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 63 tides are much lower in Davis's ftraits, and in Baffin's bay, than in Hudfon*s. But if the-tides in Hudfon*s bay can come neither from the Atlantic ocean, nor from any other northern fea, in which they are conllantly much weaker, it follows that they muft come from fome part in the fouth fea. And this is ftill further apparent from ano- ther leading fa6l, which is, that the highefl tides ever obferved upon thefe coafts are al- ways occafioned by t^e north-weft winds, which blow dir©d:ly again ft the mouth of the ftraits. Having thus determined, as much as the nature of the fiibje£l will permit, the exift- ence of this paft'age fo long and fo vainly wifhed for, the next point is to find out in what part of the bay it is to be expefted. Every thing inclines us to- think, that the at- tempts, hitherto made without either choice or method, ought to be direfted towards Welcome-bay, on the weftern coaft. Firft, the bottom of the fea is found there at the depth of about elevtn fathom; which is an evident fign that the water corner from fome ocean, as fuch a tranfparency is incompatible either with the waters difcharged from ri- vers, or with melted fnow or rain. Second- ly, the current keeps this place always free from ice, whilft all the reft of the bay is co- vered with it ; and their violence cannot hs E 4 ao 64 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH accounted for but by fuppofing them to come from fome weftern fea. Laftly, the whales, who' towards autumn always go in fearch of the warmeft climates, are found in great a- bundance in thefe parts towards the end of fummer ; which would feem to indicate, that they have a way of going from thence to the fouth feas, not to the northern ocean. It is probable, that the paflage is very fhort. All the rivers that empty themfelves into the weftern coaft of Hudfon's bay are fmall and flow, which feems to prove that they do not come from afar j and that con- fequently the lands w hich part the two feas are of a fmall extent. This argument is jftrengthened by the height and regularity of the tides. Wherever there is no other differ- ence^ between the times of the ebb and flow, but that which is occafioned by the retarded progrefllon of the moon in her return to the meridian, it is a certain ilgn that the ocean from whence thofc tides com.e is very near. If the pc'ffage is (hort, and not very far to ihc north, as e.vry thing feems to promife, we may alfo prefame that it is not very diffi- cult. The rapidity of the currents obfervable in thefe latitudes, which do not allow any cakes of ice to continue in them, cannot but give fome weight to this conjedture. The difcoveries that ftill remain to be iTiade are of fo much .importancep that it w.q'jIcJ WH^ SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 65 would be folly to give them up. If the paf- fage fo long fought for were once found, communications would be opened between parts of the globe which hitherto feem to have been feparated by nature from each other. They would foon be extended to the continent of the fouth feas, and to all the numerous iflands fcattered upon that immenfc ocean. The intercourfe which has fubfifled nearly for three centuries between the com- mercial nations of Europe and the moft remote parts of India, being happily freed from the inconveniences of a long naviga- tion, would be much briiker, more conftant, and more advantageous. It is not to be doubted that the Englifh would be defirous of fecuring an exclufive enjoyment of the fruit's of their aftivity and expences. This wifh would certainly be very natural, and would' be very powerfully fupported. But as the advantages obtained would be of fucli a nature, that it would be impofllble always to preferve the fole pofleflion of it, we may- venture to foretel, that all nations muft in time become partakers of it with them. Whenever this happens, both the (traits of Magellan and Cape Horn will be entirely de- ferred, and the Cape of Good Hope much lefs frequented. Whatever the confequences of the difcovery may be, it is equally for the intereft and dignity of Great Britain to pur- fue CG HISTORY OF THE BRITISH fue her attempts, till they are either crowned with fuccefs, or the impofTibility of fucceed- ing is fully demonftratetl. The rcfoiution fhe has already taken in 1745 of promiiing a confiderable reward to the feamen who (hall make this important difcovery, though it be an equal proof of the wifdom and generofity of her councils, is not alone fufficient to at- tain the end fuppofed. The Englifli miiii- ftry cannot be ignorant, that all the efforts made either by government, or individuals, will prove abortive, till luch time as the trade to Hudfon*s bay (hall be entirely free. The company in whofe hands it has been every fince 1670, not content with neglect- ing the chief obje6l of its inflituti'.n, by ta- king no fteps itfclf fo** the difcovery of the Ncrth-weft paffage, has thrown every impe- diment in the way of thofe who from love of fame, or other motives, have been promp- ted to this great undertaking. Nothing can ever alter ihis iniquitous fpirit, for it is the very fpirit of monopoly. H CHAP. 11. Of Newfoundland. I. Defcription, Appily the exclufive privilege which prevails at Hudfon's bay, and feems to ex- SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 67 exclude all nations from the means of ac- quiring knowledge and riches, docs not ex- tei'id its oppfeflion to Newfoundland. This itland, fituated between 46 and 52 degrees of north latitude, is feparated from the coaft of Labrador only by a channel of moderate breadth, known by the name of Belleifle Straits. It is of a triangular form, and a little more than thrf»e hundred leagues in cir- cumference. We can only fpcak by conjec- ture of the inland piirts of it, from the diffi- culty of penetrating far into it, and the ap- parent inutility of fucceeding in the attempt. The little that is known of t^MS ftrait is, that it is full of very deep rocks, mountains covered with bad wood, and fome very nar- row and fandy valleys. Thefe inacceifible places are flocked with deer, which multiply with the greater eafe, from the fecurity of their fituation. No favages have ever been feen there except fome Efquimaux, who come overfrom the continent in the hunting feafon. The coaft abounds with creeks, roads, and harbours ; is fometimes covered with mofs, but more commonly with fmall peb- bles, which feem as if they had been placed there with defign. for the purpofe of drying the fifh caught in the neighbourhood. lu all the open places, where the flat ftones reflc£l the fun's rays, the heat is excefllve. The reft of the country is intcnfely cold} lefs fo, how^ 68 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH however, from its fituation, than from the heijijhts, the forefts, the winds, and ahove all the vail mountains of ice which come oat of the northern feas, and are flopped on thefe coafts. The (ky towards the north and weftern parts is conftantljr ferene ; it is much lefs fo towards the eaft and fouth, both of them being too near the great bank, which is enveloped in a perpetual fog. This ifland was originally difcovered in 1497, ^y ^^^ Venetian Cabot, at that time in the fcrvice of England, who made no fet- tkment there. It was prefumcd, from the feveral voyages made after this, with a view of examining what advantages might be de- rived from it, that it was fit for nothing but the cod fifliery, which is very common in that fea. Accordingly the Englifli ufed to fend out at firil fmall vefl'els in the fpring, which returned again in autumn with their freight of filh both fait and frefli. The confump- tion of this article became almofl univerfal, and there was a great demand for it parti- cularly among the Roman Catholics. The EngliOi availed themfelves of this fuperlli- tion, to enrich themfelves at the expence of the clergy, who had formerly drawn their "wealth from England; and thought of form- ing fettlements there. The firil, that were edabliOied at great intervals from. one ano- ther, were unfucccfsful, and were all for- faken SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 69 faken foon after they were founded. The lirft that acquired any confidence was in 1608; the fuccefs of which raifcd fuch a fpirit of emulation, that, within forty years, all the fpace betv/een Conception-bay and Cape Ras was peopled by a colony amount- ing to above four thoufand fouls. Thofe who were employed in the fifhery, being forced, both from the nature of their occupa- tions and that of the foil, to live at a didance from each other, cut paths of communica- tion through the woods. Their general ren- dezvous was at St John's ; where, in an ex- cellent harbour, protected by two mountains at a very fmall diilance from each other, and large enough to contain above two hun- dred (liips, they ufed to meet with priva- teers from the mother country, who carried off the produce of their fifhery, and gave them other neceflaries in exchange for it. The French did not wait for this pro- fperity of the Englifh trade, to turn their thoughts to Newfoundland. They had for a long time frequented the fouthern parts of the illand, where the Malouins in particular came every year to a place they had called the Petit Nord. After this fome of them fixed without any order upon the coaft from Cape Ray to Chapeau Kuuge ; and at length they became numerous enough to form fomething like a town in the bay of Piacentia, where they 7© HISTORY OF THE BRITISH they had every convenience that could make their fifhcry fuccefsful. Before the bay is a road of about a league and a half in breadth ; not, however, fuffici- cntly fheltered from the N, N. W. winds, which blow there with extreme violence. The flrait which forms the entrance of the bay is fo confined by rocks, that only one veflel can enter at a time, and even that muft be towed in. The bay itfelf is about eighteen leagues long, and at the extremity of it there is an exceeding fafe harbour which holds 150 (hips. Notwithftanding the advantage of fuch a fituation for fecuring to France the whole filhery of the fouthern coafl of Newfoundland, the miniftry of Ver- failles paid very little attention to it. It was not till 1687 that a fmall fort was built at the mouth of the ftrait, in which a gar- rifon was placed of about fifty men. Till this period, the inhabitants whom neceflTity had fixed upon this banen and fa- vage coaft had been happily forgotten ; but from that time began a fyftem of oppreflion which continued increafing every day from the rapacioufnefb of thefucceflive governors. This tyranny, by which the colonifts were prevented from acquiring that degree of competency that was nccefl'ary to enable them to purfue their labours with fuccefs, niuft alfo hinder them from increafing their nuni- SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 71 numbers. The French fifliery, therefore, could never profper as that of the Englifh. Notwithftanding this, Great Britain did not forget, at the treaty of Utrecht, the inroads that had fo ofttn been made upon their ter- ritories by their enterprizing neighbours, who, fupported by the Canadians accuftom- ed to expeditions and to the fatigues of the thacCj trained up in the art of buih-fighting, and exercifed in fudden attacks, had feveral times carried devaftation into her fcttle- ments. This was fufficient to induce her to demand the entire pofleflion of the ifland, and the misfortunes of the times obliged the French to fubmit to this facrifice ; not, however, without referving to themfelves the right of filliing not only on one part of the ifland, but alfo on the Great Bank, which was confidered as belonging to it. 2. Fijberics. The fifli which makes thefe latitudes fo famous, is the cod. They are never above three feet long, and often lefs ; but there arc no fifli in the whole ocean whofe mouth is fo large in proportion to their fizc, or which are fo voracious. Broken pieces of earthen ware, iron, and glafs, arc often found in their bellies. The liomach, indeed, does not di- gell thefe hard fubftances, as it hath long been r ji HISTORY OF THE BRITISH been thought ; but it hath the power of in- verting itfelf, like a pocket, and thus dif- charges whatever loads it. The cod fifli is found in the northern feas of Europe. The fifliery is carried on by- thirty Englifh, fixty French, and 150 Dutch veflels, one with another from Soto 100 tons burden. Their competitors are the Irifh, and efpecially the Norwegians. The latter are employed, before the fifhing feafon, in colledling upon the coaft the eggs of the cod, which is a bait neceflary to catch pilchards. They fell, communibus annis, from twenty to twenty-two thoufandtons of this fifh, at 7 s. lof d. per ton. If it could be difpofed of, a great deal ir.ore would be caught ; for an able naturalift, who has had the patience to count the eggs of one (ingle cod, has found 9,344,000 of them. This profufion of na- ture muft ftill be increafed at Newfound- land, where the cod fifh is found in infi- nitely greater plenty. The fifli of Newfoundland is alfo more de- licate, though not fo white ; but it is not an object of trade when frefli, and only ferves for the food of thofe who are employed on the fifiiery. When it is falted and dried, or only falted, it becomes an ufcful article to ^ great part of Europe and America. That which is only falted is called green cod, and 18 caught upon the great bank. 2 This It mmmmif^ ^ SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 75 This flip of land is one of thofe mountains formed under waterby the earth which thefea is continuaHy wafhing away from the conti- nent. Both its extremities terminate fo much in a point, that it is difficult to afHgn the prccife extent of it; but it is generally reckoned to be 160 leagues long and 90 broad. Towards the middle of it, on the European fide, is a kind of bay, which has been called the Ditch. Throughout all this fpace, the depth of witer is very different ; in fome places there are only five, in others above fixty fathom. The fun fcarce ever fhews it- felf there, and the flcy is c^enerally covered with a thick cold fog. The waves are al- ways agitated, and the winds always impe- tuous around it, which muft be owing to the fea being irregularly driven forward by cur- rents, which bear fometimes on pne fide, fomctimes on the other, and ftrike againft the borders, whicb are every where perpen- dicular, and repel them with equal violence. This is mofl likely to be the true caufe; be- caufe on the bank itfelf, at fome diftancc from the coafl, it is as quiet as in a bay, ex- cept when there happens to be a fol^ced wind which comes from a- greater diflance. ^ From the middle of July to the latter end of Auguft there is no cod found cither upon the great bank or any of the fmall ones near it ; but all the reft of the year the fifliery is - Vol. I. F carried ■^ 74 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH carried on. The fhips employed in it are commonly from 50 to 150 tons, and carry not lefs than twelve or more than twenty- five men aboard. Thefe fiihermen are pro- vided with lines; and before thev fet to work, catch a fifli called the caplin, which is a bait for the cod. Previous to theirentering upon the fiflicry, they build a gallery on the outfide of the fhip, which reaches from the main mail to the ilern, and fomctimes the v/hole length of it. This gallery is furniflied with barrels, of which the top is beaten out. The lifher- men place themfelves within thefe, and are flieltered from the weather by a pitched co- vering faftened to the barrels. As foon as they catch a cod, they cut out its tongue, and give it to one of the boys to carry to a perfon appointed for the purpofe, who im- mediately ftrikes off the head, plucks out the liver and entrails, and then lets it fall thro* a fmall hatchway between the decks ; when another man takes it, an^l draws out the bone as far as the navel, and then lets it fink through another hatchway into the hold j where it is falted and ranged in piles. The perfon who faks it, is attentive to leave fait enough between the rows of fiih which form the piles, to prevent their touching each other, and yet not to leave too much, as either excefs would fpoil the cod. In th( SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 75 In the right of nature, the fiihing upon the great bank ought to have been common to all m?.nkind : notwithftanding which, the two powers who have colonies in North America have made very little difficulty of appropiiating it to themfelves ; and Spain, who alone could have any claim to it, and who from the number of her monks might have pleaded the neceflity of aflerting it, en- tirely gave up the matter at the laft peace; fince which time the Englifh and French are the only nations who frequent thefe latitudes. In 1768, France fet out 145 fhips; the expence of which is valued at 1 1 1,431/. 51. Thefe veflels, which carried in all 8830 tons, were manned by 1700 men; who upon an a- verage, and according to calculations afcer- tained by being often repeated, mufl: have caught each 700 fifti; fo that the whole of thefifhery muft have produced 1,190,000. Thefe cod are divided into three feparate clafies ; the firft confifts of thofe which are twenty-four inches in length orupwards, the fecond comprehends thofe which meafure from nineteen to twenty-four, and the third takes in all that are under nineteen inches. If the fifhery has yielded, as it commonly does, two fifths of good fifh, two fifths of moderate fi(h, and one fifth of bad, and if the filli has been fold at the common F price, which 76 HISTORY OF THE BRH^ISH which is 61. lis. 3 J. the hundred weight, the produce of the whole fifliery will amount 1045,937/. 10 J. The hundred weight is compofcd of 1 36 cod of the firft quality, and of 272 of the fecond ; which two forts taken together fell for 7/. 17J. 61L the hundred. Only 136 cod are required to make up the hundred weight of the third clafs ; but thiij hundred weight fells only for one third of the other, and is worth only 2/. I2j. 6d. when the firft is worth 7/. lys. 6d, Confe- quently the 1^190,000 cod really ca^ight, and reduced in this manner, make only 700,000 cod, which at 6/. lis. 3^. the hundred weight, which is the mean price of the three forts of fifh, will produce only 45,937/. 10 s. Out of this the crew muft receive for their fhare, which is one ^fth, 9,187/. 10 j. Con- fequently therf remains only 36,750/. profit for the undertakers. This is not fufficient, as will be eafily be made evident. Firft, we muft dedu6t the expences of unloading *, which, for the 14 cj fliips, cannot be reckon- ed at lefs than 380/. lis. 6d. The infurance of 111,431/. 5/. at five per cent, muft amount to 5,571/. II J. 3 J. As much alfo muft be dedu£led for the intereft of the money. The value of the fliips muft be eftimated at two thirds of the capital advanced, and will there- fore be 74,287 /. 10 s. If we allow no more than five per cent, fgr the annual repair of the SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 77 the (liips, we fliall ftill be obliged to fub^raut tlicre ;ire funic harbours where the ilraiid SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 8i Oicind is at fo grc.u a di (lance from rbo fea, tr.at a great deal of time is loft in ^cltin'; to th c m and othcrr,, in which the bottom i oi iolid rock, ami without varech, fo that the filh do not frequent them. There are othcri a^;ain, where the filli grow yellow from a ini-vtuic of freih water with the fait; and fv)mc, in which, it is burned up by the rever- beration of the fun's rays refiecled from the mountains. 'en ni th c mo II f avourablc h irboirs, the people are not always fure of A fuccefsful fifhery. The fifh cannot abound equally in all parts; it isfometimes found to the north, fomerimes co the fouth, and at other times in the middle of the coaft, ac- cordinn: as it is driven bv the winds or attrac- ted by the caplin. The fifliermen, who happen to fix at a diftance from the pi aces which the lilh may chule to frecpient, arc very unfortunate; for their e.\penees are all thrown away by the impoiribility of follow- in); the iilh with all that is requifite for the fifiiery. The fiibery ends about the bci^tnnlng of September, becaufe at that time the fun is no longer powerful enough to dry the liili ; but when it lias been fuccefsful, the mana- gers give over before that time, and make the bell of their way either to the Caribbees, or to the Roman Catholic dates in Euro pCj tiiat they may not be deprived of the advan- ta|J;cs 82 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH tajTjes of the firft market, which might be loil by an over lloclc. In 1768, France fent out in this trade 1 14 vcflVls, carrying in all 15,590 tons; the prime coltof which, together with the firilexpences of fettingout, had amounted to 247,668/. 151. The united crews, half of which w»:re em- ployed in taking tlie filh, and the other half in curing it, confiiled oi 8022 men. Every » iiHierman mull have taken for his fhare 6000 cod, and confeqnently the produce of the whoL' mud have been 24,066,000 cod. Ex- perience Ihews that there are i 25 cod to each <]uintal. Confequeiltly 24,066,000 mud have U)ade 162,5 7.8 quintals. I^ach quintal upon an average fold at about 14J. 5 J. which makes for the whole f.de 138,875/. ijs. 2 } ci. As every hundred quintal of cod yields one bar- rel of oil, 192,528 quintals mull have yield- ed 1925 barrels, which at 5 /. 5 i. a barrel makes 10,106/. 5;. Add to thefe, the pro- ilts of freight made by the fliips in returning home from the ports where they fold their cargoes, which are eltimatcd at 8662/. lox. and the total profits of the fifliery will not be found to have amounted to more than 157,644 .' 12/. 2^ d. We may fpare our readers a detail of the expences of unloading, which are as troubK fome in their minutcnefs as in their infigni- iicancv. The calculations of thefe have been made SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 8, made with the grcalcll care and artenticn, and the accounts confirmed by very irutlli- gcnt and difintercfted men, who from fheir profcffions mud have been the proper judges of this matter, 'ihey amount in the whole to 30,436 /. 10 J. 9 il. (o that the net proiluce of the filliery amounted only to 127,208/. lis. 2,il. Fiom thefe profits the infurance-money mull be dcdu^^ed, which at 6 per cent, up- on a capita! of 247,668/. 15/. amounts to 14,860/. 2 J. 6 J. We mud alfo rcckoi; the interefi; of the money; making, at 1; p^Tcent. 1 2, '3.8'?/. 8/. Q d. Neither mull we omit tlio wear of the (liips; the prime coil of which, making half the whole capital, mull be fet down at i 23,834 /. 7 s. 6 d. This wear there- fore, which cannot be reckoned at lefs than 6 percent, mud amount to 6191 /. 14/. 4^^/. Admitting all thefe circumllaiices, which indeed cannot be called in qucilion, it follows that the French have loll upon this filhery, in 1768, 30,061/. IS. S d. and confequentiy 10 X. J^d. percent, of their capital. Such ioffes, which unfortunately have been but loo often repeated, will wean the nation more and more from this ruinous branch of trade. Individuals who llill carry it on, will foon give it up; and it is even probable, that, in imitation of the Engllfli, they would have done fo already, if like them thev had been y f ibh 84 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH able to make tbcmfclves amends by tbc Ila- tioiKiry (i(bery. By Stationary Fifliery, we aretounderflaud fbat which is made by the Europeans who have fcttlements on thofe cnalls of America where the cod is mod plentiful. It is infi- nitely more profitable than the wandering fiOicry, bccaufe it requires much Icfs ex- pence, and may be continued much longer. Thefe advantages the French enjoyed as long as they remained peaceable polVcl]brs of Aca- dia, C.ipc Breton, Canada, and part of New- foundland. They have loft them one after another by the errors of government; and, from the wreck of thefe riches, have only prcfervtd a right of falting and drying their filh to the north of Newfoundland, from cape Bona Vifta to Point Rich. All the fixed efl.abli(hfnents left by the peace of 1763, are reduced to the ifland of St Peters, and the two iflands of Miquelon, whi.h they arc not even at liberty to build fortifications up- on. There are 8co inhabitants at St Peters, not more than one hundred at great Mique- lon, and only one family on the fmaller. The fidicry, which is extremely convenient uprit the two firil, is entirely impracticable on the leflcr ifland; but this laft fupplies them both with wood, and particularly St Peters, which bad none of its own. Nature, however, has nude amends for this deficiency at St Peters, by SETTLl.MENTS IN AMERICA. ^ by ail excellent harbour, which indeed h the only one in this fnriall archipelago. In 1708, they took 24,390 quintals of cod: but tliis quantity will not much increafe ; becaufe the Engliili not only ref ule the French the liber- ty of fifliing in the narrow channel which fe- parates thefe illands from the fouthern coafts of Newfoundland, but have even feized iome of tile floops which attempted it. This fevcrity, which is not warranted by treaty, and only maintained by force, is ren- dered ilill more odious by the extenfivencfs of their own poileirions, which reach to all - the illands where the fifh is to be found. Their principal fettlement is at Newfound- land, where there are about 8000 Eiiglifli^ who are all employed in the filliery. No more than nine or ten (hips a-ycar arc feut out from the mother country for this pur- pofe ; and there are fome few more which engage in other articles of commerce ; but the greater part only exchange the producftions of Europe for filli, or carry off tiic fruit of the indullry of the inhabitants. Before 1755, the fiiherics of the two rival nations were nearly equal, from their own ac- counts ; with this diuercnce only, that France^ on account of its population and religion, con- fumed more at home, and fold lefs : but fjnce (he has lofl her pofl'eflions in North America, one year with another, the two filhcrics, that 86 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH is the iStationary and the Wandering, united, have nnt yielded more than 216,018 quintals cf dry cod j which is barely fulHc nit for the coTifumption of its fouthern piuvinces at home, and of courfe admits of no exporta- tion to the colonies. It may be aiTerted, that the rival nation, on the contrary, has increafed its fiihery two thirds fince its conquefts, making in all 651,115 quintals; the profits of which, va- luing each quintal at no more than 12 s. 3^/. a difference owmg to its being cured with Icls care than the French fifli, will amount to 398,807/. 6 s. 6 d. One fourth of this is fuflicient for the confumption of Great Bri- tain and her colonies; confequently what is fold in Spain, Portugal, and all the fugar- ifiiinds, amounts to a fum of 299,105/. 9J. ioy d. returned to the mother country cither in fpecie or commodities. This ob- je(fl of exportation would have been (lill more confuierable, if, vdien the court of liOndon made the concjueft of Cape Breton and 8t John's, they had not been fo inhuman as to drive out the French v-hom they found fettled there; who have never yet been re- placed, and probably never will be. The fame bad pollcv has alfo bcGii followed in N ova Scot Kl. CHAP. SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 87 C II A r. III. Of N O V A 8 U O T I A . I. The French give it up to England, after having been a long time in poj]'f£-on of it them/elves. "VrOvA Scotia, by which is at prefent ^^ to be uiulerllooil all the coafl of 300 leagues in length contained between the limits of New England and the fouth coalt of the river St Lawrence, Icemcd at fird to have comprehended only the great triangular peninfula lying njaily in the middle or' this I'pace. This pcninfula, which the French called A:adie, is extremely well fituated for the fliips which come from the Caribbees to water at. It oilers them a great number of excellent ports in which fliips may enter •and go out of with ail winds. There is a great quantity o food unon the coa ft, aiu iftill more upon fmall banks at the diltance of a few ym leagues. The foil, wdiich is very gravelly, is extremely convenient for drying the cod: ic abounds befides with good wood, and laml fit for feveral forts of cultivLition, and extreme- ly well fituated for the fur trade of the r.eigh- boufing continent. Tl:o':hisciin)atc is in the tern- SS HISTORY OF THE BRITISH temperate zone, the winters are long and fevere ; and they are followed by fudden and exceflive heats, to whieh generally fuccecd very thick fogs, which lad a long time. Thcfe circumdances make this rather a difairrecablc country, though it cannot be reckoned an unwholcfome one. It was in 1604 that the French fettled In Acadie, four years before they had built the fmallell hut in Canada. Inflead of fixing towards the eaft of the peninfula, where they would have had larger feas, an eafy na- vigation, and plenty of cod, they chofe a fmall bay, afterwards called the French bay, which had none of thefe advantages. It has been faid, that they were induced by the beauty of Port-Royal, where a thoufand fliips may ride in fafety from every wind, where there is an excellent bottom, iind at all times four or five fathom of water, and eighteen at the entrance. It is moil probable that the founders of this colony were led to chufe this fituatlon, from its vicinity to the coun- tries abounding in furs, of which the exclu- five trade had been granted to them. This conjedlurcis conlirmed by the following cir- cumftance: That both the firft monopolizers, and thofe who fucceeded them, took the ut- moft pains to divert the attention of their countrymen, whom refllefTnefs or necefTity brought into thefe regions, from the clear- a ing mg SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 89 ing of the woods, the breeding of cattle, from fifliing, and from every kind of culture; ch ufing rather to engage the induflry of thefe adventurers in hunting, or in trading with the favages. The mifchiefs trifing from a falfe fyftem of adminiftration at length difcovered the fatal effedts of exclufive charters. It would be an infult to the truth and dignity of hi- ftory to fay that this happened in France from any attention to the common rights of the nation, at a time when thefe rights were mod openly violated. This facred tie, which alone can fecure the fafety of the people, while it gives afandlion to the power of kings, was never known in France. But in the moft abfolute government a fpirit of ambition fometimes afFe£ls what in equitable and moderate ones is done from principles of juftice. The minifters of Lewis XIV. who wifhed to make their mafler refpeclable that they might reflect fome dignity on themfelves, perceived that they (liould not fucceed without the fupport of riches ; and that a people to whom nature has not given any mines^ cannot acquire wealth but by a- griculture and commerce. Both thefe re- fources had been hitherto choked up in the colonies by the reftralnts laid upon all things from an improper interference. Thefe im- pediments were at lad removed 5 but Acadia Vol. I. G cither 90 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH cither knew not how, or was not able, to make ufe of this liberty. This colony was yet in its infancy, when the fettlcment which has fince become fo fa- mous under the name of New-England was firfl made in its neighbourhood. The rapid fuccefs of the cultures in this new colony did not much attradl the notice of the French. This kind of profperity did not excite any jealoufy between the two nations. But when they began to fufpetl that there was likely to be a competition for the beaver trade and furs, they endeavoured to fecure to themfelves the fole property of it ; and they were unfortu- nate enough to fucceed. At their firll arrival in Acadia, they had found the pcninfula, as well as the foreits of the neighbouring continent, peopled with fmall nations of favages who went under the general name of Abenakies. Though equally fond of war as other favage nations, they were, however, more fociable in their manners. The miifionaries, eafily infinuating them- felves amongll them, had fo far inculcated their tenets, as to make enthufiafts of them. At the fame time that they taught them their religion, they infpired them with that hatred which they themfelves entertained for the Englirti name. This fundamental article of their new worfliip, being that which mofl c.\erted its influence on their fenfes, and the only SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 91 only one that favoured tlieir paffioii for war; they adopted it with all the rage that was na- tural to them. They not only rcfufed to make any exchange with the Englifii, but alfo frequently attacked and plundered their fct- tlenients. Their attacks became more fre- quent, more obilinate, and more regular, lince they had chofen 8t Caftcins, formerly captain of the regiment of Carignan, for their commander; he having fettled among them, married one of their women, and conform- ing in every refpecl: to their mode of life. When the Englilli faw that all ellbrts ei- ther to reconcile tlie favages, or to deflroy them in their forells, were inefi'eciual, they fell upon Acadia, which they looked upon with reafon as the only caufe of all thefe ca* lamities. Whenever the leait hoitility took place between the two mother countries, the peninfula was attacked. Having no defence from Canada, from which it was too far di- ftant, and very little from Tort-royal, which was only furrounded by a few weak pallifa- does, it was conllantly taken. It undoubt- edly afforded fome i'atisfa6\ion to the New- Englanders to ravage this colony, and to re- tard its progrefs ; but Hill this was not fuih- cient to difpel the fufpicions excited by a na- tion almoit more formidable by what* Hie is able to do, than by what fhe really does. Obliged as they were, however unwillingly, G z to w IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) Ki 1.0 i.l 11.25 Ki 12.2 SB." US iio U. 111.6 Photographic Sciences Corporation 33 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 •N? i\ N> i\ ;\ #^ ^ '^^ 1 I , cp HISTOP Y OF THE BRITISH to reflore their conqueft at each treaty of peace, they waited with impatience till Great Britain fhould acquire fuch a fuperio- rity as would enable her to difpenfe with this reititution. The end of the war on account of the Spanifh fucceflion brought on the de- cifive moment; and the court of Verfailles was for ever deprived of a poffelFion of which it had never known the importance. The ardour which the Englifh had (liewn for the pofieflion of this territory did not manifeft itfelf afterwards in the care they took to maintain or to improve it. Having built a very flight fortification at Port-royal, which had taken the name of Annapolis in honourofQ^een Anne,they contented them- felves with putting a very fmall garrifon in it. The indifFerence Ihewn by the govern- ment infe£led the nation, a circumftance not ufual in a free country. Not more than five Englifh families came over to Acadia, which flill remained inhabited by the firft colonifts; who were only perfuaded to (lay upon a promife matle them of never being compelled t'> bear arms againfl their ancient country. Such was the attachment which the French then had for the honour of their country. Cherifhed by the government, re- fpe>■' 2. Manners of the French who remained ftib- je5l to the Englijh government in Nova Scotia, Hunting and fifhing, which had for- merly been the delight of the colony, and might have (till fupplied it with fubfiilence, had no further attraction for a fimple and quiet people, and gave way to agriculture. It had been eftablilhed in the marflies and the low lands by repelling the fea and rivers, which covered thefe plains, with dikef. G 3 . Thote I 94 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH Thefe grounds yielded fifty for one at firfl:, and afterwards fifteen or twentv for one at leafl. Wheat and oats fuccecried bed in them; but they likewife produced rye, bar- ley, and maize. There were alfo potatoes in great plenty, the ufe of which was become common. At the fame time the immcnfe meadows were covered with numerous flocks. They computed as much as fixtv thoufand head of horned cattle ; and mod families had feveral horfes, though the tillage w^s carried on by oxen. The habitations, built all of wood, were extremely convenient, and furniflied as neatly as a fubflantial farmer's houfe in Eu- rope. They bred a great deal of poultry of all kinds, which made a variety in their food for the moil part wholefome and plentiful. Their common drirk was beer and cyder, to which they fometimes added rum. Their ufual clothing was in general the p'-oduce of their own flax, or the fleeces of their own Iheep. With thefe they made common li- nens and coarfe cloths. If any of them had a defire for articles of greater luxury, they drew them from Annapolis or Louifbourg, and gave in exchange corn, cattle, or furs. The neutral French had nothing elfe to give their neighbours, and made (till fewer exchanges among themfelves, becaufe each feparate family was able and had been ufed ^•1 r(l, e at in i)ar- s in me SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 95 ufed to provide for its own wants. They, therefore, knew nothing of paper-currency, which was fo common throughout the reil of North America. Even the fmall quantity of fpecie which had flipped into the colony did not infpire that adiivity in which confiils its rea) value. Their manners were of courfe extremely fimple. There never was a caufe, either civil or criminal, of importance enough to be car- ried before the court of judicature cftabHili- ed at Annapolis. Whatever little differences arofe from time to time among them were amicably adjufted by their elders. All their public a(Sls were drawn by their paflors, who had likewife the keeping of their wills, for which and their religious fervices the inha- bitants paid a twenty-feventh part of their harveft. Thefe were always plentiful encugh to afford more means than there were obje<£ls for gcnerofity. Real mifery was entirely unknown, and benevolence prevented the demands of poverty. Every misfortune was relieved, a? it were, before it could be felt, without oftentation on the one hand, and without meannefs on the other. It was in fhort a fociety of brethren, eveiy individual of which was equally ready to give and to receive what he thought the common right of mankind. G 4 So I 9$ HISTORY OF THE BRITISH So perfe6l a harmony naturally prevented all thofe connections of gallantry which arc fo often fatal to the peace of families. There never was an inftance in this fociety of an unlawful commerce between the two fexes. This evil was prevented by early marriages; for no one pafled his youth in a (late of ce- libacy. As foon as a young man came to the proper age, the community built him a houfe, broke up the lands about it, fov/ed them, and fupplied them with all the necef- faries of life for a twelvemonth. Here he received the partner whom he had chofen, and who brought him her portion in flocks. This new family grew and profpered like the others. In 1749, all together made a popu- lation of eighteen thoufand fouls. At this period Great Britain perceived of what confequence the poiTeflion of Acadia might be to her commerce. The peace, which neceflarily left a great number of men without employment, furnifhed an oppor- tunity, by the dilbanding of the troops, for peopling and cultivating a vafl: and fertile territory. The Britifh miniftry offered par- ticular advantages to all who would go over and fettle in Acadia. Every foldier, failor, and workman, was to have fifty acres of land himfelf, and ten for every perfon he carried over in his family. All non-commifTioned • ofTicers were allowed eighty for thcmfclves, and SETTLEMENTS TN AMERICA. 97 and fifty for their wives and children ; en- iigns, 200; lieutenants, 300; captains, 460 ; and all officers of a higher rank, 600*, toge- ther with thirty for each of their dependents. The land was to be tax-free for the lirft ten years, and never to pay above one {billing for fifty acres. Befides this, the govern- ment engaged to advance or reimburfe the expences of pafTage, to build houfes, to fur- nifh all the neceflary inftruments for fifliery or agriculture, and to defray the expences of fubfiftence for the firft year. Thefe en- couragements determined three thoufand feven hundred and fifty perfons, in the month of May 1749, to go to America, rather than run the rilk of ftarving in Europe. The new colony was intended to form an eflablifhrnent to the fouth-eaft of Acadia, in a place which the favages had formerly call- ed Chebucto, and the Englifh Halifax. This fituation was preferred to feveral others where the foil was better, for the fake of eftablifliing in its neighbourhood an excel- lent cod fifhery, and fortifying one of the finell harbours in America. But as it was the fpot mod favourable for the chace, the Englifh were obliged to difpute it with the Micmac Indians, who moftly frequented it.. Thefe favages defended with obftinacy a ter- ritory they held from nature •, and it was not till after very great lofles that the Englifh drove 9S HISTORY OF THE BRITISH drove them out from their poflefTions. This war was not entirely finiflied, when there was fome agitation difcovered among the neutral French. A people, whofe manners were fo rimple,and who enjoyed fuch liberty, could not but perceive that it was impoffible there fhould be any ferious thoughts in fet- tling in countries fo near to them without their independence being affedled by it. To this apprehenfion was added that of feeing their religion in danger. Their priefts, either heated by their own enthufiafm, or fecretly inftigated by the governors of Canada, per- fuaded them to credit every thing they chofe to fuggeft againft the Englifh, whom they called Heretics. This word, which has fo powerful an influence on deluded minds, determined this happy American colony to quit their habitations and remove to New France, where they were offered landsc This refolution many of them executed immedi- ately, without confidering the confequences of it ; the reft were preparing to follow, as foon as they had provided for their fafety. The Englifh government, either from policy or caprice, determined to prevent them by an a£t of treachery, always bafe and cruel in *hofe to whom power affords milder me- thods. Under a pretence of exa£ting a re- newal of the oath which they had taken at the tiiiie of their becoming Englifh fubje£ts, they SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 99 they afTemblcd thofe ley aiiemDicrt tnoie together who were not yet gone; and when they had colledled them, immediately embarlced them on board of [hips, which tranfported them to the other Etiglifli colonies, where the greater part of them died of grief and vexation rather than want. Such are the fruits of national jealoufies, of that rapacioufnefs inherent to ail govern- ments which inceilantly preys both upon mankind and upon land ! What an enemy lofes is reckoned a gain ; what he gains, is looked upon as a lofs. When a town can- not be taken, it is llarved ; when it cannot be maintained, it is burnt to aflies, or its foundation rafed. Rather than furrender, a fliip or a fortification is blown up by powder and by mines. A defpotic government fe- parates its enemies from its flaves by im- menfe deferts, to prevent the eruptions of the one and the emigrations of the other. Thus Spain chofe rather to make a wil- dernefs of her own country, and a grave of America, than to divide its riches with any other of the European nations. The Dutch have been guilty of every public and private crime to deprive other commercial nations of the fpice-trade. They have oftentimes even thrown whole cargoes into the fea, ra- ther than they would fell them at a low price. France rather chofe to give up Louifiana to the i'( I 100 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH the Spaniards, than to let it fall into the hands of the Englifli ; and England deftroy- ed the French veflels, to prevent their return- ing to France. Can we alVert, after this, that policy and fociety were inilituted for the happinefs of mankind ? Yes, rhey were infti- tuted to fcreen the wicked man, and to fe- cure the man in power. 3. Prefent Jiate of Nova Scotia, Since the emigration of a people who owed their happinefs to their virtuous ob- fcurity, Nova Sjotia has been but thinly in- habited. It feems as if the envy that depo- pulated the country had blafted it. At leait the punifliment of the injuftice falls upon the authors of it ; for there is not a fingle inhabitant to be feen upon all that length of coaft between the river St Lawrence and the peninfula ; nor do the rocks, the fands, and marfhes, with which it is at prefent covered, make it probable that it ever will be peopled. The cod, indeed, which abounds in fome of its bays, draws every year a fmall number of fifhermen during the feafon. There are only three fettlements in the reft of the province. Annapolis, the moft ancient of them, waits for frefh inhabitants to take the place oi the unhappy Frenchmen who were driven from it j and it feems to pro- SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. lor promife them rich returns from the fertility of her foil. Lunenburgh, the fecond fettlement, was founded a few years ago by 800 Germans come from Halifax. At firft, it did not promife much luccefs; but it is confiderably improved by the unremitted induftry of that warlike and wife people, who, contented with defending their own territory, feldom go out of it, but to cultivate others which they are not ambitious of conquering. They have fertilized all the countries under the Englifh dominion, wherever chance had condudled them. Halifax will always continue to be the principal place of the province'^ an advan- tage it owes to the encouragements laviflied upon it by the mother country. Their ex- pences for this fettlement from its firft foun- dation to the year 1769, amounted to more than 3937/' ics, per annum. Such favours were not ill beftovved upon a city, which, from its fituation, is the natural rendezvous of both the land and fea forces which Great Britain fometimes thinks herfelf obliged to maintain in America, as well for the defence of her fifherics and the prote6lion of her fugar-idands, as for the purpofe of maintain- ing her connettioiis with her northern colo- nies. Halifax, indeed, derives more of its fplendor from the motion and activity which i» 102 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH js conftantly kept up in its ports, than either from its cultivation which is trifling, or from its fifherics which have not been confider- ably improved, though they confift of cod, mackerel, and the feal. It is not even in the ftate it Oiould be as a fortified town. The malverfations of pcrfons employed, who in- ftead of the fortifications ordered and paid for by the mother country, have only erected a few batteries v/ithout any ditch round the city, make it liable to fall without refillance into the hands of the firft enemy that attacks it. In 1757, the inhabitants of the county of Halifax rated the value of their houfes, cattle, and merchandife, at about 295,31 2/. 10 J. This fum, which makes about two thirds of the riches of the whole province, has not increafed above one fourth finc^ that time. The defire of putting a Pcop to this (late of languor was, probably^ one of the mo- tives which induced the oritifh government to conftitute a court of admiralty for all North America, and to place the feat of it at Halifax, in 1763. Before this period, the juftices of peace ufed to be the judges of all violations of the TiCt of navigation ; but the partiality thefe magillrates ufed to fliew in their judgments for the colony where they were born and which had chofen them, made their miniftry ufclefs, and even prejudicial to SETTLEiMENTS IN AMERICA. loj to the mother country. It wns prefumcd, that if enlightened men were fent from Europe, and well fupported, they would im- prefs more refpe6l for their determination. The event has juftified this policy. Since that regulation, the commercial laws have been better obferved j but ilill great incon- veniences have enfued from the diltancc of many provinces from the feat of this new tribunal. It is probable, that, to remedy thefe, adminiftration will be forced to multiply the number of the courts, and difperfe them in places convenient for the people to have ac- cefs to them. Nova Scotia will then lofe the temporary advantage it gains from being the refort of thofe who come for juftice ; but it will, probably, find out other natural fources of wealth within itfelf. It has fome, indeed, that are peculiar to it. The exceeding fine flax it produces, of which the three king- doms are fo much in want, mufl haften the progrefs of its improvement. CHAP. 1\ Of New England. I. Foundation, "^Ew England, like the mother country, -'-^ has fignalized itfelf by many adls of vio- lence 5 and was a(n:uated by the fame turbu- lent J p i 104 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH lent fpirit. It took its rife in troublefomc iJines, and its infant-ftatc was difturbed with many dreadful commotions. It was dii'co- veredin the beginningof the laft century, and called North Virginia; but no Europeans fettled there till the year 1608. The firil co- lony, which was weak and ill direfted, did not fucceed ; and for fome time after, there were only a few adventurers who came over at times in the fumrner, buiit themfelves temporary huts for the fake of trading with the favages, and like them difappeared again for the rcfl of the year. Fanaticifm, which had depopulated America to the fouth, was dedined to repopulate it in the north. At length fome Englifh prefbyterians, who had been driven from their own country, and had taken refuge in Holland, that univerfal afy- lum of liberty, refolved to found a church for their fedl in a new hemifphere. They therefore purchafed, in j6zi, the charter of the Englilli North Virginia Company : for they were not poor enough to wait in pa- tience till their virtues (hould have made tl icm profp erous. ortv-oiie famil les, ma- king in all 120 perfons, fet out, guided by enthufiafm, which, whether founded upon error or truth, is always productive of great adlions. They landed at the beginning of a very hard winter; and found a country en- tirely covered with wood, which offered a I very SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 105 very melancholy profpe£l to men already ex- haufted with the fatigues of their journey. Near one half periftied either from the cold, the fcurvy, or diftrefs ; the reft were kept alive for fome time by a fpirit of enthufiafm, and the fteadinefs of character they had con- trailed under the perfecution of epifcopal tyranny. But their courage was begiiining to f^il, when it was revived by the arrival of flxty favage warriors, who came to them in the fpring, headed by their chief. Freedom feemed to exult that fhe had thus brought together from the extremities of the world two fuch different people ; who immediately entered into a reciprocal alliance of friend- fliip and prote£lion. The old tenants aflign- ed for ever to the new ones all the lands in the neighbourhood of the fettlement they had formed under the name of New Ply- mouth 5 and one of the favages, who under- ftood a little Englifh, (laid with them to teach them how to cultivate the maize, and inftruft them in the manner of filhing upon their coaft. This kindnefs enabled the colony to wait for the companions they expelled from Eu- rope, with feeds and all forts of domeilic animals. At firft they came but flowly; but the perfecution of the puritans in England increafed the number of profelytes (as is al- ways the cafe) to fuch a degree in America, Vol. I. H that, io6 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH that, in 1630, they were obliged to form dif- ferent fettlements, of which Bofton foon be- came the principal. Thefe firft fettlers were not merely ecclefiaflics, who hat* been driven out of their preferment for their opinions *, nor thofe fedlaries, influenced by new opi- nions, that are fo frequent among the com- mon people. Ther-" were among them fe- veral perfons of high rank, who having em- braced puritanifm either from motives of caprice, ambition, or even of confcience, had taken the precaution to fecure themfelvesan afylum in thefe diftant regions. They had caufed houfes to be built, and lands to be cleared, with a view of retiring there, if their endeavours in the caufe of civil and religious liberty fhould prove abortive. The fame fa- natical fpirit that had introduced anarchy into the mother country, kept the colony in a (late of fubordination 5 or rather, a feverity of manners had the fame efFecl as laws in a favage climate. The inhabitants of New England lived peaceably for a long time without any regu- lar form of polity. It was not that their charter had not authorifed them to eftablifli any mode of government they might chufe ; but thefe enthufiafts werenotagreed amongfl: themfelves upon the plan of their republic, •nment was not fuffici go^ itly ed about them to urge them to fecure their own I SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 107 own tranquillity. At length they grew fcn- fible of the neceflityof a regular legiflation; and this great work, which virtue and genius united have never attempted but with difR- dence, was boldly undertaken by blind fana- ticifm. It bore the ftamp of the rude preju- dices on which it had been formed. There was in this new code a fingular mixture of good and evil, of wifdom and folly. No man was allowed to have any Ihare in the government, except he was a member of the eftabliflied church. Witch- craft, piirjury, blafphemy, and adultery, were made capital offences; and children were al- fo punifhed with death, either for curfing or flriking their parents. On the other hand, marriages were to be folemnized by the ma- giftrate. The price of corn was fixed at 2 j. 1 1 d. halfpenny per bufliel. The favages who negle£led to cultivate their lands were to be deprived of them by law. Europeans were forbidden under a heavy penalty to fell them any ftrong liquors or warlike (lores. All thofe who were detected either in lying, or drunk- ennefs, or dancing, were ordered to be pu- blicly whipped. But at the fame time that amufements were forbidden equally with vices and crimes, one nTight fwear by pay- ing a penalty of a (liilling, and break the fab- bath for three pounds. It was efteemed an indulgence to be able to atone by money for H 2 a ( I I io8 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH a negle61: of prayer, or for i ttering a rafli oath. But it is Hill more extraordinary that the worlhip of images was forbidden to the puritans on pain of death; which was alfo inflicted on Roman Catholic priefts who fhould return to the colony after they had been banifhed, and on Quakers who fhould appear again after having been whipped, branded, and expelled. Such was the ab- horrence for thefe fe£taries, who had them- felves an averfion for every kind of cruel- ty, that whoever either brought one of them into the country, or harboured him but for one hour, was expofed to pay a conHderable fine. 2 Fanaticifm occafions great calamities there. Those unfortunate members of the colo- ny, who, lefs violent than their brethren, ventured to deny the coercive power of the magiftrate in matters of religion, were per- fecuted with ftill greater rigour. This ap- peared a blafphemy to thofe divines who had rather chofen to quit their country than to fliew any deference to epifcopal authority. By that natural tendency of the human heart from the love of independence to that tyran- ny, they changed their opinions as they chan» ged the climate; and only feemed to arrogate freedom of thought to themfelvcs in order to deny SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 109 deny it to others. This fyftem was fupport- ed by the feverities of the law, which attemp- ted to put a ftop to every difference in opi- nion, by impofing capital piinifhment on all who diflented. Whoever was either convic- ted, or even fufpedled, of entertaining fenti- ments of toleration, was expofed to fuch cruel oppreffions, that they were forced to fly from their firft afylum, and feek refuge in another. They found one on the fame continent; and as New England had been firft founded by perfecution, its limits were extended by it. This feverity, which a man turns againft him- felf, or againft his fellow-creatures, and makes him either the vi£lim or the oppreflbr, foon exerted itfelf againft the Quakers. They were whipped, banifned, and imprifoned. The proud fimplicity of thefe new enthu- fiafts, who in the midft of tortures and igno- miny praifed God, and called for bleffings upon men, infpired a reverence for their per- fons and opinions, and gained them a num- ber of profelytes. This circumftance exafpe- rated their perfecutors, and hurried them on to the moft atrocious acls of violence ; and they caufed five of them, who had returned clandeftinely from baniftiment, to be hanged. It feemed as if the Englifti had come to Ame- rica to exercife upon their own countrymen the fame cruelty the Spaniards had ufed a- gainft the Indians. This fpirit of perfecu^ H 3 tion no HISTORY OF THE BRITISH tion was at laft fupprefl'ed by the interpofition of the mother country, from whence it had been brought. Cromwell was no more: enthufiafm, hy- pocrify, and fanaticifm, which compofed his charadler; fa6^ions, rebellions, and protcrip- tions; were all buried with him, and Enghuid had the profpetSl: of calmer days. Charles the fecond, at his relloration, had introduced a- niongd his fubjecls a focial turn, a tafte for convivial pleafures, gallantry, and diverfions, and for all thofe amufements he had been en- gaged in while he was wandering from one court to another in Europe, to recover the crown which his father had loft upon a fcaf- fold. Nothing but fuch a total change of manners could pofiTibly have fecured the tranquillity of his government upon a throne marked with blood. He was one of thofe vo- luptuaries, whom the love of fenfual plea- fures fometimes excites to fcntiments of com- paflion and humanity. Moved with the fuf- ferings of the Quakers, he put a ftop to them by a proclamation in 1661 ; but he was ne- ver able totally to extinguifli the fpirit of per- fecution that prevailed in America. The colony had placed at their head Hen- ry Vane, the fon of that Sir Henry Vane, who had had fuch a remarkable Ihare ut the difturbances of his country. This obilinate and enthufiaftic young man, in every thing re- Tel mi fc wl V( SHITTLEMENTS IN AMERICA, in 1 Ills crip- s the d a- for oils, refembling his father, unable either to live peaceably himfelf, or to fuiFcr others to re- main quiet, had contrived to revive the ob- fcure and obfolete queltions of gracft and free will. The difputes upon thefe points ran very high; and would, probably, have plun- ged the colony into a civil v/ar, if feveial of the favage nations united had not happened at that very time to fall upon the plantations of the difputants, and to mailacre great num- bers of them. The coloniits, heated with their theological conteils, paid at firft very little attention to this confiderable lofs. But the danger at length became fo urgent and fo general, that all took up arms. As foon as the enemy was repulfed, the colony re- fumed its former difientions; and the frenzy which they excited, broke out, in 1692, in a war, marked with as many atrocious in- ftances of violence as any ever recorded in hiftory. There lived in a town of New England, called Salem, two young women who were fubjeft to convulfions, accompanied with ex- traordinary fymptoms. Their father, mini- fler of the church, thought that they were bewitched *, and having in confequence cad bis fufpicions upon an Indian girl who lived in his houfe, he compelled her by harfh treat- ment to confefs that (he was a witch. Other women, upon hearing this, feduced by the H 4 plea- 112 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH pleafure of exciting the public attention, im- mediately believed that the convulfions which proceeded only from the nature of their fex, were owing to the fame caufe. Three citi- zens, pitched upon by chance, were imme- diately thrown into prifon, accufed of witch- craft, hanged, and their bodies left expofed to wild beafts and birds of prey. A few days after, (ixteen other perfons, together with a counfellor, who, becaufe he refufed to plead againft them, was fuppofed to (liare in their guilt, fufFered in the fame manner. From this inftant, the imagination of the multi- tude was inflamed with thefe horrid and gloomy fcenes. The innocence of youth, the infirmities of age, virgin modefty, for- tune, honour, virtue, the moft dignified em- ployments of the ftate, nothing was fuffi- cient to exempt from the fufpicions of a peo- ple infatuated with vifionary fuperftition. Children of ten years of age were put to death J young girls were dripped naked, and the marks of witchcraft fearched for upon their bodies with the moft indecent curiofity ; thofe fpots of the fcurvy which age imprefl'es upon the bodies of old men, were taken for evident figns of the infernal power. Fana- ticifm, wickednefs, and vengeance, united, feledted out their victims with pleafure. In default of witnefles, torments were employ- ed to extort confcflions dictated by the exe- cutioners SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 113 cutloners themfelves. If the magillrates, tired out with executions, refufed to puniili, they were themselves accufed of the crimes they would no longer purfue ; the very mi- nifters of religion raifed falfe witnefiesagainft them, who made them forfeit with their lives the tardy remorfe excited in them by huma- nity. Dreams, apparitions, terror and con- {lernation of every kind, increafed thefe pro- digies of folly and horror. The prifons were filled, the gibbets left (landing, and all the citizens involved in gloomy apprehenfions. The mcrL prudent perfons quitted a country imbrued with the blood of its inhabitants ; and thofe that remained fought for nothing but reft in the grave. In a word, nothing lefs than the total and immediate fubveifioii of the colony was expei^led; when on a fudden, in the height of the ftorm, the waves fubfided, and a calm cnfued. Ail eyes were opened at once, and the excefs of the evil awakened the minds which it had at firft ftupified. Bitter and painful remorfe was the immediate confequence ; the mercy of God was implored by a general faft, and pu- blic prayers were offered up to a(k forgive- nefs for the prefumption of having fuppofed that heaven could have been pleafed with facrifices with which it could only have been offended. Pofterity will probably never know ex- aaiy \- I : generally fpeaking, it is a rich earth, particularly between the rivulets, which, interfedlingitinall dire£lions, contri- bute more to the fertility of the country than navigable rivers wouJ i. When the Europeans 6rft ranc into the *^, country, % I s it li fogs, :rate ; reezc revo- ?n, is ivhich Cana- rains, gra. ats of ^ere it "outb- )retty lurri- d tear ^eigh- moft IS are onve- s not nfifts gra- upon : is a ilets, •ntri- mtry the itry. SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 159 country, they found nothing in it but wood for burlding, and iron mines. In procefs of time, by cutting down the trees, and clear- ing the ground, they covered it with innu- merable herds, with a grea-t variety of fruits, with plantations of flax and hemp, with ma- ny kinds of vegetables, with e^ery fort of grain, and efpecially with rye and maize ; which a happy experience bad fliewn to be particularly proper to the climate. Cultiva- tion was carried on in all parts with fuch vi- gour and fuccefs as excited the adonifhment lof all nations. From whence could arife this extraor- dinary profperity? From that civil and re- Jigious liberty which has attracted the Swedes, Dutch, French, and particularly fome laborious Germans, into that country. It has been the joint work of Qu^akers, Ana- baptifts, Church-of-England men, Methq- difts, Preibyterians, Moravians, Lutherans, and Catholics. Among the numerous fe£ls which abound in this country, a very diftinguifhed one is that of the Dumplers. It was founded by a German, who, difgufted with the world, retired to an agreeable folitude within fifty miles of Philadelphia., in order to be more at liberty to give himfelf up to contempla- tion. Curiofity brought feveral of his coun.. trymen to vifit his retreat •, and by degrees L 4 his i6o HISTORY or THE BRITISH his pious, fimple, and peaceable manners induced them to fettle near him, and they all formed a little colony, which they called Liiphrates, in allufion to the Hebrews, who ufcd to fing pfalms on the borders of that river. This little city forms a triangle, the out- fides of which are bordered with mulberry and apple trees, planted with regularity. In the middle of the town is a very large orch- ard; and between the orchard and thefe ran- ges of trees are houfes, built of wood, three ftories high, where every Dumpier i& left to enjoy the pleafures of his meditations with- out difturbance. Thefe contemplative men do not amount to above five hundred in all ; their territory h about 250 acres in extent, the boundaries of which are marked by a river, a piece of ftagnated water, and a mountain covered with trees. The men and women live infeparate quar- ters of the city. They never fee each other but at places of worfhip, nor are there any aflemblies of any kind but for public bufinefc. Their life is taken up in labour, przyer, and fleep. Twice every day and night they are called forth from their cells, to attend divine fervice. Like the Methodifts and Quakers, every individual among them poflefTes the right of preaching when he thinks himfelf infpired. The favourite fjibjeds on which they SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. i6i they love to difcourfe in their aflemblies, are humility, temperance, chaftity, and the other Chriftian virtues. They never violate the reft of the Sabbath, which h (o much the delight of laborious as vi^ell as idle men. They admit a hell and a paradife ; but rcje6t the eternity of future puniiliments. The do£lrine o^ original fin is with them an im- pious blalphemy which they abhor, and in general every tenet cruel to man appears to them injurious to the Divinity. As they do not allow merit to any but voluntary works, they adminifter baptifm only to the adult. At the fame time they think baptifm fo ef- fentially neccflary to falvation, that they imagine the fouls of Chriftians in another world are employed in converting thofe who have not died under the law of thcgofpei. Still more difintereiled than the Quakers, they never allow themfelves any law-fuits. One may cheat, rob, and abufe them, without ever being expofed to any retaliation, or even any complaint from them. Religion has the fame effe£l on them that philofophy had up- on the Stoics; it makes them infenfible to every kind of infult. Nothing can be plainer than their drcfs. In winter, it confifts of a long white gown, from whence there hangs a hood to fervc inftcad of a hat, a coarfe (liirt, thick flioes, and verv wide breeches. There is no great dif- i ^1 162 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH difference in fummer, only that linen is ufed inltead of woollen. The women are drcfled much like the men except the breeches. Their common food is only vegetable, not becaufe it is unlawful to make ufe of any other, but becaufe that kind of abftineoce is Jooked upon as more conformable to the fpi- rit of Chriftianity, which has an averfion for blood. Each individual follows with cheer- fulnefs the branch of bnfinefs allotted to him. The produce of all their labours is depofited into a common (lock, in order to fupply the neceflities of every one. Beikles the culti- vation, manufactures, and all the arts necef- fary to the little fociety, which are thus pro- duced by united induftry, it affords a fuper- Huous part for exchanges proportioned to the population. Though the two fetes live feparate at Eu- phrates, the Dumplers do not on that ac- count fooliflily renounce matrimony. But thofe who find themfelves difpofed to it leave fhe city, and form an eflabliihment in the country, which is fupported at the public <^xpence. They repay this by the produce of their labours, which is all thrown into the public treafury, and their children are fent to be educated in the mother country. Without this wife privilege, the Dumplers Tvoiild be nothing more than monks, and in procefs SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 163 procefs of time would become either favages or libertines. What is mod edifying, and at the fame time mod extraordinary, is, the harmony tliat fubfifts between all the fe£l:s eftabllfhed in Penfylvania, notwithftanding the difFe.*encc of their religious opinions. Tho' I'ney are not all of the fame church, they all love and ciierifli one another as children of the fame father. They have always continued to live like brothers, becaufe they had the liberty of thinking as men. It is to this delightful harmony that muft be attributed more parti- cularly the rapid progrefs of the colony. At the beginning of the year 1766 its po- pulation amounted to 150,000 white people. The number mult have been confiderably in- creafed from that period, fince it is doubled every fifteen years, according to Mr Frank- lin's calculations. There were ftill thirty thoufand blacks in the province, who met with Icfs ill-ufage in this province than in the others, but who were ftill exceedingly unhappy. A circumftance, however, not eafily believed, is, that the fubje(illion of the negroes h s not corrupted the morals of their mailers; uieir manners are ftill pure, and even auftere, in Penfylvania. Is this fingu- lar advantage to be afcribed to the climate, the laws, t e religion, the emulation con- ftantly fubfiftiiig between the different fe6ls, ,1 ^'54 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH x>c to fome other particular caufe ? Let the reader determine this queftion. The Penfylvanians are in general well made, and their women of an agreeable figure. As they fooner become mothers than in Europe, they fooner ceafe breeding. If the heat of the climate feems on the one hand to haften the operations of nature, its inconftancy weakens them on the other. There is no place where the temperature of the fky is more uncertain, for it fometimes changes five of fix times in the fame day. As, however, thefe varieties neither have any dangerous influence upon the .vegeta- bles, nor deftroy the harvefts, there is a con- llant plenty, and an univerfal appearance of cafe. The axonomy which is fo particu- larly attended to in Penfylvania does not prevent both fexes from being well clothed ; and their food is (llll preferable in its kind to their clothing. The families, whofe cir- cumftanccs are the lead eafy, have all of them bread, meat, cyder, beer, and rum. A very great number are able to aflx)rd to drink con- flantly French and Spanifli wines, punch, and even liquors of a higher price. The abufe of fhefe flrong drinks is lefs frequent than in other places, but is not without example. The pleafing view of this abundance is •never diflurbed by the melancholy fight of poverty. SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 165 poverty. There are no poor in all Penfyl- vania. All thofe whofe birth or fortune have left them without refources, are fuita- bly provided for out of the public treafury. The fpirit of benevolence is carried (till fur- ther, and is extended even to the mofl en- gaging hofpitality. A traveller is welcome to (top in any place, without the apprehen- fions of giving the lead uneafy fenfation, ex- cept that of regret for his departure. The happinefs of the colony is not dif- turbed by the oppreflive burden of taxes. In 1766,. they did not amount to more than 12,256/. 2s. 6d. Mod of them, even thofe that were defigncd to repair the damages of war, were to ceafe in 1772. If the people did not experience this alleviation at that period, it was owing to the eruptions of the favages, which had occafioned extraordinary expences. The Penfylvanians, happy poflefTors and peaceable tenants of 2 country that ufually renders them twenty or thirty fold for what- ever they lay out upon it, are not reftrained by fear from the propagation of their fpccies. There is hardly an unmarried perfon to be met with in the country. Marriage is only the more happy and the more reverenced for it. The freedom as well as the fandlity of it depends upon the choice of the parties : they chufe the lawyer and pried rather as wit- neHei j iC6 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH I i'^: nc^ffl's, than minifters, of the engajrement* Whenever two lovers meet with any op- poiiMon, they go off on horfeback together. The man gets behind his miftrefs ; and in this fituation they prefent themfelves before the in;^j;in:tate, where the girl declares fhe has run away with her lover, and that they are come to be married. So folemn an avowal (iannot be rcje6led, nor has any perfon a right to give them any molcftation. In all other cafes, paternal athority is exceffive. The head of a family, whofe affairs are involved, is allowed to engage his children to his cre- ditors ; a punifliment, one fliould in;agine, very fufficient to induce a fond father to at- tend to hi" affairs. A man grown up ac* quits in one year's fervice a debt of 5/. and children under twelve years of age are obli- ged to f'jrve till they are one and twenty, to pay one of 6/. This is an image of the old patriarchal manners of the Eaft. Though there are feveral villages, and even fome cities, in the colony, mofl of the inha- bitants may be faid to Jive feparately, as it "Were, within their families. Every proprie- tor of land has his houfe in the midft of a large plantation entirely furrounded with quickfet hedges. Of courfe each pariih is near twelve or fifteen leagues in circumfe- rence. This diftance of the churches makes the ceremonies of religion have little effeft, and SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA, 167 and dill lefs influence. Children ore not baptized till a few months, and fometimes not till a year or two, after thfir birth All the pomp of religion fe','ms referved for the lad honours man receives before he is fliut up in the grave for ever. As foon as any one is dead in the country, the ncarefl neighbours have notice given them of the day of burial. Thefe fpread it in the ha- bitations next to theirs, and within a few hours the news is thus conveyed to a di- ftance. Every family fends at leaft one per* fon to attend the funeral. As they come in they are prefented with punch and cake. When the affembly is complete, the corpfe is carried to the burying ground belong- ing to his feet j or, if that fbould be at too great a diftance, into one of the fields be- longing to the family. There is generally a train of four or five hundred perfons on horfeback, who obferve a continual filence, and have all the external appearance fuited to the melancholy nature of the ceremony. One fingular circumftance is, that the Pen- fylvanians, who are the greateft enemies to parade daring their lives, fee m to forget this €hara£ter of modefly at their deaths. They all are defirous that the poor remains of their (liort lives fliould be attended with a funeral pomp fuited to their rank or fortune. It is a go:: 'ral obfcrvation, that plain and V i I - x5S HISTORY OF THE BRITISH virtuous nations, even favagc and poor ones, are remarkably attached to the care of their burials. The reafon of it is, that they look upon thefe lafl honours as duties of the fur- vivors, and the duties themfelves as fo many diilin6t proofs of that principle of love vi^hich is very ftrong in private families whilft they are in a (late neareft to that of nature. It is not the dying man himfelf who exadls thefe honours J it is his parents, his wife, his children, who voluntarily pay them to the aflies of a hufband and father that has de- ferved to be lamented. Thefe ceremonies have always more numerous attendants in fmall focieties than in larger ones; becaufe, though there are fewer families upon the whole, the number of individuals there is much larger, and all the ties that conne£l them with each other are much flronger. This kind of intimate union laas been the reafon why fo many fmall nations have over- come larger ones ; it drove Xerxes and the Pcrfians out of Greece, and it will fome time or other expel the French out of Corfica. But from whence does Penfylvania draw the materials for her own confumption, and in what manner does fhe contrive to be a- bundantly furnifhed with them? With the flax and hemp that are produced at home, and the cotton (he procures from South A- merica, (lie fabricates a great quantity of or- •t dinary SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 169 dinary linens; and with the wool that comes from Europe Ihe manufadlures many coarfe cloths. Whatever her own induftry is not able to furnifhy (he purchafes with the pro- duce of her territory. Her (hips carry o- ver to the Britifh, French, Dutch, and Da- ni(h iflands, bifcuit, flour, butter, cheefe^ tallow, vegetables, fruits, fait meat, cyder, beer, and all forts of wood for building. The cotton, f ugar, coffee, brandy, and money, they receive in exchange, are fo many materials for a frefh commerce with the mother coun- try, and with other European nations as well as with other colonies. The Azores, Madeira, the Canaries, Spain, and Portugal, open an advantageous market to the corn and wood of Penfylvania, which they purchafe with wine and piaftres. The mother country re- ceives from Penfylvania iron, flax, leather, furs, linfeed oil, mads and yards ; for which it returns thread, wool, tine cloths, tea» Irifli and India linens, hard'-ware, and other articles of luxury or necellity. As thefe, however, amount to a much greater fum than what it buys, Britain may be confidered as a gulph in which all the metals Penfylvania has drawn from the other parts of the world are funk again. In 1723, Britain fent over goods to Penfylvania only to the value of 10,937/. 10 J. at prefent (he furnifhes to the amount of 437,500/. This fum is too con- VoL. I. M fidcr- I [.I i I 170 HISTORY OP THE BRITISH Tiderable for the colonifts to be able to pay it, even in depriving thtmfelves of all the gold they draw from other markets; and this inability mufl: continue as long as the im- provement of their cultures ihall require more confiderable advances than their pro- duce yields. Other colonies which enjoy al- moftexclufively fome branches of trade, fuch as lice, tobacco, and indigo, mull have grown rich very rapidly. Penfylvania, whofc riches are founded on agriculture and the in- crcafe of her flocks, will acquire them more gradually; but her profperity will be fixed upon a more firm and permanent bafis. If any circumftance can retard the progrefs of the colony, it muft be the irregular man- ner in which the plantations are formed. Penn's family, who are the proprietors of all the lands, ;rant them indifcriminately in all parts, and in as large a proportion as they are required, provided they are paid 61. 11 s. 2d. for each hundred acres, and that the pur- chafers agree to give an annual rent of about one halfpenny. The confequence of this is, that the province wants that fort of connec- tion which is necefl'ary in ail things, and that the fcattcred inhabitants eafily become the prey of the mod infignificant enemy that will venture to attack them. The habitations are cleared in different way$ in the colony. Sometimes a huntfmau will SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA, fji Dvlll fettle in the midfl of a forcft, or quite clofe to it. His neared neighbours aflifl: him in cutting down trees, and heaping them up one over nnotlier: and this conftitutes a houfe. Around this fpot he cultivates, with- out any alTiltance, a garden or a field, futD- cient to fubfift himfelf and his family. A few years after the firfl: labours were finiflie'', fome more a6live and richer men arrived from the mother country. They paid the huntfman for his pains, and agreed with the proprietors of the provinces for fome lands that had not been paid for. They built more commodious habitations, and cleared a greater extent of territory. At length fome Germans, who came into the new world .^rom inclination, or were driven into it by perfecution, completed thefe fettlements that were as yet unfinifhed* The firfl and fecond order of planters remo- ved their induftry into other parts, with a more confiderable ftock for carrying on their cultures than they had at firft. The annual exports of Penfylvania may be valued at 25,000 tons. It receives four hun- dred fliips, and fits out about an equal num- ber. They all, or almoft all, come into Phi- ladelphia, which is the capital, from whence they are alfo difpatched. This famous city, whofe very name recalls every humane feeling, is fituated at the coii- M 2 flux 172 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH flux of the Delaware and the Schuylkill, about 120 miles from the fea. Penn, who deftined it for the metropolis of a great em» pire, defigned it to be one mile in breadth, and two in length between the rivers ; but its po- pulation has proved infutFicient to cover this extent of ground. Hitherto they have built only upon the banks of the Delaware ; but without giving up the ideas of the legiflator, or deviating from his plan. Thefe precautions are highly proper : Philadelphia mull become the mod conliderable city of America, be- caufe it is impoflible that the colony (hould not improve greatly, and its productions mud pafs through the harbour of the capital be- fore they arrive at the fea. The llreets of Philadelphia, which are all regular, are in general fifty feet broad ; the two principal ones are a hundred. On each fide of them, there are foot-paths, guarded by pods placed at different dillances. The houfes, each of which has its garden and orchard, are com- monly two {lories high ; and are built either of brick, or of a kind of foft done, which grows hard by being expofed to the air. Til! very lately the walls had but little thicknefs, becaufe they were only to be covered with a very light kind of wood. Since the difcovery of (late quarries, the walls have acquired a folidity proportioned to the weight of the new roofs. The prefent buildings have re- ceived ill SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 173 celveil an additional decoration from a kind of marble of dillercnt colours, which is found about a mile out of the town. Of this they make tables, chimney-pieces, and other houfe- hold furniture : befides which it is become a pretty confidcrable obje£l of commerce with the greateft part of America. Thefe valuable materials could not have been commonly found in the houfes, if they had not been lavifhed in the churches. Every {cCi has its own church, and fome of them have feveral. The town-houfe is a building held in as much veneration, though not fo much fre- quented, as the churches. It is con(lru£led in the mod fumptuous magnificence. It is there that the legillators of the colony af- femble every year, and more frequently if necefTary, to fettle every thing relative to public bufinefs ; the whole of which is fub- mitted to the authority of the nation in the perfons of its reprefentatives. Next to the town-houfe is a mod elegant library, which owes its exiftence to the care of the learned Do£lor F'^i-i^kLn. In it are found the bed Englifl. Fint 1, and Latin authors. It is only OMtti to t>'*i public on Saturdays. Thofe wh J havf^ fouiided it have a free accefs to it the whole year. The red pay a trifle for the loan of the books, and a forfeit if they are not returned in due time. This little fund M 3 con- N> 174 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH conflantly accumulating is appropriated to the increafe of the library j to which have been lately added, in order to make it more ufeful, fome mathematical and philofophical inftruments, with a very fine cabinet of na- tural hiflory. The college, which is intended to prepare the mind for the attainment of all the fci- cnces, was founded in 1749. At fird, it only initiated the youth in the Belles Lettres. In 1764 a clafs of medicine was eftablilhed there. Knowledge of every kind and adepts in the fciences v/ill inrreafe in proportion as the lands, which are become their patrimony, fhall yield a greater produce. If ever defpo- tifm, fuperftition, or war, fhould plunge Eu- rope again into that Itate of barbarifm from whence philofophy and the arts have drawn it, the facred fire will be kept alive In Phila- delphia, and come from thence to enlighten the world. This city is amply fupplied with every afriftance human nature can require, and with all the refources induftry can make ufe of. Its keys, the principal of which is two hundred feet wide, prefent a fuite of convenient warehoufes and recelTes ingeni- oufly contrived for fhip-building. Ships of five hundred tons may land there without any difficulty, except in the times of froft. There they load the merchandife which has either come down the Schuylkill and Delaware, or along St-TTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 17^ «r along roads better than are to be met with in moil parts of Europe. Police has made a greater progrefs in this part of the new world, than among the molt ancient nations of the old. It is impolTible to determine pre- cifely the population of Philadelphia, as the bilU of mortality are not kept with any ex- adlnefs, and there are feveral feels who do not chriften their children. It appears a fa6l, however, that in 1766 it contained twenty thoufand inhabitants. As mofl: of them are employed in the fale of the produ^lions of the colony, and in fuppiying it with what they draw from abroad, it is impofTible that their fortunes (liould not be very confider- able; and they mufl increafe dill further, in proportion as the cultivation advances in a country where hitherto not above one llxtli of the land has been cleared. Philadelphia, as well as Newcaflle and the other cities of Penfylvania, is entirely open. The whole country is equally without de-^ fence. This is a neceilary confequence of the principles of the Quakers, who have al- ways maintained the principal influence in the public deliberations, though they do not form above one third part of the population cf the colony. Thefe fedlaries cannot ht too much favoured on account of their mo- defty, probity, love of labour, and benevo- iijucc. One might, perhaps, be tempted to > M 4 ac- 176 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH accufe their legiflation of imprudence and te- merity. When they eftabliflied that civil liberty which protedls one citizen from another, ought not the founders of the colony to have taken fome pains for the maintenance of po- litical liberty alfo, which p/ote6ls one ftate from the encroachments of another? The au- thority which exerts itfelf to maintain p'^ace and good order at home, feems to have done nothing if it has not prevented invafion from abroad. To pretend that the colony would never have any enemies, was to fuppofe the world peopled with Quakers. It was encou- raging the ftrong to fall upon the weak, lea- ving the lamb to the mercy of the wolf, and giving up all the country to the oppreffive yoke of the firft tyrant who fhould think pro- per to fubdue it. But, on the other hand, how fhall we re- concile the llriiSlnefs of the gofpel-maxims, by which the Quakers are literally governed, with that appearance of force, either for of- fence or defence, which puts all Chriftian na- tions in 1 continual (late of war with each o- ther? Befides, what could the French or the Spaniards do if they were to enter Penfylva- nia fword in hand ? Unlefs they fliould dc- ftroy in one night or in one day ai' 'he inha- bitants of that fortunate region, they would uotbe able to cut off the race of thofe mild and SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 177 and charitable men. Violence has its boun- daries in its very exccfs; it confumes and ex- tinguifhes itfelf, as the fire in the aflies that feed it. But virtue, when guided by huma- nity and brotherly love, reanimates itfelf as the tree under the edge of the pruning knife. Wicked men ftand in need of numbers to ex- ecute their fanguinary projedls. But the jult man, or the Quaker, requires only a brother from whom he may receive, or to whom he may give, afiiftance. Let, then, the warlike nations, people who are either (laves or ty- rants, go into Penfylvania: there they will find all avenues open to them, all property at their difpofalj not a finglc foldier, but num- bers of merchants and farmers. But if they are tormented, reftrained, or opprelFed, they will fly, and leave their lands uncultivated, their manufactures deltroyed, and their ware- houfcs empty. They will go and cultivate, and fprcad population in fome new land ; they will go round the world, and expire in their progrefs rather than turn their arms a- gainft their purfuers, or fubmit to bear their yoke. Their enemies will have acquired no- thing but the hatred of mankind and the curfes of pofterity. It is upon this profpeCt and on this fore- fight, that the Penfylvanians have founded the opinion of their future fecurity. At pre- fent they have nothing to fear from behind, fincc \^t m F78 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH fince the French have loft Canada; and the flanks of the colony are fulliciently covered bv the Britifh fettlements. As for the reft, as they do not fee that the moft warlike ftates arc the moft durable ; or that miftruit, which is always awake, makes them reft in greater quiet; or that there is any kind of fatisfac- tion in the enjoyment of that which is held with fo much fear; they live for the prefent moment, without any thought of a future day. Perhaps, too, they may think them- ftlves fecured by thofe very precautions that are taken in the colonies that furround them. One of the barriers or bulwarks that pre- fcrves Penfylvania from a maritime invafiou to which it is expofed, is Virginia. CHAP. n. Of Virginia and Maryland. I Wretched Jlate of Virginia at its jirjl fettlC' merit, T7IRGINIA, which was intended .o denote ^ all that extenfive fpace which the Englilb propofed to occupy in the continent of North America, is at prefent confined within much narrower limits. It now comprehends only that country which is bounded to the north t>y Maryland, to the fouth by Carolina, to the. '■ft^y-- SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 179 the weft by the Apalachian mountains, and to the eail by the ocean. This fpace con« tains two hundred and forty miles in length, and two hundred in breadth. It was in 1606 that the E.i^lifli firft landed at Virginia; and their firft lettlcnient was James- Town. Unfortunately the firit ob- jecii that prefented itfelf to them was a rivu- let, which, ilTuing from a land bank, drew after it a quantity oi talc, which glittered at th - Dottom of a clear and running water. In an age wiien gold and filver mines were the only objcdls of mens rcfearches, this defpi- cable fubltance was immediately taken for fiU vcr. Every other labour was inftantly fu- fpended to acquire it. And the illufion was fo complete, that two fiiips, which had arri- ved there with neceilaries, were fent home fo fully freighted with thefe imaginary riches, that there fcarce remained any room for a few furs. As long as the infatuation lafted, the colonifts difdained to employ themfelvea in clearing the lands*, fo that a dreadful fa- mine was at laft the confequence of this fool- ifli pride. Sixty men only remained alive out of five hundred that had come from Europe. Thefe few, having only a fortnight's provifioii left, were upon the point of embarking for Newfoundland, when lord Delaware arrived there with three Ihips, afrefh colony, and fup- plies of all kinds. . * Hiftory If:' 'I iSo HISTORY OF THE BRITISH Hiftorv bas defcribed this nobleman to u» as a man whofe genius raifed him above the common prejudices of le times. His difin- tereftednefs was equal lu his knowledge. In accepting the government of the colony, which was dill in its infancy, his only mo- tives had been to gratify ihe inclination a vir- tuous mind has to do good, and to fecure the efleem of pofterity, which is the fecond reward of that generofity that devotes itfclf totally to the fervicc of the public. As foon as he appeared, the knowledge of his charac- ter procured him univerfal refpe£l. He be- gan by endeavouring to reconcile the wretch- ed colonifts to their fatal country, to comfort them in their fufFerings, to make them hope for a fpeedv conclufion of them. After this, 7oirjing the firmnefs of an enlightened magi- Itrate to the tendernefs of a good father, he taught them how to dire£l their labours to an ufeful end. For the misfortune of the re- viving colony, Delaware's declining health foon obliged him to return to Europe; but he never loft fight of his favourite colonifts, nor ever failed to make ufe of all his credit and intereft at court to fupport them. The colony, however, made but little progrefsj a circumftance that was attributed to the op- preflion of exclufive privileges. The com- pany which cxercifed them was diflblved up- on Charles I.'s acceflion to the throne; and from SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. i8i from that time Virginia was under the imme- diate dire<^tion of the crown, which exacted no more than a rent of 2 s. upon every hun- dred acres that were cultivated. Till this moment the colonifts had known no true enjoyment of property. Every indi- vidual wandered where chance directed him, or fixed himfelf in the place he liked beft, without confulting any titles or agreements. At length, boundaries were afcertained ; and thofe who had been fo long wanderers, now become citizens, had determined limits to their plantations. The eftablifliment of this firft law of fociety changed the appearance of every thing. New buildings arofe on al! fides, and were furrounded by frefli cultiva- t ons. This a£livity drew great numbers of cnterprifing men over to Virginia, who came In fearch either of fortune, orof liberty which is the only compenfation for the want of if. The memorable troubles that produced a change in the conltitution of England added to thefe a multitude of Royalifts, who went there with a refolution to wait with Berkley, the governor of tbe colony, who was alfo at- tached to king Charles, the decifion of that deferted mornarch's fate. Berkley ftill con- tinued to protect them, even after the king's death ; but fome of the inhabitrints, cither fe- duced or intimidated, and feconded by the approach of a powerful fleet, delivered up the colony l82 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH colony to the Prote£^or. If the governor was compelled to follow the ftream aj^ainft hia will, he was at leaft, among thofe whom Charles had honoured with pofts of confi- dence and rank, the laft who fubmitted to Cromwell, and the firft who fhook off his yoke. This brave man was finking under the oppreflion of the times, when the voice of the people recalled him to the place which his fucceflbr's death had left vacant •, but far from yielding to thefe flattering folicitations, he declared that he never would ferve any but the legitimate heirs of the dethroned mo- narch. Such an example of magnanimity, at a time when there were no hopes of the reft( - ration of the royal family, made fuch an im- prefTion upon the minds of the people, that Charles II. was proclaimed in Virginia be- fore he had been proclaimed in England. The colony did not, however, receive all the benefit from fuch a (tep which might na- turally have been expected from it. Whilft the court, on one hand, granted to rapacious men of family exorbitant privileges, which fwallowed up the properties of feveral ob- fcure coloniits ; the parliament, on the other, laid excefllve taxes upon both the exports from and imports to Virginia. This double oppreflion drained all the refources and dif- pcllcd all the hopes of the colony; and, to eomplcteits misfortune, the favages, who had iit:ver im- that SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. iSj never been fuflTiciently carefTcd, took that op- portunity to renew their incurfions with a fpirit and uniformity of defign that had never been yet known, Such a complication of misfortunes drove the Virgini .ns to defpair. Berkley, who had {o long been their iflol, was accufed of want- ing fortitude to refiit the opprefiions of the mother country, and aftivity to repel the ir- ruptions of the favages. The eyes of all were immediately fixed upon Bacon, a young of- ficer, full of vivacity, eloquence, and intre- pidity, of an infinuating difpofition and an agreeable perfon. They chofe him for their general in an irregular and tumultuous man- ner. Though his military fuccefles might have jullified this prepofTefiion of the licen- tious multitude, yet this did not prevent the governor from declaring Bacon a traitor to his country. A fentence fo fevere, and which was imprudent at the time, determined Ba- con to all'ume a power by force which he had cxercifed peaceably and without oppofition for fix mouths. His death put a (top to all his projects. The malecontents, difunited by the death of their chief, and intimidated by the troops which were coming from Eu- rope, were induced to fue for pardon, which was readily granted them. The rebellion, therefore, was attended with no bad co:ife- qucnces. Mercy infured obediencej and iince that i84 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH that remarkable crifis the hiftory of Virginia has been confined to the account of its plan- tations. 2. Adminijl ration of Virginia, This great ellablHTiment was governed at the beginning by perfons placed at the head of it by the company. Virginia afterwards attracted the attention of the mother coun- try ; which in 1620 gave it a regular form of government, compofed of a chief, a council, and deputies from each county ; to whofc united care the interefts of the province were committed. At firft, the council and re- prefentatives of the people ufed to meet in the fame room: but in 1689 they di- vided, and had each their feparate cham- ber, in imitation of the parliament of Eng- land. This cuftom has been continued ever fince. The governor, who is always appointed by the king, and for an unlimited period, has the fole difpofal of the regular troops, the militia, and of all military employments, as well as the power of approving or reje£ling whatever laws are propofed by the general aflembly. Befides this, with the concurrence of the council, to which he leaves very little power in other matters, he may either pro- rogue or entirely diflblve this kind of parlia- 2 mcnt ; SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 185 mcnt: he chufes all magiftrates, and all the collectors of the revenue ; he alienates the unoccupied lands in a manner fuitablc to the eftablilhcd forms, and difpofes of the public treafure. So many prerogatives, which lead on to ufurpation, render government more arbitrary at Virginia than it is in the more northern colonies: they frequently open the door to opprelFion. The council is compofed of twelve mem- bers, created cither by letters patent, or by particular order from the king. When there happen to be lefs than nine in the country, the governor chufes three out of the prin- cipal inhabitants to make up the number. They form a kind of upper-houfe, and are at the fame time to adlli the adminiftration, and to counteract tyranny. They have alfo the power of rejecting all acts palled in the lower houfe. 'f he falaries of the whole bo- dy amount to no more than 384/. 10s. lold. Virginia is divided into 25 counties, each of which fends two deputies. James-town and the college have each of them feparately the right of naming one, which make up in all 52. Every inhabitant poffelVed of a free- hold, except only women and minors, has the right of eleiftion, and that of being elect- ed. Though there is no time fixed by law for holding the general allembiy, it com- monly meets either once a year, or once in Vol. L N every IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) /. h -Ht :/. 1.0 I.I 11.25 1.8 1.6 Hiotographic Sciences Corporation i-V <^ ^^ \ \ /» *> SV o^ 33 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. U580 (716) 872-4503 ^ 1 86 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH every two years ; ^.id the meeting is very feldom deferred till three. The frequency of thefe meetings is infallibly kept up by the precaution of granting fupplies only for a Ihort time. All aO:s pafled in the two hou- fes muft be fent over to the fovercign, to re- ceive his fanclion ; but till that returns, they are always in force, when they have been approved by the governor. The public revenues of Virginia are col- lected from dlfl'erent fources, and appropri- ated in different manners. The tax of u. ii\d. upon every quintal of tobacco; that of 1 4 J. 9^/. per ton, which every veflel full or empty is obliged to pay at its return from a voyage; that of 9 j. 10^. a-head exa6led from all paffengers, Haves as well as free- men, upon their arrival in the colony ; the penalties and forfeitures appointed by dif- ferent ads of the province ; the duty upon both the lands and perfonal eftatcs of thofe who leave no legitimate heir; thefe different articles, which together amount to 3,062/. loj. are to be employed in the current ex- pences of the colony, according to the di- redlion of the governor and the council. The general affembly has nothing more to do in this matter but to audit the accounts. This affembly, however, has referved to Itfelf the fole difpofition of the funds raifed for extraordinary fcrvices. Thefe arife from a SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 187 a duty of entrance upon flrong liquors, from one of ipx. S!id. upon every flave, and one of about 14 J. 9J. upon every fervant, not an Englifliman, that enters the colony. A re- venue of this nature mud be extremely va- riable; but in general it is pretty confiderable, and has been ufually well adminiftered. Befides thefe taxes which are paid in mo- ney, there are others paid in kind. They are a fort of a triple poll-tax on the ar- ticle of tobacco, which the white women only are exempted from. The firit is raifed by order of the general afTembly, for the pur- pofe of paying the expences of its meeting, for that of the militia, and for fome other national exigences. The fecond, which is called provincial, is impofed by the juftices of the peace in each county for its particular ufes. The third is parochial,- raifed by the chief perfons of the community, upon every thing that has more or lefs connection with ,the eftablifhed form of worftiip. In the beginning juftice was adminiftered with that kind of difintereftedncfs which was itfelf the fecurity for the equity obfer- ved in it. One fingle court had the cogni- zance of all caufes, and ufed to decide them in a few days, leaving only an appeal to the general aflembly, which was not lefs diligent in terminating them. So good a fyftem did not continue long; in 1692 all the llatutes N 2 and r V 188 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH and formalities of the mother country were adopted, and all the chicanery of it was in- troduced along with them. Since that time every county has its difUn^l: tribunal, compo- fed of a iheriif, his under-officers, and juries. From thefe courts all caufes are carried to the council, where the governor prefides, who has the power of determining finally in all concerns as far as about 295/. If the fums contended for are wiore confiderable, the conteft may be referred to the king : in all criminal matters the council pronounces without appeal ; not that the life of a citizen is of lefs confequence thrin his property, but becaufc the application of the law is much eafier in criminal than in civil caufes. The governor has the right of pardoning in all cafes but thofe of wilful murder and high treafon, and even in thefe he may fufpend the execution of the fentjnce till he has fent to know the king's pleafure. With refpccfl: to religion, the inhabitants not only began themfelves by profefling that of the church of England; but, in 1642, the aflembly pafled a decree, which indire£lly ex- cluded from the province all thofe who (hould not be of this communion. The necefhty of peopling the country foon occafioned the repeal of this law, which was rather of a liierarchal than of a religious nature. A to- kration granted fo late, and evidently with re- SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 189 relu6lance, produced no great efl'e(fl. Only five non-conformifl: churches were added to the colony, one ot which confided of Pref- byterians, three of Quakers, and one of French refugees. The mother church has 39 pariflies. E- very parifli chufes its miniller; who mufl, however, be approved of by the governor before he takes pofi'efTion. In fome pari(l:es, he is paid inland, and furniflied with all the neceifary inftruments foh cultivating it ; in others, his falary is i6,oco pounds weight of tobacco. Befides this, he receives either about 4 J". 11 d. or fifty pounds of tobacco, for every marriage j and i/. 19 j". 4-^^. or four hundred pounds of tobacco, for every funeral fermon, which he is obliged to make over the grave of every free man. With all thefe advantages, molt of the clergy are not contented, becaufe they may be deprived of their benefices bv thofe who confcj red them. At firfl: the colony was iiiliRbittd onlv by men; foon after, they grew ntfirous of (li..- ring the fweets of their fiti^rion with ic- male companions. In tht; beginning they gave 98/. i) s. c)d, for every young penon that was brt.ught them, from whom rht:y required no other dowry ♦han a certifjcatc cf virtue. When the faluhnty and fertility of the climate were afcerraitied, wh-.'Je fami- lies, and even fome of refpedablc condition, N 3 went I i 190 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH went over to fettle in Virginia. In time they increafed to fuch a degree, that in 1703 there were already 66^606 white people in the colony. If fince that time they have not increafed above a fixth, it muft be attributed to a pretty confiderable emigration occafion- cd by the arrival of the blacks. The firfl: of thefe Haves vi^ere brought in- to Virginia by a Dutch fliipin 1621. Their number was not confiderable at firlt ; but the increafe of them has been fo prodigious fince the beginning of this century, that there are at prefent 110,000 negroes in the colony; which occafions a double lofs to mankind, firft in exha ifting the population of Africa, and fecondly in preventing that of the Europeans in America. Virginia has neither fortified places nor regular troops; they would be ufelefs in a province, which from its fituation and the na- ture of its productions is protecfted both from foreign invafions, and from the incurfionsof the favagcs wandering about this vaft conti- nent, who have long been too weak to attack it. The militia, which is compofed of all the free-men from fixteen to fixty years of age, is fufficient to keep the flaves in order. Every county reviews all its troops once, and the feparate companies three or four times a year. Upon the leafl alarm given in any particular part of the country, all the forces in SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 191 in it march. If they are out Tiore tlr.in two days, they receive pay ; if not, it is reckon- ed a p '.rt of their Hated fervice. Such is the government of Virginia, and fuch is very nearly that of Maryland; which, after having been included in this colony, was feparated from it for reafous which mud be explained. ' l] • I 3. Maryland is detached from Virginia. Charles the Firft, far from having any averfion for the Catholics, had fome reafon to pfotetl them, from the zeal, which, in hopes of being tolerated, they had fhewn for his interell. But when the accufation of being favourable to popery had alienated the minds of the people fiom that weak prince, whofe chief aim was to eitablifh a defpotic government, he was obliged to give the Catholics up to the rigour of the laws enabled againft them by Henry the Eighth. Thefe circumftanccs induced lord Baltimore to feek an afylum in Virginia, where he might be indulged in a liberty of confcience. As he found there no toleration for an ex- elufive faith which was itfelf intolerant, he formed the defign of a new fettlement in that uninhabited part of the country which lav between the river of Potowmack and Penfylvania. His death, which happened ^' N4 fOQll 1 192 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH foon after he had obtained powers from the crown for peopling this land, put a ftop to the projedl for that time ; but it was refumed, from the fame religious motives, by his fon. This young nobleman left England in the year 1633, with two hundred Roman Catho- lics, moil of them of good families. The education they had received, the caufe of re- ligion for which they left ^heir country, and the fortune which their leader promifed them, prevented thofe difturbances which are but too common in infant fettlements. The neighbouring favages, prevailed upon by mildnefs and acls of beneficence, concur- red with eagernefs to aflift the newcolonifts in forming their fettlement. With this un- expe6led help thefe fortunate perfons, at- tached to each other by the fame principles of religion, and directed by the prudent counfels of their chief, applied themfelves unanimoufly to every kind of ufeful labour : the view of the peace and happinefs they enjoyed, invited among them a number of men who were perfecuted either for the fame religion, or for different opinions. The Catholics of Maryland gave up it length the intolerant principles, of which thev themfelves had been the vi^lims after h'^ving fird fet the example of them, and opened the doors of their colony to all feds of what religious principles foever. Balti- r, . more SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 193 more alfo granted the mod cxtenfive civil li- berty to every ftranger who chofe to purcliafe lands in his new colony, the government of which was modelled upon that of the mother country. Thefe wife and generous precautions, how- ever, did not fecure the governor, at the time of the fubverfion of the monarchy, from lofmg all the rights and conceffions that he had obtained. Deprived of his pofleiuons by Cromwell, he was reftored to them by Charles II. after which they were again dif- puted with him. Tho' lie was perfectly clear from any reproach of mal-adminiilration ; and though he was extremely zealous for the Tramontane dodlrines, and much attached to the interefl of the Stuarts; yet he had the mortification of finding the legality of his charter attacked under the arbitrary reign of James II. and of being obliged to maintain an a6lion at law for the jurifdiclion of a pro- vince which had been ceded to him by the crown, and which he himfelf had peopled. This prince, whofe misfortune it had always been never to have known his friends from his foes, and who had alfo the ridiculous pride to think that regal authority was fufh- cient to juftify every a£c of violence, was preparing a fecond time to deprive Balti- more, of what had been given him by two kings, his father and his brother; when he was ^m I ,*; i i KJ4 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH was himfelf removed from ihe throne which he filled fo ill. The fucceiror of this weak defpotic prince terminated this contell, which had arifen before his acceflion to the trownj in a manner worthy of his political character. He left' the Baltimores in pofl'eflion of their revenues, but deprived them of their autho- rity; which, however, they like wife recover- ed, upon becoming members of the church of England. • The province is at prefent divided into eleven counties, and inhabited by 40,000 white men and 60,000 blacks. It is governed by a chief, who is named by the proprietor, and by a council ind two deputies chofertin each county. The governor, like the king in the other colonies, has a negative voice in all a6ls propofed by the afl'embly; that is to fay, the right of rejedting them. 4. Virginia and Marylind cultivate the fame produdiions. If Maryland were re-united to Virginia, as their common intereft feems to require, no difference could be found between the two fettlements. They are fituated between Pen- fylvania and Carolina, and occupy the great fpace that extends from the fea to the Apa- lachian mountains. The air, which is damp ©n the coaft, becomes light, pure, and fubtle, as SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 195 as one approaches the mountains. The fpring and autumn m nths are of an excel- lent temperature: in fummer there are fome clays excefTively hot, and in winter fome ex- ticmelv cold ; but neither of thefe excefl'es lads above a week ac a time. The moll dif- agreeable circumilance in the clfmate is the abundance of naufeous infedls that are found there. ' All the domeftic animals multiply prodigi- oufly ; and all forts of fruits, trees, and vege- tables, fucceed there extremely well. There is the bed corn in all America. The foil, w^ch is rich and fertile in the low lands, is a^ays good, even in thofe places where it becomes more fandy ; more irregular than it is defcribed by fome travellers, but tolerably even till one comes near the mountains. From thefe refervoirs an incredible num- ber of rivers flow, moft of which are fepa- rated only by an interval of five or fix miles. Befides the fertility which thefe waters im- part to the country they pafs through, they alfo malce it infinitely more convenient for trade than any other part of the new world, from facilitating the communications. Moil of thefe rivers have a very extenfive inland navigation for merchant-fhips, and fome of them for men of war. One may go near two hundred miles up the Potowmack; above eighty up the James, the York, and the T96 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH Rapahannock ; and, upon the other rivers, to a diflancc that varies according as the ca- tara^s are more or lefs diilant from their mouths. All thefe navigable canals, formed by nature, meet in the bay of Chefapeak, which has from feven to nine fathom water both at its entrance and in its whole extent. It reaches above two hundred miles in the inland part:, of the country, and is about twelve miles in its mean breadth. Tho' it is full of fmall iflands, mod of them covered with wood, it is by no means dangerous ; and fo large, that all the fliips in the univerfe might ride there with eafe. 80 uncommon an advantage has prevented the formation of any large towns in the two colonies ; and accordingly the inhabi- tants, who v/ere afTured that the (hips would come lip to their warehoufes, and that they might embark their commodities without go- ing from their own houfes, have difperfed themfelves upon the borders of the feveral rivers. In this fituationj, they found all the pleafures of a rural life, united to all the eafe that trade brings into cities •, they found the facility of extending their cultivation in a country that had no bounds, united to all the afliftance which the fertilization of the lands receives from commerce. But the mother country fufFered a double inconvenience from this difperfion of the colonifts; fird, becaufe her SETl^LEMENTS IN AMERICA. 197 her failors were longer abfcnt, by being obliged to collect their cargoes from thefc fcnttered habitations ; and fecondly, becaufe their fliips are expofed to injury from thofe dangerous infedts, which in the months of June and July infcft all the rivers of this diflant region. The miniftry has therefore ncs[le£led no means of encjairinfT the colonics to eftabliQi ftaples for the reception of their commodities. The conflraint of the laws has not had more effect than perfuafion. At length, a few years ago, forts were ordered to be built at the entrance of every river, to prote£l the loading and unloading of the Ihips. If this proje(ft had not failed in the execution from the want of a fuflicient fund, it is probable that the inhabitants would have collected imperceptibly round each of thefefortrcfibs. But it may dill be qucftioned whether this circumftance would not have proved fatal to population, and whether a- griculture might not have loft as much as commerce would have gained by it. Be this as it may, it is certain that there are but two towns at prefent of . ny kind of note in the two colonies. Even thofe which are the feat of government are of no great importance. Williamfburgh the capital of Virginia, and Annapolis that of Maryland, the lirft rifen upon the ruins of James-town, the other upon thofe of St Mary, are neither \ * t I ci ;l MS 198 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH of them fuperior to one of our common vil- lages. As, in all human affairs, every good is at- tended with fome kind of evil ; fo it has hap- pened, chat the increafe of habitations, by re- tarding the population of towns, has pre- v»inted any artifts or manufa£lurers from be- ing formed in cither of the provinces. With all the materials aeceffary to fupply them with moft of their wants, and even with feve- ral of their convenience?, they are Itill obli- ged to draw from Europe their cloths, linens, hats, hardware, and even furniture of the moft ordinary kind. Thefe numerous and general expences have cxhaufted tho inhabitants ; befides which, they have vied with each other in difplaying every kind of luxury before all the Britifli merchants who vifit their plantations irom motives of commercial inierefl. By thefe means, they have run fo much in debt with the mother country, diat many of them have been obliged to fell their lands; or, in order flill to keep poireiFion of them, to mortgage them at an ufurious intereit of eight or nine per cent. It wiih be no eafy matter for the two pro- vinces ever to emerge from this defperate ftate. Their n;>vy does not amount to above a thoufandf tons j and all they fend to the Carribbee iflands in corn, cattle, and planks, with SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 199 with all tbey expedite for Europe in hemp, flax, leather, peltry, and walnut-tree or cedar wood, does not bring them a return of moie than 43,750/. The only refource they have left is in tobacco. . 5. (5/ the Tuhacco-trade. Tobacco is a fliarp, cauftic, and even ve- nomous plant, which has been formerly of great repute, and is (till ufed in medicine. Every body is acquainted with the general confumption made of it, by chewing, fmo- king, or taking fnulF. It was difcovered in the year 1520 by the Spaniards, who found it firft in the Jucaian, a large peninfula in the gulph of Mexico, from whence it war> carried into the neighbouring iflands. Soon after, the ufe of it became a matter of dif- pute among the learned, which the ignorant alfo took a part in ; and thus tobacco ac- quired fome reputation. By degrees fafliion and cudom have greatly extended its con- fumption in all parts of the known world. It is at prefent cultivated with more or lefs fuccefs in Europe, Alia, Africa, and feveral parts of America. The Hem of this pl?nt is ftraight, hairy, and vifcous; and its leaves are thick, flabby, and of a palt-ijreen colour. T' y irgei bottom than at the fummit of the plant. It requires a foil of a good confidence \ but rich, even, 200 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH I i even, deep, and not too much expofed to In- undations. A virgin foil is very fit for this vegetable, vi'hich requires a great deal of fap. The feeds of the tobacco are fovvn in layers. When it has grown to the height of two inches, and has got at lead half a dozen leaves, it is gently pulled up in damp wea- ther, and tranfplanted with great care into a well-prepared foil, where the plants are placed at the diftance of three feet from each other. When they are put into the ground with thefe precautions, their leaves do not fufFcr the lead injury ; and all their vigour is renewed in four and twenty hours. The cultivation of tobacco requires conti- nual attention. The weeds which gather about it muft be plucked up ; the head of it muft be cut off when it is the fize of two feet and a half, to prevent it from growing too high ; it muft be Itripped of ell fprout- ing fuckers ; the leaves which grow too low down upon the ftem, thofe that are in the Icaft inclined to decay, and thofe which the infe<5ls have touched, muft all be removed, and their number reduced to eight or ten at m'M\, A fingle induftrious man is able to take care of two thoufand five hundred plants, which ought to yield one thoufand weight of tobacco. It is left about four months in the ground. As it advances to maturity, the plcafant and lively green co- 2 ' . lour SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 201 lour of Its leaves is chaii jed into a darker hue ; the leaves are alfo curved, and the fmell they exhale is incrcafed, and extends to a greater diftance. The plant is then ripe, and muft be cut. The plants, when colle£led, are laid in heaps upon the fame ground that produced them, where they are left to exfude only for one night. The next day they are laid up in warehoufes, conftrucled in fuch a manner that the air may have free accefs to them on all fides. Here they are left feparately fuf- pended as long a time as is neceflary to dry them well. They are then fpread upon hurdles, and well covered over; where they ferment for a week or two. At laft they are ftripped of their leaves, which are either put into barrels, or made up into rolls. The other methods of preparing the plant, which vary according to the different taftes of the feveral nations that ufe it, have nothing to do with its cultivation. Of all the countries in which tobacco has been planted, there is nane where it has an- fvvered fo well as in Maryland and Virginia. As it was the only occupation of the firft plante.:, they often cultivated much more than they could find a fale for. They were then obliged to flop the growth of the plan- tations in Virginia, and to burn a certain number of plants in every habitationthrough- VoL. I. O out 202 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH out Maryland* But in procefs of time the ufesof this herb became fo general, tliat they have been obliged to increafe the number both of the whites and blacks who are era- ployed in preparing it. At prefent each of the colonies furnifhes nearly an equal quan- tity. That from Virginia, which is the mild- eft, the moft perfumed, and the deareft, is confumed in England and in the fouthern parts of Europe. That of Maryland is fitter for the northern climates, from its cheap- nefs, and even from its coarfenefs, which makes it better adapted to lefs delicate organs. As navigation has not yet made the lame progrefs in thefe provinces as in the reft of North America, the tobacco is commonly tranfported in the ftiips of the mother coun- try. They are very often three, four, and even fix months in completing their cargo. This delay arifes from feveral very evident caufes. Firft, as there are no magazines or general receptacles for the tobacco, it is neceflary to go and fetch it from the feveral plantations. Secondly, few planters are able to load a whole ftiip if they would ; and if they were, they would not t4iufe to venture their whole upon one bottom. In (hort, as the price o£ the freight is fixed, and is always the fame whether the articles are ready for embarka- tion or not, the planters wait till they are preflttl SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 205 preffed by the captains themfelves to haften the exportation. All thefe feveral reafons are the caufe why veflTels only of a moderate fize are generallyemployed upon this fervice. The larger they would be, the longer time they would be detained in America. Virginia always pays i /. 19 j. 4f ^. freight for every barrel of tobacco, and Maryland ony I /. 14J. 5^^. This difference is owing to the lefs value of the merchandife, and to the greater expedition made in loading it. The Englifh merchant lofes by the carriage, but it is made up to him by the commiflions. As he is always employed in all the fales and purchafes made for the colonifts, he is amply compenfated for his lofles and his trouble, by an allowance of five per cent* upon thefe commiflions. This navigation employs two hundred and fifty (hips, whi:h make up 30,000 tons. They take in a hundred thoufand barrels of tobacco from the two colonies, which, at the rate of eight hundred pounds a-barrel, make eighty millions of pounds weight. That part of the commodity which grows between York and James rivers, and in fome othej' places, is extremely dear ; but the whole ta- ken upon an average fells only for about 2-J,'/. a pound in England, which makes in all 738,281/. 5 J. Befides the advantage it is of to Britain to exchange its manufadlures to O 2 the 204 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH the amount of this fum, it gains another by the re-exportation of four fifths of the to- bacco. This alone is an objedl of 442,968 /. 15 J. befides what is tobe reckoned for freight and commiffion. The cuftom-houfe duties are a ftill more confiderable objedl to government. There is a tax of about 6^d. upon every pound of tobacco that enters the kingdom. This, fup- pofing the whole eighty millions of pounds imported to remain in it, would bring the ftatc 2,078,124/. lyj. g^d* but as four fifths are re-exported, and all the duties are re- mitted upon that portion, the public revenue gains only 831,250/. loj. i^d. Experience tdacphes, that a third of this mud be dedu£^ed for prompt payment of what the merchant has a right to be eighteen months in paying, and to allow for the fmuggling that is car- ried on in the fmall ports as well as in the large ones. This dedudlion will amount to 277,084/. IS. I lid. and there will confe- quently remain for government no more than 554,168/. 16 s, 4id. Notwithftanding thefe laft abufes, Virgi- nia and Maryland are much more advanta- geous to Great Britain than the ^ther nor- thern colonies, more fo even than Carolina. CHAP. SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 205 CH AP. Ill; Of C A R O L I N A. I. Origin, CAROLINA extends three hundred miles along the coaft, which is two hundred miles broad, as far as the Apalachian moun- tains. It was difcovered by the Spaniards, foon after the firft expeditions in the new world ; but as they found no gold there to fatisfy their avarice, they defpifed it. Ad- miral Coligny, with more prudence and abi- lity, opened an afylum there to theinduflry' of the French proteftants; but the fanaticifm that purfued them foon deftroyed all their hopes, which were totally loft in the mur- der of that juft, humane, and enlightened man. Some Englifh fucceeded them towards the end of the i6th century; who, by an un- accountable caprice, were induced to aban- don this fertile foil, in order to go and cul- tivate a more ungrateful land, and in a lefs agreeable climate. 2. Sy/iem of religious and civil government eftablijhed by Locke, There was not a fingle European remain- ing in Carolina, when the lords Berkeley, O 3 Cla< 2o6 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH Clarendon, Albemarle, Craven, and Afhiey, Sir George Carteret, Sir William Berkeley, and Sir William Colleton, obtained from Charles 11. in 1663, a grant of that fine country. The plan of government for this new colony was laid down by the famous Locke. A philofopher who was a friend to mankind, and to that moderation and judice which ought to be the rule of their a£lions, could not find better means to oppofe the prevalence of fanaticifm, than by an unli- mited toleration in matters of religion ; but not daring openly to attack the prejudices of his time, which were as much the efFe£l of the virtues as of the crimes of the age, he endeavoured at lead to reconcile them, if pofTible, with a principle of reafon and hu- manity. The wild inhabitants of America, faid he, have no idea of a revelation ; it would, therefore, be the height of extrava- gance to make them fufFer for their igno- rance. The different fefts of Chrillians who might come to people the colony, would, without doubt, expe£l a liberty of confcience there, which prieils and princes refufed them in Europe j nor fhould Jews or Pagans be reje£ked on account of a blindnefs which le- nity and perfuafion might contribute to re- move. Such was the reafoning of Mr Locke with men prejudiced and influenced by opi- nions which no one hitherto had taken the liberty SETTLEMENl^S IN AMERICA. 207 liberty to call in queftion. Difgufled with the troubles and misfortunes which the dif- ferent fyftems of religion had given birth to in Europe, they readily acquiefced in the ar- guments he propoffcd to them. They ad- mitted toleration in the fame manner as in- tolerance is received, without examining into the merits of it. The only reftridion laid upon this faving principle was, that every perfon,'claiming the prote6lion of that fettle- ment, (hould at the age of feventeen regifter themfelves in fome particular communion. The Englifh philofopher was not fo fa- vourable to civil liberty. Whether'it were, that thofe who had fixed upon him to trace out a plan of government had reftrained his views, as will be the cafe with every writer who employs his pen for great nxen or mini- fters; or whether Locke, being more of a metaphyfician than a ftatefman, purfued phi- lofophy only in thofe trafts which had been opened by Defcartes and Leibnitz ; the fame man, who had diflipated and deflroyed fo many errors in his theory concerning the origin of ideas, made but very feeble and uncertain advances in the path of legiflation. The author of a work, whofe continuance will render the glory of the French nation immortal, even when tyranny fhall have broken all the fprings, and all the monu- ments of the genius and merit of a people ^ O 4 elteem- 2o8 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH eftecmed by the whole world for fo many amiable and brilliant qualities ; even Monte- fquieu himfelf, did not perceive that he was making men for governments, inftead of making governments for men. The code of Carolina, by a fingulaiity not tq be accounted for in an Englifliman and a philofoph =?r, gave to the eight proprietors who founded the iettlement, and to their heirs, not only all the rights of a monarch, but likcwife all the powers of legillation. The court, vi^hich was compofed of this fovereign body, and was called the Palatine Court, was invefted with the right of nomi- nating to all employments and dignities, and even with that of conferring nobility, but under new and unprecedented titles. For inltance, they were to create in each county two Caciques, each of whom was to be pofiefled of twenty-four thoufand acres of Jand ; and a Landgrave, who was to be pof- fefled :>{ fourfcore thoufand. The perfons on whom thefe honours {hould be beflowed were tocompofe the upper houfe; and their poiTeffions were made unalienable, a circum- ilance totally inconfiftent with good policy. They had only tlie right of farming or let- ting out a third pait of them at the mod for the continuance of three lives. The lower houfe was formed of the depu- ties from the feveral counties and towns. The SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 209 The number of this reprefentative body is to be increafed in proportion as tht* cos y grew more populous. No tenant w:^s 10 ,. j more than one (hilling per acre, and c^ a this rent was redeemable. All th? iuh \bi- tants, however, both flaves and freemen, were under an obligation to take arms up- on the firft order they fhould receive from the Palatine Court. It was not long before the faults of a con- ftitution, in which the powers of the ftate were fo unequally divided, berran todifcover themfelves. The proprietary jords, influen- ced by defpotic principles, ufed every en- deavour to eftablifli an arbitrary government. On the other hand, the colonifiis, who were not ignorant of the general rights of man- kind, exerted themfelves with equal zeal to avoid fervitude. From this ftruggle of op- pofite interefts arofe an inevitable confufion, which put a ftop to every ufeful effort of in- duftry. The whole province, diilra£ted with quarrels, diflentions, and tumults, was ren- dered incapable of making any progrefs, what- ever improvements had been expelled from the peculiar advantages of its fituation. Nor were thefe evils fufficient : new ones arofe, as if a remedy could only be attained from an excefs of grievances. Granville, who, as the oldelt of the proprietors, was in 1705 fole governor of the colony, formed the ' I 210 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH the refolution of obliging all the non-con- formifls, who made up two-thinls of the people, to embrace the forms of worfliip eftaMifhed in England. This a£l of violence, though difavowed and rejected by the mo- ther country, inflamed the minds of the people. In 1720, while this animofity was dill prevailing, the province was attacked by feveral bands of favages, driven to defpair by a continued courfe of the mofl atrocious infolence and injuflice. Thofe unfortunate wretches were all conquered, and all put to the fword : but the courage and vigour which this war revived in the breads of the colonifls was the prelude to the fall of their oppreflbrs. Thofe tyrants having refufed to contribute to the expences of an expedi- tion, the immediate benefits of which they claimed to themfelves, were all, excepting Carteret, who flill preferved one eighth of the country, dripped in 1728 of their prero- gatives, which they had only known how to make an ill ufe of. They received, however, 23,625/. by way of compenfation. From this time the crown refumed the govern- ment ; and in order to give the colony a fore- tade of its moderation, bedowed on it the fame conditution as on others. It was fur- ther divided into two feparate governments, under the names of North and South Caro- lina, in order to facilitate the adminidration of SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 21 1 of it. It is from this happy period that the profpcrity ot this grdat province is to be dated. 3. Climate and produce* There is not, perhaps, throughout the new world, a climate to be compared with tl -xt of Carolina. The two feafons of the yeai, whicKf for the mod part, only mode- rate the excefles of the two others, are here delightful. The heats of the fummer are not excedive ; and the cold of the winter is only felt in the mornings and evenings. The fogs, which are always common upon a coaft of any length, are difperfed before the mid- dleof the day. But, on the other hand, here, as well as in every other part almoll of A- merica, the inhabitants are fubje£l to fuch fudden and violent changes of weather, as oblige them to obferve a regularity in their (iiet and clothing which would be unnecef- fary in a more fettled climate. Another inconvenience, peculiar to this tradt of the northern continent, is that of being tor- mented with hurricanes ; but thefe are lefs frequent and lefs violent than in the iflands. A vail, melancholy, uniform, unvaried plain extends from the fea-(horc fourfcore or a hundred miles within land. From this diftance the country, beginning to rife, af- fords 212 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH fords a more pleafing profpeft, a purer and drier air. This part, before the arrival of the Englifh, was covered vi^ith one immenfe foreft, reaching as far as the Apalarhian mountains. It confifted of large trees grow- ing, as nature had call them, without order or defign, at unequal diftances, and not en- cumbered with underwood; by which means more land could be cleared here in a week, than in feveral motiths among us- The foil of Carolina is very various. On the coaft, and about the mouths of the rivers, which fall into the fea, it is either covered with impra£licable and unhealthful moraf- fes; or made up of a pale, lightj fandy earth, which produces nothing* In one part, it is barren to an extreme*; in another, among the numberlefs dreams that divide the coun- try, it is exceflively fruitful. At a diftance from the coafts, there are found fometimes large waftes of white fand, which produce nothing but pines ; at others there are lands, where the oak and the walnut-tree announce fertility. Thefe variations ceafe when you get into the inland parts, and the country every where is agreeable and rich. Admirably adapted as thefe fpots are for the pU'rpofes of cultivation, the province does not want others equally favourable for the breeding of cattle. Thoufands of horned cattle are raifed here; which go out in the morn- SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 213 morning, without a herdfmanj to feed in the woods, and return home at night of their own accord. Their hogs, which are fuft'er- ed to fatten themfelves in the fame manner, are dill more numerous and much better in their kind. But mutton degenerates there both in flefti and wool. For this reafon it is lefs common. In 1723, the whole colony confided of no more than four thoufand white people, and thirty-two thoufand blacks. Its exportations to other parts of America and to Europe did not exceed 216,562/. los. Since that time it hath acquired a degree of fplendour which it owes entirely to the enjoyment of liberty. South Carolina, though it hath fucceedcd in eftabiifhing a confiderable barter trade with the favages, hath gained a manufac- ture of linens by means of the French refu- gees, and invented a new kind of ftufF by mixing the filk it produces with its wool j yet is its progrefs principally to be attributed to the produce of rice and indigo. The firft of thefe articles was brought there by an accident. A (hip, on its return from India, ran aground on this coalt. It was laden with rice; which, being toiled on (liore by the waves, grew up again. This unexpedled good fortune led them to try the cultivation of a commodity which the foil fcemed of itfelf to require. For a long time ii4 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH little progrefs was made in it ; becaufe the colonifts being obliged to fend their crops to the mother country, from whence they were fhipped again for Spain and Portugal, where the confumption was, fold them at fo low a price that it fcarce anfwered the expences of cultivation. Since 1730, when a more en- lightened miniftry gave them permifTion to export and fell their grain themfelves at foreign markets, an increafe of profit has produced an additional growth of the com- modity. The quantity is at prefent greatly augmented, and maybe ftiii more; but whe- ther fo much to the benefit of the colony, is doubtful. Of all productions, rice is the moft detrimental to the falubrity of the cli- mate : at leaft, it hath been efteemed fo in the Milanefe, where the peafants on the rice-grounds are all of them fallow complec- tioned and dropfical ; and in France, where that article hath been totally prohibited. Egypt had without doubt its precautions againft the ill effetls of a grain in other re- fpeCts fo nutritious. China mud alfo have its prefervatives, which art fcts up againit na- ture, whofe favours are fometimes attended with pernicious confequences. Perhaps alfo under the torrid zone, where rice grows in the greateft abundance, the heat, which makes it flouriih in the midft of water^, quickly difperfes the moilt and noxious va- ■ . pours in SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 215 pours that exhale from the rice-fields* But if the cultivation of rice (liould one day come to be negleded in Carolinaj that of indigo will make ample amends for it. This plant, which is a native of Indoftan, was firft brought to perfedlion in Mexico and the Leeward illands. It was tried later, and with lefs fuccefs, in South Carolina. This principal ingredient in dying is there of fo inferior a quality, that it is fcarce fold at half the price it bears in other places. Yet thofe who cultivate it do not defpair in time of fupplanting both the Spaniards and French at every market. The goodnefs of theif cli- mate, the extent of their lands, the plenty and cheapnefs of their provifions, the oppor- tunities they have of fupplying themfelves with utenfils and of procuring Haves; every thing, in (liort, flatters thcirexpeOation : and the fame hope has always extended itfelf to the inhabitants of North Carolina. It is well known, that this country was the firft, on the continent of the new world, on which the Englifh landed; for here is the bay of Roanoak, which Pv^leigh took poflef- fion of in 1585, A total emigration, in a fhort time, left it deftitute of colonifts; nor did it begin to be repeopled, even when large fettlements were ellablifhed in the neighbouring countries. We cannot other- wife account for this derelidlion, than from the 2i6 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH the obltacles which trading veifels had to en- counter in this beautiful region. None of its rivers are deep enough to admit fhips of more than feventy or eighty tons. Thofe of greater burden are forced to anchor be- tween the continent and fome adjacent iflands. The tenders, which are employed in lading and unlading them, augment the ex- pence and trouble both of their exports and imports. • From this circumftance, probably, it was, that North-Carolina in the beginning was inhabited only by a fet of wretches without name, laws, ox profefBon. In proportion as the lands in the neighbouring colonies grew more fcarce, thofe who were not able to purchafe them betook themfelves to a country where they could get lands without purchafe. Refugees of other kinds availed themfelves of the fame refource. Order and property became eftabiiflied at the fame time; and this colony, with fewer advantages than South-Carolina, obtained a greater number of European fettlers. The firft people, whom chance difperfed along. thefe favage coafts, confined them- felves to the breeding of cattle, and cutting wood, which were taken oiF their hands by 'the merchants of New- England. In a fhort time they contrived to make the pine-tree produce them turpentine, tar, and pitch. 2 For SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 217 For the turpentiiie, they had nothing to do but to make to flits in the trunk of the tree, about a foot in length, at the bottom of which they placed veflels to receive it. When they wanted tar, they raifed a circu- lar platform of potter's earth, on which they laid piles of pine-wood : to thefe they fet fire, and the refin diftilled from them into cafks placed underneath. The tar was con- verted into pitch, either in great iron pots, in which they boiled it ; or in pits formed of potter's earth, into which it was poured while in a fluid ftate. This labour, howe- ver, was not fufBcient for the maintenance of the inhabitants: they then proceeded to grow corn *, and for a long time were contented with maize, as their neighbours in South-* Carolina were obliged to be, where the wheat being fubje£l to mildew, and to exhaufb it- felf in (traw, never throve. But feveral ex- periments having proved to the North-Caro- linians that they were not liable to the fame inconvenience, they fucceeded fo far in the cultivation of that grain, that they were e- ven able to fupply a confiderable exporta- tion. Rice and indigo have been but late- ly introduced into this province, to join the harveils of Africa and Afia to thofe of Europe. The cultivation of them is but yet in its infancy. There is fcarce one twentieth part of the ♦ Vol. I. P ter- ! J 2i8 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH territory belonging to the two Carolinas tb;tt is cleared ; and, at this time, the only cul- tivated fpots are thofe which are the moft fandy and the nearell to the fea. The reafon why the colonifls have not fettled farther back in the country is, that of ten navigable rivers, there is not one that will admit (hip* ping higher than fixty miles. This inconve- nience is not to be remedied but by making roads or canals; and works of that kind re- quire fo many hands, and fo much expencc and knowledge, that the hopes of fuch an improvement are ftill very diftant. Neither of the colonies, however, have reafon to complain of their lot. The im- polls, which are all levied on the exporta- tion and importation of merchandife, do not exceed 5,906 /. 51. The paper-currency of North Carolina does not amount to more than 49,1 r 8 /. 15 i. and that of South Caro- lina} which is infinitely more wealthy, is on- ly 246,093/. 15 J. Neither of them is in debt to the mother country *, and this ad- vantage, which is not common even in the Englifh colonies, they derive from the great amount of their exportations to the neigh- bouring provinces, the Leeward iilands, and to Europe. In 1754, there were exported from South Carolina, feven hundred and fifty-nine bar- rels of turpentine, two thoufand nine hun- dred SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 219 tired and forty-three of tar 5 five thoufand eight hundred and fixty-nine of pitch or ro- fin ; four hundred and fixteen barrels of beef; fifteen hundred and fixty of pork ; fixteen thoufand four hundred bufliels of Indian corn, and nine thoufand one hun- dred and fixty-two of peafe ; four thoufand one hundred and eighty tanned hides, and twelve hundred in the hair ; one million one hundred and forty thoufand planks, two hundred and fix thoufand joifts, and three hundred and eighty-five thoufand feet of timber; eight hundred and eighty-two hogs- heads of wild deer-(kins ; one hundred and four thoufand fix hundred and eighty-two barrels of rice ; two hundred and fixteen thoufand nine hundred and eighty-four pounds of indigo. In the fame year North Carolina exported fixty-one thoufand five hundred and twenty- eight barrels of tar, twelve thoufand and fifty-five of pitch, and ten thoufand four hundred and twenty-nine of turpentine; fe- ven hundred and fixty-two thoufand three hundred and thirty planks, and two thou- fand fix hundred and forty-feven feet of tim- ber ; fixty-one thoufand, five hundred bu- fhels of wheat, and ten thoufand of peafe ; three thoufand three hundred barrels of beef and pork; one hundred hogflieads of tobacco ; ten thoufand hundred- weight of ♦ P 2 tanned 220 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH tanned hides, and thirty thoufand fkins of different kinds. In the above account, there Is not a finglc article that has not been confiderably increa- fed fince that time. Several of them have been doubled ; and the mod valuable of all, thj indigo, has increafed to three times the quantity. Some produ6lions of North Carolina are exported to Europe and the Caribbees, the* there is no ftaple town to receive them, and that Edinton, the ancient capital of the pro- vince, as well as that which has been built in lieu of it upon the river Neus, can fcarce be confidered as fmall villages. The largeft and mod valuable part of its exports is con- veyed to Charles-town, to increafe the riches of South Carolina. . This town lies between the two navigable rivers, Cooper and Afliley ; furrounded by the mofl beautiful plantations of the colony, of which it is the centre and the capital. It is well built, interfe6led with feveral agree- able ftreets, and its fortifications are toler- ably regular. The large fortunes that have been made there from the acceflion and cir- culation of its trade, mud neceffarily have bad fome influence upon the manners of the people : of all the towns in North America, it is the one in which the conveniences of luxury are mod to be met with. But the > . dif. SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 22 f difadvantage its road labours under, of not being able to admit of fliips of above tuo hundred tons, will make it lofe its prefent fplendor. It will be defeited for Pert Roy- aly which admits vefl'els of all kinds into its harbour, and in great numbers. A ftttle- ment has already been formed there, which is continually incieafing, and may mod: pro- bably meet with the greatcil fucccfs. Bcfidcs the produ(51:ions of North and South Carolina, that will naturally come to its market, it will alfo receive thofe of Georgia, a colony that has been lately eftablifl^ed near I4. CHAP. IV. ' Of G E O R G 1 A. I. Foundation. CAROLINA and Spanifh Florida are fepa- rated from each other by a great tradt of land which extends one hundred and twen- ty miles upon the fea-coaft, and three hun- dred miles from thence to the Apalachian mountains, and whofe boundaries to the north and fouth are the rivers Savannah and Alatamaha. The Englifli miniftry had been long defirous of eredling a colony on this tradl of country, that was confidered as de- pendent upon Carolina. One of thofe in- P 3 (lances 222 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH fiances of benevolence, which liberty, the fource of every patriotic virtue, renders more frequent in England than in any other coun- try, fervcd to determine the views of go- vernment with regard to this place. A rich and humane citizen, at his death, left the whole of his eftate to fet at liberty fuch in- folvent debtors as were detained in prifon by their creditors. Prudential reafons of po- licy concurred in the performance of this will di£lated by humanity; and the govern- ment gave orders, that fuch unhappy pri- foners, as were releafed, fhoiild be tranf- planted into that dcfert country, that was now intended to be peopled ; it was named Georgia^ in honour of the reigning fovereign. This inilance of refpedl, the more pleafing as it was not the efFe£l of flattery, and the execution of a defign of fo much real advan- tage to the ftate, were entirely the work of the nation. The parliament added 9843/. 15 J. to the eftate left by the will of the citi- zen ; and a voluntary fubfcription produced a much more confiderable fum. General Oglethrope, a man who had diftinguifhed himfelf in the houfe of commons by his tafte for great defigns, by his zeal for his country, and his paflion for glory, was fixed upon to dire6): thefe public finances, and to carry in- to execution fo excellent a project. Defirous pf maintaining the reputation he had ac- quired. SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 223 quired, he chofe to condudl himfelf the firlt colonifts that were to be feni to Georgia ; where he arrived in January 1733, and fixed his people on a fpot at ten miles diflance from the fea, in an agreeable and fertile plain on the banks of the iSavannah. This rifing fettlement was called Savannah from the name of the river; and inconfiderable as it was in its infant ftate, was, however, to be- come the capital of a flourifhing colony. It confided at firfl: of no more than one bun* dred perfons; but, before the end of the year, the number was increafed to 618, 127 of whom had emigrated at their own expence. Three hundred men and 113 women, 102 lads and 83 girls, formed the beginning of this new population and the hopes of a nu- merous pofterity. This fettlement was increafed in 1735 by the arrival of fome Scotch highlanders. Their national courage induced them to ac- cept an eflablifhment offered them upon the borders of the Alatamaha, to defend the co- lony, if necefTary, againfl the attacks of the neighbouring Spaniards. Here they built the towns of Darien and Frederica, and fc- veral of their countrymen came over to fettle among them. In the fame year, a great number of pro-? teftants, driven out of Saltzburg by a fana- tical prieft, embarked for Georgia to enjoy P 4 peace 224 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH peace and liberty of confcience. At firfl: they fettled on a fpot fituated juft above that of the infant colony ; but they afterwards chofe to be at a greater dillance, and to go as far down as the mouth of the Savannah, where they built a town called Ebenezer, Some Switzers followed the example of thefe wife Saltzburglx^rs, though they had not, like them, bc;en perfecuted. They alfo fettled on the banks of the Savannah ; but at the diftance of four and thirty miles from the Germans. Their colony, confiding of a hundred habitations, was named Purjhiirghy from Pury their founder, who, having been at the expCnce of their fettlement, was de- fervedly chofen their chief, in tedimony of their gratitude to him. In thcfe four or live colonies, fome men were found more inclined to trade than agri- culture. Thefe, therefore, feparated from the reft in order to build the city Augufta, two hundred and thirty-fix miles diftant from the ocean. Tbe goodnefs of the foil, though excellent in itfelf, was not the motive of their fixing upon this fituation •, but the fa- cility it afforded them of carrying on the pel- try trade with the favages. Their piojecf^ •was fo fuccefsful, that, as early as t\i garrifon, whofe pay amount- ed to 32,822!. lOS. enabled them to purchafe cloths and whatever elfe their foil did not furnifh them with. Notwithftanding the mi- ferable ftate in which they had been left by the mother country, the greateft part of them chofe to go to Cuba, when Florida was ceded to Britain by the treaty of 1763. This ac- quifition, therefore, was no more than a de- fart; yet ftill it was fome advantage to have got rid of a number of lazy, indolent, and dif- affe£ted inhabitants. Great Britain was pleafed with the pro- fpeft of peopling a vaft province, whofe li- mits have been extended even to the MifFi- llppi by the ceflion France has made ox part of Louifiana. The better to fulfil her prcjecH:, fhe has divided it into two governments, un- der the names of Eaft and Weft Florida. The Britifti had long been defirous of efta- bliftiing themfelves in that part of the conti- nent, in order to open a free communication with the wealthieft colonies of Spain. At iirft they had no other view but in the pro- iits arifing from a contraband trade. But an ad van- SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 237 advantage fo precarious and momentary, was not an object of fufTicient importance, nor any way Uiitable to the ambition of a great power. Cultivation alone can render the conquefls of an induftrious people flouri fil- ing. Scnfible of this, the Britilli give every encouragement to promote culture in the fined part of their dominions. In one year, 1769, the parliament voted no lefs than 9,007/. 10 J, 7i;<:/. for the twoFloridas. Here, at leaft, the mother for fome time admini- fters to her new-born children; whereas, in other nations, the government fucks and exhaufts at the fame time the milk of the mother country and the blood of the colonies. 2. By what means Britain may render Florida ufeful to her. It is not eafy to determine, to what degree of fplendour this indulgence, with time and good management, may raife the Floridas. Appearances, however, are highly promifing. The air is healthy, and the foil fit for every kind of grain. Their firlt trials of rice, cot- ton, and indigo, were attended with fuch fuccefs, that the number of colonifts was greatly increafed by it. They pour in from the neighbouring provinces, the mother countrv, and all the Proteftant dominions in Europe. How greatly might this population be 23S HISTORY OF THE BRITISH be incrcafed, if the fovereigns of North Ame- rica would depart from the maxims they have uniformly purfued, and would condefcend to intermarriages with Indian families ! And for what reafon (hould this method of civi- lizing the favage tribes, which has been fo fucccfsfully employed by the mod enlighten- ed politician.^, be rejedied by a free people, who from their principles mufl: admit a greater equality than other nations ? Would they then be ftill reduced to the cruel alter- native of feeing their crops burned, and their labourers mafTacred, or of perfecuting without intermiirion, and exterminating without pity, thofe wandering bands of na- tives? Surely a generous nation, which has made fuch great and fuch continued efforts to reign without a rival over this vaP tradl of the new world, fliould prefer to ^^ui. nary and inglorious hoftilities, a humane and infallible method of difarming the only ene- my that remains to difturb her tranquillity! The Britifh flatter themfelves, that with- out the afliftance of thefe alliances they (hall foon be freed from the little interruption that remains. It is the fate of favage nations, fay they, to wade away in proportion as the peopleof civilized dates come to fettle among them. Unable to fubmit to the labour of cultivation, and failing of their ufual fub- fidence from the chace, they arc reduced to the SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. tbe neccfTity of abandoning all thofc tracts of land which induftryand ad\ivity have under- taken to clear. This is aflually the cafe with all the natives bordering on the European fettlements. They keep daily retiring fur- ther into the woods ; they fall back upon the Aflenipouals and Hudfon's bay, where they mufl neceiTarily encroach upon each other, and in a fliort time mud perifli for want of fubfiflence. But before this total deftruftion is brought about, events of a very ferious nature may occur. We have not yet forgot the generous Pondiack. That formidable warrior had broken with the Biitilhin 1762. Major R.o- bcrts, who was employed to reconcile him, fcnt him a prefent of brandy. Some Iroquois, who were (landing round ♦'leir chief, lliud- dcred at the Cght of this liquor. Not doubt- ing that it was poifoned, they infifted that he fliould not accept fo fufpicious a prefent. " How can it be," faid their leader, " that " a man, who knows my eltcem for him, ** and the fignal fervices I have done him, *' fliould entertain a thought of taking away *' my life?*' Saying this, he received and drank the brandy with a confidence equal to that of the mod renowned hero of antiquity. By many inftances of magnanimity fimilar to this, the eyes of the favage nations had all been fixed upon Pondiack. His defign was ♦ to * L .240 HIjSTOJlY OF THE BRITIS|| to unite them in a body for the defence Jt)f their. lands and indy, that hath none of thofc .^expences to fuffain^^or evils to dread, ^hich "war brinj;s with ft among civilized nations; j^nd will find the advantages 'they, have pro- hiifedthemfelves from, con que us made at ;the ex^lfice of fo much treafure and-fo much blood, confiderably retarded, at leafi^ if not .entirely cut off. Eto OF THE FIRST VOLUME. I -\ ALx- V. i V V; '\- V X i \ S^ \ V \