A.N 
 
 ACCOUNT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS 
 
 IN 
 
 AMERICA, 
 
 An accurate Description of their Extent, Climate, Productions, Trade, Genius, 
 and Dispositions of their Inhabitants : the Interests of the several Powers of 
 Europe with respect to those Settlements ; and their Political and Commercial 
 Views witli Regard to each other. 
 
 BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 EDMUND BURKE 
 
 A NEW EDITION. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH MAPS. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR JOHN JOSEPH STOCK.DALE, 
 NO. 41 , PALL-MALL. 
 
 1808. 
 

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too 400 ffoo tfoo 1000 
 
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THE ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 WHY the Editor of the Works of the Right Hon. 
 Edmund Burke excluded from such a collection his 
 admirable " ACCOUNT of the European Settlements in 
 AMERICA," we pretend not to know. Of this ex 
 cellent book, we are certain, however, that Edmund 
 Burke was the real Author. Yet, we cannot, per 
 haps, assign our proofs of this fact, in stronger terms, 
 than has been already done, by the able writer of 
 " The DOCUMENTS, for the Opinion, that HUGH 
 MACAULEY BOYD wrote JUNIUS'S LETTERS:" 
 
 " We had now commenced," says he, " our war 
 with France- about American boundaries. Every 
 tongue talked, in 1756, about our American rights; 
 and every pen scribbled about our checks by land, 
 and our successes by sea. While curiosity was awake, 
 and inquiry was active, Edmund Burke produced, 
 in April 1757, An Account of the European Settle 
 ments in America. He was paid for the copyright 
 of this historical account, which was received with 
 an universal welcome, fifty'guineas.* Of this work, 
 
 * The writer of this saw the receipt, written with Edmund Burke's 
 own hand. The late Lord Maccartney used to say, that this was a joint 
 
 b work 
 
6 . THE ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 he would never admit, that he was the author. Yet, 
 such are its comprehensive brevity, and its elegant 
 precision, that this book is not unworthy of the 
 genius, and talents of Edmund Burke. I do not, 
 however, say, but that a man of more elaboration 
 than the author, with American records at his hand, 
 could detect in it some inaccuracies of assertion, 
 and expose more deficiencies of policy. It is curious 
 to remark, that the taste of Burke corresponds with 
 the judgement of Hume, in historic writing: They 
 both concur, in simplicity of style, and strength of 
 remark. Yet, is it easy to perceive, from an exami 
 nation of his European Settlements, that Burke, in 
 history, would have shewn, like Hume, great pro 
 fundity of observation, and elegance of narrative, 
 but, with all, great want of elaboration." 
 
 work of Mr. Burke, his brother, and his namesake William Burke, 
 Hut, tha principal merit of it belongs certainly to Mr. Edmund Burke. 
 Vet, an opinion, however respectable, cannot be admitted against such 
 a document, as a receipt, in the author's hand \yriting, for the copj- 
 right x<iney. 
 
THE PREFACE 
 
 TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION 
 
 THE affairs of America have lately engaged a great deal of 
 the publick attention. Before the present war, there were but 
 a very few who made the history of that quarter of the world 
 any part of their study ; thougli the matter is certainly very 
 curious itself, and extremely interesting to us as a trading 
 poeple. 
 
 This history of a country which, though vast -in extent, i> 
 the property only of four nations ; and which, though peopled 
 probably for a series of ages, is only known to the rest of the 
 world for about two centuries, does not naturally afford matter 
 for many volumes. Yet it is certain, that, to acquire a proper 
 knowledge of the history of the events in America, an idea 
 of its present state, and a competent judgment of its trade, a 
 great deal of reading has been found requisite. And I may add, 
 that the reading on many parts of this subject is dry and dis 
 gusting ; that authors have treated on it, some without a suffi 
 cient knowledge of the subject, and others in such a manner 
 as no knowledge of the subject in the author could induce any 
 body to become readers. That some are loaded with a lumber 
 of matter that can interest very few ; and that others obscure 
 the truth in many particulars, to gratify the low prejudices of 
 
 b 2 parties, 
 
8 THE PREFACE. 
 
 parties, and, I may say, of nations. Whatever is written by the 
 English settled in our colonies, is to be read with great caution ; 
 because very few of them write without a bias to the in 
 terest of the particular province to which they belong, or per 
 haps to a particular faction in that province. It is only by 
 comparing the printed accounts with one another, and those 
 with the best private information, and correcting all by au- 
 thentick matter of record, that one can discover the truth ; 
 
 and this hath been a matter of some difficulty. 
 
 / 
 With regard to the foreign settlements, recourse was had to 
 
 the best printed accounts of travellers and others ; and, in 
 some points, to private information from intelligent traders. 
 The materials for the foreign settlements are far from being as 
 perfect, or as much to be depended upon, as we could wish ; 
 it was very seldom that I could venture to transcribe any thing 
 directly from them without some addition or some corrective. 
 
 In the historical part of this work, I fixed my eye prin 
 cipally on some capital matters, which might the most fully 
 engage and best reward the attention of the reader ; and in 
 treating of those I dwelt only upon such events as seemed to 
 me to afford some political instruction, or to open the characters 
 of the principal actors in those great scenes. The affairs which 
 seemed most worthy of an account of any length, are those 
 splendid and remarkable events of the discovery of America, 
 and the conquest of the only two civilized kingdoms it con 
 tained. 
 
 In 
 
THE PREFACE. 9 
 
 In treating of other parts, I have -given so much of the his 
 tory of each country as may serve to shew, when and upon 
 what principles it was planted, to enable the reader the better 
 to judge of its present condition. These accounts are very 
 short ; and, considering of what sort of matter such histories 
 are composed, I believe I shall deserve as much for what I 
 have omitted, as for what I have inserted. If I could not write 
 well upon any subject, I have endeavoured always to write* 
 concisely. 
 
 My principal view, in treating of the several settlements, was, 
 to draw every thing towards their trade, which is the point that 
 concerns us the most materially ; for which reason, I have but 
 little considered their civil, and yet less their natural history, 
 further than as they tended to throw some light upon the com 
 merce of these countries ; except where the matters were very 
 curious, and served to diversify the work. 
 
 It is not to be expected that a performance of this kind 
 can be written equally throughout. In some places, the sub 
 ject refuses all ornament ; and the matter, dry in itself, is by 
 no art to be made otherwise : in some, a contagion commu- 
 
 CJ _ 
 
 iiicated from the dulness of materials, which yet were necessary 
 to the work, may probably appear ; in many, and perhaps the 
 most blameable parts, the author alone must be. answerable. 
 
 Having spoken perhaps a little too hardly of my materials, I 
 must except the assistance I have had from the judicious col 
 lection called Harris's Voyages. There are not many finer 
 pieces than the history of Brazil in that collection ; the light 
 
 in 
 
10 THE PREFACE. 
 
 in which the author sets the ev f ents in that history is fine and 
 instructive ; an uncpmmon spirit prevails through it ; and his 
 remarks are every where striking and deep. The little sketch 
 I have given in the part of Portuguese America, if it has any 
 merit, is entirely due to that original. However the accounts 
 given of many things in that part of his work which relates to 
 the English and French settlements may be defective, and 
 suited rather to the ancient than to the present state of affairs 
 in that part of the world : his remarks have rarely this fault ; 
 and where I differ from him in any respect, it is with deference 
 to the judgment of a writer to whom this nation is much 
 obliged, for endeavouring every where, with so much good 
 sense and eloquence, to rouse that spirit of generous enterprise, 
 that can alone make any nation powerful or glorious. 
 
 A. D. 1757. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAET I. 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Page 
 The state of Europe before the discovery of America. The project of Colnm- , 
 
 b us His application to several Courts His successful application to that 
 
 of Spain His voyage. The discovery of the Bahamas, and Greater Antilles 3 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 The discovery of the Caribbees. Columbus returns to Europe His behaviour 
 at Lisbon His reception at Barcelona by Ferdinand and Isabella. Se 
 cond voyage of Columbus. The condition of the Spaniards in Hispaniola. 
 The city of Isabella built, and a Spanish colony settled. A voyage for 
 better discovering the coast of Cuba II 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 The Difficulties attending the Voyage. Jamaica discovered. Columbus re 
 turns to Hispaniola. The Spaniards rebel. A War with the Indians of 
 that Country They are conquered Their scheme for starving the Spa 
 niards ...... 20 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Complaints against Columbus. A Person is sent to enquire into his con 
 duct He returns to Spain He is acquitted He sets out on his third voy 
 age He discovers the Continent of South America He sails to Hispaniola 26 
 
 CHAP. V, 
 
 Columbus finds the Spaniards of Hispaniola in rebellion His measures to . 
 suppress it New complaints against him in Spain He is superseded in 
 the government, and sent to Spain in irons - 31 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 The Discoveries of Americus Vesputius, and other Adventurers. What 
 caused the spirit, of Discovery. - 36 
 
12 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 Page. 
 Columbus again acquitted Undertakes a fourth Voyage Discovers the Coast 
 
 of Terra Firraa and the Isthmus of Darien Returns to Hispaniola His 
 reception there Pursues his Discoveries to the Coast of Terra Firma 
 He is driven to Jamaica, and shipwrecked on that island His distresses 
 there The rebellion of his men, which lie suppresses He leaves the 
 Island, and returns to Spain His reception there He dies - 39 
 
 . 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 The character of Columbus. Some reflections on the conduct of the Court 
 of Spain . ' - - - - - 48 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 The Discoveries and Conquests of Balboa. Velasquez sends Cortes on the 
 Mexican Expedition. The state of the Mexican Empire. Cortes makes 
 an alliance with the Tlascalans - - 52 
 
 CHAP X. 
 
 Cortes builds La Vera Cruz He marches to Mexico-^!! is Reception by 
 Montezuma. Cortes imprisons Montezuma- s -That Pririce's Stratagem to 
 gain his Liberty ; the consequence of it 59 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 The Attempts of Montezuma to make the Spaniards leave Mexico. The 
 arrival of Narvaez to take the command from Cortes. rCortes leaves 
 Mexico Defeats and takes Narvaez prisoner. The Spaniards in Mexico 
 besieged. Cortes raises the Siege. Montezuraa is killed QQ 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 chosen Emperor by the Mexicans He besieges the Spaniards 
 
 in their quarters Obliges Cortes to retire out of the city Distresses him in 
 his retreat. The battle of Otumba. Cortes retreats to Tlascala 75 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 Spaniards sent against Cortes join him He marches again to Mexico A 
 conspiracy against his life baffled - 82 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 The siege of Mexico. Terms of accommodation refused by the Mexicans. 
 The Spaniards repulsed by a stratagem of Guatimozin. A new stratagem 
 ofjjruatimozin He is taken. The city surrenders. Guatimozin tortured. 
 Cortes superseded in his government, Reflexions on the Spanish cruelties 89 
 
CONTENTS. xiil 
 
 CUAP. XV. Page 
 
 The scheme of Pizarro and Almagro for the Conquest of Peru Their charac 
 ters The state of the Empire of Peru at that time. The taking of the 
 ynca Atabalipa - - JOO 
 
 CHAP. XVI. 
 
 The murder of tho ynca. A dispute between Pizarro and Almagro They 
 are reconciled. Almagro's expedition to Chili. The Peruvians renew the 
 war, and besiege Cusco. Almagro returns and defeats them. Almagro 
 renews the quarrel with Pizarro, but is defeated, and put to death - 109 
 
 CHAP. XVII. 
 
 The final dispersion of the Peruvian army. The conspiracy against Pizarro. 
 lie is murdered - - - - -118 
 
 CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 Young Almagro made Governor. The new Viceroj r Vaca di Castro arrives 
 Puts to deatli young Almagro Puts an end to the factions, and settles 
 the province He is recalled. Gonzalo Pizarro raises a rebellion, and 
 usurps the government. Peter de la Gasca made Viceroy Defeats the 
 troops of Pizarro, and puts him to death - 121 
 
 PART II. 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 The persons of the Americans Their dress and way of living Their manner 
 of conversing Their hospitality Their temper Their religion and su 
 perstitions Their medicine - - 127 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 The government of the Americans Their councils Their orators Their 
 feasts Their manner of administering justice - 133 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Their mournings for their dead. The feast of souls. The American women ; 
 their occupations ; their marriages and divorces 139 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 The Indian manner of preparing for war The songs and dances Their 
 taking the field Their method of discovering and attacking the enemy 
 Their cruel treatment of their prisoners of war 14S 
 
MV CONTENTS. 
 
 PART III. 
 
 Page 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 A general description of America - - 153 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 The climate and foil of New Spain. Animals Its vegetable produce - 157 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 The gold and silver mines. The manner of purifying those metals. Some 
 thoughts on the generation of metals. Of the quarftily of those metals pro 
 duced in the West Indies - . - 1G1 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Of cochineal and cacao - - -- 160 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 The trade of Mexico. Some account of that city. The fairs of Acapulco 
 .and La Vera Cruz, The flola and register ships. - - 173 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 Three sorts of people in New Spain The Whites, Indians, and Negroes ; the 
 characters of those. The clergy, their characters. The civil government, 
 its character - - 180 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 T^ew Mexico. Its Discovery Climate- Products. The English claim to 
 California 18i 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 The climate and soil of Peru Its produce. The mines, ihe coca and herb of 
 Paroguay - , - - -- * - 18(3 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 The A\ines of Peru. The wool. The lamas and vicnnnas, sheep of Peru.- 
 -Jesuits bark. Guinea pepper. 'The dung of-Iquiqwi, Quicksilver mines 190 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 T)he character of the Peruvians Their divisions. The Indian festivals,- 
 Hrmours paid to a descendant of the ynca -- . - l&t 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 The cities of Peru, Limaj CITSCG, and Quito ; a description of them. Cal- 
 lao, its trade and destructioh.-^The viceroy of Peruj his jurisdiction and 
 revenues. - . . . ]J)7 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 CHAP. XII. P,ge 
 
 The temperature of the air in Chili The soil ; its fertility. A description of 
 the principal towns. The trade of Chili. - 203 
 
 CRAP. XIII. 
 
 The Spaniards in this province but few. The Americans ; their character; 
 some free - - ^ - - 206 
 
 CMAP. XIV. 
 
 The climate of Paraguay ; its rivers. 'The province of La Plata. The town 
 of Buenos- Ayres; its trade - 203 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 The territory of the Jesuits in Paraguay Their manner of settling and govern 
 ing it. The obedience of the people. Some reflexions on the late trans 
 actions there - .... - 211 
 
 CHAP. XVI. 
 
 Terra Firma; its extent and produce. The cities of Panama, Carthagenn, 
 and Porto Bello. The galleons. The isle of Cuba. The Havanna ; HU- 
 paniola ; Porto Rico. Reflexion on the policy of Spain with regard to the 
 colonies - -- - - - -- 21.9 
 
 PART IV. 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 An account of the discovery of Brazil. The method of settling it ; conquered J 
 by the Dutch ; reconquered by the Portuguese - - - - 227 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 The Climate of. Brazil. Of-- the Brazil wood - - - 232 
 
 CHAP. Ill, 
 
 Tire trade of Brazil Its intercourse with Africa. The settlement of the river 
 Amazons and Rio Janeiro. The gold mines. The commonwealth of the* 
 Paulists. The diamond mines. - - . . . 234 
 
 CHAP IV. 
 
 Regulation of the Portuguese trade. The description of St. Salvador, the 
 capital of Brazil. The fleets for that city. Rio Janeiro and Fernambucca 239 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 The character of the American Portuguese. The state of the negroes. The 
 government . . . . . 
 
XVI CONTENTS. 
 
 PART V. 
 
 CHAP. I. Page 
 
 The time in which the French began their West India Settlements. Favoured 
 by Cardinal Richlieu. De Poincy Governor. The West India Company 24G 
 
 CHAP. IL - 
 
 The destruction of the colony of St. Christopher's. The rise of the Bucca 
 neers The cause of their success. The settlement of Hispaniola. The 
 policy of France. A description of Hispaniola Its trade. The towns of 
 Cape Fran9oise and Leogane - - 251 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 A description of Martinico. Of Guadeloupe and other French islands. 
 Their produce. Observations on the mistakes that have been made about 
 their value - - 258 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 French North America. Description of Canada. Its climate. The fnir of 
 Mont-Real. Quebeck. The inhabitants of Canada. The river St. Law 
 rence and the great lakes. Cape Breton - - 63 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Louisiana. The Missisippi. The Ohio. The fountain of youth. The 
 colony of Louisiana - - 270 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 The Freirch Policy with regard to their Colonies - - 274 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 The Dutch settlements.^ Curassou. The city Its trade. The Spanish 
 contraband. ^Eustatia. The Danish company. The Danish island of 
 Santa Cm/. The characters of the several European nations as they re 
 gard America . - - - 
 
 PAHT VI. 
 CHAP. I, 
 
 The division of the English West Indies Description of Jamaican-Conquest 
 of that island * * ~ . * 
 
CONTENTS. XVii 
 
 CHAP. II. Page 
 
 The settlement of Jamaica. The failure of cacao. The Buccaneers. The 
 flourishing state of that island Its decline in some respects - ^294 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 The products of Jamaica. Picmento. Sugar. Rum. Molasses. Cotton. 
 Ginger. The logwood trade Disputes about it. The contraband. 
 Slave trade ..... 297 
 
 CHAP. iv. 
 
 Port Royal. The earthquake, 1692. Kingston. St. Jago de la Vega, or 
 Spanish Town. Disputes about tho removal of the scat of government 301 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 IJarbadoes. Its savage condition at the first planting. Tho hardships 
 suffered by the planters. The speedy increase of the island. Its great 
 wealth and number of inhabitants. Its decline. Present state of the island 308 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 .St. Christopher, Antigua, Nevis, Montserrat; their present condition and force 314 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 Climate of the West Indies. The rains and winds. Hurricanes. Their 
 prognosticks. Produce of the West Indies. Sugar. The manner of 
 manufacturing it. Planters in the West Indies. Their way of life 
 and management of their affairs. The Negroes - 316 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 Observations on the settlement of the West Indies. Advantages there for 
 tempers prejudicial at home. Bad tempers not always noxious in every sense 325 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 Observations on taxing the colonies. On an expensive establishment there. 
 Objections answered .... 32 
 
 CHAP. X, 
 
 State of the negroes in the West Indies. Danger from them. Methods pro 
 posed for remedying these abusesi--The necessity of increasing the whites. 
 Use t>f this regulation in trade * 333 
 
XV111 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. XT. PilEC 
 
 Misery of the negroes. Groat waste of them. Methods of preventing it. 
 Jnsf ruction of negroes in religion *- - - 339 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 Proposal for a sort of enfranchisement of mulattoes and negroes. Danger 
 from the multitude of house negroes Sit 
 
 PART VII. 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 A general view of the English dominions in North America - 316 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 First attempts to settle North America. The rise and progress of the Puri 
 tans. They are persecuted by Laud. Several fly into New England 349 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Difference in religion divides the colony. Massachuscf. Connecticut. 
 Providence. Spirit of persecution. Persecution of the Quakers. Dis 
 putes about grace. - - - - 355 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 The Witchcraft delusion. Great cruelties. The madness ends in the accu 
 sation of the magistrates. Reflexions - - 361 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Tlic situation, climate, &c. of New England. Indian corn described 
 Cattle of New England 367 
 
 CHAP, VI. 
 
 People of New England. Their numbers. History of the charters of the 
 colonies here, and the forfeiture of some - - 371 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 Boston, its harbour. Trade. Ship-building. Distillery. Foreign traffick. 
 Reflexions on the scheme of limiting it. Declension of the trade of New 
 England - 375 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 New Tork, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania Description of their situation, 
 
 &c. Short account of their settlement - - 385. 
 
CONTENTS. XIX 
 
 CHAP. IX. Page 
 
 City of New York Its flourishing trade. Albany. The Indian trade there. 
 The Iroquois or Five Nations - - 90 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 New Jersey Its trade ; and inhabitants 393 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 Account of Williani Penn The principles on which he settled the colony. 
 His death - - 39 j 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 Inhabitants of Pennsylvania. Variety of nations and religions there. Paci- 
 fick principles of the Quakers. Reflections' on the present state of affairs 
 there - ... 398 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 Description of Philadelphia. Its trade. Number of people in Pennsyl 
 vania. Its flourishing condition. Few Negroes there - 401 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 Situation, &c. of Virginia. Convenicncy of its rivers for navigation. 
 Beasts and birds of the country. The opossum - - 404: 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 Towns in Virginia few and small. Tobacco, its cultivation Trade in that 
 and other commodities. People in Virginia. White and black 409 
 
 CHAP. XVI. 
 
 Attempts to settle Virginia, there unsuccessful Settled at last by Lord Delaware 413 
 
 CHAP. XVII. 
 
 Virginia holds out against Cromwell, and is reduced. Bacon's rebellion. 
 Its causes. Bacon dies. Peace restored ... 417 
 
 CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 Maryland. The time of settling it. Grant to Lord Baltimore. Attempts 
 of King James to deprive him of his jurisdiction. He is deprived of it on 
 the Revolution. He is restored. Capital of Maryland. Its trade ami 
 Inhabitants * - 420 
 
 CHAP. XIX. 
 Attempts of the French to settle Carolina They are beat off by the Spaniards 425 
 
 CHAP. XX. 
 
 Carolina is settled by the English Its constitution. The lords proprietors 
 resign their charter. .Made royal government, and divided into two 
 provinces - 
 
XX CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. X> I. p age 
 
 Situation, clima!e, &c. of Carolina. Its animal and vegetable productions 432 
 
 CHAP. XXII. 
 
 The commodities of Carolina for export Rice, indigo, pitch, and tar. Pro 
 cess in raising and manufacturing these commodities - - 4S6 
 
 CHAP. XXIII. 
 
 North Carolina, some account of its settlement. Bad stale of that province. 
 Is considerably improved. Chief town - - 4U 
 
 CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 An account of Charlcstown. Port Royal. The trade of Carolina Its vast 
 increase. Articles not sufficiently attended to there - 441 
 
 CHAP. XXV. 
 
 Settlement of Georgia Reasons for it. The plan of (he settlement defective 
 Attempts to remedy it 449 
 
 CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 Colony new modelled. Faults in the new constitution, Trade of this 
 province. - - 451- 
 
 CHAP. XXVII. 
 
 Nova Scotia, the time and reasons of its settlement. French there. Climate 
 and soil. Annapolis, Halifax, and Lunenburg 457 
 
 CHAP. XXVIII. 
 
 The island of Newfoundland The fishery there. The Bermudas Theirset- 
 tlement and trade. The Bahamas - - 462 
 
 CHAP. XXIX. 
 
 Hudson's liny. Attempts for the discovery of a north-west passage. The 
 Hudson's Bay company Thoughts upon its trade. Climate and soil of 
 the countries there. Conclusion - - 466 
 
 CHAP. XXX. 
 
 The royal, proprietary, and charter governments. Laws of the colonies. 
 Paper currency. Abuses in it. Another sort of money proposed 474 
 
AN 
 
 ACCOUNT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS 
 
- 
 
PART L 
 
 THE 
 
 DISCOVERY OF AMERICA, 
 
 AND THE REDUCTION OF 
 
 MEXICO AND PERU. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 THE STATE OF EUROPE BEFORE THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. THE PRO 
 JECT OF COLUMBUS. HIS APPLICATION TO SEVERAL COURTS. HIS 
 
 SUCCESSFUL APPLICATION TO THAT OF SPAIN. HIS VOYAGE. THE DIS 
 COVERY OF THE BAHAMAS, AND GREATER ANTILLES.. 
 
 THERE was an extraordinary coincidence of events at the 
 time that the discovery of America made one of the principal ; 
 the invention of printing, the making of gunpowder, the im 
 provement of navigation, the revival of ancient learning, and 
 the Reformation ; all of these conspired to change the face of 
 Europe entirely. At this time the principal monarchies began 
 to knit, and to acquire the strength, and take the form, they 
 have at this day. Before this period, the manners of Europe were 
 wholly barbarous ; even in Italy, where the natural mildness of 
 the climate and the dawning of literature had a little softened' 
 the minds of the people, 'and introduced something approach- 
 
 B 2, ing 
 
4 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 ing towards politeness, the history preceding this aera, and in 
 deed for some time after it, is nothing but one series of trea 
 sons, usurpations, murders, and massacres : nothing of a manly 
 courage, nothing of a solid and rational policy. Scarce any 
 state had then very extensive views, or looked much further 
 than to the present advantage. They did not well comprehend 
 the complicated system of interests that Europe formed even 
 lon<r before this. Lewis the Eleventh, who was looked upon as one 
 
 o * 
 
 of the wisest princes in his time, and one who sacrificed every 
 thine; to his ambition, sacrificed one of the fairest objects of 
 that ambition to a pique, which since his time could have little 
 influence on the counsels of any prince. His son, Charles the 
 Eighth as he won Italy without either courage or conduct, so 
 he lost it by a chain of false measures, such as we may venture 
 to say has no parallel it later times. A wild romantic courage 
 in the northern and western parts of Europe, and a wicked po 
 licy in the Italian states, was the character of that age. If we 
 look into the manners of the courts, there appear but very faint 
 marks of cultivation and politeness. The, interview between 
 our Edward the Fourth and his brother of France, wherein 
 they were both caged up like wild beasts, shews dispositions 
 very remote from a true sense of honour, from the dignity of 
 their stations, or any just ideas of politeness and humanity. 
 All the anecdotes which remain of these and other courts, are 
 in the same spirit. 
 
 If the courts had made such poor advances in policy and 
 politeness, which might seem the natural growth of courts at 
 anytime, both the courts and the people were yet less advanced 
 in useful knowledge. The little learning which then subsisted, 
 \vas only the dotage of the scholastic philosophy of words ; to 
 gether with the infancy of politer learning, which only concerned 
 words too, though in another way. The elegance and purity 
 
 of 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 5 
 
 of the Latin tongue was then the highest, and almost the only 
 point of a scholar's ambition. Mathematical learning was little 
 valued or cultivated. The true system of the heavens was not 
 dreamed of. There was no knowledge at all of the real form of 
 the earth ; and in general the ideas of mankind were not ex 
 tended beyond- their sensible horizon. 
 
 In this state of affairs Christopher Columbus, a native of 
 Genoa, undertook to extend the boundaries which ignorance 
 had given to the world. This man's design arose from the just 
 idea he had formed of the figure of the earth ; though- the maps, 
 more erroneous than his conjectures, made him mistake the 
 object. His design was to find a passage to China and India 
 by the Western Ocean. It is not improbable, that besides the 
 glory attending such a discovery, and the private advantages 
 of fortune he might propose to derive from it, Columbus had a 
 further incentive from national jealousy and resentment. Ve 
 nice and Genoa were then almost the only trading powers in 
 Europe ; and they had no other support of their power but 
 their commerce. This bred a rivalship, a jealousy, and fre 
 quent wars between them; but in traffick Venice was much 
 superior; she had drawn to herself almost the whole commerce 
 of India, always one of the mo*t valuable in the world, and 
 then carried on only by the way of Egypt and the lied Sea. An 
 emulation of this kind might probably have put Columbus on 
 finding another and more direct passage to the East-Indies, 
 and by that means transferring this profitable trade to his own 
 country. But neither that which he sought, nor that which he 
 found, was destined for his country.' However, he performed 
 the duty of a good citizen, and made his first proposal at home ; 
 at home it was rejected. Discharged of this obligation, he 
 applied to the court of France, and meeting no better success 
 there, he offered next his services to our Henry the Seventh. 
 
 Tliis 
 
6 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 This prince was rather a prudent steward and manager of a 
 kingdom than a great king, and one of those defensive geniuses 
 are the last in the world to relish a great but problematical de 
 sign. It is therefore no wonder that his brother, whom Colum 
 bus had employed to solicit in England, after several years 
 spent here, had little success in his negotiation. But in Por 
 tugal, where he applied himself after his failure here, his offers 
 were not only rejected, but he was insulted and ridiculed ; lie 
 found, however, in these insults, and this, ridicule, a new incite 
 ment to pursue his scheme, urged forward by the stings of anger 
 and resentment. 
 
 Last of all he exercised his interest and his patience for eight 
 years together at the court of Ferdinand and Isa'bella. There 
 is a sort of enthusiasm in all projectors, absolutely necessary 
 for their affairs, which makes them proof against the -most 
 fatiguing delays, the most mortifying disappointments, the mo&t 
 shocking insults ; and, what is severer than all, the presump 
 tuous judgments of the ignorant upon their designs. Columbus 
 had a sufficient share of this quality. He had every day, dur 
 ing this long space, to combat with every objection that want 
 of knowledge, or that a false knowledge, could propose. Some 
 held that the known world, which they thought was all that 
 could be known, floated like a vast scum upon the ocean ; that 
 the ocean itself was infinite. Others, who entertained more 
 just notions, and believed that the whole of the earth and waters 
 composed one vast globe, drew a consequence from it as absurd 
 as the former opinion. For they argued, that if Columbus 
 should sail beyond a certain point, the convexity of this globe 
 would prevent his return. As is usual in such cases, every one 
 abounded with objections. His whole time was spent in fruit 
 less endeavours to enlighten ignorance, to remove prejudice, 
 and to vanquish that obstinate incredulity, which is of all others 
 
 the 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 7 
 
 the greatest enemy to improvement, rejecting every thing as 
 false and absurd, which is ever so little out of the track of com 
 mon experience ; and it is of the more dangerous consequence, 
 as it carries a delusive air of coolness, of temper and wisdom. 
 With all this, he had yet greater difficulties from the interests 
 of mankind, than from their malignity and ignorance. The 
 expence of the undertaking, inconsiderable as this expence was, 
 was at the bottom the chief support of the other objections, 
 and had more weight than all the rest together. However, 
 with an assiduity and firmness of mind, never enough to be ad 
 mired and applauded, lie at length overcame all difficulties ; 
 and, to his inexpressible joy, with a fleet of three ships, and 
 the title and command of an admiral, set sail on the third of 
 August, 1492, on a voyage the most daring and grand in the 
 design, and in the event of which the world was the most con 
 cerned, of any that ever yet was undertaken. 
 
 It most not be omitted here, in honour to the sex, and in 
 justice to Isabella, that this scheme was first countenanced, and 
 the equipment made by the queen only : the king had no 
 share in it ; she even raised the money necessary for the design 
 upon her own jewels. 
 
 I do not propose to relate all the particulars of Columbus's 
 voyage in a track now so wdl known, and so much frequented ; 
 but then there was no chart to direct him, no lights from 
 former navigators, no experience of the winds and currents par 
 ticular to those seas, He had no guide but his own genius, nor 
 any tiling to comfort and appease his companions, discouraged 
 and mutinous with the length and hopelessness of the voyage, 
 but some indications which he drew from the casual appear 
 ances of land-birds and floating sea- weeds, most of them little to 
 be depended upon, but which this wise commander, well ac 
 quainted with the human heart, always knew how to turn to the 
 
 best 
 
8 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 best advantage. It was in this expedition that the variation of 
 the compass was first observed ; an appearance which has ever 
 since puzzled all philosophers, and which at this time made a ; 
 great impression upon Columbus's pilots ; when in an unknown 
 and boundless ocean, far from the road of former navigation, 
 nature itself seemed altered, and the only guide they had left, 
 appeared to be upon the point of forsaking them. But Colum 
 bus, with a wonderful quickness and- sagacity, pretended to 
 discover' a physical cause for this appearance, which, thou/gh it 
 did not satisfy himself, was plausible enough to remove some 
 thing of the terrors of his mariners. Expedients of this kind 
 were daily wanting, and the fertile genius of this discoverer in 
 vented them daily. However, by frequent use, they began to 
 lose their effect ; the crew insisted on his returning, and grew 
 loud and insolent in their demand. Some even talked of throw 
 ing the admiral overboard. His invention, and almost his hopes 
 were near exhausted, when the only thing which could appease 
 them happened ; the clear discovery of land, after a voyage of 
 thirty-three days, the longest ever any man .was known to be 
 from sight of shore before that time. 
 
 They landed on one of the islands now called Lucayos, or 
 Bahamas, which is remarkable for nothing but this event; and 
 here it was, that the two worlds, if I may use the expression, 
 were first introduced to one another ; a meeting of an extraor 
 dinary nature, and which produced great changes in both. The 
 first thing Columbus did, after thanking God for the success of 
 his important voyage, was to take possession of the island in* the 
 name of their Catholic majesties, by setting up a cross upon 
 the shore ; great multitudes of the inhabitants looking on, 
 ignorant and unconcerned at a ceremony which was to deprive 
 them of their natural liberty. The stay of the Spaniards 
 in this island was but short ; they found, from the extreme 
 
 , poverty 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 9 
 
 poverty of the people, that these were by no means the Indies, 
 which they sought for. 
 
 Columbus at his departure very prudently took with him some 
 of the natives, that they might learn the Spanish tongue, and 
 . be his guides and interpreters in this new scene of affairs ; nor 
 were they unwilling to accompany him. He touched on several 
 of the islands in the same cluster, enquiring every where for 
 gold, which was the only object of commerce he thought worth 
 his care, because the only thing that could give the court of 
 Spain an high opinion of his discoveries. All directed him to 
 a great island called Bohio, of which they spoke extraordinary 
 things, and principally that it abounded in gold. They told 
 him it lay to the southward. To the southward he steered his 
 course, and found the island, which he called Hispaniola, no 
 ways inferior to the reports ; commodious harbours, an agree 
 able climate, a good soil, and, what was of most consequence, 
 a country that promised from some samples a great abundance 
 of gold ; inhabited by an humane and hospitable people, in a 
 state of simplicity fit to be worked upon. These circumstances 
 determined Columbus to make this island the center of his de 
 signs, to plant a colony there, and to establish things in some 
 permanent order, before he proceeded to further discoveries. 
 But to carrv his designs of a settlement here, and his schemes 
 
 * 
 
 of future discoveries into execution, it was necessary that he 
 should return to Spain and equip himself with a proper force. 
 He had now collected a sufficient quantity of gold to give cre 
 dit to his voyage at court, and such a number of euriosities of 
 all kinds as might strike the imaginations, and engage the at 
 tention of the people. Before he parted, he took care to secure 
 the friendship of the principal king of the island by caresses and 
 presents, and under pretence of leaving him a force sufficient to 
 assist him against his enemies, he laid the ground-work of a 
 
 c colony. 
 
10 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 colony. He built a fort, and put a small garrison of Spaniards 
 into it, with such directions for their conduct as might have 
 ensured their safety and the good oifices of the inhabitants, if 
 the men had not been of that kind, who are incapable of acting 
 prudently, either from their own or other people's wisdom. He 
 did every thing to gain the esteem of the natives, by the justice, 
 and even generosity of his dealings, and the politeness and hu 
 manity with which he behaved upon every occasion. He shew 
 ed them too, that though it was not in his will, it was not the 
 less in his power to do them mischief, if they acted so as to 
 force him upon harsher measures. The surprizing effects of 
 his cannon, and the sharpness of the Spanish swords, of which 
 he made an innocent ostentation, convinced them of this. 
 
 When the Spaniards first arrived in that country, they were 
 taken for men come from heaven ; arid it was no wonder, con 
 sidering the extreme novelty of their appearance, and the pro 
 digious superiority they had in every resrject over a people in 
 all the nakedness of uncultivated nature. Whatever therefore 
 the Indians got from them, they valued in an high degree, not 
 only as curious and useful, but even as things sacred. The 
 persons of the Spaniards were respected in the same light. 
 Columbus, who knew the value of opinion, did all he could to 
 keep them in their error ; and indeed no action of his, either of 
 weakness or cruelty, could furnish matter to undeceive them. 
 For which reason, on his departure, he left the people with the 
 best inclinations imaginable to nurse his infant colony. And 
 when he desired some of the inhabitants to carry into Spain, he 
 was more at a loss whom he should accept, than how he should 
 grevail upon them to go. 
 
 CHAP 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 1J 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF THE CARIBBEES. COLUMBUS RETURNS TO EUROPE.* 
 HIS BEHAVIOUR AT LISBON. HIS RECEPTION AT BARCELONA BY FERDI 
 NAND AND ISABELLA. SECOND VOYAfip Of COLUMBUS. THE CONDITION 
 
 OF THE SPANIARDS IN HISPANIOLA. THE CITY OF ISABELLA BUILT, AND 
 
 A SPANISH COLONY SETTLED. A VOYAGE FOR BETTER DISCOVERING THE 
 COAST OF CUBA. 
 
 ON his return homewards, still attentive to his design he aim 
 ed at such discoveries as could be prosecuted without deviating 
 considerably from his course. He touched upon several islands 
 to the southward, and discovered the Caribbees, of the barbarity 
 of whose inhabitants he had heard terrible accounts in Hispa- 
 niola. He had before landed upon Cuba in his passage from 
 the Bahamas. So that in his first voyage, he gained a general 
 knowledge of all the islands, which lie in such an astonishin" 
 
 _ o 
 
 number in that great sea which divides North and South Ame 
 rica. But hitherto he neither knew nor suspected any conti 
 nent between him and China. 
 
 He returned to Europe after an absence of above six months, 
 and was driven by a great storm into the harbour of Lisbon. 
 This he did not look upon as a misfortune ; since here, he had 
 the satisfaction of convincing the Portuguese demonstratively 
 of what an error they were guilty, in rejecting his proposals. 
 It was now his turn to triumph. Those who want sagacity to 
 discern the advantages of an offer, when it is made to them 
 selves, and treat it with the greatest scorn, are always most 
 stung with envy when they actually see these advantages in the 
 hands of another. The Portuguese had some time before this, 
 
 c 2 begun 
 
\% AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 "begun to make a figure: their ships had coasted Africa for a 
 greater length than any had done before them, which opened 
 to them a profitable trade to Guinea. This gave them a repu 
 tation. They considered discovery as their proper province; 
 and they were enraged to see that the Castilians were now let 
 into the same path, in consequence of an offer which they had 
 rejected. Some proposed to murder the admiral ; but all were 
 agreed to treat him in the most unworthy manner. However, 
 their design of insulting him gave Columbus an opportunity at 
 once of gratifying his resentment, maintaining his own dignity, 
 
 wJ / C3 CT? d 1 */ * 
 
 and asserting the honour of the flag of Castile. He sent to the 
 king at his first entering the harbour, to desire a liberty to. come 
 up to Lisbon and refresh, as he had his master's orders not to 
 avoid his ports ; adding, that he was not from Guinea, but the 
 Indies. An officer of the king of Portugal came aboard him 
 
 o o 
 
 with an armed force, and ordered him to come ashore, and give 
 an account of himself to the king's officers. Columbus told him 
 he had the honour of serving the king of Castile, and would own 
 himself accountable to no other. The Portuguese then desired 
 him to send the master of his ship ; this he likewise refused, 
 saying, that the admirals of Castile always chose rather to die. 
 than deliver up themselves, or even the meanest of their men ; 
 and if violence was intended, he was prepared to meet force 
 with force. A spirited behaviour, in almost any circumstance 
 of strength, is the most politic as well as the most honourable 
 course ; we preserve a respect at least by it, and with that we 
 generally preserve every thing ; but when we lose respect, every 
 thing is lost. We invite rather than suffer insults, and the first 
 is the only one we can resist with prudence.. Columbus found 
 this ; the officer did not pursue his demand ; the admiral had 
 all the refreshments he wanted ; and was even received at court 
 with particular marks of distinction. 
 
 From 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 13 
 
 From Lisbon he proceeded to Seville ; the court was then 
 at Barcelona. But before he went to give an account of his 
 
 o 
 
 voyage, he took all the care he could to provide for another. 
 He wrote an abstract of his proceedings, and sent with it a 
 memorial of all such things as were necessary for the establish 
 ment of a colony, and for further discoveries. Soon after he 
 began his journey to Barcelona, every where followed by the 
 admiration and applauses of the people, who crowded to- see him 
 from all parts. He entered the city in a sort of triumph. And 
 certainly there never was a more innocent triumph, nor one that 
 formed a more new and pleasing spectacle. He had not de 
 stroyed, but discovered nations. The Americans he brought 
 with him appeared in all the uncouth finery of their own 
 country, wondered at by every body, and themselves admiring 
 every thing they saw. The several animals, many highly beau 
 tiful, and all strangers to this part of the world, were so dis 
 posed as to be seen without difficulty ; the other curiosities of 
 the new world were displayed in the most advantageous manner ; 
 the utensils, the arms, and the ornaments of a people so remote 
 from us in situation and manners; some valuable for the ma 
 terials ; even the rudeness of the workmanship in many made 
 them but the more curious, when it was considered by whom, 
 and with what instruments they were wrought. The gold wa .> 
 not forgot. The admiral himself closed the procession. He 
 was received by the king and queen with, all imaginable marks- 
 of esteem and regard, and they ordered a magnificent throne to 
 be erected, in public -to do him the greater honour. A chair 
 was prepared for him, in which he sat, and gave, in presence of 
 the whole court, a full and circumstantial account of all his dis 
 coveries, with that composedness and gravity, which is so ex 
 tremely agreeable to the Spanish humour, and with the modesty- 
 ef.a man who knows he has done things which do not need to* 
 
 be 
 
I i AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 be proclaimed by himself. The successful merit of Columbus 
 was understood by every body ; and when the king and queen 
 led the way, all the grandees and nobility of the court vied with 
 each other in their civilities and caresses. 
 
 These honours did not satisfy Columbus. He prepared with 
 all expedition for a second voyage. The difficulties attending 
 the first were all vanished. The importance of the object ap 
 peared every day more clearly, and the court was willing to 
 second the vivacity of his desires to the full. But before his 
 departure, there was one thing which they judged wanting to give 
 them a clear and unquestionable right to the countries, which 
 should be discovered. This was a grant of them from the pope. 
 The Portuguese some time before had a grant of such lands a> 
 they should discover within certain latitudes ; and this grant 
 made a similar one to the Spaniards appear the more necessary. 
 The pope accordingly gave a very ample bull in their favour, 
 very liberally conceding countries, of which he was so far from 
 having any possession that he had no knowledge of them. The 
 limits of this grant was a line drawn from pole to pole, an hun 
 dred leagues to the westward of the Azores. On the other side 
 no bounds at all were set. This was afterwards a subject of 
 much controversy between the crowns of Spain and Portugal, 
 the latter having got a grant of all that should be discovered to 
 the east, as the former had of all to the westward ; those who 
 drew the bulls not having known enough of the figure of the 
 earth to see, that these grants must necessarily clash ; and the 
 -powers which desired them, were perhaps not sorry to find their 
 pretensions such as they might extend or contract at pleasure. 
 
 Whatever the validity of this ample grant might be, Colum 
 bus was made governor with the highest authority over all that 
 it contained. But he had somewhat with him more material 
 for his possession than any charters. This was a fleet of seven 
 teen 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 15 
 
 teen sail of ships, with all manner of necessaries for settlement 
 or conquest, and fifteen hundred men on board, some of them 
 of the best families in Spain. With this fleet he set sail on his 
 second voyage the 25th of September, 149-3. He gave each of 
 the captains instructions for their course sealed, with orders 
 not to open them, unless in distress, and separated from the 
 fleet, that he might create such an absolute dependence of all 
 upon himself, as should preserve an uniformity in their designs. 
 On the second of November they made land, which is the island 
 now called Dominica. But his design was first to settle his 
 colony before he attempted any new discovery ; therefore he 
 made no stay here, nor at several other islands at which he 
 touched before he could make Hispaniola. 
 
 On his arrival he found the fort he had built utterly demo 
 lished, and all his men killed. The Spaniards had iirst fallen 
 out amongst themselves, upon the usual subjects of strife, wo 
 men and gold ; and afterwards preserving as little harmony with 
 the natives, and observing no decency in their behaviour, or 
 justice in their dealings, they quickly lost their esteem, and 
 were every man murdered, after having been dispersed into dif 
 ferent parts of the island. The prince, whom they were left 
 to defend, was himself wounded in their defence, and bore this 
 mark of liis affection and good faith, when Columbus returned' 
 to the island. The admiral very wisely forbore to make any 
 nice enquiry into the affair, or to commence hostilities in re 
 venge for the loss of his soldiers ; but lie took the most effectual 
 measures to prevent such an evil for the future ; he chose a 
 more commodious station for his colony^ on the north-east part 
 of the island, which had a good port, great conveniency of 
 water, and a good soil, and lay near that where he was in 
 formed the richest mines of the country were found : in gra 
 titude to hi& royal patroness, he called it Isabella, He en- 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 gaged in the settlement with great warmth, and never allowed 
 himself a moment's repose from superintending the fortifica 
 tions, the private houses, and the works of agriculture ; in all 
 which the fatigue was infinite; for he had not only the na 
 tural .difficulties attending all such undertakings, but he had 
 the insuperable laziness of the Spaniards to contend with. 
 So that, spent with the fatigues of so long a voyage and the 
 greater fatigues he had endured since he came on shore, he 
 fell into a dangerous illness. Of this accident several of his 
 men took the advantage to begin a rebellion, to undo all he 
 had done, and to throw every thing into the most terrible con 
 fusion. These people, on their leaving Spain, had fancied to 
 themselves that gold was to be found every where in this country, 
 and that there required nothing further to make ample estates, 
 than to be transported into it ; but, finding their mistake, arid 
 that, instead of receiving these golden showers without any 
 pains, they fared ill, laboured hard, and that their prospects 
 of a fortune, if any at all, were remote and uncertain, their 
 discontent became general ; and the mutinous disposition in 
 creased so fast, and was carried to such extremities, that if 
 the admiral had not recovered at a very critical time, and on 
 his recovery had not acted in the most resolute and effectual 
 manner, all his hopes of a settlement in Hispaniola had been 
 at an end. He was satisfied with imprisoning some of the 
 chiefs. This was neither a time nor a place for very extensive 
 or rigorous justice. He quelled this sedition, but he saw at the 
 same time that his work was not yet done ; he saw another 
 danger, against which he was to provide with equal diligence. 
 He had good reason to apprehend, that the Americans were 
 not well affected to their new guests, and might probably me 
 ditate to cut them off, whilst they saw them divided amongst 
 themselves. To prevent this, as well as to banish idleness from 
 
 amongst 
 
 o 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 17 
 
 amongst his men, and to revive military discipline, he marched 
 into the heart of the country, through the most frequented 
 parts of it, in order of battle, colours flying, and trumpets 
 sounding, with the flower of his troops, to the mountains of 
 Cibao ; where lay the richest mines then discovered in the 
 island. Here he built a fort to secure this advantageous post, 
 and overawe the country ; and then he returned in the same 
 pomp and order, to the inexpressible terror of the inhabitants, 
 who had now no prospect of withstanding a force, which to 
 them seemed more than human. 
 
 In this expedition Columbus made great ostentation of his 
 cavalry. This was the first time the Indians of America had 
 ever seen horses. Their dread of these animals and their riders 
 were extreme ; they thought both formed but one animal, and 
 the impetuosity of their charge appeared irresistible to these 
 naked and ill-armed people. Wherever they appeared, those 
 Indians, who intended any hostility, immediately fled ; nor 
 did they think the intervention of the deepest and most rapid 
 rivers, any security r they believed that the horses could fly, 
 and that nothing was impossible to creatures so extraor 
 dinary. But Columbus did not rely upon those prejudices, 
 though he made all imaginable use of them ; knowing that 
 those things which appear most terrible at first, become every 
 day less affecting by use, and that they even grow contemptible, 
 when their real power is once well known. For which reason, 
 he neglected none of his former methods of cultivating the af 
 fections of the natives ; he still shewed them all manner of 
 respect, and when he had taken two persons of their nation, 
 who had committed some acts of hostility, and was at the point 
 of putting them to death, he pardoned and set them free at the 
 intercession of a prince of the country, with w horn he was in 
 alliance. On the other hand, he saw how necessary it was to 
 
 D preserve 
 
18 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 preserve a strict discipline amongst the Spaniards, to keep them 
 from that idleness to which they had such a propensity, and 
 which naturally retarded the growth of the colony, at the 
 same time that it nourished discontent and sedition. He 
 employed them in cutting roads through the country, a 
 work which the natives never attempted themselves, nor now 
 endeavoured to oppose, though it be one of the best instru 
 ments of enslaving any barbarous people. This wise governor 
 observed, besides, that the Spaniards conformed with great dif 
 ficulty to the Indian manner of. living, to which, however, they 
 were necessitated, but from which, for want of use, they suffered 
 great hardships. To remedy this evil, he daily sent out small 
 parties upon expeditions into the country ; from which he de 
 rived two material advantages. First, he inured, by degrees, 
 all his people to the manner of living in the country ; and se 
 condly, he taught them to know it perfectly ; lest a war should 
 find them unprovided in the only point in which the Indians 
 were their superiors, and a point which in a woody and moun 
 tainous country is certainly of the greatest importance. All 
 this he did without any material hazard to the sum of his affairs. 
 At home, he endeavoured to withdraw the Spaniards from their 
 romantic hopes of miraculous treasures, and to fix them to a 
 rational and industrious course of life. lie represented to 
 them, that there was no real wealth but what arose from la 
 bour; and that a garden, a corn ground, and a mill, were 
 riches more to their present purpose, than all the gold they 
 were in expectation of meeting in the Indies. In short, he la 
 boured for the establishment of this colony with as much assi 
 duity, as though his views had extended no further, at the 
 same time that he meditated the greatest discoveries ; and con 
 sidered those things which had astonished the world, only as 
 ^he -earnest of his future performances. 
 
 I have 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 19 
 
 I have before mentioned his having put in at Cuba. The 
 country, from some specimens, seemed a rich discovery ; but 
 whether it was an island, or a part of some great continent, he 
 
 -was altogether uncertain. Now that he had got his colon v to 
 
 ~ / 
 
 take firm root in the Indies, he prepared with all expedition to 
 ascertain this point, and to push his discoveries to the utmost,, 
 in which he had succeeded hitherto so happily. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
20 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 THE DIFFICULTIES ATTENDING THE VOYAGE. -JAJVTAICA DISCOVERED. 
 
 COLUMBUS RETURNS TO HISPANIOLA. THE SPANIARDS REBEL. A WAR. 
 
 WITH THE INDIANS OF THAT COUNTRY. THEY ARE CONQUERED. THEIR 
 
 SCHEME FOR STARVING THE SPANIARDS. 
 
 THIS voyage was more remarkable for the hardships which 
 the Admiral and his men suffered, than for any considerable dis 
 coveries it produced. As he endeavoured to coast along the 
 southern shore of Cuba, he was entangled in a labyrinth of an 
 innumerable multitude of islands, amongst which he. reckoned 
 one hundred and sixty in one day. They were most of them 
 pleasant and well inhabited, affording owr navigator an agree 
 able meditation on this fertility of nature, where the world 
 looked for nothing but a barren ocean. These islands, Colum 
 bus, who had a grateful mind, in which the memory of his be-v 
 nefactress was always uppermost, called Jardin de la Rayna> 
 or the queen's garden, in honour of queen Isabella. But their 
 number and fertility made little amends for the obstruction 
 they gave Columbus in the course of his navigation. The coast 
 .absolutely unknown, among so many rocks, sands, and shelves, 
 the sudden and violent storms, the tornadoes, and the terrible 
 thunder and lightning so constant between the tropics, obliged 
 him to keep a continual watch, and held his mind upon a con 
 stant stretch ; the voyage was extended to an unprofitable length 
 by these difficulties ; and being driven out to sea, the worst 
 disaster of all befel them. Their provisions fell short. In this 
 extremity they were obliged to come to a very narrow and bad 
 
 allowance^ 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 21 
 
 allowance, in the distribution of which the Admiral fared no 
 thing better than the rest. In this uiiremitted fatigue of body 
 and of mind, in famine and in danger, Ins usual firmness -began 
 nearly to forsake him ; but it could go no further than to oblige 
 him to remark in his journal, that no interest of his own should 
 ever oblige him to engage again in such an enterprise. They 
 were at last relieved by the appearance of Jamaica, where they 
 were hospitably received, and supplied with Cassava bread and 
 water. From thence they proceeded, mortified and disap 
 pointed, to Hispaniola, not being able to come to any certainty 
 concerning Cuba, other than that they understood from some 
 of the inhabitants that it was an island. This disappointment, 
 and the infinite fatigue and difficulty of the voyage, threw Co 
 lumbus into a lethargy, which was near being fatal to him, and 
 of whic.li he was scarcely recovered when they arrived at the 
 harbour of Isabella. 
 
 Here they found all things in confusion, and the colony in 
 the utmost danger of being a second time utterly destroyed ; as 
 if its prosperity or destruction depended upon the presence or 
 absence of Columbus. For no sooner was he sailed, than the 
 Spaniards, who were very difficultly retained in their duty by 
 all his steadiness and wisdom, broke through all regulations, 
 laughed at government and discipline, and spread themselves 
 over the island, committing a thousand disorders, and living 
 at free quarter upon the inhabitants, whose hatred to them was 
 worked up to such a point, that they wanted only the word 
 from their princes to fall on and massacre the whole colony ; a 
 thing by no means impracticable, in its present disorder. Four 
 of the principal sovereigns of the island took advantage of this 
 disposition, and united to drive out those imperious intruders. 
 None adhered to them but one called Gunacagany, the same 
 prince whom Columbus from the first had taken so much pains 
 
 to 
 
22 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 to oblige.. In his dominions some of the Spaniards found pro 
 tection. The other princes had already commenced hostilities, 
 and one of them killed sixteen of the Spaniards, who were 
 taking no uniform measures to oppose them ; neither in their 
 present anarchy could it be well expected. 
 
 In this condition was the island on the arrival of Columbus, 
 whose first business was to collect the scattered fragments of the 
 colony, and to form them into a body. This he was the better 
 able to accomplish, because the present danger added a weight 
 to his authority ; but it was necessary that he should lose no 
 time. He was resolved to act with what force he had, rather 
 
 than wait until the union of the islanders mmht be better ce- 
 
 - o . . 
 
 mented against him, and they might find some lesser matters in 
 their favour to raise their courage, and abate their terror of the 
 Spanish arms. He therefore first marched against the king, 
 who had killed the sixteen Spaniards ; as it was an enterprise 
 coloured with an appearance of justice, and because that prince 
 happened to be the worst prepared to receive him. He was 
 easily subdued, and several of his subjects sent prisoners into 
 Spain. The second whom Columbus designed to attack being 
 better prepared against force, he was resolved to circumvent 
 him by fraud, and gojt him into his power by a stratagem, which 
 did no honour to his sincerity, and rather shewed great weak 
 ness in this unfortunate barbarian, than any extraordinary con 
 trivance in those who deceived him. 
 
 The other princes were not so terrified at these examples. 
 Their hatred to the Spaniards increased ; and perceiving that 
 all depended upon a sudden and vigorous exertion of their 
 strength, they brought an immense army, it is said of one hun 
 dred thousand men, into the field, which was arrayed in the 
 largest plain in that country. Columbus, though he had but 
 a small force, did not scruple to go out to meet them. His 
 
 army 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. ' 23 
 
 army consisted but of two hundred foot, twenty horse, and 
 twenty wolf dogs. The latter part of this army has a ludicrous 
 appearance ; but it was a very serious matter amongst a people 
 no better provided with arms offensive or defensive than the 
 Indians. Neither was it rash in Columbus to venture an 
 engagement against forces so vastly superior in numbers ; for 
 when such numbers are no better skilled or armed than these 
 were, their multitude is in. fact no just cause of dread but to 
 themselves. The event was answerable ; the victory was deci 
 sive for the Spaniards, in which their horses and dogs had a 
 considerable share ; the loss on the side of the Indians was very 
 great. From that day forward they despaired, and relinquished 
 all thoughts of dislodging the Spaniards by force. Columbus 
 had but little difficulty in reducing the whole island, which now 
 became a province of Spain, had a tribute imposed, and forts 
 built in several parts to enforce the levying of it, and to take 
 away from this unhappy people all prospect of liberty. 
 
 In this affecting situation they often asked the Spaniards, 
 when they intended to return to their own country. Small as 
 the number of these strangers was, the inhabitants were ex 
 tremely burthened to subsist them. One Spaniard consumed 
 more than ten Indians ; a circumstance which shews how little 
 this people had advanced in the art of cultivating the earth, or 
 how lazy they were in doing it, since their indigence reduced 
 them to such an extreme frugality, that they found the Spa 
 niards, who are some of the most abstemious people upon earth, 
 excessively voracious in the comparison. Their experience of 
 this, joined to their despair, put the Indians upon a project of 
 starving out their invaders. In pursuance of this scheme, they 
 entirely abandoned the little agriculture which they practised, 
 and ttnanimously retired into the most barren and impracticable 
 parts of the island. This ill-advised stratagem compleated their 
 
 ruiiu 
 
i24 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 ruin. A number of people crowded into the worst parts of the 
 country, subsisting only upon its spontaneous productions, were 
 soon reduced to the most terrible famine. Its sure attendant, 
 epidemical sickness, pursued at its heels ;' and this miserable 
 people, half famished and lessened a third of their numbers, 
 were obliged to relinquish their scheme, to come down into the 
 open country, and to submit once more to bread and fetters. 
 
 This conquest, and the subsequent ones made by the several 
 European nations, with as little colour of right as consciousness 
 of doing any thing wrong, gives one just reason to reflect on the 
 notions entertained by mankind in all times concerning the right 
 of dominion. At this period, a few doubted of the power of the 
 pope to convey a full right to any country he was pleased to 
 chalk out; amongst the faithful, because they were subject to 
 the church ; and amongst infidels, because it was meritorious- 
 to make them subject to it. This notion began to lose ground 
 at the Reformation, but another arose of as bad a tendency ; the 
 klea of the dominion of grace, which prevailed with ^several, and 
 the effects of which we have felt amongst ourselves. The Ma 
 hometan great merit is to spread the empire aud the faith ; and 
 none amongst them doubt the legality of subduing any nation- 
 for these good purposes. The Greeks held, that the barbarians 
 were naturally designed to be their slaves, and this was so ge 
 neral a notion, that Aristotle himself, with all his penetration, 
 gave in-to it very seriously. In truth, it has its principle in hu 
 man nature, for the generality of mankind very readily slide 
 from what they conceive a fitness for government, to a right of 
 governing; and they do not so readily agree, that those who 
 are superior in endowments should only be equal in condition. 
 These things partly palliate the guilt and horror of a conquest, 
 undertaken with so little colour, over a people whose chief 
 ^offence was their credulity, and their confidence in men who did 
 
 not 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 25 
 
 not deserve it. But the circumstances of Columbus, the mea 
 sures he was obliged to preserve with his court, and his humane 
 and gentle treatment of this people, by which he mitigated the 
 rigour of this conquest, take off much of the blame from him, as 
 the necessity of taking up arms at all never arose from his con 
 duct, or from his orders. On the contrary, his whole behaviour 
 both to the Spaniards andlndians, the care he took to establish 
 the one without injury to the other, and the constant bent of 
 his policy to work every thing by gentle methods, may well be 
 an example to all persons in the same situation. 
 
 Since I have digressed so far, it will be the more excusable 
 to mention a circumstance recorded in the history of this set 
 tlement. America was then, at least these parts of it were, 
 without almost any of those animals by which we profit so 
 greatly. It had neither horses, nor oxen, nor sheep, nor swine. 
 Columbus brought eight sows into America, and a small num 
 ber of horned cattle. This was the stock which supplied, 
 about two hundred years ago, a country now the most abound 
 ing in these animals of any part of the known world ; in which 
 too, it has been a business, for this century past, to hunt oxen 
 merely for their hides. An example which shews how small a 
 number might originally have served to produce all the animals 
 upon earth, who commonly procreate very fast to a certain 
 point, and when they arrive at it, seem much at a stand. 
 
 E CHAP. 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THB 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 COMPLAINTS AGAINST COLUMBUS. A PERSON IS SENT TO INQUIRE INTO HIS 
 
 CONDUCT. HE RETURNS TO SPAIN. HE IS ACQUITTED. HE SETS OUT 
 
 ON HIS THIRD VOYAGE. HE DISCOVERS THE CONTINENT OF SOUTH 
 
 AMERICA. HE SAILS TO HISPANIOLA. 
 
 WHILST Columbus was reducing this wealthy island to the 
 obedience of the crown of Castile, and laying the foundations 
 of the Spanish grandeur in America, his enemies were endea 
 vouring with pains as indefatigable to ruin him in Spain. Some 
 of the persons principally concerned in the late disorders, fled 
 to Spain before his return ; and there, to justify their own 
 conduct, and gratify their malice, they accused him of neglect 
 ing the colony, and of having deceived their majesties and the 
 adventurers with false hopes of gold, from a country which 
 produced very little either of that metal or any tiling else that 
 was valuable. These complaints were not without effect ; and 
 an officer, fitter by his character for a spy and informer than a 
 redresser of grievances, was sent to inspect into his conduct ; 
 in which manner of proceeding there was certainly a policy as 
 erroneous, as it was unjust and ungrateful. At that distance 
 from the fountain of authority, with an enemy at the door, 
 and a mutinous household, a commander ought always to be 
 trusted or removed. This man behaved in a brutish and inso 
 lent mariner, like all such persons, who, unconscious of any 
 merit pf their own, are puffed up with any little portion of de 
 legated power. Columbus found that he staid here to no pur 
 pose under such disgraceful terms ; and that his presence at 
 
 court 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 2? 
 
 court was absolutely necessary to his support. He determined 
 to return once more to Spain, convinced that a long absence is 
 mortal to one's interest at court, and that importunity and at 
 tendance often plead better than the most solid services. How 
 ever, before he departed, he exerted the little remains of au 
 thority he had left, to settle every thing in such a manner, as 
 to prevent those disorders which hitherto he had always found 
 the certain consequence of his absence. He built forts in all 
 the material parts of the island, to retain the inhabitants in 
 their subjection. He established the civil government upon a 
 better footing, and redoubled his diligence for the discovery of 
 mines, which were to be the great agents in his affairs ; nor did 
 he altogether fail of success. 
 
 It was the rate of this great man to have his virtue continually 
 exercised with troubles and distresses. He continued his course 
 to Spain in the latitude of 22, not having at that time disco 
 vered the advantageous method of running into the northern 
 latitudes to meet the south-west winds : they therefore made 
 very little way ; a scarcity ensued, in which they were reduced 
 to six ounces of provision a day for each person. On these oc 
 casions the Admiral fared no better than the common sailor "> 
 yet in this distress his hunger did not get the better of the ten 
 derness and humanity which distinguished his character. He 
 refused to listen to the pressing instances of his crew, who 
 were very earnest in this distress to have the Indian prisoners 
 thrown overboard to lessen the consumption of provisions. 
 in this voyage his skill was as remarkable as his magnanimity. 
 He had nine experienced pilots in his fleet : yet none of 
 them could tell where they were, after having been a full month 
 from the sight of the first land. This length of time persuaded 
 them they must be very near Europe, and they w r ere there 
 fore for crowding sail to make land as soon as possible. But 
 
 E 2 Columbus, 
 
28 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Columbus, upon sure observations, maintained they were but 
 a little to the westward of the Azores, and therefore ordered 
 his sails to be slackened for fear of land. Jiis prediction was 
 fulfilled, and the Azores relieved them next morning. This, 
 added to a series of predictions and noble discoveries, made 
 his skill seem something prophetic, and exalted his character 
 in this respect above all the seamen before his time ; and in 
 deed, considering his opportunities of improvement, and what 
 he did himself to improve his art, he will perhaps appear in 
 ferior to none who have succeeded him. 
 
 All the accusations and prejudices against the Admiral va 
 nished almost as soon as he appeared. He brought such testi 
 monies of his fidelity and good behaviour, as silenced all ca 
 lumnies which arose on that head ; and the large specimens of 
 gold and pearl he produced, refuted all that was said on the 
 poverty of the Indies. The court was fully convinced of the 
 importance of the new colony, the merit of its governor, and 
 the necessity of a speedy supply. But the Admiral's enemies 
 were not idle, though they were silenced ; they continued to 
 throw all manner of obstructions in his way ; which was a 
 thing not difficult, in a country where every thing is executed 
 with much phlegm and languor, and where those forms and 
 mechanical methods of business, necessary perhaps in the com 
 mon course of affairs, but ruinous in great designs, are more 
 exactly observed, than any where else. It was tlierefore with 
 great difficulty that he was able to procure any relief to be sent 
 to Hispaniola, but with much greater, and after a thousand 
 delays and disappointments, that he was himself enabled to set 
 out on a discovery of more importance than any of the former. 
 
 He designed to stand to the southward from the Canaries, 
 until he should come under the equinoctial line, and then to 
 proceed directly westward, until Hispaniola should bear to the 
 
 north- 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS- IN AMERICA. *9 
 
 north-west from him, to try what opening that might afford to 
 India, or what new islands, or what continent might reward his 
 trouble. He therefore stood away to the Cape de Verd islands, 
 and then south-west. In this navigation a thick fog, which 
 intercepted the light of the sun and stars, enveloped them for 
 several days ; and when this cleared off, the heats were grown 
 so excessive, that the men could not venture between decks. 
 The sun being at this time nearly vertical, the heavy rains 
 which fall at this season between the tropicks, without abating 
 the heat, added much to their distress.. At last a smart gale 
 sprang up, and they went before it seventeen days to the west 
 ward. The Admiral, who could have no second to supply his 
 place, scarce allowed himself a moment's sleep ; but in this, as 
 in all his voyages, had the whole burthen of every thing upon 
 himself; this fatigue threw him into a fit of the gout ; but 
 neither the fatigue nor the disorder could remove him from the 
 deck, or make him abate of his usual vigilance. His provi 
 sions, however, being damaged by the heat, the wine casks 
 many of them burst, and the wine being soured in those that 
 held, obliged him to alter the course he intended to keep south 
 ward, and to decline some points to the north-west, hoping to 
 fall in with some of the Caribbees, where he intended to refit 
 and take in provisions, to enable him to continue his discove 
 ries. But he had not sailed long, when from the round top a sear- 
 man saw land, which was an island on the coast of Guiana, now 
 called Trinidad. Having passed this island and two others, which 
 lie in the mouth of the great river Oronoquo, he was surprized 
 and endangered by a phenomenon he had never seen before. 
 The river Oronoquo, at all times very great,, at this time aug 
 mented tenfold by the rains we have just mentioned, rushing 
 into the ocean with an immense and rapid flood, meets the tide ; 
 which rises here to a great height, and comes in with much. 
 
 strength ; 
 
30 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 strength ; and both being pent up between the islands, and te~ 
 verberated from one to another, caused a conflict extremely 
 terrifying to those who had not been accustomed to it, and 
 were ignorant of the cause, as Columbus was at this time. But 
 sailing further he found plainly that he was in fresh water, and 
 judging rightly that it was probable no island could supply so 
 vast a river, he began to suspect he had discovered the conti 
 nent. But when he left the river, and found that land continued 
 on to the westward for a great way, he was convinced of it. 
 Satisfied, in some measure, with this discovery, he yielded to 
 the uneasiness and distresses of his crew, and bore away for 
 Hispaniola, favoured by a fair wind and those currents which 
 set strongly to the westward all along the northern coast of 
 South America. 
 
 In the course of this discovery the Admiral landed in several 
 places, and traded with the inhabitants, amongst whom he 
 found gold and pearl in tolerable plenty. Contrary to the cus 
 tom of 'many navigators, who behave wherever they go as if 
 they never intended to come there again, he every where used 
 the natives with great civility, and gave them what they judged 
 the full value of their commodities ; little bells, bits of glass 
 
 3 O 
 
 and of tin, with some trifling apparel, being exchanged for 
 gold dust and pearls, and much to the satisfaction of both par 
 ties, who thought they had each over-reached the other, and 
 indeed with equal reason. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IX AMERICA. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 FrSFDS THE SPANIARDS OF HISPANIOLA IN REBELLION. HIS MEA 
 SURES TO SUPPRESS IT. NEW COMPLAINTS AGAINST HIM IN SPAIN. HE 
 
 IS SUPERSEDED IN THE GOVERNMENT, AND SENT TO SPAIN IN IRONS. 
 
 HE arrived at Hispaniola the 19th of August, 1498, quite worn 
 down with sickness and continual watching, the necessity of 
 which was rather increased than diminished as he came nearer 
 home, amongst such a multitude of islands and shoals as filled 
 those seas, at this time little known ; add to this, that a cur 
 rent, setting strongly westward towards the continent, threaten 
 ed every moment, without the greatest attention, to carry him 
 out of his course. So wasted was he with the fatigue, that his 
 brother, whom he had left in his place, scarce knew him at his 
 return. And he found that he was likely to have as little repose 
 upon land as at sea. 
 
 The Admiral's authority had suffered some diminution, from 
 the ill-judged step of sending a check upon his motions before 
 he left Hispaniola ; and the encouragement this gave to all 
 sorts of murmuring* and complaints against government, sowed 
 the seeds of a rebellion, which sprung up in the colony soon 
 after he left it. But this rebellion was more dangerously formed 
 than either of the former. For in the first place, the rebels had 
 regularly appointed themselves a chief, called Francis Roldan ; 
 a man whom the Admiral had left in a considerable post : 'this 
 gave it an uniformity and credit. And secondly, they gained the 
 Indians to their party, by pretending to be their patrons, and 
 the assertors of their liberty. Then to establish themselves the 
 
 more 
 
32 AN ACCOUNT OF THK 
 
 more securely, they made a secession from the uncorrupted 
 part of the colony, and settled in another part of the island ; 
 which formed an asylum for all idle and seditious persons, by 
 whom they were continually reinforced. 
 
 In this threatening state of things the Admiral, having found 
 his forces in no condition to act offensively against the rebels, 
 did what he could to break their force, and dissolve that union 
 which made them formidable. He began by publishing a free 
 pardon for all that chose to cancel their crimes by a timely sub 
 mission. Observing, besides, that many were very desirous of 
 returning to Spain, he gave them to understand they might go 
 with the ships which brought the last succours. He did not 
 intend to perform this latter part immediately, but he knew 
 that his offers would stagger some ; and that, in affairs of this 
 nature, it is everything to gain time. He wrote to court a 
 full account of his late discoveries, and sent samples of the 
 wealth they yielded. He took the same opportunity of de 
 scribing the distracted state of the colony, desiring that fifty 
 or sixty men might be sent by every ship, which he promised 
 to replace by as many of the rebels. He proposed this plan, 
 lest the Spanish power should be weakened in those parts, by 
 diminishing their men, or kept in as dangerous a state, by har 
 bouring such as were ill disposed to the publick good. He added 
 very judiciously to his request, that some religious men and able 
 lawyers might be sent him, as the most effectual means of in 
 troducing and preserving obedience and order. He then en 
 tered into negotiations with the chiefs of the rebels ; he granted 
 them all they demanded, and even invidiously placed their prin 
 cipal commander, Roklan, in such an office as flattered his 
 pride, though without augmenting his power. Thus things 
 were brought into something of regularity, without any strug 
 gling or violence ; and Roldan himself, though in his former 
 
 office 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMEIUCA. 33 
 
 office of chief judge of the island, contributed most of all to 
 wards bringing those who stood out to obedience. There arose 
 a difference between them ; and they flew again to arms ; but 
 on their first motion, Roldan, by virtue of his authority, seized, 
 condemned, and executed several. By this the rest were awed, 
 all the connection broke oft irretrievably between the head and 
 body of the rebels, and all done without having any part of the 
 offence, that might be given by this severity, charged to the 
 Admiral. 
 
 He now began just to breathe in a little tranquillity, ac 
 quired by the severest labours, whilst a new storm was gather 
 ing against him from the quarter of the court. His old impla 
 cable enemies, uniting with some of the rebels who had lately 
 transported themselves into Spain, renewed the clamour against 
 him. They heaped upon him all, manner of calumnies ; they 
 accused him of a design of setting up for himself; and as they 
 charged him in Hispaniola with cruelty and tyranny to the 
 Indians, here they reversed the charge, and accused him of a 
 popularity amongst that people, dangerous to his and their 
 alliance. They added to these, what could not fail to work on 
 national prejudices, that Columbus was a stranger, and had not 
 a proper respect for the Spanish nobility. They complained 
 that great debts were due to them ; that all ways of recovering 
 them were shut up. In short, the king aud queen never went 
 abroad without being pursued and persecuted by the clamours 
 of these pretended suitors of justice. Wearied out with such 
 complaints, they sent a judge, with power to enquire into the 
 Admiral's conduct, and authorized, if he should find the accu 
 sations proved, to send him into Spain, ami remain himself aj> 
 governor in his room. They made it the judge's interest to 
 rondemn him. 
 
 The judge, who was extremely poor, and had no other call 
 
 but 
 
34 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 but his indigence to undertake the office, no sooner landed in 
 Hispaniola, than he took up his lodging in the Admiral's house, 
 for he was then absent. He next proceeded to seize upon all 
 his effects ; and at last summoned him and his brothers to ap 
 pear. In the mean time, he encouraged all manner of accu 
 sations, without regarding the character of the accusers, or the 
 probability or consistency of their accusations. In consequence 
 of these, he apprehended the Admiral and his brothers, and, 
 with the last marks of insult and indignity, loaded them with 
 irons, and embarked them to be transported prisoners into 
 Spain. 
 
 The captain of the vessel, touched with respect for the years 
 and great merit of Columbus, offered to take off the irons ; but 
 he did not permit it. " Since the king has commanded that 
 " I should obey his governor, he shall find me as obedient to 
 " this, as I have been to all his other orders. Nothing but his 
 " commands shall release me. If twelve years hardship and 
 " fatigue ; if continual dangers and frequent famine ; if the 
 " ocean, first opened, and five times passed and repassed, to 
 " add a new world abounding with wealth to the Spanish mo- 
 *' narchy ; and if an infirm premature old age, brought on by 
 " those services, deserve these chains as a reward, it is very fit 
 " I should wear them to Spain, and keep them by me as me- 
 " morials to the end of my life/' 
 
 Great minds, though more apt to forgive injuries, perhaps, 
 than common souls, do not easily lose the memory of the 
 wrongs that are done them. Columbus afterwards carried these 
 irons with him wherever he went ; they hung constantly in his 
 chamber, and he ordered them to be buried with him. 
 
 The new governor made a more effectual provision for the 
 reward of his services ; for, besides confiscating the greatest 
 part of the Admiral's effects, which he converted to his own use, 
 
 to 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 35 
 
 to flatter the people he permitted an unbounded liberty, by 
 which he ruined the royal revenue, and was near ruining the 
 colony too, past all reparation, if the court had not recalled 
 him in time, and sent a person to succeed him of greater judg 
 ment and firmness, though of little more real virtue. 
 
 P2 CHAP. 
 
36 
 
 CHAP. VI, 
 
 THE DISCOVERIES OF AMEIUCUS VESPUTIUS, AND OTHER ADVENTURERS. 
 
 WHAT CAUSED THE SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY. 
 
 ABOUT this time the spirit of discovery began to spread itself 
 widely ; and private adventurers, both in Spain and Portugal, 
 stimulated by the gold which from time to time was remitted to 
 Europe by Columbus, made equipments at their own expence. 
 In one of these the famous Americus Vesputius commanded ; 
 he had got into his hands the charts of Columbus, in his last 
 voyage, and he sailed the same course. But as he was a man 
 of address and great confidence, and was besides an able seaman 
 and good geographer, he found a way of arrogating to himself 
 the first discovery of the continent of America, and called it by 
 his own name ; which it has ever since retained, though no 
 body has any doubt concerning the real discoverer. For this, 
 I believe, no other reason can be given, than that America is 
 perhaps a better sounding word than Columbia, and is more 
 easily pronounced with the others, in enumerating the several 
 divisions of the earth ; a trifling matter, and influenced by trifl 
 ing causes. But the glory of Columbus stands upon founda 
 tions of another sort. 
 
 Pinzon, pne who attended the Admiral in his first voyage, 
 equipped a squadron at his own expence ; and was the firstwho 
 crossed the line at the side of America, and entered the great 
 river Maranon, or the river of Amazons. 
 
 The Portuguese, notwithstanding the pope's exclusive grant, 
 turned their thoughts to America, and discovered the Brazils, 
 
 which 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 37 
 
 which make the most valuable part of their present possessions ; 
 when they have lost what was considered as their original right, 
 and which never was so advantageous to them. 
 
 What animated these adventurers, at the same time that it 
 fixes a stain upon ail their characters and designs, is that in 
 satiable thirst of gold, which ever appeared uppermost in all 
 their actions. This disposition had been a thousand times ex 
 tremely prejudicial to their affairs : it was particularly the cause 
 of all the confusion and rebellions in Hispaniola: yet it is cer 
 tain, that if it were not for this incentive, which kindled the 
 spirit of discovery and colonization first in Spain and Portugal, 
 and afterwards in all parts of Europe, America had never been 
 in the state it now is ; nor would those nations ever have had 
 the beneficial colonies, which are now established in every part 
 of that country. It was necessary there should be something 
 of an immediate and uncommon gain, fitted to strike the ima 
 ginations of men forcibty, to tempt them to such hazardous de 
 signs. A remote prospect of commerce, and the improvement 
 of manufactures, by extending of colonies, would never have 
 answered the purpose ; those advantages come to be known only 
 by reason and deduction ; and are not consequently of so strik 
 ing a nature. But to go out with a few baubles, and to return 
 with a cargo of gold, is an object readily comprehended by any 
 body, and was consequently pursued with vigour by all. The 
 speculative knowledge of trade made no part of the study of the 
 elevated or thinking part of mankind, at that time. Now, it 
 may be justly reckoned amongst the liberal sciences ; and it 
 makes one of the most considerable branches of political know 
 ledge. : Commerce was then in the hands of a few, great in its 
 profits, but confined in its nature. What we call the balance 
 of trade, was far from being well understood ; all the laws rela 
 tive to commerce were every where but so many clogs upon it. 
 
 The 
 
38 AN ACCOUNT OP THE 
 
 The imposts and duties charged on goods, were laid on without 
 distinction or judgment. Even amongst ourselves, the most 
 trading and reasoning people in Europe, right notions of these 
 matters began late, and advanced slowly. Our colonies were 
 settled without any view to those great advantages which we 
 draw from them. Virginia was constructed out of the wrecks 
 of an armament destined on a golden adventure, which first 
 tempted us to America. And those who settled New England 
 and Maryland, meant them only as asylums from religious per 
 secution. So that if America had not promised such an inun 
 dation of treasure, it could only have supplied a languid com 
 merce, which would have habituated the natives by degrees to 
 our European manners, and supplied them with equal arms. 
 Then it would have been next to impossible to have made those 
 extensive settlements in that new world. So certain it is, that 
 we often reap differently from what we have sown ; and that 
 there must be some strong active principle to give life and 
 energy to all designs, or they will languish, let them be ever so 
 wisely concerted, 
 
 CHAP. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA, 39 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 COLUMBUS AGAIN ACQUITTED. UNDERTAKES A FOURTH VOYAGE. DIS60- 
 
 TERS THE COAST OF TERRA FIRMA AND THE ISTHMUS OFDARIEN. RETURNS 
 
 TO HISPANIOLA. HIS RECEPTION THERE. PURSUES HIS DISCOVERIES TO 
 
 THE COAST OF TERRA FIRMA. HE IS DRIVEN TO JAMAICA, AND SHIP 
 WRECKED ON THAT ISLAND. HIS DISTRESSES THERE. THE REBELLION OF 
 
 HIS MEN,, WHICH HE SUPPRESSES. HE LEAVES THE ISLAND AND RETURNS 
 TO SPAIN. HIS RECEPTION THERE. HE DIES. 
 
 Xo sooner was Columbus arrived in Spain, in this disgraceful 
 manner, than the court disavowed and highly blamed the con 
 duct of their governor. And now, according to the giddy cus 
 tom of men who act without plan or principle, they acquitted 
 Columbus of all the charges against him, with as little enquiry 
 into their validity, as they before used, when upon the same 
 charges, they unjustly condemned him. Restitution and reward 
 were promised him, and he wanted very few incentives to en 
 gage once more in discoveries. His ambition was to arrive at 
 the East-Indies, and so to surround the globe. This had really 
 an influence upon his own mind, and he knew nothing could so 
 much influence those of the king and queen. On this prospect 
 he was again fitted out with a fleet, promising to reduce both 
 East and West-Indies, under the dominion of their Catholic 
 majesties. 
 
 He embarked upon his fourth voyage in May 1502. His 
 design was to stand directly for the coast of South- Ame 
 rica, and keep along the northern shore until he should come 
 to the place where he heard an obscure account of some narrow 
 
 streight 
 
40 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 r 
 
 streight (whether a streight or isthmus was not so clear from the 
 accounts he had) ; and by this, if a streight, he hoped to pass 
 into the great South-Sea. After so very long a voyage as his 
 had been to America, and the discovery of a continent which 
 was not that of India, nor that of China, he saw clearly that the 
 maps were no longer in the least to be relied on ; he therefore^ 
 depended solely upon his own ideas. He reviewed the bearings 
 of all the countries which his former experience or his late dis 
 coveries had opened to him ; be considered the figure of the earth 
 in general ; he reasoned upon the balance and distribution of 
 the land and water ; and comparing all these he concluded that, 
 beyond the continent he had discovered was another ocean, 
 probably as great or greater than that he had formerly passed ; 
 if tliis were so, then it was probable too that these oceans had 
 some communication. He judged it to be near those places 
 since called Veraguaand Nombrede Dios ; but not thinking his 
 ships fit for that voyage, he proposed to put into Hispaniola to 
 refit, and to make some new dispositions. 
 
 Columbus, whilst he navigated and resided in the West-In- 
 
 O 
 
 dies, was extremely diligent in his observations upon the nature 
 of the air, the seasons, the meteors, rains and winds ; and how 
 each of these seemed to afreet the others ; nor was he less saga 
 cious in drawing prognostics from the remarkable appearances 
 in all ; at this time he judged from observations that a great 
 hurricane was approaching. Before he entered the harbour, he 
 notified his arrival to Obando the governor, with the nature of 
 his design and the condition of his vessels ; desiring at the same 
 time that the fleet, which he understood to be on the point of 
 setting sail for Europe, should in consideration of the approach 
 ing hurricane defer their departure for some days. But it was 
 his destiny that ingratitude should pursue him every where, and 
 persecute him in every shape. For the governor, without any 
 
 cause, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 41 
 
 cause, not only refused to hearken to his advice about the sail 
 ing of the ships, but absolutely denied him permission to enter 
 into harbour, to save his life in that island which he himself had 
 discovered and subdued. He had nothing to do but to draw 
 up as close to the shore as he could. The storm came on the 
 next night ; but Providence, favouring his innocence and assist 
 ing his capacity, brought him safe through it ; though as terrible 
 a storm as had ever happened in those seas. The fleet of twenty 
 sail, which against his advice had put to sea, suffered the punish 
 ment due to their temerity. Only four escaped the storm, six 
 teen perished. Amongst those which were lost, was the ship 
 which carried back that governor to Spain, who had sent Co 
 lumbus thither in so oppressive and scandalous a manner*, 
 amongst the four that were saved, was one that" had on board 
 some treasure, all that could be rescued from the pillage of the 
 Admiral's fortune. So that whilst he was mortified at this 
 shameful instance of human ingratitude. Heaven seemed to de 
 clare in his favour, and to condemn and punish it. His cha 
 racter was highly raised by the prediction of the storm, and by 
 his behaviour in it ; for to his, and his brother's good conduct, 
 the safety of his little fleet was justly attributed. His brother 
 was a navigator and philosopher, second only to the Admiral, 
 very useful to his affairs, and a comfort and assistance in all his 
 misfortunes, by his capacity and the goodness of his heart. 
 
 After he had weathered the storm, he left this island, in which 
 he had so surprizing an instance of ingratitude, in pursuit of 
 more matter to employ it. In this voyage he discovered all the 
 coast of Terra Firma to the isthmus of Darien, where he hoped 
 to have found a passage to the South-Sea. In this he was dis 
 appointed, but he was not disappointed in the other part of his 
 project ; for every where as he advanced, he became more sen 
 sible of the value of his discoveries on the continent. He found 
 
 G a people 
 
42 
 
 a people more civilized and more abounding in gold than the 
 islauders. He entered a harbour, which from its excellence he 
 called Porto Bello, well known since as one of the greatest 
 openings by which -the Spanish commerce is carried on between 
 the two worlds. Here the Admiral designed to establish a co 
 lony, under the command of his brother ; proposing to return 
 to Europe himself to obtain the requisites for a compleat set 
 tlement. But the avarice and insolence of his men raised the 
 country upon him, and obliged him to relinquish his design, 
 without having an opportunity of doing any thing more than 
 shewing his judgment in the choice of the situation, and his own 
 and brother's bravery in extricating their men from the cala 
 mities in which their folly had involved them. 
 
 Driven from hence, and finding his vessels in so bad a con 
 dition that it was by no means adviseable to proceed upon fur 
 ther discoveries, he quitted the continent, after having disco 
 vered the eastern side of the isthmus of Darien, and the whole 
 shore as far as Gracios o Dios in the gulph of Honduras. He 
 then stood over to Hispaniola. His voyage was made under a 
 thousand difficulties of the severest kind ; the vessels so leaky, 
 that the crew had not a moment's respite from the pump, and 
 scarce any provision remaining to refresh them after their la 
 bours. To complete the sum of their calamities a violent storm 
 arose, in which the ships fell foul of one another. But though 
 he providentially weathered this storm, it was now scarcely pos 
 sible to keep his ship above water, and he was glad to make 
 Jamaica, where he was a second time relieved from the greatest 
 dangers and distresses. 
 
 But a distress of almost as bad a nature exercised his inven 
 tion here. His ships were absolutely unfit for service, beyond 
 all possibility of being repaired ; no means of getting new ; the 
 inhabitants suspicious, and the ill behaviour of his men gave 
 
 daily 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 43 
 
 daily occasion to increase those suspicions. In this distress, he 
 prevailed upon some of the hardiest and most faithful of them 
 'to pass over in a canoe to Hispaniola, to represent his cala 
 mitous situation to the governor, and to beg vessels to carry 
 them off. 
 
 Eight months did the Admiral remain in this island, without 
 the least intelligence from his messengers, or assistance from the 
 governor. The natives grew exasperated at the delay of the 
 Spaniards and the weight of subsisting them, which was a heavy 
 burthen on the poverty of the Indians. Provisions therefore 
 came in very sparingly. Things even threatened to grow much 
 worse ; for the seamen, who are at best unruly, but think that 
 all discipline ceases the moment they set foot on land, mutinied 
 in great numbers. By this mutiny the Admiral's authority and 
 strength were considerably weakened, whilst the natives were 
 exasperated by the disorders of the mutineers ; but Columbus 
 found means to recover his authority, at least among the In 
 dians. Knowing there would shortly be a visible eclipse of the 
 moon, he summoned the principal persons in the island ; and 
 by one who understood their language told them, that the God 
 whom he served, and who created and preserves all things in 
 heaven and earth, provoked at their refusing to support his ser 
 vants, intended a speedy and severe judgment upon them, of 
 which they should shortly see manifest tokens in the heavens, 
 for that the moon would, on the night he marked, appear of a 
 bloody hue ; an emblem of the destruction that was preparing 
 for them. His prediction, which was ridiculed for the time, 
 when it came to be accomplished, struck the barbarians with 
 great terror. They brought him plenty of provisions ; they fell 
 at his feet, and besought him in the most supplicating style to 
 deprecate the evils which threatened them. Pie took their pro- 
 
 G 2 visions 
 
44 AN ACCOUNT OP THE 
 
 visions, comforted them, and charged them to atone for their 
 past sin by their future generosity. 
 
 He had a temporary relief by this stratagem, but he saw no 
 prospect of getting out of the island, and pursuing those great 
 purposes to which he had devoted his life. The mutiny of his 
 men was in danger of growing general, when every thing seemed 
 to be settled by the sight of a ship in the harbour, sent by 
 Obando, the governor of Hispaniola. The governor resolved 
 not only to abandon, but to insult this great man in his mis 
 fortunes. The captain of the vessel was a mortal enemy to the 
 Admiral, and one of the persons principally concerned in those 
 rebellions, which had formerly given him so much trouble. 
 The design of this captain was only to be a witness of the dis 
 tress of his affairs ; for he came ashore, forbidding his crew all 
 manner of communication with the Admiral or his men ; and 
 after delivering to Columbus an empty letter of compliment, 
 embarked, without even nattering him. with the least hope of 
 relief. 
 
 Thus abandoned, his firmness and presence of mind alone did 
 not forsake him. The arrival of this ship for a moment recon 
 ciled his men. to obedience; but when they saw it depart, they 
 were almost unanimously on, the point of shaking, off all au-> 
 thority, and abandoning themselves to the most desperate 
 courses.. The Admiral, without betraying the least sign of dis 
 appointment or grief, told them in a cheerful manner, that he 
 had a promise of an immediate supply : that he did not depart 
 in this ship, because she 'was too small to carry off all the Spa 
 niards who were with him ; and. that he was resolved not to leave, 
 the island until every man of them might enjoy the same con- 
 veniency. The easy and composed air of the Admiral himself 
 and the care he manifested for his people, superior to his own 
 
 preser- 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IX AMERICA. 4> 
 
 preservation, reconciled their minds, and made them attend 
 their fate with patience. But he knew his delay might be very 
 tedious in this island, and that as long as there remained a re 
 ceptacle to which every ill humour among his men might ga 
 ther, his affairs would grow worse every day. He found those 
 that still adhered to him firmly attached to his cause; he there 
 fore came to a resolution of taking vigorous measures with the 
 rest. He sent his brother, a sensible and resolute man, with 
 a proper force, and well armed,, to treat with them ; and in case 
 of obstinacy, to compel them to obedience. They met, and the 
 captain of the mutineers, grown insolent with a long, course 
 of licentiousness and rapine, not only rejected the Admiral's 
 proposal, but offered violence to his brother; who using this 
 as a signal to his men, prepared for such an accident^ they 
 fell upon the rebels with so much resolution, that ten lay 
 dead in a moment with their chief; disordered by the un 
 expected attack, the rest fled, and soon after were obliged to 
 submit. 
 
 Thus the Admiral pacified every thing with equal spirit and 
 address, sometimes giving way to the storm, and temporizing 
 when he doubted his strength,; but when he was assured of it, 
 always employing it with resolution and effect; turning every 
 incident, even the most unfavourable, to his advantage ; and 
 watching every change, of nature, and every motion of the hu 
 man mind, to employ them in his purposes. It is the principal 
 thing which forms the character of a great man, to be rich in 
 expedients ; the use Columbus made of the eclipse was truly 
 ingenious. It may be .said, that such a thing, cannot be imi 
 tated amongst a civilized people. I grant it. But the way to 
 imitate great men is not to tread in their steps, but to walk in 
 their manner. There is no people who have not some points of 
 
46 AN ACCOUNT OF THF, 
 
 ignorance, weakness, or prejudice, which a penetrating mind may 
 discover, and use as the most powerful instruments in the exe 
 cution of his designs. Such a knowledge as this, is the only 
 thino- which gives one man a real superiority over another; and 
 he who understands the passions of men, and can entirely com 
 mand his own, has the principal means of subduing them in his 
 hands. 
 
 The Admiral might have spent his whole life in this mi 
 serable exile, if a private man, moved with esteem for his 
 merit, and compassion to his misfortunes, had not fitted out a 
 ship for his relief. This brought him to Hispaniola. The 
 governor,, who refused to contribute any thing to his coining, 
 when he. came received him with that overacted complaisance 
 and shew of friendship, which so often succeeds the greatest in 
 solence in base minds, and which they practise with o little 
 shame and remorse to the persons they have before loaded with 
 the greatest injuries. The Admiral bore this like every thing 
 else ; and, convinced that a dispute with a governor in his own 
 jurisdiction would bring him little advantage or honour, has 
 tened every thing for his departure to Spain, where he arrived 
 after a voyage in which he was tossed by most terrible storms, 
 and sailed seven hundred leagues after he had lost his main 
 mast. 
 
 He was now grown old, and severely afflicted with the gout. 
 The queen his patroness was dead ; and the king, of a close 
 and dissembling disposition, and a narrow mind, was the only 
 person he had to sooth his misfortunes, or pay the reward which 
 was due to his labours. But he received neither comfort nor 
 reward. The performance of his contract was deferred upon 
 frivolous pretences ; and he employed the close of his life, as he 
 had done the active part of it, in a court solicitation ; the 
 
 most 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 47 
 
 most grievous of all employments to any man, the most hope 
 less to an old man. Vanquished at last by years, fatigues, and 
 disappointments, he died with those sentiments of piety, which 
 supported him through the misfortunes of his life, and added a 
 finishing, which nothing else could give to his greatness of mind, 
 and all his other virtues. 
 
 CHAP: 
 
48 AN ACCOUNT OP TF, 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 . 
 
 THE CHARACTER OF COLUMBUS. SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE COURT 
 
 OF SPAIN. 
 
 HENCEFORWARD, in treating of the progress of the Spanish 
 discoveries and arms, instead of designs laid in science, and 
 pursued with a benevolent heart and gentle measures ; we are 
 but too often to shew an enthusiastick avarice, urging men for 
 ward. to every act of cruelty and horrour. The character of this 
 first discoverer was extremely different from that of all with 
 whom he dealt, and from that of most of those who pursued his 
 discoveries and conquests ; some with a vigour and conduct 
 -equal, but all with virtues very much inferiour. In his charac 
 ter hardly is any one of the components of a truly great man 
 wanting. For to the ideas of the most penetrating philoso 
 pher, and a scheme built upon them worthy of a great king, he 
 joined a constancy and patience, which alone could carry it into 
 execution, with the fortune of a private man. Continual storms 
 at sea, continual rebellions of a turbulent people on shore, 
 vexations, disappointments, and cabals at court, were his lot 
 all his life ; and these were the only reward of services which 
 no favours could have rewarded sufficiently. His magnanimity 
 was proof against all these, and his genius surmounted all the 
 difficulties they threw in his way, except that of his payment ; 
 the point in which such men ever meet with the worst success, 
 and urge with the least ability. That surprizing art, possessed 
 by so few, of making every accident an instrument in his de 
 signs ; his nice adjustment of his behaviour to his circum 
 stances, temporizing, or acting vigorously as the occasion re 
 quired, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IX AMERICA. 49 
 
 quired, and never letting the occasion itself pass by him ; the 
 happy talent of concealing and governing his own passions, and 
 managing those of others ; all these conspire to give us the 
 highest idea of his capacity. And as for his virtues, his disin 
 terested behaviour, his immoveable fidelity to the ungrateful 
 crown he served, the just policy of his dealing with the Indians, 
 his caution against giving them any offence, and his tender be 
 haviour to them when conquered, which merited him the glo 
 rious, title of their father, together with his zeal to have them 
 instructed in the truths of religion, raise him to the elevated 
 rank of those few men whom we ought to consider as examples 
 to mankind, and ornaments to human nature. 
 
 I hope it will be forgiven me if I add a remark upon the 
 conduct of the court of Spain with regard to this great man. 
 Though, as we saw all along, tins conduct was equally unjust 
 and impolitick, sorry I am, that no lesson of instruction can be 
 drawn from the event, which was in all respects as fortunate, 
 as the measures pursued were ungrateful and imprudent. But 
 there was a coincidence of events at that time, which does not 
 always happen so opportunely to justify an ungrateful and nar 
 row policy. It is certain that some men are so possessed with 
 their designs, that, when once engaged, nothing can discourage 
 them in the pursuit. But great and frequent discouragements 
 are examples to others, which will at least certainly have an 
 eftect, and will terrify men from forming such designs at all. 
 Then the spirit of invention and enterprize dies away ; then 
 things begin to stagnate and to corrupt; for it is a rule as inva 
 riable in politicks as it is in nature, that a want of proper motion 
 does not breed rest and stability, but a motion of another 
 kind ; a motion unseen and intestine, which does not preserve 
 but destroy. The best form and settlement of a state, and 
 every regulation within it, obeys the same universal law ; and 
 
 ii the 
 
$0 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the only way to prevent all things from going to decay, is by 
 continually aiming to better them in some respect or other 
 (since if they are not better, they will surely be worse), and to 
 afford an attentive ear to every project for this purpose. I arn 
 sensible that it must frequently happen, that many of these 
 projects will be chimerical in themselves, and offered by people 
 of an appearance and manner not very prejudicing in their fa 
 vour. But then I am satisfied too, that these men must in the 
 nature of tilings have something odd and singular in their cha 
 racter, who expose themselves, and desert the common and cer 
 tain roads of gain, in pursuit of advantages not certain to the 
 publick, and extremely doubtful to themselves. 
 
 It is equally, true, that, if such people are encouraged, a 
 number of visionary schemes will be offered. But it is the 
 character of pride and laziness to reject all offers, because some- 
 are idle, as it is a weakness and credulity to listen to- all with 
 out distinction. But surely, if judgment is to have any share 
 in our conduct, it is the province of judgment to sift, to exa 
 mine, to distinguish the useful from the foolish, the feasible from 
 the impracticable, and even in the midst of the visions of a 
 fruitful and disordered brain, to pick out matter which a wise 
 man will know how to qualify and turn to vise, though the in 
 ventor did not. Cromwell, partly from his circumstances, but 
 more from his genius and disposition, received daily a number 
 of proposals of this kind, which always approached him in a 
 fanatical dress, and were mixed frequently with matters the 
 most remote from probability and good sense ; and we know 
 that he made a signal use of many things of this kind. 
 
 Colbert spent much of his time in hearing every scheme for 
 the extending of commerce, the improvement of manufactures, 
 and the advancement of arts ; spared no pains or ex pence to 
 put them in execution, and bountifully rewarded and encou 
 raged 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 51 
 
 raged the authors of them. By these means France advanced 
 during the reign of Lewis the Fourteenth, and under this mi 
 nister, more than it had done in many reigns before ; and by 
 these means, in the midst of wars which brought that kingdom 
 and all Europe to the brink of destruction, amidst many de 
 faults in the royal character and many errors in his government, 
 a seed of industry and cnterprize was sown, which, on the first 
 respite of the publick calamities, and even while they oppressed 
 that nation, rose to produce that flourishing internal and ex 
 ternal commerce and power, that distinguishes France, and 
 forms its strength at this day ; though a less active reign and 
 ministers of a different character have succeeded. On the con 
 trary, it was always the character of the court of Spain to pro 
 ceed very slowly, if at all, in any improvement ; and to receive 
 schemes for that purpose with coldness and disdain. The ef 
 fects upon the power of that monarchy were at last answerable. 
 With regard to America, the conquest as well as the discovery 
 was owing wholly to private men ; the court contributed no 
 thing but pretensions and patents. 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 w 2 CHAP. 
 
52 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 C II A P. IX. 
 
 THE DISCOVERIES AND CONQUESTS OF BALBOA. VELASQUEZ SENDS CORTESF 
 
 ON THE MEXICAN EXPEDITION. THE STATE OF THE MEXICAN EMPIRE, 
 
 CORTES MAKES AN ALLIANCE WITH THE TLASCALANS. 
 
 AN ancient painter drew a satirical picture of Cimon the Athe 
 nian. He represented this commander asleep, and Fortune 
 drawing, a net over cities to put them into his possession. 
 There never were princes to whom this representation could be 
 applied with more justice, than to King Ferdinand and his suc 
 cessor the Emperor Charles. Without forming any plan in the 
 cabinet, without issuing a penny out of their treasury, without 
 sending a regiment from their troops, private adventurers 
 amongst their subjects put them into possession of a greater, 
 and a more wealthy territory, than ever the most celebrated 
 conquerors had acquired by their valour, or their wisdom. Nor 
 was this conquest more extraordinary for the trivial means by 
 which it was accomplished, than for the shortness of the time 
 in which it was effected ; for from the departure of Columbus, 
 which was in the year 1492, to the entire reduction of Chili, 
 which was in 1541, seven great kingdoms, inhabited by a vast 
 number of warlike and wealthy nations, were made to bow 
 under the Spanish yoke. After the discoveries of Columbus 
 had enlarged the sphere of industry to active minds, such a 
 spirit of enterprise went abroad, that not only those persons 
 whose indigence might have driven them from their native 
 country, but persons of the first rank went over to settle in 
 
 America. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 53 
 
 America. Gold was the spur to all those adventurers, of what 
 ever rank ; and this, with a romantick spirit of chivalry, made 
 the greatest hazards appear but common matters in. their eyes. 
 And indeed in a country wholly uncivilised, under the burning 
 zone, and in many places extremely unhealthy, the temperance 
 of the Spaniards, their hardiness under fatigue, and the pa 
 tience and perseverance which make the most shining part of 
 their character, enabled them to engage in enterprises, and to 
 surmount difficulties, to which any other people had certainly 
 been unequal. 
 
 Vasco Nunez de Balboa made a considerable figure- amongst 
 these adventurers; he was a man of a graceful presence, a libe 
 ral education, a hardy constitution, and that kind of popular 
 braverv, which recommends a man who engages in desperate 
 expeditions, where he must have more authority from his per 
 son than his place. This man first surrounded Cuba, con 
 quered, and left it. He did not there find the treasures which 
 he expected. He therefore relinquished the gleanings of this 
 field to those who had a more moderate ambition, and a more 
 saving industry. He sought new ground, he followed the 
 tracks of Columbus to Darien, gained the friendship of some 
 of the Caziques, and conquered others. He was the first who 
 discovered the South-Sea. He settled a colony upon 'that 
 coast, and built the city of Panama. But according to the 
 fate of all the first adventurers in this new world, indeed ac 
 cording to the fate of most who engage in. new undertakings, he 
 never lived to reap the fruit of his labours. He found himself 
 superseded by one who had only discernment enough of his 
 merit to raise his jealousy .and envy, and who could make no 
 other use of the discoveries of this great mail, than to increase 
 his own private fortune, This man was a politician and a 
 courtier, and having in several instances basely injured Balboa, 
 
 he 
 
54 AN ACCOUNT OP THE 
 
 he was too wise to stop there, but, under a pretended form of 
 justice, cut off his head, and confiscated his estate. 
 
 Some time after the settlement of Cuba, Don James Velas 
 quez obtained the government ; a man of good sense in com 
 mon affairs, but so much mistaken, as to imagine he could act 
 a great part by deputy ; and that too in circumstances, wherein 
 ,a man who had but little capacity could do him but little ser 
 vice, and he that could do much would certainly do it for him 
 self. The continent of America was now very well known, and 
 the fame of the greatness and the wealth of the Mexican empire 
 spread every where. This inspired Velasquez with a scheme of 
 reducing some part of this opulent country under his obedience. 
 He pitched upon Hernando Cortes to command in this expe 
 dition, in which he certainly made a very right judgment. 
 There was no man amongst the Spaniards, who to an adven 
 turous disposition, then common to them all, knew so well to 
 join a cool and steady conduct, to gain love whilst he preserved 
 respect ; not to shift his schemes according to occasions, but 
 persisting uniformly in a well-judged design, to make every in 
 ferior action and event subservient to it ; to urge still forward ; 
 to extricate himself out of difficulties into which he was brought 
 by bold actions, not by mean subterfuges, but by actions yet 
 bolder. This was the character of the man already in high re 
 putation, whom Velasquez chose to conquer for him. 
 
 The embarkation was made at St. Jago de Cuba, and Cortes 
 was to take in some reinforcements at the Havannah. But he 
 was hardly departed, when Velasquez grew jealous of him ; 
 and, without considering that Cortes was of that heroick dispo 
 sition in which a blind obedience is rarely a principal ingre 
 dient, he took the ill-judged step of removing him from the 
 command of the army, which in some so it might be considered 
 as his own, since he had much influence on the soldiers, and a 
 
 considerable 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 55 
 
 considerable part of the expence of the armament had been 
 supplied by himself. When this order, which was to deprive 
 him of his command, arrived to Cortes, he was not long before 
 lie came to a resolution. lie explained the whole matter to his 
 soldiers ; he shewed them how uncertain the intentions of Ve 
 lasquez were, and how much all their hopes were like to be 
 frustrated by the inconstancy of his disposition. The event 
 was prepared. The soldiers declared to a man, that they were 
 subjects only to the King of Spain, and knew no commander 
 but Cortes. The army and the general, thus bound ta each 
 other by their mutual disobedience, sailed for Mexico. 
 
 The empire of Mexico was at that time governed by a prince 
 called Montezuma, the eleventh who reigned from the first 
 monarch who had conquered the country. The empire was 
 elective, and the merit of Montezuma had procured him the 
 election. A prince of capacity and courage, but artful, hypo 
 critical, and cruel. This empire, founded on conquest, was in 
 creased by his victories. By himself, or by his generals, he 
 had absolutely subdued several kingdoms and provinces ; seve 
 ral were made tributary, and others, which were not absolutely 
 subdued, were influenced by his power to an entire obedience 
 to his will. His armies were the best in that part of the world, 
 and prodigiously numerous. In this situation, and so headed, 
 was the empire of the Mexicans, when Cortes came to prove its 
 strength, with an army of no more than five hundred foot, and 
 not quite sixty horse. He did not come a stranger into the 
 country, to encounter a force which he dared to engage only 
 bioause he was ignorant of it. lie had long made every pos 
 sible enquiry from the Spaniards and Indians in every circum 
 stance of its internal weakness or power ; its allies, its enemies, 
 and the interests which determined them to be allies or ene 
 mies. Weighing all these, and knowing that, along with great 
 
 hopes, 
 
()' AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 hopes, great dangers likewise lay before him, he made his re 
 treat yet more dangerous by disobedience to the governor of 
 Cuba ; and when he landed on the continent, he made it im 
 possible, for he burned his ships. But though he had made a 
 retreat impossible, he had something more to encourage him to 
 go forward, than the impossibility of retiring. He had great 
 hopes that many of those states, who were kept in a forced sub 
 jection or a slavish dread of Montezuma, would gladly turn this 
 new and alarming appearance from themselves against that mo 
 narch, and, under the banner of these formidable strangers, arm 
 themselves to shake off the ancient tyranny, which always ap 
 pears the worst, without foreseeing consequences, to which 
 more civilised nations have frequently been as blind as they. It 
 happened according to his expectations. 
 
 The Zempoallans, a nation tributary to Montezuma, as soon 
 as they had sufficient proofs of the power of the Spaniards, at 
 the expeiice of several of their neighbours, who attempted to 
 oppose their progress, threw off tire Mexican yoke, gladly put 
 themselves under the protection of Cortes, and earned it by 
 the large reinforcements which they added to his army. Mon 
 tezuma was soon made acquainted with these measures. For, 
 according to the custom of that well-regulated kingdom, he had 
 posts so stationed, that in a little time he had notice of what 
 ever happened in the remote parts of his empire. The dis 
 patches which were sent him, were painted cloths, exactly re 
 presenting every circumstance of the business of which he was 
 to be informed ; the figures were interspersed with characters 
 to explain what must necessarily be wanting in the picture. 
 So far, but no further, had this people advanced in the art of 
 writing. As well informed as the emperor was of every parti 
 cular of this invasion, and of the defection of his tributaries, he 
 acted not at all conformably to the greatness of his former -ex 
 ploits. 
 
r 
 EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 5j 
 
 ploits. He took the worst method which a great prince ever 
 did upon such an occasion, which was, to temporize. He let 
 the Spaniards see, by some trifling arts which he used to op 
 pose them, that he did not look upon them as his friends, and 
 at the same time neglected to act against them as so formidable 
 an enemy required. They made daily advances in the country. 
 His enemies were encouraged, his tributaries made insolent, 
 and his subjects and allies utterly dispirited ; whilst the Spa 
 niards, in a variety of engagements which they had with the 
 petty princes of the country, raised their reputation by a train 
 of victories, and began to be considered as invincible. Cortes, 
 like the great commander he was, took advantage of this irre 
 solute disposition in Montezuma, and used every possible 
 means to cherish it. He always sent back what prisoners his 
 new allies had taken, with presents, and every profession of es 
 teem and regard to their master, and with the strongest as 
 surance of a desire of preserving peace ; requesting to see 
 Montezuma, and to confer with him upon some matters which 
 he said he had in charge to deliver to him from his master the 
 Emperor of the Romans. 
 
 There was at that time a celebrated republic on the coast of 
 Mexico, towards the gulph, called Tlascala. This people were 
 said to be so powerful, as to be able to arm four hundred thou 
 sand men-. Powerful as they were, though not subdued, they 
 were yet awed by the greatness of the Mexicans. This awe, or 
 perhaps a better policy, induced them to give a check to the 
 Spaniards. But, in the manner of Montezuma's proceedings, 
 they would not oppose them publickly, and therefore could 
 not oppose them effectually. Some nations, on whom they 
 had prevailed to fall upon the Spaniards, were over and over 
 again defeated, together with those troops the Tlascalans had 
 sent clandestinely to their assistance. At last, by degrees, de- 
 
 i claring 
 
58 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 claring themselves more openly, as the danger pressed them, 
 they drew a large army into the field, which was routed by 
 the troops of Cortes ; few indeed in number, but infinitely su 
 perior iii arms, and now grown familiar with victory. The 
 consequence of this battle was the alliance of the Tlascalans 
 with their conqueror, which they entered into with the less dif-' 
 ficulty, as they were to serve against the Mexicans, and might 
 now hope to serve with success.. Cortes, however, did not 
 chuse to trust to this untried and forced alliance too far, nor at 
 the same time to deprive himself entirely of the succour it pro 
 duced. He therefore took a middle course, and, accepting 
 thousand of their men, he held on his route to Mexico. 
 
 CHAP 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 59 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 CORTES BUILDS LA. VKRA CRUZ HE MARCHES TO MEXICO HIS RECEPTION 
 
 BIT MONTEZUMA. CORTES IMPRISONS MONTEZUMA. THAT PRINCE*! 
 
 STRATEGEM TO GAIN HIS LIBERTY ; THE CONSEQUENCE OF IT. 
 
 BEFORE Cortes began Kis expedition to Mexico, he had 
 built a strong fortress at the principal port on the coast, to 
 open a passage for succours, whenever his success should make 
 interest enough to procure them. This he called La Vera 
 Cruz, and it has since become a city, remarkable for the great 
 traffick carried on between these opulent countries and Old 
 Spain. 
 
 During the Tlascalan war, in which the Spaniards suffered 
 something and had every thing to apprehend, Montezuma took 
 no steps, but lay by, watching the event, in hopes that the 
 Tlascalans might defeat the troops of Cortes at their own ex- 
 pence ; or, if the Spaniards proved victorious, he might then 
 have the merit of not having used hostilities against them. He 
 lost both parties by this double conduct ; such an insidious 
 neutrality betrays nothing but the weak policy of him who 
 uses it. However, as a fair correspondence still subsisted be 
 tween them, he used every means he could to dissuade Cortes 
 from his proposed journey to Mexico. At last he took a step, 
 worse judged than all the bad ones he had hitherto taken. lie 
 sent to the Spaniards a very large and magnificent present, of 
 every thing his dominions afforded valuable, but principally a 
 vast quantity of gold and precious stones; offering at the same 
 time yet more, and persuading them to return to their o\vn 
 
 i 2 country. 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 country. If any person in the army was unwilling before this 
 to proceed, he now changed his mind. All were convinced 
 that they ought to advance with speed to possess the fountain 
 of that wealth, of which this rich donation was but an incon 
 siderable rivulet. 
 
 Montezuma, baffled in all his schemes to keep the Spaniards 
 at a distance, having used himself to shifting measures until 
 they were in a degree grown habitual, found Cortes at the 
 gates of Mexico before he was resolved how he should receive 
 him. It was now almost too late for force. He therefore dis 
 sembled his concern with the best grace he could, and received 
 him with all the honours a monarch can bestow, when he 
 would display his own magnificence and shew his sense of ex 
 traordinary merit. Cortes was lodged in a palace spacious and 
 grand, after the manner of the country. All his Spaniards 
 were lodged with him ; but he took care to place a train of 
 artillery at his gate. 
 
 Thus posted without a blow in the heart of this great city, 
 the capital of the New World, he was for a while at a loss 
 what measures to pursue, for securing himself in a conquest 
 of such importance. Having received more than he could rea 
 sonably have asked, there was no cause of complaint, and con 
 sequently no advantage to be colourably taken. He had only 
 to wait for some of those critical incidents, upon whose use all 
 great matters depend, and without which the greatest genius 
 must be at a stand. It was not long before one of these oc 
 curred. 
 
 Two Tlascalans arrived in disguise at Mexico, who brought 
 him an account that a general of Montezuma had attacked 
 some of his confederate Indians ; that the garrison of Vera 
 Cruz had gone out to their defence ; and that, though the 
 Mexicans were repulsed with loss, the Spaniards were greatly 
 
 endangered. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 6l 
 
 endangered, many wounded, and one killed, whose head, by 
 order of Montezuma, was carried through all the cities and 
 villages of their country, to destroy the reverence in which 
 they held the Spaniards, and to undeceive them in a notion 
 they had conceived, that these strangers were immortal. This 
 intelligence alarmed Cortes. He knew that opinion was one 
 of the strongest supporters of his little force ; that things of 
 this kind never stop at their beginnings ; that Montezuma, 
 while he caressed him in his city, was disjoining his allies, and 
 distressing his garrison abroad ; and that no time was to be lost 
 in dilatory counsels ; that he must keep alive the memory of, 
 his former exploits. He therefore took a resolution worthy of 
 a brave man, in a difficulty made for his capacity. He armed 
 himself in the best manner, and with five of the most faithful 
 and best resolved of his officers, went directly to the palace of 
 Montezuma. Thirty of his men attended at some distance, 
 Guards of Spaniards were placed at the principal avenues to the 
 palace. 
 
 It was usual for Montezuma' s guards to withdraw, out of 
 respect, when he had any conference with Cortes. On this 
 occasion, as soon as he was admitted to audience, he charged 
 the Emperor with the outrages committed by his orders, in 
 terms of great resentment. The Emperor disavows them. But 
 Cortes, after having paid him the compliment of not supposing 
 him capable of so mean a dissimulation, assured him, that he 
 was himself entirely satisfied of his innocence ; but that others 
 had fears which were not easily removed : that, to satify the 
 Spaniards, he must give some solid proof of his confidence in 
 them ; which he could effectually do no otherwise than by his 
 removing without delay to their quarters. A request of this 
 nature startled Montezuma, who never was used to any voice 
 but that of the humblest submission, However, he saw plainly 
 
 that 
 
62 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 that .Cortes did not make so extraordinary a request but with a 
 resolution of making it be complied with. He saw the neces 
 sity, and he yielded to it. 
 
 Thus was the metropolis of a vast and powerful empire, in 
 habited by an innumerable multitude of warlike people, entered 
 without resistance by a handful of men, who came to overturn 
 its liberty. And thus was one of the greatest princes on earth, 
 renowned for his wisdom and valour, seized in his palace, in the 
 midst of his capital, at noon-day, and carried prisoner, without 
 noise or violence, by six persons, to be disposed of at their plea 
 sure. 
 
 The people, confounded and enraged to find one whom they 
 always used to revere as a god, treated in this unworthy man 
 ner, surrounded the quarters of the Spaniards to punish this 
 sacrilege, and rescue their captive prince. But Cortes, who 
 well understood the consequence of the steps he had taken, 
 -was not alarmed. He knew that he had now in Iris hands an 
 engine, which was capable of doing any thing. Montezuma 
 went out to appease the people, assured them that he was 
 there of choice, and (which was true) that the Spaniards were 
 wanting in no instance of respect due to his character and dig 
 nity. 
 
 This appeased and dispersed the people. But Montezuma, 
 whose unfortunate circumstances obliged him to act as an in 
 strument to his own captivity, could enjoy no rest, though al 
 lowed the attendance of the principal officers of his court, and 
 indulged by the Spaniards in every thing but his liberty. 
 Long revolving, he at last contrived a scheme, which he judged, 
 without his appearing to concur with them, might alarm his 
 subjects with a sense of their danger, or oblige the Spaniards 
 to depart by the reasonableness of his proposals. He had al 
 ways liberty of going abroad with a guard of Spaniards under 
 
 pretence 
 
1IUROPEA-N SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 63 
 
 pretence of doing him honour. He now desired to hold a 
 council of the states of the empire, that in concurrence they 
 might satisfy Cortes and his associates in the amplest manner. 
 This council was convened, in which Monteztima, in a preme 
 ditated speech^ set forth the origin of his nation ; the prophecies 
 extant among them, that a people of the same race should ar 
 rive, to whom this empire should be subject ; that the people 
 were now arrived who were the object of those prophecies, and 
 sprung from this origin, to whom the gods had destined univer 
 sal empire, and who, by their great accomplishments and sur 
 prizing -bravery, merited their high destination: then he so 
 lemnly declared himself tributary to the Emperor of the Ro 
 mans ; he exhorted his people on their part to a due obedience ; 
 and ended by telling them, that, as he had himself prepared a 
 present from his treasures worthy of this Emperor, he expected 
 that every one of them, in proportion to his ability> would tes 
 tify his loyalty to their new master* and his regard to the merit 
 of his general and those brave men that attended him ; that they 
 might be enabled to depart speedily to their own country, with 
 that opinion of their brethren the Mexicans, which their affection 
 to them, and their obedience to their common master, deserved. 
 At first a dead silence succeeded this harangue; the whole 
 assembly were confounded and struck dumb with grief, indig 
 nation, and surprise. Then followed a mixed cry, as each per 
 son was affected by some particular part of the general calamity. 
 11 The lustre of their empire was tarnished, their religion to be 
 profaned, their freedom surrendered, their Emperor degraded ; 
 what was worse, degraded by himself; could they, believe their 
 ears ? Was it Montezuma who had spoken in such a. manner ? 
 
 The design of Montezuma was until this moment a .secret to 
 Cortes ; he was surprised and something chagrined at an arti- 
 fifce, the invention of which he now- penetrated very clearly. 
 
 Rut 
 
64 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 But his surprise did not confound or perplex him in any part 
 he saw it was proper for him to act. Without any embarrass 
 ment, he seconded the harangue of Montezuma by a speech, 
 which was well interpreted, wherein he strongly urged the pro 
 priety, and insinuated the necessity, of an entire obedience to 
 their prince and an imitation of his conduct. Disordered as 
 the assembly was, yet still held by a sacred reverence to their 
 vEmperor, influenced by the hope of the sudden departure of the 
 Spaniards, and reserving themselves for a better occasion, they 
 followed Montezuma's example, and paid homage to Cortes, 
 in that dumb and sullen submission with which fierce spirits 
 yield to necessity. He received it, and thanked them, as a 
 anan thanks his debtor for a ready payment. 
 
 Cortes saw that this empty homage secured him nothing ; 
 but he knew that the gold, which was to accompany it, would 
 be of real service in cancelling the ill impressions made by his 
 disobedience, in Spain. In Mexico he might look upon him 
 self as secure ; he had the person of the Emperor in his hands ; 
 he had his forces in the capital ; he had lately struck terrour in 
 all, by seizing the general, who had committed hostilities against 
 the Spaniards. He got the Emperor to disavow his conduct, 
 and condemn him as a traitor. By their joint authority, this 
 unhappy man, guilty of nothing but obedience to his lawful 
 master and zeal for his country, was burned alive in the public 
 square of Mexico. But neither this horrid example, nor the 
 imprisonment of their Emperor, nor the late acknowledgment 
 of the Emperor Charles, was sufficient to make the Mexicans 
 insensible to the disgrace they suffered, nor of the danger 
 which hung over them. They began to consult how they 
 might deliver themselves. Some proposed to cut off the com 
 munication with the continent, and hold the Spaniards be 
 sieged in their quarters ; for the city of Mexico is an island in a 
 
 great 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 65 
 
 great lake, and communicates -with the continent by four great 
 causeways, extremely curious for contrivance and Solidity. 
 Whilst they were ripening their schemes, a report came to 
 Cortes, that some words had dropt from a Mexican concerning 
 the practicability of destroying one of these causeways. From 
 this word (for he heard no more) this watchful and sagacious 
 commander judged of the whole contrivance. Without how 
 ever taking notice of it pubJickly, he immediately orders two 
 brigantines to be built to secure his retreat, if a retreat should 
 prove the wisest measure. In the mean time he kept a strict 
 discipline in his army ; and to preserve reverence from the In 
 dians, he prohibited their approaching his quarters when his 
 men were asleep, and severely punished those of his soldiers 
 who slept out of the times and places appointed for that pur 
 pose. All this while no preparations for his departure. 
 
 
 . 
 
 ' 
 
 K 
 
C6 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 ' 
 fff 
 
 c ii A P. XL 
 
 THB -ATTEMPTS OF MONTE7UMA TO MAKE THE SPANIARDS LEAVE MEXICO.- 
 
 THE ARRFVAL OF NARVAEZ TO TAKE THE COMMAND FROM CORTES.- 
 
 (ifcftfiTKS LEAVES MEXICO. DEFEATS AND TAKES NARVAF.Z PRISONER. 
 
 THE SPANIARDS IN, MfXJCO BESIEGED. COHTES RAISES THE SIEGE 
 
 .#PNTEZUIA IS KILLED. 
 
 ' 
 
 MONTE ZUMA, sick with impatience of his confinement, and, 
 seeing that he daily lost his authority amongst the people by 
 the pusillanimous, appearance of his conduct, as soon as- he peiv 
 ceived that any spirited action on his side would be seconded 
 with equal spirit by his subjects, roused his dormant magna 
 nimity, and, in spite of the condition he was in > sent for Cortes, 
 and addressed him in this manner : " Cortes, the desires of my 
 subjects, my own dignity, and the commands of my gods, re 
 quire that you should depart my empire. You are sensible 
 bow much I valued your friendship, and how effectually I have 
 shewn that I valued it. But, after so many professions, of good 
 will upon your side, and so many proofs of it upon,mine, after 
 every pretence of business is over, wherefore do you delay your 
 return? I. have yielded homage to your master, I am ready to 
 obey him ; I have sent him presents (or sh^ll I call it a tribute ?) 
 worthy of myself and of him : your whole army is loaded, even, 
 to an inconvenience, with their darling gold. Would they have 
 more ? they shall have more. But then, when they shall have 
 spoken their largest wishes,, and satisfied their most eager de 
 sires, I insist upon it that they depart immediately; or they, 
 
 may 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 67 
 
 tAay.lind, in spite of the condition I am in, of which condition, 
 tor your sake and for my own, I shall speak but little, that 
 Montezuma has yet courage enough to vindicate his honour, 
 and friends in Mexico who will not tail to revenge the wrongs 
 he shall suffer." 
 
 Cortes perceived something of an unusual resolution and 
 .sternness in the emperor's countenance whilst he spoke. He 
 therefore sent orders, be-fore the interpreter began -to explain 
 ,hih speech, that the Spaniards should stand to their arms, and 
 wait his commands. His answer was resolute, but not such as 
 to drive the emperor to despair. lie lamented the jealousy 
 which their common enemies had occasioned ; that, for his part, 
 he was secured from all fear, by his own courage and the bra 
 very- of his own troops ; but, since he was so unfortunate as to 
 find he could not longer enjoy the honour of a conversation he 
 had such reason to esteem, consistently with the emperor's re 
 pose* he would depart as soon as ships could be built, for on 
 landing he had been obliged to burn his own. This answer 
 soothed Montezuma; he resumed his good humour, lie pro 
 mised to load his army with gold at his departure, and gave 
 immediate orders that every thing should be prepared for fitting 
 out the ships in the speediest and amplest manner. But Cortes 
 gave orders, which were full as well obeyed, to the person he 
 appointed for the equipment, to delay it upon every possible 
 pretence. He expected daily the return of the messengers he 
 had sent into Spain, to solicit his pardon and succours, with 
 the continuance of the command. 
 
 Whilst he was entertained with these expectations, and with 
 finding out pretences to defer his departure, an express arrived 
 from Sandoval, his governor at La Vera Cruz, informing him 
 of the arrival of eighteen ships, in which was an army of eight 
 hundred foot, and two hundred horse, under the .command of 
 
 K 2 one 
 
68 AN ACCOUNT OP THE 
 
 one Narvaez, who was sent by his old enemy Velasquez, the 
 governor of Cuba, to supersede him in the command, to treat 
 him as a rebel, and send him in chains to Cuba. The governor 
 seized the messengers, who were seat by Narvaez to require him. 
 to surrender, and sent thenv prisoners with this account to 
 Cortes. There never was a time wherein the firmness and, 
 capacity of this commander in chief were put so strongly to the 
 proof. On one hand here was an army, in weapons and courage 
 equal to his own, in numbers vastly superior, and above all, 
 strengthened with the name of royal authority. The Mexi 
 cans, ill-aftected before, would rejoice in this opportunity, 
 to fall upon him. On the other hand, must he resign the 
 conquests he had made with such infinite toils and hazards 
 into the hands of his mortal enemy, and in return to bear the 
 name and receive the punishment of a traitor? There was 
 little room to hope for an accommodation, and the thoughts of 
 a surrender were intolerable. One way only remained, to con 
 quer Narvaez. His own courage arid conduct ; his soldiers, 
 habituated to victory ; and endeared to him by common dan 
 gers and triumphs ; his reputation, and the signal providence 
 which always attended him, would combat upon his side, 
 Above all, no time was to be lost in fruitless counsels. He 
 sent an express to Sandoval, his governor in La-Vera Cruz, 
 to evacuate that place, and.join him in his route with what men 
 he had. He assembled his forces, and found them to a man 
 attached to his interests, and ready to hazard every thing in 
 support of them. He left eighty men in Mexico, picked from 
 his troops, recommending them to Montezuma, and him to them. 
 With this small garrison he dared to entrust Mexico and all his. 
 vast hopes there ; but the imprisoned emperor was himself a 
 garrison, from trie reverence his subjects bore him. Before he 
 set out, he released the prisoners which Sandoval had sent him, 
 using the severity of his officer to display his own clemency. 
 
 He 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IX AMERICA. 69 
 
 He caressed them extremely, loaded them with presents for 
 themselves and the principal officers of Narvaez's army, and did 
 every thing to create himself a party there by his generosity. 
 lie sent at the same time very advantageous terms of accom 
 modation to the general himself, but took care to follow and 
 second his ambassadors with all the power he could raise. This, 
 with Sandoval's reinforcement, did not amount to three hun 
 dred men ; but with these, and some confederate Indians, he 
 marched with all imaginable diligence to Narvaez's quarters. 
 
 Narvaez, elated with the superiority of his army, would 
 hearken to no terms, though he was much pressed to it by his 
 principal officers, who discovered plainly that this quarrel could 
 only end in the ruin of their party, or that of the Spanish in 
 terest in Mexico. Mean time Cortes, little incumbered with 
 baggage, and less with a dilatory genius, advanced by forced 
 marches. He was but a small distance from the enemy's quar 
 ters, when the rains came on, and as usual in that country, fell 
 very heavily. Cortes, knowing that the ill dispositions of the 
 sky, were circumstances favourable to a surprise, inviting to des 
 perate enterprises, and that they are always least 'prejudicial to 
 those in motion, having perfect intelligence of the disposition 
 of Narvaez's army., and having disposed his troops in such a 
 manner as not to fall upon one another, and to act in concert, 
 he ordered them, when they should enter the town where the 
 enemy was posted, to keep, in close to the houses, that they 
 might not suffer by the artillery, which was so placed as to play 
 upon the middle of the street. Having made this disposition, 
 lie marched to attack the camp, on one of those gloomy and 
 tempestuous nights. Though he directed every thing with the 
 utmost *secrecy, Narvaez had intelligence of his approach, but 
 he laughed at it ; and, not understanding the nature of a pru 
 dent 
 
70 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 dent rashness, could not believe that Cortes would make such 
 an attempt in such a season, but went to sleep, without taking 
 sufficient care that it should not be disturbed. , Security in the 
 general is easily followed by that of every one else. Cortes 
 assaulted the town in three bodies, and whilst every one in the 
 adverse party ran in confusion to his arms, and opposed with 
 out command or uniformity as each man was attacked, the 
 whole army was routed. The quarters of .Narvaez were at 
 tacked by Cortes's division, the men routed there as elsewhere. 
 Narvaez himself, shamefully taken in bed, fell into his hands. 
 "Value yourself, said he, my lord Cortes, on your fortune in 
 making me your prisoner !" But Cortes, with a smile of indig 
 nation, answered, " That he thought this by far the least action 
 he, had .performed, since he came into the new world." 
 
 When the morning came on, the dispersed army of Narvaez 
 began to form into bodies, and to discover the inconsiderable 
 
 o 
 
 force which the night before had defeated them. Their first mo 
 tion, distracted whith shame and anger, was to fall upon the con 
 querors, and recover the honour they had lost. But, when they 
 found that -their general was a prisoner, their artillery seized, 
 and the advantageous post they- had occupied in the enemy's 
 possession, and numbers amongst themselves well affected to 
 Cortes, they listened at last to his proposals, recommended as 
 'they were by the polite and insinuating behaviour of which he 
 was master, and that open and unbounded generosity he shew- 
 ^ed to every one. They all enlisted under his banner, and 
 agreed to share his fortune. Thus did this accident, which 
 seemed to threaten inevitable destruction to the affairs of Cortes, 
 prove the most effectual method of restoring them to an excel 
 lent condition, wholly by means of the wisdom of his measures, 
 and of that vigour and activity with which he pursued them. 
 
 His 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. ?1 
 
 
 
 His army now consisted of above a thousand men, after replac 
 ing his garrison at La Vera Cruz, in which fortress lie left Nar- 
 vaez a prisoner. 
 
 This victory, and the reinforcement it procured, came at a 
 most critical time ; for hardly had he begun to adjust matters 
 for his return to Mexico, when an express arrived that his 
 affairs there were in a most dangerous condition. Alvarado, 
 
 o 
 
 whom he had left to command at his departure, though a brave 
 and able man, had too great a contempt for the Indians, and 
 too little discernment for the nice circumstances he was in, to 
 manage with that just mixture of firmness and yielding, by which 
 Cortes had hitherto so balanced the hopes and fears of the 
 Mexicans, that he never gave them an entire opportunity of 
 knowing their own strength. This man, cither discovering, or 
 pretending at least to discover, that some of the chief men in 
 the city, who were met in the great temple, were assembled to 
 consult how to expel the Spaniards, suddenly surrounded the 
 place, and murdered all the persons of rank who composed the 
 assembly. . 
 
 This cruel and precipitate action fired the whole people. En-r 
 raged at what they had already suffered, and what .they, saw 
 plainly they were yet to expect, their late ignominious patiencev 
 t lie fear of the Spanish arms, their inbred respect for Monte- 
 zuma, were all lost in their fury. Should they stay, until on 
 various pretences they were- all butchered? Montezuina, cither 
 forgetful of his office and dignity, or unable to exert it, could 
 protect them no longer. Gods and men allowed them to defend 
 themselves, and arms were in their hands. The flame, so fu 
 rious in the capital, spread itself with equal swiftness and rage 
 over all the country, and all were vowed and hearty for the des 
 truction of the Spaniards. In this extremity Alvarado shewed 
 aa much bravery as he had done imprudence in bringing it on. 
 
 lie 
 
72 AN ACCOUNT OF THfc 
 
 lie redoubled his watch qn the emperor ; he obliged him to 
 exert the remains of his authority in his favour, and, fortifying 
 his quarters in the best manner the time would admit, .-he stood 
 out the storm and repulsed the Mexicans in several; attacks. 
 But their fury, far from relenting at the frequent and 'bloody 
 repulses they met, redoubled by their losses. They exercised 
 the r besieged, day and night, with the most vigorous assaults; 
 and to cut off their retreat, found means to burn the brigantines 
 which Cortes had built. 
 
 Cortes, who was obliged to make so rapid a march from 
 Mexico, to defend himself against Narvaez, was compelled by 
 an equal necessity to march from Zempoalla to Mexico, to re 
 lieve his forces and preserve his most essential interests there. 
 The Mexicans, like all people who have not reduced the art of 
 war to some rule, suffered their eagerness in pursuing one ad 
 vantage to let another material one lie neglected. For, whilst 
 they pushed on the siege of the Spanish quarters with great 
 vigour and diligence, they took no effectual care of the avenues 
 to the city, or to cut off all succours from the besieged. Cortes 
 entered the city without resistance. He soon routed those who 
 invested the post of the Spaniards, and brought them a relief of 
 which they stood in the greatest need. 
 
 The arrival of so formidable a body of troops held 'the Mexi 
 cans some time in suspence ; but, in spite of the fatal error of 
 admitting them into their city, which had now inexcusably 
 been a second time committed, and in spite of the success every 
 where attending the Spanish arms, they came to a resolution 
 of continuing hostilities. But things wore another face since 
 
 ^ t_2 
 
 the arrival of Cortes. No longer satisfied with defending his 
 quarters, he sallied out and defeated them several times with 
 great slaughter. However, as he found that he suffered more 
 by the least losses than the Mexicans by the greatest, he kept 
 
 close 
 
EUROPEAN SEfTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 73 
 
 close for some time, suffering the enemy to approach, in hopes 
 of making one last effort, to appease them by the authority of 
 Montezuma. This unhappy prince, reduced to the sad ne 
 cessity of becoming the instrument of his own disgrace, and of 
 the slavery of his people, appeared on the battlements, and ad 
 dressed his subjects with every argument he could use to prevail 
 with them to disperse. But this expedient was Hot attended 
 with the usual success. The Mexicans, by an habit of living 
 without rule, had many of them lost much of that respect, 
 which, even to adoration, every one of thfcm used to pay their 
 prince ; they answered him with reproaches ; and a stone from 
 an uncertain hand struck him with great violence on the temple. 
 The Spaniards carried him to his apartment. Here he refused 
 to suffer any dressings to be applied to his wound ; but, wrap 
 ping his head in his garment, gave himself up a prey to shame 
 and grief; and in a few days died, less of his wound, which was 
 but inconsiderable, than of sorrow and indignation, on feeling 
 that he had so far lost the esteem and love of his subjects. 
 There are other accounts of the death of Montezuma, but this 
 appears the most probable. 
 
 Thus died this noble prince, more remarkable for the great 
 virtues by which he ascended the throne, and those qualities 
 by which he held it in so much lustre for many years, than for 
 his steadiness and wisdom in defending it when attacked by a 
 formidable enemy. It has happened thus to many great men. 
 When Lucullus and Pompey attacked Tigranes king of Arme 
 nia, we do not see any thing in him of the conqueror of so many 
 kings. Even his conqueror Pompey was not himself, after 
 having enjoyed in glory for a long time a power acquired by 
 the greatest exploits. Se ease magnum oblitus cst. it is natural 
 whilst we are raising ourselves, and contending against difficul 
 ties, to' have our minds, as it were, strung, and our faculties in- 
 
 L tent 
 
74 AN ACCOUNT ^F THE 
 
 tent and constantly awake. The necessity of our affairs obliges 
 us to a continual exercise of whatever talents we possess ; and 
 we have hope to animate and urge us onward. But when we 
 are come to the summit of our desires, the mind suffers itself to 
 relax. It is grievous to contend anew for things, of which we 
 have long looked upon ourselves as secure. When we have no 
 longer any thing to hope, we have then every thing to fear. 
 Thus enervated by this prosperity, and discomposed with this 
 fear, we become stiff and irresolute to action ; we are willing to 
 use any temporizing measures, rather than hazard on an ad 
 venture so much power and reputation. If Montezuma had 
 made an early use of his power, he had strength enough, after 
 many losses, to have kept Cortes far enough from his capital ; 
 but, having once entered upon shifting and dilatory courses, 
 this brave and active enemy gave his affairs a mortal; blow, by 
 seizing his capital and his person. The rest was all a. conse 
 quence, which no prudence could prevent, of a plan of conduct 
 imprudent and ill laid originally, 
 
 .. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 75 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 GUATIMOZIN CHOSEN EMPEROR BY THE MEXICANS. HE BESIEGES THE SPA 
 NIARDS IN THEIR QUARTERS. OBLIGES CORTES TO RETIRE OUT OF THfc 
 
 CITY. DISTRESSES HIM IN HIS RETREAT. THE BATTLE OF OTUMBA. 
 
 OORTES RETREATS TO TLASCALA. 
 
 As soon as the Mexicans were apprized of the death of their 
 emperor, they set about the election of a successor. They im 
 mediately cast their eyes upon Guatimozin, nephew and son-in- 
 law of Montezuma, a man fit to command at such a time ; of 
 a person graceful, a body strong and robust, and of a soul of 
 the most undaunted courage. Though no more than twenty- 
 four years old, the reputation of his early exploits procured him 
 the authority of age, and a penetrating genius served him for 
 experience. He was no sooner called to this unsteady throne, 
 than he took measures to prevent the Mexicans from their dis 
 orderly and casual attacks, and to make them act with design ' 
 and uniformity. He examined thoroughly into the cause of' 
 their former miscarriages ; and considering eveiy thing, he found: 
 that the Indians in their present condition, could never hope; 
 foV any success in open action ; he resolved therefore to spare 
 his men as much as possible, until his own invention and time 
 might teach them better methods of fighting. jOn these ideas' 
 he caused all assaults to cease; then he cut off the causeways 
 which joined ; the city to the continent, and at the same time 
 strongly barricaded the streets, resolving 'to starve an enemy 
 which seemed unconquerable by any other means ; a measure, 
 
 L 2 which 
 
which though it has with us no extraordinary appearance, shewed 
 no small sagacity in Guatimozin, because it was what had never 
 been before practised amongst the military stratagems of this 
 people, and invention is the charac teristick of genius. 
 
 From henceforward the whole method of the war was changed, 
 the Spaniards grew every day more and more streightened for 
 provisions; and whenever they sallied out, though they slew 
 great numbers of their opponents, the many canals of the city, 
 and barricado behind barricade, after some successful progress, 
 obliged them, vanquished by mere weariness, to return without 
 effect to their quarters. The Spaniards, invincible by the In 
 dian arms, were not proof against famine. Cortes saw that no 
 thing was left for his security, but as speedy a retreat as pos 
 sible ; and though this must necessarily lose tliem the most 
 considerable part of the treasure they liad amassed, it was what 
 least afflicted him. He encouraged his troops, by chearfully 
 relinquishing his own part, not to attempt burthen ing them 
 selves with a treasure which they might consider as tying at an 
 advantageous interest, until they should, as they certainly would, 
 be enabled to return with a sufficient force to reclaim it. 
 
 The resolution of retreating being now taken, and all things 
 disposed for it, a question arose, whether it were better made by 
 day or in the night. On this the council of war was divided ; 
 and their reasons seeming pretty equal, a person among them, 
 a sort of astrologer, who passed for a prophet, and as such was 
 much respected by the greater part of the army, promised them 
 certain success if they retreated by night. Certain it is, that, 
 when measures are dubious, superstitious determinations have 
 great use ; for as reason cannot easily determine the right way, 
 that method which superstition fixes upon is, by the weight it 
 has from thence, pursued with the greater chearfuhiess and 
 effect 
 
 The 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMESTS IN AMERICA. 77 
 
 The general was guided by the prophet, and he disposed 
 every thing for his retreat with great judgment. He caused 
 the usual fires to be lighted in every part of his quarters. Some 
 of his boldest and most active men led the van. The prisoners, 
 artillery, and heavy baggage were in the center. He himself, 
 with one hundred of his choicest troops, formed the rear. With 
 wonderful order and silence, and without any interruption, did 
 the Spaniards inarch until they came to the first breach in the 
 causeway. Here a portable wooden bridge, which Cortes had 
 prepared, was laid over ; but when the artillery and horses had 
 passed, it was wedged so closely into the stones that bordered 
 the causeway, that it could not be removed, and there was yet 
 another breach. But they were soon called from attending to 
 this by a more pressing danger ; for, as nothing cpuld elude 
 the vigilance of the new emperor, he found out their intention 
 of retreating, and disposed all along the sides of the causeway 
 an infinite multitude of canoes, with orders to preserve the 
 greatest silence, and not to attempt any thing until a signal 
 was given. The darkness of the night favoured the scheme. 
 And now, perceiving that the Spaniards were under some em 
 barrassment, the Mexicans took this advantage, and all at once, 
 with great order, poured in their arrows ; raising at the same 
 time a most tremendous shout, swelled with the barbarous sound 
 of all their martial instruments of musick. The Spaniards were 
 not wanting to themselves, but behaved with signal bravery. 
 It were needless, and almost impossible, to relate all the de 
 struction of that horrid night. The Indians at first attacked 
 in good order, but the first ranks being repulsed, and the dis 
 tant canoes pressing on to action, the whole attack was thrown 
 into confusion. The Indians drowned or slaughtered one an 
 other ; however, they still pressed on with un tameable fury. 
 Thousands, impatient of the delay their remote situation caused 
 
 them, 
 
78 AN ACCOUNT OF TJfE 
 
 them, leapt from their canoes, and, climbing up the causeway 
 in the front where it was interrupted, broke in upon the Spa 
 niards, with a torrent hardly resistible. In vain this naked 
 multitude was hacked to pieces by the Spanish swords, in vain 
 were they tumbled upon one another by hundreds into the lake ; 
 new 'warriors succeeded those that were killed, -and the Spa 
 niards, actually .wearied out, were in danger of being wholly 
 cut off; when, making one vigorous effort in the front, they 
 happily cleared that post, and by a beam which they casually 
 met, they passed over one by one ; or, as some say. lilling the 
 intervals with the dead bodies of their enemies, they gained the 
 main land. Cortes came over with the first, for in the confu 
 sion of the night, their former order was in a good measure lost, 
 and took care as fast as his men got over, to form them, in 
 order to secure the passage for the rest. Then returning to 
 those who were behind, by his presence and example, he ani 
 mated them to renew the fight, and drawing up a part of his 
 men on both sides of the causeway, he ordered the rest to 
 file off from the center. In this manner the first light saw 
 the Spaniards clear out of the city. Cortes halted at a -small 
 distance, that those whom the confusion arid the night had 
 
 o 
 
 dispersed, might have an opportunity of rejoining the rest of 
 the army. 
 
 Happily they were not pursued ; for as soon as the dawning 
 light unveiled the field of battle to the Mexicans, the possession 
 of which they bought by such a profusion of their own blood, 
 they perceived among the slain two sons of Montezuma These 
 were amongst the prisoners, and were pierced by the arrows of 
 the Mexicans in the promiscuous arid undistinguished carnage 
 of the preceding night. For some time they were confounded 
 and struck dumb with horror at this sight ; their sentiments of 
 loyalty returned ; their monarch, almost their god, lately -pro 
 faned 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 79 
 
 faned by their own violence ! now their hands imbrued in the 
 blood of his children ! A general deadness and consternation 
 ensued. They must not add to their impiety by neglecting the 
 obsequies due to the deceased. In the mean time the Spaniards, 
 favoured by this circumstance, pursued their retreat without 
 molestation. But this security lasted a short time : all the 
 allies of the Mexicans, already in arms and divided into several 
 flying parties, hung over the army of Cortes, and harassed it 
 without intermission ; they attacked him in front, in rear, in 
 flank, by open force, by ambuscade, by surprise. Provision 
 grew extremely scarce on his march ; and now it was that Cortes 
 shewed a firmness under his losses, a vigilance against incessant 
 attacks so various in time and manner, and a courage which 
 enabled him to repulse them, which have been exceeded by no 
 thing in history. 
 
 The principal army of the Mexicans, whilst he contended 
 with such difficulties from the flying parties, took another route, 
 and pouring in three columns into a plain, where their number 
 might be of most avail, they covered the whole of an extended 
 valley, which lay directly in his road to Tlascala : this was 
 called the valley of Otumba. They concealed their purposes 
 with all imaginable care. To blind the Spaniards, they ordered 
 several villages to give them a friendly reception* But Cortes 
 did not suffer this to relax his vigilance, not allowing himself 
 to be deceived by any appearances of friendship shewn by men, 
 whose interest it was not to be his friends ; convinced, as he 
 was, that a surprise of all things was indeed very prejudicial to 
 the affairs of a general, but that it was mortal to his reputation.* 
 He drew indications of their sentiments towards him, from the 
 manners, the gestures, and the countenances of those he treated 
 with in his march ; and, perceiving that many shewed unusual 
 signs of content and exultation, he judged,, not without reason, 
 
 that 
 
80 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 that it could not be favourable to him. He therefore disposed 
 every thing in such a manner as that his troops were neither 
 disordered, nor his courage abated, when from an eminence 
 they discovered the extended plains of Otumba darkened as far 
 as the eye could reach with the myriads of their enemies. The 
 Spaniards, animated by their superiority in arms and their 
 former victories, and the Tlascalans, by the presence of such 
 allies and their hatred of the Mexican name, behaved with 
 wreat- bravery and success ; neither were the Mexicans inferior 
 in animosity and courage. But it was Cortes himself who de 
 termined the fortune of the day. Nothing he ever heard was 
 either forgot, or suffered to be an useless burthen upon his me 
 mory. He remembered to have heard from the Mexicans, that 
 the fortune of the field with them ever followed that of the 
 royal standard. This was a net of gold, elevated on a gilded 
 staff, and splendid with plumes of a thousand colours. Great 
 exigencies alone brought it into the field, and it was entrusted 
 to none but the care of the general, who sat on a chair sump 
 tuously adorned, and supported on men's shoulders in the 
 center of the armies, to view the whole battle, to be a witness 
 of the behaviour of all his troops, and to give orders as the oc 
 casion required. Cortes, pretending to make his principal 
 effort in a quarter remote from the standard, employed all his 
 foot in that service ; but headed the horse himself with some 
 of his bravest officers, informing them of his design, and ani 
 mating them with the hopes of a speedy decision, he flung 
 himself with fury against the part that seemed least distant 
 from the center. After dispersing and overturning whole bat 
 talions, they penetrated to the chosen body of nobles, who 
 guarded the general and standard. Here the resistance was 
 greater, but it was soon overcome, and Cortes's own lance 
 met the general, who was overthrown, and the standard taken. 
 
 All 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 81 
 
 All the other standards were struck directly, and the Mexi 
 cans fled every way which their fear and confusion hurried 
 them. They lost twenty thqusand men in this battle, and 
 spoil infinite. This victory gave Cortes an undisturbed pas 
 sage to Tlascala, and a welcome reception amongst his allies 
 there. 
 
 M CHAP. 
 
82 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 C II A P. XIII. 
 
 SPANIARDS SENT AGAINST GORTES JOIN HIM HE MARCHES AGAIN TO 
 
 MEXICO. A CONSPIRACY AGAINST HIS LIFE BAFFLED. 
 
 LET us now turn our eyes to Mexico. No sooner were the 
 Spaniards departed, than Guatimozin ordered the city to be 
 fortified in such a manner as to secure himself against their en 
 trance a third time. He found that a thousand Tlascalans 
 were killed in this retreat, upwards of two hundred Spaniards 
 (the greatest loss they had yet in America), and a great number 
 of horses. He cut off the heads of the Spaniards, and of their 
 horses, no less dreaded, and sent them to all the neighbouring 
 nations, as an infallible token of his victory ; as a sure proof 
 that he was resolved to keep no measures with the enemy, and 
 to stir them up to their utter destruction. He succeeded so 
 well, that numberless petty nations, well inclined to the Spa 
 niards, fell off, and many that were wavering were confirmed in 
 the Mexican interest. By this means several adventurers, that 
 from the fame of Cortes had landed to join him, were cut to 
 pieces before they gained his army. But the negotiation to 
 which Guatimozin bent all his force, was that with Tlascala, be 
 cause this was Cortes's chief strength. He sent large presents, 
 and ambassadors of ability, with excellent instructions, to de 
 tach them from the Spanish interest ; who executed their com 
 mission so well, that they caused a great division in their fa 
 vour in the councils of that republick. But Cortes, making his 
 military exploits subservient to his negotiations, and his skill in 
 
 negotiation 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 83 
 
 negotiation assistant to his exploits, baffled them at length 
 with great address, but not without great difficulty ; and the 
 Tlascalans were confirmed in his friendship. 
 
 Whilst a general has an obedient and well- united army, he 
 
 O <J 
 
 lias an engine in proper order to work his designs, and he can 
 then execute them with ease ; but the greatest trial of his ca 
 pacity is to defend himself against a foreign enemy and wrestle 
 with a domestic sedition at the same time. The soldiers of 
 Narvaez, since Cortes's return from Mexico, where they were 
 obliged to leave so considerable a part of their booty, now 
 hopeless of the expedition, began to mutiny, and demanded to 
 be -sent home directly to Cuba; nor were hrs other troops free 
 from some part of the infection. Whatever could be done by 
 preserving them in action, without too great a fatigue ; what 
 ever a seasonable yielding, without forfeiting authority, in 
 short, whatever an able commander could do in such circum 
 stances, was done by Cortes, without any other effect than 
 that of palliating the disease ', the indisposition still continued. 
 
 Whilst he struggled with these difficulties, which nearly 
 overpowered him, his old enemy, James Velasquez, looking on 
 the success of Narvaez's expedition as a thing certain, sent a 
 ship to get intelligence of his proceedings, and about thirty 
 men to reinforce him. The person who commanded at the 
 port for Cortes, no sooner saw the ship in the offing than he 
 went on board her; and, upon the Captain's enquiry after 
 Narvaez, he assured him he was well, and as successful as he 
 could wish. Not doubting this, the Captain and his men . 
 landed, and were immediately made prisoners. Finding how ., 
 affairs were really circumstanced, they admired the conqueror, 
 commended the stratagem, and cheerfully j oined the army. 
 
 Much about the same time the governor of Jamaica, and he 
 too a. determined enemy of Cortes, sent three ships with a small- : 
 
 M 2 . body 
 
84 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 body of troops, in hopes of tearing from him some part of his 
 conquests. These ships were dispersed in a storm, and were 
 involved in many difficulties; but, what is singular, they all, 
 though separated, came to one and the same resolution, which 
 was > to revolt from the commander and join .Cortes the mo 
 ment they eame on shore : so that the enemies of Cortes now 
 no less than three times relieved him, by the very methods 
 which they took to distress his affairs. These advantages, 
 though improved to the utmost, by Cortes, were certainly not 
 at all the result of his contrivance. Them is. a .species of a 
 splendid good fortune necessary to form an hero, to give a lustre 
 to his wisdom and courage, and to create tiiat confidence and 
 superiority in him that nothing else can give, but which always 
 makes a principal part in an heroick character. Without this, 
 it is impossible for any man, however qualified, to emerge. 
 Cortes was not only fqrtunate, by being freed from the most 
 terrible embarrassment by the arrival of these succours, which 
 were never intended as such ; but much about the same time 
 ships arrived from Spain, bringing, on the account of some 
 private persons, a reinforcement of men and military stores ; 
 and from the court an authentick approbation of his conduct, 
 and a confirmation of his command. 
 
 Fortified with these, he yielded to the mutinous importu 
 nities of such of his soldiers as were earnest to depart; and, 
 though he diminished his numbers considerably by this step, he 
 judged it better to have a well-disciplined army than a great 
 one, and knew that little could be expected from men who 
 were dragged unwillingly to action ; at the same time that 
 their cowardice or sedition might infect the rest. .After the 
 departure of the mutineers, he found he had still above nine 
 hundred Spanish foot, eighty-six horse, and eighteen pieces of 
 cannon. With these, and with a vast body of Tlascalans, and 
 
 allies 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 8 J 
 
 allies of various nations, whom admiration and fear of Cortes, 
 or hatred to fhe Mexicans had brought under his banner, he 
 once more prepared to attack Mexico, which was the grand 
 object of his undertakings. The city was so advantageously 
 situated, and he knew at this time so well fortified, that nothing 
 coufd be done without a force on the lake. To cut off their 
 supplies, he ordered the materials of twelve brigaiitines to be 
 got ready, in such a manner as only to need being put together 
 when they should arrive at Mexico. These were carried upon 
 the shouldiers of his Indian allies. His route to Mexico cannot 
 be so mii'jh considered in the light of a march, as a continued 
 train of ambuscades and battles, some of which were fought 
 with th& most numerous armies, and with circumstances not 
 suited to the brevity of my purpose to relate. In all these 
 he was successful, though his enemies may be said, with lit 
 tle exaggeration, to have disputed with him every ftfot of 
 ground between Tlascala and Mexico. 
 
 At last that city shewed itself, rising from the midst of a 
 noble lake, surrounded with a number of most populous cities, 
 as her attendants upon every side, and all subject to her power. 
 The Spaniards, looking on this as their goal, revived their cou 
 rage and forgot the difficulties of their march'; and the Tlas- 
 calans, in perfect fury of military delight, wanted the steady 
 hand of Cortes to restrain a courage, which he commended and 
 kept alive by his example and words, whilst he moderated its 
 ardour. Before he began the attack of Mexico, he 1 spent sorrti 
 time in reducing all the neighbouring cities from which it might 
 derive any succour. He cut off the aqueducts which supplied 
 Mexioo with water, that of the lake being brackish ; and h 
 got iT-ady his brigantines with all imaginable diligence, to Ctrt 
 off all relief from that quarter. 
 
 Whilst his attention was wholly employed in the prosecirtioli 
 
 of 
 
86 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 of the war, an old Spaniard, who had long served, discovered 
 to him a conspiracy of the most dangerous nature. Antonio 
 de Vilesana, a private soldier, but a man bold and desperate in 
 any bad purpose, and subtle in contriving it, had formed a 
 conspiracy with several others to kill Cortes and the principal 
 persons upon whom he relied, and then to return to Yera 
 Cruz, from whence they might easily pass to Cuba, and secure 
 their pardon by the merit they should make of this action 
 with James Velasquez. They were urged to this resolution by 
 the fatigue of those innumerable dangers and difficulties they 
 had passed, and by the despair of overcoming those which yet 
 lay before them ; without considering that, by this wicked ac 
 tion, they must rather produce new difficulties than overcome 
 the old. Others of more consequence were drawn in ; and the 
 conspiracy had been so far formed, that the time and manner 
 killing the general was settled, and the person fixed, upon whom 
 they intended to devolve the command. 
 
 When Cortes was apprized of this conspiracy, without any 
 hurry which might give notice that he had discovered it, yet, 
 without losing a moment to take advantage of the discovery, 
 with four or five of his principal captains, he went directly to 
 the quarters of Vilesana, who, astonished at seeing him, made 
 half his confession by the fear he discovered. Cortes had him 
 thrown immediately in to irons ; and then, ordering every body 
 to retire, he examined himself into all the particulars of the af 
 fair, and the names of the persons concerned. Vilesana made 
 a full confession, and it ended by producing a paper in vindica 
 tion of their proceeding, which had been signed with the names 
 of all the conspirators. Cortes was not a little surprised to see 
 amongst them the names of persons upon whom he had great 
 reliance. However, he dissembled his concern, and ordered Vi- 
 lesana to be immediately executed. He was shewn to all the 
 
 army 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. #7 
 
 army hanging by his tent door. Cortes informed none of the 
 friends he most trusted with the paper he had received ; but, 
 summoning the army, he gave them an account of the horrid 
 conspiracy that had been formed against his life ; that he had 
 punished the person principally concerned ; but that it was 
 with satisfaction he was left ignorant of his accomplices, by 
 the care the criminal took in destroying a paper, which he be 
 lieved might have made great discoveries. For his part, as he 
 had punished, and was resolved severely to punish, any flagi 
 tious attempt against his life or authority, so he was determined 
 to order both in such a manner as to give just cause of com 
 plaint to no man ; and if by accident he had done so, he was 
 ready to give him all reasonable satisfaction. Proceeding thus, 
 Cortes had the advantage of knowing who they were that 
 wished him ill ; at the same time that they remained unap- 
 prized of the discovery he had made, and endeavoured to pre 
 vent it by a more diligent performance of their duty : he now 
 appointed a guard upon his person. 
 
 Hardly had Cortes suppressed this conspiracy, and made the 
 proper use of a baffled attempt against his authority, which 
 was to strengthen and increase it, than a difficulty of some 
 thing of a similar nature engaged him, and from which he ex 
 tricated himself with the same courage and prudence. The ge 
 neral of the Tlascalans, envying his glory, and perhaps fearful 
 of the consequence of the entire destruction of the Mexicans, 
 though enemies to his own country, persuaded a considerable 
 body of the people to quit the Spanish camp. Cortes imme 
 diately ordered him to be pursued. This general had formerly 
 been an enemy to Cortes, and opposed him in the council of 
 his nation ; but, when he saw the general current in his favour, 
 he made a timely change, and came entirely into his interests. 
 lie had now relapsed, and was therefore to be trusted no more. 
 
 Cortes 
 
$$ 4N ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Cortes gave orders to those who pursued him to put him to 
 death. The Tlascalans who revolted were easily prevailed 
 upon to return ; and so dexterously did Cortes represent 
 this affair, that neither the Tlascaians in his army, nor the re- 
 publick, nor even the father himself of the general, condemned 
 turn. for what he had done. 
 
 CHAP, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 8l) 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 THE SIEGE OF MEXICO. TERMS OF ACCOMMODATION REFUSED BY THE 
 
 MEXICANS. THE SPANIARDS REPULSED BY A STRATAGEM OF GUATIMOZIN. 
 
 A NEW STRATAGEM OF GUATIMOZIN HE IS TAKEN. THE CITY SUR 
 RENDERS. GUATIMOZIN TORTURED. CORTES SUPERSEDED IN HIS GO- 
 
 VEilSMENT. REFLEXIONS ON THE SPANISH CRUELTIES. 
 
 THESE internal disorders being composed, he turned his for 
 titude and wisdom against his open enemies. Three principal 
 causeways led to the city, which three towns or suburbs de 
 fended upon the side of the continent. Within were trenches 
 w and barricadoes one behind another the whole length of the way, 
 Cortes ordered three attacks upon these towns, and the cause 
 ways which they defended. The brigantines acted upon the 
 water. Through the whole length of the siege, the bravery of 
 the Mexicans, in defence of every thing which was dear to them, 
 was not more remarkable than the ingenuity by which they 
 baffled the attacks of the Spaniards, and attacked them in their 
 turn. On land, on water, by open force, by stratagem, by every 
 method, they plied each other incessantly day and night. But 
 the Spaniards, invincible under the command of Cortes, had 
 the advantage so far, that with infinite slaughter they gained 
 these posts which secured the causeways upon the side of the 
 country, at the same time that they cleared the lake so, that a 
 canoe of the enemy did not dare to appear upon it. 
 
 Cortes gained these advantages, but he saw how dearly he had 
 bought them ; he reflected how it would tarnish his glory to 
 so beautiful a city, and drench it in the blood of its un- 
 
 N fortunate 
 
90 AN ACCOUNT OK THE 
 
 fortunate inhabitants ; and, considering what supernatural ex 
 ertions of strength had been frequently shewn by a despairing 
 people, in the last convulsive struggle for their religion, life, and 
 property, he made use of the advantages he had gained to recom 
 mend the terms of accommodation, which he resolved to send 
 in to the besieged. He required no more than the acknowledg 
 ment of the emperor of the Romans, and the confirmation of 
 his right of succeeding ceded to him by Monteziuna, and long 
 acknowledged by the most authentick prophecies of the nation, 
 and such a security as might settle the performance of this. 
 
 Guatimozin, who had done all that bravery and military 
 skill could perform to save his country, finding the means most 
 suited to his years and inclinations unsuccessful, though full of 
 that noble pride which becomes and supports the royal cha 
 racter, was now as willing to save it by the milder and surer way 
 of accommodation. But the priests, who had much influence 
 in the council, either fearful of losing their power, or through 
 an honest, though blind zeal, denounced ver.geance from their 
 gods upon all who could think of submission, and promised a 
 certain success to those who stood up in defence of their re 
 ligion. They had great weight ; and the whole council, con 
 trary to the opinion of the emperor, became unanimous in re 
 fusing all terms. Guatimozin, who yielded to the general sen 
 timent with regret, and saw the unhappy consequence but too 
 clearly, resolved to fall with the same spirit that he had lived. 
 " Then, said he, since you are determined to hazard everything, 
 prepare to act in a manner worthy of that resolution. Me, you 
 shall never find wanting to you, or to myself. These are the 
 last good terms you are to expect. Whatever henceforward you 
 demand through necessity, will be answered with pride and cru 
 elty. Therefore, henceforward, let no man presume to speak 
 of peace, be our exigencies what they will ; the first that dares 
 
 to 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 91 
 
 to do it shall certainly die ; even the priests themselves ; they 
 are most concerned to support the oracles of their gods." 
 
 When he had said this, with a stern and determined counte 
 nance, he went out of the assembly, and ordered the whole city 
 tinder arms. Cortes, on the other side, as soon as he found 
 that his proposals were rejected, laid aside all thoughts but those 
 of violence, and commanded a general assault to be made at the 
 three causeways all at once, and to carry fire and sword into the 
 heart of the city. lie commanded himself in the principal at 
 tack. The causeway was broken down before him, and the 
 breach formed a ditch of sixty feet wide. On the other side 
 appeared a fortification of earth and planks. He ordered the 
 brigantines to the side of the causeway, to favour the attack, 
 and directing his cannon against the fortification, made so fu 
 rious a fire that is was soon demolished ; and the defenders, 
 galled by the incessant shot, which made a most terrible havoek, 
 could maintain the post no longer. Cortes, under the fire of his 
 cannon and with the help of his brigantines*, passed over the 
 ditch, and lost no time to possess himself of the other side, leav 
 ing one of his captains with a detachment to fill it up, and se 
 cure a retreat, in- case it should be found necessary. Then he 
 advanced to attack the remaining barricadoes of the Mexicans, 
 who made a brave defence. The battle raged furiously, and as 
 the Spaniards gained ground, their dangers and losses grew every 
 moment greater. They had now advanced amongst the build 
 ings, from whence they were oppressed with a mixt storm of 
 darts, arrows, stones and boiling water. Before them stood a 
 chosen body of the Mexican soldiers, Who made a resolute stand. 
 During this conflict, the captain who had been posted to fill up 
 the ditch, thinking it an inglorious employment to be employed 
 as a pioneer whilst his companions were m such hot action, ad- 
 
 N 2 vanced 
 
92 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 vauced with all his men, and deserted the necessary work he was 
 employed in.. 
 
 No sooner had Guatimozin, whose eyes were every where, 
 perceived this motion, than lie took advantage of it. He or 
 dered those who were in the front of the Spaniards to slacken 
 their efforts ; for, as night came on fast, he thought it better to 
 allow the enemy to gain some ground, that he might fall on 
 them with more advantage in their retreat. Cortes as quickly 
 perceived this slackness, and the cause which produced it. He 
 found that the breach of the causeway was abandoned, that 
 night approached, and that there \vas little hope of a lodgment 
 in the city at that time. He therefore bejmn to retreat in the 
 
 J c? 
 
 best order he could, setting fire to the houses, that he might 
 not be incommoded by them in his next attack. But scarcely 
 was the retreat begun, when their ears were alarmed by the 
 dreary sound of the sacred trumpet, so called because it was 
 permitted to the priests alone to sound it ; and that only when 
 they animated the people on the part of their gods. The sound 
 was doleful, continued and strong, inspiring a contempt of 
 death, and a dark religious fury. Immediately ensued a horrid 
 cry, which resounded from all parts ; and this was followed by 
 an attack of more than common rage upon the rear of the Spa 
 niards, which was broke entirely, after a gallant and .bloody 
 stand. All order was now lost. The general's commands were 
 drowned in the cry and tumult of the fight ;. the Tlascalans who 
 were in the front threw themselves precipitately into the trench ; 
 some made a fruitless opposition, others attempted to gain the 
 brigantines, whilst the Mexicans on shore, in canoes, wading 
 pr swimming, upon every side, assaulted and slaughtered them 
 with the most horrid cries, and a rage almost inconceivable. 
 With difficulty Cortes and some of his troops escaped on 
 
 board 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 93 
 
 board the brigautines, wounded and defeated. A thousand 
 Tlascalans lay dead upon the causeway, many Spaniards, and 
 scarce any escaped without a wound. What was the saddest 
 circumstance of all, forty were taken prisoners, of whose des 
 tiny there was no doubt. The other attacks had no better 
 success, though in them the loss was not so considerable. The 
 officer, M-hose imprudence had occasioned this misfortune, came 
 to Cortes, with tears acknowledging his crime, and desiring to 
 wash it out with his blood ; but Cortes, though rigid in his dis 
 cipline, saw that this was no time to dispirit the army with 
 examples of severity. 
 
 Night came on ; but it brought no rest to the afflicted Spa 
 niards, since darkness could not conceal from them 'the triumph 
 of the Mexicans and the fate of their friends. They saw the 
 whole city shining with lights, and heard it resounding with 
 the dissonance of barbarous musick and all the marks of an hor 
 rid joy;- So great were the fires and illuminations, that they 
 could see distinctly the men in motion, and all things preparing 
 for the death of the prisoners, attended with the mortifying cir 
 cumstance, that they were to be sacrificed to their false gods. 
 Gortes, in the midst of all these calamitous circumstances, 
 which lay heavy -about his heart, assumed an air of tranquillity* 
 endeavouring to comfort his soldiers with the hope of a timely 
 revenge, and taking all necessary care that the}- should not be 
 attacked unawares. This care was necessary ; for, before morn- 
 ins? appeared, the Mexicans, elated with their late victorv and 
 
 * ' 
 
 under the auspices of those gods whom they believed they had 
 rendered propitious by the human blood which washed their 
 altars, and animated by the sound of the -consecrated trumpet, 
 sallied out to attack the Spaniards in their quarters. The au 
 tack was violent, but repelled at length with an incredible 
 
 slaughter of the Mexicans. 
 
 > " ? 
 
 Guatimozia 
 
94 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Guatimozin was not disheartened. He prepared for new as 
 saults, and had his ruined works repaired, to endure those 
 assaults which should be made against himself. Not relying 
 solely on force, he spread a report amongst all the neighbour 
 ing nations that Cortes was killed ; to them he sent the heads 
 of the Spaniards, who had been sacrificed, informing them, that 
 the god of war, appeased by a sacrifice so agreeable to him, 
 had audibly declared in favour of the Mexicans, threatened 
 vengeance on those who resisted them, and foretold that in 
 eight days time the Spaniards should be all destroyed. The 
 credit of this oracle amongst all the Indians, and the deter 
 minate time ascertained for its completion, gave it the air of 
 truth ; for falsehood delights in general terms and equivoca 
 tions,' whereas the precise manner of speaking truth, is one of 
 the marks by which we guess at it. In fact, the stratagem had 
 its effect ; many tribes of Indians, who were upon the point of 
 joining Cortes, embraced the Mexican interest ; the more pru 
 dent suspended their resolution; but Guatimozin did not want 
 emissaries even in the Spanish camp, who terrified the Indian 
 allies with this prophecy. Even the Tiascalans were upon the 
 point of deserting him, when Cortes counteracted this strata 
 gem in the wisest manner possible. He resolved to suspend all 
 manner of operations against the city for these eight days, to 
 demonstrate the ialsity of this oracle, and to hinder it from 
 being ever again used as an instrument to work upon the cre 
 dulity of his confederates. He prevailed upon the Tiascalans 
 to wait the determination. In the mean time he strongly for 
 tified his camp. 
 
 Guatimozin was sensible, that the effect of his policy must be 
 
 weakened every day, and with that idea employed- every hou* 
 
 of the day or night to assault Cortes's camp, but always with 
 
 , ill success. This great commander was always on his guard ; 
 
 and 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 95 
 
 and his troops, advantageously posted, bid defiance to every 
 thing of an Indian attack. At last eight days expired, and with 
 them the terrourof the confederate Indians. The stratagem now- 
 operated as powerfully against those who contrived it, inso 
 much that all the neighbouring nations, before suspended by 
 the uncertain event of these mighty struggles, declared in favour 
 of Cortes, who by this fortunate turn, in a little time found him 
 self at the head of two hundred thousand men. This was the 
 last hope of the Mexicans. All that followed was only the de 
 parting agony of that state. The city was assaulted with re 
 doubled vigour, and now, reduced by slaughters, fatigue, and 
 famine, the Mexicans saw the superiour star of Cortes gain the 
 ascendant. The town was penetrated upon all side's, yet the 
 besieged defended every street ; and their incessant showers of 
 darts and stones from the tops of the houses, made the progress 
 of the besiegers slow and bloody. In this extremity, Guati^ 
 mozin did every thing that could justify the hopes of the Mexi^ 
 cans when they called him to the throne, every thing that was 
 worthy of one resolved to die a king. But when he found that 
 all hope of dislodging the enemy was utterly at an end, hi.? 
 troops half famished, exhausted in numbers and in strength, 
 and no part tenable, he determined to leave the city to obtain 
 the best terms it could from the conquerors, and to seek him 
 self a more prosperous opportunity at a distance. For this 
 purpose he renewed the treaty with the Spaniards, and took 
 the opportunity of this cessation of arms to put himself and his 
 ramily, with some of the bravest and most faithful of his no 
 bility, on board some periaguas, attempting to escape to the 
 continent ; but Cortes, apprehending this very thing, stationed 
 his fleet in such a manner, that he was intercepted, and soon 
 out of a condition of making any defence. He went on board 
 the Spanish commander, with an air of dignity and composure, 
 
 betraying 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 betraying neither fear nor surprise, and desired no favour, but 
 that the honour of his wife and her attendants might be spared. 
 The Spanish captain attended but little to him, endeavouring 
 to prevent the escape of the nobility ; but Guatimozin desired 
 him not be anxious about them. " Not one of these men will 
 fly, says he, do not fear it, they are come to die at the feet of 
 their sovereign." The captain, admiring the constancy of the 
 man and the fidelity of his subjects, conducted him to Cortes. 
 The ruins of the city of Mexico were now delivered up to the 
 Spaniards. With it fell that empire, and the liberty of all the 
 Indian nations, which filled that vast country now called New 
 Spain, who either slid gradually from alliance to subjection, or, 
 defending themselves without success, were made, and treated 
 as slaves. 
 
 The curiosity of the reader will doubtless be interested to 
 know the fates of the captains of the conquering and con 
 quered parties in this war. For some time the treatment of 
 Guatimozin was such as fitted an unfortunate brave man, in the 
 
 hands of those who could estimate virtue by other standards 
 
 
 
 than its fortune , and such was his treatment, whilst the autho 
 rity of Cortes- was sufficient to protect him. But the infernal 
 avarice of his troops, which at once excited and disgraced their 
 courage, not satisfied with the plunder of this opulent city, be 
 lieved that there were some latent treasures, within the know 
 ledge of the emperor, which far exceeded all the rest that they 
 had yet possessed. They often solicited the captive emperor 
 with promises and threats to make a discovery, but to no pur 
 pose ; at last a number of villains, Juan de Alderete at their 
 head, a name deserving to be remembered to its everlasting in 
 famy, seized upon him, and proceeding to the most abominable 
 cruelty, laid him upon burning coals to extort a discovery of 
 his wealth. But their wickedness could neither extort a dis 
 covery 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 97 
 
 covery of his wealth, nor the satisfaction even of a declaration 
 that he had none to discover. His countenance did not betray 
 the least yielding or weakness under the torture ; some of his 
 principal counsellors suffered along with him, and with equal 
 constancy. At last, one of those unhappy men, overcome by 
 the force of torments, almost superiour to human strength, turn 
 ed his eyes, fainting with anguish, upon his master, and uttered 
 a doleful cry; but Guatimozin answered him only by saying, 
 <k Do you think I lie upon roses ? The sufferer, struck dumb 
 with these words, and stifling every murmur that might dis 
 hearten the others or disturb Guatimozin, expired in an act of 
 obedience to his prince. This wickedness was committed without 
 the knowledge of Cortes. He was no sooner apprised of what 
 was doing, than he rushed in upon the villains, and rescued their 
 prey, mangled as it was, from their further fury. However, 
 this was but a short respite. This prince, conscious of his own 
 dignity, and sensible of the base usage he received, either en 
 deavoured to stir up commotions, or was suspected of such a 
 design ; and Cortes, being obliged to submit the humanity of 
 his nature to the cruel necessity of politicks, ordered him to be 
 executed. 
 
 As for Cortes himself, neither his great success, nor the vast 
 treasures which he sent into Spain, could secure him from his 
 enemies ; by whose unwearied zeal for his ruin, he saw himself 
 superseded in the government of a country, conquered by him 
 self with so much toil and danger, and which in any other hands 
 had never been effected. He died in Spain, having received a 
 title and some other rewards from Charles the Vth., for whom 
 he had acquired an empire; but by his own desire he was car 
 ried to Mexico, and buried there. It was the policy of Spain 
 at that time to give great encouragement, and extensive grants, 
 to all adventurers ; but when any great discovery was made, or 
 
 o conquest 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 conquest atchieved, they always sent another to reap the be 
 nefit of the first adventurer's labours. This was a policy un 
 doubtedly good with regard to one object, the security of the 
 conquered country ; but, like all unjust policy, it had altoge 
 ther as ill an effect another way ; the new governors, hungry 
 and rapacious, and scarce considering the Indians as human 
 creatures, murdered vast numbers of them ; and exhausting 
 them by an intolerable slavery, in hopes of a sudden gain, they 
 depopulated the country in such a manner, as to abate very 
 much the advantages which Spain might have derived from so 
 extensive a conquest. Cortes himself was not free from the im 
 putation of cruelty ; the bishop of Chiapa, a good man, who 
 was sent purposely to make an enquiry into complaints of this 
 kind, gives a very unfavourable representation of his conduct. 
 He accuses him of having destroyed four millions of people in- 
 New Spain. It is certain, whether by his connivance or not, 
 but partly by the necessity of war and partly by the avarice 
 and insqjence of the conquerors, vast numbers of the Indians 
 perished* but, on the other hand, it appears that the bishop of 
 Ghiapa was an enemy to Gortes ; which, though a good man 
 otherwise, must detract from his credit not a little, especially 
 as other historians differ from him in this point. Besides, I am 
 well satisfied, that great allowance must be made for exaggera 
 tions in the number of inhabitants these countries are said to 
 have contained. More populous, I believe, they were than 
 the entirely uncivilized parts of North or South America; but 
 it can hardly be thought they were so full of people as they are 
 represented to have been, if we can trust to any of the rules by 
 which we usually judge in this matter, nor consequently could 
 they have suffered such losses in so short a time, without being 
 utterly depopulated, which certainly they were not. 
 Since I am on the subject of these cruelties, and since they 
 
 are 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 99 
 
 are things so frequently mentioned, I cannot help observing, 
 that the accounts are by no means founded upon any tolerable 
 methods of calculation, but thrown down at random in a decla 
 matory way, with a design yet further to blacken the Spanish 
 adventurers; men certainly wicked enough, though represented 
 without any heightening colours. The truth is, that great 
 numbers, perhaps almost as great as are charged, have really 
 perished ; but then it was in a series of years, by being reduced 
 to slavery in the mines, and other laborious occupations, to 
 which the Americans are of all people by their constitutions the 
 most unequal, and by being disheartened by a state of unpoli 
 tical and desperate slavery, the greatest enemy in the world to 
 an increase. 
 
 There is a notion likewise pretty common, that these cruelties 
 were committed partly, if not wholly, upon a religious account, 
 and at the instigation of the priests ; but in reality it was quite 
 otherwise. This unfortunate people found their only refuge in 
 the humanity which yet remained in the clergy, and the in 
 fluence they had on the Spaniards; though the clergy, who 
 went on these adventures, were generally not the most zealous 
 for religion, and were, as the Spanish clergy commonly are, ig 
 norant enough, and so little principled in the spirit of the re 
 ligion they professed, or indeed in the nature of the human 
 mind, that they could boast, as a very glorious thing, that one 
 of them had baptized several thousands of Indians in one day, 
 without the help of any miracle for their conversion, and with 
 .a degree of good life, which, to say the best, was nothing more 
 .than common. But of any murders committed by them, or at 
 ,their instigation, I find little or no proof at alL 
 
 o 2 CHAP, 
 
100 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 THE SCHEME OF PIZARRO AND ALMAGRO FOR THE CONQUEST OF PBRU THEIR 
 
 CHARACTERS. THE STATE OF THE EMPIRE OF PERU AT THAT TIME. 
 
 THE TARING OF THE YNCA ATABALIPA. 
 
 BESIDES Mexico, there was but one country in America which 
 in any sort deserved the name of a civilized kingdom, and that 
 was Peru. During the latter part of the Mexican war, the Spa 
 niards became acquainted with the fame and wealth of this coun 
 try. After Pedraria was appointed governor over the conquests 
 of Balboa, his lieutenants reduced all that large tract which is 
 now called Terra-firma, committing barbarities worthy the man 
 under whose authority they acted. Amongst all the adven 
 turers who acted under his commission, none have made them 
 selves so famous as those of whom we are going to speak. 
 
 As if it were destined that every thing in this New World 
 should be carried on in a new and extraordinary manner, three 
 citizens of Panama, private men, and advanced in years, un 
 dertook the conquest of Peru, a country known to them only 
 by report, but by the same report said to be rich, extensive, 
 populous, and powerful. The names of these adventurers 
 were, Francis Pizarro, Almagro, and Ferdinand Lucques, a 
 priest, and a man of considerable fortune. They entered into 
 this engagement in the most solemn manner. Lucques said 
 mass, an oath of mutual fidelity was plighted, the sacrament 
 was divided into three parts, Lucques took one, and delivered 
 the other two to his confederates. The first expedition, 
 
 in 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 101 
 
 in consequence of this confederacy, was made under extraor 
 dinary difficulties, and with very little success. Pizarro, who 
 commanded, spent two years in the short navigation between 
 Panama and the northern extremity of Peru, a voyage now 
 made frequently in two weeks, since the winds and currents 
 are known. He landed, and found that the wealth of the 
 country was as great as he imagined ; and that the resistance 
 he was like to meet in endeavouring to possess himself of it, 
 would be full as considerable. This he put to the proof very 
 early, by taking the rash step of attacking the inhabitants at 
 his first landing ; and thus letting them see all at once the 
 worst of his intentions. The difficulties he met with, and the 
 resistance his ill conduct occasioned in the country, obliged 
 him to return without effecting any thing considerable. But 
 neither he nor his associates, after such a length of time or 
 such greatness of expence, were deterred from the prosecution 
 of their scheme. It was agreed that Pizarro should go into 
 Spain, to obtain an exemption from the government of Pe- 
 draria, and to get for themselves the grant of whatever they 
 should conquer. Pizarro, (who, though not the monied man, 
 was the soul of the enterprise) .was to be chief governor, with a 
 property of two hundred leagues along the sea-coast. Alma- 
 gro they agreed should be adelantado, or king's ^lieutenant ,- 
 and Lucques, who was a priest, was to be first bishop and pro 
 tector of the Indians. The other profits of the enterprise 
 were to be equally divided. But as this was an enterprise of 
 ambitious avarice, there was little faith observed. Pizarro so 
 licited only his own suit in Spain, and obtained for himself 
 alone the property of the land, the government, the lieute 
 nancy, every thing which he was capable as a layman of taking ; 
 Almagro was forgot, and to Lucques was left his eventual 
 bishoprick. 
 
 On 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 On his return, this too early discovery of breach of faith was ' 
 like to ruin all ; but Pizarro, who knew how to retreat as well 
 as to advance, yielded up to Almagro every thing he could 
 reasonably desire ; and nothing now obstructed the embarka 
 tion, which, after all, did not exceed one hundred and eighty 
 men. 
 
 Before we proceed, it may not be unnecessary to say something 
 of the persons who had the conduct of this great undertaking, 
 Francis Pizarro was the bastard son of a gentleman of good fa 
 mily. His education was as irregular as his birth, he could 
 not even read ; but then he had a great deal of that capacity and 
 fitness for the world, which is obtained by much struggling in 
 it, and by being early made dependent on a man's own indus 
 try. Hardened to life, dexterous in affairs, never setting his 
 heart upon a part of his designs whilst the total was at stake, 
 of a penetrating sagacity into the nature of man, artful, bold, 
 dissembling, and cruel. Almagro had likewise enough of that 
 desperate bravery and toughness of body and mind, so neces 
 sary in a design of this sort. In their birth there was no con 
 siderable difference. Pizarro was a bastard, Almagro a founcU 
 ling. Pizarro owed nothing to education ; Almagro depended 
 wholly upon his natural parts. But Almagro, bred from his 
 infancy in the camp, had all the soldierly qualities, patient, la 
 borious, and temperate ; far from the craft and dissimulation of 
 Pizarro, he was all openness and generosity, knew not what 
 avarice was, and his cruelty, the common distemper of all the 
 adventurers of this part of the world, was much mitigated by 
 the intercourse he had with an Indian wo man, who, by de* 
 grees, softened the rigour of a veteran seasoned to blood, into 
 some compassion to her unhappy countrymen. 
 
 The empire of Peru was governed by a race of kings, which 
 they called yncas. The twelfth in succession was tjhea upon 
 
 ' ' 4 
 
 the 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 105 
 
 the throne. The first of this race, named Mango Capac, was a 
 prince of great genius, with that mixture of enthusiasm, which 
 fits a man to make great changes, and to be the legislator of a 
 forming nation. lie observed that the people of Peru were 
 naturally superstitious, and had principally a veneration for 
 the sun. He therefore pretended that he was descended from 
 that luminary, whose authority he was designed to bear, and 
 whose worship lie was by that authority to enforce. By this 
 persuasion, easily received by a credulous people, he brought a 
 large territory under his jurisdiction ; a larger was subdued by 
 his arms ; but he made use both of the deceit and the force for 
 the most laudable purposes. He united and civilized the dis 
 persed and barbarous people ; he bent them to laws and arts ; 
 he softened them by the institutions of a benevolent religion ; 
 in short, there was no part of America in which agriculture and 
 the arts were so much and so well cultivated, nor where the 
 people were of a milder nature, and more ingenious manners. 
 The yncas, descended as they imagined from so sacred an ori 
 ginal, were themselves respected as divinities. In none, even 
 of the Asiatic countries, was there so entire an obedience to the 
 royal authority. But here it was rather filial than slavish. As 
 to the character of the Peruvians themselves, they seem to have 
 a strong resemblance to the ancient Egyptians : like them, 
 under a sky constantly serene, they were a people industrious 
 and ingenious ; cultivating the arts, but without bringing them 
 to perfection ; inclined to superstition, and of a soft unwarlike 
 temper. 
 
 The ynca Guaiana Capac having conquered the province of 
 Quito, which now makes a part of Spanish, Peru, to secure 
 himself in the possession, married the daughter of the natural 
 prince of the country. By her he had a son called Atahualpa, 
 or Atabalipa. By a former marriage he had a son named 
 
 Huescar, 
 
104 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Iluescar, heir of his other dominions. On his death Huescar, 
 his eldest son, claims his whole dominions, both hereditary and 
 acquired. Atabalipa, the youngest, without pretending to the 
 rest, would keep Quito as his right by the double title of son 
 to the conqueror, and to her whose inheritance that kingdom 
 was ; fortified besides by the will which the dying ynca had made 
 in his favour. This dispute kindled a civil war, which, after 
 several turns of fortune, ended at last in favour of Atabalipa ; 
 he not only routed his brother's armies and overrun his domi 
 nions, but actually held him a prisoner in the tower of Cusco. 
 
 Such was the face of affairs when the Spaniards arrived in 
 Peru, whose remarkable appearance and surprising feats of 
 arms were every where spread about the country, and caused a 
 general alarm. As usual in frightful rumours, new superstitions 
 begin, or old ones are revived, to increase the confusion. There 
 subsisted a tradition amongst the Peruvians, that one of their 
 ancient princes had a dream which he ordered carefully to be 
 recorded. He imagined that he saw a man cloathed all over, 
 even to his feet, with a long beard, arid leading in his hand an 
 animal, such as he had never seen before ; and that at the same 
 time he was clearly informed of the will of the gods, that such a 
 man should rule that country. A Spaniard, whom Pizarro had 
 sent upon an embassy to Atabalipa, as soon as he was disco 
 vered leading his horse upon some occasion that made him dis- 
 ,mount, agreed so well with this dream, that it is incredible how 
 soon it spread into the remotest parts of the country, and with 
 how great a terrour it struck the whole nation. 
 
 Atabalipa, newly seated upon a precarious throne, was not 
 the least alarmed at this event ; for a new erected power has 
 every thing to fear from whatever sets the people's minds, still 
 unsettled, upon a new motion. He resolved, if possible, that 
 his enemies should take no advantage of the arrival of those 
 
 strangers, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 105 
 
 strangers, by engaging them by all means to his own interest. 
 He therefore received the ambassadors which Pizarro had sent 
 with the greatest marks of honour, though their discourse, con- 
 ' sisting itself of very impertinent matter, was very ill interpreted 
 to him, as was his to them, lie even went out to meet Pizarro 
 with a vast number of attendants, to whom he gave the strictest 
 charge upon no account to offer the least injury to the strangers, 
 as they were those of whom his predecessor had foretold, and 
 of the same divine original, children of the sun. But Pizarro, 
 who advanced with other notions to the interview, soon con 
 vinced him that a contrary caution was more necessary. They 
 met near a celebrated temple, the Spaniards drawn up in order 
 of battle, and a party in ambuscade. This circumstance leaves 
 us in no doubt as to the design of Pizarro. The first person 
 who addressed himself to the ynca, was father Vincent, a friar, 
 who was not ashamed to make his character the instrument of 
 so base a crime. He advanced with a cross in his hand, and be 
 gan a most unseasonable discourse upon the birth and miracles 
 of Christ, exhorting him to become a Christian, on the pain of 
 eternal punishment. Then he spoke with equal eloquence of 
 the emperor of the Romans, pressing him with the same strength 
 of argument to become a subject to that emperor ; threatening 
 him, in case of obstinacy, that God would harden his heart as 
 he did Pharaoh's, and then punish him with the plagues of 
 Egypt; with other miserable stuff, worse interpreted. : The 
 ynca, though utterly astonished at a matter so unaccountable, 
 behaved with decency and gravity, telling him, that he believed 
 that he and his. companions were children of the sun ; recom 
 mended himself and his subjects to their protection-; and made 
 no doubt but they would behave to them in a manner worthy 
 the offspring of so beneficent a deity. 
 
 Whilst these discourses continued, the Spanish soldiers, whose 
 
 t least 
 
*r,l AX ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 least business to Peru was to listen to sermons, observing a con 
 siderable quantity of gold in the neighbouring temple, had their 
 zeal immediately stirred up, and a party of them began to pil 
 lage it. The priests made some opposition. A disturbance 
 ensued, and a great noise, which so alarmed our adventuring 
 apostle, that he let fall his cross and breviary in his fright, and 
 turned his back upon his intended proselyte. Those Spaniards 
 who were not concerned in the pillage seeing him fly, either that 
 they judged the heathens had offered their priest some violence, 
 or that Pizarro made use of this signal to them to fall on, im 
 mediately drew their swords, attacked the guards and attend 
 ants of the ynca, defenceless through a religious obedience to 
 their sovereign's command, and with every circumstance of the 
 most deliberate and shocking barbarity, slaughtered five thou 
 sand, which was near the whole number of the Indians, who 
 fell without any anxiety for their own lives, pressing forward 
 with all the zeal and officiousness of a mast heroick loyalty to 
 the chair of their prince, to expire at his feet ; and as fast as one 
 set of his supporters were slain, the others succeeded with eager 
 ness to supply their places, and share their fate. The ynca at 
 last was dragged down, and made a prisoner, by an act of the 
 most unparalleled treachery, executed with a cruelty that has 
 fiardly an example and can admit of no excuse. The plunder 
 f his camp, rich beyond the idea of any European of that time, 
 was their reward. 
 
 The unfortunate prince was not wanting to himself in his 
 captivity. Seeing that his liberty had fallen a sacrifice to their 
 avarice, he hoped to relieve himself by working upon the same 
 disposition. He began to treat of his ransom, and promised such 
 sums as astonished the Spaniards into an agreement ; nor was 
 the performance unequal. On this occasion, not only the an 
 cient ornaments and valuable furniture, amassed by a long line 
 
 of 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 10? 
 
 of magnificent kings, were brought out ; but the hallowed trea 
 sures of the most venerated temples were given without scruple, 
 to save him who was the support of the kingdom and the reli 
 gion. Whilst these were preparing, three Spaniards, who were 
 sent to Cusco to superintend in the work, had means of confer 
 ring with Huescar, who, quickly finding their foible and the use 
 his brother had made of it, complained bitterly of the injuries 
 he had suffered ; begging the Spaniards, as the patrons of the 
 oppressed, to embrace his cause, promising threefold the trea 
 sure for their assistance, which Atabalipa was to pay for Iris 
 ransom. He received a very favourable answer. Mean time 
 the Spaniards treated the ynca with all manner of civility, ad 
 mitted his attendants to him, but no talk of his liberty. As 
 soon as lie had been apprised of Huescar's negotiation with the 
 Spaniards and Almagro's arrival with an additional force, he 
 began to be under great apprehensions. To ease himself upon 
 one side, he sent immediate orders to have Huescar prat to 
 death. 
 
 The arrival of Almagro, on the other hand, caused some em 
 barrassment in Pizarro's affairs. This commander, finding that 
 
 CJ 
 
 Pizarro had seized the ynca with immense treasures, and feaving 
 already experienced his ill faith, consulted with liis primcipti 
 officers about leaving Pizarro's part to himself and seeking t&eir 
 fortune elsewhere. Whilst this was in agitation, his secretary, 
 moved by some resentment to his master, gave Pisarro notice 
 of the design. In an instant Pizarro saw how disadvantageous 
 such a step must prove to him, with so surall a force, all re 
 sources at a distance, and the country exasperated by the de 
 testable action he had lately committed. He saw that all de 
 pended upou removing every suspicion from the breast of Al- 
 inagro. For this purpose, and as something of an ill mind 
 appeared in his most masterly actions, he began by sacrificing 
 
 f 2 the 
 
105 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the secretary. He informed Almagro of his treachery, Next; 
 though gold was the great object of his undertakings, yet he- 
 knew how to relinquish some part to secure the rest. He 
 agreed to divide the spoil equally between Almagro and him 
 self, and to make no distinction between the soldiers of either 
 in the distribution. This made an entire and hearty reconci 
 liation ; which was no sooner concluded than the ynca's ransom 
 came in. 
 
 But this vast treasure, the capital object of all their labours 
 and villainies, no sooner came into their possession, but in its 
 consequences it was very near being the utter ruin of their affairs. 
 it is said, and not improbably, that the whole exceeded the sum 
 of one million five hundred thousand pounds sterling, a sum 
 vast at the present time; then it was a prodigy. On the di 
 vidend, after deducting a fifth for the emperor, and the shares: 
 of the chief commanders and officers, each private soldier had 
 above two thousand pounds English money. They had now 
 made a fortune even beyond their imaginations ; but the sol 
 diery was ruined, the greatest part of the army insisted upon 
 being discharged, that they might enjoy their fortunes in quiet. 
 This proposal ill suited with the ambitious views of the com 
 manders. Almagro was for proceeding in the usual way, tor 
 enforce obedience by the severity of military discipline ; but 
 Pizarro opposed him, " Let them gp, said he, they cannot do 
 us better service ; here we shall have mutinous and cowardly 
 soldiers, at home they will act for us as recruiting officers with 
 great success ; for when it shall be seen that common soldiers, 
 of so little merit as they, have made such large fortunes, we 
 shall not long want better men to supply their places." The 
 desire of the soldiers was complied with, and as many as chose 
 to go, who were no inconsiderable number, departed. In due 
 time, the sagacious prophecy of Pizarro was accomplished, and 
 their army never wanted reinforcements, 
 
 CHAR 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA* 109 
 
 CHAP. XVI. 
 
 THE MURDER OF THE YNCA. A DISPUTE BETWEEN PIZARRO AND ALMAGRtf. 
 
 THEY ARE RECONCILED. ALM~AGRO*S EXPEDITION TO CHILI. THE 
 
 PERUVIANS RENEW THE WAR, AND BESIEGE CUSCO. ALMAGRO RETURNS 
 
 AND DEFEATS THEM. ALMAGRO RENEWS THE QUARREL WITH PIZARRO, 
 
 BUT IS DEFEATED AND PUT TO DEATH. 
 
 IN the mean time the unfortunate Atabalipa, the greatness of 
 whose ransom only convinced the Spaniards of the necessity of 
 never releasing him, endeavoured to take advantage of his cap 
 tivity, to know the genius and manners of this people. Amongst 
 all their accomplishments, there was nothing he so much ad 
 mired as the art of reading and writing. This appeared almost 
 incomprehensible to him, though he saw clearly the use of it. 
 He was at a loss to know whether he should consider it as a na 
 tural endowment, or as an acquisition of art. To discover this, 
 he one day desired a soldier to write the name of God upon his 
 nail : he carried this about the army, desiring several to explain 
 it, which they all did, to his wonder and satisfaction. . At last 
 he shewed it to Pizarro, but Pizarro blushed, and could make 
 nothing of it. The ynca then perceived it was no natural gift, 
 but owing to education ; the, want of which he thus discovered 
 in Pizarro, and slighted him for it. This mortified the general, 
 and his disgust, joined to his natural cruelty and a policy he 
 thought he saw in the proceeding, made him hasten the fate he 
 had some time before determined for his unhappy prisoner 
 That nothing might be wanting to. the boldness and atrocious^ 
 
 ness 
 
110 AN ACCOUNT OF 
 
 ness of their barbarity, they proceeded against him by way of 
 trial and by the forms of law. 
 
 A charge was exhibited, digested under several heads. 1st. For 
 Being an idolater. 2dly, For having many concubines. 3dly, 
 Tor wasting the treasures of the kingdom, and raising taxes 
 since the coming in of the Spaniards. And lastly, For the 
 murder of his brother Huescar. An attorney-general was ap 
 pointed to manage the accusation, and an advocate appointed 
 from amongst themselves assigned for his defence. In vain did 
 the more numerous and better part of the army protest against 
 this proceeding, and lodged an appeal to Spain ; in vain did 
 they allege their want of power to judge a foreign prince for 
 any crimes, and the absurdity of the crimes with which this 
 prince was charged. Before such judges, and with such an advo 
 cate to defend him, the ynca was condemned to be burned alive. 
 To complete this violation and mockery of all laws, human and 
 tiivine, the same father Vincent, who had so signalized him 
 self upon a former occasion, was sent to comfort and instruct 
 him in his last moments. The chief argument which he used to 
 convert him to Christianity was, that, on his embracing the faith, 
 instead of being burned, his sentence should be mitigated to 
 strangling. This prince submitted to baptism, and was imme 
 diately strangled in prison. Pizarro gave the final stroke to his 
 hardened and shameless villainy, by giving him a magnificent 
 funeral, and going into mourning. 
 
 The death of the ynca was no sooner spread abroad, than 
 the principal nobility at Cusco set up the brother of Huescar ; 
 Pizarro set up a son of Atabalipa ; and two generals of the Pe 
 ruvians set up for themselves. Thus was this wretched country 
 torn to pieces at once by foreigners and by a domestick war 
 .amongst themselves. Yet such is the preference of any sort of 
 ^pirit roused within a nation, to a tethargick inactivity, that the 
 
 Peruvians 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. Ill 
 
 Peruvians gained some considerable advantages over the Spa 
 niards, even in this distracted condition, and took several pri 
 soners, among which was the attorney-general, whom they put 
 to the death he deserved without any great formality. The 
 rest of the prisoners, as soon as they were informed of their 
 having protested against the emperor's death, they generously 
 released. These advantages gained by the Peruvians made the 
 Spaniards listen to a treaty ; for Pizarro ivas equally ready at 
 times to make a peace, or to break it, as his affairs required. 
 He made use of this interval to settle the Spaniards in the 
 country. It was now that he laid the foundations of the famous 
 city of Lima. But as soon as he judged himself in a condition 
 to prosecute it, he renewed the war with the Indians, and, after 
 many difficulties, made himself master of Cusco, then 'the ca 
 pital of the empire. 
 
 But, whilst he was thus by force and fraud establishing him 
 self every where, the whole fabrick of his designs was shaken by 
 a fresh dispute between him and his colleague Almagro. These 
 commanders had little mutual affection, and less confidence in 
 each other's honour and integrity ; for similarity of manners is 
 no ground of friendship, but where the manners are good in 
 themselves. Their common necessities, it is true, obliged them 
 for a time to keep a fair appearance ; but each, satisfied of the 
 other's ill intentions, watched an opportunity of being before 
 hand in sinister advantage. New grants and supplies had lately 
 arrived from Spain. Pizarro obtained two hundred leagues 
 along the sea-coast, to the southward of his former government. 
 Aimagro had a grant of two hundred more to the southward of 
 Pizarro's. Judging, or pretending he judged, that the wealthy 
 and important city of Cusco was not included within Pizarro's 
 grant, he immediately ceased to act in subordination to him, 
 and claimed thb city as his property, Pizano's brother, who. 
 
 commanded- 
 
<H2 AN ACCOUNT OF 
 
 commanded for him, absolutely refused to deliver up the place, 
 Ahnagro insisted on it with equal obstinacy ; and they were on 
 the point of deciding the dispute by the sword, when Pizarro, 
 the moment he had notice of the quarrel, set out from Lima, 
 -where he was at that time indisposed, and, notwithstanding his 
 infirmity, with incredible expedition arrived at Ousco. He told 
 his colleague, that he was not unable nor afraid to .support the 
 justice of his claim by arms ; but he chose rather to convince 
 him by reason ; that the ties which subsisted between them, 
 and their common necessities, would always touch him with 
 .concern when he should be compelled to violent courses | which, 
 however they might end with regard to the competitors, would 
 certainly be much more in favour of the common enemy. He 
 -demonstrated to him that disco was indubitably within his 
 (Pizarro's) government, and ended in assuring him, that, as he 
 .would defend his own right with all his force, so he was equally 
 willing to employ all that force, with all his treasure, and all 
 his counsel, and whatever assistance he could give, to put Al- 
 magro into possession of whatever was really his right ; that this 
 lay yet more southward than Cusco, and was a country no way 
 inferiour in its riches, and the easiness of its conquest. 
 
 This timely appearance of Pizarro, his dexterous manage 
 ment, and judicious mixture of firmness and flexibility, made 
 such an impression upon Almagro, that he was once more re 
 conciled ; and, adding as many of Pizarro's troops to his own 
 as he judged necessary, he penetrated with great danger and 
 difficulty into Chili, losing many of his men whilst he passed 
 over mountains of an immense height, and always covered with 
 snow. He succeeded notwithstanding in a good measure in his 
 designs, for he reduced a valuable and considerable part of that 
 country. 
 
 There was undoubtedly in the four hundred leagues which 
 
 Pizarro 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN 'AMERICA. 113 
 
 Pizarro had solicited for himself, enough of land to supply any 
 reasonable ambition, and something to spare, to secure the 
 quiet possession of the rest ; but his eagerness after a large ter 
 ritory made him blind to the folly of dividing his troops, and 
 sending Almagro upon a wild distant expedition ; and yet he 
 considered this as a master-piece of policy. A little time, how- 
 erer, convinced him to the contrary. No sooner did the ynca 
 perceive this division of the Spanish troops, than he desired 
 leave from Pizarro's brother, who managed affairs for him at 
 Cusco, to assist at a solemn festival of his nation, which was to 
 be held at some distance. The feast was in reality a sort of an 
 assembly of the states of the kingdom. The ynca, having ob 
 tained permission to assist at it, made use of this, opportunity 
 to represent to his subjects, in the most pathetick manner, the 
 misery to which the nation was reduced ; the settlement of the 
 Spaniards, the cities they had built, the garrison they kept at 
 Cusco, and the guard they had on his own person. That, for 
 their sakes, he was now resolved to hazard that person and every 
 thing that was dear to him; that now was the time to make an 
 effort with success, when their enemies, divided amongst them 
 selves, had separated in search of other kingdoms, to satisfy an 
 ambition that nothing could satiate. The whole assembly unit 
 ed in these sentiments ; they roused the country every where, 
 and the Spaniards who remained in Peru were not able to pre 
 vent the ynca from laying siege to Cusco, with an army of two 
 hundred thousand men. Though the garrison under Ferdinand 
 
 ^- *7 
 
 Pizarro consisted of no more than seventy men, yet,, with their 
 artillery, the sallies made with their horse, and assisted by the 
 ignorance of the Peruvians in carrying on a siege, their defence 
 
 r O O * 
 
 was as successful as it was brave. 
 
 News was brought to Almagro of the dangers to which Cusco 
 was exposed, and the universal insurrection of the Peruvians. 
 
 Eel in- 
 
I'M AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Relinquishing his new conquests, he hastened back to preserve 
 his old with great expedition, though on his return he suffered 
 as much from drought and heat as in his progress he had endured 
 from cold. At his approach the Indians raised the siege, and 
 he was joyfully received into Cusco by Ferdinand Pizarro, and 
 the garrison, almost exhausted by the length of the defence. 
 
 After all these long and laborious marches, Almagro was ex-r 
 tremely fatigued, and thought it hard, that now in the wane of 
 his life, he should be driven with infinite toil upon new con-r - 
 quests, while Pizarro sat down at ease to enjoy alone the fruits 
 of their common labours. He resolved to renew his claim to 
 Cusco ; he had now a sort of right to it by having raised the 
 siege, and he had a strength sufficient to support that right. 
 Ferdinand and Gonzalo, the two brothers of Pizarro, making 
 some opposition, were thrown into prison, and their little army 
 either joined him, or shared the same fate.. 
 
 Pizarro, unacquainted with the arrival of Almagro or the step 
 he had taken, had got together an. army for the relief of Cusco, 
 who were near the town before they found they had an enemy of 
 any other sort than the Indians to contend with. Almagro, after 
 having tried in vain to seduce their fidelity, engaged and routed 
 them. On this advantage, his friends represented to him, that 
 now was the happy hour of his fortune, and that he ought to 
 employ it to. establish himself beyond all possibility ..of being 
 removed. That he ought to put the Pizarros^ his prisoners, to 
 death, and march directly to Lima, to seize upon his. rival,, who , 
 never could, be heartily reconciled to him, and whilst he re*- . 
 mained in possession of the sea-rcoast, could never want means 
 of making his enmity terrible. Almagro had humanity enough ( 
 to reject the first part of this counsel, and weakness enough not 
 to hearken to the last. . If he marched into another's govern- 
 jent, he trembled at the, name, of a rebel; and,, for fear of the 
 
 name, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 115 
 
 name, exposed himself to suffer the punishment of the thing ; 
 not considering that, having once embrued his hands in civil 
 blood, he ought never to stop still his end was gained ; that con 
 quest alone could decide the question of their right ; and that 
 he who had the greater force would have the best means of pro 
 tection, if he was in the wrong. Whilst he deliberated what 
 course to take, Gonzalo Pizarro made his escape with an hun 
 dred of those who were affected to his cause. 
 
 It was the interest of Pizarro, who found himself in no im 
 mediate condition to carry on the war, yet possessed all the 
 means of being reinforced, to keep matters from coming to an 
 extremity ; it was Almagro's to bring them to a speedy issue ; 
 and, in this knowledge of the management of time, when to lie 
 by to gain it and when to use the present moment, the great 
 skill in business, so little understood, depends almost entirely. 
 Pizarro had recourse to the old way of treaty ; he promised 
 largely, he offered a sea-port, and agreed to submit the decision 
 of all their disputes to the royal audience; but, as a prelimi 
 nary, he insisted on the release of his brother Ferdinand. Ex 
 perienced as Almagro was in Pizarro's faith, he gave up the only 
 pledge that could secure it. The moment Ferdinand was re 
 leased, he was put at the head of the reinforcements Pizarro had 
 long expected, and now received ; and, as he was a man of 
 capacity, he prepared to act with vigour. The treaty was 
 forgot. 
 
 The country which held for Almagro was separated from that 
 which Pizarro possessed, by vast mountains passable only in 
 some steep and dangerous defiles. Almagro's counsellors ad 
 vised him by all means to post his troops in such a manner as 
 to oppose his enemies in those passes ; but so infatuated was 
 he with a false security, that he* refused to send any troops to 
 occupy those important posts, which were seized by the eriemy 
 
 <} 2 without 
 
116 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 without the least opposition. He had, however, one resource 
 left, and that a good one. The town of Cusco was well for 
 tified, had a good garrison, and the enemy was ill provided for 
 carry ing on the siege. But, as he had prejudiced his affairs be 
 fore by dilatory measures, he now cpmpleatly ruined them by 
 precipitation and temerity. He turned his back upon the ad 
 vantages of his situation, and resolved, contrary to the opinion 
 of all' his officers, to hazard his fortune in the field; confident 
 of his own superiority, and full of contempt of the enemy, whom 
 he believed to be raw troops. But he found too late, that they 
 were veterans of great bravery, and exact discipline. The en 
 gagement was warm ; in which Almagro and his troops behaved 
 in such a manner as not to disgrace their former exploits ; but, 
 after a gallant struggle, they were in the end entirely defeated. 
 Almagro himself was taken prisoner, and fell, at the age of 
 seventy-three years, a victim to a rashness scarce excusable 
 iu a young soldier ; but to the last degree blameable in an ex 
 perienced commander, who, being supposed to have long estab 
 lished his reputation for courage beyond all doubt, ought to 
 model his conduct only by his own experience, and the circum 
 stances, of the affair in which he is engaged. 
 
 Fizarro, having got the rival who had caused him so many 
 apprehensions into his hands, resolved to shew him no mercy*. 
 In. spite of Almagro's age, which, as it might remove his fears., 
 ought to have given room for pity ; in spite of their coimnou 
 warfare, their dangers and triumphs; in spite of every senti 
 ment of gratitude for what this unfortunate man had contri 
 buted to his greatness, and in spite of his late mercy to his. 
 brother; all which were pathetically and strongly urged by 
 Almagro, to suffer an old man, a prisoner too, after so many 
 fruitless toils, to die quietly in his bed ; Pizarro was deaf to 
 thing but a barbarous policy, which made hiui submit 
 
 every 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTa IN AMERICA. 117 
 
 every virtue to securing the meanest part of his designs. Al- 
 inagro was formally Iried, sentenced, and then strangled in pri 
 son. His body was afterwards beheaded publickly, on a scaf 
 fold, and for a long time denied burial. A negro slave interred 
 it by stealth. Amidst the pity which this barbarous execution 
 caused, people could not forbear recollecting the unhappy fate 
 of Atahualp.a> and the share which Almagro had in it. 
 
 CHAR 
 
118 ! AN JICCOUNT OF'THfi 
 
 C H A P. XVII. 
 
 THE FINAL PKPERS10N OF THE PERUVIAN ARMY. 'THE CONSflRACr AGAINST 
 P1ZARRO. HE IS MURDERED. 
 
 WHILST this civil war raged, the ynca took a very extraordi 
 nary resolution. .He disbanded his troops and retired to the 
 I mountains ; " .Because, says he, whilst we are in arras, their 
 fear of us will be a means of uniting the Spaniards ; but, if we 
 disperse, they will certainly destroy each other." A resolution 
 this, which at first view has something masterly, but it is only 
 when viewed in one light. When their natural prince is fled, 
 the people who must be governed may give the reins of govern 
 ment into the hands of the enemy. An army once dispersed is 
 .got together again with great difficulty ; and, on the other hand, 
 a civil war is by no means a certain destruction to those who 
 are engaged in it: and indeed, by the reason of the ihing and 
 by the event, it was an ill-judged step, the scheme of a bar 
 barous prince, who was far from being a consummate poli 
 tician. 
 
 It was very ruinous to the Peruvians, that, happening to be 
 'divided amongst themselves when the Spaniards came in, they 
 suffered them to interfere in their parties ; but it was of yet 
 worse consequence that, when the Spaniards were afterwards 
 divided, they interfered themselves in the Spanish parties. 
 Almagro and Pizarro had armies of Indians, by which those 
 people were habituated to obey them, and to be interested in 
 their success ; this, joined to the want of any regular plan of 
 
 defence 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IX AMERICA. 
 
 defence on the part of their king and commanders, subdued 
 that empire to Pizarro with small "trouble, if reconsider the 
 greatness of the object. But having achieved so great a 
 conquest, it only made Pizarro acquainted with other great 
 tracts which were rich, and might be added to them. He fol 
 lowed the tracks of Almagro into Chili, and reduced a consider 
 able part of the country. Orellana, one of his commanders; 
 passed the Andes, and sailed down to the mouth of the river of 
 Amazons ; an immense navigation, which discovered a rich and 
 delightful, country ; but, as it is mostly flat, and therefore not 
 abounding in minerals, the Spaniards- then, and ever since, ne* 
 glected it. 
 
 The death of Almagro, and the influence it had upon the con- - 
 duct of Pizarro, is a striking example how necessary it is for a 
 great man to have an awe upon him from some opposition, that 
 may keep his .prudence alive, and teach him to have a watcli 
 upon his passions. Not content with a territory upwards of 
 eight hundred leagues long, and of a prodigious breadth, riches 
 such as none of. the kings of his country have ever possessed, a 
 jurisdiction little less than royal, and air absolute security for 
 the extinction of the only person who had any pretensions 
 against him, either through a jealousy which often haunts the 
 happiest fortune, or through a pride which cannot bear even i 
 the appearance of any who had once withstood ;his power, he 
 took a resolution entirely to cut off all that ever adhered to his 
 rival ; he did, not know when the issue of blood .ought to be 
 stopped ; nor that examples of seventy on a few create terrour t' 
 aixd submission, but that threats of general destruction produce 
 nothing but despair and , desperate resolutions. He was not 
 satisfied with putting many to death, but issued a proclamation, 
 inhibiting, under the same penalty, that any person should har 
 bour, or even relieve an Almagrian with the necessaries^of life. 
 
 Thw 
 
120 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 This party was yet numerous, though dispersed and lurking 
 about the country. The heads of them, finding Pizarro im 
 placable, entered into a conspiracy to murder him. They did 
 not want adherents in the city, so that they found means of 
 concealing themselves until their plot should be ripe for exe 
 cution ; but by some means Pizarro discovered their designs, 
 and suffered them to know he had discovered them. Alarmed 
 at this information, they saw nothing could liappen but death 
 at any side. Twelve of the chiefs marched into the streets at 
 noon-day, with their swords drawn, crying out, <( Long live 
 the king ! but let the traitor die ;" and, crossing the great 
 square of Lima, made directly to Pizarro's palace ; the rest fol 
 lowed in different parties. The people all the while suspended, 
 and in that inactive amazement which the execution of a bold 
 and sudden enterprise generally inspires, made no opposition. 
 The conspirators secured the avenues ; and Pizarro, not alarm 
 ed until he was surrounded" by his enemies, fell under their 
 swords, after having sold his life dearly. 
 
 Thus died Pizarro, by an event extremely memorable. A 
 great conqueror, in the city he had himself built, in his own 
 palace, amidst his guards, murdered at noon-day by the hands 
 of a small number of fugitives. The Peruvians had the satis 
 faction to see the second of their conquerors cut off by the same 
 sword that had afflicted themselves. 
 
 CttAf. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMEU1CA 
 
 CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 YOUNG ALMAGRO MADE GOVERNOR. THE NEW VICEROY VACA DI CASTRO 
 
 ARRIVES. PUTS TO DEATH YOUNG ALMAGRO. PUTS AN END TO THE 
 
 FACTIONS, AND SETTLES THE PROVINCE HE IS RECALLED. GONZALO 
 
 PIZARRO RAISES A REBELLION, AND USURPS THE GOVERNMENT. PETER 
 
 DE LA CASCA MADE VICEROY. 'DEFEATS THE TROOPS OF PIZA.RRO, AND 
 PUTS HIM TO DEATH. 
 
 WHEN Pizarro had fallen in consequence of those cruel and ill- 
 judged steps which he took for his security, the Almagrians, 
 elate with their success, and growing into a formidable body, 
 seized upon the city, and proclaimed the natural son of old 
 Almagro governor ; a youth not twenty years of age, but of 
 a courage and capacity not absolutely unequal to a charge of 
 such importance, undertaken in circumstances so critical. But 
 though the Almagrians succeeded beyond their hopes, by the 
 consternation caused by the suddenness of the attempt, and the 
 general dislike to the cruel procedure of Pizarro ; the major 
 part of the Spaniards were far from acquiescing in this irregular 
 nomination of a governor. A considerable number, and those 
 of the best men, declared, that, without interesting themselves 
 in the quarrel of either party, they would wait for the em 
 peror's determination, which they expected hourly, and to which 
 alone they were resolved to conform themselves. 
 
 In this state of things, the new governor Vacadi Castro arrived. 
 This man was of a good family, and by profession a lawyer ; 
 but, through a more rigid adherence to the strictest idea of 
 
 R right 
 
right and justice than is suitable to the coarseness of practice, 
 he did not make that figure in his profession to which his great 
 capacity entitled him. But what kept him backward at the 
 bar, recommended him first to the knowledge, and afterward* 
 to the esteem, of his master the emperor Charles the Vth, who 
 was a man of too much discernment not to be struck with a 
 character so singular as was that of one who was a lawyer with 
 out exercising the trade of law, and lived at court without being 
 a courtier. Therefore, without any solicitation of his own, with 
 out any recommendation from a minister or favourite, this man's 
 plain and unostentatious virtue placed him in an employment of 
 so great a trust. When he arrived in the Indies, he still preserved 
 his character. He acted like one who came neither to acquire 
 friends nor fortune, but solely to do his duty ; and he shewed 
 favour or disapprobation to all in proportion as they performed 
 their's. Indian or Spaniard was entirely alike to the equality 
 of his justice. He flattered nobody, he threatened nobody ; 
 and, whilst he lived with all the modesty of a private man, he 
 supported all the dignity of a governor. 
 
 He was hardly landed, when young Almagro sent him an em 
 bassy, explaining the reasons of his conduct, and proposing 
 terms ; but Castro answered him, that he was come under the 
 emperor's authority, solely to do him and every body justice, 
 of which, if a good subject, he could have no room to complain ; 
 if a bad one, he must prepare to feel it : he knew no other 
 terms. This was new language to governors in this part of the 
 world, who almost forgot they had a superiour. .Almagro there- 
 tore was resolved to abide the fortune of war, rather than sub 
 mit without such terms as might ensure him the government of 
 his father's province at least. On the other hand, Castro would 
 hear of no terms between a king and his subjects, and therefore 
 set himself at the head of his troops, which were composed of 
 
 those 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 123 
 
 those who had refused to obey Almagro, and gave him battle. 
 The victory was on his side, but not without a bloody dispute. 
 
 Several of Almagro's officers, in hopes'of procuring favour 
 for themselves, betrayed his cause in the battle ; but Castro 
 was for from thinking their treachery to their leader could be 
 reckoned a service to the crown, and therefore spared none of 
 them in the numerous executions he found it necessary to make 
 on this occasion. None of the sufferers was more pitied than 
 Almagro, who behaved with the utmost gallantry in the engage 
 ment, as he had done with much humanity and honour .upon 
 most occasions. He was taken and beheaded. 
 
 The severity of this procedure, whilst it terrified every body, 
 drew no gdium upon the governor, who acted clearly without 
 prejudice or self-interest. They looked on these executions 
 like judgments from Heaven, which afflict us bitterly, but leare 
 no room for murmur or complaint against the hand that inflicts 
 them. To the followers of Pizarro, who valued themselves on 
 their late service, and murmured that they were not rewarded 
 better than he thought they deserved, he shewed little favour. 
 He told them he could well distinguish between what was done 
 out of a spirit of party, and what proceeded from a principle 
 of loyalty to their sovereign ; that they might look upon them 
 selves as very happy that he suffered their last action to obli 
 terate the memory of all their others. In short, he proceeded 
 with such constancy, that the Spaniards were reduced to an 
 entire subjection, and the Indians treated by them as fellow- 
 subjects and fellow-creatures. The clergy he made to attend 
 diligently to the duty of their function, and to the conversion 
 of the Indians, rather than to the acquisition of their gold. He 
 modelled the administration of justice in the exactest manner. 
 He founded several towns, and established schools and colleges 
 fn them, and placed the royal revenues on such a footing, that 
 
 R 2 the 
 
124 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the conquest of Peru became immediately a great publick ad 
 vantage, which formerly was little more than an object of pri 
 vate plunder. But, whilst he remained himself poor among some 
 of the richest confiscations that ever were made, and whilst he 
 enriched the royal treasury with most prodigious remittances, 
 the great men at court received no presents. This induced 
 them to get a number of judges appointed, whose authority 
 over-ruled that of Castro. The end was answered. Dispute* 
 arose ; the colony was unsettled ; appeals and complaints in 
 numerable came home, and presents from all sides. But what 
 answered the present end of the courtiers, was near stopping up 
 the spring of bribery for the future. In the confusion that arose, 
 from such clashing jurisdictions and the schemes of men intent 
 upon their own interests, it was not hard for Gonzalo, the bro 
 ther of the famous Pizarro, to avail himself of the general dis 
 content, and to set himself at the head of a party. 
 
 It was now no longer a dispute between governors about the 
 bounds of their juridictions ; Gonzalo Pizarro only paid a no 
 minal submission to the emperor. He strengthened daily, and 
 even went so far as to behead a viceroy who was sent to curb 
 him. There was a fleet at this time in the south seas, and he 
 had address enough to gain the admiral to his interests; by 
 which means he was able to over-awe the coast of Mexico, and 
 prevent any force coming against him from that part. He even 
 entertained hopes of gaining the Spaniards in that kingdom to 
 join in his revolt. 
 
 The court, justly alarmed at this progress, having felt the 
 ill effect of sending men who were recommended to their posts 
 by importunity and cabal, as they had experienced the bene 
 ficial consequences of employing persons whose character only 
 pleaded for them, sent a licentiate in divinity, called Peter de 
 la Gasca, a man differing only from Castro, by being of a milde^ 
 
 and. 
 
EIHIOPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 and more insinuating behaviour ; but with the same love of 
 justice, the same greatness of soul, end the same disinterested 
 spirit. This mildness of character suited the circumstances of 
 the times, as well as the rigid justice of Castro did those in 
 which he was appointed ; for, as the revolt was now almost 
 general, he could find no friends but such as he could make ; 
 because, though he was invested with the amplest authority 
 from Spain, he neither carried men to enforce it, nor money ; 
 and the whole success of the expedition rested solely in his own 
 capacity. 
 
 When he arrived at Mexico, he declared that his was a peace 
 able profession ; that he came not to exercise severities, but- to 
 heal by gentle measures the effects of those which were formerly 
 exercised. He even wrote a very obliging letter to Pizarro, 
 persuading him to submit, and offering him a free pardon for 
 himself and his associates. In the mean time, he was not want 
 ing in more vigorous measures ; but, by his engaging address 
 and the reputation of his probity, raised large sums of money, 
 and some hundreds of men. Pizarro, puffed up by his success, 
 received the' ambassador with great haughtiness, and sent his 
 answer, which was likewise that of his associates, by the ad 
 miral ; it was, in effect, that neither would he yield up his 
 government, nor would they submit to have any other governor. 
 The admiral had instructions to try what bribery would do, 
 and, if that failed, to fire the city of Panama, and bring off the 
 new viceroy prisoner. However, during their conferences, the, 
 affair took absolutely another turn, and the admiral* instead of 
 conveying Gasca a prisoner to Peru, transported him thither 
 with all his forces, returning to his allegiance himself, and per 
 suading all his adherents to be hearty in the royal cause. The 
 viceroy did not at all alter the professions and behaviour he had 
 used in Mexico ; but, every where proclaiming peace and par 
 don 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 don at the head of a powerful force, he drew the cities of Lima 
 and Cusco from the party of Pizarro ; who, finding himself 
 obliged to evacuate the most considerable places of strength, 
 with very unequal forces hazarded a battle, in which he was 
 made prisoner. He was soon after condemned and executed, 
 with those who had been the chief instruments of his rebellion. 
 
 Such an ill star governed all those who had a share in the 
 reduction of Peru ! Almagro beheaded ; his son sharing the 
 same fate ; Pisarro murdered in his own palace ; his brother 
 Ferdinand kept a prisoner twenty- three years ; -and his other 
 brother Gon:?alo, as we have just seen, suffering death as a 
 traitor. The new governor, having by necessary severities 
 quieted his province, took effectual care to heal its disorders 
 by the arts of peace, and to compleat what Castro had been 
 obliged to leave unfinished. He settled the civil government, 
 the army, and the mines, upon such a basis as made the pro 
 vince worthy to be plundered by future viceroys. He carried 
 over two millions to the royal treasury, paid all his debts, and 
 sat down as poor in Spain as he had left it. 
 
 The reduction of the great empires of Peru and Mexico 
 makes almost the only thing very much worth insisting upon 
 in the American history. A few skirmishes with a savage peo 
 ple, and some voyages and discoveries exactly resembling each 
 other, changing only the names and situations, is the matter, 
 which, in my opinion, unprofitably fills so many volumes, and 
 contains very little of either curiosity or instruction. However, 
 when I come to treat of the several European settlements par 
 ticularly, I shall not omit to mention any thing in their history 
 that contains either the one or the other. 
 
 PART 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA, 127 
 
 THE MANNERS OF THE AMERICANS. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 THE PERSONS OF THE AMERICANS. THEIR DRESS AND WAY OF LIVING. 
 
 THEIR MANNER OF CONVERSING. THEIR HOSPITALITY. THEIR TEMPER. 
 
 THEIR RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS. THEIR MEDECINE. 
 
 THE Aborigines of America, throughout the whole extent of 
 the two vast continents which they inhabit, and amongst the 
 infinite number of nations and tribes into which they are di 
 vided, differ very little from each other in their manners and 
 customs ; and they all form a very striking picture of the most 
 distant antiquity. Whoever considers the Americans, of this 
 day, not only studies the manners of a remote present nation, 
 but he studies, in some measure, the antiquities of all nations ; 
 from which no mean lights may be thrown upon many parts of 
 the ancient authors, both sacred and profane. The learned 
 Lafitau has laboured this point with great success, in a work 
 which deserves to be read amongst us much more than I find 
 it is. 
 
 The people of America are tall, and strait in their limbs 
 beyond the proportion of most nations : their bodies are strong ; 
 but of a species of strength rather fitted to endure much hard 
 ship, 
 
.AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 ship, than to continue long at any servile work, by which they 
 are quickly consumed ; it is the strength of a beast of prey, 
 rather than that of a beast of burthen. Their bodies and heads 
 are flattish, the effect of art ; their features are regular, but 
 their countenances fierce ; their hair long, black, lank, and as 
 strong as that of a horse. No beards. The colour of their 
 skin a reddish brown, admired amongst them, and improved 
 by the constant use of bear's fat and paint. 
 
 When the Europeans first came into America, they found* 
 the people quite naked, except those parts, which it is common 
 for the most uncultivated people to conceal. Since that time 
 they have generally a coarse blanket to cover them, which they 
 buy from us. The whole fashion of their lives is of a piece ; 
 hardy, poor, and squalid ; and their education from their in 
 fancy is solely directed to fit their bodies for this mode of life, 
 and to form their minds to inflict and to endure the greatest 
 
 o 
 
 evils. Their only occupations are hunting and war. Agricul 
 ture is left to the women. Merchandize they contemn. When 
 their hunting season is past, which they go through with much 
 patience, and in which they exert great ingenuity, they pass the 
 rest of their time in an entire indolence. They sleep half the 
 day in their huts, they loiter and jest among their friends, and 
 they observe no bounds or decency in their eating and drink 
 ing. Before we discovered them, they had no spirituous li 
 quors ; but now, the acquirement of these is what gives a spur 
 to their industry, and enjoyment to their repose. This is the 
 principal end they pursue in their treaties with us ; and from 
 this they suffer inexpressible calamities ; for, having once be 
 gun to drink, they can preserve no measures, but continue a 
 succession of drunkenness as long as their means of procuring 
 liquor lasts. In this condition they lie exposed on the earth to 
 all the inclemency of the seasons, which wastes them by a train 
 
 of 
 
SETTLEMENTS IN' AMERICA- If 9 
 
 -of the most fatal .disorders; they perish in rivers and marsh 
 they tumble into the lire ; they quarrel, and very frequently 
 murder each other; and, in short, excess in drinking, which 
 with us is rather immoral than very destructive, amongst this 
 uncivilized people, who have not art' enough to guard against 
 the consequence of their vices, is a publick calamity. The 'few 
 amongst them, who live free from this evil, enjoy the reward oT 
 theit temperance in a robust and healthy old age. The disor* 
 ders which a complicated luxury has introduced, and supports 
 in Europe, are strangers here. 
 
 The character of the Indians is striking. They are grave 
 even to sadness in their deportment upon any serious occasion; 
 observant of those in company ; respectful to the old ; of a 
 temper cool and deliberate ; by which they are never in haste 
 to speak before they have thought well upon the matter, and 
 are sure the person who spoke before them has finished all he 
 had to say. They have therefore the greatest contempt for the 
 vivacity of the Europeans, who interrupt each other, and fre 
 quently speak all together. Nothing is more edifying than their 
 behaviour in their publick councils and assemblies. Every man 
 there is heard in his turn, according as his years, his wisdom, 
 or his services to his country, have ranked him. Not a word, 
 not a whisper, not a murmur, is heard from the rest while he 
 speaks. No indecent condemnation, no ill-timed applause. 
 The younger sort attend for their instruction. Here they learn 
 the history of their nation ; here they are inflamed with the 
 songs of those who celebrate the warlike actions of their ances 
 tors ; and here they are taught what are the interests of their 
 country, and how to pursue them. 
 
 There is no people amongst whom the laws of hospitality are 
 more sacred, or executed with more generosity and good-will. 
 Their houses, their provision, even their young women, are not 
 
 5 enough 
 
130 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 enough to oblige a guest. To those of their own nation they 
 are likewise very humane and beneficent. Has any one of them 
 succeeded ill in his hunting ? has his harvest failed ? or is his 
 house burned ? He feels no other effect of his misfortune, than 
 that it gives him an opportunity to experience the benevolence 
 and regard of his fellow-citizens, who for that purpose have all 
 things almost in common. But to the enemies of his country, 
 or to those who have privately offended, the American is im 
 placable. He conceals his sentiments, he appears reconciled, 
 until by some treachery or surprise he has an opportunity of 
 executing an horrible revenge. No length of time is sufficient to 
 allay his resentment ; no distance of place great enough to pro 
 tect the object ; he crosses the steepest mountains, he pierces the 
 jnost impracticable forests, and traverses the most hideous bogs 
 and deserts for several hundreds of miles, bearing the inclemency 
 of the seasons, the fatigue of the expedition, the extremes of 
 hunger and thirst, with patience and chearfttlness, in hopes of 
 surprising his enemy, on whom he exercises the most shocking 
 barbarities, even to the eating of his flesh. To siicli extremes 
 do the Indians push their friendship or their enmity ; and such 
 indeed in general is the character of all strong and uncultivated 
 minds. 
 
 Notwithstanding this ferocity, no people have their anger,, 
 or at least the shew of their anger, more under their command. 
 From their infancy they are formed with care to endure scoffs, 
 taunts, blows, and every sort of insult patiently, or at least with 
 a composed countenance. This is one of the principal objects 
 of their education. They esteem nothing so unworthy a man 
 of sense and constancy, as a peevish temper, and a pronenes* 
 to a sudden and rash anger. And this so far has an effect, that 
 quarrels happen its rarely amongst them when they are not in 
 toxicated with liquor, as does the chief cause of all quarrels, hot 
 
 and 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMB'NT* IN AMEBICA. 
 
 and abusive language. But human nature is such, that, as 
 virtues may with proper management be engrafted upon almost 
 all sorts of vicious passions, so vices naturally grow out of the. 
 best dispositions, and are the consequence of those regulations 
 that produce and strengthen them. This is the reason that, 
 when the passions of the Americans are roused, being shut up, 
 as it were, and converging into a narrow point, they become 
 more furious ; they are dark, sullen, treacherous and unap 
 peasable. 
 
 A people who live by hunting, who inhabit mean cottages, 
 and are given to change the place of their habitation, are sel 
 dom very religious. The Americans have scarce any temples. 
 We hear indeed of some, and those extremely magnificent, 
 amongst the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians ; but the Mexi 
 cans and Peruvians were comparatively civilized nations. Those 
 we know at present in any part of America are no way com 
 parable to them. Some appear to have very little idea of God. 
 Others entertain better notions ; they hold the existence of the 
 Supreme Being, eternal and incorruptible, who has power over 
 all. Satisfied with owning this, which is traditionary amongst 
 them, they give him no sort of worship. There are indeed na 
 tions in America, who seem to pay some religious homage to 
 the sun and moon ; and, as most of them have a notion of some 
 invisible beings, who continually intermeddle in their affairs, 
 they discourse much of demons, nymphs, fairies, or beings equi 
 valent. They have ceremonies too, that seem to shew they had 
 once a more regular form of religious worship ; for they make 
 a sort of oblation of their first fruits ; observe certain ceremonies 
 at the full moon ; and have in their festivals many things that 
 very probably came from a religious origin, though they per 
 form them as things handed down to them from their ancestors, 
 without knowing or enquiring about the reason. Though with- 
 
 s 2 out 
 
132 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 out religion, they abound in superstitions ; as it is common for 
 those to do, whose subsistence depends, like theirs, upon for 
 tune. Great observers of omens and dreams, and pryers into 
 futurity with great eagerness, they abound in diviners, au~ 
 gurs, and magicians, whom they rely much upon in all affairs 
 that concern them, whether of health, war, or hunting. Their 
 physick, which may rather be called magick, is entirely in the 
 hands of the priests. The sick are naturally prone to supersti 
 tion, and human help in such cases is generally found so weak, 
 that it is no wonder that, in all countries and ages, people have 
 amused themselves, in that dismal circumstance of human na 
 ture,, with the hope of supernatural assistance. 
 
 Their physicians generally treat them, in whatever disorder, 
 in the same way. That is, they first enclose them in a narrow 
 cabin, in the midst of which is a stone red hot ; on this they 
 throw water, until the patient is well soaked with the warm va 
 pour and his own sweat ; then they hurry him from the bagnio, 
 and plunge him suddenly into the next river. This is repeated 
 as often as they judge necessary ; and by this method extraordi 
 nary cures are sometimes performed. But it frequently hap 
 pens too, that this rude method kills the patient in the very 
 operation, especially in the new disorders brought to them from 
 Europe ; and it is partly owing to this manner of proceeding, 
 that the small-pox has proved so much more fatal to them than 
 to us. It must not be denied that they have the use of some 
 specifics of wonderful efficacy ; the power of which they how 
 ever attribute to the magical ceremonies with which they are 
 constantly administered. And it is remarkable, that purely by 
 an application of herbs they frequently cure wounds, which with 
 us refuse to yield to the most judicious methods. 
 
 CHAP; 
 
EUBOPEAN SETTLEMENTS XN AMERICA. T33 
 
 C II A P. II. 
 
 THE GOVERNMENT OF THE AMERICANS. THEIR COUNCILS. THEIR ORA 
 TORS. THEIR FEASTS. THEIR MANNER OF ADMINISTERING JUSTICE. 
 
 LIBERTY, in its fullest extent, is the darling passion of 
 the Americans. To this they sacrifice every thing. This is 
 what makes a life of uncertainty and want supportable to 
 them; and their education is directed in such a manner as to 
 cherish this disposition to the utmost. They are indulged in 
 all manner of liberty ; they are never upon any account chas 
 tised with blows ; they are rarely even chidden. Reason, they 
 say, will guide their children when they come to the use of it ; 
 and before that time their faults cannot be very great : but blows 
 mi^ht abate the free and martial spirit which makes the glory 
 of their people, and might render the sense of honour duller, by 
 the habit of a slavish motive to action. When they are grown 
 up, they experience nothing like command, dependence, or sub 
 ordination ; even strong persuasion is industriously forborne by 
 those who have influence amongst them, as what may look too 
 like command, and appear a sort of violence offered to their 
 will. 
 
 On the same principle, they know no punishment but death. 
 They lay no fines, because they have no way of exacting them 
 from free men ; and the death, which they sometimes inflict, is 
 rather a consequence of a sort of war declared against a publick 
 enemy, than an act of judicial power executed on a citizen or 
 subject. This free disposition is general ; and, though some- 
 tribes 
 
134 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 tribes are found in America with an head whom we call a king, 
 his power is rather persuasive than coercive, and he is rever 
 enced as a father, more than feared as a monarch. He has na 
 ^uards, no prisons, no officers of justice. The other forms, 
 -which may he considered as a sort of Aristocracy have no 
 more power. This latter is the more common in North Ame 
 rica. In some tribes there are a kind of nobility, who, when 
 they come to years of discretion, are entitled to a place and 
 vote in the councils of their nation : the rest are excluded. 
 But amongst the Five Nations, or Iroquois, the most cele 
 brated commonwealth of North- America, and in some other 
 nations, there is no other qualification absolutely necessary for 
 their head men, but age, with experience and ability in their 
 affairs. However, there is generally in every tribe some par 
 ticular stocks which they respect, and who are considered in 
 some sort as their chiefs, unless they shew themselves unworthy 
 -of that rank ', as among the tribes themselves there are some, 
 who, on account of their number or bravery, have a pre-emi 
 nence over the rest ; which as it is not exacted with pride and 
 insolence, nor maintained by tyranny on one hand, so it is never 
 disputed 011 the other when it is due. 
 
 Their great council is composed of these heads of tribes and 
 families, with such whose capacity has elevated them to the same 
 degree of consideration. They meet in a house, which they 
 .have in each of their towns for the purpose, upon every solemn 
 occasion, to receive ambassadors, to deliver them, an answer, to 
 sing their traditionary war songs, or to commenaorate their dead. 
 These councils are publick. Here they propose all such matters 
 concerning the state, as have already been digested in the secret 
 councils, at which none but the head men assist. Here it is 
 that their orators are employed, and display those talents which 
 
 distinguish 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEWTEXTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 distinguish them for eloquence and knowledge of publick busi 
 ness ; in both of which some of them are admirable. None 
 else speak in their publick councils ; these are their ambassadors, 
 and these are the commissioners who are appointed to treat of 
 peace or alliance with other nations. The chief skill of these 
 orators consists in giving an artful turn to affairs, and in ex 
 pressing their thoughts in a bold figurative manner, much 
 stronger than we could bear in this part of the world, and with 
 gestures equally violent, but often extremely natural and ex 
 pressive. 
 
 AVlien any business of consequence is transacted, they ap 
 point a feast upon the occasion, of which almost the whole 
 nation partakes. There are lesser feasts upon matters of less 
 general concern, to which none are invited but they who are en 
 gaged in that particular business. At these feasts it is against 
 all rule to leave any thing. ; so that if they cannot consume all, 
 what remains is thrown into the fire ; for they look vipon fire 
 as a thing sacred, and in all probability these feasts were an 
 ciently sacrifices. Before the entertainment is ready, the prin 
 cipal person begins a song, the subject of which is the fabulous 
 or real history of their nation, the remarkable events which have 
 happened, and whatever matters may make for their honour or 
 instruction. The others sing in their turn. They have dances 
 too, with which they accompany their songs, chiefly of a mar 
 tial kind ; and no solemnity or publick business is carried on 
 without such songs and dances. Every thing is transacted 
 amongst them with much ceremony ; which in a barbarous peo 
 ple is necessary ; for' nothing else could hinder all their affairs 
 from going to confusion ; besides that the ceremonies contribute 
 k> fix all transactions the better in their memory. 
 
 To help their memory, they have bits of small shells or beads- 
 
 of 
 
136 AN ACCOUNT OF TtFF, 
 
 of different colours, which have all a different meaning, accord- 
 ing to their colour or arrangement. At the end of every mat 
 ter they discourse upon, when they treat with a foreign state, 
 they deliver one of these belts. If they should omit this cere 
 mony, what they say passes for nothing. These belts are care 
 fully treasured up in each town, and they serve for the publick 
 records of the nation ; and to these they occasionally have re 
 course, when any contests happen between them and their 
 neighbours. Of late, as the matter of which these belts are made 
 is grown scarce, they often give some .skin in the place of the 
 wampum, for so they call these beads in their language, and 
 receive in return presents of a more valuable nature; for nei 
 ther will they consider what our commissioners say to be of any 
 weight, unless some present accompanies each proposal. 
 
 The same council of their elders which regulates whatever 
 regards the external policy of the state, has the charge likewise 
 of its internal peace and order. Their suits are few and quickly 
 decided, having neither property nor art enough to render them 
 perplexed or tedious. Criminal matters come before the same 
 jurisdiction, when they are so flagrant as to become a national 
 concern. In ordinary cases, the crime is either revenged or 
 compromised by the parties concerned. If a murder is com 
 mitted, the family which has lost a relation prepares to retaliate 
 on that of the offender. They often kill the murderer, and 
 when this happens, the kindred of the last person slain look 
 upon themselves to be as .much injured, and think themselves 
 as much justified in taking vengeance, as if the violence had not 
 begun amongst themselves. But, in general, things are deter 
 mined in a more amicable manner. The offender absents him- 
 -self ; his friends send a compliment of condolence to those of 
 the party murdered ; presents are offered, which are rarely re 
 fused : 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 13? 
 
 the head of the family appears, who in a formal speech 
 delivers the presents, which consist often of above sixty articles, 
 every one of which is given to cancel some part of the offence 
 and to assuage the grief of the suffering party.. With the first 
 he says, " By this I remove the hatchet from the wound, and 
 make it fall out of the hands of him that is prepared to revenge 
 the injury :" with the second, " I dry up the blood of that 
 wound ;" and so on, in apt figures, taking away one by one all 
 the ill consequences of the murder. As usual, the whole ends 
 in mutual feasting, songs, and dances. If the murder is com 
 mitted by one of the same family, or cabin, that cabin has 
 the full right of judgment, without appeal, within itself, either 
 -to punish the guilty with death, or to pardon him, or to force 
 him to give some recompence to the wife or children of the 
 slain. All this while the supreme authority of the nation looks 
 on unconcerned, and never rouses its strength, nor exerts the ful 
 ness of a power more revered than felt, but upon some signal oc 
 casion. Then the power seems equal to the occasion. -Every 
 one hastens to execute the orders of their senate ; nor ever was 
 any instance of disloyalty or rebellion known amongst this people. 
 Ooverned as they are by manners, not by laws ; example, edu- 
 catioo, and the constant practice of their ceremonies, give them 
 the most tender affection for their country, and inspire them 
 with a most religious regard for their constitution, and the cus 
 toms of their ancestors. The want of laws, and of an universal 
 strong coercive power, is not perceived in a narrow society, 
 where every man has his eye upon his neighbour, and where 
 the whole bent of every thing they do is to strengthen those 
 natural ties by which society is principally cemented. Fa 
 mily love, rare amongst us, is a national virtue amongst them, 
 of which all partake. Friendships there are amongst them, 
 
 T fit 
 
138 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 fit to vie with those of fabulous antiquity; and where sucfo 
 friendships are seen to grow, the families concerned congra 
 tulate themselves as upon an acquisition, that promises to them 
 a mutual strength, and to their nation the greatest honour and' 
 advantage. 
 
 
 
 
 CHAP. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 139 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 THEIR MOtmtf rue FOR THEIR DEAD. THE FEAST OF SOULS. THE AMERI 
 CAN WOMEN ; THEIR OCCUPATIONS : THEIR MARRIAGES AND DIVORCES. 
 
 loss of any one of their people, whether by a natural 
 death, or by war, is lamented by the whole town he belongs 
 to *. In such circumstances no business is taken in hand, how 
 ever important, nor any rejoicing permitted, however interest 
 ing the occasion, until all the pious ceremonies due to the dead 
 are performed. These are always discharged with the greatest so 
 lemnity. The dead body is washed, anointed, and painted, so as 
 in some measure to abate the horrours of death. Then the womc n 
 lament the loss with the most bitter cries, and the most hide 
 ous howlings, intermixed \vith songs, which celebrate the great 
 actions of the deceased, and those of his ancestors. The men 
 mourn in a less extravagant manner. The whole village attends 
 the body to the grave, which is interred, habited in their most 
 sumptuous ornaments. With the body of the deceased are 
 placed his bow and arrows, with what he valued most in his 
 life, and provisions for the long journey he is to take : for they 
 hold the immortality of the soul universally, but their idea is 
 gross. Feasting attends this, as it does every solemnity. After 
 the funeral, they who are nearly allied to the deceased conceal 
 themselves in their huts for a considerable time, to indulge their 
 
 * The towns are small, and, except the affairs of war or state, they have no 
 business to employ them, for the greatest part of the year, after the hunting season 
 is over. 
 
 T 2 sjrief. 
 
140 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 grief. The compliments of condolence are never omitted, nor, 
 are presents wanting upon this occasion. After some time, 
 they revisit the grave ; they renew their sorrow ; they new 
 clothe the remains of the body, and act over, again the .solem 
 nities of the first funeral. 
 
 Of all their instances of regard to their deceased friends, none 
 is so striking as what they call the feast of the dead, or the 
 feast of souls. The day of this ceremony is appointed in the 
 council of their chiefs, who give orders for every thing which . 
 may enable them to celebrate it with pomp and magnificence. 
 The riches- of the nation are exhausted on this occasion, and 
 all their ingenuity displayed. The neighbouring people are in 
 vited to partake of the feast, and to be witnesses of the solemnity. 
 At this time, all who have died since the last solemn feast of 
 that kind are taken out of their graves. Those who have been 
 interred at the greatest distance from the villages are diligently 
 sought for, and brought to this- great rendezvous of carcasses. It 
 is not difficult to conceive the horrour of this general disinter- 
 ment. I cannot paint it in a more lively manner than it is 
 done by Lafitau . 
 
 "Without question, says he, the opening of these tombs dis 
 play one of the most striking scenes that can be conceived ; this 
 humbling portrait of human misery,, in so many images of death, 
 wherein she seems to take a, pleasure to paint herself in a thou 
 sand various shapes of horrour, in the several carcasses, accord 
 ing to the degree in which corruption has prevailed over them*,, 
 or the manner in which it has attacked them. Some appear 
 dry and withered ; others have a sort of parchment upon their 
 bones ; some look as if they were baked and smoaked, without * 
 any appearance of rottenness; some are just turning towards 
 the point of putrefaction; whilst others are all swarming with 
 worms, and drowned in .corruption. I know not which ought 
 
 to. 
 
E-UROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA-. 141 
 
 to strike us most, the horrour of so shocking a sight, or the 
 tender piety and affection of these poor people towards their 
 departed friends ; for nothing deserves our admiration more, 
 than that eager diligence and attention with which they dis 
 charge this melancholy duty of their tenderness ; gathering up 
 carefully even the smallest bones ; handling the carcasses, dis 
 gustful as they are, with every thing loathsome ; cleansing 
 them from the worms, and carrying them upon their shoulders 
 through the tiresome journeys of several days, without being 
 discouraged by their insupportable stench, and without suffer 
 ing any other emotions to arise, than those of regret, for hav 
 ing lost persons who were so dear to them in their lives, and so 
 lamented in their death." 
 
 This strange festival is the most magnificent and solemn 
 which they have : not only on account of the great concourse 
 of natives and strangers, and of the pompous re-interment they 
 give to their dead, whom they dress in the finest skins they can. 
 get, after having exposed them some time in this pomp ; but 
 for the games of all kinds which they celebrate upon the occa 
 sion, .in ,the spirit of those which the. ancient Greeks and Ro 
 mans celebrated upon similar-occasions. . 
 
 In this manner do they endeavour to sooth the calamities of 
 life, by the honours they pay their dead; honours, which are 
 the more chearfully bestowed,, because in his turn each man ex 
 pects to receive them himself. Though amongst these savage 
 nations this custom is impressed with strong marks of the fero 
 city of their nature ; an honour for the dead, a tender feeling 
 of their absence, and a revival of their memory, are some of the 
 most excellent instruments' for smoothing our rugged nature into 
 humanity. In civilized nations ceremonies are less practised, 
 because other instruments for the same purposes are less want 
 ed ; 
 
H2 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 y 
 
 eel ; but it is certain a regard for the dead is ancient and uni 
 versal. 
 
 Though the women in America have generally the laborious 
 part of the economy upon themselves, yet they are far from 
 being the slaves they appear, and are not at all subject to the 
 great subordination in which they are placed in countries where 
 they seem to be more respected. On the contrary, all the ho 
 nours of the nation are on the side of the women. They even 
 hold their councils, and have their share in all deliberations 
 Avhich concern the staie ; nor are they found inferiour to the part 
 they act. Polygamy is practised by some nations, but it is not 
 general. In most they content themselves with one wife; but 
 a divorce is admitted, and for the same causes that it was 
 .allowed amongst the Jews, Greeks, and Romans. No nation 
 of the Americans is without a regular marriage, in which there 
 are many ceremonies ; the principal of which is, the bride's 
 presenting the bridegroom with a plate of their corn. 
 
 Incontinent before wedlock, after marriage the chastity of 
 their women is remarkable. The punishment of the adulteress, 
 as well as that of the adulterer, is in the hands of the husband 
 himself; and it is often severe, as inflicted by one who is at 
 once the party and the judge. Their marriages are not fruit 
 ful, seldom producing above two or three children, but they 
 are brought forth with less pain than our women suffer upon 
 such occasions, and with little consequent weakness. Probably, 
 that severe life which both sexes lead is not favourable to pro 
 creation. And the habit unmarried women have of procuring 
 abortions, in which they rarely fail, makes them the more unfit 
 for bearing children afterwards. This is one of the reasons of 
 the depopulation of America ; for whatever losses they suffer^ 
 either by epidemical diseases or by war, are repaired slowly. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. U3 
 
 C H A P. IV. 
 
 THE INDIAN MANNER OF PREPARING FOR WAR. THEIR TAKING THE FIELD. 
 
 THEIR METHOD OF DISCOVERING AND ATTACKING THE ENEMY. THEIR 
 
 CRUEL TREATMENT OP THEIR PRISONERS OF WAU. 
 
 ALMOST the sole occupation of the American is war, or such an 
 exercise as qualifies him for it. His whole glory consists in 
 this ; and no man is at all considered until he has increased the 
 strength of his country with a captive, or adorned his house 
 with a scalp of one of its enemies. When the ancients resolve 
 upon war, they do not always declare what nation it is they are 
 determined to attack ; that the enemy, upon whom they really 
 intend to fall, may be off his guard. Nay, they even sometimes 
 let years pass over without committing any act of hostility, that 
 the vigilance of all may be unbent by the long continuance of 
 the watch, and the uncertainty of the danger. In the mean 
 time they are not idle at home. The principal captain sum^- 
 inons the youth of the town to which he belongs ; the war kettle is 
 set on the fire ; the war songs and dances commence ; the hatchet 
 is sent to all the villages of the same nation, and t& all its allies ; 
 the fire catches ; the war songs are heard in all parts ; and the 
 most hideous howlings continue without intermission day and 
 night over that whole tract of country. The women add their 
 cries to those of the men, lamenting those whom they have 
 either lost in war or by a natural death, and demanding their 
 places to be supplied from their enemies ; stimulating the young 
 men by a sense of shame, which women kmw how to excite in 
 
 the 
 
144 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the strongest manner, and can take the best advantage of -when 
 excited. 
 
 When by these, and every other means, the fury of the na 
 tion is raised to the greatest height, and all long to imbrue 
 their hands in blood, the war captain prepares the feast, Avhich 
 consists of dogs' flesh. All that partake of this feast receive lit 
 tle billets, which are so many engagements which they take to 
 be faithful to each other, and obedient to their commander. 
 None are forced to the war ; but when they have accepted this 
 billet, they are looked upon as listed, and it -is then death 
 to recede. All the warriors in this assembly have their faces 
 blackened with charcoal, intermixed with dashes and streak* 
 of vermilion, which give them a most horrid appearance. Their 
 hair is dressed up in an odd manner, with feathers of various 
 kinds. In this assembly , which is preparatory to their military 
 expedition, the chief begins the war song ; which having con- 
 vtinued far some time, he raises his voice to the highest pitch, 
 and, turning off suddenly to a sort of prayer, addresses himself 
 to the god of war, whom they call Areskoni : " I invoke thee, M 
 -says he, " to be favourable to my enterprise ! I invoke thy care 
 upon me and my family ! I invoke ye likewise, all ye spirits 
 and demons good and evil! All ye that are in the skies, or on 
 the earth, or under the earth, to pour destruction upon our 
 enemies, and to return me and my companions safely to owr 
 country." All the vwarriors join him in this prayer with shouts 
 and acclamations. The captain renews his song, strikes his 
 club against the stakes of his cottage, and begins the war dance, 
 accompanied with the shouts of all his companions, which con 
 tinue as lonsj as he dances. 
 
 o 
 
 The day appointed for their departure being arrived., they 
 take leave of their friends ; they change their clothes, or what 
 ever moveables they have, in token of mutual friendship; their 
 
 wives 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 145 
 
 vive's and female relations go out before them, and attend at 
 some distance from the town. The warriors inarch out all drest 
 in their finest apparel and most showy ornaments, regularly one 
 after another, for they never march in rank. The chief walks 
 slowly on before them, singing the death song, whilst the rest 
 observe the most profound silence. When they come up to their 
 women, they deliver up to them all their finery, put on their 
 worst clothes, and then proceed as their commander thinks fit. 
 
 Their motives for engaging in a war are rarely those views 
 which excite us to it. They have no other end but the victory, 
 or the benefit of the slaves which it enables them to add to their 
 nation, or sacrifice to their brutal fury ; and it is rare that they 
 take any pains to give their wars even a colour of justice. It 
 is no way uncommon among them for the young men to make 
 feasts of dogs' flesh, and dances, in small parties, in the midst 
 of the most profound peace. They fall sometimes on one 
 nation, and sometimes on another, and surprise 1 some of their 
 hunters, whom they scalp and bring home as prisoners. Their 
 senators wink at this, or rather encourage it, as it tends to keep 
 up the martial spirit of their people, inures them to watchful 
 ness and hardship, and gives them an early taste for blood. 
 
 The qualities in an Indian war are vigilance and attention, 
 to give and to avoid a surprise ; and patience and strength, to 
 endure the intolerable fatigues and hardships which always at 
 tend it. The nations of America are at an immense distance 
 from each other, with a vast desart frontier, and hid in the bo 
 som of hideous, and almost boundless forests. These must be 
 traversed before they meet an enemy, who is often at such a 
 distance as might be supposed to prevent either quarrel or 
 danger. But, notwithstanding the secrecy of the destination of 
 the party" that first moves, the enemy has frequent notice of it, 
 is prepare^ for the attack, and ready to take advantage in the 
 
 u same 
 
 
14:6 AN ACCOUNT OF THi 
 
 same manner of the least want of vigilance in the aggressors, 
 Their whole art of war consists in this : they never fight in the 
 open field, but upon some very extraordinary occasions ; not 
 from cowardice, for they are brave ; but they despise this me 
 thod, as unworthy an able warrior, and as an atfair in which 
 fortune governs more than prudence. The principal things 
 which help them to find out their enemies, are the smoak of 
 their fires, which they smell at a distance almost incredible ; 
 and their tracks, in the discovery and distinguishing of which, 
 they are possessed of a sagacity equally astonishing; for they 
 will tell in the footsteps, which to us would seem most con 
 fused, the number of men that have passed, and the length of 
 time since they have passed ; they even go so far as to distin 
 guish the several nations by the different marks of their feet, 
 and to perceive footsteps, where we could distinguish nothing 
 less. A mind diligently intent upon one thing, and exercised 
 by long experience, will go lengths at first view scarcely cre 
 dible. 
 
 But as they who are attacked have the same knowledge, and 
 know how to draw the same advantages from it, their great ad 
 dress is to baffle each other in these points. On the expedition 
 they light no fire to warm themselves, or prepare their victuals, 
 but subsist merely on the miserable pittance of some of their 
 meal mixed with water ; they lie close to the ground all day, and 
 inarch only in the night. As they march in their usual order in 
 files, he that closes the rear diligently covers his own tracks, 
 and those of all who preceded him, with leaves. If any stream 
 occurs in their route, they march in it for a considerable way 
 to foil their pursuers. When they halt to rest and refresh 
 themselves, scouts are sent out on every side to reconnoitre 
 the country, and beat up every place where they suspect an 
 enemy may lie perdue. In this manner they often enter a vil 
 lage, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 147 
 
 lagc, whilst the strength of the nation is employed in hunting, 
 and massacre all the helpless old men, women, and children, or 
 make prisoners as many as they can manage, or have strength 
 enough to be useful to their nation. 
 
 They often cut off small parties of men in their huntings ; 
 but when they discover an army of their enemies, their way is 
 to throw themselves flat on their faces amongst the withered 
 leaves, the colour of which their bodies are painted to resemble 
 exactly. They generally let a part pass unmolested ; and then, 
 rising a little, they take aim, for they are excellent marksmen, 
 and setting up a most tremendous shout, which they call the 
 war-cry, they pour a storm of musquet-bullets upon the enemy ; 
 for they have long since laid aside the use of arrows ; the party 
 attacked returns the same cry. Every man in haste covers 
 himself with a tree, and returns the fire of the adverse party, as 
 soon as they raise themselves from the ground to give the se 
 cond fire. 
 
 After fighting some time in this manner, the party which 
 thinks it has the advantage rushes out of its cover, with small 
 axes in their hands, w r hich they dart with great address and 
 dexterity ; they redouble their cries, intimidating their enemies 
 with menaces, and encouraging each other with a boastful dis- 
 
 o o 
 
 play of their own brave actions. Thus being come hand to 
 hand, the contest is soon decided ; and the conquerors satiate 
 their savage fury with the most shocking insults and barbari 
 ties to the dead, biting their flesh, tearing the scalp from their 
 heads, and wallowing in their blood like wild beasts. 
 
 The fate of their prisoners is the most severe of all. During 
 the greatest part of their journey homewards they suffer no in 
 jury. But when they arrive at the territories of the conquer 
 ing state, or at those of their allies^ the people from every vil 
 lage meet them, and think they shew their attachment to their 
 
 u 2 friends 
 
148 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 friends by their barbarous treatment of the unhappy prisoners ; 
 
 so that, when they come to their station, they are wounded and 
 TO , n -if.- 
 
 bruised in a terrible manner. The conquerors enter the town 
 in triumph. The war captain waits upon the head men, and 
 in a low voice gives them a circumstantial account of every 
 particular of the expedition, of the damage the enemy has suf 
 fered, and his own losses in it. This done, the publick orator 
 relates the whole to the people. Before they yield to the joy 
 which the victory occassions, they lament the friends which 
 they have lost in the pursuit of it. The parties most nearly 
 concerned are afflicted apparently with a deep and real sorrow. 
 But, by one of those strange turns of the human mind, fashion 
 ed to any thing by custom, as if they were disciplined in 
 their grief, upon the signal for rejoicing, in a moment all tears 
 are wiped from their eyes, and they rush into an extravagance 
 and phrenzy of joy for their victory. 
 
 In the mean time the fate of the prisoners remains undecided* 
 until the old men meet, and determine concerning the distribu 
 tion. It is .usual to offer a slave to each house that has lost a 
 friend ; giving the preference according to the greatness of the 
 loss. The person who has taken the captive attends him to the 
 door of the cottage to which he is delivered, and with him gives 
 a belt of wampum, to shew that he has fulfilled the purpose of 
 the expedition, in supplying the loss of a citizen. They view 
 the present which is made them for some time ; and, according 
 as they think him or her, for it is the same, proper or improper 
 for the business of the family, or as they take a capricious lik 
 ing or displeasure to the countenance of the victim, or in pro 
 portion to their natural barbarity or their resentment for their 
 losses, they destine concerning him, to receive him into the 
 family, or sentence him to death. If the latter, they throw 
 away the belt with indignation. Then it is no longer in the 
 
 power 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 149 
 
 power of any one to save him. Tire nation is assembled as 
 upon some great solemnity. A scaffold is raised, and the pri 
 soner tied to the stake. Instantly he opens his death song, and 
 prepares for the ensuing scene of cruelty with the most un 
 daunted courage, ;)n the other side, they prepare to put it 
 to the utmost proof, with every torment which the mind of 
 man, ingenious in mischief, can invent. They begin at the ex 
 tremities of his body, and gradually approach the trunk. One 
 plucks out his nails by the roots, one by one ; another takes a 
 finder into his mouth, and tears off the flesh with his teeth ; a 
 
 O * 
 
 third thrusts the finger, mangled as it is, into the bole of a pipe 
 made red hot, which he smoaks like* tobacco. Then they 
 pound his toes and fingers to pieces between two stones ; they 
 cut circles about his joints, and gashes in the fleshy parts of his* 
 limbs, which they sear immediately with red-hot irons, cutting; 
 and searing alternately ; they pull off this flesh thus mangled 
 and roasted, bit by bit, devouring it with greediness, and smear 
 ing their faces with the blood, in an enthusiasm of horrour and 
 fury. When they have thus torn off the flesh, they twist the 
 bare nerves and tendons about an iron, tearing and snapping 
 them ; whilst others are employed in pulling and extending the 
 limbs themselves, in every way that can increase the torment.. 
 This continues often five or six hours together. Then they 
 frequently unbind him, to give a breathing to their fury, to 
 think what new torments they shall inflict, and to refresh the 
 strength of the sufferer, who, wearied out with such a variety 
 of unheard-of torments, often falls immediately into so pro 
 found a sleep, that they are obliged to apply the fire to awakea 
 him, and renew his suiferings. 
 
 lie is again fastened to the stake, and again they renew their 
 cruelty ; they stick him all over with small matches of wood 
 that easily takes fire, but burns slowly ; they continually run. 
 
 sharp 
 
1-50 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 sharp reeds into every part of his body ; they drag out his teeth 
 with pincers, and thrust out his eyes; and lastly, after having 
 burned his flesh from the bones with slow fires ; after having so 
 mangled the body that it is all but one wound ; after having 
 mutilated his face in such a manner as to carry nothing human 
 in it ; after having peeled the skin from the head, and poured 
 a heap of red-hot coals or boiling water on the naked skull ; 
 they once more unbind the wretch, who, blind and staggering 
 with pain and weakness, assaulted and pelted upon every side 
 with clubs and stones, now up, now down, falling into their 
 fires at every step, runs hither and thither, until one of the 
 chiefs, whether out of compassion or weary of cruelty, puts an 
 end to his life with a club or a dagger. The body is then put 
 into the kettle, and this barbarous employment is succeeded by 
 a feast as barbarous. 
 
 The women, forgetting the human as well as the female na 
 ture, and transformed into something worse than furies, act their 
 parts, and even outdo the men, in this scene of horrour. The 
 principal persons of the country sit round the stake smoaking 
 and looking on without the least emotion. What is most- ex 
 traordinary, the sufferer himself, in the little intervals of his tor 
 ments, smokes too, appears unconcerned, and converses with 
 his torturers about indifferent matters. Indeed, during the 
 whole time of his execution, there seems a contest between him 
 and them which shall exceed, they in inflicting the most horrid 
 pains, or he in enduring them with a firmness and constancy 
 almost above human. Not a groan, not a sigh, not a distor 
 tion of countenance, escapes him ; he possesses his mind en 
 tirely in the midst of his torments ; he recounts his own exploits, 
 he informs them what cruelties he has inflicted upon their coun 
 trymen, and threatens them with the revenge that will attend 
 his death ; and, though his reproaches exasperate them to a 
 
 perfect 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 151 
 
 perfect madness of rage and fury, he continues his reproaches 
 even of their ignorance in the art of tormenting, pointing out 
 himself more exquisite methods, and more sensible parts of the 
 body to be afflicted. The women have this part of courage as 
 well as the men ; and it is as rare for any Indian to behave 
 otherwise, as it would be for an European to suffer as an 
 Indian. 
 
 I do not dwell upon these circumstances of cruelty, which SQ 
 degrade human nature, out of choice ; but, as all who mention 
 the customs of- this people have insisted upon their behaviour 
 in this respect very particularly, and as it seems necessary to 
 give a true idea of their character, I did not chuse to omit it. 
 It serves to shew too, in the strongest light, to what an incon 
 ceivable degree of barbarity the passions of men let loose will 
 carry them. It will point out to us the advantages of a reli 
 gion that teaches a compassion to our enemies, which is neither 
 known nor practised in other religions ; and it will make us 
 more sensible, than some appear to be, of the value of com 
 merce, the art of a civilized life, and the lights of literature ; 
 which, if they have abated the force of some of the natural vir 
 tues by the luxury which attends them, have taken out likewise 
 the sting of our natural vices, and softened the ferocity of the 
 human race without enervating their courage. 
 
 On the other hand, the constancy of the sufferers in this ter 
 rible scene shews the wonderful power of an early institution, 
 and a ferocious thirst of glory, which makes men imitate and 
 exceed what philosophy, or even religion, can effect. 
 
 The prisoners who have the happiness to please those to whom 
 they are offered have a fortune altogether apposite to that of those 
 who are condemned. They are adopted into the family, they 
 are accepted in the place of the father, son> or husband^ that is 
 lost; and they have no othev mark of their captivity, but that 
 
 they 
 
152 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 they are not suffered to return to their own nation. To at?- 
 tempt this would be certain death. The principal purpose of 
 the war is to recruit in this manner ; for which reason a general 
 who loses many of his men, though he should conquer, is little 
 better than disgraced at home ; because the end of the war was 
 not answered. They are therefore extremely careful of their 
 men, and never chuse to attack but with a very undoubted su 
 periority, either in number or situation. 
 
 The scalps which they value so much are the trophies of their 
 bravery; with these they adorn their houses, which are esteem 
 ed in proportion as this sort of spoils is more numerous. They 
 have solemn days appointed> upon which the young men gain 
 a new name or title of honour from their head men ; and these 
 titles are given according to the qualities of the person, and his 
 performances ; of which these scalps are the evidence. This is 
 all the reward they receive for the dangers of the War, and the 
 fatigues of many campaigns, severe almost beyond credit. They 
 think it abundantly sufficient to have a name given by their 
 governors; men of merit themselves, and judges of it ; a name 
 respected by their countrymen, and terrible to their enemies. 
 There are many other things fit to engage the curiosity, and 
 even afford matter of instructive reflexion, in the manners of 
 barbarous people ; but these seem to be the most striking, and 
 fittest to be insisted on in a work which is to give a general idea 
 of America. The present settlements, their commerce and pro 
 ductions, ought to be allowed their proper room. In .which I 
 propose to treat, first of the Spanish colonies* as the first dis 
 covered and largest object, and that in which the rest of Eu 
 rope, though excluded, is the most concerned. The Portu 
 guese, as nearest in place and rank, shall be second. The French' 
 skill next be considered. The English shall 'be reserved to the 
 last, as the most important, to ourselves: ** : * >\$& 
 
 PART 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN* AMERICA. 
 
 PART IIL 
 
 SPANISH AMEIUCA 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 A GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF AMERICA. 
 
 HAVING described, with as much conciseness as the subject 
 would bear, the manners of the original inhabitants of America, 
 as we had before that, related the most remarkable adventures 
 of its discoverers and conquerors ; it will be necessary to view 
 more minutely, what and how advantageous a country these 
 conquests and discoveries have added to the world ; and what 
 are the views, interests, and characters of those, who at present 
 possess the greatest part of that extensive region. 
 
 America extends from the north pole to the fifty-seventh 
 degree of south latitude ; it is upwards of eight thousand miles 
 in length ; it sees both hemispheres ; it has two summers and 
 a double winter ; it enjoys all the variety of climates which the 
 earth affords ; it is washed by the two great oceans. To the 
 eastward it has the Alantick ocean, which divides it from Eu 
 rope and Africa. To the west it has another ocean, the great 
 South-Sea, by which it is disjoined from Asia. By these seas 
 it may, and does, carry on a direct commerce with the other 
 
 x three 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 three parts of the world. It is composed of two vast conti 
 nents, one on the north, the other upon the south, which are 
 joined by the great kingdom of Mexico, which forms a sort of 
 isthmus fifteen hundred miles long, and in one part, at Darien, 
 so extremely narrow, as to make the communication between 
 the two oceans by no means difficult. In the great gulph, 
 which is formed between this isthmus and the northern and 
 southern continents, lie an infinite multitude of islands, many 
 of them large, most of them fertile, and capable of being culti 
 vated to very great advantage. 
 
 America in general is not a mountainous country, yet it has 
 the greatest mountains in the world. The Andes, or Cordil- 
 
 o 
 
 leras, run from north to south along the coast of the Pacific 
 ocean. Though for the most part within the torrid zone, they 
 are perpetually covered with snow, and in their bowels contain 
 inexhaustible treasures. In the province of St. Martha in 
 South America are likewise very great mountains, which com 
 municate with the former. In North America we know of none 
 considerable, but that long ridge which lies to the back of our 
 settlements, which we call the Appalachian, or Alleghany moun 
 tains ; if that may be at all considered as a mountain, which 
 upon one side indeed has a very great declivity, but upon the 
 other is nearly on a level with the rest of the country. 
 
 Without comparison, America is that part of the world which 
 is the best watered ; and that not only for the support of life, 
 but for the convenience of trade, and the intercourse of each 
 part with the others. In North America the great river Mis- 
 sisippi, rising from unknown sources, runs an immense course 
 from north to south, and receives the vast tribute of the Ohio, 
 the Ouabache, and other immense rivers, navigable almost to 
 their very sources, and laying open the inmost recesses of this 
 continent. Near the heads of these are five great lakes^ or rather 
 
 seas 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 of fresh water, communicating with each other, and all 
 with the main ocean, by the river St. Lawrence, which pass*- 
 through them. These afford such an inlet for commerce as 
 must produce the greatest advantages, whenever the countrv 
 adjacent shall come to be fully inhabited, and by an industrious 
 and civilized people. The eastern side of North America, 
 which is our portion, besides the noble rivers Hudson, Dela 
 ware, Susquehanna, Potowmack, supplies several others of great 
 depth, lengthy and commodious navigation. Many parts of 
 our settlements are so intersected with navigable rivers and 
 creeks, that the planters may be said, without exaggeration, to 
 have each a harbour at his own door. 
 
 South America is, if possible, in this respect, even more for 
 tunate. It supplies much the two largest rivers in the world, 
 the river of Amazons, and the Rio de la Plata. The first, rising 
 in Peru, not far from the South-Sea, passes from west to east, 
 almost quite through the continent of South America, navigable 
 tor some sort or other of vessels all the way, and receiving into 
 its bosom a prodigious number of rivers, all navigable in the 
 same manner, and so great, that Monsieur Condamine found it 
 often almost impossible to determine which was the main chan 
 nel. The Rio de la Plata, rising in the heart of the country, 
 shapes its course to the south-east, and pours such an im 
 mense flood into the sea, that it makes it taste fresh a great 
 many leagues from the shore ; to say nothing of the Oronoquo, 
 which might rank the foremost amongst any but the American 
 rivers. The soil and products, in such a variety of climates, 
 cannot satisfactorily be treated of in a general description ; we 
 *>hall, in their places, consider them particularly. 
 
 All America is in the hands of four nations. The Spaniards, 
 who, as they first discovered it, have the largest and richest 
 share. All that part of North America, which composes the 
 
 x 2 isthmus 
 
156 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 isthmus of Mexico, and what lies beyond that towards the river 
 Missisippi on the east, the Pacific ocean to the west and north 
 west ; and they possess all South America, excepting Brasil, 
 which lies between the mouth of the river of Amazons and that 
 of Plata along the Atlantick ocean ; this belongs to Portugal. 
 That part of North America which the Spaniards have not, is 
 divided between the English and French. The English have 
 all the countries which incircle Hudson's Bay, and thence in a 
 line all along the eastern shore to the thirtieth degree of north 
 latitude. France claims the country which lies between this 
 and the Spanish settlements to the west, and secures an inter 
 course with them by the mouths of the Missisippi, the Mobile, 
 and of the river St. Lawrence, which are the only avenues of 
 navigation to this very extensive country. The multitude of 
 islands, which lie between the two continents, are divided 
 amongst the Spaniards, French, and English. The Dutch pos 
 sess three or four small islands, which, in any other hands, would 
 be of no consequence. The Danes have one or two ; but they 
 hardly deserve to be named amongst the proprietors of America. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 157 
 
 CHAP. ii. 
 
 THE CLIMATE AND SOIL OF NEW SPAIN. ANIMALS. ITS YEGETABXE 
 
 PRODUCE. 
 
 THE order which I intend to observe in treating of the Spa 
 nish colonies is, after having set fortli their situation, their cli 
 mate, and the nature of the soil, to describe those commodities 
 in which they trade ; to give a clear and concise account of 
 their method of manufacturing them ; and then to lay open 
 the manner of their dealing in them, as well as that by which 
 they carry on their foreign commerce. Last of all, I shall say 
 something of the genius and temper of the inhabitants ; of such 
 Customs of theirs as are remarkable, and of their civil policy, 
 and of their military, so far as they are come to my knowledge, 
 or as they are worthy the attention of the reader. The exact 
 division of the provinces, the courses of the rivers, the distances 
 of places, the dimensions of harbours and their soundings ; all 
 these, as they are infinitely better known from maps and charts, 
 so it would be impertinent and tedious to fill up this short work 
 with them, which proposes to give, even short as it is, a de 
 scription of every thing that may tend to a just notion of Ame 
 rica ; and therefore cannot sacrifice matters of more moment to 
 the description of things, of which a far belter idea may be ac 
 quired by other means to those whom they concern ; and to 
 those whom they do not interest, who are far the majority, must 
 be tedious and uninstructive. 
 
 The first country which the Spaniards settled upon the con 
 tinent 
 
158 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 tinent of America was Mexico ; and it still continues their prin 
 cipal settlement, whether we consider its number of inhabitants, 
 its natural wealth, or its extended traffick. As it lies for the 
 most part within the torrid zone, it is excessively hot ; and on 
 the eastern coast where the laixl is low, marshy, and constantly 
 flooded in the rainy seasons, it is likewise extremely unwhole 
 some; neither is that coast pleasant in any respect ; incum- 
 bered for the most part with almost impenetrable woods of 
 mangrove trees, of a bare and disagreeable aspect, and which ex 
 tend into the water for a considerable way. The inland country 
 assumes a more agreeable aspect, and the air is of a better 
 temperament ; here the tropical fruits grow in great abund 
 ance ; the land is of a good variety, and would not refuse any 
 sort of grain, if the number or industry of the inhabitants were 
 any way proportioned to the goodness of the soil. But on the 
 western side the land is not so low as on the eastern, much 
 better in quality, and full of plantations. 
 
 It is probable the Spaniards chuse to leave the eastern coast 
 in its present state of rudeness and desolation, judging that a 
 rugged and unwholesome frontier is a better defence against an 
 
 OO CT 
 
 European enemy, than fortifications and armies, to be maintain 
 ed at a vast expence ; or than the strength of the inhabitants, 
 made by the climate effeminate and pusillanimous, and kept so 
 by policy: and indeed it would be next to impossible to make 
 any considerable establishment on that coast, that could effec 
 tually answer the purposes of any power in Europe, without 
 struggling with the greatest difficulties ; and as for a sudden in 
 vasion, the nature of the country itself is a good fortification. 
 In general, few countries, under the same aspect of the heavens, 
 enjoy more of the benefits of nature and the necessaries of life ; 
 but, like all the tropical countries, it rather is more abundant 
 in. fruits than in grain. Pine apples, pomegranates, oranges, 
 
 lemons, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 1'59 
 
 lemons, citrons, figs, and cocoa nuts, are here in the greatest 
 plenty and perfection. Vines and apples require temperate 
 climates. 
 
 The number of their horned cattle is in a manner infinite ; 
 some private persons are said to have possessed forty thousand 
 head ; many are wild, and a very considerable trade is driven in 
 their hides and tallow, but the extreme heat prevents their 
 turning the flesh to any' account in commerce. Swine are 
 equally numerous, and their lard is much in request all over 
 this country, where it is used instead of butter. Sheep are 
 numerous in Mexico, but I do not find that wool is an article 
 of any great consideration in their trade ; nor is it probable that 
 it is of a good kind, as it is scarce ever found useful between 
 the tropicks, where it is hairy and short, excep't only in Peru ; 
 and that is the produce of sheep of a species very different from 
 that in the rest of America ; as Peru is itself remarkably dif 
 ferent in climate from all other countries under the torrid zone. 
 But cotton is here very good, and in great plenty. It is manu 
 factured largely, for, as it is very light and suitable to the cli- 
 xuate, and all other oloathing being extravagantly dear, it is the 
 general wear of the inhabitants ; the woollens and linens of Eu 
 rope being rather luxuries, and worn only by persons of some 
 condition. Some provinces produce silk, but not in that abun 
 dance or perfection to make a remarkable part of their export ; 
 not but that the country is very fit for that, and many other 
 things valuable, which are but little cultivated ; for the gold and 
 silver, whkh make the glory of this country, and in the abun 
 dant treasures, of which it exceeds all the world, engage almost 
 the whole attention of the inhabitants, as they are almost the 
 only things for which the Spaniards value their colonies, and 
 what alone receive the encouragement of. the court ; therefore 
 I shall insist most largely upon these articles. After that, 1 
 
 shall 
 
160 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 shall speak of those commodities, which are produced here of 
 most importance in foreign commerce, and rest upon them in 
 proportion to their importance. These are cochineal, indigo, 
 and cacao, of which chocolate is made. As for sugar, and to- 
 baco, and indigo, though no part of the world produces better 
 than Mexico ; and as for logwood, though it be in a manner 
 peculiar to this country; yet, as the first is largely raised and 
 manufactured elsewhere, and as our own commerce in the two 
 last is what chiefly interests an English reader, I shall reserve 
 them to be treated of in the division I allot to the English co 
 lonies. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. l6l 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 THE GOLD ANB SILVER MINES. THE MANNER OP PURIFYING THOSE METALS. 
 
 SOME THOUGHTS ON TH tJEWEttATlON OF METALS. OF THE QUANTITY 
 
 OF THOSE METALS PRODUCED IN THE SPANISH WEST-INDIES. 
 
 IT is not known with certainty, whether all or some pro 
 vinces only of New Spain produce mines of gold and silver. It 
 is, however, allowed that the chief mines of gold are in Veragua 
 and New Granada, confining upon Darien and Terra Firma, 
 Those of silver, which are much more rich as well as numerous, 
 are found in several parts, but in none so much as in the pro 
 vince of Mexico. But all the mines, whether of gold or silver, 
 are generally found in the mountainous and barren parts; 
 nature often making amends one way for her failures in an 
 other. 
 
 Gold is found either in the sand of rivers, native, and in small 
 grains, or it is dug out of the earth in the same condition in 
 small bits, almost wholly metallick, and of a tolerable purity*; 
 or it is found, like the ore of other metals, in an aggregate 
 opaque mass, in a mixture of earth, stone, sulphur, and other 
 metals. In this state it is of all colours ; red, white, blackish, 
 and making little or no ostentation of the riches it contains. 
 Sometimes it forms part of the ornament of some beautiful 
 stones, which are of Various lively colours, intersected with fila 
 ments of this metal, quite native. Lapis lazuli is one of thelse, 
 which has always some small portions of gold ; but tbis: golden 
 streaking is often extremely fallacious, and has betrayed many 
 into ruinous expences ; for in several stones these fine Vdins 
 
 Y have 
 
162 AN ACCOUNT OF ' T*5 
 
 have been nothing more than marcasite : however, such mar- 
 casites or fire stones are found in mines, which contain real gold. 
 Jjnt gold, howsoever found, whether native or in what is called 
 tin? ore, is seldom or never without a mixture of other metals, 
 generally silver or ctfpper. 
 
 The gold mines, though they contain the richest of all me 
 tals, it is remarkable, most frequently disappoint tlie hopes, and 
 ruin the fortunes, of those who engage iii them ; though neither 
 the labouring of the mine, nor the purifying of the metal, i& 
 attended with such an expcnce as what those are obliged to, 
 who work mines of the infcriour metals. For the vein is, of all 
 others, the most unequal; sometimes very large, full, and rich; 
 then it often decays by a quick gradation, and is sometimes sud 
 denly lost. But the ends of the veins are, on the other hand, 
 often extremely rich; they are called the purse .of the vein; 
 and when the miner is so- happy as to light on one of these 
 purses, his fortune is made immediately. 
 
 When the ore is dug out, the most usual method is to break 
 it to pieces in a mill, exactly resembling those large ones we 
 use for grinding apples, wherein a mill-stone set on end is made 
 to turn in a circular channel of stone. When the ore is thus 
 broke, and the gold somewhat separated from the impure mass, 
 they add to the whole a quantity of quicksilver. Quicksilver 
 has, of all other bodies, the greatest attraction with gold, which 
 therefore immediately breaks the links which held it to the 
 former earth, and clings close to this congenial substance. 
 
 7 " C? 
 
 Then a rapid stream of water is let into the channel, which, 
 scouring away (through a hole made for the purpose) the lighter 
 earth, by the briskness of its current, leaves the gold and mer 
 cury precipitated by its weight at the bottom. This amalgama, 
 or paste, is put into a linen cloth, and squeezed so as to make 
 the quicksilver separate and run out. To compleat this sepa 
 ration, 
 
163 
 
 ration, it is necessary to fuse the metal, and then all the mer 
 cury flies off in fumes. 
 
 But in many parts of Spanish America, another way of get 
 ting and purifying gold is practised. When by sure tokens they 
 know that gold lies in the bed of a rivulet, they turn the cur 
 rent into the inward angles, which time and the stream have 
 formed ; whilst this runs, they dig and turn up the earth, to 
 make it the more easily dissolved and carried off. When the 
 surface is thus completely washed away, and they are come to 
 a sort of stiff earth, which is the receptacle of gold, they return 
 the stream into its former channel, and dig up the earth as they 
 find it, which they carry to a little bason somewhat in the form 
 of a smith's bellows. Into this they turn a small but a lively 
 stream, to carry off the foreign matter, whilst they facilitate the 
 operation by stirring the mass with an iron hook, which dis 
 solves the earth, and gathers up the stones, which are carefully 
 thrown out that they may not interrupt the passages that carry 
 off the earth. By this means the gold, loosened from the gross 
 matter which adhered to it, falls to the bottom, but mixed so 
 intimately with a black heavy sand, that none of the gold can 
 be perceived, unless it happens to be a pretty large grain. To 
 separate it from this sand, it is put into a sort of wooden plat 
 ter, with a little hollow of about the depth of half an inch at 
 bottom. This platter they fill with water, and; turning the 
 mass about briskly with their hands for some time, the sand 
 passes over the edges, and leaves the gold in small grains, pure, 
 and of its genuine colour, in the hollow at the bottom. Thus 
 is gold refined without tire or mercury, merely by washing. 
 The places where this is performed are called therefore JLa- 
 vaderos by the Spaniards. There are many more methods 
 of extracting Mid purifying this: precious metal ; but these 
 : Y 2 are 
 
164 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 are the mo.st common ways used by the Spaniards in tlVeir 
 Indies. 
 
 Silv-er is the metal next in rank, but first in consequence in 
 the Spanish traffick, as their mines yield a much greater quan 
 tity of the latter than of the former. It is found in the earth un 
 der different forms, as indeed the ore of all metal is. Such is the 
 diversity of ores in this respect, that nothing but a long expe 
 rience in this particular branch can exactly ascertain the species 
 of the metal, which almost any ore contains at first view. I 
 have seen, specimens wherein the silver, almost pure, twined 
 itself about a white stone, penetrating into the interstices in the 
 same manner that the roots of trees enter into the rocks, and 
 
 twist themselves about them. Some are of an ash-coloured ap- 
 
 * 
 
 pearance, others spotted of a red and blue, some of changeable 
 colours, and many almost black, affecting somewhat of a pointed 
 regular form like crystals. I cannot find that it is ever found 
 in grains or sand v native, as gold is. 
 
 The manner of refining silver does not differ essentially from- 
 the process which is employed for gold. They are both .purified 
 upon the same principle ; by clearing away as much of the earth 
 as can be, with water ; by uniting or amalgamating it with 
 mercury ; and afterwards by clearing off the mercury, itself, by; 
 straining and evaporation. But the management of : silver in 
 this respect is much more difficult than that of gold ; because 
 this metal is much more intimately united with the foreign mat 
 ters with which it. is found in the mine ; and its attraction with 
 mercury is much weaker ; therefore there is great care taken in 
 the amalgamation, and. it is a long time before they are per 
 fectly mixed. A quantity of sea-salt is likewise added. No 
 $ilver is had by mere washing. 
 
 The chemists have talked very freely of the production of 
 
 these 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 these and other metals in the earth; of the salt, sulphur, and 
 mercury, that compose them ; and the manner in which these 
 substances are united and changed, so as to form metals and mi 
 nerals of every species. Some have recourse to the sun as the 
 great agent in. this, process, especially in gold and silver, as the 
 most worthy such an operator. Others call in the aid of sub 
 terraneous fires and central heat. But in reality they have ad 
 vanced very little that, is satisfactory upon this subject. They 
 have never, by any method of joining the matters which they 
 have assigned as the constituent parts of metals, in any propor 
 tions whatsoever, nor by any degrees of their great agent fire, 
 been able to make metal of that which was not metal before. 
 Neither have they foiuid what they allot as the component parts 
 of all metals in such a manner in all, as to enable them to fix 
 any common principle for their generation. Some they cannot 
 analyse by any art, as gold ; they indeed define it a composition, 
 of a very subtile mercury, . and .a.sulphur as subtile. 
 
 But how -this comes to be known, when no process hitherto 
 discovered has been able to extract either of. these from gold, 
 they who have advanced such things ought to tell. It is rea-, 
 sonable to believe, that there is some plastick principle in nature, 
 perhaps something analogous to the seminal principle in plants 
 and animals, whatever that is, which does not, as we know, re 
 semble any known body, nor is composed .of any combination 
 of known bodies, but powerful of itself to combine and vary 
 such a part of the common stock of matter as it. is fitted to ope 
 rate upon, which it. draws to itself, and causes to form, an ani-. 
 mal, or a plant, or a mineral, or metal, of this or that nature, 
 according to the original nature of the seed. Suppose a plant 
 subjected to all the .torture of the chemical qnestion : you find 
 it contains various matters.;, an earth, . water, oil, salt, spirit, 
 
 and 
 
166 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 and in the three last perhaps something specifick, and differing 
 from other plants. But neither the same quantities of similar 
 matter, nor these very matters themselves, can ever come to 
 form a plant like the original, or any thing like a plant at all, 
 because the seminal virtue is wanting; nor is it perhaps disco 
 verable. And as for the other matters, they arc the inert parts 
 of the plant ; without power themselves, they are the materials 
 with which, and on which, the seminal virtue acts, to organize 
 the mass, to spread the branches, to shoot out the gems, to 
 mature the fruit, and in short to perform all the functions of a 
 complete plant. The same may be said of animals. And why 
 not of minerals, though of a less nice organization ? Why should 
 they not have the seminal principle too, which, operating, by 
 its own power and in a way of its own, upon the elements of 
 air, earth, water, oil, and salt, is capable of producing iron, 
 copper, gold, silver, and other metals. The want of this will 
 always hinder us from being able to produce any metal from 
 other than metalline ingredients, though we should take such 
 tilings as resemble the ingredients they yield upon an analysis, 
 and in the same quantities in which we find them. This I do 
 not say as favouring the notion that stones and metals vegetate 
 exactly like plants. That these are often found where they had 
 formerly been exhausted, and that they are known to extend 
 their dimensions, is pretty certain ; but that they assimilate the 
 heterogeneous matter which increases their bulk, in a manner 
 analogous to plants, I cannot venture to propose. It must be 
 allowed that silver has been found, and I have so seen it, ex 
 tending itself amonti the interstices of stones, not unlike ivy 
 
 O C* * 
 
 and other parasite plants ; yet, as a metal no way differing from 
 it, or at all inferiour, is extracted from ores, which have an 
 appearance altogether different, aiid which too is the usual 
 
 way, 
 
KrttOPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 167 
 
 way, it is probable the manner in which they grow is not 
 the same. 
 
 What I had to say of gold and silver, as both are found, and 
 the latter in vast quantities, in Mexico, I thought proper, 
 for the sake of avoiding repetitions, to bring under this head, 
 though ail the rest of the Spanish territories produce largely of 
 both. 
 
 Of the plenty of gold and silver, which the mines of Mexico 
 afford, great things have been said, and with justice ; as this, 
 with the other Spanish colonies in America, in a manner furnish 
 the whole world with silver; and bear a great proportion in 
 gold to the whole of what the world produces. A late very 
 judicious collector of voyages says, that the revenues of Mexico 
 can hardly fall short of twenty-four millions of our m'oney. He 
 founds this upon a return made by the bishops of their tenths, 
 which, without doubt, were not over-rated ; and that these 
 amounted to one million and a half sterling ; that these are 
 about a fourth of the revenues .of the clergy ; and that the 
 estates of the clergy are about the fourth part of the whole re 
 venues of the kingdom, which at this rate amount to twenty- 
 four millions English. He takes another method of computing 
 the wealth of this province, which is, by the fifth paid to the 
 king of the gold and silver dug out of their mines. This, he 
 observes, in the year 1730, amounted to one million of marks 
 in silver, each mark equivalent to eight ounces ; so that if we 
 compute this silver at five shillings per ounce, then the inha 
 bitants receive from their mines ten millions in money. What 
 a prodigious idea must this calculation give us of the united 
 product of all the American mines ! How much must be allowed 
 in this account for the exaggeration of travellers, and the osten 
 tation of Spaniards, I will not pretend to determine. The plate 
 
 circulated 
 
163 AM ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 circulated iu v trade, or lying dead as the ornaments of churches 
 and houses, though a great deal is undoubtedly employed in 
 aU these ways, did not -seem to me to justify so' Vast a compu 
 tation; -but, as the gentleman who has considered this point 
 with uncommon attention is of another opinion, I wave any fur*' 
 t4ier observation upon it. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA, 
 
 C II A P. IV. 
 
 OF COCHINEAL AND CACAO. 
 
 COCHINEAL, the next commodity for value which they export, 
 is used in dyeing all the several kinds of the finest scarlet, crim 
 son, and purple. After much dispute about the nature of this 
 curious drug, it seems at last agreed, that it is of the animal 
 kind ; an insect of the species of the gall-insects. This animal 
 is found adhering to various plants, but there is' only one which 
 communicates to it the qualities which make it valuable in me 
 dicine and manufactures. This plant is called Opuntia by the 
 botanists. It consists wholly of thick succulent oval leaves, 
 joined end to end, and spreading out on the sides in various 
 ramifications. The flower is large, and the fruit in shape re 
 sembling a fig; this fruit is full of a crimson juice, and to this 
 juice it is that the cochineal insect owes its colour. 
 
 When the rainy seasons come on, they who cultivate this 
 plant, cut off those heads which abound most with such insects 
 as are not yet at their full growth ; and preserve them very care 
 fully from the weather and all other injuries. These branches, 
 though separated from their parent stocks, preserve their fresh 
 ness and juices a long time ; and this enables the insect not only 
 to live out the rains, but to grow to its full size, and be in 
 readiness to bring forth its young, as soon as the inclemency of 
 the season is over. When this time comes on, they are brought 
 out, and placed upon the proper plants, disposed in little nests 
 of some mossy substance. As soon as they feel the enliven- 
 
 z ing 
 
170 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 ing influence of the fresh air, they bring forth in three or four 
 days from their exposure at furthest. The young, scarce bigger 
 than a mite, runs about with wonderful celerity, and the whole 
 plantation is immediately peopled ; yet, what is somewhat sin 
 gular, this animal, so lively in its infancy, quickly loses all its 
 activity, arid, attaching itself to some of the least exposed and 
 most succulent part of the leaf, it clings there for life, without 
 ever moving, not wounding the leaf for its sustenance, but 
 sucking with a proboscis, with which it is furnished for this 
 purpose. 
 
 What is not less remarkable than the way of life of this ani 
 mal, is the nature of the male, which has no appearance of be* 
 longing to the same species ; far from being fixed to a spot, he 
 has wings, and is, like the butterfly, continually in motion ; 
 they are smaller than the cochineal, and constantly seen amongst 
 theni, and walking over them without being suspected by those 
 who take care of the insect, of being a creature of the same 
 kind, though they believe that the cochineals are impregnated 
 by them. But it is the female cochineal only which is gathered 
 for use. 
 
 They make four gatherings in a year, which are so many ge- 
 ne"rations of this 'animal. When they are sufficiently careful, 
 they brush off the insects one by one with a sort of hair pencils, 
 and take them as they fall ; but they often brush the whole 
 plant in a careless manner, so that fragments of it are mixed 
 with the cochineals, and themselves mixed, the old and young 
 together, which carelessness abates much of the value ; but what 
 chiefly makes the goodness of this commodity is, the manner 
 of killing and drying the cochineals, which is performed three 
 ways ; the first is by dipping the basket in which it is gathered 
 into boiling water, and afterwards drying them in the sun ; this 
 the Spaniards call renegrida. The second method is by dry 
 
 ing 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 17 1 
 
 . 
 
 ing them in ovens made for the purpose ; this, from its grey 
 colour, veined with purple, is called jaspeade. The third man 
 ner is, when the Indians dry them on their cakes of maize 
 which are baked on flat stones ; this last is the worst kind, as 
 it is generally overbaked, and something burned. They call it 
 negra. 
 
 This drug has a very uncommon good quality, and the more 
 extraordinary as it belongs to the animal kingdom, and to the 
 most perishable of that kind, that it never decays. Without any 
 other care than having been put by in a box, some have been 
 known to keep sixty, some even upwards of a hundred years, and 
 as fit for the purposes of medicine, or manufacture, as ever it 
 was. It is used in medicine as a cordial sudorific, in which in 
 tentions few things answer better. And indeed as it answers 
 such good purposes in medicine, is so essential in trade, and 
 produced only in this country, it may be considered in all mar 
 kets as equivalent to gold or silver, by the certainty and qucik- 
 ness of the sale. It is computed they annually export no less 
 than nine hundred thousand pound weight of this commodity. 
 
 The cocao, or cacao, of which chocolate is made, is a con 
 siderable article in the natural history and commerce of New- 
 Spain. It grows upon a tree of a middling size; the wood 1 is 
 spongy and porous, the bark smooth, and of a cinamion colour : 
 the flower grows in bunches between the stalks and the wood, 
 of the form of roses, but small, and without any scent. The 
 fruit is a sort of pod, which contains the cacao, much about the 
 size and shape of a cucumber. Within there is a pulp of a 
 most refreshing acid taste, which fills up the interstices between 
 the nuts before they are ripe ; but, when they fully ripen, these 
 nuts are packed up wonderfully close, and in a most regular and 
 elegant order ; they have a pretty tough shell, and within this 
 is the oily rich substance, of which chocolate is made. This 
 
 z 2 fruit 
 
J72 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 fruit grows differently from our European fruits, which always 
 hang upon the small branches ; but this grows along the body 
 of the great ones, principally at the joints. None are found 
 upon the small, which, though it is a manner of vegetation un 
 known here, prevails in several other plants within the tropicks. 
 This cacao is a very tender tree, equally impatient of the wind, 
 heat or cold, and will flourish only in the shade ; for which rea 
 son, in the cacao walks, they always plant a palm-tree for every 
 one of cacao. I need say little of the use of this fruit ; it is 
 general amongst ourselves, and its virtues well known ; but, 
 however the great external call for it may be, the internal con 
 sumption is much greater : so that in Mexico and Terra Firma,. 
 m some provinces of which latter it is found in the greatest per 
 fection, their foreign and domestick commerce in this article is 
 immense, and the profits so great, that a small garden of the 
 cacaos is said to produce twenty thousand crowns a year; 
 though 1 believe this to be exaggerated : it shews, however, in 
 what a light of profit this commodity is considered. At home 
 it makes the principal part of their diet, and is found whole 
 some, nutritious, and suitable to the climate. This fruit is 
 often confounded with the cocoa nut, which is a species wholly 
 different, 
 
 Usm zi 't&! 
 
 CHAP: 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 173 
 
 CHAP. V... 
 
 THE TRADE OP MEXICO, SOME ACCOUNT OP THAT CITV- THE FAIRS OF 
 ACAPULCO AND LA VERA CRUZ. THE FLOTA AND REGISTER SHIPS. 
 
 THE trade of Mexico may be considered as consisting of three 
 great branches, by which it communicates with the whole world ; 
 the trade with Europe by La Vera Cruz ; the trade with the 
 East-Indies by Acapulco ; and the commerce of the South-Sea 
 by the same port. The places in New Spain/which can in 
 terest a stranger, are therefore three only, La Vera Cruz, Aca 
 pulco, and Mexico. 
 
 Mexico, the capital of the kingdom* the residence of the 
 viceroy, the seat of the first audience or chamber of justice, and 
 an archbishoprick, is certainly one of the richest and most splen 
 did cities, not only in America, 'but in the whole world. Though 
 no seai-port town* nor communicating with the sea by any na 
 vigable river, it has a prodigious commerce, and is itself the 
 center of all that is carried on between America and Europe on 
 one hand, and between America and the East-Indies on the 
 other; for here the principal merchants reside, the greatest 
 part of the business is negotiated ; and the goods sent from 
 Acapulco to La Vera Cruz, or from La Vera Cruz to Acapulco, 
 for the use of the Philippines, and in a great measure for the 
 use of Peru and Lima, all pass through this city, and employ 
 an incredible number of horses and mules in the carriage. Hi-* 
 ther all the gold and silver come to be coined, here the king's 
 fifth is deposited, and here is wrought all that immense quantity 
 
 of 
 
174 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 of utensils and ornaments in plate, which is every year sent into 
 Europe. Every thing here has the greatest air of magnificence 
 .and wealth ; the shops glitter upon all sides with the exposure 
 of gold, silver, and jewels, and surprise yet more by the work 
 of the imagination upon the treasures which fill great chests 
 piled up to the cielings, whilst they wait the time of being sent 
 to Old Spain. It is said that the negro wenches, who run by 
 the coaches of the ladies there, wear bracelets of gold, pearl 
 necklaces, and jewels in their ears, whilst the black foot-boys 
 are all over covered with lace and embroidery. It cannot ex 
 actly be ascertained what number of people are in this city. 
 It is certainly very considerable, by many not made less than 
 seventy or eighty thousand. This city itself is well and regu 
 larly built, though the houses are not lofty ; and monasteries 
 are numerous^ anxl richly endowed, and the churches extrava 
 gantly rich in their ornaments, though comparatively poor in 
 the taste of their architecture. 
 
 The port nearest to this city is Acapulco, upon the South- 
 Sea, upwards of two hundred miles distant from the capital* 
 Acapulco itself has one of the deepest, securest, and most com 
 modious harbours in the South-Sea, and indeed almost the only 
 one which is good upon the western coast of New Spain. The 
 entrance of the harbour is defended by a castle of tolerable 
 strength; the town is but ill built, and makes every way a 
 miserable figure, except at the time of the fairs, when it intirely 
 changes its appearance, and becomes one of the most consider 
 able marts in the world. About the month of December, the 
 great galleon, which makes the whole communication that is 
 between America and the Philippines, after a voyage of five 
 months, and sailing three thousand leagues without seeing any 
 other land than the Little Ladrones, arrives here loaded with 
 all the rich commodities of the East; cloves, pepper, cinamon 5 
 
 nutmegs, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 175 
 
 nutmegs, mace, china, japan wares, calicoes plain and painted, 
 chints, muslins of every sort, silks, precious stones, rich drugs, 
 and gold dust. At the same time the annual ship from Lima 
 conies in, and is not computed to bring less than two millions 
 of pieces of eight in silver, besides quicksilver, cacao, drugs, 
 and other valuable commodities, to be laid out in the purchase 
 of the commodities of the East-Indies. Several other ships 
 from different parts of Chili and Peru meet upon the same 
 occasion ; and, besides the traffick for the Philippine commodi 
 ties, this causes a very large dealing for every thing those coun 
 tries have to exchange with one another, as well as for the pur 
 chase of all sorts of European goods. The fair lasts sometimes 
 for thirty days. As soon as the goods are disposed of, the gal 
 leon prepares to set out on her voyage to the Philippines with 
 her returns, chiefly in silver, but with some European goods 
 too, and some ot.her commodities of America. I speak here, 
 as though there were but one vessel in the trade with the Phi- 
 
 o 
 
 lippines; and in fact there is only nominally one trading vessel, 
 the galleon itself, about twelve hundred tuns ; but another at 
 tends her commonly as a sort of convoy, which generally carries 
 such a quantity of goods as pretty much disables her from per 
 forming that office. The galleon has often above a thousaiul 
 people on board, either interested in the cargo, or merely pas 
 sengers ; and there is no trade in which so large profits are 
 made ; the captain of the vessel, the pilots, their mates, and 
 even the common sailors, making in one voyage, what in their 
 several ranks may be considered as easy fortunes. It is said, 
 by the writer of Lord Anson's voyage, that the Jesuits have the 
 profits of this ship to support their missions ; and if so, their 
 gains must be extremely great, and must add much to the con 
 sequence of a society which has, as great a reputation for its 
 
 riches as its wisdom, 
 
 This 
 
This commerce to so vast a value, though carried on directly 
 between the king of Spain's own dominions, enriches them in 
 proportion but very little ; the far greater part of every thing 
 that conies from the Philippines being the prod ace, or the fa- 
 brick, of other countries ; the Spaniards add noneofthe artificial 
 'value of labour to any thing. The Chinese are largely inte 
 rested in this cargo, and -it is to them they are indebted for the 
 manufacturing of such of their plate, as is wrought into any 
 -better fashion than rude ingots or inelegant coins. When this 
 
 ir is over, the town is comparatively deserted; however, it 
 remains for the whole year the most considerable port in Mexico* 
 for the trade with Peru and Chili, which is not very great. The 
 East-India <*oods brought hither are carried on mules to Mexico, 
 
 ~ CJ * 
 
 from whence what exceeds their own consumption is sent by 
 land carriage to La Vera Cruz, to pass over the Terra Firma, 
 to the islands, and some even to Old Spain, though in no great 
 quantity. 
 
 From the port of La Vera Cruz it is that the great wealth of 
 
 Mexico is poured out upon all the Old World ; and it is from 
 
 this port alone, that they receive the numberless luxuries and 
 
 necessaries that the Old World yields them in return. To this 
 
 -port the annual fleet from Cadiz, called the flota, arrives about 
 
 the latter end of November, after a passage of nine weeks. This 
 
 ; fleet, which sails only from Cadiz, consists of about three men 
 
 of war as a convoy, and fourteen or fifteen large merchant ships, 
 
 from four hundred to one -thousand tuns burthen. They are 
 
 loaded almost with every sort of goods which Europe produces 
 
 for export ; all sorts of woollens, linens, silks, velvets, laces, 
 
 glass, paper, cutlery, all sorts of wrought iron, watches, clocks, 
 
 quicksilver, horse furniture, shoes, stockings, books, pictures, 
 
 military stores, wines, and fruits; so that all the trading parts 
 
 of Europe are highly interested in the cargo of this fleet. Spain 
 
 itself 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 177 
 
 itself sends out little more than the wine and fruit. This, with 
 the freight and commissions to the merchant and the duty to 
 the king, is almost all the advantage which that kingdom de 
 rives from her commerce with the Indies. It is strictly prohi 
 bited to load any commodities on board this fleet without en 
 tering the goods, the value, and the owner's name, in the 
 India-house at Seville : and when they return, they must bring 
 a certificate, from the proper officer there, that the goods were 
 duly landed, and in the proper port. They are not permitted 
 to break bulk upon any account until they arrive at La Vent 
 Cruz, nor suffered to take any other than Spanish passengers, 
 nor them without a licence first obtained at the India-house. 
 
 Jealousy is the glaring character of the court of Spain, in 
 whatever regards their American empire ; and "they often sacri 
 fice the prosperity to an excessive regard to the security of their 
 possessions. They attend in this trade principally to two ob 
 jects ; the exclusion of all strangers from any share in it, and 
 the keeping up of the market for such goods as they send ; and 
 they think both these ends best answered by sending out only one 
 annual fleet, and that from only one port in Spain, and to one 
 port only in Mexico. These views, which would be impolitick 
 in any power in Europe besides, are judicious enough in Spain ; 
 because, the goods they send belonging mostly to strangers, and 
 the profits upon the sale in the Indies being the only thing that 
 really accrues to themselves, it is certainly right to consult pri 
 marily how they shall get the greatest returns upon the smallest 
 quantity of goods. It would be quite otherwise, if all, or most 
 of Avhat they send abroad, were their own produce or manufac 
 ture. They are undoubtedly right too in keeping the trade 
 very carefully to themselves, though perhaps the means taken 
 to attain this end will not be thought so rational. By suffering 
 all the trade to be carried on only between two ports, they dis 
 courage in the Old World all their towns from that emulation, 
 
 A A which 
 
178 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 which would not only enable them to traffick in foreign commodi 
 ties, but in time to set up fabricks of their own ; whereas now, with 
 regard to the export of their commodities, they stand upon the 
 level of strangers ; they cannot carry their produce directly to 
 the best market; and it is very certain, that even trifling dis 
 couragements operate very powerfully where the commercial 
 spirit is weak, and the trade in its infancy. Again ; in the New 
 World, this confinement of the trade encourages interlopers, and 
 an illicit commerce, too gainful for any regulation to prevent, 
 and which may afford such bribes as will disarm the most rigid 
 justice and lull the most attentive vigilance. So that in reality 
 it may greatly be doubted, whether the precautions, so systema 
 tically pursued, and improved from time to time with so much 
 care and foresight, are at bottom of most advantage or prejudice 
 to that nation. It was probably some consideration of this 
 kind, that first gave rise to the custom of register ships : it was 
 found that this confined commerce supplied its extensive object 
 very imperfectly ; and that those who were at watch to pour in 
 contraband goods, would take advantage of this want of a re 
 gular supply from Spain. When therefore a company of mer 
 chants of Cadiz or Seville judge -that goods must be wanting at 
 any certain port in the West-Indies, the course is, to petition 
 the council of the Indies for licence to send a ship of three hun 
 dred tons, or under, to that port. They pay for this licence 
 forty or fifty thousand dollars, besides presents to the officers, in 
 proportion to the connivance necessary to their design ; for, 
 though the licence runs to three hundred tons at the utmost, 
 the vessel fitted out is seldom really less than six hundred. This 
 ship and cargo is registered at the pretended burthen. It is re 
 quired too, that a certificate be brought from the king's officer 
 at the port to which the register ship is bound, that she does 
 not exceed the size at which she is registered ; all this passes 
 of course j these are what they call register ships, and by these 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 179 
 
 the trade of Spanish America has been carried on principally 
 for some years past ; some think, as much to the prejudice of 
 their trade, as contrary to all their former maxims in carrying 
 it on. But to return to the flota. 
 
 When all the goods are landed and disposed of at La Vera 
 .Cruz, the fleet takes in the plate, precious stones, cochineal, 
 indigo, cacao, tobacco, sugar, and hides, which are their re 
 turns for Old Spain. Sometimes in May, but more frequently 
 in August, they are ready to depart. From La Vera Cruz they 
 sail to the Havanna in the isle of Cuba, which is the place 
 of rendezvous where they meet the galleons ; another fleet, 
 which carries on all the trade of Terra Firma by Carthagena, 
 and of Peru by Panama and Porto-bello, in the same manner 
 that the flota serves for that of New Spain. 'When they arrive 
 at this port, and join the galleons and the register ships that 
 collect at the same port from all quarters, some of the cleanest 
 and best sailing of their vessels are dispatched to Spain, with 
 advice of the contents of these several fleets, as well as with 
 treasure and goods of their own, that the court may judge what 
 indulto or duty is proper to be laid on them, and \vhat convoy 
 is necessary for their safety. These fleets make generally some 
 stay at the Havanna before all the ships that compose them are 
 collected and ready to sail. As soon as this happens, they quit 
 the Havanna, and beat through the gulph of Florida, and, 
 passing between the Bahama islands, hold their course to the 
 north-east, until they come to the height of St. Augustin, 
 and then steer away to Old Spain. When the flota has left La 
 Vera Cruz, it has no longer the appearance of a place of con 
 sequence ; it is a town in a very unhealthy situation, inhabited 
 scarcely by any but Indians, Meztezes, or Negroes. Ail the 
 merchants of any consequence reside at some distance, at a place 
 called Los Angelos. This town may contain about three thou 
 sand inhabitants. 
 
 A A 2 CHAP. 
 
160 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 THREE SORTS OP PEOPLE IN NEW SPAIN. THE WHITES, INDIANS, AND 
 
 NEGROES ; THE CHARACTERS OF THOSE. THE CLERGY, THEIR CHARAC 
 TERS. THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT, ITS CHARACTER. 
 
 THE inhabitants of New Spain are composed of people of three 
 different races ; Whites, Indians, and Negroes, or the several 
 mixtures of those. The Whites are either born in Old Spain, 
 or they are Creoles ; those who are native Spaniards are mostly 
 in offices, or trade, and have the same character and manners 
 with the Spaniards of Europe ; the same gravity of behaviour, 
 the same natural sagacity and good sense, the same indolence, 
 and yet a greater share of pride and stateliness ; for here they 
 look upon the being natives of Old Spain as a very honourable 
 distinction, and are in return looked upon by the Creoles with 
 no small share of hatred and envy. The latter have little of 
 that firmness and patience which makes one of the finest parts 
 of the character of the native Spaniard. They have little cou 
 rage, and are universally weak and effeminate. Living as they 
 do in a constant enervating heat, surfeited with wealth, and 
 giving up their whole time to loitering and inactive pleasures, 
 they have nothing bold or manly to fit them for making a figure 
 in active life ; and few or none have any taste for the satisfac 
 tion of a learned retirement. Luxurious without variety or 
 elegance, and expensive with great parade and little conve- 
 nie,ncy, their general character is no more than a grave and spe 
 cious insignificance. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA.- 181 
 
 They are temperate at their tables and in their cups, but, 
 from idleness and constitution, their whole business is amour 
 and intrigue; these they carry on in the old Spanish taste, by 
 doing and saying extravagant things, by bad musick, worse 
 poetry, and excessive expences. Their ladies are little celebrat 
 ed for their chastity or domestick virtues ; but they are still a 
 good deal restrained by the old-fashioned etiquette, and they 
 exert a genius, which is not contemptible, in combating the 
 restraints which that lays them under. 
 
 The clergy are extremely numerous, and their wealth and in 
 fluence cannot be doubted amongst so rich and superstitious a 
 people. It is said, that they actually possess a fourth of the 
 revenues of that whole kingdom ; which after all abatements, 
 certainly amounts to several millions. And as to their numbers, 
 it is not extravagant to say, that priests, monks, and nuns of 
 all orders, are upwards of one fifth of all the white people, both 
 here and in the other parts of Spanish America. But, the 
 clergy here being too ignorant in general to be able instructors 
 by their preaching, and too loose and debauched in their own 
 manners to instruct by their example, the people are little the 
 better for their numbers, wealth, or influence. Many of them 
 are no other than adventurers from Old Spain, who, without 
 regard to their character or their vows, study nothing but how 
 to raise a sudden fortune, by abusing the ignorance and extreme 
 credulity of the people. A great deal of attention is paid to 
 certain mechanical methods of devotion. Moral duties are 
 little talked of. An extreme veneration for saints, lucrative to 
 the orders they have founded or are supposed to patronize, is 
 strongly inculcated, and makes the general subject of their ser 
 mons designed rather to raise a stupid admiration of their mi 
 racles, than an imitation of the sanctity of their lives. How 
 ever, having said this, it must be considered as all general 
 
 obser- 
 
182 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 observations, with the reasonable allowances ; for many of the 
 dignified clergy, and others among them, understand, and prac 
 tise, the duties of their station ; and some whole orders, as that 
 of the Jesuits, are here, as they are elsewhere, distinguishable 
 for their learning and the decency of their behaviour. And 
 certainly, with all their faults, in one respect their zeal is highly 
 commendable ; that they are the cause of several charitable 
 foundations; and that they bring the Indians and blacks into 
 some knowledge of religion, and in some measure mitigate their 
 slavery. This too has a good political effect ; for those slaves 
 are more faithful than ours, and, though indulged with greater 
 liberty, are far less dangerous. I do not remember that any 
 insurrection has been ever attempted by them ; and the Indians 
 are reduced to more of a civilized life, than they are in the co 
 lonies of any other European nation. 
 
 This race of people are now, whatever they were formerly, 
 humble, dejected, timorous, and docile ; they are generally 
 treated with great indignity. The state of all people subjected 
 to another people is infinitely worse than what they suffer from 
 the pressure of the worst form, or the worst administration, of 
 any government of their own. 
 
 The blacks here, as they are imported from Africa, have the 
 same character as the blacks of our colonies ; stubborn, hardy, 
 of an ordinary understanding, and fitted for the gross slavery 
 they endure. 
 
 Such are the characters of the people, not only of New Spain, 
 but of all Spanish America. When any thing materially dif 
 ferent occurs, I shall not fail to mention it. 
 
 The civil government is administered by tribunals, which 
 here are called audiences, consisting of a certain number of 
 judges, divided into different chambers, more resembling the par 
 liaments in France than our courts. At the head of the chief 
 
 of 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 183 
 
 of these chambers the viceroy himself presides when he sees fit. 
 His employment is one of the greatest trust and power the king 
 of Spain has in his gift ; and is perhaps the richest government 
 entrusted to any subject in the world. All employments here 
 are held only by native Spaniards, and by them but for a cer 
 tain limited time ; most not above three years. Jealousy, in 
 this respect, as in all others relative to the Indies, is the spirit 
 that influences all their regulations ; and it has this very bad 
 effect ; that every officer, from the highest to the lowest, has 
 the avidity which a new and lucrative post inspires ; ravenous 
 because his time is short, he oppresses the people and defrauds 
 the crown ; another succeeds him with the same dispositions ; 
 and no man is careful to establish any thing useful in his office, 
 knowing that his successor will be sure to trample upon every 
 regulation which is not subservient to his own interests ; so that 
 this enslaved people has not the power of putting in use the 
 fox's policy, of letting the first swarm of bloodsuckers stay on, 
 but is obliged to submit to be drained by a constant succession 
 of hungry and impatient harpies. 
 
 There are some troops kept in New Spain, and a good re 
 venue appropriated for their maintenance, and for the support 
 of the fortifications there ; but the soldiers are few ; ill cloathed, 
 ill paid, and worse disciplined ; the military here keep pace 
 with the civil and ecclesiastical administration, and every thing 
 is a job. 
 
 CHAP, 
 
184 AN ACCOUNT OF THU 
 
 C II A P. VII. 
 
 NEW MEXICO. ITS DISCOVERY. CLIMATE. PRODUCTS. THE ENGLISH 
 
 CLAIM TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 ' 
 
 NEW Mexico lies to the north and north-east of New Spain. 
 Its bounds to the north are not ascertained. Taking in Cali 
 fornia, it has the great South-Sea to the west, and to the east 
 it is bounded by the French pretensions on the Missisippi. 
 This country lies for the most part within the temperate zone, 
 and has a most agreeable climate, and a soil in many places 
 productive of every thing for profit or delight. It has rich 
 mines of silver, and some of gold, which are worked more and 
 more every day ; and it produces precious stones of several 
 kinds ; but it has no direct intercourse with any part of Eu 
 rope. The country is but little known at all to Europeans ; 
 and the Spanish settlements there are comparatively weak ; 
 however, they are every day increasing in proportion as they 
 discover mines ; which are here not inferiour to any that have 
 been discovered in the other parts of America. The inhabi 
 tants are mostly Indians ; but in many places lately reduced, 
 by the Spanish missionaries, to Christianity, to a civilized life, 
 to follow trades, and to raise corn and wine, which they now 
 export pretty largely to old Mexico. This useful change was 
 principally effected at the expence of a Spanish nobleman, the 
 marquis Velasco, whom the reverend author of Lord Alison's 
 voyage calls, for that reason, a munificent bigot. 
 
 The famous peninsula of California is a part, and far from an 
 
 incon- 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMEJUCA. 185 
 
 inconsiderable part, of this country. It is a place finely situated 
 for trade, and has a pearl fishery of great value. It was dis 
 covered by the great conqueror of Mexico, Hernando Cortes. 
 Qur famous admiral and navigator Sir Francis Drake landed 
 there, and took possession of it in 1578 ; and he not only took 
 possession, but obtained the best right in the world to the pos 
 session ; the principal king having formally invested him with 
 his principality. However, I do not find that we have thought 
 of asserting that right since his time ; but it may probably em 
 ploy, in some future age, the pens of those lawyers who dispute 
 with words what can only be decided by the sword, and will 
 afford large matter upon the right of discovery, occupancy, and 
 -settlement. 
 
 CHAP, 
 
18(> AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 . 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 ~ 
 
 xA&CmiATL AND' SOIL OF PERU. ITS PRODUCE THE MINES, TliE COitV 
 
 AND HERB OF PAUAGUAYT. 
 
 THE conquest of Peru, achieved in so extraordinary a manner,, 
 brought into the power of Spain a country not less- wealthy and 
 nearly as extensive as Mexico ; but far beyond it for the con- 
 veniency of habitation and the agreeableness of the climate. 
 Like Mexico it is within the torrid zone ; yet, having on one 
 side the South Sea, and on the other the great ridge of the 
 Andes through its whole length,, the joint effects of the ocean 
 and the mountains* temper the equinoctial heat in a manner 
 equally agreeable and surprising. With a sky for the most 
 part cloudy, which shields them from the rays of the vertical 
 sun, it never rains in this country. But every night a soft be 
 nign dew broods upon the earth, and refreshes the grass and 
 plants so as to produce in some parts the greatest fertility ; 
 what the dew wants in perfecting this, is wrought by the vast 
 number of streams, to which the frequent rains and the daily 
 melting of the snow on those astonishing mountains give rise ; 
 for those mountains, though within the tropicks, have their tops 
 continually covered with snow, which is an appearance unparal 
 leled in the same climate; Along the sea coast, Peru is gene 
 rally a dry barren sand, except by the bank of the rivers and 
 streams we have mentioned, where it is extremely fertile, as are 
 all the valleys in the hilly country. 
 
 The cause of the want of rain in all the flat country of Peru 
 is difficult to be assigned ; though the agents in it are not im 
 probably the constant south-west wind, that prevails there for 
 
 the 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 187 
 
 the greatest part of the year, and the immense height of the 
 mountains, cold with a constant snow. The plain country 
 between, refreshed as it is on the one hand by the cool winds 
 that blow without any variation from the frigid regions of the 
 south, and heated as uniformly by the direct rays of the equi 
 noctial sun, preserves such an equal temper, that the vapour 
 once elevated can hardly ever descend in rain : but in the 
 mountainous part of the country, by the alternate contraction 
 and dilatation of the air from the daily heats and the succeeding 
 colds, which the snows communicate in the absence of the sun, 
 as well as from the unequal temper of the air which prevails in 
 all hilly places, the rain falls very plentifully - r the climate in 
 the mountainous countries is extremely changeable, and the 
 changes sudden. 
 
 All along the coast of Peru, a current sets strongly to the 
 north ; further out to sea, it passes with equal rapidity to the 
 south. This current probably moves eddywise ; for, having 
 run as far as its moving cause impels it, it naturally passes back 
 again where it has least resistance. The ignorance of this 
 double current made the navigation in the South Seas originally- 
 very uncertain and fatiguing ; but now the course is, for those 
 who pass from Chili to Peru, to keep in to the shore in their 
 passage to Callao, and on their return to stand out a great many 
 leagues to sea, and take the southern current homewards. The 
 same method, but reversed, is observed in the voyages between 
 Panama, and all the- other northern countries, and the ports of 
 Peru. 
 
 The commodities of Peru, for export, may be reduced to 
 these articles. First, silver and gold ; secondly, wine, oil, and 
 brandy; thirdly, Vigonia wool ; fourthly, Jesuits' bark ; fifthly, 
 Guinea or Jamaica pepper. Of the first of these articles we 
 have already treated in our description of Mexico. The mines 
 of gold in Peru are almost all in the northern part, not '. 
 
 B B 2 remot* 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THfi 
 
 remote from Lima; those of silver almost wholly in the south 
 ern. The voyagers who treat of this country are generally- 
 pretty diffuse in their accounts of the principal places, where 
 mines are found ; but it does not therefore give us eucourage- 
 .ment to insist much on these particulars, because they contain 
 very little instruction in themselves ; and if they were things 
 in their own nature instructive, it would be little to the pur 
 pose to dwell upon -what is continually changing. New mines 
 are daily opened, and the old exhausted or deserted. The 
 .towns shift with the mines. A rich mine is always the 
 founder of a town in proportion to its produce ; the town 
 which it subsists, when the mine is exhausted, disappears. 
 Indeed the great mines of Potosi in the province of Los 
 Gharcas, are the inheritance of ages ; and, after having en 
 riched the w'orld for centuries, still continue the inexhaustible 
 sources of new treasure. They are not, however, quite so 
 valuable now as formerly ; not so much from any failure of 
 the vein, as from the immense depth to which they have 
 pursued it, which, by the greater labour necessary, lessens 
 the profit on what it yields, in proportion as they descend ; 
 besides, new mines are daily opened, which are worked at a 
 lessexpence: so that the accounts we had of the great number 
 which inhabited the city of Potosi, when Mr. Frezier was in 
 that country, must have since suffered, some abatement. It 
 had then upwards of seventy thousand souls, Spaniards and 
 Indians ; of which the latter were six to one. 
 
 The Spaniards oblige this unfortunate people to send an 
 nually a certain number from the villages of the adjacent 
 country, who are compelled to work for a limited time ; after 
 wards they may return. But, having lost the sweetness of 
 their former connections, they that survive this slavery com- 
 jnonly settle in the city of Potosi. It is incredible how these 
 (the most terrible scourge with which God could 
 
 afflict 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 189 
 
 afflict the inhabitants) have contributed to depopulate this 
 country. Worse they are than sword or pestilence ; equally 
 fatal to their lives ; and where those escape, they are em 
 bittered by the circumstance of an ignominious slavery, with 
 out any prospect of end or mitigation. The effects of 
 this servitude would be yet more fatal, if it were not for the 
 use of an herb which the inhabitants call coca, to which 
 thy ascribe the most extraordinary virtues, and which th< y 
 constantly use. Its qualities seem to be of the opiate kind, 
 and to have some resemblance to those of tobacco ; for it 
 produces a kind of stupid composure. It is an antidote 
 against poisons and poisonous effluvia, and makes those who 
 u^e it subsist a long time without food. Though necessary 
 to those only who work in the mines, it is' used for pleasure 
 by all the Indians, who chew it constantly, though it makes 
 those who use it stink in a most offensive manner. This 
 herb is gathered by the Indians with many superstitious cere 
 monies, to which they attribute its virtues ; for which reason 
 it is, in many parts of Peru, with equal superstition, strictly 
 forbidden ; the Spaniards, as well as the Indians, giving the 
 
 credit of its effects to ma<nck, and allowing to these more than 
 
 ~ * ~ 
 
 they deserve ; for they think the Indians' superiority iu 
 strength owing principally to them. However, notwithstand 
 ing the severity of the inquisition, which is established in all 
 the Spanish dominions with great terrour, necessity makes 
 them wink at the practice, where the mines are worked. 
 
 They make use of another preservative, an infusion of the 
 fcerb of Paraguay ; something of the nature of tea. The 
 consumption of this in Peru by all ranks of people is prodigir 
 cms. Above 18,000 hundred weight is annually brought into 
 Chiii and Peru, and is worth, when the duty is paid, not less 
 than 80,0(X)/. sterling. The iinest of this species of tea comes 
 from the country of the Jesuits. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
190 AN ACCX)UNT OF THE 
 
 C H A P. IX. 
 
 THE WINES OF PERtJ. THE WOOL. THE LAMAS AND VICUNNAS, SHEEP Off 
 
 PERU. JESUITS BARK." GUINEA PEPPER. THE DUNG OF IQUIQUA. 
 
 QUICKSILVER MINES. 
 
 THE southern part of Peru, which lies without the tropick of 
 Capricorn, produces wine in great plenty, but not in a perfec 
 tion proportionable. The Spaniards dislike and leave it to the 
 Indians and negroes, causing rather, what may seem add, to 
 regale in the brandy of the same wine ; which is likewise made 
 and exported in large quantities, not only to all parts of Peru, 
 i>ut to Panama, and the ports of New Spain. The greatest 
 quantity is made near a place otherwise of no consequence, 
 called Moquaga j here, it is said, they make annually of wine 
 and brandy one hundred thousand jars, which Mr. Frezier 
 Beckons at r three millions two hundred thousand Paris pints. 
 A vast quantity in a small territory. The value of this produce 
 js four hundred thousand pieces of eight. Other places 
 -trade in wine, such as Pisco, but of a goodness not superiour. 
 .Oil is likewise had in Peru ; but both the wine and oil are 
 mostly the produce of those places that lie beyond the southern 
 tropick. 
 
 Wool makes one of the most valuable commodities of the 
 growth of this count ry. And it is not more remarkable for its 
 line long staple, than for the. singularity of the animal which 
 Carries it. It is sheared from a sort of sheep, which they call 
 Jamas and vicunnas ; the lamas have small heads, resembling in 
 ,some measure both an horse and sheep ; the upper lip is cleft 
 Jike that of the hare, through which, when they are enraged, 
 
 they 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 1Q1 
 
 they spit, even to ten paces distance, a sort of envenomed juice, 
 which, when it falls on the .skin, causes a red spot and great 
 itching. The neck is long like that of a camel ; the body re 
 sembles that of a sheep, but the legs are much longer in pro 
 portion. This animal has a disagreeable smell, but its flesh is 
 good ; and it is extremely useful, not only for the wool, which 
 is very long and fine, but as it is a beast of burthen, strong, 
 patient, and kept at a very easy expence. It seldom carries 
 above one hundred and fifty pound weight, but then it carries 
 that weight a vast way without tiring, eats very little, and 
 never drinks. As soon as night comes, the lama lies down ; 
 and no blows can get him to move one foot after the time he 
 destines for his rest and food. 
 
 The vicunna is an animal resembling the lama, pretty muclr 
 as the dromedary, does the camel. He is smaller and swifter, 
 with a far finer wool, but otherwise exactly, like the lama in all 
 respects. The wool of these creatures is almost as fine as silk.- 
 Probably the famous sheep, of Cachemir, of whose wool they 
 make the little white cloths so much valued in India, is of this 
 species. I cannot ascertain what quantity of this wool is ex 
 ported, manufactured or raw, out of Peru, either to New or 
 Old Spain; but I have reason to believe it is not at all incon 
 siderable. 
 
 The fourth great article of their commerce is Jesuits bark, sor 
 well known in medicine as a specifick in intermitting disorders, 
 and the many other great purposes, which experience daily 
 finds it to answer. The tree which produces this valuable bark- 
 grows principally in the mountainous parts of Peru, and that 
 most and best in the province of Quito. Condamine informs 
 us, that it grows on the hither side of the Andes, no way in- 
 feriour to the Peruvian in quantity and goodness ; the best is 
 produced on the high and rocky grounds ; and it is not singular 
 in this, for it seems in a good measure to be the case of all 
 
 plants, 
 
192 
 
 plants, whose juices are much more strong and effective when 
 elaborated in such situations. The tree which bears it is about 
 the size of a cherry-tree ; its leaves are round and indented ; 
 it bears along reddish flower, from whence arises a sort of husk, 
 which envelopes a flat and white kernel, not unlike an almond. 
 This bark was first introduced in France by the cardinal Lago, 
 a Jesuit, about the year 1650. Hence it had its name of Jesuit's 
 bark. It is said to have been discovered by the accident of an 
 Indian's drinking in a fever of the water of a lake into which 
 some of these trees had fallen, and by which he was cured. 
 This medicine, as usual, was held in defiance for a good while 
 by the faculty ; but, after an obstinate defence, they have 
 thought proper at last to surrender. Notwithstanding all the 
 mischiefs at first foreseen in its use, every body knows that it 
 is at this day innocently and efficaciously prescribed in a great 
 variety of cases ; for which reason it makes a considerable and 
 ..valuable part of the cargo of the galleons. 
 
 Guinea pepper, Agi, or, as it is called by us, Cayenne pep 
 per, is a very great article in the trade of Peru, as it is used all 
 over Spanish America in almost every thing they eat. This is 
 produced in the greatest quantity in the vale of Arica, a district 
 in the southern parts of Peru, from whence they export it to 
 the annual value of six hundred thousand crowns. The district 
 which produces this pepper in such abundance is but small, and 
 naturally barren ; its fertility in pepper, as well as in grain and 
 fruits, is owing to the advantage of a species of a very extra 
 ordinary manure, brought from an island called Iquiqua. This 
 is a sort of yellowish earth, of a fetid smell. It is generally 
 thought to be dung of birds, because of the similitude of the 
 scent ; feathers having been found very deep in it, and vast 
 numbers of sea fowls appearing upon that and all the adjacent 
 coasts. But, oia the other hand, whether we look upon this 
 substance as the dung of these sea fowls or a particular species 
 
 of 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 of earth, it is almost equally difficult to conceive how the small 
 island of Iquiqua, not above two miles in circumference, could 
 supply such immense quantities ; and yet, after supplying up 
 wards of twelve ship loads annually for a century together foy 
 i!:^. distant parts, and a vastly larger quantity for the use of the 
 neighbourhood, it cannot be observed that it is in the least 
 diminished, or that the height of the island is at all lessened. 
 But these are matters, which, to handle properly, require a 
 more exatt knowledge of all tjfoe circumstances relating to them, 
 thadi cau be gathered from travellers. 
 
 Quicksilver is a remarkable article in their trade, because the 
 purification of their gold ad silver <lepends upon it. I <do wot 
 fimd that any other part of the Spanish America produces it ; SQ 
 tiiat IiieKico and Terra Firma are supplied' from Old Spaia 
 with ail they want of that mineral, which is brought them QH 
 the king's account only ; except that some arrives from Peru 
 in n txwatraband manner. In Peru likewi.se it is monopolized 
 by .the crown. The principal mine of this extraordinary sub 
 stance is at a place called Guaucavelica, where it is fou$td in a 
 whitish raassl, reseaubling brick ill-burued; this they pound, 
 and <put into a furnace vaulted at the top ; it is laid upon an 
 iron grate covered with earth. Through this the fire passes; 
 and, volatilizing the mineral, it is raised in a smoke, which, 
 iiiulumg no passage but tltrougk a little hoJe contrived for that 
 purpose, rushes tlirough into a succession of Little round res- 
 sels, iinitod to each other by the necks ; here the smoak circu 
 lates, aiui it leondeuses by means of a little water at the bottom 
 ach vessel, into \vluch the quicksilver falls in a piire |)eavy 
 liqiiid. The men who work in the mines of this mineral are yet 
 iQ*e subject to diseases than those who toil in the others ; and 
 they make use oif tlie same preservatives of Paraguay, tea, and 
 coca. 
 
 c c CHAP. 
 
194 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 C H A P. X. 
 
 THE CHARACTER OF THE PERUVIANS. THEIR DIVISIONS. THE INDIAN 
 FESTIVAL HONOURS PAID TO A DESCENDANT OF THE YNCA. 
 
 THE manners of the Spaniards and Creolians of Peru resemble, 
 with little difference, those of the Spaniards and Creolians of 
 Mexico, other than that the natives of Peru seem to be of a 
 more liberal turn, and of greater ingenuity ; but they are for 
 the greater part equally destitute of all cultivation. The slavery 
 of the Indians is here yet more severe. The magistrate and the 
 priest devour their whole substance; and every Spaniard, as 
 some authors report, insults them with impunity. The tra 
 veller takes as much of their provision as he pleases, and de 
 cides for himself what he shall pay, or whether he shall pay any 
 thing at all. Complaints are answered with new indignities, 
 and with blows, which it is a crime to return. This cruel ir 
 regular bondage contributes to dispeople this country even 
 more than the methodical tyranny of the government. To 
 avoid the plunder he is hourly subject to, the master of the 
 family often raises no more grain than what just suffices for the 
 sustenance of his family ; this he buries, and keeps the secret of 
 his hoard to himself, only drawing out daily, just so much as 
 serves for the use of the day. If he chances to die suddenly, 
 the family starves ; if a bad season comes, the calculated pro 
 duce falls short, and they are all reduced to beggary. Yet 
 worse, they are even the slaves of slaves ; for the Spaniards 
 encourage their Negroes to treat them with the greatest inso 
 lence ; and they politically keep up a rancour, now grown in 
 veterate, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 1^5 
 
 veterate, between these t\vo races of people. They are forbid 
 den, under the severest penalties, to marry, or to have an un 
 lawful intercourse together. Division is the great instrument 
 in which the Spaniards trust for the preservation of their colo 
 nies. The native Spaniard has alone all the lucrative offices, 
 civil, ecclesiastical, and military. He despises the Creolian. 
 The Creolian hates and envies him. Both contemn and mal 
 treat the Indians, who, on their side, are not insensible of the 
 indignities they suffer. The Blacks are encouraged to trample 
 on the Indians, and to consider their interests as altogether 
 opposite ; whilst the Indians in their nominal freedom look 
 with an envious disdain upon the slavery of the Negroes, which 
 makes them their masters. 
 
 What is extraordinary, the Spaniards, not content with re 
 ducing this unhappy nation under so cruel a yoke, as if they 
 thought it nothing unless they were thoroughly sensible of its 
 weight, suffer the Indians to celebrate an annual festival, in 
 which plays are represented, commemorating the overthrow of 
 their own state. These are acted with all the horrid and aggra 
 vating circumstances which attended this event ; and the people 
 are at this time so enraged, that the Spaniards find it danger 
 ous to go abroad. In the city of Lima, there is annually cele 
 brated a festival of this kind, with a grand procession, wherein 
 they carry in a sort of triumph the remaining descendant of the 
 yncas of Peru, and his wife ; vrho at that time receive all ima 
 ginable honours in the most melancholy pomp, from a race 
 bowed down with the sense of the common bondage of prince 
 and people. This throws the most affecting gloom over the 
 festival that renews the image of their former freedom. To 
 this remaining ynca the viceroy of Peru does homage when he 
 enters upon his government. The ynca sits upon a lofty stage } 
 and the viceroy makes his obeisance upon a horse, who is taught 
 
 c c 2 to 
 
19G AN ACCOUNT OP TtfE 
 
 to kneel upon the occasion. This manner of proceeding may 
 be thought of the most refined strain of insolent tyranny, and to 
 be as unpolitick as it is insulting ; but it is not impossible that 
 those vents, which they suffer the indignation of the people to 
 take, may carry off a spirit, that might otherwise break out in 
 a much more fatal manner. Whether by the division they keep 
 up, or by these vents, or by the management of the clergy, or 
 by whatever means, the Spaniards preserve their conquests with 
 very little force ; the Indians are even armed, and make a con 
 siderable part of their militia ; it is true, they are interdicted 
 the use of weapons without licence ; but licence is procured 
 without much difficulty. They have likewise a large number 
 of free blacks, and they too are formed into companies in their 
 militia. Certain it is, that, both in the Spanish and Portuguese 
 colonies, they find slavery compatible enough with great li 
 cence in some respects, and both with the security of the 
 masters. Things deserving our consideration ; as we do not 
 Seem to excel in the conciliating arts of government in our co 
 lonies, nor to think that any thing is to be effected by other 
 instruments than those of terrour and rude force. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
BUHOPliAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 197 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 THE CITIES OF PERU, LIMA, Cl'SCO, AND QUITO ; A DESCRIPTION OF THEM. 
 
 CALLAO, ITS TRADE AND DESTRUCTION. THE VICEROY OF PERU. HIS 
 
 JURISDICTION, AND REVENUES. 
 
 THERE are three cities in Peru famous for their opulence and 
 trade; Lima, Cusco, and Quito. Lima lies in the northern 
 part of Peru, in the latitude of 12 degrees south, and 229 
 degrees longitude from Teneriffe. It stands tfbout two leagues 
 from the sea, upon a river called Rimac, small and un- 
 navigable. This city is the capital of Peru, and of all South 
 America ; it extends in length about two miles, and in breadth 
 about one and a quarter ; its distant appearance, from the mul 
 titude of spires and domes, is extremely majestick ; and when 
 you enter it you see the streets laid out with the greatest regn- 
 larity, cuttiag each other at equal distances and right angles ; 
 the houses, on account of the equality of the climate, are 
 slightly roofed, as they are built low and of light materials, to 
 avoid the consequences of earthquakes, frequent and dreadful 
 in this country. But they are elegantly plastered and painted 
 on the outside, so as to have all the appearance of free-stone. 
 To add to the beauty and convenience of this city, most houses 
 have a garden, watered by cuts drawn from the river ; each 
 man commands a little running stream for his own use ; in a 
 hot and dry country as this is, no small matter of convenience 
 and delight. Here is a grand walk by the river-side two hun 
 dred fathom long, consisting of five rows of fine orange trees. 
 
 To 
 
198 AN ACCOUNT OF THE . 
 
 To this the company resorts at five in the evening drawn in 
 their coaches and calashes.* Such is the opulence of this city, 
 that, exclusive, of coaches, there are kept in it upwards of five 
 thousand of these carriages. 
 
 Lima has fifty-four churches, taking in the cathedral, the pa 
 rochial, and conventual ; thirteen monasteries of men (besides 
 six colleges of Jesuits), one of which contains seven hundred, 
 and another five hundred friars and servants ; twelve nunne 
 ries, the principal of which has not less than three hundred 
 nuns ; and twelve hospitals, besides foundations for the portion 
 ing of poor girls. The number of whites is not less than ten 
 thousand ; and the whole of the inhabitants of all casts and 
 colours are said not to fall short of sixty thousand souls. 
 
 They tell a very remarkable fact, that may help us to some 
 idea of the vast wealth of this city. When their viceroy the 
 duke de la Palata made his publick entry in 1682, they caused 
 two of the principal streets to be paved with ingots of silver, 
 that had paid the fifth to the king, of between twelve and fif 
 teen inches long, four or five in breadth, and two or three in 
 thickness ; the whole of which, could not amount to less than 
 sixteen or seventeen millions sterling. But nothing can give a 
 true idea of the vast wealth of Lima, except the churches, 
 which the most judicious travellers speak of with astonishment ;, 
 and seem incapable of describing, on account of that amazing 
 profusion of gold, silver, and precious stones with which every 
 thing (even the walls) is in a manner totally covered. The tide 
 of this vast wealth is fed from sources as copious ; this city 
 being the great magazine for almost all the plate of Peru, which 
 
 * The calash resembles that sort of coach which is called a vis-a-vis, but is drawn 
 only by a single horse or mule, and goes on a single pair of wheels ; yet sometimes 
 by the gilding and other decorations the price of a calash amounts to a thousand 
 crowns. 
 
 IS 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 199 
 
 is coined here; for the large manufactures and natural pro 
 ducts of that kingdom ; for those of Chili ; and for all the 
 luxuries and conveniences brought from Europe and the East 
 Indies. 
 
 The trade of the French to Peru, during the general war in 
 Europe which was caused by the disputes about the Spanish 
 succession, made this city decay not a little, by diffusing the 
 commerce, of which before it was the centre, amongst the other 
 towns which lie along the coast ; but, as that privilege has been 
 since taken away, Lima began to revive again and continued in 
 great splendour until the year 1747, when a mos tremendous 
 earthquake, which entirely devoured Callao the port belonging 
 to it, laid three-fourths of this city level with the ground. 
 The destruction of Callao was the most perfect and terrible 
 that can be conceived ; no more than one of all the inhabitants 
 escaping, and he by a providence the most singular and extraor 
 dinary imaginable. This man was on the fort that overlooked 
 the harbour, going to strike the flag, when he perceived the sea 
 to retire to a considerable distance ; and then swelling mountain 
 high, it returned with great violence. The inhabitants ran from 
 their houses in the utmost tcrrour and confusion ; he heard a ciy 
 of Miserere rise from all parts of the city, and immediately all 
 was silent ; the sea had overwhelmed this city, and buried it for 
 ever in its bosom ; but the same wave which destroyed the city, 
 drove a little boat by the place where the man stood, into which 
 he threw himself and was saved. What is remarkable too in 
 this affair, Mr. Frezier, who was in Peru in the year 1714, and 
 from whom I have part of my materials, on considering the si 
 tuation of this town and the nature of the country, ventured to 
 prophesy for it the destruction, which we have seen accomplish 
 ed in our days. Whilst this town subsisted, it contained about 
 three thousand inhabitants of all kinds, had five convents, and 
 
 possessed 
 
200 AS ACCOUNT OF TBb: 
 
 possessed the finest port in all Peru. Here were the rich ware,- 
 houses famished with all the goods of Europe, wlm-.li being 
 landed by the galleons .ait Porto-bello were brougl.it over laud to 
 Panama, and thence transported hither by the armadilla, en- 
 fleet, with a convoy of three men of war reserved for this pur 
 pose. To this port arrived the annual ship from Acapuico, 
 loaden with all tlve products of the East ; from Ciiili it received 
 vast quantities of com, dried beef and pork, leather, Uilluw, 
 plank, and several sorts of woollen goods, particularly carpels 
 like those of Turkey. From the southern poru of Peru were 
 brought sugars, wine, and brandy, naval stores, cacao, Yi^oaia 
 wool, and tobacco. From Mexico it had pitch' and tar, woods 
 for dyeing, and that balsam, which we improperly cdl of Peru, 
 since it comes from Guatemala. As the port of Callao is so 
 excellent, and as it is that by which the trade of Lima wholly, 
 and that of all Peru iji a great measure, must be carried on, 
 we cannot doubt but that a new city is already built there ; 
 and that Lima is restored to its former lustre ; especially as 
 this latter is the centre 1 of so vast a trade, and the seat of so 
 great a government. For to the viceroy of Peru, both Ghili 
 and Terra Firma are subject. His settled salary is forty thou 
 sand pieces of eight yearly ; his perquisites are great ; as often 
 as he goes to <3allao, he is entitled to three thousand pieces of 
 eight for that little airing ; he has ten thousand for every pro 
 gress into more distant parts ; he has the sole disposal of above 
 a hundred great magistracies ; and, in short, the granting of all 
 triennial employments both civ r il and military throughout the 
 extent of his ample jurisdiction. It cannot therefore be doubted 
 that his perquisites, even his lawful ones (for there are many 
 others), at 1-east double the value of his salary. And certainly, 
 whatever the king of Spain may lose by the bad economy in his 
 affairs, no prince in the world has such means of rewarding the 
 
 services 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 services of his subjects, without any immediate burden upon his 
 own revenues. 
 
 Cusco, the capital of the ancient empire, is still a very con 
 siderable city ; it is a good distance from the sea, and situated 
 in the mountainous part of the country ; it has not less than 
 forty thousand inhabitants, three parts Indians, who are very 
 industrious, and ingenious. Though little instructed in the 
 art, a taste for painting prevails, and some performances of the 
 Indians of Cusco and Quito have met with applause in Italy. 
 An incredible quantity of pictures are painted here, and are dis 
 persed all over Peru and Chili. They have here likewise manu 
 factures of bays and cotton, and they work largely in leather in 
 most of the ways in which it is used. 
 
 Quito is likewise an inland town situated in the most northern 
 part of Peru ; it is a very considerable place, and equal to any 
 in Peru for the number of inhabitants, which are between fifty 
 and sixty thousand ; and it carries on a very extensive trade 
 with Lima, in manufactures of wool, cotton, and flax, which are 
 wrought in the city and its district, and supply the greater part 
 of the consumption of the poorer sort all over this kingdom. 
 Few mines are worked in this district, though thought to abound 
 in minerals ; they receive plate in return for their own manu 
 factures, and send it to Carthagena in return for those of Eu 
 rope. 
 
 It is not easy to calculate the number of inhabitants in Peru, 
 because we have none of those data which are necessary to 
 ground such a calculation. There are several very large and 
 populous towns dispersed through that country ; but in many 
 places it is little better than a desart ; partly for want of water, 
 but much more generally through the pride of one part of the 
 people, the miserable subjection of the other, and the sloth of 
 all. The mines undoubtedly contribute largely to depopulate 
 
 D D the 
 
202 AN ACCOUNT OP THE 
 
 the country, by turning the inhabitants from agriculture and 
 manufactures, employments that prolong life and provide for 
 it, to the working of metals extremely pernicious to health, 
 and which makes them depend upon others for their necessary 
 sustenance. The nations which are poor in respect of gold, 
 and industrious from that poverty, have not the least reason to 
 envy the wealth of the Peruvians ; who, amidst all that ex 
 travagant glare that dazzles the eye, live penuriously and sor 
 didly ; and are often in extreme want in a country, which in 
 many places is one of the most fertile in the world. In fact, 
 the countries which employ their men in arts and in agriculture, 
 and receive their return in gold and silver, from the countries 
 which abound in those metals, may be considered as the real 
 proprietors of the mines ; the immediate possessors, only as 
 their stewards to manage, or as their slaves to work them ; 
 whilst they are employed themselves at an easy labour, friendly 
 to life, and necessary to their well-being. 
 
 CHAP, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Gil A P. XII. 
 
 THE TEMPERATURE OF THE AIR IN CHILI. THE SOIL. IT FERTILITY, A 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE PRINCIPAL TOWNS. THE TRADE OF CHILI. 
 
 IMMEDIATELY to the southward of Peru lies Chili, extending 
 itself in a long narrow slip, along the coast of the South-Sea, in 
 the south temperate zone. The air here is remarkably clear 
 and serene. Scarce any changes happen for three parts of the 
 year. Very little rain falls during that period. But the benign 
 dews every night, and the many rivulets which the neighbour 
 hood of the Andes supplies them, fertilize the plain country, 
 and make it produce as much corn, wine, oil, and fruits, as the 
 number of the inhabitants, which is very small, or their in 
 dustry, which is but moderate, will suffer them to cultivate. 
 If it were under a more favourable government, and better peo 
 pled, there is hardly any part of the world which could enter 
 into competition with this. For at the same time that it en 
 joys a very healthful air, and is warmed by an heat no way 
 oppressive, it bears many of the tropical fruits that would 
 thrive no where else out of the torrid zone. It is luxuriant on 
 the surface with every thing for profit and delight ; and beneath 
 it is rich to profusion with veins of gold, silver, copper, lead, 
 quicksilver, and iron. Those of gold are the most wrought ; and 
 indeed there is scarce a rivulet in the country in which gold is not 
 found in smaller or greater plenty ; but want of people, which 
 is here more felt than in the other Spanish settlements, hinders 
 them from working all their mines ; and, what is worse, from 
 
 D D 2 improving 
 
204 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 improving the surface of their country to any thing like the de 
 gree of perfection to which it might be brought. For in this 
 whole extent of country, upwards of twelve hundred miles in 
 length, and from three hundred to five hundred miles in breadth, 
 
 o * 
 
 it is not reckoned they have much above twenty thousand 
 whites fit to bear arms, and about three times that number of 
 Indians, Blacks, and Mulattoes. Yet, with so few hands, and 
 those not the most industrious, they export annually from the 
 ports of Chili, to Callao, and other parts of Peru, corn enough 
 to support sixty thousand men, for no country in the world is 
 more prolifick in grain of every species ; they export besides great 
 quantities of wine, hemp (which is raised in no other part on 
 the South-Seas), hides, tallow, and salted provisions ; to say 
 nothing of the gold, and other minerals, which form their prin 
 cipal wealth. The people are much employed in pasturage ; 
 and cattle are here in such plenty, that an ox fatted may be had 
 for four dollars ; a great proof of the fertility of a country where 
 there is no scarcity of money. But as they have a considerable 
 trade in dried and salted beef, hides, and tallow, they constantly 
 drive great numbers of horned cattle from the other side of the 
 Andes, from the province of Tucuman in Paraguay. Chili has 
 but a very few beasts of prey, and those timorous ; and although 
 toads, snakes, and scorpions, are here as numerous as in other 
 hot countries, they are found entirely harmless. 
 
 There are in Chili four towns of some note, either on the sea, 
 or near it ; St. Jago which is the capital, and contains about 
 four thousand families, La Conception, Coquimbo or La Serena, 
 and Baldivia. The three first of these towns are laid out in a 
 manner exactly resembling each other, the streets, like those of 
 Lima, cutting one another so as to form squares like those of a 
 draft board. They have all gardens between the houses, and 
 running waters drawn from the neighbouring rivers to fertilize 
 
 them; 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 205 
 
 them ; but the houses are so low and meanly built (mud walls, 
 and thatch in some) that they rather resemble agreeable country 
 villages than cities of business and grandeur. However, some 
 of the houses are well furnished, and it it is said, that in St. Jago 
 there are many, which have the meanest utensils of the kitchen 
 of gold and silver. As for Baldivia, it is not more remarkable 
 for being the strongest fortress in the South-Seas, than for the 
 manner in which it is peopled ; for hither the criminals from 
 Peru and the other parts of Chili are transported, either for a 
 time or for life, and obliged to labour upon the fortifications 
 and other publick works. What is singular ; these criminals are 
 at once the prisoners and the jailors ; for the garrison of the 
 place, the whole corps, soldiers and officers, is formed of no 
 other. The town contains about two thousand souls, all of 
 them banished people or the descendants of such. 
 
 The maritime trade of Chili is entirely confined to what they 
 carry on with Peru, one or two ports of New Spain, and Pa 
 nama. Their ships rarely penetrate the straits of Magellan, or 
 pass Cape Plorn. But they have a considerable inland com 
 merce with Tucuman, Buenos- Ayres, and other parts of Para 
 guay, from which they get the herb of Paraguay, bees-wax, and 
 cuttle. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
206 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 THE SPANIARDS IN THIS PROVINCE BUT FEW. THE AMERICANS, THEIR 
 
 CHARACTER. SOME FREE. 
 
 As in Chili they are weak in men, have a large body of inde 
 pendent Indians, ill-affected to them on their borders ; as the 
 Dutch once attempted an establishment here, and as other peo 
 ple have nourished projects of the same nature ; they are ex 
 tremely cautious and watchful on the coast, and the country is 
 immediately in arms upon every alarm, which is given when any 
 ship appears off the coast that is not Spanish built ; yet, not 
 withstanding all their caution, their security is rather owing to 
 the system of Europe, of which it is a part to keep the Spanish 
 possessions in the hand of the present proprietors, and to the 
 difficult and dangerous passage of the straits of Magellan or 
 Cape Horn, for any European armament of force, than either 
 to their own strength or vigilance. 
 
 The Indian inhabitants of Chili are a brave and warlike peo 
 ple, who defended their liberties vigorously, made several suc 
 cessful insurrections, killed Peter Baldivia the conqueror of the 
 country, and maintained a war against the whole Spanish power 
 in that part of the world for several years ; which was only ter 
 minated, on the part of several of the nations near the moun 
 tains, by an honourable peace, which is preserved to this day. 
 None can be more jealously watchful than this people of their 
 freedom. They traffick indeed with the Spaniards, but with so 
 much caution, and under limitations so strict, that {hey can 
 
 take 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 take very little advantage of this communication. As for those 
 who are obliged to submit, it is to a yoke nothing near so heavy 
 as that which oppresses the people who inhabit the otjier Spanish 
 provinces ; partly from the better terms which were procured ; 
 and partly from the fear of a nation, whom they have expe 
 rienced to be brave, and know to be surrounded with many, 
 who are of the same blood, and have defended their freedom 
 with better success. A good example, even in the unfortunate, 
 how much a brave defence of liberty may contribute to procure, 
 if nothing else, yet a more tolerable servitude. The Indians of 
 this country have more resemblance to those of North- America, 
 though more humane and civilized in their manners, than to 
 the Peruvians and -Mexicans. Here they have less supersti 
 tion naturally ; and, far from having that excessive veneration 
 which those nations had for their kings, they 'have no kings at 
 all, and very little form of government ; each family being so 
 vereign within itself, and independent. The business which 
 concerns them all, is transacted in the assemblies of all ; and 
 the plurality of voices decides. They are much given to liquour ; 
 and they practise polygamy, which in America is not common. 
 However, the Spanish missionaries have now made a consider 
 able progress amongst these free nations ; they have a college 
 for the education of the Indian youth ; and their influence is a 
 great means of preserving peace between the Spanish settle 
 ments and the free Indians on their borders, which, without 
 their assistance, would be difficult. For, though they listen to 
 the Spanish priests, they preserve very just terrour of falling 
 under their government, and no small hatred to the people. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
#08 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 THE CLIMATE OF PARAGUAY. ITS RIVERS. THE PROVINCE OF LA PLATA. 
 
 THE TOWN OF BUENOS-AYRES. ITS TRADE. 
 
 THE country of Paraguay, or La Plata, shuts up the eastern 
 side of a considerable part of Chili and Peru ; whence extend 
 ing over a tract of country, above a thousand miles broad, it 
 bounds Brazil upon the west, and upon the south butts upon 
 the Atlantick ocean ; being fifteen hundred miles at least in 
 length, from the mouth of the great river Plata to its northern 
 boundary the country of the Amazons. This vast territory is 
 far from being wholly subdued or planted by the Spaniards. 
 There are many parts in a great degree unknown to them, or 
 to any other people of Europe. In such a vast country, and 
 lying in climates so different, for it lies on the northern frontier 
 under the equinoctial line, and on the south advances to the 
 thirty seventh degree of latitude, far into the south temperate 
 zone, we must expect to meet great diversity of soil and pro 
 duct. However, in general, this great country is fertile ; the 
 pastures particularly are so rich that they are covered with in 
 numerable herds of black cattle, horses, and mules ; in which 
 hardly any body thinks it worth his while to claim a property. 
 Any person takes and breaks them according to his occasions. 
 
 This country, besides an infinite number of smaller rivers, is 
 watered by three principal ones, which unite near the sea, to 
 form the famous Rio de la Plata. The first is Paraguay, from 
 whence the country is denominated ; this forms the main chan 
 nel. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 209 
 
 nel. It has its origin from a great lake in the center of South 
 America, called the lake of Xarayes, and runs in a courso 
 nearly north and south. Parana, which rises amongst the moun 
 tains on the frontiers of Brazil, runs a sloping course to the 
 south-west, until it joins the Paraguay, at a great distance from 
 the ocean, about the twenty-seventh degree of south latitude. 
 Uraguay rises likewise upon the same side, and runs almost an 
 equal course before it meets those united rivers at no great dis 
 tance from the ocean, with which it mixes, along with them. 
 
 The principal province which concerns us, in this vast tract, 
 is that which is called Rio de la Plata, towards the mouth of 
 the above-mentioned rivers. This province, with all the ad 
 jacent parts, is one continued level, interrupted by not the least 
 hill for several hundreds of miles every way ; extremely fertile 
 in most things ; but, contrary to the general nature of America, 
 destitute of woods ; this want they endeavour to supply by plan 
 tations of every kind of fruit trees ; all which thrive here to 
 admiration. The air is remarkably sweet and serene, and the 
 waters of the great river are equally pure and wholesome ; they 
 annually overflow their banks ; and, on their recess, leave them 
 enriched with a slime, which produces the greatest plenty of 
 whatever is committed to it. 
 
 The principal town is Buenos-Ayres, on the south side of 
 the river ; it was so called upon account of the excellence of the 
 air. This town is the only place of traffick to the southward 
 of Brazil ; yet its trade, considering the rich and extensive 
 country to which it is the avenue, is very considerable. No re 
 gular fleet comes here, as to the other parts of Spanish Ame 
 rica ; two, or at most three, register ships make the whole of 
 their regular intercourse with Europe. Their returns are very 
 valuable, consisting chiefly of gold, silver, sugar, and hides. I 
 cannot learn that they have opened any considerable mines in 
 
 E E this 
 
210 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 this province ; but it is probable there are rich ones in the pro 
 vinces which lie to the eastward of the Andes ; besides, it is cer 
 tain that. a good deal of gold is returned from Chili, for the 
 mules, cattle, and tea, which. are sent thither; and that silver 
 from the province of Los Charcas in Peru is sent upon the same 
 account, for the most part by land carriage. There is besides 
 a tolerable water carriage ; for a large river, called Pilcomayo, 
 rises not far from the mines of Potosi, which, winding amongst 
 the openings of the Cordillera, discharges itself at last into the 
 Paraguay ; and this river is navigable to the very source, allow 
 ing for the interruption of some falls, which is the case of the 
 river of Plata itself. By this way it is, I judge, that a great 
 quantity of silver comes to Buenos- Ayres. Indeed it is in great 
 plenty in that province ; and those who have now and then 
 carried on a contraband trade to this country, have found it far 
 more advantageous than any other whatsoever. The benefit of 
 this contraband is now wholly in the hands of the Portuguese, 
 who keep magazines for that purpose in the adjacent parts of 
 Brazil. 
 
 CHAP, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 211 
 
 CHAP, XV. 
 
 THE TERRITORY OF THE JESUITS IN PARAGUAY. THEIR MANNER OF SET 
 TLING AND GOVERNING IT. THE OBEDIENCE OF THE PEOPLE. SGML 
 
 REFLECTIONS ON THE LATE TRANSACTIONS THERE. 
 
 THE trade of Paraguay, and the manners of the people!, are so 
 much the same with those of the rest of the Spanish colonies 
 in South America, that nothing further can be said on those 
 articles ; but it would be inexcusable to quit the country with 
 out saying something of that extraordinary species of common 
 wealth which the Jesuits have erected in the interiour parts. 
 
 About the middle of the last century those fathers repre 
 sented to the court of Madrid, that their want of success in 
 their missions was owing to the scandal which the immorality 
 of the Spaniards never failed to give, and to the hatred which 
 their insolent behaviour caused in the Indians wherever they 
 came. 'They insinuated, that, if it were not for that impedi 
 ment, the empire of the gospel might, by their labours, have 
 been extended into the most unknown parts of America ; and 
 that all those countries might be subdued to his catholick ma 
 jesty's obedience, without expence and without force. ThU 
 remonstrance was listened to with attention ; the sphere of their 
 labours was marked out; an uncontrolled liberty was given to 
 the Jesuits within these limits ; and the governors of the ad 
 jacent provinces had orders not to interfere, nor to suffer any 
 Spaniard to enter into this pale, without licence from the fa 
 thers. They on their part agreed, to pay a certain capitation 
 
 E E 2 tax 
 
212 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 tax in proportion to their flock ; and to send a certain number 
 to the king's works whenever they should be demanded, and 
 the missions should become populous enough to supply them. 
 
 On these terms, the Jesuits entered upon the scene of action, 
 and opened their spiritual campaign. They began by gather 
 ing together about fifty wandering families, whom they per 
 suaded to settle ; and they united them into a little township. 
 This was the slight foundation upon which they have built a 
 superstructure, which has amazed the world, and added so much 
 power, at the same time that it has brought on so much envy 
 and jealousy, to their society. For when they had made his 
 beginning, they laboured with such indefatigable pains, and 
 with such masterly policy, that, by degrees, they mollified the 
 minds of the most savage nations ; fixed the most rambling ; 
 and subdued the most averse to government. They prevailed 
 upon thousands of various dispersed tribes of people to embrace 
 their religion, and to submit to their government ; and when 
 they had submitted, the Jesuits left nothing undone, that could 
 conduce to their remaining in this subjection, or that could 
 tend to increase their number to the degree requisite for a well- 
 ordered and potent society ; and their labours were attended 
 with success. 
 
 It is said, that, from such inconsiderate beginnings, several 
 years ago, their subjects amounted to three hundred thousand 
 families. They lived in towns; they were regularly clad; they 
 laboured in agriculture ; they exercised manufactures. Some 
 even aspired to the elegant arts. They were instructed in the 
 military with the most exact discipline -;. and could raise sixty 
 thousand men well armed. To effect these purposes, from time 
 to time they brought over from Europe several handicraftmen, 
 musicians, and painters. These, I am told were principally 
 from Germany and Italy. 
 
 We 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 213 
 
 We are far from being able to trace, with the exactness they 
 deserve, all the steps which were taken in the accomplishment 
 of so extraordinary a conquest over the bodies and minds of so 
 many people, without arms or violence; and differently from 
 the methods of all other conquests; not by cutting off a large 
 part of the inhabitants to secure the rest, but by multiplying 
 their people, whilst they extended their territory. Their own 
 accounts are not very ample, and they are partial to themselves 
 without doubt. What some others have written is with a glar 
 ing prejudice against them. The particulars which seem best 
 agreed upon by both sides are the only ones to be mentioned. 
 
 It is agreed then, that in each mission or district (the country 
 is divided into forty-seven districts) a Jesuit presides in chief. 
 But magistrates are settled in every town, answerable to those 
 in the Spanish cities ; these are always Indians, elected by the 
 people, and approved by the presiding Jesuit : on solemn oc 
 casions, they appear in rich robes of ceremony, attended with a 
 suitable retinue, and every thing which may make for the dig 
 nity of their government. The people which compose this 
 commonwealth are composed chiefly of two nations or tribes, 
 one called Garanies, the other Chiquitos. The latter are active, 
 lively and ingenious, therefore their economy is more left to 
 themselves ; and they have something of property, but there is 
 something too in common. Amongst the Garanies there is no 
 property ; every thing is done under the publick eye, and for the 
 publick ; for otherwise this people, naturally lazy and stupid to 
 the last degree, would be in perpetual want. Each man's la 
 bour is allotted him in proportion to his strength, or to his skill 
 in the profession which he exercises. The product* is brought 
 faithfully into the publick magazines ; from whence he is again 
 supplied with all things which the managers judge to be expe 
 dient for the sustenance of himself or his family. All neces 
 saries 
 
AN ACCOtfNt OF THE 
 
 saries are distributed regularly twice a week ; and the maga 
 zines always contain such a stock of provisions and goods of 
 every kind, as to answer not only the ordinary exigencies, but 
 to provide against a time of scarcity, or for those whom acci 
 dents, age, or infirmities, have disqualified for labour. Thus 
 want is never known amongst them ; their villages are cleanly 
 and decent, greatly exceeding those of the Spaniards in their 
 neighbourhood. Their churches are particularly grand and 
 richly adorned ; and service is in them performed with all the 
 solemnity and magnificence of cathedrals ; nor are good voices 
 and instruments wanting. 
 
 They provide early for the marriage of their young people, 
 as well to prevent disorders, as to multiply their subjects. Here, 
 as interest can be no motive to the union, there are few diffi 
 culties attending it. The young man applies to the governing- 
 Jesuit, informs him of his desire of marriage, and names the 
 party : she is consulted, and, if there is no objection upon, her 
 part, they are immediately married. They are supplied with 
 all necessaries for their establishment from the publick stores, 
 and they have at the same time their task allotted them, by 
 which they are to make amends for what they have received, 
 and to provide for thers in their turn. 
 
 The Indian magistrate is obliged continually to watch over 
 the minutest actions of his people, and to give the Jesuit an 
 exact account of the state of his district, and the merit and de 
 merit of the people which it contains. They are rewarded or 
 punished according to this report. The punishment for smaller 
 crimes is by imprisonment, for greater by whipping, from which 
 it is said 'not even the principal magistrates are exempted. 
 Capital punishments they do not inflict, as indeed crimes de 
 serving such punishment are rarely committed amongst them. 
 The correction is received by all, not only with patience, but 
 
 acknow- 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 215 
 
 acknowledgment. The rewards are seldom more than bene 
 dictions, and some slight marks of the Jesuit's favour, which 
 make those men entirely happy. 
 
 Nothing can equal the obedience of the people of these mis 
 sions, except their contentment under it. Far from murmur 
 ing, that they have only the necessaries of life, by a labour 
 which might in some degree procure them the conveniencies of 
 it, they think themselves a distinguished and favoured people 
 in wanting them ; and they believe their obedience a duty, that 
 not only secures their order and repose in this world, but the 
 very best means of insuring their happiness in the next. This 
 is carefully inculcated ; and indeed, besides their attention to 
 the government, the Jesuits are indefatigable in their instruc 
 tions in the doctrines of religion, the regularity of life, and the 
 contempt of this world. And, by what I can find, the Indians 
 under their jurisdiction are an innocent people, civilized with 
 out being corrupted. 
 
 The Jesuits, who govern them, are said to be extremely strict 
 in preserving their privilege in keeping all strangers from 
 amongst them. If aoy such should, by accident or in his 
 journey, arrive in the country of the missions, he is immedia 
 tely carried to the presbytery, where he is treated for a day, or 
 two at most, with great hospitality, but regarded with no less 
 circumspection. The curiosities of the place are shewed him 
 an company with the Jesuit, and he can have no private con- 
 
 sation with any of the natives. In a reasonable time, he is 
 x ivilly dismissed, with a guard to conduct him to the next dis 
 trict, without expence, where he is treated in the same manner, 
 until he is out of the country of the missions. Cautious alto*- 
 gather as strict, and in the same spirit, are observed, when the 
 natives are obliged to go out of their own territory to serve in 
 the king's works, or when any part of their troops are called 
 
 out 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 out for his service. They shun all manner of conversation with 
 strangers, upon whom they look with a sort of horrour ; and so 
 return, uninformed and untainted, into their own country as 
 they left it. 
 
 I am sensible, that many have represented the conduct of the 
 Jesuits in this mission in a very bad light ; but their reflexions 
 appear to me not at all supported by the facts upon which they 
 build them. To judge perfectly of the service they have clone 
 their people, we must not consider them in a parallel with the 
 flourishing nations of Europe, but as compared with their 
 neighbours, the savages of South America, or with the state of 
 those Indians who groan under the Spanish yoke. Consider 
 ing it in this, which is the true light, it will appear, that hu 
 man society is infinitely obliged to them for adding to it three 
 hundred thousand families in a well-regulated community, in 
 the room of a few vagabond untaught savages. And indeed, it 
 can scarce be conceived, that the government has not some ex 
 traordinary perfection, which has a principle of increase within 
 it, which draws others to unite themselves to the old stock, and 
 shoots out itself a luxuriance of new branches. Neither can 
 we, by any means, blame a system which produces such salu 
 tary effects ; and which has found that difficult, but happy way, 
 that grand desideratum in politicks, of uniting a perfect subjec 
 tion to an entire -content and satisfaction of the people. Mat 
 ters, which, it were to be wished, were studied with more at 
 tention by us, who content 'ourselves with railing at the dili 
 gence of an adversary, which we should rather praise and imi 
 tate ; and who, in our affairs, seldom think of using any other 
 instruments tlian force or money. 
 
 This commonwealth is now become a subject of much conver 
 sation, upon account of the cession which has lately been made 
 of part of that territory to the crown of Portugal. It is well 
 
 known 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 217 
 
 known, that the inhabitants of seven of the missions refused to 
 comply with this division, or to suffer themselves to be transfer 
 red from one hand to another, like cattle, without their own con 
 sent.* We are informed, bv the authority of the Gazette, that 
 
 * 
 the Indians actually took up arms ; but, notwithstanding the 
 
 exactness of their discipline, they were easily, and with a con 
 siderable slaughter, defeated by the European troops, who were 
 sent to quell them. It seems to have been ill-judged in this 
 people, who had never seen any real service, nor w r ere headed by 
 officers who had seen any, without which the best discipline is 
 but a sort of play, to have hazarded a battle with troops from 
 Europe. They ought rather to have first habituated themselves 
 to action by attacking small parties, by cutting off convoys, by 
 little surprises, until, by use and success in s'maller matters, 
 they were intitled to hazard the sum of their affairs in the open 
 field. However, it is not improbable, that this opposition will 
 rouse the indolence of the Spaniards, and make them take the 
 government of the country out of the hands it is in at present. 
 If they do, it is not difficult to foresee, that the same depopu 
 lation, the same distress, and the same discontent, which dis 
 tinguish the Indians in the rest of the Spanish provinces, will 
 be soon equally visible in this. It will not be difficult for them 
 to effect the reduction of this country ; for the Jesuits have too 
 large and valuable an interest in Old Spain, as well as in the New 
 World, to dispute it with the court, whenever they shall demand 
 in good earnest to have this country surrendered ; if it be true, 
 that the Jesuits have really such influence on the inhabitants as 
 is attributed to them. 
 
 It was not originally such bad policy, as it may seem, to have 
 
 * The Jesuits have been entirely disgraced at the court of Portugal, for the share 
 ikey are said to have had in this resistance. 
 
 F P intrusted 
 
218 
 
 intrusted the Jesuits with so great a power ; since a little time 
 will shew, that they have given them a territory unknown, un 
 peopled, and uncultivated, which they have the certain means 
 of repossessing when they please, subdued, peopled, and cul 
 tivated. As to its wealth, it is hard to say any thing certain ; 
 the Jesuits deny. it. And truly, if they acted with a perfect 
 policy, they would never have suffered any mines of gold or 
 silver to be opened in that country. Of this matter I have no 
 information upon which I can depend. 
 
 CHAP, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IK AMEHflCA. 219 
 
 C II A P. XVI. 
 
 TERRA FIRMA. ITS EXTENT AND PRODUCE - THE CITIES OF PANAMA, CAR- 
 THAGENA, AND PORTO-BELLO. - THE GALLEONS. - THE ISLE OF CUBA. 
 THE HAVANNA. HISPANIOLA. - PORTO RICO. REFLEXIONS ON THE PO 
 LICY OF SPAIN WITH REGARD TO THE COLONIES. 
 
 fc Spaniards have not made any settlements in the other di 
 visions of South- America, which they claim- to the southward 
 of Buenos- Ayres, nor to the northward, except in Terra Firma, 
 of which we shall say something. The country of the Amazons, 
 though prodigiously large, wonderfully fertile, and watered by 
 so noble a river, is almost entirely neglected. The river of Ama 
 zons, called also Maranon and Orellana, which waters and give's 
 its name to this country, arising from the union of several 
 streams that fall from the Cordillera, runs a course of no less 
 than eleven hundred leagues ; it flows for the greater part 
 through a level country covered with the fairest and loftiest 
 forests in the world, in which it forms an innumerable multi 
 tude of delightful islands ; and receiving on both sides the co 
 pious tribute of several rivers almost equal to itself in greatness, 
 increasing in breadth to a sort of sea, and to a depth which in 
 some parts has been in vain searched with a line of upwards of 
 an hundred fathoms, it rushes at length into the Atlantick ocean 
 by two mouths of an astonishing wideness, the principal being 
 forty-five leagues broad, the smaller not less than twelve. The 
 country on this fine river has no other inhabitants than Indians, 
 
 F F 2 some 
 
JOQ AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 some savage, some united under Spanish and Portuguese mis 
 sionaries. 
 
 The country, of Patagonia is likewise of a vast stretch to the 
 southward of Buenos-Ayres, all in the temperate zone, and ex 
 tended all along the Atlantick ocean. It is a plain country with 
 out trees ; but this is tire case of the delightful and fertile country 
 of Buenos- Ayres. It is said likewise to be barren and desert ; 
 but, what is certain, it is unsettled by any European nation, 
 and little known, though it lies open for any power that can 
 avail itself of a favourable opportunity to establish a colony 
 there. 
 
 The last province, according to the order I have observed, 
 though not of the least consequence in the Spanish American 
 dominions, is Terra Firma ; avast country, above two thousand 
 miles in length, and five hundred broad. Bordering on Mexico, 
 Peru, and Amazonia, it stretches all along the north sea, 
 from the Paciftck ocean to the mouth of the river of Amazons 
 upon the Atlantick. It is divided into twelve large provinces. 
 They all contain a vast deal of high and mountainous country, 
 particularly the province of St. Martha, where there are said to 
 be hills surpassing Tenerifte itself in height. These hills commu 
 nicate with the Andes. The valleys are deep and narrow, and 
 for a great part of the year flooded ; but though Terra Firma is 
 on the coast, the most unpleasant and most unhealthful country 
 in the torrid zone, the plain grounds are extremely fertile ; pro 
 duce corn enough, when cultivated, all kinds of the tropical 
 fruits ; rich drugs ; cacao, vanilla, indigo, piemento, guaiacum> 
 sarsaparilla, and balsam of Peru. No country abounds more in 
 xich and luxuriant pasturage, or has a greater stock of black 
 cattle. Their rivers have rich golden sands ; their coasts have 
 good pearl fisheries ; and their mines formerly yielded great 
 quantities of gold; but at present they are neglected or ex 
 hausted ; 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 221 
 
 Ptausted ; so that the principal wealth of this kingdom arises 
 from the commerce of Carthagena ; and what treasure is seen 
 there is mostly the return for European commodities which are 
 sent from that port to Santafe, Popayan, and Quito : and rubies 
 and emeralds are here found in plenty ; but, the value of pre 
 cious stones depending more on fancy than that of gold or silver, 
 this trade has considerably declined. 
 
 This province has a very considerable share of the trade of 
 Europe ; not only on account of its own produce and demand, 
 but because all the intercourse of Pern and Chili with Old Spain 
 is carried on through this country, for, as we have mentioned, 
 Carthagena supplies. Its capital city Panama is the great bar- 
 cadier of the South-Sea. Hither is brought all the treasure 
 which the rich mines of Peru and Chili pay to *the king, or pro 
 duce upon a private account. 
 
 The city of Panama is situated upon one of the best harbours, 
 in all respects, of the South-Seas. Ships of burden lie safe at 
 some distance from the town ; but smaller vessels come up to 
 the walls. In this bay is a pearl fishery of great value. The town, 
 one of the largest in America, is said to contain five thousand 
 houses, elegantly built of brick and stone, disposed in a semicir 
 cular form, and enlivened with the spires and domes of. several 
 churches and monasteries. It is covered on the land side with 
 an agreeable country, diversified with hills, valleys, and woods. 
 The town stands upon a dry and- tolerably healthful ground, 
 and has a great and profitable trade with Peru, Chili, and the 
 western coast of Mexico, chiefly for provisions of every sort 
 both of the animal and vegetable kinds ; corn, wine, sugar, oil, 
 with tallow, leather, and Jesuit's bark. In the neighbourhood 
 of this city they raise nothing ; and yet, by tralfick and their 
 convenient situation, there are few cities more abundantly 
 supplied with all things for necessity, convenience, or luxury. 
 
 Their 
 
222 AN ACCOUNT OF THK 
 
 Their trade with the Terra Finna and with Europe is carried on 
 over the isthmus of Darien, and hy the river Chagra. 
 
 The second town of consideration in Terra Firma, is Cartha- 
 gena, which stands upon a peninsula, that encloses one of the 
 safest and best defended harbours in all the Spanish America. 
 The town itself is well fortified, and built after the elegant 
 fashion of most of the Spanish American towns, with a square in 
 the middle, and streets running every way regularly from it,- 
 and others cutting these at right angles. This town has many 
 rich churches and convents ; that of the Jesuits is particularly 
 magnificent. Here it is that the galleons on their voyage from 
 Spain put in first, and dispose of a considerable part of their 
 cargo ; which from hence is distributed to St. Martha, the Ca- 
 raccas, Venezuela, and most of the other provinces and towns 
 in the Terra Firma. 
 
 The fleet which is called the galleons consists of about eight 
 men of war, of about fifty guns each, designed principally to 
 supply Peru with military stores ; but in reality, laden not only 
 with these, but with every other kind of merchandize on a pri 
 vate account ; so as to be in bad condition for defending them 
 selves, or protecting others. Under the convoy of these sail 
 about twelve merchant ships, not inferiour in burden. This 
 fleet of the galleons is regulated in much the same manner with 
 the flotas, and it is destined for the exclusive commerce of Terra 
 Firma and the South-Sea, as the flota is for that of Mexico. 
 
 No sooner is this fleet arrived in the haven of Carthagena, 
 than expresses are immediately dispatched to Porto-bello, and 
 to all the adjacent towns, but principally to Panama ; that they 
 may get ready all the treasure which is deposited there, to 
 meet the galleons at Porto-belio ; in which town, (remarkable 
 for the goodness of its harbour, which brings such a surprising 
 concourse here at the time of the fair, and the unwholesomeness 
 
 of 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 223 
 
 of the air, which makes it a desart at all other time) all the per 
 sons concerned in the various branches of this extensive traffick 
 assemble ; and there is certainly no other part of the world 
 where business of such great importance is negotiated in so short 
 a time. For in about a fortnight the fair is over; during which 
 the display of the gold, silver, and precious stones, on the one 
 hand, and of all the curiosity and variety of the ingenious fa- 
 bricks of Europe on the other, is astonishing. Heaps of wedges 
 and ingots of silver are tumbled about on the wharfs like com 
 mon things. At this time an hundred crowns are given for a 
 poor lodging, a thousand for a shop, and provision of every 
 kind is proportionably dear; which may help us to some idea 
 of the profits made in this trade. The treasure is brought hither 
 from Panama, by a very dangerous road, upon mules. The other 
 goods, sugar, tobacco, and drugs, are transported on the river 
 Chagra. 
 
 When the galleons have taken . in their returns, they steer 
 together to the Havanna, which is the place of rendezvous of 
 all the ships concerned in the Spanish American trade. 
 
 The Havanna is the capital city of the island of Cuba, it is 
 situated upon an excellent harbour upon the western extremity 
 of the island. This city is large, containing not less than two 
 thousand houses, with a number of churches and convents ; but 
 then it is the only place of consequence, upon <the noble island 
 of Cuba, which lies in the latitude twenty, and extends from - 
 east to west near seven hundred miles in length, though in 
 breadth it is disproportioned, being but from one hundred and : 
 twenty to seventy miles. However, it yields to no part of rthe 
 West-Indies in the fertility of its soil, or in excellence of every 
 thing which is produced in that climate. But the Spaniards, 
 by a -series of the most inhuman and impolitick barbarities, 
 having exterminated the original inhabitants, and not finding . 
 
 the 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the quantities of gold in the islands which the continent af 
 forded, they have left this, as well as Ilispaniola, of which the 
 French now possess the greater part, and Porto Rico, a large, 
 excellent, and fertile island, comparatively so many desarts. ' 
 The commerce between these islands and the Spanish continent, 
 is carried on by the Barlevento fleet, consisting of six ships of 
 good burthen and force, who annually make the tour of all these 
 islands, and the coast of Terra Firma, not only to carry on the 
 commerce between those places, but to clear the sea of pirates 
 and illicit traders. Now and then a register ship from Old Spain 
 is bound to one or other of these islands. Hitherto the Spaniards 
 seemed rather to keep them, to prevent any other nation from 
 growing too powerful in those seas, than for any profit they ex 
 pected to derive from them. And it is certain, that if other 
 nations should come entirely to possess the whole of the islands, 
 the trade of the American continent, and perhaps the continent 
 itself, would be entirely at their mercy. However, of late, the 
 Spaniards have taken some steps towards the better settlement 
 of Porto Rico. They are beginning to open the American trade 
 to some other towns in Spain besides Cadiz. They have made 
 a difference in point of duty between their own manufactures 
 and those of foreigners. They are, in short, opening their eye 
 to the true interest of their .country, and moving their hands, 
 though slowly, to promote it. 
 
 Upon this time, the tide of wealth, that constantly flowed 
 from America into Spain, ran through that kingdom like a 
 hasty torrent, which, far from enriching the country, hurried 
 away with it all -the wealth which it found in its passage. No 
 country in Europe receives such vast treasures as Spain. In no 
 country in Europe is seen so little money. The truth is, from 
 the time that the Indies fell into the hands -of Spain, the affairs 
 of that monarchy have been constantly going backward. In 
 
 America 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 225 
 
 America their settlements were carried on conformably to that 
 ^rnius, and to those maxims, which prevailed in their govern 
 ment in Europe. No means of retaining their conquests but by 
 extirpating the people ; no schemes for the advancement of 
 trade ; no attempts at the reformation of abuses, which became 
 venerable in proportion to the mischiefs they had suffered by 
 them. In government, tyranny; in religion, bigotry; in trade, 
 monopoly. 
 
 When the Spaniards found, to their ambition which was 
 boundless, that they had joined a treasure which was inex 
 haustible, they imagined there was nothing too vast for them 
 to compass. They embraced a thousand projects at once ; 
 many of them noble ones in theory, but to be^executed with dif- 
 icrcnt instruments in different parts of the world, and all at a 
 vast cxpence of blood and treasure. The wars, which were the 
 result of these schemes, and the Indies, which were to support 
 them, wore a continual drain, which carried off their people, 
 and destroyed all industry in those who remained. The treasure 
 which flowed in every year from the New World, found them in 
 debt to every part of the Old ; for to the rest of their revenues 
 they had forgot to add that, which is a great revenue itself, and 
 the great support of all the others, economy. On the con 
 trary, an ill order in their finances at home, and devouring 
 usury abroad, swallowed up all their treasure, whilst they mul 
 tiplied the occasions for it. With the best scheming heads in 
 Europe, they were every where outwitted ; with the bravest and 
 best disciplined troops, they were almost always defeated ; with 
 the greatest treasures, they were in want ; and their armies were 
 ill provided, and ill paid. Their friends exhausted them by 
 trade ; their enemies by plunder. They saw new states arise 
 out of the fragments of their dominions ; and new maritime 
 powers start up from the wrecks of their navy. In short, they 
 
 G G provoked, 
 
226 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 provoked, troubled, and enriched all Europe ; and at last de 
 sisted through mere want of strength. They were inactive, but 
 not quiet ; and they were enervated as much by their laziness 
 during this repose, as they had been weakened before by their 
 ill-judged activity. 
 
 /yi this happened in a country, which abounded with men 
 of capacity as much as any state in Europe, and often with men 
 of great capacity at its head. But their talents took a wrong 
 turn ; their politicks were always more abroad than at home ; 
 more employed in weakening their neighbours, than in strength 
 en] n<r themselves. They were wise in the concerns of foreign 
 
 O *> Zj 
 
 courts ; they were satisfied with being formal in their own do- 
 mestick business. They relied too much upon their riches ; 
 and the whole state, being moulded into a system of corruption 
 from the top to the bottom, things grew at last so' bad, that the 
 evils themselves became a sort of remedies ; and they felt so se 
 verely the consequences of their former conduct, that they have 
 for some years past turned their thoughts into a very good chan 
 nel ; and they may in time, and with perseverance, rise again ; 
 whilst others shall fall, by adopting the abuses which brought 
 them to ruin. 
 
 At present the politicks of Spain, with regard to America, 
 seem to be, to preserve South America, and particularly the 
 navigation of the South-Seas, as much as possible to themselves ; 
 to destroy effectually the contraband trade> and to encourage 
 the export of their own manufactures. Of us they have long 
 shewn a remarkable jealousy ; a much greater tiian of the 
 French, whom they see quietly settling in the neighbourhood of 
 New Mexico ; and who are growing certainly in the. West- In 
 dies in a far greater degree than we are. I shall uot pretend to 
 account for this distinction. 
 
 PART 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 227 
 
 PART IV. 
 
 THE PORTUGUESE SETTLEMENTS 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 AN ACCOUNT 1 OE THE DISCOVERY OF BRAZIL. THE METHOD OF SETTLING IT. 
 CONQUERED BY THE DUTCH. RECONQUERED BY THE PORTUGUESE. 
 
 IT is very rare that any material discovery, whether in the arts, 
 in philosophy, or in navigation, has been owing to efforts made 
 directly for that particular purpose, and determined by the 
 force of reasonings a priori. The first hints are owin to ac 
 cident ; and discoveries in one kind present themselves volun 
 tarily to us, whilst we are in search of what flies from us in 
 some other. The discovery of America by Columbus was ow 
 ing originally to a just reasoning on the figure of the earth, 
 though the particular land he discovered was far enough from 
 that which he sought. Here was a mixture of wise design and 
 fortunate accident ; but the Portuguese discovery of Brazil may 
 be considered as merely accidental. For sailing with a COE&- 
 siderable armament to India, by the way of the Cape of Goad 
 Hope, but standing out to sea to avoid the calms upon the coast 
 
 G G 2 Of 
 
228 
 
 of Africa, the Portuguese fleet fell in upon the continent of 
 South America. Upon their return they made so favourable a 
 report, of the land they had discovered, that the court resolved 
 to send a colony thither ; and accordingly made their first 
 establishment; but in a very bad method, in which it were to 
 be wished they had never been imitated. This was by banish 
 ing thither a number of criminals of all kinds. This blended 
 an evil disposition with the first principles of the colony, and 
 made the settlement infinitely difficult by the disorders inse 
 parable from such people, and the offence which they gave the 
 original inhabitants. This settlement met with some interrup 
 tion too from the court of Spain, who considered the country 
 as within their dominions. However, matters were accom 
 modated by a treaty, in which it was agreed, that the Portu 
 guese should possess all that tract of land that lies between the 
 river Maranon, or of the Amazons, and the river Plate. 
 
 When their right was thus confirmed, the Portuguese pursued 
 the settlement with great vigour. Large grants were made to 
 those who were inclined to become adventurers ; and almost all 
 the nobility procured interests in a country which promised 
 such -great advantages. The natives were in most parts sub 
 dued, and the improvement of the colony advanced apace. The 
 crown in a little time became attentive to so valuable an ac 
 quisition ; the government was new modelled, many of the ex- 
 orbitants recalled, and all things settled upon so advantageous 
 a footing, that the whole sea coast, upwards of two thousand 
 miles, was in some measure settled, to the honour of the in 
 dustry and courage of the first planters, and infinitely to the 
 benefit of the mother-country. The Portuguese conquests on 
 the coast of Africa forwarded this establishment, by the number 
 o Njegroes it afforded them for their works; and this was the 
 
 first 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 229 
 
 first introduction of Negroes into America, of which at present 
 they form a large part of the inhabitants. 
 
 In the very meridian of their prosperity, when the Portu 
 guese were in possession of so extensive an empire, and so 
 flourishing a trade in Africa, in Arabia, in India, in the isles of 
 Asia, and in one of the most valuable parts of America, they 
 were struck down by one of those incidents, that by one blow, 
 in a critical time, decides the fate of kingdoms. Don Sebas 
 tian, one of their greatest princes, in an expedition he had un 
 dertaken against the Moors, lost his life ; and by that accident 
 the Portuguese lost their liberty, being absorbed into the Spa 
 nish dominion. 
 
 Soon after this misfortune, the same yoke that galled the Por 
 tuguese, grew so intolerable to the inhabitant's of the Nether 
 lands, that they threw it off with great fury and indignation. 
 Not satisfied with erecting themselves into an independent state, 
 and supporting their independency by a successful defensive 
 war, flushed with the juvenile ardour of a growing common 
 wealth, they pursued the Spaniards into the remotest recesses 
 of their extensive territories, and grew rich, powerful, and ter 
 rible, by the spoils of their former masters. Principally, they 
 fell upon the possessions of the Portuguese ; they took almost 
 all their fortresses in the East-Indies, not sufficiently defended 
 by the inert policy of the court of Spain ; and then turned their 
 arms upon Brazil, unprotected from Europe, and betrayed by 
 the cowardice of the governor of the then principal city. And 
 they would have overrun the whole, if Don Michael de Texeira, 
 the archbishop, descended from one of the noblest families in 
 Portugal, and of a spirit superiour to his birth, had not believ 
 ed, that in such an emergency, the danger of his country super 
 seded the common obligations of his profession. He took. 
 
230 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 arms, and at the head of his monks, and a few scattered forces, 
 put a stop to the torrent of the Dutch conquest. He made a 
 gallant stand until succours arrived ; and then resigned the com 
 mission with which the publick necessity and his own virtue 
 had armed him, into the hands of a person appointed by au 
 thority. By this stand he saved seven of the captainships, or 
 provinces, out of fourteen, into which Brazil is divided ; the 
 rest fell into the hands of the Dutch, who conquered and kept 
 them with a bravery and conduct, which would deserve more 
 applause, if it had been governed by humanity. 
 
 The famous captain, Prince Maurice of Nassau, was the per 
 son to whom the Dutch owed this conquest, the establishment 
 of their colony there, and that advantageous peace which se 
 cured them in it. But as it is the genius of all mercantile peo 
 ple to desire a sudden profit in all their designs ; and as this 
 colony was not tinder the immediate inspection of the states, 
 but subject to the company called the West-India company, 
 from principles narrowed up by avarice and mean notions, they 
 grudged that the present profits of the colony should be sacri 
 ficed to its future security. They found, that the prince kept 
 up more troops, and erected more fortresses, than they thought 
 necessary to their safety ; and that he lived in a grander man 
 ner than they thought became one in their service. They ima 
 gined that a little official economy was the principal quality 
 necessary to form a great conqueror and politician ; and there 
 fore they were highly displeased with their governor Prince 
 Maurice, whom they treated in such a manner as obliged him 
 to resign. 
 
 Now their own schemes took place. A reduction of the 
 troops ; the expence of fortifications saved ; the charge of a 
 court retrenched ; the debts of the company strictly exacted; 
 their gains increased cent per cent, and every thing flourishing 
 
 according 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 231 
 
 according to their best ideas of a flourishing state. But then, 
 all this fine system in a short time ended in the total loss of all 
 their capital, and the entire ruin of the West-India company. 
 The hearts of subjects were lost, by their penurious way of 
 dealing and the severity of their proceedings. The enemy in 
 their neighbourhood was encouraged, by the defenceless state 
 of their frontiers ; and both operated in such a manner, that 
 Brazil was reconquered by the Portuguese ; though after u 
 struggle, in which the states exerted themselves vigorously ; 
 but with that aggravated expence, and that ill success, which 
 always attends a late wisdom, and the patching up of a blun 
 dering system of conduct. A standing lesson to those people 
 who have the folly to imagine they consult the happiness of a 
 nation, when, by a pretended tenderness for 'some of its ad 
 vantages, they neglect the only things that can support it, the 
 cultivating of the good opinion of the people, and the keeping 
 up of a proper force. 
 
 CHAP 
 
232 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 THE CLIMATE OF BRAZIL. OF THE BRAZIL WOOD. 
 
 THE name of Brazil was given to this country, because it was 
 observed to abound with a wood of that name. It extends all 
 along a tract of line sea coast upon the Atlantick ocean upward - 
 of two thousand miles, between the river of Amazons on the 
 north, and that of Plate on the south. To the northward, 
 the climate is uncertain, hot, boisterous, and unwholesome 
 The country, both there and even in more temperate parts, is 
 annually overflowed. But to the southward, beyond the tropick 
 of Capricorn, and indeed a good way beyond it, there is no part 
 of the world that enjoys a more serene and wholesome air ; re 
 freshed with the soft breezes of the ocean on one hand, and the 
 cool breath of the mountains on the other. Hither several aged 
 people from Portugal retire for their health, and protract their 
 lives to a long and easy age. 
 
 In general, the soil is extremely fruitful, and was found very 
 sufficient for the comfortable subsistence of the inhabitants, 
 until the mines of gold and diamonds were discovered. These, 
 with the sugar plantations, occupy so many hands, that agri 
 culture lies neglected ; and, in consequence, Brazil depends 
 upon Europe for its daily bread. 
 
 The chief commodities which this country yields for a foreign 
 market are, sugar, tobacco, hides, indigo, ipecacuanha, balsam 
 ofCopaibo, and brazil wood. As this last article in a more 
 particular manner belongs to this country, to which it gives its 
 
 name, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 name, and which produces it in the greatest perfection, it is 
 not amiss to allow a very little room to the description of it. 
 This tree generally flourishes in rocky and barren grounds, in 
 which it grows to a great height and considerable thickness. 
 But a man who judges of the quantity of the timber, by the 
 thickness of the tree, will be much deceived ; for, upon strip 
 ping off the bark, which makes a very large part of the plant, 
 he will find, from a tree as thick as his body, a log no more in 
 compass than his leg. This tree is generally crooked arid knotty 
 like the hawthorn, with long brandies, and a smooth green leaf, 
 hard, dry, and brittle. Thrice a year, bunches of small flowers 
 shoot out at the extremities of the branches, and between the 
 leaves. These flowers are of a bright red, and of a strong aro- 
 matick and refreshing smell. The wood of 'this tree is of a red 
 colour, hard and dry. It is used chiefly in dyeing red, but not 
 a red of the best kind ; and it has some place in medicine as a 
 stomachick and restringent. 
 
 H H CHAP 
 
234 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 CHAP. in. 
 
 THE TRADE OF BRAZIL. ITS INTERCOURSE WITH AFRICA. THE SETTLE- 
 
 TrfENT OF THE RIVER AMAZONS AND RIO JANEIRO. THE GOLD MINES.- 
 
 THE COMMONWEALTH OF THE PAULlSTS. THE DIAMOND MINES. 
 
 THE trade of Brazil is very great, and it increases every year. 
 Nor is this a wonder ; since they have opportunities of supply 
 ing themselves with slaves for their several works, at a much 
 easier and cheaper rate than any other European power, which 
 has settlements in America. For they are the only European 
 nation which has taken the pains to establish colonies in Africa. 
 Those of the Portuguese are very considerable, both for their 
 extent and the numbers of their inhabitants ; and of course they 
 have advantages in that trade which no other nation can have. 
 For, besides their large establishment on the western shore of 
 Africa, they claim the whole coast of Zanguebar on the eastern 
 side, which in part they possess; besides several other large 
 territories, both on the coast and in the country ; where several 
 numerous nations acknowledge themselves their dependents or 
 subjects. This is not only of great advantage to them, as it 
 increases their shipping and seamen and strengthens their com 
 mercial reputation, but as it leaves them a large field for their 
 slave trade ; without which, they could hardly ever supply, 
 upon any tolerable terms, their settlements in Brazil, which 
 carry off such numbers, by the severity of the works and the 
 unwholesomeness of some part of the climate ; nor could they 
 otherwise extend their plantations, and open so many new 
 mines as they do, to. a degree which is astonishing, 
 
 I 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 235 
 
 I own, I have often been surprised, that our African traders 
 should chuse so contracted an object for their slave trade, which 
 extends to little more than some part of the Gold Coast, to 
 Sierra Leone, and Gambia, and some other inconsiderable ports ; 
 by which they have depreciated their own commodities, and 
 raised the price of slaves within these few years above thirty 
 per cent. Nor is it to be wondered ; as in the tract, in which 
 they trade, they have many rivals ; the people are grown too 
 expert, by the constant4iabit of European commerce ; and the 
 slaves in that part are in a good measure exhausted ; whereas, 
 if some of our vessels passed the Cape of Good Hope, and tried 
 what might be done in Madagascar, or on those coasts which 
 indeed the Portuguese claim, but do not nor cannot hold, there 
 is no doubt but that they would find the greater expence and 
 length of time in passing the Cape, or the charge of licences which 
 might be procured from the East-India Company, amply com 
 pensated. Our African trade might then be considerably en 
 larged, our own manufactures extended, and our colonies sup 
 plied at an easier rate than they are at present, or are likely to 
 be for the future, whilst we confine ourselves to two or three 
 places, which we exhaust, and where we shall find the market 
 dearer every day. The Portuguese, from these settlements and 
 this extensive range, draw every year into Brazil between forty 
 and fifty thousand slaves. On this trade all their other depends, 
 ^nd therefore they take great care to have it well supplied, for 
 which purpose the situation of Brazil, nearer the coast of Africa 
 than any other part of America, is very convenient ; and it co 
 operates with the great advantages they derive from having co 
 lonies in both places. 
 
 Hence it is principally, that Brazil is the richest, most flou 
 rishing, and most growing establishment in all America. Their 
 export of sugar within forty years is grown much greater than it 
 
 H H 2 was, 
 
36 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 was, though anciently it made almost the whole of their ex 
 portable produce, and they were without rivals in the trade. It 
 is finer in kind than what any of ours, the French, or Spanish 
 sugar plantations send us. Their tobacco too is remarkably 
 good ; and they trade very largely in this commodity to the 
 coast of Africa, where they not only sell it directly to the na 
 tives, but supply the ships of other nations, who find it a neces 
 sary article to enable them to carry on the slave and gold dust 
 trade to advantage. The northern and southern parts of Brazil 
 abound in horned cattle ; these are hunted for their hides, of 
 which no less than twenty thousand are sent, annually into 
 Europe. 
 
 The Portuguese were a considerable time possessed of their 
 American empire, before they discovered the treasures of gold 
 and diamonds, which have since made it so considerable. After 
 the explosion of the Dutch, the colony remained without much 
 attention from the court of Portugal ; until in 1685, a minister 
 of great sagacity advised the then monarch to turn his thoughts 
 to so valuable and considerable a part of his territories. He 
 represented to him, that the climate in the bay of All-Saints, 
 where the capital stood, was of such a nature as to deaden the 
 activity and industry of the people ; but that the northern ex^ 
 tremlties of Brazil, in a more temperate climate, invited them 
 to the Cultivation of the country. The advice was taken. But, 
 because it was found that the insolence and tyranny of the na 
 tive Portuguese always excited the hatred of the native Bra 
 zilians, and consequently obstructed the settlements, they were 
 resolved to people the countries, which were now the object of 
 their care, with those who are called Mestizes ; that is, a race 
 sprung from a mixture of Europeans and Indians, who they 
 judged would behave better ; and who, on account of their con 
 nection in blood,, would be more acceptable to the Brazilians 
 
 on 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 237 
 
 on- the borders, who were not yet reduced. To complete this 
 design, they vested the government in the hands of priests, 
 who acted each as governor in his own parish or district. And 
 they had the prudence to chuse with great care such men as 
 were proper for the work. The consequence of these wise regu 
 lations was soon apparent ; for, without noise or force, in fifteen 
 years, they not only settled, the sea coast, but, drawing in 
 vast numbers of the natives, they spread themselves above an 
 hundred miles more to the westward than the Portuguese set 
 tlement's had ever extended. They opened several mines, which 
 improved the revenues ; the planters were easy, and several of 
 the priests made no inconsiderable fortunes. 
 
 The fame of these new mines drew together a number of des 
 peradoes and adventurers of all nations and colours ; who, not 
 agreeing with the moderate and simple manners of the inhabit 
 ants of the new settlements, nor readily submitting to any order 
 or restraint elsewhere, retired into a mountainous part of the 
 country, but fertile enough, and rich in gold ; where, by the 
 accession of others in their own circumstances, they soon be 
 came a formidable and independent body, and for a long time 
 defended the privileges they had assumed with great courage 
 and policy. They were called Paulists, from the town and dis 
 trict called St. Paul, which was their head quarters. But, as 
 this odd commonwealth grew up in so unaccountable a manner, 
 so it perished -in a manner altogether unknown in this part of 
 the world. It is now heard of no longer. The king, of Por- 
 tugal is in full possession of the whole country ; and the mines 
 are worked by his subjects and theic slaves, paying him a fifth. 
 These mines have poured almost as much gold into Europe as 
 the Spanish America had of silver. 
 
 Not many years after the discovery of the gold mines, Brazil, 
 which for a century had been given up as a place incapable of. 
 
 yielding. 
 
238 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 yielding the metals for which America was chiefly valued, was 
 now found to produce diamonds too ; but at first of so unpro*- 
 mising a nature, that the working of the mines was forbidden 
 by the court of Portugal, lest, without making any compensa 
 tion by their number, they might depreciate the trade which 
 was carried on in those stones from Goa. But, in spite of this 
 prohibition, a number were from time to time smuggled from 
 Brazil ; and some too of such great weight, and high lustre and 
 transparency, that they yielded very little to the finest brought 
 from India. The court now perceived the importance of the 
 trade, and accordingly resolved to permit it, but under such re 
 strictions as might be sufficiently beneficial to the crown and sub 
 ject ; and at the same time preserve the jewels in that scarcity 
 which makes the principal part of their value. In 1740, the 
 diamond mines were farmed at one hundred and thirty-eight 
 thousand crusadoes, or about twenty-six thousand pounds 
 sterling annually, with a prohibition against employing more 
 than six hundred slaves at a time in the works. It is probable 
 that this regulation is not very strictly complied with ; the 
 quantity of diamonds being much increased, and their value of 
 course sunk, since that time. It is true, that diamonds of the 
 very first rank are nearly as dear as ever. None of the diamonds 
 of Brazil have so high a lustre as the first rate of Golconda ; 
 and they have generally something of a dusky yellowish cast ; 
 but they have been found of a prodigious size. Some years ago 
 we had an account in the newspapers of one sent to the king of 
 Portugal, of a size and weight almost beyond the bounds of cre 
 dibility ; for it was said to weigh sixteen hundred carats, or six 
 thousand seven hundred and twenty grains ; and consequently 
 must be worth several millions. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 239 
 
 C II A P. IV. 
 
 HEGULATION OF THE PORTUGUESE TRADE. THE DESCRIPTION OF ST. SAL 
 VADOR, THE CAPITAL OF BRAZIL. THE FLEETS FOR THAT CITY. RIO 
 
 JANEIRO AND FERNAMBUCCA. 
 
 THE trade of Portugal is carried on upon the same exclusive 
 plan, on which the several nations of Europe trade with their 
 colonies of America; and it more particularly resembles the 
 Spanish method, by sending out not single ships, as the con- 
 veniency of the several places and the ideas of the European 
 merchants may direct ; but by annual fleets, which sail at stat 
 ed times from Portugal and compose three flotas bound to as 
 many ports in Brazil ; to Fernambucca, in the northern part ; 
 Rio Janeiro, at the southern extremity ; and the bay of All- 
 Saints, in the middle. In this last is the capital, which is call 
 ed St. Salvador, where all the fleets rendezvous on their return 
 to Portugal. This city commands a noble, spacious, and com 
 modious harbour. It is built upon an high and steep rock, 
 having the sea upon one side, and a lake forming a crescent, 
 investing it almost wholly, so as nearly to join the sea on the 
 other. This situation makes it in a manner impregnable by 
 nature ; but they have besides added to it very strong fortifi 
 cations. All these make it the strongest place in America. It 
 is divided into an upper and lower town. The lower consists 
 only of a street or two, immediately upon the harbour, for the 
 convenience of lading and unlading goofds, which are drawn up 
 to the higher town by machines. The streets in the upper 
 town are laid out as regulary as the ground will admit, and are 
 handsomely built. They had forty years ago in this city above 
 
 two 
 
240 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 two thousand houses, and inhabitants proportionable ; a sump 
 tuous cathedral; several magnificent churches, and many con 
 vents, well built and endowed. The Portuguese fleet sets out 
 from Lisbon in its voyage hither in the month of February. 
 
 I can get no accounts, precise enough to be depended upon, 
 of the towns* of Fernambucca orParayba, and the capital of the 
 Rio de Janeiro, to enable me to be particular about them. Let 
 it suffice that the fleet for the former of these sets out in March ; 
 and for the latter in the month of January ; but they all ren 
 dezvous in the bay of All-Saints, to the number of an hundred 
 sail of large ships, about the month of May or June, and carry 
 to Europe a cargo little inferiour in value to the treasures of 
 the riot a and galleons. The gold alone amounts to near four 
 millions sterling. This is not all extracted from the mines of 
 Brazil ; but, as they carry on a large direct trade with Africa, 
 they bring, especially from their settlement at Mozambique, on 
 the eastern side of that continent, besides their slaves, vast 
 quantities of gold, bony, and ivory, which goes into the 
 amount of the cargo of the Brazil fleets for Europe. Those 
 parts of Brazil which yield gold, are the middle and northern 
 parts on the Rio Janeiro and Bay of All-Saints. They coin -a 
 great deal of gold in America; that which is coined at Rio 
 Janeiro bears an R, that which is struck at the Bay is marked 
 with a B. 
 
 To judge the better of the riches of this Brazil, fleet, the 
 diamonds it contains must not be forgot. For if the mines 
 
 C7 
 
 rented to the crown in the year 17^0, at twenty-six thousand 
 pounds a year, it will be a very small allowance to say, that 
 at least five limes more is made out of them ; and that there is 
 returned to Europe in diamonds to at least the value of one 
 hundred and thirty thousand pounds. This, with the sugar, 
 which is principally the cargo of the Fernambucca fleet, the 
 
 tobacco, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 241 
 
 tobacco, the hides, the valuable drugs for medicine and manu 
 factures, may give some idea of the importance of this trade, 
 not only to Portugal, but to all the trading powers of Europe 
 The returns are not the fiftieth part of the produce of Portugal. 
 They consist of the woollen goods, of all kinds, of England, 
 France, and Holland; the linens and laces of Holland, France 
 and Germany ; the silks of France and Italy ; lead, tin, iron, 
 copper, and all sorts of utensils wrought in these metals, from 
 England; as well as salt-fish, beef, flour, and cheese. Oil they ' 
 have from Spain, Wine, with some fruits, is nearly all with 
 which they are supplied from Portugal, 
 
 Though the profits in this trade are great, very few Portu 
 guese merchants trade upon their own stocks ; they are gene 
 rally credited by the foreign merchants, whose commodities 
 they vend, especially the English. In short, though in Por 
 tugal, as in Spain, all trade with their plantations is strict lv 
 interdicted to strangers ; yet, like all regulations that contra 
 dict the very nature of the object they regard, they are here as 
 little attended to as in. Spain. The Portuguese is only the 
 trustee and factor ; but his fidelity is equal to that of the Spa 
 nish merchant ; and that has scarce ever been shaken by any 
 publick or private cause whatsoever. A thing surprising in the 
 Portuguese ; and a striking instance amongst a people so far 
 from remarkable for their integrity, of what a custom originally 
 built upon a few examples, and a consequent reputation built 
 upon that, will be able to effect in a succession of men of very 
 different natural characters and morals. And so different is tlu 
 spirit of commercial honesty from that of justice, as it is an in 
 dependent virtue, and influences the heart. 
 
 The English at present are the most interested, both in the' 
 trade of Portugal for home consumption and of what they want 
 for the use of the Brazils. And they deserve to be most fa 
 voured, ,95 well from the services they have always done that 
 
 i i crown 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 crown and from the stipulations of treaties, as from the con 
 sideration that no other people consumes so much of the pro 
 ducts of Portugal. However, partly from our own supinenes?, 
 partly from the policy and activity of France, and partly from 
 the fault of the Portuguese themselves, the French have be 
 come very dangerous rivals to us in this,' as in most other 
 branches of our trade. It is true, though the French have ad 
 vanced so prodigiously, and there is a spirit of industry and 
 commerce raised in most countries in Europe, our exports of 
 manufactures or natural products have by no means lessened 
 within these last forty years ; which can only be explained by 
 the extending of our own, and the Spanish and Portuguese co 
 lonies, which increases the general demand. But, though it be 
 true, that we have rather advanced than declined in our com 
 merce upon the whole, yet we ought to take great care not to 
 be deceived by this appearance. For if we have not likewise 
 advanced in as great a proportion to what we were before that 
 period, and to our means since then, as our neighbours have 
 done in proportion to theirs, as I apprehend we have not, then, 
 I say, we have comparatively declined ; and shall never be able 
 to preserve that distinguished rank of the first commercial and 
 maritime power in Eucope, time must be essential to preserve 
 us in any degree, either of commerce or power. For if any 
 other power, of a more extensive and populous territory than 
 ours, should come to rival us in trade and wealth, he must come 
 of necessity to give law to us in whatever relates either to trade 
 or policy. Notwithstanding that the want of capacity in the 
 ministers of such a power, or the indolence of the sovereign, 
 may protract the evil for a time, it will certainly be felt in the 
 end, and will shew us demonstratively, though too late, that 
 we must have a great superiority in trade, not only to ourselves 
 formerly, but to our neighbours at present, to have any at all 
 which is likely to continue with us for a long time. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 243 
 
 ' 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 THE CHARACTER OF THE AMERICAN PORTUGUESE. THE STATE OF THE 
 NEG11QES. THE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 THE portrait which the most judicious travellers give us of 
 the manners and customs of the Portuguese in America, is very 
 far from being favourable to that people. They are represented 
 as a people at once sunk in the most effeminate luxury, and 
 practising the most desperate crimes. Of a dissembling hypo 
 critical temper ; of little honesty in dealing, or sincerity in con 
 versation ; lazy, proud, and cruel. They are poor and penu 
 rious in their diet, not more through necessity than inclination. 
 For, like the inhabitants of most southern climates, they are 
 much more fond of show, state, and attendance*, than of the 
 joys of free society and the satisfaction of a good table. Yet. 
 their feasts, seldom made, are sumptuous to extravagance. 
 
 The luxury, indolence, pride, and cruelty of the masters has, 
 amongst other causes, been very justly attributed to their being 
 bred up amongst slaves, having every business entirely done by 
 such ; and to their being permitted to keep a prodigious number 
 of. Negroes, not for their field work, nor for domestick employ 
 ments, but merely to wait upon them, and to form their train. 
 These become more corrupted than their masters, who make 
 them the instruments of their crimes ; and, giving them an un 
 bounded and scandalous licence, employ them, whenever they 
 want to terrify or revenge, as bullies and assassins. And indeed 
 no tiling can be conceived more lit to create the worst disorders, 
 
 j i 2 than 
 
244 AN ACCOUNT OF THF. 
 
 than the unnatural junction of slavery to idleness and a licen 
 tious way of living. They are all suffered to go armed, and 
 there are vast numbers who have merited or bought their free 
 dom ; and this is suffered in a country where the Negroes are 
 ten to one. 
 
 But this picture, perhaps too highly coloured for those whom 
 it is intended to represent, is by no means applicable to all the 
 Portuguese of Brazil. Those by the Rio Janeiro, and in the 
 northern captainships, are not near so effeminate and corrupted 
 as those of the Bay of All-Saints, which, being in a climate fa 
 vourable to indolence and debauchery, the capital city, one of 
 the oldest settlements, is in all respects worse than any of the 
 others. 
 
 The government of Brazil is in the viceroy, who resides at 
 St. Salvador. He has two councils, one for criminal, the other 
 for civil affairs ; in both he presides. But, to the infinite pre 
 judice of the settlement, all the delay, chicanery, multiplied 
 expences incident to the worst part of the law, and practised 
 by the most corrupted lawyers, flourish here ; at the same time 
 that justice is so lax that the greatest crimes often pass with im 
 punity. Formerly the judges could not legally punish any Por 
 tuguese with death. And it is not difficult to imagine, how 
 much a licence in such a country must have contributed to a 
 corruption, that it may be the business of successions of good 
 magistrates, and ages of good discipline, to restore to soundness. 
 Upon the river of Amazons, the people, who are mostly Indians 
 and reduced by the priests sent thither, are still under the go 
 vernment of these pastors. The several divisions of this country 
 are called missions. 
 
 As the Portuguese have been once dispossessed of this country 
 by the Dutch, and once endangered by the French, their mis 
 fortunes and dangers have made them wise enough to take very 
 
 effectual 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA, 245 
 
 effectual measures for their future security. St. Salvador is a 
 very strong fortification ; they have others that are not con 
 temptible ; besides a good number of European regular troops, 
 of which there are two regiments in St, Salvador. The militia 
 
 o 
 
 too is regimented, amongst whom we reckon some bodies of In 
 dians, and free Negroes ; and indeed, at present, Brazil seems to 
 be in as little danger as the settlements of any power of Ame 
 rica, not only from their own internal strength, their remote 
 ness, and the intolerable heat and unhealthiness of a great part 
 of the climate, but from the interest that most of the states in 
 Europe, who are concerned in that trade, have to keep it in the 
 hands of the Portuguese. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
246 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 PART V. 
 
 THE FRENCH SETTLEMENTS, 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 THE TIME IN WHICH THE FRENCH BEGAN THEIR WEST-INDIA SETTLEMENTS. 
 
 FAVOURED BY CARDINAL RICHLIEU. DE POINCY GOVERNOR. THE 
 
 WEST-INDIA COMPANY. 
 
 THE French were amongst the last nations who made settle 
 ments in the West-Indies ; but they made ample amends by the 
 vigour with which they pursued them, and by that chain of 
 judicious and admirable measures which they used in drawing 
 from them every advantage that the nature of the climate 
 would yield ; and in contending against the difficulties which it 
 threw in their way. 
 
 The civil wars which divided and harassed that kingdom, 
 from the death of Henry the Second, with very little interrup 
 tion, until the majority of Lewis the Fourteenth, withdrew the 
 attention of both prince and people from their commercial in 
 terests to those of parties in religion and government. The 
 politicks of the house of Valois, though France perhaps was 
 never governed by princes of so ingenious and refined a turn, 
 
 weie 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 247 
 
 were wholly of- the Machiavelian kind. They tended to dis 
 tract, to unsettle, to try dangerous schemes, and to raise 
 storms, only to display a skill of pilotage. The parties then in 
 France solely contended what power could be given to or taken 
 from the king, without considering what could make their 
 country a great kingdom. Therefore, which way soever the 
 balance inclined, whether to the king or to the nobles, to the 
 catholicks or to the protestants, it was pretty indifferent to the 
 real happiness of that nation. The parties only gamed out of 
 a common stock. Neither could be enriched. But their dis- 
 sentions made all of them poor and weak. The time of Cardi 
 nal Richlieu must be considered as the true aera of French po 
 licy. This great man, pacifying all at home, exalting the royal 
 authority upon the ruis of the power of the nobility, and mo 
 delling that great system of general policy in external- affairs, 
 which has raised France to such a pitch of greatness ; amongst 
 so many, and such extensive cares, did not forget those of com 
 merce, and, what serves most effectually to support commerce, 
 colonies and establishments abroad. But the circumstances of 
 the time, and his genius that embraced so many objects, did 
 not leave him leisure to perfect what he began. It was reserved 
 for that great, wise, and honest minister Colbert, one of the 
 ablest that ever served any prince or honoured any country, to 
 bring that plan to perfection, to carry it in a great measure 
 into execution, and to leave things in such order, that it was 
 not difficult, when favourable circumstances offered, to make 
 France one of the first trading powers in Europe, and her colo 
 nies the most powerful, their nature considered, of any in Ame 
 rica. 
 
 So early as the reign of Francis I. the French attempted an 
 establishment in North America ; but it was not until the year 
 5, that they made their first settlement in the West-Indies.' 
 
 This 
 
U--18 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 This was upon St. Christopher, one of the Caribbee islands. A 
 remarkable circumstance attended it ; the English took pos 
 session of the island the same day. But this settlement had not 
 long life on either side. The Spaniards had reason to dread the 
 establishment of such powers in their neighbourhood; and 
 they envied the French and English those advantages it was 
 foreseen they would draw from countries from which they had 
 themselves no benefit, and which they claimed only to keep 
 them desarts. 
 
 They assaulted these new colonies, and drove them out of 
 the island. The English colony soon returned, and possessed 
 themselves of the largest and most fertile quarter, before the 
 French could collect themselves ; who, finding the English al 
 ready occupied the best part, left a small colony on the other. 
 But their chief, and the most adventurous of their inhabitants, 
 went in search of a new settlement ; when, after various fortune, 
 and after combating the difficulties which an uncultivated 
 country and some indiscretions of their own had caused them, 
 they made a considerable settlement in the islands of Martinico- 
 and Guadaloupe. 
 
 i Cardinal Richlieu saw very early into the advantages which 
 might arise from these settlements, if prudently managed ; and 
 he thought the most prudent management both for securing and 
 extending them, consisted in but one article ; which was, to put 
 the government into proper hands. With this view he made 
 choice of Monsieur de Poincy, a knight of Malta ; who was 
 sent thither with the title of governor and lieutenant-general of 
 the isles of America, and a very ample commission. No person 
 could be better fitted to rectify the disorders that naturally 
 must arise in every new settlement, and to put things in a right 
 channel for the time to come. Of a good family ; of an un 
 blemished reputation for probity ; of great reading; of much 
 
 and 
 
EURQPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 and various knowledge of life ; and of a genius as variously 
 exercised. He was a master in mechanical learning ; in which 
 he excelled not more to liis honour, than to the benefit of the 
 colonies which had the happiness to be committed to his care. 
 He it was that first taught them the method of cultivating the 
 sugar cane, and preparing the sugar. He improved the me 
 thod used in the Brazils for this purpose, both with regard to 
 the mills and the furnaces ; and having given a direction to 
 their industry, he gave it all the encouragement he could, by 
 supporting those who raised their own substance, by the means 
 which advanced the colony ; whilst he kept a watchful eye and 
 a severe hand upon all, who were for making hasty fortunes, 
 without adding to the publick stock. He made admirable re 
 gulations for the speedy and impartial administration of justice ; 
 and knowing that all order must depend for its blessing above, 
 and its effect here upon an attention to religion, he appointed 
 a number of churches to be built in all the islands under his 
 care, and settled priests in them, with a competent, but not a 
 superfluous provision ; but he did not think monasteries and 
 monks so compatible with a new colony. 
 
 Under the inspection of this governor, Martinico, Guada- 
 loupe, part of St. Christopher's, St. Bartholomew, and SL 
 Martin, were settled, and began to flourish, and that with very 
 little help from home. A plain proof that almost every thing 
 depends, in affairs of this nature, on chasing proper men to 
 command, and giving them a proper authority. 
 
 These islands, however, were unhappily under the super- 
 intendance of an exclusive company, which, in spite of all that 
 could otherwise be done, especially after the death of Richlicu, 
 so neglected, or mismanaged their affairs, that they were obliged 
 to sell a part of the settlements ; and they left Hie rest hardly 
 worth purchasing. But the government at length bought up 
 
 K K the 
 
230 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the islands which they had alienated, and rescued the others 
 out of their hands. The trade under proper regulations was 
 laid open, yet protected under the wings of their great India 
 company. These regulations took place about 1680, and the 
 benefits of this arrangement were great, and soon apparent. 
 Exclusive companies may probably be useful to nourish an in 
 fant trade. They may be useful too for a very distant one, 
 where the market is to be nicely managed, and where it is un 
 der the dominion of foreign and barbarous princes. But where 
 the trade is between different parts of the dominions of the 
 same prince, under the protection of his laws, carried on by his 
 own subjects, and with goods wrought in his own country, such 
 companies must be equally absurd in their nature, and ruinous 
 in their consequences to the trade, 
 
 CHAP. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 251 
 
 C II A P. II. 
 
 THE DESTRUCTION OF THE COLONY OF ST. CHRISTOPHER'S. THE IUSE OF 
 
 THE BUCCANEERS. THE CAUSE OF THEIR SUCCESS. THE SETTLEMENT 
 
 OF IUSPANIOLA. THE POLICY OF FRANCE. A DESCRIPTION OF H1SPA- 
 
 NIOLA ITS TRADE. THE TOWNS OF CAPE FRANCOISE AND LEOGANB. 
 
 AFTER the Spaniards had ruined the first colony at St. Chris 
 topher's, they brought upon themselves by this act a very heavy 
 revenge for the injustice of it. Their example at the same 
 time made it apparent, how much better it is to let a bold and 
 adventurous people settle in some place where they can do but 
 little mischief, and to suffer their spirit to evaporate in peace 
 ful occupations, rather than to keep it up by difficulties, unable 
 to quell it, but which may force it to take another and more 
 dangerous turn. 
 
 Several of the French inhabitants, who were expelled from 
 St. Christopher's, being reduced to great indigence, began to 
 think of desperate courses. They betook themselves to piracy ; 
 and uniting with some vagrant English, Dutch, and other out 
 casts of all nations, but resolute fellows, and not destitute of 
 men. of capacity amongst them, they began a piratical war 
 upon the Spaniards. At first they satisfied themselves with 
 taking their ships and destroying their trade ; which they did 
 effectually ; but soon, encouraged and strengthened by this 
 success, they landed upon the continent of New Spain and Terra 
 Firtna, burning and plundering the open country. Their bold- 
 jiess and number increasing with their success, they assaulted 
 and took some of their strongest fortresses and most opulent 
 
 K K 2 towns, 
 
towns. They took Porto-bello, Carapeachy, Maracaibo, Gib 
 raltar, and the fortress of Cliagra ; they even took the city of 
 Panama by storm, and burned it, after defeating an army which 
 came to beat them off. In all which places, and in the others 
 which they had taken, they gained an incredible booty, and 
 committed the most unheard-of cruelties. Another party of 
 these pirates passed the straights of Magellan, and entering 
 into the South-Sea, turned the whole coast of Peru, Chili, and 
 the East of Mexico, into one scene of desolation ; every where 
 with a bravery and conduct, that in any other cause had merited 
 the highest honours. 
 
 It is not a little surprising, at first view, that all the great 
 things which were done in this New World, were either done 
 by actual pirates, as these men were, or by private adventurers, 
 but one degree better authorised, and nothing better supported ; 
 whose own courage and skill were to be at once their commis 
 sion, their magazines, and their treasury ; being obliged to 
 find the resources of the war, in the war itself. When the most 
 numerous and the best provided armaments have shamefully 
 failed, and failed in those very places, where the adventurers 
 had shewn them such a glorious example of success. But the 
 cause is not so hard to be assigned. None but men of great en- 
 
 ***r C7 
 
 terprise and bravery conceive those expeditions of themselves. 
 Unsupported, but at the same time unchecked by the higher 
 powers, they were under the necessity of turning to every side, 
 and of exerting every faculty. But then they had nothing to 
 hinder this exertion. Their first attempts were generally low, 
 and therefore they were prosperous. They did not lead great 
 armies to be subsisted with great difficulty, and to be discou 
 raged and wasted by the hardships of the climate ; but they ha 
 bituated themselves to hardships by degrees : they were encou 
 raged by smaller successes ; and having nothing to expect 
 
 from 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 253 
 
 from their power and numbers, they made amends by their vigi 
 lance, their activity, and their courage. These are causes adequate 
 to the effect ; indeed adequate to any effect. Whereas in the 
 regular way, a general of the first note and reputation has rarely 
 been sent into America ; the service seemed beneath him ; and 
 they that were tolerably expert at second and third parts (worse 
 than the absolutely inexperienced for the very first, where the 
 scene is new) were sent by court favour and intrigue. What 
 armaments from England, Holland, and France, have been sent 
 in different times to America, whose remains returned without 
 honour or advantage, is too clear, and perhaps too invidious 
 a topic to be greatly insisted upon. 
 
 The pirates, whom we called buccaneers improperly, the 
 French denominated flibustiers, from the Dutch fly boats, in 
 which they made their first expeditions. The buccaneers are 
 no more than persons who hunt wild cattle in America for 
 their hides and tallow. Some of these joined the flibustiers in 
 their first expeditions ; and from them we named the whole 
 body, buccaneers. These people brought their prizes and 
 plunder frequently into Jamaica, by which they enriched that 
 island extremely. Others, finding that the Spaniards were very 
 weak in Hispaniola, and that they had in a manner deserted a 
 considerable part of the island, made it a place of rendezvous. 
 They who hunted cattle saw the hideous desarts left by the 
 Spanish tyranny, a proper place for exercising their profession. 
 To these two sorts of people were soon added a third, who were 
 some of the French ii; the Lesser Antilles ; who, finding how 
 much might be made by supplying a sort of people who ex 
 pended largely, and were not very exact in their bargains, and 
 perceiving that no part of America afforded a better soil, passed 
 over to this island, and exercised here their business of planters 
 and merchants. These three sorts of people, mutually in want 
 of each other^ lived in very good harmony. The Spaniards dis 
 lodged 
 
254 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 lodged them several times ; but they still returned, and with 
 new strength ; so that it was with difficulty, and after a long 
 dispute, that the Spaniards were able to retain one part of the 
 island. 
 
 The court of France saw the progress of these people silently. 
 Whenever complaints were made, they disavowed their pro 
 ceedings ; resolved not to break measures with Spain for the 
 sake of an object, which they were not sure they could hold, 
 and the advantages of which were yet doubtful ; but when they 
 found the French in Hispaniola numerous, strong, and wealthy, 
 they owned them as subjects, sent them a governor and regular 
 forces to keep them so, and to defend them in what they had 
 done : the old method of piracy was still connived at, whilst 
 the trade of skins increased, and the plantations extended. At 
 last the French obtained a legal right by the cession, which the 
 Spaniards made them of the north-west part of the island by 
 the treaty of Ryswick, in 1697 ; the best and most fertile part 
 of the best and most fertile island in the West-Indies, and per 
 haps in the world ; that which was the first settled, and the 
 whole of which is upwards of four hundred miles long, and one 
 hundred and forty broad. This is the principal settlement of 
 the French in the West-Indies, and indeed in all America. The 
 country is mixed ; pretty mountainous in some parts, but 
 many of these mountains are fertile, and covered with beautiful 
 woods. Others, which are barren and rocky, anciently had 
 mines of gold; they are not worked now, though it is judged 
 they not only contain those of gold, but mines of silver, copper, 
 and iron. But the French think, and I believe with reason, 
 that their labour is better bestowed on the culture of the plains 
 for these rich commodities, which vend so well in Europe, than 
 in the pursuit of mines, really more precarious in their profits, 
 
 d which yield a wealth after all, of a less useful kind. 
 
 This country has likewis^prodigiously fine plains, of a va^t 
 
 extent, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 253 
 
 extent, and extreme fertility; either covered with noble and 
 beautiful forests of timber and fir-trees, excellent in their kinds, 
 or pastured by vast numbers of horned cattle, sheep, and hogs. 
 The air in Hispanioia is the most healthy in the West-Indies. 
 The country is admirably watered with rivulets as well as navi 
 gable rivers. It is no wonder therefore, that this active and 
 industrious nation, in possession of so excellent and extensive a 
 country, has reaped from it prodigious advantages. They were 
 the better enabled to do this, from the great encouragement 
 their settlements met with in France; and from the wise regur 
 lations which were made concerning them. These we shall 
 consider in their place. But it is certain they reckoned in the 
 year 1726, that on this island they had no less thaji one hundred 
 thousand negroes, and thirty thousand whites ; that they made 
 sixty thousand hogsheads of sugar of five hundred weight each ; 
 that the indigo was half as much in value as the sugar ; that 
 they exported large quantities of cotton ; and that they had 
 sent besides to France cacao and ginger in tolerable plenty. 
 Since that time they had raised coffee here to a very great 
 amount. And not this article only, but every other branch of 
 their commercial products has increased to a degree truly as 
 tonishing since that period. Towards the conclusion of the 
 late war, a Spanish writer of great judgment, and well informed, 
 reckons the produce of the plantations near Cape St. Franchise, 
 the capital of French Hispanioia, and which were exported from 
 that single town, at 30,000 tons in sugar, indigo, tobacco, and 
 coffee. This export at the lowest possible calculation cannot 
 be of less value than 600,000 pounds sterling. If to this we add 
 the exports of the two considerable ports of Leogane and Petit 
 Guaves, and the other inferiour ones, which certainly do not 
 send out less than the capital ; on this low estimation, we find 
 the exported produce of this island to be worth 1,200,000/, 
 
 annually ; 
 
256 
 
 f 
 
 annually ; which, great as it is, is certainly under-rated. But 
 
 there is another branch of their trade, if possible, more advan 
 tageous to the mother country, the contraband which they 
 carry on with the Spaniards, wholly in the manufactures of 
 France, and for which they receive their returns in silver. 
 The above-mentioned author, from the most authentic infor 
 mation tells us, that this trade returns annually to France no 
 less than two millions of dollars. This progress of the French 
 colonies, and their flourishing state after a war in which they 
 suffered greatly, I have displayed, in order to explode a notion 
 which prevails with many ; that, by distressing the French in 
 time of war, it is in our power to destroy their commerce ; but 
 this notion, if it should prevail generally, may mislead us greatly 
 to our disadvantage. 
 
 Nations like France and England, full of people of spirit and 
 of industry, easily recover all the losses of war. The trade of 
 France was in a deplorable condition at the treaty of Utrecht: 
 She had not then five hundred vessels of all sorts in the world. 
 At the beginning of the last war, but thirty years after, they 
 had eighteen hundred. Their losses in that war were very 
 great ; and yet their losses in this, shew, that in a very little 
 time they had more than repaired them. Wherever the vital 
 principle subsists in full vigour, wounds are soon healed. Dis 
 orders themselves are a species of remedies; and every new loss 
 not only shews how it may be repaired, but, by the vigour it 
 inspires, makes new advantages known. Such losses renew the 
 spirit of industry and enterprize ; they reduce things to their 
 first principles ; they keep alive motion, and make the appe 
 tites of traders sharp and keen. While the spirit of trade sub 
 sists, trade itself can never be destroyed. This is the restson 
 that, amidst their continual wars and the losses all the nations 
 of Europe suffer from each other, they are almost all thriving. 
 
 And, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 And, if I may indulge a conjecture, it may be one among sevc- 
 ml of the causes which have reduced the trade of Holland, 
 that, since the treaty of Utrecht, now above forty years, they 
 have had no war. They may, during the quarrels of other 
 powers, appear to have derived great advantages from their 
 neutrality. But are they not with all this declining fast? And 
 is not this country, which grew to be a nation, and to be a pow 
 erful, trading, and rich nation, in the midst of the most bloody 
 and expensive wars, now losing its trade, its riches, and its pow 
 er, and almost ceasing to be a nation, iri the midst of a pro 
 found peace of upwards of forty years? We must not forget, 
 what the great Colbert said of his country, and which we have 
 experienced to be true, that the industry of^the French, if per 
 mitted, would turn the very rocks into gold. We must not 
 therefore place our dependance for keeping ourselves on a par 
 of power with France, upon the prejudice which we can do its 
 trade in time of war, but upon the vigour, economy, and wis 
 dom of the measures which we take to secure and advance our 
 own, both in war and in peace. 
 
 The largest town in the French part of Hispaniola is Cape 
 Franchise, which is situated on the northern part of the island 
 upon a very fine harbour.- It is well built, and contains about 
 eight thousand inhabitants, blacks and whites. But though 
 this be the largest town, Leogane on the western side, a good 
 port too, and a place of considerable trade, is the scat of go 
 vernment, which here resides in the hands of a governor and the 
 mtendant, who are mutually a check upon each other. Thciv 
 are besides two other towns, considerable for their trade, Petit 
 Guaves on the west end of the island, and Port Louis on the 
 south-west part. 
 
 L L 
 
 CMIAP. 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 A DESCRIPTION OF MARTINICO. OF GUADALOUPE AND OTHER FRENCH 
 
 ISLANDS. THEIR PRODUCE. OBSERVATIONS ON THE MISTAKES THAT 
 
 HAVE BEEN MADE ABOUT THEIR VALUE. 
 
 MARTINICO is the next island in importance, which the French 
 possess in America. It is one of the Caribbees or Windward 
 islands, and the principal of them ; about sixty miles in length, 
 and at a medium about half as much in breadth. It is forty 
 leagues to the north-west of Barbadoes. It has pretty high 
 hills, especially in the inland parts. From those hills are poured 
 out upon every side a number of agreeable and useful rivulets, 
 which adorn and fructify this island in a high degree. The bays 
 and harbours are numerous, safe and commodious ; and so well 
 fortified, that we have always failed in our attempts upon this 
 place. The soil is fruitful enough, abounding in the same 
 things which our islands in that part of the world produce, and 
 upon which I shall the less insist on that account. Sugar is 
 here, as it is in all the islands, the principal commodity, and 
 great quantities are here made. Their export cannot be less 
 than sixty or seventy thousand hogsheads, of five or six hun 
 dred weight, annually, and this certainly is no extravagant esti 
 mation. Indigo, cotton, piemento or allspice, ginger, and 
 aloes, are raised here ; and coffee in great abundance ; but to 
 what value I cannot exactly say. Martinico is the residence 
 of the governor of the French islands in these seas, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 259 
 
 Guaclaloupe is the largest of all the Caribbees, and in that 
 division called the Leeward Islands. It is almost cut in two 
 by a deep gulph that closes the side of a narrow isthmus, which 
 connects the two peninsulas that compose this island. It is 
 upwards of sixty miles long, and about the same breadth. Its 
 soil is not inferiour to that of Martinico ; it is equally culti 
 vated ; and it is fortified with equal strength ; its produce is the 
 frame with that of Martinico ; its export of sugar is as great, 
 besides indigo, cotton, ^and those other commodities, which aie 
 produced in all the islands of that part of America called the 
 West-Indies. 
 
 The rest of the French islands in those seas are Desiada, St. 
 Bartholomew, and Marigalante ; all of them inconsiderable in 
 comparison of those which we have mentioned. They do not 
 all together produce above seven or eight thousand hogsheads 
 of sugar. As for the island of St. Vincent, it is in the posses 
 sion of the native Americans, and of runaway negroes from the 
 rest of the Caribbees. The French maintain them in this pos 
 session. Santa Lucia, or, as it is often called, Saint Alouzie, of 
 which the French are themselves in possession, and have set 
 tled, contrary to the faith of treaties, it is impossible to say 
 any thing of its produce ; it has been so newly planted, that 
 it cannot as yet yield a great deal, and it is, even in our present 
 circumstances, much our fault if it ever yields a great deal to 
 France. These islands, besides their staple commodities, send 
 home rocou, and brazil wood, in considerable quantities for 
 the use of dyers, cassia for the druggists, and rosewood for 
 joiners. The French have a settlement upon an island on the 
 coast of Terra Firma in the province of Guiana, v Inch they 
 call Caen ; and they claim besides a considerable part of the 
 .adjacent continent, but they have not much extended their 
 settlements that way. The island is excessively unhealthy, 
 
 L L 2 though 
 
Au\ ACCOUNT OP THE 
 
 though not so bad as formerly. The French here raise the 
 same commodities which they have from the Caribbee islands, 
 and in no inconsiderable quantity. 
 
 In estimating the produce of these islands, it is not in my 
 power to be very exact. I have made the best inquiries I 
 could, and principally took care not to exaggerate. I have, 
 indeed, made the produce of the Caribbee islands very much 
 greater than the ingenious collector of Harris's voyages ; but 
 then I am the less fearful of differing from him, as he seems a 
 little to differ from himself, and not to have considered this 
 point with his usual attention ; for of Martinico he says, " That, 
 as it is larger, so it has more inhabitants than Barbadoes, and 
 produces more sugars/' See. And speaking of Guadaloupe, a 
 little lower, lie observes, cf That it produces more sugars than 
 any of the British islands, except Jamaica ;" and yet afterwards, 
 coming to sum up the products of all these islands, he allows 
 but fifteen thousand hogsheads of sugar, of about six hundred 
 weight each, for the whole; when he makes the single island of 
 Baibadoes to yield double the quantity of sugars which Mar 
 tinico, Guadaloupe, and all the French Caribbees put together 
 produce. For he rates it in the year 1730, at twenty-two thou 
 sand hogsheads, and upwards, of thirteen hundred weight. He 
 must therefore certainly have made some mistake, excusable 
 enough in so vast a work, which is executed in general in a 
 very masterly manner. 
 
 On the whole, from the best informations I can get, the 
 French at present greatly exceed our islands in the quantity of 
 sugars which they produce ; and it is as certain, that they are 
 far less on the decline in that trade than we are, at least as 
 things stood before the war ; that they cultivate great quan 
 tities of indigo ; a trade which our colonies in the West-Indies 
 have entirely lost ; that within these few years they have sent 
 
 to 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 26l 
 
 to Europe abundance of coffee, which our islands have not 
 j>uiiicient encouragement to raise ; and that, upon the whole, 
 we have the greatest reason to be jealous of France in that part 
 of the world. What advantages they derive from the noble is 
 land of Jlispaniohi wo have seen. What must they do, if they 
 come to possess the whole of that island, which in the cutting 
 and shuffling of a treaty of pea^e is no way impossible ? We 
 shall thin change the indolent Spaniard for the neighbourhood 
 of the lively, vigilant, and enterprising French. And M hat a 
 rivalry in peace, and what a danger in war, that neighbourhood 
 is even now, and much more will probably be, is but too appa 
 rent. Jamaica is near it ; and, for so valuable a possession in 
 so dangerous a situation, perhaps not so well defended. If, be 
 sides this, the French should retain the islands of St. Vincent, 
 St. Lucia, and Tobago, though they should only turn them 
 into plantations for lire-wood, lumber, and provisions, as in 
 such a case it would be adviseable to do with some of them at 
 least, what an advantage to their colonies ! what an annoyance 
 to ours ! which they in a manner surround, and can in a sort 
 hold besieged by the private armaments they may from thence 
 lit out I 
 
 These last mentioned islands Were left neutral at the last 
 peace ; or, in other words, they were left at the extinction of 
 the old, in just the order proper for kindling a new flame 
 (though such a design, I am convinced, was far from the inten 
 tions of the parties) and in all respects as if things were ex 
 pressly ordered for that very purpose. Indeed nothing can be 
 attended with worse consequences than these political after- 
 reckonings, which the party who has the advantage at making 
 the peace never finds it his account *to settle or adjust; but 
 there they lie, full of matter of litigation ; full of idle occasions 
 for fonal business ; full of strife and of ill blood ; and, when a 
 
 proper 
 
26t AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 proper time occurs, of bloody and expensive Avars. It were 
 better, at any rate, all at once to know what we are to depend 
 upon ; the best or the worst we have to expect. If, on the 
 conclusion of a peace, things should take for us such an unfor 
 tunate turn, we have still great resources in the territories we 
 possess. Jamaica is nothing like fully cultivated. The Ba 
 hamas, our undisputed right, where it is highly probable sugars 
 might be cultivated to advantage, remain at present utterly 
 neglected, as if unworthy of all notice, though they are many 
 in number, large in extent, fruitful in their soil, situated in a 
 very happy climate, and are in a manner the keys of the West- 
 India navigation. But we shall pass by all reflexions on this 
 subject for the present, to look at the possessions and claims of 
 France upon the continent ; which, if they were as well culti 
 vated as they are fruitful and extensive, or as convenient objects 
 of the French industry as their islands, they would, I make no 
 doubt, be at least as advantageous to the trade, and add as 
 much to the wealth and power, of that flourishing kingdom. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 26-3 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 FRENCH NORTH AMERICA. DESCRIPTION OF CANADA ITS CLIMATE. THE 
 
 FAIR OF MONTREAL. QUEBECK. THE INHABITANTS OF CANADA. TH-F. 
 
 RIVER OF ST. LAWRENCE AND THE GREAT LAKES. CAPE BRETON. 
 
 THE French possessions and claims in North America consist 
 of an immense inland country, communicating with the sea by 
 the mouths of two great rivers ; both of difficult and dangerous 
 navigation at the entrance ; and one of which is quite frozen for 
 almost half the year, and covered with thick exhalations and 
 fogs for the greater part of the rest. They divide this vast 
 country, which has our colonies on the east and north-east, the 
 Spanish on the south-west, and south-east, and to the westward 
 that unknown tract of land which stretches to the South-Sea, 
 into two great provinces ; the northern of which they call 
 Canada, and the southern Louisiana. But how far the bounds 
 of these countries, extended to dimensions almost as great as 
 all Europe by the ambition of France, ought to be contracted 
 by the rights of other powers, I shall not undertake to deter 
 mine ; as, after all, such questions must be decided in a manner 
 altogether different from any thing that can be said here. 
 
 Canada, which borders upon our provinces of Nova- Scotia, 
 New England, and New York, is of a climate not altogether 
 different from theirs ; but, as it is much further from the sea, 
 and more northerly than a great part of those provinces, it has 
 a much severer winter ; though the air is generally clear. The 
 
 soil 
 
A\ ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 soil is various ; mostly barren ; but the French have settlements 
 where the land is equal in goodness to that in any of our colo 
 nies, and wants nothing but a better convenience of market to 
 make it equally advantageous to the proprietors. It yields In 
 dian corn very well in most parts, and very fine wheat in some. 
 A 11 sorts of garden stuff which grows in Europe flourishes here. 
 But they raise no staple commodity to answer their demands 
 upon Old France ; their trade with the Indians produces all 
 their returns for that market They are the furs of the beaver 
 principally, and those of foxes and racoons, with deer-skins, 
 and all the branches of the peltry. These, with what corn and 
 lumber they send to the West-Indies, to a people not very 
 luxurious nor extremely numerous, furnish, though very little 
 money, yet wherewithal, in a plentiful country, to render me 
 easy and agreeable. 
 
 The nahire of the climate, severely cold for the most part, 
 and the people manufacturing nothing, shews what the country 
 wants from Europe ; wine, brandy, cloths, chiefly coarse, 
 linen, and wrought iron. The Indian trade requires brandy, 
 tobacco, a sort of duffil blankets, guns, powder and ball, ket 
 tles, hatchets, and tomahawks, with several toys and trinkets. 
 The Indians supply the peltry, and the French have traders, 
 whom they call 'coureufs de bois ^ho, in the manner of the 
 original inhabitants, traversing the vast lakes and rivers that 
 divide this country, in canoes of bark, with incredible industry 
 and patience, carry their goods into the remotest parts of Ame 
 rica, and amongst nations entirely unknown to us. This again 
 brings the market home to them, as the Indians are hereby 
 habituated to trade w r ith them. For this purpose, people from 
 all parts, even from the distance of a thousand miles, come to 
 the French fair of Montreal, which is held in June. On this 
 occasion many solemnities are observed : guards are placed, 
 
 and 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 26'5 
 
 and the governor assists, to preserve order in such a concourse 
 of so great a variety of savage nations. The trade is now in 
 that channel, for though many, if not most, of these nations ac 
 tually pass by our settlement of Albany in New York, where 
 they may have the goods they want cheaper considerably than 
 at Montreal, they travel on above two hundred miles further, 
 to buy the same commodities at the second hand, and enhanced 
 t>v the expence of so long a land carriage, at the French fair. 
 For the French find it cheaper to buy our goods from the New 
 York merchants, than to have them from their own, after so 
 bad and so tedious a passage as it is from the mouth of the 
 river St. Lawrence to Montreal. So much do the French 
 exceed us in industry, economy, and the arts of conciliating 
 the affections of mankind ; things that even" balance all the 
 disadvantages they naturally labour under in this country ! 
 Our fort of Oswego was well planned for securing the Indian 
 trade, and actually brought us a great part of it. But it is no 
 longer an interruption to the French commerce. 
 
 Having mentioned Montreal, I have only to observe, that 
 this town is situated in an island in the river of St. Lawrence. 
 This island lies in a favourable climate, and is well inhabited 
 and well planted. The city, which is sometimes called Mont 
 real, sometimes Ville Marie, is agreeably situated on a branch 
 of the river St. Lawrence ; it forms an oblong square, divided 
 by regular and well cut streets ; it contains three convents* 
 with handsome churches, and an hospital for the sick. The 
 fortifications are pretty good. The inhabitants are said to be 
 about five thousand. The river is only navigable hither by 
 canoes, or small craft, having several falls between this 
 town and Quebeck. Yet the Indian fair, and the trade of the 
 same kind which they drive more or less for the whole year, 
 make it no inconsiderable place. .i j&li 
 
 M M Quebeck, 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Quebeck, the capital, lies much nearer to the sea ; frem 
 which, however, it is one hundred and fifty leagues distant, 
 -The river, which from the sea hither is ten or twelve miles 
 broad, narrows all of a sudden to about a mile wide. The 
 town is divided into an upper and lower ; the houses in both 
 are of stone, and in a tolerable manner. The fortifications are 
 strong, though not regular ; but its situation on a rock, washed 
 by the river St. Lawrence, is its chief defence. The city is a 
 bishoprick ; but the cathedral is mean, and unworthy the ca 
 pital of New France. The episcopal palace however is a 
 building of a good appearance. Here is likewise a college of 
 Jesuits, not inelegant ; two convents and two hospitals. The 
 town is covered with a regular and beautiful citadel, in which 
 the governor resides. The city, though the capital of Canada, 
 is however not very large. It contains about seven or eight 
 thousand inhabitants at the utmost. Ships of the greatest bur 
 then load and unload there, and a good many are built. 
 
 From Quebeck to Montreal, which is about one hundred 
 and fifty miles distance, the country on both sides the river is 
 very well settled, and has an agreeable effect upon the eye. The 
 farms lie pretty close all the way ; several gentlemen's houses, 
 neatly built, shew themselves at intervals ; and there is all the 
 appearance of a flourishing colony ; but there are no towns or 
 villages. It is pretty much like the well-settled parts of our 
 colonies of Virginia and Maryland, where the planters are 
 wholly within themselves. 
 
 With all the attention of the court of France to the trade 
 and peopling of this, as well as their other colonies on the con 
 tinent, they have not yet been able thoroughly to overcome 
 the consequences of those difficulties which the climate, whilst 
 the place was unsettled, threw in their way ; their losses in the 
 wars with that brave and fierce nation the Iroquois, who more 
 
 than 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS Itf AMERICA. 267 
 
 than once reduced their colony to the last extremity, and the 
 bad navigation of the river St. Lawrence, which is an evil in 
 curable, have kept back the colony. Therefore, though it is 
 the oldest of all the French establishments, and prior to our 
 settlement of New England, the inhabitants are not above one 
 hundred thousand souls. Some indeed of late reckon them 
 but at forty thousand. An errour that is very prejudicial td 
 our affairs, whilst we overvalued our own strength and under 
 rated the force of the enemy, and acted in a good measure irt 
 conformity to such ideas ; but even this number, as I estimate 
 it, which I believe is not far from the reality, might be rio just 
 cause of dread to our colonies, if they managed the strength 
 they have, which is certainly much superiour, with skill and 
 effect. The French from theirs, though infe'riotir, have seven 
 or eight thousand militia, hardy and well disciplined, always irt 
 readiness to co-operate with their regular troops ; and tliere is 
 nothing which may hinder or retard their operation* from with 
 in themselves. It is therefore not more the French intrigues 
 
 o 
 
 and their intermarriages with the Indians, which fix that peo 
 ple in the French interest, than the suceours which they are 
 always sure to have from such a force, ever in readiness to pro 
 tect them whilst they remain their friends, or to punish them 
 whenever they dare to appear as enemies. With us the case i& 
 quite otherwise. This savage people commence hostilities 
 against us without any previous notice ; and often, without 
 any provocation, they commit the most horrid ravage* for a 
 long time with impunity. But when at last their barbarities 
 have roused- the sleeping strength of our people, at the same 
 time too that they have considerably lessened it, they are not 
 ashamed to beg a peace; they know we always grant it readiiy; 
 they promise it shall endure as long as the sun and moon ; am! 
 thermal! is quiet, till the French intrigues, co-operating with 
 
 M M 2 our 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 our indolence, give them once more an opportunity of ravaging 
 our colonies, and of once more renewing a peace, to be broken 
 like all the former. 
 
 The great river St. Lawrence is that only upon which the 
 French have settlements of any note ; but if we look forward 
 into futurity, it is nothing improbable that this vast country, 
 whoever then shall be the possessors of it, will be enabled of it 
 self to carry on a vast trade upon these great seas of fresh water 
 which it environs. Here are five lakes, the smallest of which is 
 a, piece of sweet water greater than any in the other parts of the 
 world ; this is the lake Ontario, which is not less than two hun 
 dred leagues in circumference ; Erie, longer but not so broad, 
 is about the same extent. That of the Ilurons spreads greatly 
 in width, and is in circumference not less than three hundred ; 
 as is, that of Michigan, though, like lake Erie, it is rather long 
 and comparatively narrow. But the lake Superiour, which 
 contains several large islands, is five hundred leagues in the cir 
 cuit. All of these are navigable by any vessels, and they all 
 communicate with one another, except that the passage be 
 tween Erie and Ontario is interrupted by the stupendous cata 
 ract of Niagara, where the water tumbles down a precipice of 
 twenty-six fathom high, and makes in this fall a thundering 
 noise, which is heard all round the country at the distance of 
 several miles. The river St. Lawrence is the outlet of these 
 lakes; by this they discharge themselves into the ocean. The 
 French have built forts at the several straits, by which these 
 lakes communicate with each other, as well as where the last 
 of them communicates with the river St. Lawrence. By 
 these they effectually secure to themselves the trade of the 
 lakes, and an influence upon all. the Americans which confine 
 upon them. 
 
 They have but one settlement more in the northern part of 
 
 their 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 269 
 
 their territories in America, which deserves consideration ; 
 but that settlement, though a small one, is perhaps of more 
 consequence than all the rest. It is the island of Cape Breton. 
 This island properly belongs to the division of Acadia or Nova- 
 Scotia, and it is the only part of it which has not been ceded by 
 treaty to Great Britain. It is about one hundred and forty 
 miles in length, full of mountains and lakes, and intersected by 
 a vast number of creeks and, bays, almost meeting each other 
 on every side ; which seems in general, both for the coast and 
 inland, very much to resemble the coast and inland parts of 
 most northern countries. Scotland is so ; so is Iceland; and 
 Denmark and Sweden have such shores, such mountains^ and 
 such lakes. However, the soil is in many places sufficiently 
 fruitful ; and in every part abounds with timber fit for all uses. 
 In the earth are coal-pits ; and on the shores one of the most 
 valuable fisheries in the world. The only town in this island is 
 Louisbourg. It stands upon one of the finest harbours in all 
 America. This harbour is four leagues in circumference, land-* 
 locked every way but at the mouth, which is narrow ; and within 
 there is fine anchorage every where in seven fathom water. The 
 town itself is of a tolerable size, and well built and fortified. 
 The harbour is defended by batteries of cannon and forts, which 
 secure it at this day, perhaps too effectually. This harbour is 
 open the whole year. The French ships that cany goods to 
 Quebeck can very seldom get their full loading there ; there*- 
 fore on their return they put into Louisbourg, and there take in 
 a quantity of fish, coal, and some lumber, and then sail away to 
 the French islands in the West-Indies, where they vend these, 
 and soon complete their cargo with sugars. It is needless to ob 
 serve that this island was taken by us in the late war, but restored 
 by the treaty of Aix la Chapelle, in which we certainly were 
 not in such a condition as to entitle us to prescribe the terms. 
 
 CHAP, 
 
270 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 LOUISIANA. THE MISSISIPPI.- THE OHIO. THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH. 
 
 THE COLONY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 THE French have called the south part of the vast tract which 
 they claim in America, Louisiana. It was heretofore a part of 
 Florida. It is bounded by the gtilph of Mexico upon the south ; 
 but what bounds it is to have to the east and to the west, it is 
 to be wished the next treaty of peace may settle definitely. 
 This is in all respects a much finer country than Canada ; in a 
 delicious climate, capable of bearing almost any thing from the 
 temper of the sky, and the goodness of the soil, and from the 
 multitude of long, deep, and beautiful rivers, with which it 
 is every where enriched and adorned ; these are most of them 
 navigable for hundreds of miles into the country. They are 
 principally the Missisippi, whose head is unknown, but it 
 almost goes quite through North America, and at certain 
 seasons overflows its banks for a vast way on both sides. The 
 Ohio, a river almost equal to the Danube, which falls into the 
 Missisippi ; the Ouabache, scarce inferiour to the Ohio ; the 
 great rivers, Alibama, Mobile, and several others. The face 
 of the country is almost wholly plain, covered with stately 
 woods, or spread into very fine meadows. In short, Louisiana, 
 particularly the northern part (for the mouth of the Missisippi 
 is barren), without any of those heigh tenings which it received, 
 when it was made the instrument to captivate so many to their 
 ruin, is in all respects a most desirable place ; though there are 
 
 no 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 no sufficient reasons to believe that it contains any rich metals, 
 which :ave it the greatest influence in that remarkable delu- 
 
 O O 
 
 siou in 1717. 
 
 I know not how it has happened, but it has been the fate of 
 this country to create romantick ideas at all times. Very sur 
 prising stories were told of it when first the Spaniards discovered 
 the West-India islands. Amongst others, a notion was gene 
 rally current, that there was a fountain here which perpetually 
 renewed the youth of those who drank it. This was so uni 
 formly and confidently affirmed, that Juan Pontio de Leon, a 
 considerable man among the Spanish adventurers, gave credit 
 to it, and made a particular expedition for the discovery of that 
 fairy land, and that fountain of youth. He was the first of the 
 Europeans who landed in Florida. But what success soever he 
 met with in search for that celebrated spring, it is certain he 
 died not long after, having searched every part of the country, 
 and drank of almost every water it contained. Nor do I find 
 that so invaluable a spring is yet discovered there ; if it were, 
 it would undoubtedly be the best commodity the country could 
 yield, both for domestick consumption and for the foreign- 
 
 -* T5 
 
 markets, and would be a far better basis for stocks and funds 
 than the richest mines of gold or silver. Yet, without this, an 
 idea, altogether as romantick, of a trade hither, operated so 
 strongly upon a very -wise nation, as to serve for the instrument 
 of one of those dangerous master-strokes in politicks, by which 
 nations are sometimes saved, individuals undone, and an -entire 
 change and revcrsement brought about, not only in the com 
 mon ways of thinking of mankind, but of all that seemed mosfc- 
 fixed and permanent in a state. The famous Missisippi scheaie 
 in France was of that nature, and built upon such a romantick 
 foundation. It is well known to all the world, both on its-own 
 account, and upon -account of a similar madness that prevailed 
 
 here. 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 hero, without perhaps being attended with such advantageous 
 consequences. 
 
 The French settled in Louisiana raise some indigo, a good 
 deal of cotton, some corn and rice, with lumber for their islands ; 
 but the colony is not very vigorous, on account of the shoals 
 and sands with which the mouth of the river Missisippi is in a 
 manner choaked up, and which deny access to vessels of any 
 considerable burden. This keeps the inhabitants low ; but the 
 cause which keeps them from growing rich contributes too to 
 their security ; for it is not easy to act with any great force 
 upon that side. But the French have not relied upon this ad 
 vantage ; but, according to their usual cautions and wise cus- 
 
 CT CJ 
 
 torn, have erected several forts in the most material places, and 
 fortified, as it is said, New Orleans their capital, and indeed the 
 only city in Louisiana, in a regular manner. This city is not 
 remarkably fair, large, or rich ; but it is laid out regularly, in 
 a fine situation on the banks of the Missisippi, in prospect of 
 an higher fortune. The whole colony is said not to contain 
 above ten thousand souls, whites and negroes. Yet, with all 
 its disadvantages, this colony is not declining ; and if ever they 
 should make the mouth of the Missisippi more tractable (and 
 what is impossible to ambition and industry?) if they should 
 come fully to possess and settle the Ohio, which at one season 
 overflows, and makes such flood as to level all the falls almost 
 from its very source to the mouth of the Missisippi, and gives a 
 passage all that way to very considerable vessels (though they have 
 not quite the same easy return) ; and if by this and other means 
 they should contrive a communication between Canada and the 
 settlement at Louisiana, whilst they entirely confine us between 
 -our mountains .and the sea, Louisiana in a few years will wear 
 quite another .face. It will supply their West-Indies with 
 boards, staves, horses, mules, and provisions. It will send 
 
 tobacco 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 2~3 
 
 tobacco into France ; and, increasing the conveniences of its 
 mother country and sister colonies ; it will increase its own 
 traffick, its inhabitants, and its power. But the French, not 
 trusting to this remote prospect, have established themselves at 
 the mouth of the Mobile ; a river which falls into the gulph of 
 Mexico. And many are of opinion, that this is a mare ad 
 vantageous situation, not only for the maritime but for the in 
 land commerce, and the communication of their colonies, than 
 the Missisippi. It certainly approaches much nearer to our 
 settlements, and, whilst it serves the French better, is much 
 better calculated to annoy our southern colonies. We have 
 seen how the French West-Indies, in less than forty years, from 
 a condition which could excite no other sentiments than those 
 of compassion, are risen to such a pitch as 'to be an object of 
 great and just terrour to her neighbours ; we now feel too, that 
 the French settlements in North America, even such as they 
 are, are not an undermatch for the whole force of ours, in the 
 manner at least in which that force is exerted. 
 
CHAP. VI. 
 
 THE FRENCH 'POLICY WITH REGARD TO THEIR COLONIES. 
 
 THAT we may not sit down in a senseless admiration of this pro 
 gress of the French colonies, as if it were the work of fortune, 
 it will not be amiss to open something of the wise plan of con 
 duct which France has pursued .with regard to this interesting 
 object. That nation is sensible, as the mother country is to re 
 ceive ultimately all the benefits of their labours and acquisi 
 tions, that all the prosperity of their plantations must be 
 "derived from the attention with which they are regarded at 
 home. For which reason the plantations are particularly under 
 the care and inspection of the council of commerce; a board 
 very judiciously constituted to answer the purposes for which 
 it is designed. To give it a proper respect and authority, it is 
 composed of twelve of the most considerable officers of the 
 crown ; and then, to enable it to judge perfectly of the mattjers 
 which come before it, these twelve are assisted by the deputies 
 of all the considerable trading towns and cities in France, who 
 are chosen out of the richest and most intelligent of their 
 traders, and paid an handsome salary for their attendance at 
 "Paris, from the funds of their respective cities. This council 
 sits once a week. The deputies propose plans for redress 
 ing every grievance in trade ; for raising the branches that 
 are fallen ; for extending new ones ; for supporting the old ; 
 and, .in fine, for every thing that may improve the working, or 
 promote the vent of their manufactures, according to their own 
 
 lights, 
 
EUROPEAN* .SKTT LKMFNTS IN' AMTlRItfA. 27- 
 
 lights, or to the instructions of their constituents. They ha-. 
 watchful eye upon every article of commerce ; and they not 
 only propose helps and improvements to it themselves, but they 
 hvur the proposals of others, which are not disdainfully rejected, 
 nor rashly received. .They do not render the access to them 
 difficult, by swelling themselves into a stiff and unwieldy 
 state. They do not discourage those who apply, by admit 
 ting the vexatious practices of fees, perquisites, and exactions, 
 in their inferiour officers. They do not sutler form and me hods 
 to load and encumber that business, they were solely intends '. 
 to advance. They summon and examine those who are sup 
 posed the most competent judges of the matter before then,, 
 and every part of it, even the lowest artizans : but though they 
 examine those men, they are instructed by their experience, not 
 determined by their opinion. When they are satisiied of the 
 usefulness of any regulation, they propose it to the royal council, 
 where their report is always received with particular attention. 
 An edict to enforce it issues accordingly ; and it is executed 
 with a punctuality which distinguishes their government, and 
 
 which alone can make the wisest regulations anv thing better 
 
 > 
 
 than serious mockeries. To the care of this excellent body the 
 plantations are particularly entrusted. 
 
 The government of the several divisions of their colonies is in 
 a governor, an intendant, and a royal council. The governor 
 is invested with a great deal of power ; which however, on the 
 side of the crown, is checked by the intendant, who has a care 
 of the king's rights, and whatever relates to the revenue ; and on 
 the side of the people, it is checked by the royal council, whose 
 oifice it is, to see that the people are not oppressed by the one, 
 nor defrauded by the other ; arid they are all checked by the 
 constant and jealous eye which the government at home keeps 
 over them. For the officers at all the ports of France are 
 charged, under the severest penalties, to interrogate all cap- 
 
 N N 2 tains 
 
276 
 
 tains of ships coming from the colonies concerning the recep 
 tion they met at the ports they were bound to ; how justice was 
 administered to them ? what charges they were made liable to, 
 and of what kinds ? The passengers, and even the sailors, are 
 examined upon these heads, and a verbal process of the whole 
 is formed and transmitted with all speed to the admiralty. Com 
 plaints are encouraged ; but a difference is made between hear 
 ing an accusation and condemning upon it. 
 
 That the colonies may have as little load as possible, and that 
 the governor may have as little temptation to stir up trouble 
 some intrigues, or favour factions in his government, his salary 
 is paid by the crown. His perquisites are none ; and he is 
 strictly forbidden to carry on any trade, or to have any plan 
 tations in the islands, or on the continent, or any interest what 
 ever in goods or lands within his government, except the house 
 he lives in, and a garden for his convenience and recreation. All 
 the other officers are paid by the crown, and out of the reve 
 nues of Old France ; the fortifications are built and repaired, 
 and the soldiers are paid out of the same funds. 
 
 In general the colonies pay no taxes ; but when, upon an 
 extraordinary emergency, taxes have been raised, they were 
 very moderate. And, that even the taxes might operate for 
 the advancement of the colony, they who began new planta 
 tions were exempted from them. The duties upon the export 
 of their produce at the islands, or at its import into France, is 
 next to nothing ; in both places hardly making two per cent. 
 What commodities go to them, pay no duties at all. 
 
 Besides these advantages, a considerable benefit accrues to 
 
 O ' 
 
 such of the colonies as are poor, as Canada, by the money which 
 comes from France to support the establishment, This brings 
 into Canada about 120,000 crowns a year, which finds them cir 
 culating cash ; preserves them from the dangerous expedient of 
 paper currency ; enables them to keep up their intercourse 
 
 with 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 with some credit, with their mother country ; and at the same 
 time is in fact no loss at all to it, since the money returns home 
 almost as soon as it can possibly be transported back again. 
 
 In all their islands, judges of the admiralty are appointed to 
 decide in a summary manner all disputes between merchants, 
 and whatsoever else has any relation to trade. These judges are 
 strictly examined before they are appointed, particularly as to 
 their skill in marine laws, which have been improved and di 
 gested in France with so much care and good sense, that all 
 law-suits are quickly over ; though in other respects the prac 
 tice of law admits of as much chicanery, and has as many, if 
 not more delays, than with us. 
 
 After having taken such precautions to secure the good go 
 vernment of the colony within itself, and to make its communi 
 cation with the mother country easy and beneficial to both sides, 
 all would be to very little purpose, if they had not provided with 
 equal care to have the country replenished with people. To an 
 swer this end, they oblige every ship which departs from France to 
 America, to carry a certain number of indentured servants. All 
 vessels of sixty tons or under are to carry three ; from sixty to 
 a hundred, four ; and from a hundred upwards, six servants ; 
 sound strong bodies, between the ages of eighteen and forty. 
 Before their departure, the servants are examined by the officers 
 of the admiralty, to see whether they are the persons required 
 by law ; an examination to the same purpose is made by the 
 commissary on their landing in America. They are to serve 
 three years. The avarice of the planters makes them always 
 prefer negro slaves, because they are more obedient than the 
 Europeans ; may be more worked, are subsisted with less dif 
 ficulty, and are besides the entire property of their master. 
 This disposition, in time, would render the safety of the colony 
 extremely precarious, whilst it made the colony itself of less value 
 
 to 
 
278 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 to the mother country. Therefore the planters are by law 
 obliged to keep a certain number of white servants in propor 
 tion to their blacks ; and the execution of this law is ii: forced 
 by the commissary, who adjusts the price, and forces the planters 
 to take the number of servants required by the ordinance, who 
 would otherwise be a burden upon the hands of the masters of 
 ships who brought them over. 
 
 They consider the planter, as a Frenchman venturing his life, 
 enduring a species of banishment, and undergoing great hard 
 ships, for the benefit of his country. For which reasons, lie 
 has great indulgence shewn him. Whenever, by hurricanes, 
 earthquakes, or bad seasons, the planters suifer, a stop is put 
 to the rigour of exacting creditors ; the few taxes which are 
 levied, are remitted ; and even money is advanced to repair 
 their losses and set them forward. To those who are poor, but 
 shew a disposition to industry, necessaries and small sums are 
 lent to make a beginning ; and this money is taken gradually, 
 and by very small payments. On the other hand, as it can be 
 of no advantage to the planter to run fraudulently into debt, 
 but is of the greatest prejudice to the French merchant, all 
 debts, though contracted by the planters in France, are levied 
 with great ease. The process, properly authenticated, is trans 
 mitted to America, and admitted as proved there, and levied 
 oil the planter's estate, of whatsoever kind it may be. How 
 ever, care is taken, that, whilst compulsory methods are used to 
 make the planter do justice, the state shall not lose the industry 
 of an useful member of the community ; the debt is always le 
 vied according to the substance of the debtor, and by instal 
 ment ; so that (what ought indeed to be the case in every well- 
 regulated government) one of the parties is not sacrificed to the 
 other. Both subsist ; the creditor is satisfied ; the debtor is 
 not ruined ; and the credit of the colonies is kept in health and 
 
 vigour 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 vigour at home, by the sure methods which are in use for reco 
 vering all demands in the plantations. 
 
 As to the negroes, they are not left as they are with us, wholly , 
 body and soul, to the discretion of the planter. Their masters 
 are obliged to have them instructed in the principles of religion. 
 Theil3 are methods taken at once to protect the slaves from the 
 cruelty of their owners, and to preserve the colony from the ill 
 effects that might arise from treating them with a lenity not 
 consistent with their condition. In short, the Code Noir, and 
 other ordinances relative to these poor creatures, shew a very 
 just and sensible mixture of humanity and steadiness. There is 
 however one errour, their planters commit in common with 
 ours ; which is, that they over-work these unhappy men in a 
 manner not suitable to the nature of the climate, or to their 
 constitutions. 
 
 I have dwelt the longer upon the French policy as it regards 
 their colonies, because it is just to give due honour to all those 
 who advance the intercourse of mankind, the peopling of the 
 earth, and the advantage of their country, by wise and effectual 
 regulations. But I principally insist upon it, that it may, if 
 possible, serve for an example to ourselves ; that it may excite 
 an emulation in us ; that it may help to rouse us out of that 
 languor into which we seem to be fallen. The war we now cany 
 on principally regards our colonies, and is a sufficient proof that 
 we come at last to know their value. But, if we are not to hope 
 for better success than has hitherto attended a very just cause, 
 the next peace will probably contract the field we hoped to lay- 
 open to our industry in America. We ought therefore to cul 
 tivate what still remains of it, with tenfold industry ; we ought 
 to guard with the most unremitting vigilance that enclosed 
 spring, that sealed fountain, the waters of which we reserve to 
 ourselves, and direct into such channels, and make to pursue 
 
 such 
 
80 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 such windings and turnings, as best serve our purposes. We nave, 
 I believe, pretty well discovered most of our errours, and the 
 advantage our enemy and rival has taken, not only of our supine- 
 ness, but of a contrary genius in his own councils. We ought 
 to rouse ourselves from the former, and prepare to imitate the 
 latter. Our business is to fight against Alexander, not to rail at 
 him. And truly, I do not know any thing, that for this long 
 time past has contributed more to degrade our character for 
 humanity in the eyes of foreigners, or to instil into ourselves a 
 low and illiberal way of thinking, than the vein of licentious 
 scurrility and abuse, by which, in all sorts of writings, we are 
 apt to vilify and traduce the French nation. There is nothing 
 which hinders people from acting properly, more than indulging 
 themselves in a vain and effeminate licence of tongue. A man 
 who loves his country, and can at once oppose and esteem an 
 enemy, would view our present circumstances in a light, I con 
 ceive, somewhat like the following. We have been engaged for 
 above a century with France in a noble contention for the su 
 periority in arms, in politicks, in learning, and in commerce ; 
 and there never was a time, perhaps, when this struggle was 
 more critical. If we succeed in the war, even our success, un 
 less managed with prudence, will be, like some former successes, 
 of little benefit to us ; if we should fail, which God forbid, even 
 then, prudence may make our misfortunes of more use to us, 
 than an ill-managed success : if they teach us to avoid our 
 former errours ; if they make us less careless ; if they make us 
 cultivate the advantages we have with care and judgment: this, 
 and not our opinion of the enemy, must decide the long contest 
 between us. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 281 
 
 CHAP. VII, 
 
 
 
 THE DUTCH SETTLEMENTS. CURASSOU. THE CITY, ITS TRADE. THE SPA 
 NISH CONTRABAND. EUSTATIA. THE DANISH COMPANY. THE DANISH 
 
 ISLAND OF SANTA CRUZ. THE CHARACTERS OF THE SEVERAL EUROPEAN 
 
 NATIONS AS THEY REGARD AMERICA. 
 
 AFTER the Portuguese had dispossessed the Dutch of Brazil in 
 the manner we have seen, and after the treaty of Nitneguen had 
 entirely removed them out of North America, they were ob 
 liged to console themselves with their rich possessions in the 
 East-Indies, and to sit down content in the west with Suri 
 nam ; a country on the north-east part of South America, of 
 no great value whilst we had it, and which we ceded to them 
 in exchange for New- York ; and with two or three small and 
 barren islands in the North-Sea not far from the Spanish main. 
 The former of these they are far from neglecting; they raise 
 some sugar in Surinam ; a great deal of cotton ; coftee of an 
 excellent kind, and some valuable d\ r ein<{ drugs. They trade 
 
 / Cl ^5 v 
 
 with our North American colonies, who bring hither horses, 
 live cattle, and provisions, and take home a large quantity of 
 molasses ; but their negroes are only the refuse of those they 
 have for the Spanish market ; and the Indians in their neigh 
 bourhood are their mortal enemies. On the same continent 
 they have three other settlements at no considerable distance 
 from each other, Boron, Berbice, and Appro wack ; none very 
 great, but producing the same commodities with Surinam. 
 The islands which they possess are four, Curassou, St. Eu- 
 
 o o statia, 
 
AN ACC&V'VfT OF THE 
 
 statia, Aruba, and Bonaire ; none of them large or fertile, but 
 turned to the best advantage possible by that spirit of industry 
 for which the Dutch are justly famous. Curacco, or Curassou, 
 as it is generally called, is about thirty miles long, and tea in 
 breadth. Though it is naturally barren, it produces a con 
 siderable quantity both of sugar and tobacco, and here are be 
 sides very great salt works, which furnish a good deal to the 
 English islands, and for which there is a considerable demand 
 from our colonies on the continent ; but the trade for which 
 this island is chiefly valuable, is that which in time of war is 
 carried on between them, the English, and the French ; and 
 the contraband which is carried on between them and the Spa 
 niards at all times. 
 
 The Dutch vessels from Europe touch at this island for in 
 telligence or proper pilots, and then proceed to the Spanish 
 <ioast upon a trade which they force with a strong hand. It 
 is very difficult for the Spanish guarda costas to take these ves 
 sels; for they are not only stout ships with a number of guns ; 
 but, by a very wise policy, manned with a large crew of chosen 
 seamen, who are all deeply interested in the safety of the vessel 
 and the success) of the voyage. They have each a share in the 
 cargo, of a value proportioned to the owner's station, supplied 
 by the merchants upon credit, and at prime cost. This ani 
 mates them with an uncommon courage ; they fight bravely be 
 cause every man fights in defence of his own property. But 
 there is besides this, a constant intercourse between the Spa 
 nish continent and this island. 
 
 This island of Curassou has its numerous warehouses always 
 full of the commodities of Europe and the East-Indies. Here 
 are all sorts of woollen and linen cloths, laces, silks, ribbands* 
 utensils of iron, naval and military stores, brandy, the spices 
 of the Moluccas, and the calicoes of India, white and painted. 
 
 Hither 
 
ttUHOPEAX SETTLEMENTS IX AMERICA. 
 
 Hither the V*~est>India, which is likewise their African com 
 pany, bring tUr.ee or four cargoes of slaves annually. To thl> 
 mart, the Spaniards come themselves in small vessels, .and.carry 
 off not only the best of their negroes, and at the best price, but 
 very great quantities of all sorts of goods I have mentioned ; 
 with this advantage to the seller, that the refuse of warehouses 
 aud mercers' shops, things grown utterly unfashionable aud un 
 saleable .in Europe, go off extremely well, where every thing 
 is sufficiently recommended by being European. They Jeaye 
 here their gold and silver in bars or coined, cacao, vanilla, co 
 chineal, Jesuit's bark, hides, and other valuable commodities. 
 The ships that trade directly from Holland to the Spanish con 
 tinent, as they toucli here on their outward passage to gain in 
 telligence or assistance, on their return put 'in here likewise to 
 complete what is wanting of their cargo, with the sugar, the 
 tobacco, the ginger, and other produce of the island itself. The 
 trade of this inland, even in time of peace, .is reputed to be 
 worth to the Dutch no less than 500,000/. sterling annually, but 
 in time of war the profit is far greater, for then it is in a man 
 ner the common emporium of the West-Indies ; it affords a 
 great retreat to the ships of all nations, and at the same time 
 refuses to none of them arms and ammunition to annoy one 
 another. The intercourse with Spain being interrupted, the 
 Spanish colonies have scarce any other market, from whence 
 they can be well supplied either with slaves or goods ; the French 
 come hither to buy the beef, pork, corn, flour, and Dumber, 
 which the English bring from the continent of North America, 
 er which is transported from Ireland ; so that, whether in peace 
 or in war, the trade of this island flourishes extremely. Nor 
 is this owing to any natural advantage whatsoever. JEt. seems 
 as if it were fated, that the ingenuity and patience of the Hol 
 landers should -every where, both in Europe and America, be 
 
 o o 2 employed 
 
284 ' AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 employed' in- flighting against an unfriendly nature; for the 
 island is not only barren, and dependent upon the rains for its- 
 water, but the harbour is naturally one of the worst in Ame 
 rica : yet the Dutch have entirely remedied that defect; they 
 liave upon this harbour one of the largest, and by far the most 
 elegant and cleanly towns in the American islands. The pub- 
 lick buildings are numerous and handsome ; the private houses- 
 commodious ; and the magazines large, convenient, and well 
 filled. All kind of labour is here performed by engines ; some 
 of them so dexterously contrived, that ships are at once lifted 
 into the dock, where they are completely careened ; and then 
 furnished with naval stores, provisions, cannon, and every thing 
 requisite either for trade or war. 
 
 Eustatia is but one mountain of about twenty miles in com 
 pass ; it is amongst the Leeward islands ; but, though so small 
 and inconveniently laid out by nature, the industry of the 
 Dutch has made it turn out to very good account, and it is 
 fully peopled ; the sides of the mountain are divided and laid 
 out in very pretty settlements ; and, though they have neither 
 springs nor rivers, they are so careful, that they never want 
 proper supplies of water from their ponds and cisterns. They 
 raise here sugar and tobacco ; and this island, as well as Cu- 
 rassou, is engaged in the Spanish contraband trade, for which, 
 however, it is not so well situated ; and it draws the same ad 
 vantages from its constant neutrality. 
 
 As for Aruba and Bonaire ; they lie near Curassou, and have 
 no trade of consequence ; they are chiefly employed in raising 
 fresh provisions for the principal island, and for the refreshment 
 of such ships as use these seas. 
 
 The trade of all the Dutch American settlements was origi 
 nally carried on by the West-India company only. At present 
 such ships as go upon that trade pay two and a Jbialf per cent, 
 
 for 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA, 285 
 
 for their licences ; the company however reserves to itself, the 
 whole of what is carried on between Africa and the American 
 islands. 
 
 The Danes had likewise a West-India company, though its 
 object was far from extensive. It was little more than the 
 island of St. Thomas, an inconsiderable member of the Carib- 
 bees ; lately they have added to their possessions the island of 
 Santa Cruz in the same cluster. These islands, so long as they 
 remained in the hands of the company, were ill managed, and 
 nothing like the proper advantage was made of them ; but the 
 present king of Denmark, inferiour to none who. ever sat upon 
 that or any other throne, in love to his subjects, and a judi 
 cious zeal for promoting their welfare, has bought up that com 
 pany^ stock, and laid the trade open. Since 'then, the old set 
 tlement at St. Thomas is very much improved ; it produces 
 upwards of three thousand hogsheads of sugar at a thousand 
 weight each, and others of the West-Indian commodities in 
 tolerable plenty ; and as for Santa Cruz, from a -perfect desart 
 a few years since, it is beginning to settle fast ; several persons 
 from the English islands, and amongst them some of great 
 wealth, have gone to settle there, and have received very great 
 encouragement to- do so. The air of the place is extremely un- 
 healthful, but this ill disposition will probably continue no 
 longer than the woods, with which the island at present is 
 almost wholly covered. These two nations, the Dutch and 
 Danes,, hardly deserve to be mentioned among the proprietors 
 of America ; their possessions there are comparatively nothing. 
 Bat, as they appear extremely worthy of the attention of these 
 powers, and as the share of the Dutch is worth to them at least 
 six hundred thousand pounds sterling a year, what must we 
 think of our poss^ssioos ? what attention do they not deserve 
 
 from 
 
286 AN ACCOITNT OF THE 
 
 from us ? and what may not foe made of them by that atten 
 tion ? 
 
 There seems to be a remarkable providence in casting the 
 parts, if I may tise that expression, of the several European 
 nations who act upon the stage of America. The Spaniard, 
 proud, lazy, and magnificent, has an ample walk in which to 
 expatiate; a soft climate to indulge his love of ease; and a 
 profusion of gold and silver 'to procure 'him all those luxuries his 
 pride; demands, 'bat -which his laziness would refuse him. 
 
 The ^Portuguese, --naturally indigent at 'home, and enterprising 
 rather than industrious abroad, -has .gold and diamonds as the 
 vSpaniard has, wants them as he -does, but possesses them in a 
 more useful, though a less ostentatious manner. 
 
 The English, of a 'reasoning disposition, thoughtful and cool, 
 and men of business rather than of great -industry, impatient of 
 much fruitless labour, abhorrent of constraint, and lovers of 
 a- country life, -have a lot which indeed produces neither gold 
 nor silver ; but they have a large tract df a fine continent ; a 
 noble field for the exercise of agriculture, and sufficient to fur 
 nish their trade without laying them under great difficulties. 
 Intolerant as they are of the most useful restraints^ their com 
 merce flourishes from the freedom every man has of pursuing 
 it according to his own ideas, and directing his life after his own 
 fashion. 
 
 The French, active, lively, enterprising, pliable, and politick, 
 and though changing their pursuits always pursuing the present 
 object with eagerness, are notwithstanding tractable and obe 
 dient to rules and laws, which bridle these dispositions and wind 
 and turn them to proper courses. This people have a country, 
 where more is to be effected by managing the people than by 
 cultivating the ground ; where a pedling commerce, that re 
 quires 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 2&7 
 
 quires constant motion, flourishes more than agriculture or a 
 regular traffick ; where they have difficulties which keep them 
 alert by struggling with them, and where their obedience to a 
 wise government serves them for personal wisdom. In the 
 islands, the whole is the work of their policy, and a right turn 
 their government has taken. 
 
 The Dutch have got a rock or two on which to display the 
 miracles of frugality and diligence (which are their virtues), 
 and on which they have exerted these virtues, and shewn those 
 miracles. 
 
 CHAP. . 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 PART VL 
 
 THE ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS, 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 THE DIVISION OF THE ENGLISH WEST-INDIES. DESCRIPTION OF JAMAICA. 
 
 CONQUEST OF THAT ISLAND. 
 
 THE English colonies are the fairest object of our attention in 
 America ; not only as they comprehend a vast and delightful 
 variety of climates, situations, natural products, and improve 
 ments of art ; but as they contain, though the dominions of 
 one potentate, and their inhabitants formed out of the people 
 of one nation, an almost equal variety of manners, religions, 
 and ways of livings. They have a most flourishing trade with 
 their mother country, and they communicate widely with 
 many foreign nations ; for, besides the constant and useful in 
 tercourse they hold with Africa, their ships are seen in the ports 
 of Spain, Portugal, Italy, and even in the Levant ; nor are 
 they excluded the American settlements of France, Spain, Por 
 tugal, and Holland. This, with their constant correspondence 
 with each other and with their mother country, hurries about 
 
 a lively 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA, 
 
 a lively circulation of trade, of which Great Britain i, th ' 
 and spring, from whence it takes its rise, and to which u 
 returns in the end. 
 
 In some of the European settlements, we have seen the effects 
 
 A 
 
 of a vast ambition supported by surprising feats of a romantick 
 courage mixed with an insatiable thirst of gold. In others, the 
 
 C7 * 
 
 regular product of a systematick policy tempering and guiding an 
 active industry. But in our own colonies we are to display the 
 effects of liberty ; the work of a people guided by their geni 
 
 and following the directions of their own natural temp 
 
 n : 
 proper path. 
 
 I intend to consider the Erigtisn colonies under two principal 
 
 O Li 
 
 divisions; the first I allot to those islands which lie under the 
 torrid zone between the tropick of Cancer and the Equinoctial 
 no, in that part generally called the West-Indies. The sec- 
 
 is to comprehend our possessions in the temperate zone on the 
 continent of North America. The West-Indies islands shall be 
 considered, as they are amongst the Greater Antilles ; the Wind 
 ward ; or the Leeward islands. Amongst the first we possess 
 the large and noble island of Jamaica ; amongst the second we 
 have Barbadoes ; and in the third St. Christoper's, Antigua, 
 Nevis, Montserrat, and Barbuda. As all these islands lie be 
 tween the tropicks ; whatever is to be said of the air, winds, me 
 teors, and natural produce, shall fall under one head, as they 
 are the same or nearly the same in all of them ; their produce 
 for the market is nearly the same too; and therefore whatever 
 is to be said of the manufacturing of those, shall come together, 
 after we have given a concise description of the state of each 
 island separately. 
 
 L / 
 
 Jamaica lies between the 75th and 79th degrees of west lon 
 gitude from London, and is between 17 and 19 degrees distant 
 from the Equinoctial. It is in length, from east to west, a 
 
 p P hundred 
 
290 . AN ACCOUNT OF .THE 
 
 hundred and forty English, miles ; in breadth about sixty ; 
 and of an oval form. This country is in a manner inter 
 sected with a ridge of lofty mountains, rugged and rocky, 
 that are called the Blue Mountains. On each side of the Blue 
 Mountains are chains of lesser mountains gradually lower. 
 The greater mountains are little better than so many rocks ; 
 where there is any earth, it is only a stubborn clay lit for no 
 sort of husbandry. The mountains are very steep, and the 
 rocks tumbled upon one another in a manner altogether stu 
 pendous, the effect 'of the frequent earthquakes which have 
 shaken this island in all times. Yet, barren as these mountains 
 are, they are all covered to the very top with a' great variety of 
 beautiful trees, flourishing in a perpetual spring; their roots 
 penetrate the crannies of the rocks, and search out the moisture 
 which is lodged there by the rains that fall so frequently on 
 these mountains, and the mists that almost perpetually brood 
 upon them. These rocks too are the parents of a vast number 
 of fine rivulets, which tumble down their sides in cataracts, that 
 form, amongst the rudeness of the rocks and precipices and trie 
 shining verdure of the trees, the most wildly-pleasing imagery 
 imaginable. The face of this country is a good deal different 
 from what is generally observed in other places. For as on one 
 hand the mountains are very steep ; so the plains between them 
 are perfectly smooth and level. In these plains, the soil, aug 
 mented by the wash of the mountains for so many ages, is pro 
 digiously fertile. None of our islands produce so fine sugars. 
 'They formerly had here cacao in great perfection, which de 
 lights in a rich ground. Their pastures after the rains are of a 
 most beautiful verdure, and extraordinary fatness. They are 
 called savannas. On the whole, if this island were not troubled 
 with great thunders and lightnings, hurricanes and earthquakes ; 
 and, if the air was not at once violently hot, damp, and ex 
 tremely 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 291 
 
 tremely unwholesome in most parts, the fertility and beauty of 
 this country would make it as desirable a situation for pleasure, 
 as it is for the profits, which in spite of these disadvantages 
 draw hither such a number of people. 
 
 The river waters are many of them unwholesome and taste of 
 copper; but some springs there are of a better kind. In the 
 plains are found several salt fountains ; and in the mountains, 
 not far from Spanish-Town, is a hot bath, of extraordinary 
 medicinal virtues. It relieves in the dry belly-ach, one of the 
 most terrible endemial distempers of Jamaica, and in various 
 other complaints. 
 
 This island came into our possession during the usurpation of 
 Cromwell, and by means of an armament which had another des 
 tination. Cromwell, notwithstanding the great abilities which 
 enabled him to overturn the constitution and to trample upon 
 the liberties of his country, was not sufficiently acquainted with 
 foreign politicks. This ignorance made him connect himself 
 closely with France, then rising into a dangerous grandeur, and 
 to fiijht with ^reat animositv the shadow which remained of the 
 
 o ~ .. 
 
 Spanish power. On such ideas he fitted out a formidable fleet, 
 with a view to reduce the island of Hispaniola ; and, though he 
 failed in this design, Jamaica made amends not only for this 
 failure, but almost for the ill policy which first drew him into 
 hostilities with the Spaniards ; by which, however, he added 
 this excellent country to the British dominions. 
 
 There was nothing of the genius of Cromwell to be seen in 
 the planning of this expedition. From the first to the last, all 
 was wrong ; all was a chain of little interested mismanagement, 
 and had no air of the result of absolute^ power lodged in great 
 hands. The fleet was ill victualled ; the troops ill provided 
 with necessaries to support and encourage men badly chosen 
 and worse armed. They embarked in great discontent. The 
 
 p p 2 generals 
 
292 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 generals were but little better satisfied j and bad little more 
 hopes, than the soldiers. But the generals (for there were two 
 in the command, Penn and Ycnables, one for the marine, the 
 other for the land service) were men of no extraordinary talents. 
 And, if they had been men of the best capacity, little was to 
 be expected from two commanders not subordinate, and so dif 
 fering in their ideas, and so envious of each other as land and 
 sea-officers generally are. But, to make this arrangement per 
 fect in all respects, and to prove the advantages arising from a 
 divided command, they added a number of commissioners as 
 a, check upon both. This tripartite generalship, in the truest 
 Dutch taste, produced the effects that might be expected from 
 it. The soldiers differed with the generals, the generals dis 
 agreed with one another, and all quarrelled with the commis 
 sioners. The place of their. landing in Hispaniola was ill chosen, 
 and the. manner of it wretchedly contrived. The army had near 
 forty miles to march before it could act ; and the soldiers, with 
 out order, without heart, fainting and dying by the excessive 
 heat of the climate and the want of necessary provisions, ami 
 disheartened yet more by the cowardice and discontent of their 
 officers, yielded an easy victory to an handful of Spaniards. 
 They retired ignominious] y and with ereat Joss. 
 
 */ *7 / CTJ 
 
 But the principal commanders, a little reconciled by their 
 misfortunes, and fearing to return to England without effect, 
 very wisely turned their thoughts another way. They resolved 
 to attempt Jamaica, before the inhabitants of that island could 
 receive encouragement by the news of their defeat in Hispa 
 niola. They knew that this island was in no good posture of 
 and they set themselves vigorously to avoid the mis- 
 :;8, which proved so fatal in the former expedition. They 
 rely punished the officers who had shewn an ill example by 
 thrir coward ire ; ?.ml .they ordered, with respect to the soldiers, 
 
 that, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 293 
 
 that, if any attempted to run away, the man near him should 
 shoot him. 
 
 Fortified with these regulations, they landed in Jamaica, and 
 laid siege to St. Jago de la Ye^a, now called Spanish-Town, the 
 capital of the island. The people, who were in no condition to 
 oppose an army of ten thousand men and a strong naval force, 
 would have surrendered immediately, if they had not been en 
 couraged by the strange delays of our generals and their com 
 missioners. However at last the town with the whole island 
 surrendered, but not until the inhabitants had secreted their 
 most valuable effects in the mountains. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
291. AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 THE SETTLEMENT OF JAMAICA. THE FAILURE OF CACAO. THE BUCCA 
 NEERS. THE FLOURISHING STATE OF THAT ISLAND. ITS DECLINE IN 
 
 SOME RESPECTS. < 
 
 AFTER the Restoration, the Spaniards ceded the island to our 
 court. Cromwell had settled there some of the troops em 
 ployed in its reduction ; some royalists, uneasy at home, sought 
 an asylum in this island ; not a few planters from Barbadoes 
 were invited to Jamaica by the extraordinary fertility of the 
 soil, and the other advantages which it offered. These latter 
 taught the former settlers the manner of raising the sugar cane, 
 and making sugar ; for at first they had wholly applied them 
 selves to the raising of cacao, as the Spaniards had done before 
 them. It was happy for them that they fell into this new prac 
 tice ; for the cacao-groves planted by the Spaniards began to 
 fail, and the new plantations did not answer, as the negroes 
 foretold they would not, because of the want of certain religious 
 ceremonies always used by the Spaniards in planting them, at 
 which none of the slaves were suffered to be present, and to the 
 use of which they attributed the prosperity of these plantations. 
 Probably there were methods taken at that time, that were 
 covered by the veil of these religious ceremonies, which are 
 necessary to the well-being of that plant. However that be, 
 the cacao has never since equalled the reputation of the Spa 
 nish, but, gave way to the more profitable cultivation of indigo 
 and sugar. 
 
 But what gave the greatest life to this new settlement, and 
 
 raised 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 29^ 
 
 raised it at once to a surprising pitch of opulence, which it 
 hardly equals in our days, was the resort thither of those pi 
 rates called the buccaneers. These men, who fought with the 
 most desperate bravery, and spent their plunder with the most 
 stupid extravagance, were very welcome guests in Jamaica. 
 They often brought two, three, and four hundred thousand 
 pieces of eight at a time, which were inimediatly squandered in 
 all the ways of excessive gaming, wine and women. Vast for 
 tunes were made, and the returns of treasure to England were 
 prodigiously great. In the island they had by this means raised 
 such funds, that when the source of this wealth was stopped up 
 by the suppression of the pirates, they were enabled to turn their 
 industry into better channels. They increased so fast, that it was 
 computed that, in the beginning of this century, they had sixty 
 thousand whites and a hundred and twenty thousand negroes 
 in this island. This calculation is certainly too large. How 
 ever, the Jamaicans were undoubtedly very numerous, until re 
 duced by earthquakes (one of which entirely ruined Port-Royal, 
 and killed a vast number of persons in all parts of the country) 
 and by terrible epidemical diseases, which, treading on the heels 
 of the former calamities, swept away vast multitudes : losses 
 which have not been since sufficiently repaired. At present 
 the white inhabitants scarcely exceed twenty five thousand 
 souls ; the blacks are about ninety thousand ; both much less 
 numerous than formerly, and with a disproportion much greater 
 on the side of the whites. 
 
 It appears at present, that Jamaica is rather upon the de 
 cline ; a point this that deserves the most attentive considera 
 tion. A country which contains at least four millions of acres, 
 has a fertile soil, an extensive sea coast, and many very fine 
 harbours ; for an island so circumstanced, and at a time when 
 the value of all its products at market is considerably risen ; foe 
 
 such 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 such a country to fall short of its former numbers, and not to have 
 above three or four hundred thousand acres employed in any sort 
 of culture, shews clearly that something must be very wrong 
 in the management of its affairs ; and, what shews it even yet 
 more clearly, land is so extravagantly dear in many of the other 
 islands, as to sell sometimes for one hundred pounds an acre 
 and upwards ; a price that undoubtedly never would be paid, 
 if convenient land was to be had, and proper encouragement 
 given, in Jamaica. Whether this be owing to publick or pri 
 vate faults, I know not ; but certain it is, tlrat, wherever they 
 are, they deserve a speedy and effectual remedy from those, in 
 whose power it is to apply it. 
 
 
 CHAP, 
 
EUROPEAN SETtLfiMCNTS IN AMERICA. 297 
 
 C H A P. MI. 
 
 THE PRODUCTS OF JAMAICA. PIEMENTO. SUGAR. RUM. MOLASSES. 
 
 I 
 COTTOK, GINGER. THE LOGWOOD TRADE\ DISPUTES ABOUT IT. THE 
 
 CONTRABAND. SLAVE T.iADE. 
 
 THE natural products of Jamaica, besides sugar, cacao, and 
 ginger, are principally piemento, or, as it is called, allspice, or 
 Jamaica pepper. The tree which bears the jpicmento rises to 
 the height of above thirty feet. It is straight, of a moderate 
 thickness, and covered with a gray bark extremely smooth and 
 shining. It shoots out a vast number of branches upon all 
 sides that bear a plentiful foliage of very large and beautiful 
 leaves of a shining green, in all things resembling the leaf of 
 the bay tree. At the very ends of the twigs are formed bunches 
 of flowers ; each stalk bearing a flower which bends back, and 
 within which bend are to be discerned some stamina of a pale 
 green colour; to these succeeds a bunch of small crowned ber 
 ries, larger when ripe than juniper berries ; at that season they 
 change from their former green, and become black, smooth, and 
 shining ; they are taken unripe from the tree, and dried in the 
 sun ; in this case they assume a brown colour, and have a mixed 
 ffevour of many kinds of spice, whence it is called allspice. But 
 it is milder than the other spices, and is judged to be inferiour 
 to none of them for the service which it does to cold, watery, 
 and languid stomachs. The tree grows mostly upon the moun 
 tains. 
 ! Besides this, ttiey have the wild cinnamon tree, whose bark is 
 
 Q Q SO 
 
29B AN ACCOUNT 01' THE 
 
 so serviceable in medicine; the manchineel, a most beautiful 
 tree to the eye, with the fairest apple in the world, and when 
 cut down affording a very fine ornamental wood for the joiners, 
 but the apple, and the juice in every part of the tree, contain one 
 of the worst poisons in nature. Here is the mahogany, in such 
 general use with our cabinet makers ; the cabbage tree, a tall 
 plant, famous for a substance, looking and tasting like cabbage, 
 growing on the very top, and no less remarkable for the ex 
 treme hardness of its wood which, when dry, is incorruptible, 
 and hardly yields to any tool ; the palma, from which is drawn 
 a great deal of oil, much esteemed by the negroes both in food 
 and medicine ; the white wood, which never breeds the worm 
 in ships ; the soap tree, whose berries answer all purposes of 
 washing ; the mangrove and olive bark, useful to tanners ; the 
 fustick and redwood to the dyers, and lately the logwood ; and 
 their forests supply the apothecary with guaiacum, salsaparilla, 
 china, cassia, and tamarinds ; they have aloes too ; and do not 
 want the cochineal plant, though they know nothing of the art 
 of managing it; nor perhaps is the climate suitable. The in 
 digo plant was formerly much cultivated ; the cotton tree is 
 .still so, and they send home more of its wool than all the rest 
 of our islands together. 
 
 The whole product therefore of the island may be reduced 
 to these heads. First,, sugars, of which they imported in 1753 
 twenty thousand three hundred and fifteen hogsheads, some 
 vastly great,, even to a ton weight, which cannot be worth less 
 in England than 424,725 pounds sterling. Most of this goes 
 to London and Bristol, and some part of it to North America^ 
 in return for the beef, pork, cheese, corn, peas, staves, plank, 
 pitch, and tar.,, which they have from thence. 2. Rum, of 
 which they export about 4000 puncheons. The rum of this 
 island is generally esteemed the best, and is the most used in 
 
 England, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 299 
 
 'England. 3. Molasses, in which they make a great part of 
 their returns for New England, where there are vast distilleries. 
 All these are the produce of their grand staple the sugar cane. 
 4. Cotton, of which they send out 2000 bags. The indigo, 
 formerly much cultivated, is now inconsiderable, but some cacao 
 and coftee are exported, which latter is in no great esteem; 
 though it is said to be little inferiour to that of Mocha, pro- 
 r ided it be kept for two or three years. With these they send 
 home a considerable quantity of. piemento, ginger, drugs for 
 dyers and apothecaries, sweetmeats, and mahogany and man- 
 chineel plank. But some of the most considerable articles of 
 their trade are with the Spanish continent of New Spain and 
 Terra Firma ; for in the former they cut great quantities of 
 logwood, and both in the former and latter they drive a vast 
 and profitable trade in negroes, and all kinds of the same Eu 
 ropean goods, which are carried thither from Old Spain by the 
 flota. 
 
 : Both the logwood trade and this contraband have been the 
 subjects of much contention, and the cause of a war between 
 ours and the Spanish nation. The former we avow, and we 
 claim it as our right ; though, in the last treaty of peace, that 
 point was far from being well settled. The latter we permit; 
 because we think, and very justly, that if the Spaniards find 
 themselves aggrieved by any contraband trade, it lies upon 
 them, and not upon us, to put a stop to it. 
 . Formerly we cut logwood in the bay of Campeachy, on the 
 northern side of the peninsula of Jucatan. But the Spaniards 
 have .driven our people entirely from thence, and built forts 
 and made settlements to prevent them from returning. Ex 
 pelled from thence, the logwood cutters settled upon the gulph 
 ef Honduras, on the southern side of the same peninsula, -where 
 they are in some sort established, and have a fort to protect 
 
 Q Q 2 them 
 
300 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 them. They are an odd kind of people, composed mostly of 
 vagabonds and fugitives from all parts of North America, and 
 their way of life is suitable. They live pretty much in a lawless 
 manner, though they elect one amongst them whom they call 
 their king ; and to him they pay as much obedience as they 
 think fit. The country they are in is low, and extremely 
 marshy ; the air is prodigiously molested with muskettoes ; and 
 the water dangerous with alligators ; yet a life of licentiousness, 
 a plenty of brandy, large gtin^ and a want of thought, feave 
 perfectly reconciled them to the hardships of their employment 
 and the unwholesomeness of the climate. They go always well 
 armed, and are about one thousand five hundred men. 
 
 In the dry season, when they cut the logwood, they advance 
 a considerable way into the country, following the logwood., 
 which runs amongst the other trees of the forest, like the vein 
 of a mineral in the earth. When the rains have overflowed the 
 whole country, they have marks by which they know where the 
 logwood is deposited. This is an heavy wood,, and sinks in the 
 water. However, it is easily buoyed up, and one diver can lift 
 very large beams. These they carry by the favour of the land- 
 floods into the river, to a place which is called the Barcaderas 
 or Port, where they meet the ships that come upon this trade. 
 
 In the year 1716, when the debate concerning this matter 
 was revived, the lords of trade reported, that before the year 
 1676 we had a number of people settled and carrying on this 
 trade on the peninsula of Jucatan ; that we always considered 
 this our right, and were supported in it by our kings ; and that 
 this right was confirmed, if it had wanted any confirmation, by 
 a clause of uti possidetis in the treaty of peace which was con 
 cluded with Spain and the court of London in 1676 ; and that 
 we certainly were in full possession of those settlements and 
 thai trade, long before the time of that treaty ; and further, 
 
 that 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 301 
 
 that the Spaniards themselves have incidentally drawn a great 
 advantage from it, since the pirates, who were formerly the 
 most resolved and effectual enemies they ever had, were the 
 more easily restrained from their enterprises, by having their 
 minds diverted to this employment. Upon the whole, they 
 concluded it an affair very well worth the attention of the go 
 vernment, as in some years it engaged near six thousand ton of 
 shipping ; found employment for a number of seamen propor 
 tionable ; consumed a good deal of our manufactures, and was of 
 considerable use in fabricating many others ; and that the whole 
 value of the returns were not less than sixty thousand pounds 
 sterling a year. Notwithstanding this, our claim seems drop 
 ped, nor is it very clear how far it can be maintained, to carry 
 on a trade by violence in a country in which we can hardly 
 claim, according to the common ideas of right in America, any 
 property. However this may be, the trade, though with many 
 difficulties and discouragements, still continues, and will pro-- 
 bably continue whilst the Spaniards arc so weak upon that side 
 of Mexico, and while the coast continues so disagreeable, that 
 none but desperate persons will venture to reside there. The 
 logwood trade is generally carried on by vessels from New Eng 
 land, New-York, and Pennsylvania, who take up the goods 
 they want in Jamaica. 
 
 But there is a trade yet more profitable carried on between 
 this island and the Spanish continent, especially in dine of war. 
 This too has been the cause of much bickering between us and 
 the court of Spain, and it will yet be more difficult for them to 
 put a stop to this trade than to the former, whilst the Spaniards 
 are so eager for it, whilst it is so profitable to the British iner- 
 ohant, and whilst the Spanish officers from the highest to the 
 lowest shew so great a respect to presents properly made. The 
 trade is carried on this manner. The ship from Jamaica, hav 
 ing 
 
302 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 ing taken negroes and a proper sortment of goods there, pro 
 ceeds in time of peace to a harbour called the Grout within 
 Monkey-key, about four miles from Porto-bello. A person, 
 who understands Spanish, is directly sent ashore to give the 
 merchants of the town notice of the arrival of the vessel ; the 
 same news is carried likewise with great speed to Panama ; from 
 whence the merchants set out disguised like peasants with their 
 silver in jars covered with meal, to deceive the officers of the 
 revenue. Here the ship .remains trading frequently for five or 
 six weeks together. The Spaniards usually come on board, 
 leave their money, and take their negroes, and their goods 
 packed up in parcels fit for one man to carry, after having been 
 handsomely entertained on board, and receiving provisions suf 
 ficient for their journey homeward. If the whole cargo is not 
 disposed of here, they bear off eastward to the Brew, a harbour 
 about five miles distant from Carthagena, where they soon find 
 a vent for the rest. There is no trade more profitable than this ; 
 for your payments are made in ready 11101163% and the goods sell 
 higher than they would at any other market. It is not this coast 
 only, but every where upon the Spanish main, that this trade 
 is carried on ; nor is it by the English only, but the French 
 from Hispaniola, the Dutch from Curassou, and even the Danes 
 have some share in it. When the Spanish guarda costas seize 
 upon oiae of these vessels, they make no scruple of confiscating 
 the cargo, and of treating the crew in a manner little better than 
 pirates. 
 
 This commerce in time of peace, and this with the prizes that 
 are made in time of war, pour into Jamaica an astonishing 
 quantity of treasure ; great fortunes are made in a manner in-: 
 stantly, whilst the people appear to live in such a state of luxury 
 as in all other places leads to beggary. Their equipages, their 
 slothes, their furniture, their tables, all bear the tokens- of the 
 
 greatest 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 303 
 
 greatest wealth and profusion imaginable ; this obliges all the 
 treasure they receive to make but a very short stay, as all 
 this treasure, added to all the products of the island itself, 
 is hardly more than sufficient to answer the calls of their ne 
 cessity and luxury on Europe and North America, and their 
 demand for slaves, of which this island is under the necessity of 
 an. annual recruit for its own use and that of the Spanish trade, 
 of upwards of six thousand head, and which stand them one with 
 another in thirty pounds apiece, and often more. 
 
 CHAP, 
 
304 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 C H A P. IV, 
 
 P RT -U O V A ! . THE EARTH QUAKE 1 6*92 . RING B t ON . ST . J A GO D E L \ 
 
 VEGA, OR SPA'NISH-TOWN. DISPUTES' ABOUT THE? REMOVAL OF TltE SEAT 
 OF GOVERNMENT. 
 
 THE whole island is divided into nineteen districts or parishes, 
 which send each of them two members to the assembly, and 
 allow a competent maintenance to a minister. Port-Royal was 
 anciently the capital of the island ; it stood upon the very point 
 of a long narrow neck of land, which, towards the sea, formed part 
 of the border of a very noble harbour of its own name. In this 
 harbour above a thousand sail of the largest ships could anchor 
 with the greatest convenience and safety ; and the water was so 
 deep at the key of Port-Royal, that vessels of the greatest bur 
 den could lay their broadsides to the wharfs, and load and un 
 load at little expence or trouble. This conveniency weighed so 
 much with the inhabitants, that they chose in this spot to build 
 their capital, though the place was an hot dry sand, which pro 
 duced not one of the necessaries of life, no not even fresh water. 
 However, this advantageous situation and the resort of the pi 
 rates made it a very considerable place. It contained two thou 
 sand houses very handsomely built, and which rented as high 
 as those in London. It had a resort like a constant fair, by the 
 concourse of people of business, and grew to all this in about 
 thirty years time ; for before that there was scarcely an house 
 upon the place. In short, there were very few places in the 
 world, which for the size could be compared to this town for 
 trade, wqalth, and an entire corruption of manners. 
 
 It 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN' AM* 'MCA, 
 
 It continued thus until the 9th of June 'IfiQ?, when an earth 
 quake, -which shook the whole island to its fouii-^ \w >, 
 whelmed this city, and buried nine tenths of it eig.it fathom 
 under water. This earthquake not only demolished this city, 
 but made a terrible devastation all over the island, and was fol 
 lowed by a contagious distemper, which was near giving the 
 last hand to its ruin. Ever since it is remarked, that the air 
 is far more unwholsome than formerly. This earthquake, one 
 of the most dreadful that I think ever was known, is described 
 in such lively colours in the Philosophical Transactions, and by 
 persons who saw and had a large part in the terrours and losses 
 of this calamity, that I shall say nothing of it, but refer thither ; 
 as I am certain no man, from his fancy, could assemble a greater 
 number of images of horrour, than the nature of things taught 
 the persons who saw them to bring together, and which are 
 there related very naturally and pathetically. 
 
 They rebuilt this city after the earthquake, but it was again 
 destroyed. A terrible fire laid it in ashes about ten years after. 
 Notwithstanding this, the extraordinary convenience of the har 
 bour tempted them to rebuild it once more. But in the year 
 1722 a hurricane, one of the most terrible on record, reduced it 
 a third time to a heap of rubbish. Warned by these extraor 
 dinary calamities, that seemed to mark out this place as a de 
 voted spot, by an act of assembly they removed the custom 
 house and publick offices from thence, and forbid that any 
 market should be held there for the future. The principal in 
 habitants caine to reside at the opposite side of the bay, at a 
 place which is called Kingston. The town is advantageously 
 situated for fresh water, and all manner of accommodations. 
 The streets are of a commodious wideness, regularly drawn, 
 and cutting each other at equal distances and right angles. It 
 consists of upwards of one thousand houses, many of them hand - 
 
 R.R. somely. 
 
306 AN ACCOUJr OF THE 
 
 somely built, though low, with porticoes, and every con venieney 
 for a comfortable habitation in that climate. The harbour was 
 formerly in no good posture of defence ; but by the care of the 
 late governor Mr. Knowles, it is now strongly fortified. 
 
 The river Cobre, a considerable, but not navigable stream, 
 falls into the sea not far from Kingston. Upon the banks of 
 this river stands St. Jago de la Vega, or Spanish-town ; the 
 seat of government, and the place where the courts of justice 
 are held, and consequently the capital of Jamaica, though in- 
 feriour in size and resort to Kingston. However, this, though 
 a town of less business, has more gaiety. Here reside many 
 persons of large fortunes, and who make a figure proportion 
 able ; the number of coaches kept here is very great ; here is 
 a regular assembly ; and the residence of the governor and the 
 principal officers of the government, who have all very profit 
 able places, conspire with the genius of the inhabitants, osten 
 tatious and expensive, to make it a very splendid and agreeable 
 place. Mr. Knowles, the late governor, made an attempt to 
 remove the seat of government from hence to Kingston, for 
 reasons which, it must be owned, have a very plausible ap 
 pearance ; for it would certainly facilitate the carrying on of 
 business, to have the courts of justice and the seat of govern 
 ment as near as possible to the center of commercial affairs. 
 But whether the consideration of a more healthful situation ; 
 the division of the advantages of great towns, with the several 
 parts of the country, and the mischief that might arise from 
 shaking the settled order of things, and prejudicing the pro 
 perty of a great many private people, can weigh against the 
 advantages proposed by this removal, I will not undertake to 
 determine. One thing appears, I think, very plainly in the 
 contest which this regulation produced ; that the opposition was, 
 at least, as much to the governor as to fche measure ; and that? 
 
 great 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 307 
 
 great natural warmth of temper upon ail sides, inflamed and 
 envenomed by a spirit of party which reigns in all our planta 
 tions, kindled a flame about this, which, if it had not happened, 
 must have risen to the same height upon some other occasion, 
 since there was a plenty of combustible materials ready upon 
 all sides. 
 
 The government of this island is, next to that of Ireland, the 
 best in the king's gift. The standing salary is two thousand 
 five hundred pounds a year. The assembly vote the governor 
 as much more ; and this, with the other great profits of his 
 office, make it in the whole little inferiour to ten thousand 
 pounds a year. But of the government I shall say little, until 
 I speak of the government of the plantations, to wkidi this is 
 in ail respects alike. 
 
 R R 2 CHAP. 
 
303 
 
 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 C H A P. V. 
 
 BARBADOES, ITS SAVAGE CONDITION AT THE FIRST PLANTING. THE HARD 
 SHIPS SUFFERED BY THE PLANTERS. THE SPEEDY INCREASE OF THE 
 
 ISLAND. ITS GREAT WEALTH AND NUMBER OF INHABITANTS. ITS 
 
 DECLINE. PRESENT STATE OF THE ISLAND. 
 
 THE next island, in point of importance, which we possess in 
 the West-Indies, but the oldest in point of settlement, is Bar- 
 badoes. This is one, and by no means the most contemptible 
 one, amongst the windward division of the Caribbee islands. 
 It is not distinctly known when this island was first discovered 
 or settled ; but it was probably some time about the year 1625. 
 When the English first landed here, they found the place the 
 most savage and destitute that can well be imagined. It had 
 not the least appearance of ever having been peopled even by 
 savages. There was no kind of beasts of pasture or of prey, 
 no fruit, no herb, nor root fit for supporting the life of man. 
 Yet as the climate was good, and the soil appeared fertile, 
 some gentlemen of small fortunes in England resolved to be 
 come adventurers thither. But the first planters had not only 
 the utter desolateness of the place, and the extreme want of 
 provisions to struggle with, but the trees were so large, of a 
 wood so hard and stubborn, and full of such great branches, 
 that they proceeded in the clearing of the ground with a diffi 
 culty that must have worn clown any ordinary patience. And 
 even when they had tolerably cleared some little spot, the first 
 produce it yielded for their subsistance was so small and ordi 
 nary, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. , 309 
 
 nary, at the same time that their supplies from England >vere 
 so slow and precarious, that nothing but the noblest courage, 
 and a firmness which cannot receive too many praises, could 
 have carried them through the discouragements which they 
 met in the noblest work in the world, the cultivating and peo 
 pling a deserted part of the globe. But by degrees things were 
 mollified ; some of the trees yielded fustick for the dyers ; cot 
 ton and indigo agreed well with the soil ; tobacco then becom 
 ing fashionable in England answered tolerably ; and the country 
 began gradually to lay aside its savage disposition and to submit 
 to culture. 
 
 These good appearances in America, and the storm which 
 some time after began to gather in England, encouraged many 
 to go over ; but still the colony received no s*ort of encourage 
 ment from the government, which at that time understood the 
 advantages of colonies but little ; and which was besides much 
 worse occupied in sowing those seeds of bitterness, which came 
 afterwards so terribly to their own lips. The court took no 
 other notice of this island than to grant it to a very unworthy 
 tmd unfaithful favourite, the Earl of Carlisle ; which, as may 
 be judged, proved no advantage to the settlement. 
 
 However, as this colony had the hardiest breeding, and the 
 most laborious infancy of any of our settlements, so it was far 
 stronger in its stamina, and grew with greater speed ; and that, 
 to an height, which, if it were not proved beyond any reason 
 able doubt, could scarcely be believed. For in this small 
 island, which is but twenty-five miles in length, and in breadth 
 but fourteen, in little more than twenty years after its. first set 
 tlement, that is, in 1650, it contained upwards of fifty thousand 
 Whites of all sexes ami ages, and a much greater number .of 
 Blacks and Indian slaves. The former of which they bought ; 
 the latter they acquired by means not at all to their honour 
 
 for 
 
AN ACCOTTNT OF THE 
 
 for they seized upon those unhappy men, without any pretence, 
 in the neighbouring islands, and carried them into slavery. A 
 practice, which has rendered the Caribbee Indians irreconcile- 
 abJe to us ever since. 
 
 This small island, peopled by upwards of one hundred thou 
 sand souls, was not yet above half of it cultivated, nor was the 
 industry of the inhabitants at a stand. A little before the 
 period I have mentioned, they learned the method of making 
 sugar ; and this enlarging the sphere of their trade, they grew 
 prodigiously rich and numerous. 
 
 About this time the government of England, which was then 
 in the hands of Cromwell, confined the trade of Barbadoes to the 
 mother country ; before, it had been managed altogether by the 
 Dutch. The rigour exercised towards the royal party, obliged 
 several gentlemen of very good families to settle in this island, 
 which was far from being peopled like some other colonies, by 
 fugitives and persons desperate at home. After the Restoration 
 it continued still to advance by very hasty strides. Not long 
 after the Restoration, King Charles created thirteen baronets from 
 the gentlemen of this island, some of whom were worth ten 
 thousand pounds a year, and none so little as one thousand. 
 
 In 1676, which was the meridian of this settlement, their 
 Whites were computed to be still much about fifty thousand, 
 but their Negro slaves were increased so as to be upwards of 
 one hundred thousand of all kinds. They employed four hun 
 dred sail of ships, one with another of an hundred and fifty tons, 
 in their trade ; their annual exported produce in sugar, indigo, 
 ginger, cotton, &c. amounted to upwards of three hundred and 
 fifty thousand pounds, and their circulating cash at home was 
 two hundred thousand. It is probable that Holland itself, or 
 perhaps the best inhabited parts of China were never peopled 
 to the same proportion, nor have they land of the same dimen 
 sions, 
 
SETTLEMENTS IV AMERICA. 
 
 .is, which produces any thing like the same pro-fits. But 
 since that time the island has been much upon the decline. 
 The growth of the French sugar islands and the settlement of 
 Antigua, St. Christopher's, Nevis, and Montserrat, as wel'l ag 
 the greater establishment in Jamaica, have drawn away from 
 time to time a vast number of their people. A terrible conta 
 gion, said to be brought over by the troops from England, bufc 
 more probably derived from the coast of Africa, attacked' the 
 island in the year 1692 ; it raged like a pestilence ; twenty 
 have died in a day in their principal town ; and all parts of the 
 island suffered in proportion. This sickness continued, with 
 some abatements, for several years, and left an ill disposition 
 in the climate ever afterwards. War raged' at the same time 
 with this distemper ; and the Barbadians, who raised a good 
 number of men, lost many of them in fruitless expeditions 
 against the French islands. The land' too began not to yield 
 quite so kindly as it formerly had done, and in some places 
 they were obliged to manure it. All these causes contributed 
 to reduce the numbers and opulence of this celebrated island. 
 But it is only in comparison of itself, that it may be considered 
 in any other than the most flourishing condition even at this 
 day ; for even now it contains twenty-five thousand Whites, 
 very near eighty thousand Negroes, and it ships above twenty- 
 five thousand hogsheads of sugar, to the value of three hundred 
 thousand pounds, besides rum, molasses, cotton, ginger, and 
 aloes ; an immense peopling and produce for a country not 
 containing more than one hundred thousand acres of land. By 
 the rise of sugars, the returns of this island are little less than 
 they were in its most flourishing times. 
 
 This island can raise near five thousand men of its own 
 militia, and it has generally a regiment of regular troops, 
 though not very complete. It is fortified by nature all along 
 
 the 
 
312 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the windward shore by the rocks and shoals, so as to be near 
 two-thirds utterly inaccessible. On the leeward side it has 
 good harbours ; but the whole coast is protected by a line of 
 several miles in length, and several forts to defend it at the 
 most material places. 
 
 They support their own establishment, which is very con~ 
 siderable, with great credit. The governor's place is worth at 
 least five thousand pounds a year, and the rest of their officers 
 have valuable appointments. They provide very handsomely 
 for their clergy, who are of the church of England, which is the 
 religion established here, as it is in the other islands. Here are 
 very few dissenters. There is in general an appearance of 
 something more of order and decency, and of a settled people, 
 than in any other colony in the West-Indies. They have here 
 a college, founded and well endowed by the virtue and libe 
 rality of that -great man colonel Christopher Codrington, who 
 \vas a native of this island, and who for a great number of 
 amiable and useful qualities both in publick and private life, 
 for his courage, and the zeal for the good of his country, his 
 humanity, his knowledge and love of literature, was far the 
 richest production and most shining ornament this island ever 
 had. 
 
 This college does not so fully answer the intentions of the 
 excellent founder, as it might do. If the fund was applied to 
 the education of a number of catechists for the instruction of 
 the negroes, some of them of their own colour, it wouJd be a 
 vast publick advantage, besides the charity, or perhaps the in 
 dispensable duty of some such work. 
 
 This college is in Bridge-town, the capita] of this island, 
 which, before the late fire, contained about twelve hundred 
 houses, very handsomely built and inhabited by a numerous 
 and wealthy people. The country of Barbadoes has a most 
 
 beautiful 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 313 
 
 beautiful appearance, swelling here and there into gentle hills ; 
 shining- by the cultivation of every part, by the verdure of the 
 sugar canes, the bloom and fragrance of the number of orange, 
 lemon, lime, and citron trees, the guavas, the papas, aloes, and 
 a vast multitude of other elegant and useful plants, that rise 
 intermixed with the houses of the gentlemen which are sown 
 thickly on every part of the island. Even the negro huts, 
 though mean, contribute to the beauty of the country ; for 
 they shade them with plantain trees, which give their villages 
 the appearance of so many beautiful groves. In short, there is* 
 no place in the West-Indies comparable to Barbadoes, in point 
 of numbers of people, cultivation of the soil., and those ele- r 
 gancies and conveniencies which result from both*. 
 
 s s CHAP. 
 
314 
 
 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 C H A P. VI. 
 
 ST. CHRISTOPHER, ANTIGUA, NEVIS, MONTSERRAT ; THEIR PRESENT CON 
 DITION AND FORCE. 
 
 THE island of St. Christopher's is the chief of those which we 
 possess amongst the -Leeward Islands. It was first settled by the 
 JPrench and English in the year 1626, but after various fortunes 
 it was entirely ceded to us by the treaty of Utrecht. This island 
 is about seventy-five miles in compass. The circuit of Antigua 
 is but little inferiour. Nevis and Montserrat are the smallest 
 of the four, not exceeding for either of them about eighteen or 
 twenty miles in circumference. The soil in all these islands is 
 pretty much alike ; light and sandy, but notwithstanding fertile 
 in an high degree. Antigua has no rivulets of fresh water, and 
 but very few springs ; this made it to be deemed uninhabitable 
 for a long time ; but now they save the rains in ponds and cis 
 terns with great care, and they are rarely in great distress for 
 water. In a word, this island, which we formerly thought use 
 less, has got the start of all the Leeward Islands, increasing 
 every day in produce and inhabitants both freemen and slaves. 
 It has one of the best harbours in the West-Indies ; on it stands 
 the principal town called St. John's, which is large and wealthy. 
 The island of St. Christopher's is not so much on the increase. 
 Neither that nor any of the Leeward Islands yields any com- 
 ' modity of consequence but what is derived from the cane, ex 
 cept Montserrat, which exports some indigo, but of a very in 
 feriour kind. 
 
 It 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 315 
 
 It is judged that the island of St. Christopher's contains 
 about seven thousand Whites and twenty thousand Negroes ; 
 fchat Antigua has also about seven thousand of the former 
 colour and thirty thousand -Blacks; and that Nevis and Mont- 
 serrat may have each about five thousand Europeans, who are 
 the masters of ten or twelve thousand African slaves. So that 
 the whole of the Leeward Islands may be reckoned without ex 
 aggeration to maintain about twenty-thousand English, of 
 whom every single man gives bread to several in England, 
 which is effected by the labour of near seventy thousand Ne 
 groes. Of the island of Barbuda I say little, because it has no 
 direct trade with England. It is employed in husbandry, and 
 raising fresh provisions for the use of the neighbouring colonies, 
 It is the property of the Codrington family.' 
 
 These islands are under the management of one governor, 
 who has tlie title of captain general and governor in chief of all 
 the Caribbee islands from Guadaloupe to Porto Rico. His post 
 is worth about three thousand five hunchel pounds a year, 
 Under him each island has its particular deputy governor at a 
 salary of two hundred pounds a year, and its separate, inde 
 pendent legislative of a council, and an assembly of the repre 
 sentatives, 
 
 s 2 CHAP, 
 
316 
 
 ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 CLIMATE OF THE WEST-INDIES. THE RAINS AND WINDS. HURRICANES. 
 
 THEIR PROGNOSTICRS. PRODUCE OF THE WEST-INDIES. SUGAR. THE 
 
 MANNER OF MANUFACTURING IT. PLANTERS IN THE WEST-INDIES. 
 
 THEIR WAV OF LIFE AND MANAGEMENT OF THEIR AFFAIRS. THE 
 
 NEGROES. 
 
 THE climate in all our West-India islands is nearly the same, 
 allowing for those accidental differences which the several situa 
 tions and qualities of the lands themselves produce. As they 
 lie within the tropick, and that the sun goes quite over their 
 heads, passing beyond them to the north, and never retires far 
 ther from any of them than about thirty degrees to the south, 
 they arc continually subjected to the extreme of an heat, 
 which would be intolerable, if the trade wind rising gradually 
 as the sun gathers strength did not blow in upon them from 
 the sea, and refresh the air in such a manner as to enable them 
 to attend their concerns even under the meridian sun. On the 
 other hand, as the night advances, a breeze begins to be per 
 ceived, which blows smartly from the land, as it were from its 
 center, towards the sea, to all points of the compass at once. 
 
 By the same remarkable providence in the disposing of things 
 it is, that when the sun has made a great progress towards 
 the tropick of Cancer and becomes in a manner vertical, he 
 draws after him such a vast body of clouds as shield them from 
 his direct beams ; and dissolving into rain, cool the air and re 
 fresh 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IX AMERICA. 31? 
 
 "fresh the country, thirsty with the long drought, which com 
 monly reigns from the beginning of January, to the latter end 
 of May. 
 
 The rains in the West-Indies are by no means the things 
 they are with us. Our heaviest rains are but dews compa 
 ratively. They are rather floods of water poured from, the 
 clouds with a prodigious impetuosity ; the rivers rise in a mo 
 ment ; new rivers and lakes are formed, and in a short time ail 
 the low country is under water. Hence it is, that the riv 
 which have their source within the tropicks swell and overflow 
 their banks at a certain season ; and so mistaken were the an 
 cients in their idea of the torrid zone, which thev imagined to 
 
 V **J 
 
 be dried and scorched up with a continual and fervent heat, 
 and to be for that reason uninhabitable ; when in reality some 
 of the largest rivers in the world have their course within its 
 limits, and the moisture is one of the greatest inconveniencies 
 of the climate in several places. 
 
 The rains make the only distinction of seasons in the West- 
 Indies ; the trees are green the whole year round ; they have 
 no cold, no frost, no snows, and but rarely some hail ; the 
 storms of hail are however very violent when they happen, and 
 the hailstones very great and heavy. Whether it be owing 
 to this moisture alone, which alone does not seem to be a suffi 
 cient cause, or to a greater quantity of a sulphurous acid, which 
 predominates in the air in this country, metals of all kinds 
 that are subject to the action of such causes rust and canker m 
 a very short time ; and this cause, perhaps as much as the heat 
 itself, contributes to make the climate of the West -Indies un- 
 friendly and unpleasant to an European constitution. 
 
 It is in the rainy season (principally in the month; of August, 
 more rarely in July and September) that they are assaulted by 
 hurricanes; the most terrible calamity to which they are sub 
 ject 
 
313 
 
 ject from the climate ; this destroys at a stroke the labours of 
 many years and prostrates the most exalted hopes of the planter, 
 and often just at the moment when he thinks himself out of 
 the reach of fortune. It is a sudden and violent storm of wind, 
 rain, thunder, and lightening, attended with a furious swelling 
 of the seas and sometimes with an earthquake ; in short, with 
 every circumstance which the elements can assemble that is 
 terrible and destructive. First, they see as the prelude to the 
 ensuing havock whole fields of sugar canes whirled into the air, 
 and scattered over the face of the country. The strongest trees 
 of the forest are torn up by the roots, and driven about like 
 stubble ; their windmills are swept away in a moment ; their 
 works, their fixtures, the ponderous copper boilers, and stills 
 of several hundred weight, are wrenched from the ground, and 
 battered to pieces: their houses are no protection, the roofs 
 are torn off at one blast ; whilst the rain, which in an hour 
 rises five feet, rushes in upon them with an irresistible 
 violence. 
 
 There are signs, which the Indians of these islands taught 
 our planters, by which they can prognosticate the approach of 
 an hurricane. The hurricane comes on either in the quarters, 
 or at the full and change of the moon. If it comes at the full 
 moon, when you are at the change observe these signs. That 
 day you will see the sky very turbulent ; you will observe the sun 
 more red than at other times ; you will perceive a dead calm, 
 and the hills clear of all those clouds and mists which usually 
 hover about them. In the clefts of the earth, and in the wells, 
 you hear a hollow rumbling sound like the rushing of a great 
 wind. At night the stars seem much larger than usual, and 
 surrounded with a sort of burs ; the north-west sky has a black 
 and menacing look ; the sea emits a strong smell, and rises into 
 vast waves, oftet* without any wind ; the wind itself now for 
 sakes 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 319 
 
 sakes its usual steady easterly stream, and shifts about to the 
 west ; from whence it sometimes blows with intermissions 
 violently and irregularly for about two hours at a time. You 
 iiave the same signs at the full of the moon ; the moon herself 
 is surrounded with a great bur, and sometimes the sun has the 
 same appearance. The^e prognosticks were taught by the 
 Indians ; and in general one may observe, that ignorant coun 
 try people and barbarous nations are better observers of times 
 and seasons, and draw better rules from them, than more civi 
 lized and reasoning people ; for they rely more uf>on experience 
 than theories, they are more careful of traditionary observa 
 tions, and living more in the open air at all times, and not so 
 occupied but they have leisure to observe evqry change, though 
 minute, in that element, they come to have great treasures of 
 useful matter, though, as it might be expected, mixed with 
 many superstitious and idle notions as to the causes. These 
 make their observations to be rejected as chimerical in the 
 gross by many literati, who are not near so nice and circum 
 spect as they ought to be in distinguishing what this sort of 
 people may be very competent judges of, and what not. 
 
 The grand staple commodity of the West-Indies is sugar ; 
 this commodity was not at all known to the Greeks and Ro 
 mans, though it was made in China in very early times, from 
 whence we had the first knowledge of it ; but the Portuguese 
 were the first who cultivated it in America, and brought it into 
 request as one of the materials of a very universal luxury in 
 Europe. It is not settled whether the cane from which this 
 substance is extracted be a native of America, or brought thi 
 ther by the Portuguese from India and the coast of Africa ; 
 but, however the matter may be, in the beginning they made 
 the most as they still do the best sugars, which come to market 
 in this part of the world. The sugar cane grows to the .height 
 
 of 
 
320 
 
 of between six and eight feet, full of joints, about four or five 
 inches asunder ; the colour of the body of the cane is yellowish, 
 and the top, where it shoots into leaves, of a vivid green ; the 
 coat is pretty hard, and within contains a spongy substance 
 full of a juice, the most lively, elegant, and least cloying sweet 
 in nature ; and which, sucked raw, has proved extremely nu 
 tritive and wholesome. 
 
 " They are cultivated in this manner. In the month of Au 
 gust, that is, in the rainy part of the year, after the ground is 
 cleared and well hoed, they lay a piece of six or seven joints of 
 the cane, flat in a channel made for it, above half a foot deep ; 
 this they cover with the earth, and so plant the whole field in 
 lines regularly disposed and at proper distances. In a short 
 time a young cane shoots out from every joint of the stock 
 which was interred ; and grows in twelve days to be a pretty 
 tall and vigorous plant ; but it is not until after sixteen 
 months, or thereabouts, that the canes are fit to answer the 
 purposes of the planter, though they remain a few months 
 after without any considerable prejudice to him. The longer 
 they remain in the ground after they come to maturity, the 
 less juice they afford; but this is somewhat compensated by 
 the superiour richness of the juice. That no time may be lostj 
 they generally divide their cane-grounds into three parts. Ono 
 is of standing canes r and to be cut that season ; the second is 
 of new-planted canes ; ami the third is fallow, ready to receive 
 a fresh supply. In some places they make second and third 
 cuttings from the same root. The tops of the canes, and the 
 kaves which grow uport the joints, make very good provender 
 for their cattle, and the refuse of the cane after grinding serves> 
 for fire ; so that no part of this excellent plant is without its use. 
 The canes are cut with a billet, and carried in bundles to the 
 mill, which is now generally a windmill ; it turns three great 
 
 cylinders 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 321. 
 
 cylinders or rollers plated with iron set perpendicularly and cogged 
 so as to be all moved by the middle roller. Between these the 
 canes are bruised to pieces, and the juice runs through an hole 
 into a vat which is placed under the rollers to receive it ; from 
 hence it is carried through a pipe into a great reservoir, in which 
 however, for fear of turning sour, it is not suffered to rest long; 
 but is conveyed out of that by other pipes into the boiling 
 house, where it is received by a large cauldron : here it remains, 
 until the scum, which constantly arises during the boiling, is 
 all taken off ; from this, it is passed successively into five or six 
 more boilers, gradually diminishing in their size, and treated 
 in the same manner. In the last of these it becomes of a very 
 thick clammy consistence ; but mere boiling is incapable of 
 carrying it further : to advance the operation, they pour in a 
 small quantity of lime-water ; the immediate effect of this alien 
 mixture is, to raise up the liquor in a very vehement fermen 
 tation ; but, to prevent it from running over, a bit of butter 
 no larger than a nut is thrown in, upon which the fury of the 
 fermentation immediately subsides ; a vessel of two or three 
 hundred gallons requires no greater force to quiet it. It is now 
 taken out and placed in a cooler, where it dries, granulates, and 
 becomes fit to be put into the pots, which is the last part of the 
 operation. 
 
 The pots are conical, or of a sugar-loaf fashion ; open at the 
 point, which must be considered as their bottom ; here a 
 strainer is put across. In these pots the sugar purges itself of 
 its remaining impurity ; the molasses or treacly part disentan 
 gles itself from the rest ; precipitates and runs out of the aper 
 ture at the bottom ; it is now in the condition called inusca- 
 vado sugar, of a yellowish brown colour, and thus it is gene 
 rally put into the hogshead and shipped off. 
 
 But when they have a mind to refine it yet further, and leave 
 
 T T no 
 
322 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 i 
 
 no remains at all of the molasses, they cover the pots I have just. 
 mentioned with a sort of white clay, like that used for tobacco, 
 pipes, diluted with water ; this penetrates the sugar, unites, 
 with the molasses, and with them runs off, leaving the sugar of 
 a whitish colour, but whitest at top. This is called clayed 
 sugar ; the operation is sometimes repeated once or twice 
 more, and the sugar every time diminishing in quantity gains 
 considerably in value ; but still is called clayed sugar. Fur 
 ther than this they do not go in the plantations, because an 
 heavy duty of sixteen shillings per hundred weight is laid upon 
 all sugars refined there : it is therefore not to my purpose to 
 carry the account any further. 
 
 Of the molasses rum is made, in a manner that needs no de^ 
 scription, since it differs in nothing from the manner of distil 
 ling any other spirit. From the scummings of the sugar, a 
 meaner spirit is procured. Rum finds its market in North 
 America (where it is consumed by the English inhabitants, or 
 employed in the Indian trade, or distributed from thence to, 
 the fishery of Newfoundland, and the African commerce) ; be 
 sides what comes to England and Ireland. However, a very 
 great quantity of molasses is taken off raw and carried to New 
 England to be distilled there. 
 
 They compute that, when things are well managed^ the rum. 
 and molasses pay the charges of the plantation, and the sugars 
 are clear gain. However, by the particulars we have seen, and 
 by others which we may easily imagine, the expences of a 
 plantation in the West-Indies are very great, and the profits at 
 the first view precarious ; for the chargeable articles of the 
 windmill, the boiling, cooling, and distilling houses, and the 
 buying and subsisting a suitable number of slaves and cattle, 
 will not suffer any man to begin a sugar plantation of any con 
 sequence, not to mention the purchase of the land, which is 
 
 very 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 323 
 
 Very high, under a capital of at least five thousand pounds. 
 Neither is the life of a planter, a life of idleness and luxury ; at 
 all times he must keep a watchful eye upon his overseers, and 
 even oversee himself occasionally. But at the boiling season, 
 if he is properly attentive to his affairs, no way of life can be 
 more laborious, and more dangerous to the health ; from a 
 constant attendance day and night in the extreme united heats 
 of the climate and so many fierce furnaces ; add to this the 
 losses by hurricanes, earthquakes, and bad seasons ; and then 
 consider, when the sugars are in the cask, that he quits the 
 hazard of a planter to engage in the hazards of a merchant, and 
 ships his produce at his own risk. The sum of all might 
 make one believe, that it could never answer to engage in 
 this business; but, notwithstanding all this, -there are no parts 
 of the world, in which great estates are made in so short a time 
 as in the West-Indies. The produce of a few good seasons will 
 provide against the ill effects of-the worst ; as the planter is sure 
 of a speedy and profitable market for his produce, which has a 
 readier sale than perhaps any other commodity in the world. 
 
 Large plantations are generally under the care of a manager 
 or chief overseer, who has commonly a salary of a hundred and 
 fifty pounds a year, with overseers under him in proportion to 
 the greatness of the plantation, one to about thirty negroes, and 
 at the rate of about forty pounds. Such plantations have a 
 surgeon at a fixed salary employed to take care of the negroes 
 which belong to it. But the course which is least troublesome 
 to the owner of the estate is, to let the land, with all the works 
 and stock of the cattle and slaves, to a tenant, who gives secu 
 rity for the payment of the rent and the keeping up repairs and 
 the stock. The estate is generally estimated to such a tenant at 
 half the neat produce of the best years. Such tenants, if indus 
 trious and frugal men, soon make good estates for themselves. 
 
 The 
 
524 
 
 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 The negroes in the plantations are subsisted at a very easy 
 rate. This is generally by allotting to each family of them ar 
 small portion of land, and allowing them two dayj> in the week, 
 Saturday and Sunday, to cultivate it ; some are subsisted in 
 this manner ; but others find their negroes themselves with a 
 certain portion of Guinea or Indian conn and to some a salt 
 herring, or a small quantity of bacon or sait pork a day. All 
 the rest of the charge consists in a cap, a shirt, a pair of 
 breeches, stockings and shoes ; the whole not exceeding, forty 
 shillings a year. 
 
 To particularise the commodities proper for the West-India 
 market, would be to enumerate all the necessaries, convenien- 
 cies, and luxuries of life ; for they have nothing of their own 
 but the commodities I have already mentioned. Traders there 
 make a very large profit upon all they sell ; and all kind of 
 handicraftsmen, especially carpenters, bricklayers, and brasiei'.s, 
 get very great encouragement. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 325 
 
 C II A P. VIII. 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON THE SETTLEMENT OF THE \VEST-INDIES. ADVANTAGES 
 
 THERE FOR TEMPERS PREJUDICIAL AT HOME. BAD TEMPERS NOT AL 
 WAYS NOXIOUS IN EVERY SENSE. 
 
 THE disposition to industry lias a variety of characters, and is 
 by no means constantly of the same colour. Some acquiesce 
 in a moderate labour through the whole of their lives, attended 
 with no risk either to their persons or their gains ; such sort of 
 people, who form the best citizens in general, are fit to stay at 
 home. Others, full as remote from an indolent disposition, are 
 of quite a different character. These are fiery, restless tempers, 
 willing to undertake the severest labour, provided it promises 
 but a short continuance, who love risk and hazard, whose 
 schemes are always vast, and who put no medium between 
 being great and being undone. Characters of this sort, espe 
 cially when they happen in low and middling life, are often 
 dangerous members in a regular and settled community. But 
 the West-Indies open a fair and ample field to encourage per 
 sons of such a disposition ; and it may be reckoned one very 
 great benefit of our possessions in that part of the world, that, 
 besides the vast quantities of our fabricks which they consume, 
 our seamen that they employ, and our revenues that they sup 
 port, they are a vent to carry off such spirits, whom they keep 
 occupied greatly to the publick benefit. Our dominions are so 
 circumstanced, and afford such a variety, that all dispositions 
 
 to 
 
326 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 to business, of what kind soever, may have exercise without 
 pressing upon one another. It is besides a great happiness, 
 that unfortunate men, whom unavoidable accidents, the frowns 
 of the world, or the cruelty of creditors, would have rendered 
 miserable to themselves, and useless to the publick, may find a 
 sort of asylum, where at last they often succeed so well, as to 
 have reason to bless those incidents, which drove them from 
 their country poor, deserted, and despised, to return them to it 
 in opulence and credit. Of such a change every one can pro 
 duce many instances of his own knowledge ; as whoever looks 
 about him cannot fail to see a great number of persons, who, 
 having taken wrong steps at the beginning of their lives, have 
 established such a character of weakness and imprudence, as 
 prevents them ever after from being trusted or employed, 
 wherever they are at all known, although their characters 
 should be altogether changed and the passions quite subsided 
 which gave occasion to their errours. Such persons become, 
 first, indigent, then desperate, and at last, abandoned ; but 
 when they have an opportunity of going where this prejudice 
 does not operate against them, they set up as new men. With 
 the advantage of an experience acquired by their mistakes, 
 they are free from the ill reputation which attended them ; and 
 they prove of vast service to their country, to which they could 
 be of no advantage whilst they remained in it. There are 
 persons too, far more blameable than either of the former sorts, 
 who, having erred without proper caution in points of morality, 
 are deservedly regarded with distrust and abhorrence, though 
 .they .may be at bottom far from being utterly abandoned ; and 
 are still, excepting their character, the stuff proper for making 
 very good men of the world. 
 
 These are the several sorts of people, who, with very few ex 
 ceptions, have settled the West-Indies, and North America in a 
 
 good 
 

 EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IX AMERICA. 327 
 
 good measure. And thus have we drawn from the rashness of 
 hot and visionary men ; the imprudence of youth ; thejcornip- 
 tion of bad morals ; and even from the wretchedness and misery 
 of persons destitute and undone ; the great source of our wealth, 
 our strength, and our power. And, though this was neither 
 the effect of our wisdom', nor the consequence of our foresight ; 
 yet, having happened, it may tend to give us wisdom and a 
 better foresight ; for it will undoubtedly be a standing monitor 
 to us, how much we ought to cherish the colonies we have 
 already established, by every encouragement in our power, and 
 by every reasonable indulgence ; and it will be an additional 
 spur to make us active in the acquisition of new ones : since 
 experience has taught us, that, as there is no soil or climate 
 which will not shew itself grateful to culture, so that there is no 
 disposition, no character in mankind, which may not be turned 
 with dexterous management to the publick advantage. Those 
 rulers, who make complaints of the temper of their people in 
 almost any respect, ought rather to lament their own want of 
 genius, which blinds them to the use of an instrument pur- 
 posely put into their hands by Providence, for effecting perhaps 
 the greatest things. There are humours in the bod}", which, 
 contained, may be noxious to it, yet which, sent abroad, are 
 the proper materials for generating new bodies. Providence, 
 and a great minister who should imitate Providence, often gain 
 their ends by means that seem most contrary to them; for 
 earthquakes, and hurricanes, and floods, are as necessary to the 
 well-being of things, as calm and sunshine ; life and beauty are 
 drawn from death and corruption ; and the most efficacious me 
 dicines are often found united with the most deadly poisons, 
 This, as it is well known, is the order of nature, and perhaps it 
 might not unwisely be considered as an example for government. 
 
323 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 c 11 A P. ix. 
 
 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON TAXING THE COLONIES. ON AN EXPENSIVE ESTABLISH 
 MENT THERE. OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 
 
 THOUGH we have drawn such great advantages from our pos 
 sessions in the West-Indies, and are, even in our present way 
 of acting, likely to continue to draw still more ; and though 
 we have not wholly neglected the culture of that useful pro 
 vince ; yet some will think there are some things yet left un 
 done, some things in which our neighbours have set us a laud 
 able example, and some others which the inconveniencies we 
 have felt from the want of them demonstrate to be necessary to 
 ourselves. But it is not my purpose to handle this subject in 
 its full extent, since it is the wisdom and power of the legisla 
 ture, and not the authorized speculations of a private man, 
 which can effect any thing useful in this way. A West-Indian, 
 who is naturally warm in his temper, and not too servilely obe 
 dient to the rules of the bienseance, might find some faults in 
 our proceedings here, and would perhaps reason in a manner 
 not unlike the following. 
 
 " One would think, from some instances, that, at the dis 
 tance we are placed from the seat of authority, we were too 
 remote to enjoy its protection, but not to feel its weight. In 
 numerable are the grievances which have oppressed us from our 
 infancy, and which contribute to bring on us a premature old 
 age. Not one of the least evils under which our plantations in 
 the West-Indies groan, is the support of an expensive civil 
 
 establish- 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 3?9 
 
 establishment, suited rather to an established and independent 
 country in the plenitude of wealth and power, than to newly 
 settled colonies, to which nobody thinks himself to belong as 
 to his country, and which struggle with a total want of almost 
 all the necessaries and conveniencies of life. The building and 
 maintaining of the publick works and fortifications, is a weight 
 to which we are totally unequal, and the laying of which upon 
 our shoulders is directly contrary to the very purpose for which 
 you cultivate the colonies; for, though the produce of these 
 colonies is in general to be considered as a luxury, yet it is of 
 the greatest value to you ; first, as it supplies you with things, 
 which, if not from us, you must certainly take from foreign na 
 tions. Even in this view the colonies are extremely useful. 
 But there is another, and a much more advantageous light in 
 which <you may view them ; you may consider them as they 
 supply you with a commodity which you export to other 
 countries, and which helps to bring the balance of trade in your 
 favour. 
 
 The whole secret of managing a foreign market is contained 
 
 in two words, to have the commodity of a good kind, and to 
 
 sell it cheap ; and the whole domestick policy of trade consists 
 
 in contriving to answer these two ends, and principally the latter. 
 
 Now, by what magick can we expect to sell as cheap as the 
 
 French at any foreign market, when our planters pay four and 
 
 a half per cent, duty upon all the sugars, which they ship off in 
 
 America, and this after having had the same commodity in 
 
 effect heavily taxed before by the poll on the Negroes which 
 
 work it, and by other impositions, which the planters endure 
 
 according to the exigencies of the government ; when the French 
 
 planter pays a very insignificant poll-tax at worst, and not pne 
 
 pen cent, duty upon all the sugars he exports ; when he buys 
 
 IMS Negroes at an easier rate than we can do ; when he is more 
 
 u u favoured 
 
330 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 iavoured upon every occasion, and is besides of a temper more 
 industrious and frugal, than is found in our people ? Besides 
 this, upon sudden emergencies, we run very much in debt ; the 
 island of Barbadoes at one stroke expended thirty thousand 
 pound? upon a fortification, to say nothing of what this and 
 what other islands have done in the same way and upon similar 
 occasions. We are in reality only your factors ; you in Eng 
 land ought to consider yourselves as the merchants, who should 
 be at the whole expence, and should willingly abide by whatso 
 ever loss accrues ; since the profits are all your own, and since 
 iu the end, by the course of trade, the loss too, let you take 
 what shifting measures you please to avoid it, and to cheat 
 yourselves with appearances. It is reasonable that you should 
 lay what duty you please upon what is consumed amongst your 
 selves, because you govern that market as you please ; l^t what 
 you charge, or suffer to be charged, on the islands, is only the 
 price of your own goods enhanced so much at the foreign market; 
 there you have no exclusive privilege, and there you are sure to 
 suffer. If that duty which is laid in England upon the produce 
 of our islands > or even half of it, were expended, as in reason 
 it ought, for the support of our establishment, w r e might well 
 be freed from the heavy burdens which we bear, and conse^ 
 quently might be somewhat upon a par with our neighbours. 
 In our present condition, we not only pay very ample salaries 
 to our governors, but they are besides suffered to make the 
 most they can, by management, of our weakness, to cheat 
 us into voluntary gratuities, which we have given often with 
 out a due consideration of our circumstances. This custom 
 prompts our governors to use a thousand arts, equally unbe 
 coming their character and prejudicial to the provinces they 
 govern. It is this which induces them to foment those divi 
 sions which tear us to pieces ; and which prevent us from at 
 tending 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 331 
 
 tending seriously and entirely to what will best advance the 
 prosperity of our settlement. 
 
 It were a tedious and disagreeable task, to run through all 
 the mischiefs, of which that one errour of sending a governor to 
 make the most he can of us is the fruitful source. The governor, 
 
 X 
 
 I allow, ought to have every where a certain, reasonable, and 
 even a genteel salary ; but then, when he has this, he ought 
 not to be in a condition to hope for any thing further, and ought 
 to consider nothing but how he may best perform the duty of 
 his office. 
 
 But I hear it objected, that we are already extremely charge 
 able to England, who sends her troops to protect us, and her 
 fleets to cover our trade, at a very great expence, for which we 
 ought to be contented, and even thankful ; ami that it is unrea 
 sonable to expect she should bear every part of our burden, 
 loaded as she is with the weight of a vast national debt, and a 
 most expensive establishment of her own. But to this my an 
 swer is short, plain, and practical. The French do all this. 
 They send armies and fleets to protect their colonies as well as 
 you ; but they support the establishment in their own planta 
 tions notwithstanding ; and they are far from supposing this an 
 insupportable burden. They know that a little judicious ex- 
 pence is often the best economy in the world, and that in this 
 case, it is only sparing their own subjects in the West-Indies, 
 and levying the money laid out for their use upon the foreign 
 consumer. What they do, I see no impossibility of our doing. 
 They learned many of their maxims of trade, as well as many of 
 the fabricks which supply it, from us ; I wish we would learn 
 from them in our turn. We have, indeed, some years ago eased 
 the trade, by permitting ships from, the islands to carry our 
 produce out directly to foreign markets ; but still it is so 
 
 u u 2 clogged, 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 clogged, that we do not feel all the benefit which we might 
 expect from a more general and better regulated liberty. 
 
 Not to cany our enquiries further, see what you have gained 
 by prohibiting us to land our sugars directly in Ireland, before- 
 they are first entered in an English port. What was the conse 
 quence? why your sugars grew dear by this loading and un 
 loading, and passing backward and forward. The Portuguese 
 offered sugars of at least equal goodness, and at a much more 
 moderate price. The merchants in Ireland would not refuse so 
 good an offer out of a compliment to you, who in this instance 
 paid them no compliment at all ; and you cannot, for very good 
 reasons, dispute with the Portuguese about it. If this has hap 
 pened at home, the consequence must be infinitely wors.e abroad. 
 But it is said that our failures abroad are only owing to this ; 
 that we have not ground enough conveniently situated to pro 
 duce more sugars than satisfies the home demand. But this is- 
 far enough from the case. There is in several of the islands,, 
 but there is in Jamaica in particular, a great quantity of good 
 land, and well enough situated too, if means were taken to bring 
 it into culture, and a choice of markets to animate the planter 
 in the cultivation ; who certainly deserves every sort of encou 
 ragement, as he asks for nothing but to be put into such a con 
 dition, as may enable him to be of more service to his mother 
 country. 
 
 CHAP 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN A.MEIUCA. 333 
 
 e H A P. x. 
 
 S>ffrTE OF THE NEGROES IN THE WEST-INDIES. DANGER FROM THEM. ME 
 THODS PROPOSED FOR REMEDYING THESE ABUSES. THE NECESSITY OF 
 INCREASING THE WHITES. USE OK TH-1S REGULATION IN TRADE, 
 
 IN the foregoing manner the "West-Indian would state some 
 part of what he conceives to be his grievances ; and those I be 
 lieve lie would be earnest enough to hare remedied. But there 
 are other regulations, which a. person not concerned in their 
 affairs might think very proper too, but which the West-Indian 
 would enter into with a much greater degree of phlegm. 
 
 There are now allowed to be in our West-Indies, at least, 
 two hundred and thirty thousand negro slaves ; and it is allowed 
 too that, upon the highest calculation, the whites there, in all, 
 do not amount to ninety thousand souls. This disproportion 
 shews so clearly at the first glance how much the colonies are 
 endangered, both from within and without ; how much exposed 
 to the assaults of a foreign enemy, and to the insurrection of 
 their own slaves (which latter circumstance in all our islands 
 keeps the people in perpetual apprehensions), that it may be a 
 just cause of surprise, that no measures whatsoever are taken to 
 correct this dangerous irregularity.. 
 
 This disproportion between the freemen and negroes grows 
 more visible every day. That enterprising spirit, which the 
 novelty of the object and various concurrent causes had pro 
 duced in the last century, has decayed very much. We have 
 as many men. indigent a-nd unemployed at home as we had then ; 
 
 but 
 
534 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 but they have not the same spirit and activity they had at that 
 time. The disposition of the people in the West-Indies con 
 curs with that of our people at home, to increase and perpetuate 
 the evil of which I complain ; for they choose to do every thing 
 by negroes, which can possibly be done by them ; and though 
 they have laws and ordinances to oblige them to keep a certain 
 number of white servants in some proportion to their blacks, 
 in most places these laws are but a dead letter. They find it 
 more easy to pay the penalty, when seldom it is exacted, than 
 to comply with the law. Their avarice in these particulars 
 makes them blind to the hazards to which they expose the sum 
 total of their affairs. This disposition in the planters is now 
 almost grown inveterate, and to such a degree, that the remedy 
 will probably never be administered by themselves ; and if this 
 disposition continues, in a little time (which is indeed nearly 
 the case already), all the English in our colonies there will con 
 sist of little more than a few planters and merchants ; and the 
 rest will be a despicable, though a dangerous, because a nu 
 merous and disaffected, herd of African slaves. 
 
 Indubitably the security, as well as the solid wealth of every 
 nation, consists principally in the number of low and middling 
 men of a free condition, and that beautiful gradation from the 
 highest to the lowest, where the transitions all the way are 
 almost imperceptible. To produce this ought to be the aim and 
 mark of every well-regulated commonwealth, and none has ever 
 flourished upn other principles. But when we consider the co 
 lony out of that independent light, and as it is related to Great 
 Britain, it is clear that this neglect is of great detriment to the 
 mother countiy ; because it is certain, that the consumption 
 of our commodities there would be in a great measure in pro 
 portion to the number of white men ; and there is nobody at 
 all acquainted with the plantations, who will not readily allow, 
 
 that, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 335 
 
 that, when I say one white man takes off as much of our manu 
 factures as three negroes, I estimate his value to us at a very 
 low rate. 
 
 But the necessity of having there a proper number of whites is 
 not only strongly enforced by the consideration of the great gain 
 which would from thence accrue to us, but from the vast savings 
 which such an arrangement would produce. The militia of the 
 West- Indies is exceedingly well trained, so as to be in discipline 
 not very much inferiour, but in courage and spirit beyond, most 
 regular troops ; and they really want nothing but sufficient 
 numbers to be able fully to defend themselves, and occasionally 
 to annoy the enemy ; for both which purposes they are infini 
 tely more fit, by being habituated to the climate, than raw 
 troops, which in this part of the world can never meet the enemy 
 in the field with much more than half their complement. A 
 less number of troops would do there in all times, if this point 
 was well studied ; and I may venture to say, that the trans 
 porting and comfortably providing for a proper number of men 
 effectually to secure our colonies, and even to make any at 
 tempt upon them desperate, would not have cost the govern 
 ment one third part of the money, which for these twenty years 
 past has been expended in the transporting and maintaining of 
 troops there,, who die and waste away without any benefit to 
 themselves or their country ; whereas these settlers, who would 
 so effectually intimidate a foreign enemy, and take away all 
 hope of liberty from the negroes, would all the while be enrich 
 ing their mother country, and paying a large interest for the 
 sums she expended in their establishment. 
 
 I am conscious that many objections will be made against 
 the very proposal, and that many more would be started against 
 any effectual scheme for increasing the number of white servants 
 iii the West-Indies. They are represented, as of very little use, 
 
 disorderly, 
 
336 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 .disorderly, idle, drunken, and fitter to -pervert the negroes, 
 -.than .to be any assistance to them in their business. This I 
 believe to be in general true ; but this is no sort of objection to 
 .having them ; though it is an excellent argument for putting 
 them, their masters, and the whole colony, under a better re- 
 .gulation. If we labour under great inconvenieneies from the 
 want of a .police at home, this want is infinitely more visible in 
 the West-Indies, where, for the most part, they all live with 
 out the least sense of religion, in a state of vice and debauchery, 
 which is really deplorable to consider them as men and chris- 
 tians, and of a very bad aspect in a political light. If there 
 fore it should be thought convenient by the wisdom of our go- 
 vvernment, at any time to enter into a scheme for peopling thes'e 
 countries fully and properly, it will be equally convenient at 
 the same time to take such strict measures as may preserve 
 them from vice and idleness ; a thing far enough from being 
 impracticable. Whenever such regulations shall take place, 
 they will in a good measure answer another end too, the pre 
 serving the health and lives of the people ; a point, which in 
 all places every wise government w r ill have very much at heart ; 
 but which is, above all, necessary in a colony, where the people 
 are an inestimable treasure, and where the climate itself is suffi 
 ciently fatal. 
 
 These observations principally regard Jamaica, the largest 
 and best of our islands, where there are prodigious tracts of un 
 cultivated land. As the rivers there are not navigable, and as 
 sugar is a bulky commodity which cannot afford to pay for a 
 very long land carriage, only the coasts> or the land very near 
 the coasts, can be turned to that commodity. But if poor 
 people were sufficiently encouraged to settle in the inland parts, 
 necessity would oblige them to raise cotton, cacao, coifee, ginger, 
 aloes, allspice, the dyeing woods, and other things, which require 
 
 no 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 337 
 
 no vast labour, are not so burdensome in carriage, and which 
 have all a sufficient demand at home to encourage people who 
 do not look to great and sudden fortunes. And as we bring all 
 these, especially the cotton, \vhich is of great use in our manu 
 factures, from abroad, we might encourage the raising more of 
 it by some moderate premium. The same necessity too would 
 oblige them to try experiments on cochineal, and various other 
 things which we do not now think of, and which the climate 
 would not refuse. By degrees, and with good management, they 
 would improve in the culture of many of these articles in which 
 they are now defective ; the careful would grow tolerably rich ; 
 and considerable woiks of many valuable commodities, as cacao, 
 cochineal, and even indigo, may be attempted with small ca 
 pitals. Excepting the labour, I do not know that any of these 
 require above two or three hundred pounds to begin with. So 
 that, whilst the great stock and the lands convenient to navi 
 gation are employed in sugars, the small capitals and the inland 
 might be employed in the less expensive, though not less use 
 ful, articles I have mentioned ; every part would flourish, and 
 agriculture would have its share with the other improvements ; 
 so that the great number might be subsisted at less expence 
 than the few are now maintained. All this, I am confident, 
 could be effected for twenty thousand pounds, or less, properly 
 laid out ; and the island by this means be rendered in a few 
 years three times more beneficial to us, than it is at present. 
 By the Heglect of some encouragement of this kind, the great 
 stocks, and the running into a staple which required them, have 
 by degrees devoured the island. It is the nature of vast stocks 
 to create a sort of monopoly ; and it is the nature of monopoly 
 ro aim at great profits from a comparatively little produce ; but 
 (Jiii'use business, and by bringing it within the compass of se- 
 \tnir, you will make them sit down each with a Mna'i proil', 
 
 X X 
 
338 
 
 for all cannot hope a fortune, but the joint produce of all will 
 be very considerable. Indigo was once very greatly produced 
 in Jamaica, and it enriched the island to so great a degree, that 
 in the parish of Vere, where this drug was cultivated, they are 
 said to have had no less than three hundred gentlemen's coaches ; 
 a number I do not imagine even the whole island exceeds at this 
 day ; and there is great reason to believe, that there were many 
 more persons of property in Jamaica formerly than there are 
 now, though perhaps they had not those vast fortunes, which 
 dazzle us in such a manner at present. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 MISERY OF THE NEGROES. GREAT WASTE OP THEM. METHODS OP PRE 
 
 VENTING IT. INSTRUCTION OF NEGROES IN RELIGION. 
 
 SINCE I have indulged myself so long in a speculation, which 
 appears to me very material to the welfare of these colonies, I 
 shall venture to say something further concerning another part 
 of the inhabitants, though it may perhaps meet no warm re 
 ception from those who are the most nearly concerned. 
 
 The negroes in our colonies endure a slavery more complete, 
 and attended with far worse circumstances, than what any peo 
 ple in their condition suffer in any other part of the world, or 
 have suffered in any other period of time. Proofs of this are not 
 wanting. The prodigious waste which we experience in this 
 unhappy part of our species, is a full and melancholy evidence 
 of this truth. The island of Barbadoes (the negroes upon which 
 do not amount to eighty thousand) notwithstanding all the means 
 which they use to increase them by propagation, notwithstand 
 ing that the climate is in every respect, except that of being 
 more wholesome, exactly resembling the climate from whence 
 they come ; notwithstanding all this, Barbadoes lies under a 
 necessity of an annual recruit of five thousand~slaves to keep up 
 the stock at the number I have mentioned. This prodigious 
 failure, which is at least in the same proportion in all our islands, 
 shews demonstratively that some uncommon and insupportable 
 hardship lies upon the negroes which wears them down in such 
 a surprising manner; and this, I imagine, is principally the 
 
 x x 2 excessive 
 
310 AN ACCOt^T OF THE 
 
 excessive labour which they undergo. For previously, I sup 
 pose, that none of the inhabitants of the countries between the 
 tropicks are capable, even in their own climates, of near so much 
 labour, without great prejudice to them, as our people are in 
 ours. But in our plantations the blacks work severely for five 
 days, without any relaxation or intermission, for the benefit of 
 the master, and the other two days they are obliged to labour 
 for their own subsistence during the rest of the week ; and this I 
 imagine, with the other circumstances of great severity which 
 depress their spirits, naturally cuts off great numbers, as well as 
 disqualifies those who remain from supplying this waste by na 
 tural propagation. 
 
 The planter will say, that, if he is to allow his negroes more 
 recreation and to indulge them in more hours of absence from 
 
 c? 
 
 their work, he can never reimburse himself for the charge he has 
 been at in the purchase of the slave, nor make the profits which 
 induced him to go to thatexpence. But this, though it appears 
 plausible enough at first, because the slaves are very dear, and be 
 cause they do not yield above ten or twelve pounds a head annually 
 clear profit by their labour, is notwithstanding very fallacious. 
 For let it be considered, that, out of their stock of eighty thou 
 sand in Barbadoes, there die every year five thousand negroes 
 more than are born in that island : in effect, this people is under 
 a necessity of being entirely renewed every sixteen years ; and 
 what must we think of the management of a people, who, far 
 from increasing greatly, as those who have no loss by wars 
 ought to do, must, in so short a space of time as sixteen years, 
 without foreign recruits, be entirely consumed to a man? Let 
 us suppose that these slaves stand the Barbadians in no more 
 than twenty pound a head out of the ship ; whereas, in reality, 
 they cost a great deal more ; this makes one hundred thousand 
 pounds every year, and in sixteen years one million six hundred 
 
 thousand 
 
EU11OPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 341 
 
 thousand -pounds. A sum really astonishing, and amounting to 
 a fourth of the value of every thing they export. 
 
 Now suppose, that, by allowing a more moderate labour and 
 some other indulgences, a great number of these deaths might 
 be prevented (and many I think it is probable would so be pre 
 vented), and that they could keep up within a thousand of" 
 their stock (and why they could not entirely keep it up by 
 means, I cannot possibly guess) they would save in this way 
 eighty thousand pounds every year. But from thence we must 
 deduct the time in which these slaves have been unemployed. I 
 suppose that all reasonable indulgences might be given of every 
 sort for the difference of forty thousand pounds, which is the 
 labour of four thousand slaves. This will be far from a small 
 allowance, especially as in this way less time will be lost by sick 
 ness, and the surgeon will have less employment. Then, after 
 all deductions, by behaving like good men, good masters, and 
 good christians, the inhabitants of this one island would save 
 forty thousand pounds a year; which if, instead of being saved, 
 it were lost by such a proceeding, it ought to be considered as 
 a necessary loss, and borne accordingly. 
 
 This matter, though not, I think, before shewn in this same 
 light, seems in itself extremely clear ; but if it were yet clearer, 
 there are several gentlemen of the West-Indies who could not 
 comprehend it ; though a waggoner in England will comprehend 
 very clearly, that, if he works his horse but moderately, and 
 feeds him well, he will draw more profit from him in the end, 
 than if he never gave him an hour's respite in the day from his 
 work, and at night turned him upon the common for his sub 
 sistence. I am far from contending in favour of an effeminate 
 indulgence to these people. I know that they are stubborn and 
 intractable for the most part, and that they must be ruled with 
 the rod of iron. I would have them ruled, but not crushed 
 
 with 
 
342 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 with it. I would have a humanity exercised which is consistent 
 with steadiness. And I think it clear from the whole course of 
 history, that those nations which have behaved with the greatest 
 humanity to their slaves, were always best served, and ran the 
 least hazard from their rebellions. And I am the more con 
 vinced of the necessity of these indulgences, as slaves certainly 
 cannot go through so much work as freemen. The mind goes 
 a great way in every thing ; and when a man knows that his 
 labour is for himself, and that the more he labours, the more 
 he is to acquire, this consciousness carries him through, and 
 supports him beneath fatigues, under which he otherwise would 
 have sunk. 
 
 The prejudice this saving would be to the African trade, 
 is, I know, an objection which to some would appear very 
 plausible. But surely, one cannot hear without horrour of a 
 trade which must depend for its support upon the annual 
 murder of several thousand of innocent men ; and indeed no 
 thing could excuse the slave trade at all, but the necessity we 
 are under of peopling our colonies, and the consideration that 
 the slaves we buy were in the same condition in Africa, either 
 hereditary or taken in war. But, in fact, if the waste of these 
 mon should become less, the price would fall; then, if a due 
 order were taken, the same demand might be kept by extend 
 ing our colonies, which is now produced by the havock made of 
 the people. This is the case on the continent, where, though 
 the slaves increase, there is an annual call for seven thousand 
 at least. 
 
 The principal time I would have reserved for the indulgence 
 
 I propose to be granted to the slaves, is Sunday, or the Lord's 
 
 day ; a day which is profaned in a manner altogether scandalous 
 
 in our colonies. On this day, I would have them regularly at* 
 
 . tend at church ; I would have them, particularly the children, 
 
 carefully 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 343 
 
 carefully (full as carefully as any others) instructed in the prin 
 ciples of religion and virtue, and especially in the humility, 
 submission, and honesty, which become their condition. The 
 rest of the day might be devoted to innocent recreation ; to 
 these days of relaxation, and with the same exercises, should be 
 added some days in the grand festivals of Christmas, Easter, and 
 Whitsuntide, and perhaps, four or five days in the year besides. 
 Such methods would by degrees habituate their masters, not to 
 think them a sort of beasts, and without souls, as some of them 
 do at present, who treat them accordingly ; and the slaves would 
 of course grow more honest, tractable, and less of eye-servant s ; 
 unless the sanctions of religion, the precepts of morality, and all 
 the habits of an early institution, be of no advantage to man 
 kind. Indeed I have before me an * author, if he may be so 
 called, who treats the notion of bringing the negroes to Chris 
 tianity with contempt, and talks of it at the best, as a thing of 
 indifference. But, besides that he appears to me a writer of very 
 little judgment, I cannot conceive with what face any body, 
 who pretends to inform the public, can set up as an advocate 
 for irreligion, barbarism, and gross ignorance. 
 
 * Oldmixou, 
 
 CHAP. 
 
;il4 AN ACCOUN'T OP THE 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 PUOPOSAL FOIl A SORT OF ENFRANCHISEMENT OF MULATTOES AND NEGROLS. 
 -T- DANGER FROM THE MULTITUDE OF HOUSE NEGROES, 
 
 If it said, that the law of England is favourable to liberty ; and 
 so far this observation is just, that, when we had men in a ser 
 vile condition amongst us, the law took advantage even of ne 
 glects of the masters to enfranchise the villain ; and seemed for 
 that purpose even to subtilize a little; because our ancestors 
 judged that freemen were the real support of the kingdom. 
 What if in our colonies we should go so far, as to find out some 
 medium between liberty and absolute slavery, in which we 
 might place all mulattoes after a certain limited servitude to 
 the owner of the mother; and such blacks, who being born, in 
 the islands, their masters for their, good services should think 
 proper in some degree to enfranchise ? These might have land 
 allotted them, or, where that could not be spared, some sort of 
 fixed employment, from either of which they should be obliged 
 to pay a certain moderate rent to the public. Whatever they 
 should acquire above this, to be the reward of their industry. 
 The necessity of paying the rent would keep them from idle 
 ness ; and when men are once set to work through necessity, 
 they will not stop there ; but they will gradually strive for con- 
 veniencies, and some even for superfluities. All this will add 
 to the demand for our goods, and the colony will be strength 
 ened, by the addition of so many ihen, who will have an interest 
 of their own to fight for. 
 
 There is, amongst others, a very bad custom in our colonies 
 of multiplying their household slaves far beyond reason and ne 
 cessity. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IX AMKRICA. 
 
 sity. It is not uncommon for families of no very great for 
 tunes, to hive twenty-five or thirty in the capacity of menial 
 servants only. These are so many hands taken from planting, 
 to be of no manner of use to the publick ; but they are infinitely 
 the most dangerous of the slaves; for being at all times about our 
 people, they come to abate of thai great reverence, which the 
 field negroes have for the whites, without losing any thing of 
 the resentment of their condition, which is common to both. 
 And besides, in any insurrection, they have it more in their 
 power to strike a sudden and fatal blow. Surely a sumptuary 
 law misfht be contrived to restrain the number of the menial 
 
 3 
 
 slaves, as there might and ought to be one strictly enjoying all 
 wh'> keep five servants, to have one white man and one white 
 woman amongst them, without any power of being indulged in 
 a contrary practice ; as it ought to be a rule never to be broken 
 through, to have not only the overseers, but even all the drivers, 
 white men. 
 
 The alarms we are under at the news of any petty armament 
 in, the West-Indies is a demonstrative proof of the weakness of 
 our condition there ; which is, however, so far from rousing us 
 to seek any proper remedy, that there are not wanting of the 
 people of that country, many who would use a thousand pre 
 tences to prevent our taking the only possible means of secur 
 ing their own possessions from danger ; as the majority of men 
 will always be found ready to prefer some present gain to their 
 future and more permanent interests. But the apparent and 
 dangerous progress of the French ought, methinks, to rouse us 
 from our long inaction, and to animate us to enterprise some 
 regulations, in a strain of policy far superior to any thing I have 
 ventured to hint, and the honour of the councils, of the British 
 nation. 
 
 PART 
 
346 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 PART VIL 
 
 BRITISH NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 A GENERAL VIEW OF THE ENGLISH DOMINIONS IN NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 IT is somewhat difficult to ascertain the bounds of the English 
 
 C? 
 
 property in North America, to the northern and western sides ; 
 for to the northward, it should seem, that we might extend our 
 claims quite to the pole itself, nor does any nation seem in 
 clined to dispute the property of this northernmost country 
 with us. France has, by the treaty of Utrecht, ceded to us 
 Hudson's bay, the streights of Hudson, and all the country 
 bordering upon that bay and those streights. If we should 
 choose to take our stand upon the northern extremity of New 
 Britain, or Terra de Labrador, and look towards the south, we 
 have a territory extending in that aspect from the 60 to the 31 
 degree of north latitude, and consequently more than seventeen 
 hundred miles long in a direct line. This country is, all the 
 way, washed by the Altantick Ocean on the east ; to the south it 
 has the small remains of the Spanish Florida ; but to the west 
 ward, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IX AMERICA. 347 
 
 ward, our bounds are disputed by our enemies, and do not seem 
 well agreed upon amongst ourselves. They who govern them 
 selves by the charters to our colonies, run their jurisdiction quite 
 across the continent to the South-Sea; others contract our 
 rights to the hither banks of the Missisippi, and take four of 
 the great lakes into our dominions ; but upon what grounds 
 they have fixed upon that river as a barrier, other than that 
 rivers or mountains seem to be a species of natural boundaries, 
 I cannot determine. Others (upon the same grounds, I sup 
 pose) have contracted us within limits yet narrower ; they make 
 the Apalachian mountains, the lake Ontario, and the river St. 
 Laurence, the most westerly frontier of our rights in America. 
 The French, agreeing in sonic respects with these latter (or the 
 latter rather agreeing with the French, whose maps they have 
 for a long time servilely and shamefully copied), have made the 
 mountains hem us in from their southern commencement to 
 about the 44 degree of north latitude, or thereabouts, where 
 this long chain terminates ; then they draw a line slanting to 
 the north-east, by which they cut off a great part of the pro 
 vinces of New York, New England, and Nova Scotia, and leave 
 our bounds at such a distance from the river St. Laurence, as 
 they judge convenient. 
 
 This distribution, and the military dispositions which the 
 French have made to support it, form the principal cause of 
 the quarrel which now subsists between the two kingdoms ; and 
 it is the issue of this quarrel which must instruct future geo 
 graphers in adjusting the boundaries of the two nations. For 
 the present, I shall only mention what we have settled, without 
 offering any opinion of my own concerning our bounds. Our 
 rights in Xova Scotia have been already ascertained and estab 
 lished in a clear and cogent manner ; but, with regard to our 
 claims in the Ohio and Missisippi, the rashness of some writers 
 
 Y v2 in 
 
318 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 in a manner which is a publick concern seems to me very 
 blameabie. Some of them timidly or ignorantly drawing our 
 territories into a very inconvenient narrowness ; whilst others 
 have madly claimed all North America from sea to sea : some 
 would give us very narrow bounds ; whilst others will hear of 
 no bounds at all. 
 
 Posterity will perhaps think it unaccountable, that, in a mat 
 ter of such importance, we could have been so thoughtless as 
 to leave on our back such a nation as France, without deter 
 mining, in any manner, even sufficiently clear to settle our own 
 demands, what part of the country was our own right, or what 
 we determined to leave to the discretion of our neighbours ; or 
 that, wholly intent upon settling the sea coast, we have never 
 cast an eye into the country, to discover the necessity of mak 
 ing a barrier against them, with a proper force ; which formerly 
 did not need to have been a very great one, nor to be main 
 tained at any great expence. That cheap and timely caution 
 would have saved us thousands of lives and millions of money ; 
 but the hour is now passed. 
 
 In the ensuing discourse, I think it better neither to consider 
 our settlements directly in the order of the time of their estab 
 lishment, nor of their advantage to the mother country, but as 
 they lie near one another, north and south, from New England 
 to Carolina; reserving for the end the new settlements on the 
 northern and southern extremities, those of Nova Scotia and 
 Georgia, and the unsettled countries about Hudson's bay. 
 
 CHAP, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMKKTS IN AMLtU-CA. 349 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 FIRST ATTEMPTS TO SETTLE NOUTH AMERICA. THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF 
 TIIK PURITANS. - THEY ARE PERSECUTED BY LAUD. - SEVERAL FLY INTO 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 WE derive our rights in America from the discovery of Sebas 
 tian Cabot, who first made the northern continent in 1-497- The 
 fact is sufficiently certain to establish a right to our settlements 
 in North America : but the particulars are not known distinctly 
 enough to encourage me to enter into a detail of his voyage. 
 The country was in general called Newfoundland, a name which 
 is now appropriated solely to an island upon its coast. It was 
 a long time before we made any attempt to settle this country ; 
 though in this point we were no more backward than our neigh 
 bours, who probably did not abstain so long out of respect to 
 our prior discovery. Sir Walter Raleigh shewed the way, by 
 planting a colony in the southern part, which he called Vir 
 ginia. However, the spirit of colonization was not yet fully 
 raised. Men lived at ease in their own country, and the new 
 settlement of Virginia, though dressed up in all the showy co 
 lours which eloquence could bestow upon it, gave adventurers 
 but little encouragement. The affairs of North America were 
 in the hands of an exclusive company ; and they prospered ac 
 cordingly. 
 
 Things remained in this condition until the latter end of the 
 
 r> 
 
 reign of James the First. From the commencement of the re 
 formation in England, two parties of protestants subsisted 
 amongst us ; the lirst had chosen gradually and almost imper 
 
 ceptibly 
 
350 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 ceptibly to recede from the church of Rome ; softening the 
 lines rather than erasing the figure, they made but very little 
 alteration in the appearances of things. And the people, see 
 ing the exterior so little altered, hardly perceived the great 
 changes they had made in the doctrines of their religion. The 
 other party, of a warmer temper, had more zeal and less policy. 
 Several of them had fled from the persecution in Queen Mary's 
 days ; and they returned in those of queen Elizabeth with minds 
 sufficiently heated by resentment of their sufferings, and by the 
 perpetual disputations which had exercised them all the while 
 they were abroad. Abroad they learned an aversion to the 
 episcopal order, and to religious ceremonies of every sort ; they 
 were impregnated with an high spirit of liberty, and had a 
 strong tendency to the republican form of government. Queen 
 Elizabeth had enough of the blood of Harry the Eighth, to 
 make her impatient of an opposition to her will, especially in 
 matters of religion, in which she had an high opinion of her 
 own knowledge. She advised with the party but very little in 
 the alterations which she thought proper to make ; and, dis 
 liking the notions which they seemed to entertain in politicks, 
 she kept them down during the whole course of her reign with 
 an uniform and inflexible severity. 
 
 However, the party was far enough from being destroyed. 
 The merit of their sufferings, the affected plainness of their dress, 
 the gravity of their deportment, the use of scripture phrases 
 upon the most ordinary occasions, and even their names, which 
 had something striking and venerable, as being borrowed from 
 the Old Testament or having a sort of affected relation to reli 
 gious matters, gained them a general esteem amongst sober 
 people of ordinary understandings. This party was very nu-t 
 merous; and their zeal made them yet more considerable than 
 their numbers. They were commonly called Puritans, 
 
 When 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 351 
 
 When King James came to the throne, he had a very fair op* 
 portunity of pacifying matters ; or at worst he might have left 
 them in the condition he found them ; but it happened quite 
 otherwise. The unkingly disputation at Hampton-court did 
 more to encourage the Puritans to persevere in their opinions, 
 by the notice which was taken of them, than all King James's 
 logick, as a scholar, backed with all his power as a king, could 
 do to suppress that party. They were persecuted, but not des 
 troyed ; they were exasperated, and yet left powerful ; and a 
 severity was exercised towards them, which at once exposed the 
 weakness and the ill intentions of the government* 
 
 In this state things continued until the accession of Charles, 
 
 ~ * 
 
 when they were far from mending. This ^prince, endowed with 
 many great virtues, had very few amiable qualities. As grave 
 as the Puritans themselves, he could never engage the licentious 
 part of the world in his favour ; and that gravity being turned 
 against the Puritans, made him but the more odious to them. 
 He gave himself up entirely to the church and churchmen ; 
 and he finished his ill conduct in this respect, by conferring the 
 first ecclesiastical dignity of the kingdom, and a great sway in 
 temporal affairs, upon doctor Laud. Hardly fit to direct a 
 college, he was called to govern a kingdom. He was one of 
 those indiscreet men of good intentions, who are the people in 
 the world that make the worst figure in politicks. This man 
 thought he did good service to religion by a scrupulous enquiry 
 into the manner in which the ministers every where conformed 
 to the regulations of the former reigns. He deprived great 
 numbers for nonconformity. Not satisfied with this, in which 
 perhaps he was justifiable enough if he had managed prudently, 
 he made new regulations, and introduced on a people already 
 abhorrent of the most necessary ceremonies, ceremonies of a 
 new kind, of a most useless nature, and such as were even 
 
352 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 ridiculous, if the serious consequences which attended them, 
 may not inti f le them to be considered as matters of im 
 portance. 
 
 Several great men, disgusted at the proceedings of the court, 
 and entertaining very reasonable apprehensions for the public!: 
 liberty, to make themselves popular, attached themselves to 
 the popular notions of religion, and affected to maintain them 
 with great zeal. Others became Puritans through principle. 
 And now their affairs put on a respectable appearance ; in pro 
 portion as they became of consequence, their sufferings seemed 
 to be more and. more grievous ; the severities of Laud raised 
 not terrour as formerly, but a sort of indignant hatred ; and 
 they became every day further and further from listening to the* 
 least terms of agreement with surplices, organs, common-prayer, 
 or table at the east-end of the church. As they who are serious 
 about trifles are serious indeed, their lives began to grow mise 
 rable to several on account of these ceremonies ; and, rather 
 than be obliged to submit to them, there was no part of the 
 world to which they would not have fled with cheerfulness. 
 
 Early in the reign of King James a number of persons of this 
 persuasion had sought refuge in Holland ; in which, though a 
 country of the greatest religious freedom in the world, they did 
 not find themselves better satisfied than they had been in Eng* 
 land. There they were tolerated indeed, but watched ; their 
 zeal began to have dangerous languors for want of opposition ; 
 and, being without power or consequence, they grew tired of the 
 indolent security of their sanctuary ; they chose to remove to a 
 place where they should see no superiour ; and therefore they 
 sent an agent to England, who agreed with the council of Ply 
 mouth, for a tract of land in America, within their jurisdiction 
 to settle in, after they had obtained from the king a privilege to 
 do so. The Plymouth council was a company, who, by their 
 
 charter, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 charter, had not only all the coast of North America from 
 Nova Scotia to the southern parts of Carolina (the whole 
 country being then distinguished by the names of South and 
 North Virginia) as a scene for their exclusive trade ; but they 
 had the entire property of the soil besides. 
 
 This colony established itself at a place which they called 
 New Plymouth. They were but few in number ; they landed 
 in a bad season ; and they were not at all supported but from 
 their private funds. The winter was premature, and terribly cold. 
 The country was all covered with wood, and afforded very little 
 for the refreshment of persons sickly with such a voyage, or for 
 the sustenance of an infant people. Near half of them perished 
 by the scurvy, by want, and the severity of the climate ; but 
 they who survived, not dispirited with their losses nor with the 
 hardships they were still to endure, supported by the vigour 
 which was then the character of Englishmen, and by the satis 
 faction of finding themselves out of the reach of the spiritual 
 arm, reduced this savage country to yield them a tolerable live 
 lihood, and by degrees a comfortable subsistence. 
 
 This little establishment was made in the year 1621. Several 
 of their brethren in England, labouring under the same diffi 
 culties, took the same methods of escaping from them. The 
 colony of puritans insensibly increased ; but as yet they had not 
 extended themselves much beyond New Plymouth. It was in 
 the year 1629, that the colony began to flourish in such a man 
 ner, that they soon became a considerable people. By the close 
 of the ensuing year they had built four towns, Salem, Dor 
 chester, Charles-Town, and Boston, which has since become 
 the capital of New England. That enthusiasm which was re 
 versing every thing at home, and which is so dangerous in every 
 settled community, proved of admirable service here. It be 
 came a principle of life and vigour, that enabled them to con- 
 
 z z quer 
 
354 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 quer all the difficulties of a savage country. Their exact and 
 sober manners proved a substitute for a proper subordination 
 and regular form of government, which they had for some time 
 wanted, and the want of which in such a country had otherwise 
 been felt very severely. 
 
 And now, not only they who found themselves uneasy at 
 home upon a religious account, but several by reason of the 
 then profitable trade of furs and skins, and for the sake of the 
 fishery, were invited to settle in New England. But this colony 
 received its principal assistance from the discontent of several 
 great men of the puritan party, who were its protectors, and 
 who entertained a design of settling amongst them in New Eng 
 land, if they should fail in the measures they were pursuing for 
 establishing the liberty, and reforming the religion of their mo 
 ther country. They solicited grants in New England, and were 
 at a great expence in settling them. Amongst these patentees, 
 we see the lords Brook, .Say and Seal, the Pelhaiiis, the Hamp- 
 dens, and the Pyms ; the names which afterwards appeared with 
 so much eclat upon a greater stage. It was said that sir Mat 
 thew Boynton, sir William Constable, sir Arthur Ilaslerig, and 
 Oliver Cromwell were actually upon the point of embarking for 
 New England ; when archbishop Laud, unwilling that so many 
 objects of his hatred should be removed out of the reach of his 
 power, applied for, and obtained, an order from the court to 
 put a stop to these transportations; and thus he kept forcibly 
 from venting itself that virulent humour which he lived to see 
 the destruction of himself, his order, his religion, his master, 
 and the constitution of his country. However, he was not able 
 to prevail so far as to hinder New England from receiving vast 
 reinforcements, as well of the clergy who were deprived of their 
 livings or not admitted to them for non-conformity, as of such 
 of the laity who adhered to their opinions, 
 
 CHAP. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 DIFFERENCE IN RELIGION, DIVIDES THE COLONY. MASSACHUSET. CON 
 NECTICUT. PROVIDENCE. SPIRIT OF PERSECUTION. PERSECUTION OF 
 
 THE QUAKERS. DISPUTES ABOUT GRACE. 
 
 ' 
 
 THE part of New England called Massachusetts Bay had no* 
 settlements very thick all along the sea-shore. Some slips from 
 these were planted in the province of Main and New Hamp 
 shire, being torn from the original stock by the religious vio 
 lence, which was the chief characteristick of the first settlers in 
 New England. The patentees we last mentioned principally 
 settled upon the river Connecticut, and established a separate 
 and independent government there : some persons having be 
 fore that fixed themselves upon the borders of this river, who 
 fled from the tyranny arising from the religious differences which 
 were moulded into the first principles of the Plymouth and Mas- 
 sachuset's colonies. 
 
 For a considerable time, the people of New England had 
 hardly any that deserved the name of a regular form of govern 
 ment. The court took very little care of them. By their 
 charter they were empowered to establish such an order, and to 
 make such laws, as they pleased, provided they were not con 
 trary to the laws of England. A point not easily settled, nei 
 ther was there any means appointed for settling it. As they who 
 composed the new colonies were generally persons of a contract 
 ed way of thinking and most violent enthusiasts, they imitated 
 the Jewish polity in almost all- respects ; and adopted the books 
 
 z z 2 of 
 
S56 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 of Moses as the law of the land. The first laws which they 
 made were grounded upon them, and were therefore very ill 
 suited to the customs, genius, or circumstances of that country, 
 and of those times ; for which reason they have since fallen into 
 disuse. 
 
 As to religion, it was, as I have said, the Puritan. In Eng 
 land, this could hardly be considered as a formed sect at the 
 time of their emigration, since several who had received episco 
 pal ordination were reckoned to belong to it. But as soon as 
 they found themselves at liberty in America, they fell into a 
 way very little different from the independent mode; Every 
 parish was sovereign within itself. Synods indeed were occa 
 sionally called ; but they served only to prepare and digest mat 
 ters, which were to receive their sanction from the approbation 
 of the several churches. The synods couid exercise no branch 
 of ecclesiastial jurisdiction, either as to- doctrine or to discipline; 
 They had no power of excommunication. They could- only 
 refuse to hold communion with those whose principles and prac 
 tices they disliked. The magistrates assisted in those synods, 
 not only to. hear, but to deliberate and determine; From such 
 a form as this, great religious freedom 1 might, one would have 
 imagined, be well expected. But the truth is, they had no 
 idea at all of such a freedom. The very doctrine of any sort of 
 toleration was so odious to the greater part, that one of the first 
 persecutions set up here was against a small party which arose 
 amongst themselves, who were hardy enough to maintain, that 
 the civil magistrate had no lawful power to use compulsory 
 measures in affairs of religion. After harassing these people 
 by all the vexatious ways imaginable, they obliged them to fly- 
 out of their jurisdiction. These emigrants- settled themselves 
 to the southward, near Cape Cod r where they formed a new 
 government upon their own principles, and built a town, which 
 
 they 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 357 
 
 they called Providence . This has since made the fourth and 
 smallest, but not the worst inhabited, of the New England go 
 vernments, called Rhode Island, from an island of that name 
 which forms a part of it. As a persecution gave rise to the first 
 settlement of New England, so a subsequent persecution in this 
 colony gave rise to new colonies, and this facilitated the spread 
 ing of the people over the country. 
 
 If men, merely for the moderation of their sentiments, were 
 exposed to such severe treatment, it was not to be expected 
 that others should escape unpunished. The very first colony 
 had hardly set its foot in America, when, discovering that some 
 amongst them were false brethren and ventured to make use of 
 the common prayer, they found means of* making the country 
 so uneasy to. them, that they were glad to fly back to England. 
 
 As soon as they began to think of making laws,. I find no less 
 than five about matters of religion; all contrived*, and not only 
 contrived but executed in some respects, with so much rigour, 
 that the persecution which drove the Puritans out of England 
 might be considered as great lenity and' indulgence in the com 
 parison. For, in the first of these laws, they deprive every one 
 who does not communicate with their established church, .of the 
 right to his freedom, or a vote in the election of any of their 
 magistrates. In the second, they sentence to banishment any 
 who should oppose the fourth commandment, or deny the vali 
 dity of infant baptism or the authority of magistrates. In the 
 third, they condemn Quakers to banishment, and make it ca 
 pital for them to return; and, not stopping at the offenders*, 
 they lay heavy fines upon all who should bring them into the 
 province, or even harbour them for an hour. In the fourth, 
 they provide banishment, and death in case of return,, for Jesuits- 
 and Popish priests of every denomination. In the fifth, they 
 
 decree 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 decree death to any who shall worship images. After they had 
 provided such a complete code of persecution, they were not 
 long without opportunities of reading bloody lectures upon it. 
 The Quakers, warmed with that spirit which animates the be 
 ginning of most sects, had spread their doctrines all over the 
 British dominions in Europe, and began at last to spread them 
 with equal zeal in America. The clergy and the magistrates in 
 New England took the alarm ; they seized upon some of those 
 people, they set them in the stocks and in the pillory without 
 effect ; they scourged, they imprisoned, they banished them ; 
 they treated all those, who seemed to commiserate their suffer 
 ings, with great rigour; but their persecution had no other 
 effect than to inflame their own cruelty and the zeal of the suf 
 ferers. The constancy of the Quakers under their sufferings 
 begot a pity and esteem for their persons, and an approbation 
 of their doctrines ; their proselytes increased ; the Quakers re 
 turned as fast as they were banished ; and the fury of the ruling 
 party was raised to such a height, that they proceeded to the 
 most sanguinary extremities. Upon the law they had made, 
 they seized at different times upon five of those who had re 
 turned from banishment, condemned, and hanged them. It is 
 unknown how far their madness had extended, if an order from 
 the king and council in England about the year 1661 had not 
 interposed to restrain them. 
 
 It is a task not very agreeable to insist upon such matters ; 
 but, in reality, things of this nature form the greatest part of 
 the history of New England, for a long time. They perse 
 cuted the Anabaptists, who were no inconsiderable body amongst 
 them, with, almost an equal severity, In short, this people, 
 who in England could not bear being chastised with rods, had' 
 no sooner got -free from their fetters than they scourged their 
 
 fellow 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 359 
 
 fellow refugees with scorpions ; though the absurdity, as well as 
 the injustice, of such a proceeding in them, might stare them in 
 the face ! 
 
 One may observe, that men of all persuasions confine the 
 word persecution, and all the ill ideas of justice and violence 
 which belong to it, solely to those seventies which are exer 
 cised upon themselves, or upon the party they are inclined to 
 favour. Whatever is inflicted upon others, is a just punishment 
 upon obstinate impiety, and not a restraint upon conscientious 
 differences. The persecution we have ourselves suffered, is 'a 
 good ground for retaliation against an old enemy ; and if one of 
 our friends and fellow sufferers should prove so wicked as to quit 
 our cause, and weaken it by his dissension, he deserves to be 
 punished yet more than the old enemy himself. Besides this, 
 the zealous never fail to draw political inferences from religious 
 tenets, by which they interest the magistrate in the dispute ; 
 and then to the heat of a religious fervour is added the fury of 
 a party zeal. All intercourse is cut off between the parties. 
 They lose all knowledge of each other, though countrymen and 
 neighbours ; and are therefore easily imposed upon with the 
 most absurd stories concerning each other's opinions and prac 
 tices. They judge of the hatred of the adverse side by their 
 own. Then fear is added to their hatred ; and preventive in 
 juries arise from their fear. The remembrance of the past, the 
 dread of the future, the present ill, will join together to urge 
 them forward to the most violent courses. 
 
 Such is the manner of proceeding of religious parties towards 
 each other ; and in this respect the New England people are not 
 worse than the rest of mankind, nor was their severity any just 
 matter of. reflexion upon that mode of religion which they pro 
 fess. No religion whatsoever, true or false, can excuse its own 
 members, or accuse those of any other, upon the score of per 
 secution. 
 
550 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 secution. The principles which* give rise to it are common to 
 all mankind, and they influence them as they are men, and not 
 as they belong to this or that persuasion. In all persuasions the 
 bigots are persecutors ; the men of a cool and reasonable 
 piety are favourers of toleration ; because the former sort of 
 men, not taking the pains to be acquainted with the grounds 
 of their adversaries tenets, conceive them to be so absurd and 
 monstrous, that no man of sense can give into them in good 
 earnest. For which reason they are convinced that some ob 
 lique bad motive induces them to pretend to the belief of such 
 doctrines, and to the maintaining of them with obstinacy. This 
 is a very general principle in all religious differences, and it is 
 the corner stone of all persecution. 
 
 Besides the dispute with those of another denomination, the 
 Independents were for a long time harassed with one in the 
 bowels of their own churches. The stale dispute about grace 
 and works produced dissensions, riots, and almost a civil war in 
 the colony. The famous Sir Henry Vane the younger, an en- 
 thusiastick, giddy, turbulent man, of a no very good disposi 
 tion, came hither with some of the adventurers ; and, rather 
 than remain idle, played at small games in New England, where 
 the people had chosen him governor. It is not hard to con 
 ceive, how such a man, at the head of such a people and en 
 gaged in such controversy, could throw every thing into con 
 fusion. In the very height of this hopeful dispute, they had a 
 war upon their hands with some of the Indian nations. Their 
 country was terribly harassed, and numbers were every day 
 murdered, by the incursions of the enemy. All this time they 
 had an army in readiness for action, which they would not suffer 
 to inarch even to defend their own lives and possessions, be 
 cause <( many of the officers and soldiers were under a covenant 
 " of works/' 
 
 CHAP. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 C II A P. IV. 
 
 THE WITCHCRAFT DELUSION. GREAT CRUELTIES. THL MADNESS ENDb IN 
 
 THE ACCUSATION OF THE MAGISTRATES. REFLEXIONS. 
 
 WHEN the New England Puritans be^au to breathe a little 
 
 o o 
 
 from these dissentions, and hatl their hands tied up from per 
 secuting the Quakers and Anabaptists, they fell not long after 
 into another madness of a yet more extraordinary and danger 
 ous kind, which, like some epidemical disease, ran through the 
 whole country, and which is perhaps one of the most extraor 
 dinary delusions recorded in history. This tragedy began in 
 the year 1692. 
 
 There is a town in New England, which they fanatically 
 called Salem. One Paris was the minister there. lie had two 
 daughters troubled with convulsions; which being attended 
 with some of those extraordinary appearances not unfrequent in 
 such disorders, he imagined they were bewitched. As soon as 
 he concluded upon witchcraft as the cause of the distemper, 
 the next enquiry was, how to find out the person who had be 
 witched them. lie cast his eyes upon an Indian servant wo 
 man of his own, whom he frequently beat, and used her with 
 such severity, that she at last confessed herself the witch, and 
 was committed to goal, where she lay for a long time. 
 
 The imaginations of the people were not yet sufficiently 
 heated to make a very formal business of this ; therefore they 
 
 3 A were 
 
362 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 were content to discharge her from prison after a long confine 
 ment, and to sell her as a slave for her fees. 
 
 However, as this example set the discourse about witchcraft 
 afloat, some people, troubled with a similar complaint, began 
 to fancy themselves bewitched too. Persons in an ill state of 
 health are naturally fond of finding out causes for their distem 
 pers ; especially such as are extraordinary, and call the eyes of 
 the publick upon them. There was perhaps something of 
 malice in the affair besides. For one of the first objects whom 
 they fixed upon was Mr. Burroughs, a gentleman who had for 
 merly been minister of Salem : but, upon some of the religious 
 disputes which divided the country, he differed with his flock 
 and left them. This man was tried with two others for witch 
 craft, by a special commission of oyer and terminer, directed to 
 some of the gentlemen of the best fortunes, and reputed to be 
 of the best understandings in the country. Before these judges, 
 a piece of evidence was delivered, the most weak and childish, 
 the most repugnant to itself, and to common sense, that perhaps 
 ever was known upon any serious occasion. Yet by those 
 judges, upon that evidence, and the verdict founded upon it, 
 this minister, a man of the most unexceptionable character, 
 and two others, men irreproachable in their lives, were sen 
 tenced to die, and accordingly hanged. Then these victims of 
 the popular madness were stript naked, and their bodies thrown 
 into a pit, half covered with earth, and left to the discretion of 
 birds and wild beasts. Upon the same evidence, in a little 
 time after, sixteen more suffered death ; the greatest part of 
 them dying in the most exemplary sentiments of piety, and 
 with the strongest professions of their innocence. One man, 
 refusing to plead, suffered in the cruel manner the law directs 
 on that occasion, by a slow pressure to death. 
 
 The imaginations of the people, powerfully affected by these 
 
 shocking 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMEIlIOA. 
 
 shocking examples, turned upon the most gloomy and horrid' 
 ideas. The most ordinary and innocent actions were meta 
 morphosed into magical ceremonies, and the fury of the people 
 augmented in proportion as this gloom of imagination increased. 
 The flame spread with rage and rapidity into every part of .the 
 country. Neither the tenderness of youth, nor the infirmity 
 of age, nor the honour of the sex, nor the sacredness of the 
 ministry, nor the respectable condition of fortune or character, 
 was the least protection. Children of eleven years old were 
 taken up for sorceries. The women were stript in the most 
 shameful manner to search them for magical teats. The scor- 
 
 vJ 
 
 butick stains common on the skins of old persons, were called the 
 devil's pinches. This was indisputable evidence against them. 
 As such they admitted every idle flying report, and even stories 
 of ghosts, which they honoured with a name, not found in our 
 law books. They called them Spectral Evidence. 
 
 What these extraordinary testimonies wanted was completed 
 by the torture, by which a number of these unhappy victims 
 were driven to confess whatever their tormentors thought pro 
 per to dictate to them. Some women owned they had been 
 lain with by the devil, and other things equally ridiculous and 
 abominable. 
 
 It is not difficult to imagine the deplorable state of this pro 
 vince, when all mens lives depended upon the caprice and folly 
 of diseased and distracted minds ; when revenge and malice had 
 a full opportunity of wreaking themselves in a most dreadful 
 and bloody manner, by an instrument that was always in rea 
 diness, and to ^vhich the publick phrenzy gave a certain and 
 dangerous effect. What was a yet worse circumstance, the 
 wretches who suffered the torture, being not more pressed to 
 own themselves guilty than to discover their associates and ac 
 complices, unable tp give any real account, named people at 
 
 3 A 2 random, 
 
4N { ACCOUNT OF THiE 
 
 who- were immediately taken, up, and treated in the 
 same cruel manner upon this extor.ted evidence. An universal 
 terrour and, consternation seized upon all. Some prevented 
 accusation, and charged themselves with witchcraft, and so* 
 escaped death. Others fled the province; and many more 
 were preparing to fly, The prisons were crowded ; people 
 were executed daily ; yet the rage of the accusers was as fresh 
 as ever, and the number of the witches and the bewitched in-, 
 creased every hour. A magistrate, who had committed forty 
 persons for this crime, fatigued with so disagreeable, an employ 
 ment and ashamed of the share lie had in it, refused to grant- 
 any more warrants. He was himself immediately accused of 
 
 .-" * 
 
 sorcery ; and thought himself happy in leaving his family and 
 fortune, and escaping with life out of the province. A jury, 
 struck with the affecting manner and the solemn ass u ranees, of 
 innocence of a woman brought before them, ventured to acquit- 
 her, but the judges sent them out again; and in an imperious 
 manner forced them to find the woman guilty ; and she was* 
 hanged immediately. 
 
 Thq magistrates and ministers, whose prudence ought to 
 have been employed in healing this distemper, and assuaging its 
 fury, threw in new combustible matter. They encouraged, 
 the accusers ; they assisted at the examinations, and they ex- 
 t^rted the confessions, of witches. None signalized their zeal 
 more upon this occasion than Sir William Phips, the governor^ 
 a New England man, of the lowest birth, and yet meaner edu- 
 ca^ion ; who, having raised a sudden fortune by a lucky acci 
 dent, was knighted, and afterwards made governor of the pro- 
 v4nce. Doctor Encrease Mather, and Dr. Cotton Mather, the 
 jM^ars of the New England church; werfe equally sanguine. 
 Several of the most popular ministers, after twenty executions 
 had been made, accessed Sir William Phips with thanks for 
 
 what 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN' AMERICA. 36| 
 
 what toe load done^. and with exiiortatLons to. proceed in so 
 dable a work. 
 
 The accusers encouraged in this; manner did- not know where 
 to stop, nor how to. proceed. They were at a loss for abjeetsv 
 They began at last to accuse the judges themselves. What was 
 worse, the nearest relations to Mr. Kncrease Mather were in 
 volved, and witchcraft began even to approach the governor's 
 own family. It was now high time to give things another turn. 
 The accusers were discouraged by authority. One hundred and 
 fifty, who lay in prison, were discharged. Two hundred more 
 were uiul^r accusation ; they were passed over ; and those who 
 had ivc?ived sentence of death were reprieved, and in due time 
 pardoned. A few cool moments shewed them the gross and 
 stupid errour that had carried them away, and which was utterly 
 invisible to them all the while they were engaged in this 
 prosecution. They grew heartily ashamed of what they had 
 done. But what was infinitely mortifying, the Quakers took 
 occasion to attribute all this misfortune to a judgment on them 
 for their persecution. A general fast was appointed ; praying 
 God to pardon all the errours of his servants and people in a 
 late tragedy, raised amongst them by Satan and his instru 
 ments. 
 
 This was the last paroxysm of the puritanick enthusiasm in 
 New England. This violent fit carried off so much of that hu 
 mour, that the people there are now grown somewhat like the 
 rest of mankind in their manners, and have much abated of 
 their persecuting spirit. 
 
 It is not an incurious speculation to consider these remark 
 able sallies of the human mind, out of its ordinary course. 
 Whole nations are often carried away by what would never in 
 fluence one man of sense. The cause is originally weak, and to 
 be suppressed without great difficulty ; but then its weakness 
 
 prevents 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 prevents any suspicion of the mischief, until it is too late to 
 think of suppressing it at all. In such cases the more weak, im 
 probable, and inconsistent any story is, the more powerful and 
 general is its effect, being helped on by design in some, by folly 
 in others, and kept up by contagion in all. The more extraor 
 dinary the design, the more dreadful the crime, the less we ex 
 amine into the proofs. The charge and evidence of some things 
 is the same. However, in some time the minds of people 
 cool, and they are astonished how they ever came to be so 
 affected. 
 
 CHAP, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IK AMERICA. 367 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 THE SITUATION, CLIMATE, &C. OF NEW ENGLAND. INDIAN CORN DESCRIBED. 
 
 CATTLE OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 THE events in the history of New England, their disputes with 
 their government, the variations in their charters, and their 
 wars with the Indians, afford very little useful or agreeable 
 matter. In their wars there was very little conduct shewn ; 
 and though they prevailed in the end, in a manner to the ex 
 tirpation of that race of people, yet the Indians had always great 
 advantages in the beginning; and the measures of the English 
 to oppose them, were generally injudiciously taken. Their 
 manner too of treating them in the beginning, was so indiscreet 
 (for it was in general no worse) as to provoke them as much to 
 those wars, as the French influence has done since that time. 
 
 The country which we call New England is in length some 
 thing less than three hundred miles ; at the broadest part it is 
 about two hundred, if we carry it on to those tracts which are 
 possessed by the French ; but if we regard the part we have 
 settled, in general, it does not extend any where much above 
 sixty miles from the sea coast. 
 
 This country lies between the 41st and 45th degrees of north 
 latitude. Though it is situated almost ten degrees nearer the 
 sun than we are in England, yet the winter begins earlier, lasts 
 longer, and is incomparably more severe than it is with us. 
 The summer again is extremely hot, and more fervently so 
 than in places which lie under the same parallels in Europe. 
 
 However, 
 
368 AN ACCOUNT OF THfc 
 
 However, both the heat and the cold are now far more mode 
 rate, and the constitution of the air in all respects far better, 
 than our people found it at their first settlement. The clearing 
 away of the woods, and the opening of the ground every where, 
 has, by giving a free passage to the air, carried off those 
 noxious vapours which were so prejudicial to the health of the 
 first inhabitants. The temper of the sky is generally both in 
 summer and in winter very steady and serene. Two months 
 frequently pass without the appearance of a cloud. Their 
 rains are very heavy and soon over. 
 
 The soil of New England is various, but best as you ap 
 proach the southward. It affords excellent meadows in the 
 low grounds, and very good pasture almost every where. They 
 commonly allot at the rate of two acres to the maintenance of 
 a cow. The meadows which they reckon the best, yield about 
 a ton of hay by the acre. Some produce two tons, but the hay 
 is rank and sour. This country is not very favourable to any 
 of the European kinds of grain. The wheat is subject to be 
 blasted ; the barley is an hungry grain, and the oats are lean 
 and chaffy. But the Indian corn, which makes the general 
 food of the lowest sort of people, flourishes here. This, as it is 
 a species of grain not so universally known in England, and as 
 it is that of all others which yields the greatest increase, I shall 
 give a short description of. 
 
 This plant, which the native Americans call the weachin, is 
 known in some of the southern parts of America by the name of 
 maize. The ear is but a span in length, consisting of eight 
 rows of the corn, or more, according to the goodness of the 
 ground, with about thirty grains in each row. On the top of 
 the grain hangs a sort of flower, not unlike a tassel of silk, of 
 various colours, white, blue, greenish, black, speckled, striped, 
 which gives this corn, as it grows, a very beautiful appearance. 
 
 The 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS 'IN AMERICA. 36 
 
 The grain is of all the colours which prevail in the flower, but 
 most frequently yellow and white. The* stalks grow six or 
 eight feet high, and are of a considerable thickness. They are 
 less high in New England, and other northern countries, than 
 in Virginia and those which lie more to the southward. They 
 are jointed like a cane, and at each of these joints shoot out a 
 number of leaves like flags, that make very good fodder for the 
 cattle. The stalk is full of a juice, of which a syrup as sweet 
 as ^ugar has been frequently made. 
 
 This grain is generally sowed in little squares, and requires a 
 very attentive cultivation. The ground in which it flourishes 
 most is light and sandy, with a small intermixture of loam. 
 About a peck of seed is sufficient foi* an acre, which at a 
 medium produces about twenty-five bushels. The New Eng 
 land people not only make bread of this grain, but they malt 
 and brew it into a beer, which is not contemptible. However, 
 the greater part of their beer is made of molasses, hopped ; 
 with the addition sometimes of the tops of the spruce fir in 
 fused. 
 
 They raise in New England, besides this and other species 
 of grain, a large quantity of flax, and have made essays upon 
 hemp, that have been far from unsuccessful. An acre of their 
 cow-pen land produces about a ton of this commodity ; but 
 the land is pretty soon exhausted. This plant probably re 
 quires a climate more uniformly warm than New England ; for 
 though the greater part of our hemp is brought to us from 
 northern ports, yet it is in the more southerly provinces of 
 Russia, that the best which comes to our market is produced. 
 
 Their horned cattle are very numerous in New England, and 
 very large. Oxen have been killed there of eighteen hundred 
 weight. Hogs likewise are numerous, and particularly excel 
 lent ; and some so large as to weigh twenty -five score. They 
 
 3 fi have 
 
370 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 have besides, a breed of small horses, which are extremely- 
 hardy. They pace naturally, though in no very graceful or 
 easy manner ; but with such swiftness, and for so long a con 
 tinuance, as must appear almost incredible to those who have 
 not experienced it. They have a great number of sheep too, 
 and of a good kind. The wool is of a staple sufficiently long, 
 but it is not near so fine as that of England. However, they 
 manufacture a great deal of it very successfully. I have seen 
 cloths made there, which were of as close and firm a contexture, 
 though not sa fine, as our best drabs ; they were thick, and, as 
 far as I could judge, superiourfor the ordinary wear of country 
 people, to any thing we make in England. 
 
 CHAP, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 3fl 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 PEOPLE OF NEW ENGLAND. THEIR NUMBERS. HISTORY OF THE CHARTER* 
 
 OF THE COLONIES HERE, AND THE FORFEITURE OF SOME. 
 
 THERE are in this country many gentlemen of considerable 
 landed estates, which they let to farmers, or manage by their 
 stewards or overseers ; but the greater part of the people is 
 composed of a substantial yeomanry, who cultivate their own 
 freeholds, without a dependence upon any but Providence and 
 their own industry. These freeholds generally pass to their 
 children in the way of gavelkind ; which keeps them from 
 being almost ever able to emerge out of their original happy 
 mediocrity. This manner of inheriting has here an additional 
 good eftect. It makes the people more ready to go backward 
 into the uncultivated parts of the country, where land is to be 
 had at an easy rate and in larger portions. The people, by 
 their being generally freeholders, and by their form of govern 
 ment, have a very free, bold, and republican spirit. In no 
 part of the world are the ordinary sort so independent, or pos 
 sess so many of the conveniencies of life ; they are used from 
 their infancy to the exercise of arms ; and they have a militia, 
 which for a militia is by no means contemptible ; and certainly 
 if these men were somewhat more regularly trained, and in 
 better subordination, it would be impossible to find in any 
 country, or in any time ancient or modern, an army better con- 
 
 3 B 2 stituted 
 
372 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 stituted than that which New England can furnish. This too is 
 much the best peopled of any of our colonies upon the continent, 
 It is judged that the four provinces which it- comprises, contain 
 about three hundred and fifty .thousand souls, including a yery 
 small number of Blacks and Indians ; the rest are Whites. 
 Douglas, who seems to be well informed in this point, propor 
 tions them as follow : 
 
 Massachuset's bay, 200,000 
 
 Connecticut, 100,000 
 
 Rhode Island, 30,000 
 
 New Hampshire, 24,000 
 
 354,000 
 
 These four governments are confederated for their common 
 defence. We have shewn how these several governments have 
 arisen. The most considerable of them for riches and number 
 of people, though not for extent of territory, is Massachuset's 
 bay. This province, like the others, had originally a power of 
 chusing every one of their own magistrates ; the governor, the 
 council, the assembly, all; and of making such laws as they 
 thought proper, without sending them home for the approba 
 tion of the crown. But being accused of having abused this 
 freedom, in the latter end of the reign of Charles the Second, 
 they were deprived of it by a judgment in a quo warranto in the 
 King's Bench in England. They remained from that time to 
 the Revolution without any charter. Some time after the Re 
 volution, they received a new one, which, though very favour 
 able, was much inferiour to the extensive privileges of the for 
 mer charter, which were too extensive for a colony, and what 
 kft little more than a nominal dependence on the mother 
 
 country, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 573 
 
 country, and the crown itself. But now, as the governor, lieu^ 
 tenant governor, and the chief places of the law and in the 
 revenue, are in the disposal of the crown ; so is the militia ; 
 and though the council is chosen by the representatives of the 
 people, yet the governor has a negative which gives him an 
 influence, sufficient to preserve the prerogative entire. Appeals 
 for sums above three hundred pounds are admitted to the king 
 and council, and all laws passed here must be remitted to Eng 
 land ; where, if they do not receive a negative from the crown 
 in three years, they are to be considered as valid, and are to 
 have the effect of laws ; which they are to have likewise until 
 the time that the king's resolution is known. But one point 
 has been long and resolutely disputed in this colony ; the grant 
 of a certain salary to their governor. Many attempts have been 
 made to induce them to this measure ; but to no effect. They 
 think a dependence on the people for his salary is the most 
 effectual method of restraining the governor from any unpopular 
 acts. To the Massachuset's government is united the ancient 
 colony of Plymouth, and the territory which is called Main. 
 
 The colony of Connecticut, which lies upon a river of the 
 same name to the south of this province, has preserved its an 
 cient privileges, which are now as considerable as those of Mas 
 sachuset's were formerly. At the time that the charter of the 
 former was attacked, that of this government was threatened 
 with the same fate. But they agreed to submit to the king's 
 pleasure ; therefore, no judgment was given against them ; and 
 being found; in this condition at the Revolution, it was judged 
 that they were in full possession of their old charter, and have 
 so continued ever since. 
 
 The third and smallest of the provinces which compose New 
 England, is Rhode Island. This consists of a small island of 
 that name, and the old plantation of Providence, These united 
 
 plantations 
 
$74 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 plantations had a charter the same with that of Connecticut , 
 and they have preserved it by the same method. In this pro 
 vince is an unlimited freedom of religion, agreeable to the first 
 principles of its foundation ; and though very small, it is from 
 thence extremely well peopled. 
 
 New Hampshire, the fourth province, is much the largest of 
 them all ; but not inhabited in proportion. This is more 
 portherly for the greater part than any of the rest. It is a 
 royal government ; that is, the crown has the nomination of all 
 the officers of justice and of the militia, and the appointment 
 of the council. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA, 37*' 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 BOSTON, ITS HARBOUR. TRADE. SHIP-BUILDING. DISTILLERY. FOREIGN 
 
 TRAFFIC*. REFLEXIONS ON THE SCHEME OF LIMITING IT. DECLENSION 
 
 OF THE TRADE OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 THERE is not one of our settlements which can be compared, 
 in the abundance of people, the number, of considerable and 
 trading towns, and the manufactures that are carried on in 
 them, to New England. The most populous and flourishing 
 parts of the mother country hardly make a better appearance. 
 Our provinces to the southward on this continent are recom- 
 mendable for the generous warmth of the climate, and a luxu 
 riance of soil which naturally throws up a vast variety of beau 
 tiful and rich vegetable productions ; but New England is the 
 first in America, for cultivation, for the number of people, and 
 for the order which results from both. 
 
 Though there are in all the provinces of New England large 
 towns which drive a considerable trade, the only one which can 
 deserve to be much insisted upon in a design like ours, is Bos 
 ton ; the capital of Massachuset's bay, the first city of New 
 England, and of all North America. This city is situated on a 
 peninsula, at the bottom of a fine capacious and safe harbour^ 
 which is defended from the outrages of the sea, by. a number of 
 islands, and rock.* which appear above water. It is entered 
 but by one safe passage ; and that is narrow, and covered by 
 the cannon of a regular, and very strong fortress. The harbouv 
 
 is. 
 
is more than sufficient for the great number of vessels, which 
 cany on the extensive trade of Boston* At the bottom of the 
 bay is a noble pier, near two thousand feet in length, along 
 which on the north side extends a row of warehouses. The 
 head of this pier joins the principal street of the town, which is, 
 like most of the others, spacious and veil built. The town 
 lies at the bottom of the harbour, and forms a very agreeable 
 view. It has a town house, where the courts meet, and the ex 
 change is kept, large, and of a very tolerable tdste of architec 
 ture. Round the exchange, are a great number of well fur 
 nished booksellers' shops, which find employment for five print 
 ing presses. There are ten churches within this town ; and it 
 contains at least twenty thousand inhabitants. 
 
 That we may be enabled to form some judgment of the 
 wealth of this city, we must observe that from Christmas 1747, 
 to Christinas 1748, five hundred vessels cleared out from this 
 port only, for a foreign trade ; and four hundred and thirty 
 were entered inwards ; to say nothing of coasting and fishing 
 vessels, both of which are extremely numerous, and said to be 
 equal in number to the others. Indeed the trade of New Eng 
 land is great, as it supplies a large quantity of goods from 
 within itself; but it is yet greater, as the people in this country 
 are in a manner the carriers for all the colonies of North Ame 
 rica and the West-Indies, and even for some parts of Europe. 
 They may be considered in this respect as the Dutch of 
 America. 
 
 The commodities which the country yields are principally 
 masts and yards, for which thej^ contract largely with the royal 
 navy ; pitch, tar, and turpentine ; staves, lumber, boards ; all 
 sorts of provisions, beef, pork, butter and cheese, in large 
 quantities ; horses and live cattle ; Indian corn and peas ; cyder, 
 apples, hemp and flax. Their peltry trade is not very consi 
 derable. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 377 
 
 derable. They have a very nobie cod fishery upon their coasty 
 which employs a vast number of tlieir people ; . they are enabled 
 by this to export annually above thirty-two thousand quintals 
 of choice cod fish, to Spain, Italy, and the Mediterranean, 
 and about nineteen thousand quintals of the refuse sort to the 
 West-Indies, as food for the negroes. The quantity of spirits, 
 which they distil in Boston from the molasses they bring in 
 from all parts of the West-Indies, is as surprising as the cheap 
 rate at which they vend it, which is under two shillings a gallon. 
 With this they supply almost all the consumption of our colo 
 nies in North America, the Indian trade there, the vast de 
 mands of their own and the Newfoundland fishery, and in 
 great measure those of the African trade ; but they are more 
 famous for the quantity and cheapness,, than for the excellency 
 of their rum. 
 
 They are almost the only one of our colonies which have 
 much of the woollen and linen manufactures. Of the former 
 they have nearly as much as suffices for their own cloathiug. 
 It is a close and strong, but a coarse stubborn sort of cloth. 
 A number of Presbyterians, from the north of Ireland, driven 
 thence, as it is said, by the seventy of their landlords, from an 
 affinity in religious sentiments, chose New England as their 
 place of refuge. Those people brought with them their skill 
 in the linen manufactures, and meeting with very large encou 
 ragement, they exercised it to the great advantage of this 
 colony. At present they make large quantities, and of a very 
 good kind ; their principal settlement is in a town, which in 
 compliment to them is called Londonderry. Hats are made in 
 New England, which, in a clandestine way, find a good vent in 
 all the other colonies. The setting up of these manufactures 
 has been in a great measure a matter necessary to them ; for as 
 they have not been properly encouraged in some staple com- 
 
 3 c modity, 
 
378 AN ACCOUNT OP THE 
 
 modity, by which they might communicate with their mother 
 country, while they were cut off from all other resources, they 
 must either have abandoned the country, or have found means 
 of employing their own skill and industry to draw out of it the 
 necessaries of life. The same necessity, together with their 
 convenience for building and manning ships, has made them 
 the carriers for the other colonies. 
 
 The business of ship-building is one of the most considerable 
 which Boston or the other sea-port towns in New England 
 carry on. Ships are sometimes built here upon commission ; 
 but frequently, the merchants of New England have them 
 constructed upon their own account ; and loading them with 
 the produce of the colony, naval stores, fish, and fish-oil prin 
 cipally, they send them out upon a trading voyage to Spain, 
 Portugal, or the Mediterranean ; where, having disposed of 
 their cargo, they make what advantage they can by freight, 
 until such time as they can sell the vessel herself to advantage, 
 which they seldom fail to do in a reasonable time. They re 
 ceive the value of the vessel, as well as of the freight of the 
 goods, which from time to time they carried, and of the cargo 
 with which they sailed originally, in bills of exchange upon 
 London ; for as the people of New England have no commo 
 dity to return for the value of above a hundred thousand 
 pounds, which they take in various sorts of goods from Eng 
 land, but some naval stores, and those in no great quantities, 
 they are obliged to keep the balance somewhat even by this 
 circuitous commerce, which, though not carried on with Great 
 Britain nor with British vessels,, yet centers in its profits, where 
 all the money which the colonies can make in any manner must 
 center at last. 
 
 I know that complaints have been made of this trade, prin 
 cipally because the people of New England, not satisfied! with 
 
 carrying 
 
EUROPEAN 
 
 Carrying out their own -produce, become carriers for the other 
 colonies, particularly for Virginia and Maryland, from whom 
 they take tobacco, which, in contempt of the act of navigation, 
 they carry directly to the foreign market. Where, not having 
 the duty and accumulated charges which the British mer 
 chant is liable to pay, they in a manner wholly out lii-m of the 
 ^trade. Again, our sugar colonies complain as loudly, that the 
 vast trade which New England drives in lumber, live stock, 
 and provisions, with the French and Dutch sugar islands, par 
 ticularly with the former, enables these islands, together with 
 the internal advantages they possess, greatly to undersell the 
 English plantations. That, the returns which the people of 
 New England make from these islands being in sugar, or, the 
 productions of sugar, syrups and molasses, the rum which is 
 then distilled prevents the sale of our West-India rum. That 
 this trade proves doubly disadvantageous to our sugar islands ; 
 first, as it enables the French to sell their sugars cheaper than 
 they could otherwise afford to do ; and then as it finds them a 
 market for their molasses, and other refuse of sugars, for which 
 otherwise they could find no market at all ; because rum inter 
 feres with brandy, a considerable manufacture of Old France. 
 
 These considerations were the ground of a complaint made 
 by the islands to the legislature in England some years ago. 
 They desired that the exportation of lumber, &c. to the French 
 colonies, and the importation of sugars and molasses from 
 thence, might be entirely prohibited. This was undoubtedly 
 a very nice point to settle. On one hand, the growth of the 
 French West-Indies was manifest and alarming, and it was not 
 to be thought that the French would ever wink at this trade, if 
 it had not been of the greatest advantage to them. On the 
 other hand, the northern colonies declared, that, if they were 
 
 3 c 2 deprived 
 
380 AM ACCOUiSI- U* THE 
 
 deprived of so great a branch of their trade, it must necessitatt 
 them to the establishment of manufactures. For if they were 
 cut off from their foreign trade, they never could purchase in 
 England the many things for the use or the ornament of life, 
 which they have from thence. Besides this, .the French, de 
 prived of the provision and lumber of New England, must of 
 necessity take every measure to be supplied from their own 
 colonies, which would answer their purposes better, if they 
 could accomplish it, at the same time that it would deprive the 
 New England people of a large and profitable branch of their 
 trade. 
 
 These points, and many more, were fully discussed upon 
 both sides. The legislature took a middle course. They did 
 not entirely prohibit the carrying of lumber to the French 
 islands; but they laid a considerable duty upon whatever rum, 
 sugars, or molasses, they should import from thence ; to en 
 hance by this means the price of lumber and other necessaries 
 to the French ; and, by laying them under difficulties, to set 
 the English sugar plantations, in some measure, upon an equal 
 footing with theirs. 
 
 This was undoubtedly a very prudent regulation. For 
 though it was urged, that the Missisippi navigation was so bad, 
 that there was no prospect that the French could ever be sup 
 plied with lumber and provisions from, thence ; and that there 
 were no snows in Louisiana, the melting of which might faci- 
 litate the transportation of lumber into that river, yet it was by 
 no means safe to trust to that, so as utterly to destroy a trade of 
 our own, which employed so much shipping and so many 
 sailors : because we have a thousand instances, wherein the 
 driving people to the last straits, and putting them under the 
 tuition of such a master as absolute necessity, lias taught them 
 
 inventions, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA, 38-i 
 
 inventions, and excited them to an industry, which have com 
 passed things as much regretted at last, as they were unforeseen 
 at first. 
 
 Though no great snows fall in the southern parts of 
 Louisiana, yet to- the northward a great deal falls, and not only 
 the Missisippi, but the n timber of other great rivers, which 
 it receives, overflow annually, and they can be in no want of 
 timber convenient enough to navigation. And though the 
 passage to the French islands be for such a great way to the 
 windward, as to bring them these commodities in a more 
 tedious manner, and at a dearer rate, is it not much better that 
 they should have them cheap from us than dear from them 
 selves ? Nor perhaps would even this difficulty, which is indeed 
 much less than it is represented, bring down the French to the 
 par of our sugar colonies, loaded as they are with taxes, groan 
 ing under the pressure of many grievances, and deformed by an 
 infinite multitude of abuses and enormities; nor can they with 
 reason or justice hope for a cure of the evils which they suffer, 
 partly from errours of their own, and partly from mistakes in 
 England, at the expence of the trade of their sister colonies on 
 the continent of America, who are entirely guiltless of their 
 sufferings ; nor is it by restraints on the trade of their enemies, 
 but by an effectual and judicious encouragement of their own, 
 that they can hope to remedy these evils, and rival the French 
 establishments. ' 
 
 The French, in permitting us to supply them, it is>true, give 
 us a proof that they have advantages from this trade ; but this 
 is no proof at all that we derive none from it ; for, on that sup 
 position, no trade could be mutually beneficial. Nor is it at 
 all certain, as it has been suggested, that, if we left their refuse 
 of sugars upon their hands, they could turn them to no profit. 
 If the council of commerce could be made to see distinctly that 
 
 this 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 this trade could not prejudice the sale of their brandy, and 
 would only make the trade of rum change hands, as tire case pro 
 bably would be ; and if they could shew, as they might, what a 
 loss it might be to them entirely to throw away a considerable 
 part of the produce of their lands, and which was formerly so 
 valuable to them, there is no doubt but the court would give 
 sufficient encouragement to their own plantations to distil rum, 
 and to vend it in such a manner as might the least prejudice 
 the brandies of France ; and then, instead of sending us mo 
 lasses, as they could distil the spirit far cheaper than our 
 islands, they would send us the spirit itself; and we may know 
 by experience, especially in that part of the world, how insuffi 
 cient all regulations are to prevent a contraband, which would 
 be so gainful to particulars. 
 
 After all, are we certain, that tlie French would trust for the 
 supply of their islands to Louisiana, or to the precarious sup 
 plies from Canada ? would they not redouble their application, 
 now made necessary, to Cape Breton ? what experiments would 
 they not make in Cayenne for the timber trade ? they would 
 certainly try every method, and probably would succeed in 
 some of their trials. Restraints upon trade are nice things ; 
 and ought to be well considered. Great care ought to be taken 
 in all such how we sacrifice the interests of one part of our ter 
 ritories to those of another ; and it would be a mistake of the 
 most fatal consequence, if we came to think that the shipping, 
 seamen, commodities, or wealth, of the British colonies, were 
 not effectually the shipping, seamen, and wealth, of Great Bri 
 tain herself. Sentiments of another kind have frequently done 
 us mischief. 
 
 The general plan of our management with regard to the trade 
 of our colonies, methinks, ought to be, to encourage in every 
 one of them some separate and distinct articles, such as, not 
 
 interfering, 
 
EtTKQPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 383' 
 
 interfering, might enable them to trade with each' other, and 
 all to trade to advantage with their mother country. And 
 then, where we have rivals in any branch of the trade carried 
 on by our colonies, to enable them to send their goods to the 
 foreign market directly ; using, at the same time, the wise 
 precaution which the French put in practice, to make the ships 
 so employed take the English ports in their way home ; for our 
 great danger is, that they should in that case make their re 
 turns in foreign manufactures, against which we cannot guard 
 too carefully. This, and that they should not go largely into 
 manufactures interfering with ours, ought to be the only poiiats 
 at which our restrictions should aim. These purposes ought 
 not to be compassed by absolute prohibitions and penalties, 
 which would be unpolitical and unjust, but by the way of diver 
 sion, by encouraging them to fall into such things as find a 
 demand with ourselves at home. By this means Great Britain 
 and all its dependencies will have a common interest, they will 
 mutually play into each other's hands, and the trade, so dis 
 persed, will be of infinitely more advantage to us, than if all 
 its several articles were produced and manufactured within our 
 selves. 
 
 I venture on these hints concerning restraints on trade, because 
 in fact New England rather wants to be supported than to be 
 checked by such restraints. Its trade, in many of its branches, 
 is clearly on the decline ; and this circumstance ought to in 
 terest us deeply ; for very valuable is this colony, if it never 
 sent us any thing, nor took any thing from us, as it is the grand 
 barrier of all the rest ; and as it is the principal magazine which 
 supplies our West-Indies, from whence we draw such vast ad 
 vantages. That this valuable colony is far from advancing, 
 will appear clearly from the state of one of the principal 
 branches of its trade, that of ship-building, for four years. In 
 \ the 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the year 1738, they built at Boston forty-one topsail vessels, 
 burden in all 6324 tons; in 17-13, only thirty; in 46, but 
 twenty ; in 49, they were reduced to fifteen, making in the 
 whole but 2450 tons of shipping ; in such a time an astonishing 
 declension ! How it has been since I have not sufficient infor 
 mation ; but, allowing that the decline has ceased here, yet 
 this is surely sufficient to set us upon the nicest enquiry into 
 the cause of that decay, and the most effectual measures to re 
 trieve the affairs of so valuable a province ; particularly if by 
 any ill-judged or ill-intended schemes, or by any misgovern- 
 ment, this mischief has happened them. 
 
 : 
 
 CHAP. 
 
EUKOPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA, 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY, AND PENNSYLVANIA. DESCRIPTION OF THEIR 
 
 SITUATION, &C. SHORT ACCOUNT OF THEIR SETTLEMENT. 
 
 IT is not certainly known at what time the Swedes and Dutch 
 made their first establishment in North America ; but it was 
 certainly posterior to our settlement in Virginia, and prior to 
 that of New England. The Swedes, who were no considerable 
 naval power, had hardly fixt the rudiments of a colony there, 
 ere they deserted it. The inhabitants, without protection or 
 assistance, were glad to enter into a coalition with the Dutch, 
 who had settled there upon a better plan, and to submit to the 
 government of the states. The whole tract possessed or claimed 
 by the two nations, whose two colonies were now grown into one, 
 extended from the 38th to the 41st degree of latitude, all along 
 the sea coast. They called it Nova Belgia, on New Nether 
 lands. It continued in their hands until the reign of Charles 
 the Second. The Dutch war then breaking out, in the year 
 1664 Sir Robert Car with three thousand men was sent to re 
 duce it, which he did with so little resistance, as not to gain 
 him any great honour by the conquest. A little after, the 
 Dutch, by way of reprisal, fell upon our colony of Surinam in 
 South America, and conquered it after much the same opposi 
 tion that we met in the New Netherlands. By the treaty of 
 peace : which was signed 'at Breda, in> 1667, it was agreed that 
 tilings should remain in the state they were at that time ; Suri 
 nam te the Dutch, the New Netherlands to the English. At 
 
 3 D that 
 
386 AN ACCOUNT OF H K 
 
 that time, this was looked upon by many as a bad exchange ; 
 but it now appears, that we have made an excellent bargain ; 
 for, to say nothing of the great disadvantage of having our co 
 lonies, as it were, cut in two by the intervention of a foreign 
 territory, this is now one of the best peopled and richest parts 
 of our plantations, extremely useful to the others, and making 
 very valuable returns to the mother country ; whereas Surinam 
 is comparatively a place of very small consequence, very un 
 healthy, and by no art to be made otherwise. 
 
 The New Netherlands were not long in our possession before 
 they were divided into distinct provinces, and laid aside their 
 former appellation. The north-east part, which joined New 
 England, was called New York, in compliment to the duke of 
 York, who had at first the grant of the whole territory. This 
 province runs up to the northward on both sides of the river 
 Hudson, for about two hundred miles into the country of the 
 Five Nations or Iroquois ; but it is not in any part above forty 
 or fifty miles wide. It comprehends within its limits Long 
 Island, which lies to the south of Connecticut, and is an island 
 inferiour to no part of America in excellent ground for the pas 
 turage of horses, oxen, and sheep, or the plentiful produce of 
 every sort of grain. 
 
 The part of Nova Belgia, which lays along the ocean, between 
 that and the river Delaware, from the southern part of New 
 York quite down to Maryland, was granted to Sir George Car- 
 teret and others, and called New Jersey from him, because he 
 had, as the family still has, estates in the island of that name. 
 This province is bounded upon the west by the river Delaware, 
 which divides it from Pennsylvania. It is in length about one 
 hundred and fifty miles, or thereabouts, and fifty in breadth. 
 
 Pennsylvania, which lies between New York, New Jersey, 
 and Maryland, and only communicates with the sea by the 
 
 mouth 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 387 
 
 mouth of the river Delaware, is in length about two hundred 
 and fifty miles, and in breadth two hundred. This territory 
 was granted to the famous Mr. William Penn, the son of Sir 
 William Penn the admiral, in the year 1680. 
 
 The climate and soil in the three provinces of New York, 
 New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, admit of no very remarkable 
 difference. In all these, and indeed in all our North American 
 colonies, the land near the sea is in general low, flat, and 
 marshy: at a considerable distance from the sea, it swells into 
 little hills, and then into great even ridges of mountains, which 
 hold their course, for the most part, north-east and south-west. 
 The soil throughout these three provinces is in general ex 
 tremely fruitful ; abounding not only in its native grain the 
 Indian corn, but in all such as have been naturalized there from 
 Europe. Wheat in such abundance, and of so excellent a qua 
 lity, that few parts of the world, for the tract which is culti 
 vated, exceed it in the one or the other of these particulars ; 
 nor in barley, oats, rye, buck-wheat, and every sort of grain 
 which we have here. They have a great number of horned 
 cattle, horses, sheep, and hogs. All our European poultry 
 abound there ; game of all kinds is wonderfully plenty ; deer 
 of several species ; hares of a kind peculiar to America, but 
 inferiour in relish to ours ; wild turkies, of a vast size and equal 
 goodness; a beautiful species of pheasants, only found in this 
 country. Every species of herbs or roots, which we force in 
 our gardens, grows here with great ease ; and every species of 
 fruit: but some, as those of peaches and melons, in far greater 
 perfection. 
 
 Their forests abound in excellent timber, the oak, the ash, 
 the beech, the chesnut, the cedar, and walnut, the cypress, the 
 hickory, the sassafras, and the pine. In all parts of our plan 
 tations, comprehending New York to the northward, quite to 
 
 3 D 2 the 
 
388 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the southern extremity, the woods are full of wild vines of three 
 or four species, all different from those we have in Europe. 
 But, whether from some fault in their nature, or in the climate, 
 or the soil where they grow, or, what is much more probable, 
 from a fault in the planters, they have yet produced no wiue 
 that deserves to be mentioned. It may be remarked in ge 
 neral of the timber of these provinces, that it is not so good for 
 shipping as that of New England and Nova Scotia. The fur 
 ther southward you go, the timber becomes less compact, and 
 rives easily ; which property, as it makes it more useful for 
 staves, renders it less serviceable for ships. 
 
 They raise in all these provinces, but much the most largety 
 in Pennsylvania, great quantities of flax ; hemp is a promising 
 article. Nor are they deficient in minerals. In New York, 
 a good deal of iron is found. In New Jersey, a very rich cop 
 per mine has been opened. There is no manner of doubt but 
 in time, when the people come to multiply sufficiently, and ex 
 perience and want have made them ingenious in opening re 
 sources for trade, these colonies will become as remarkable for 
 useful metals as they now are for grain. These three provinces, 
 as are all those we have in North America, are extremely well 
 watered. They have however observed in New England, that, 
 as they clear the country, a vast number of little brooks are 
 quite lost, and the mills upon them by this loss rendered use 
 less. They even observe, that this cutting down of the woods 
 has affected the river Connecticut itself, the largest in New 
 England, and that it has grown distinguishably. shallower. I 
 do not know whether the same remark has been made in Penn 
 sylvania and New York. But whatever they have lost in water, 
 which, where there is such a plenty, is no great loss, has been 
 amply compensated by the great salubrity of the air, which has 
 arisen from the cultivation of the country. At present those 
 
 I describe 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 389 
 
 I describe are, for the greater part, as healthy as can be 
 wished. 
 
 As the climate and soil of the provinces of New York, New 
 Jersey, and Pennsylvania, are, with very little variation, the 
 same, so there is no difference in the commodities in which they 
 trade, which are wheat, flour, barley, oats, Indian corn, peas, 
 beef, pork, cheese, butter, cyder, beer, flax, hemp and flax seed, 
 linseed oil, fur and deer-skins, staves, lumber, and iron. Their 
 markets are the same with those which the people of New Eng 
 land use ; and these colonies have a share in the logwood trade, 
 and that which is carried on with the Spanish and French plan- 
 
 CHAP. 
 
390 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 C II A P. IX. 
 
 CITi OF NEW YORK. ITS FLOURISHING TRADE. ALBANY. THE INDIAN 
 
 TRADE THERE. THE 1ROQUOIS OU FIVE NATIONS. 
 
 THE province of New York has two cities ; the first is called 
 by the name of the province itself. It was denominated New 
 Amsterdam when the Dutch possessed it, but it has changed its 
 name along with its masters. This city is most commodiously 
 situated for trade, upon an excellent harbour, in an island called 
 Manahatton, about fourteen miles long, though not above one 
 or two broad. This island lies just in the mouth of the river 
 Hudson, which discharges itself here after a long course. This 
 is one of the noblest rivers in America. It is navigable upwards 
 of two hundred miles. The tide flows one hundred and fifty. 
 
 The city of New York contains upwards of two thousand 
 houses, and above twelve thousand inhabitants, the descendants 
 of Dutch and English. It is well and commodiously built, ex 
 tending a mile in length, and about that in breadth, and has a 
 very good aspect from the sea ; but it is by no means properly 
 fortified. The houses are built of brick in the Dutch taste ; the 
 streets not regular, but clean and well paved. There is one 
 large church built for the church of England worship ; and 
 three others, a Dutch, a French, and a Lutheran. The town 
 has a very flourishing trade, and in which great profits are made. 
 The merchants are wealthy, and the people in general most 
 comfortably provided for, and with a moderate labour. From 
 the year 1749 to 1750, two hundred and thirty-two vessels have 
 
 beeu 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 been entered in this port, and two hundred and eighty-six 
 cleared outwards. In these vessels were shipped six "thousand 
 seven hundred and thirty- one tons of provisions, chiefly flour, 
 and a vast quantity of grain ; of which I have no particular ac 
 count. In the year 17^5, the export of flax seed to Ireland 
 amounted to 12,528 hogsheads. The inhabitants are between 
 eighty and an hundred thousand ; the lower class easy ; the 
 better rich, and hospitable ; great freedom of society ; and the 
 entry to foreigners made easy by a general toleration of all re 
 ligious persuasions. In a word, this province yields to no part 
 of America in the healthfulness of its air, and the fertility of its 
 soil. It is much superiour in the great convenience of water 
 
 
 
 carriage, which speedily and at the slightest expence carries 
 the product of the remotest farms to a certain and profitable 
 market. 
 
 Upon the river Hudson, about one hundred and fifty miles 
 from New York, is Albany ; a town of not so much note for its 
 number of houses or inhabitants, as for the great trade which 
 is carried on with the Indians, and indeed, by connivance, 
 with the French for the use of the same people. This trade 
 takes off a great quantity of coarse woollen goods, such as 
 strouds and duffils ; and with these, guns, hatchets, knives, 
 hoes, kettles, powder and shot ; besides shirts and clothes 
 ready made, and several other articles. Here it is that the 
 treaties and other transactions between us and the Iroquois In 
 dians are negotiated. 
 
 This nation, or combination of five nations, united by an 
 ancient and inviolable league amongst themselves, were the 
 oldest, the most steady, and most effectual ally we have found 
 amongst the Indians. This people, by their unanimity, firm 
 ness, military skill, and policy, have raised themselves to be 
 the greatest and most formidable power in all America ; they 
 
 have 
 
392 
 
 have reduced a vast number of nations, and brought under their 
 power a territory twice as large as the kingdom of France ; but 
 they have not increased their subjects in proportion. As their 
 manner of warring is implacable and barbarous, they reign the 
 lords of a prodigious desert, inhabited only by a few scattered 
 insignificant tribes, whom they have permitted to live out of a 
 contempt of their power, and who are all in the lowest state of 
 subjection. And yet this once mighty and victorious nation, 
 though it has always used the policy of incorporating with itself 
 a great many of the prisoners they make in war, is in a very de 
 clining condition. About sixty years ago, it was computed, 
 that they had ten thousand fighting men ; at this day, they can 
 not raise upwards of fifteen hundred. So much have wars, epide 
 mical diseases, and the unnatural union of the vices of civilized 
 nations with the manners of savages, reduced this once numer 
 ous people. But they are not only much lessened at this day 
 in their numbers, but in their disposition to employ what num 
 bers they have left in our service. Amongst other neglects, 
 which I have no pleasure in mentioning and no hopes of seeing 
 amended, this of inattention, or worse treatment, of the In 
 dians, is one, and a capital one. The Iroquois have lately had 
 three other nations added to their confederacy, so that they 
 ought now to be considered as eight ; and the whole confederacy 
 seems much more inclined to the French interest than ours. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 393 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 NEW JERSEY. ITS TRADE ; AND INHABITANTS. 
 
 NEW Jersey, by the perpetual disputes which subsisted between 
 the people and the proprietaries whilst it continued a proprie 
 tary government, was kept for a long time in a very feeble state ; 
 but, within a few years, it has begun to reap some of the ad 
 vantages which it might have had earlier from the proper ma 
 nagement of so fine a province and so advantageous a situation. 
 They raise very great quantities of grain at present, and are in 
 creased to near sixty thousand souls ; but they have yet no 
 town of any consequence. Perth Amboy, which is their capital, 
 has not upwards of two hundred houses ; and, though this town 
 has a very fine harbour, capable of receiving and securing ships 
 of great burden, yet, as the people of New Jersey have been 
 used to send their produce to the markets of New York and 
 Philadelphia, to which they are contiguous, they find it hard, 
 as it always is in such cases, to draw the trade out of the old 
 channel ; for there the correspondencies are fixed, the method 
 of dealing established, credits given, and a ready market for 
 needy dealers, who in all countries are sufficiently numerous ; 
 so that the trade of this town, which is the only town of any 
 trade worth notice in New Jersey, is still inconsiderable ; in 
 the year 1751, only forty-one vessels have entered inwards, and 
 only thirty-eight cleared out, in which were exported six thou 
 sand four hundred and twenty-four barrels of flour ; one hun- 
 
 3 E dred 
 
3.94 
 
 dred and sixty-eight thousand weight of bread ; three hundred 
 and fourteen barrels of beef and pork ; seventeen thousand nine 
 hundred and forty-one bushels of grain; fourteen thousand 
 weight of hemp ; with some butter, hams, beer, flax-seed, bar- 
 iron, and lumber. 
 
 CHAP, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 395 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 ACCOUNT OF WILLIAM PENN, THE PRINCIPLES ON WHICH HE SETTLED THE 
 
 COLONY. HIS DEATH. 
 
 I FIND it of late a notion pretty current, that proprietary go 
 vernments are a sort of check to the growth of the colonies 
 which they superintend. It is certain, that abuses have been, 
 and still do subsist, in that species of government ; and abuses 
 of as bad a kind may, I believe, be found, by persons of no 
 great penetration, in all our governments; but, if there were 
 any truth in this observation, the province of Pennsylvania 
 would prove an illustrious exception to it: 
 
 William Penn, in his capacity of a divine and of a moral 
 writer, is certainly not of the first rank ; and his works are of 
 no great estimation, except amongst his own people; but, in his 
 capacity of a legislator and the founder of so flourishing a com 
 monwealth, he deserves great honour amongst all mankind; a 
 commonwealth, which, in the space of about seventy years, 
 from a beginning of a few hundreds of refugees and indigent 
 men, has grown to be a numerous and flourishing people ; a 
 people, who, from a perfect wilderness, have brought their ter 
 ritory to a state of great cultivation, and filled it with wealthy 
 and populous towns ; and who, in the midst of a fierce and law 
 less race of men, have preserved themselves, with unarmed 
 hands and passive principles, by the rules of moderation and 
 justice, better than any other people has done by policy and 
 arms. For Mr. Penn, when, for his father's services and by his 
 own interest at court, he obtained the inheritance of this country 
 
 3 E 2 and 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 and its government, saw that he could make the grant of value 
 to him only by rendering the country as agreeable to all people, 
 as ease and good government could make it. To this purpose, 
 he began by purchasing the soil, at a very low rate indeed, from 
 the original possessors, to whom it was of little use. By this 
 cheap act of justice at the beginning, he made all his dealings 
 for the future the more easy, by prepossessing the Indians with 
 a favourable opinion of him and his designs. The other part 
 of his plan, which was, to people this country after he had 
 secured the possession of it, he saw much facilitated by the un 
 easiness of his brethren the Quakers in England, who, refusing 
 to pay tythes and other church dues, suffered a great deal from 
 the spiritual courts. Their high opinion of and regard for the 
 man, who was an honour to their new church, made them the 
 more ready to follow him over the vast ocean into an untried 
 climate and country. Neither was he himself wanting in any 
 thing which could encourage them. For he expended large 
 sums in transporting and finding them in all necessaries ; and, 
 not aiming at a sudden profit, he disposed of his land at a very 
 light purchase. But what crowned all was, that noble charter 
 of privileges, by which he made them as free as any people in 
 the world ; and which has since drawn such rast numbers, of 
 so many different persuasions and such various countries, to put 
 themselves under the protection of his laws. He made the 
 most perfect freedom, both religious and civil, the basis of this 
 establishment ; and this has done more towards the settling of 
 the province, and towards the settling of it in a strong and per- 
 manent manner, than the wisest regulations could have done 
 upon any other plan. All persons who profess to believe one 
 God, are freely tolerated ; tliose who believe in Jesus Christ, 
 of whatever denomination, are not excluded from employments- 
 and posts. 
 
 This 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 397 
 
 This great man lived to see an extensive* country called after 
 his own name ; he lived to see it peopled by his own wisdom, 
 the people free and flourishing, and the most flourishing people 
 in it of his own persuasion ; lived to lay the foundations of a 
 splendid and wealthy city ; he lived to see it promise every 
 thing from the situation which he himself had chosen, and the 
 encouragement he himself had given it : he lived to see all this ; 
 but he died in the Fleet prison. 
 
 It is but just, that in such a subject, we should allot a little 
 room, to do honour to those great men, whose virtue and ge 
 nerosity have contributed to the peopling of the earth, and tp 
 the freedom and happiness of mankind ; who have preferred 
 the interest of a remote posterity, and times unknown, to their 
 own fortunes, and to the quiet and security of their own lives. 
 Now, Great Britain, and all America, reap great benefits from 
 his labours and his losses ; and his posterity have a vast estate 
 out of the quit-rents of that province, whose establishment was 
 the ruin of their predecesor's moderate fortune. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
398 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 INHABITANTS OF PENNSYLVANIA. VARIETY OP NATIONS AND RET TCflONS 
 
 THERE. PACIFIC* PRINCIPLES OF THE QUAKERS. REFLEXloN* ON TrtE 
 
 PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS THERE. 
 
 PENNSYLVANIA is inhabited by upwards of two hundred and fifty 
 thousand people, half of whom are Germans, Swedes, or Dutch. 
 Here you see the Quakers, Churchmen, Calvinists, Lutherans, 
 Catholicks, Methodists, Menists, Moravians, Independents, 
 the Anabaptists, and the Dumplers, a sort of German sect, that 
 live in something like a religious society, wear long beards, and 
 a^ habit resembling that of friars. In short, the diversity of peo 
 ple, religion, nations, and languages here, is prodigious, and the 
 harmony in which they live together no less edifying. For, though 
 every man, who wishes well to religion, is sorry to see the di 
 versity which prevails, and would by all humane and honest 
 methods endeavour to prevent it ; yet, when once the evil has 
 happened, when there is no longer an union of sentiments, it is 
 glorious to preserve at least an union of affections ; it is a beau 
 tiful prospect, to see men take and give an equal liberty ; to 
 see them live, if as not belonging to the same church, yet to 
 the same Christian religion ; and if not to the same religion, 
 yet to the same great fraternity of mankind. I do not observe, 
 that the Quakers, who had, and who still have in a great mea 
 sure, the power in their hands, have made use of it in any sort 
 to persecute ; except in the single case of George Keith, whom 
 they first imprisoned, and then banished out of the province. 
 
 This 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 399 
 
 This Keith was originally a minister of the Church of England, 
 then a Quaker, and afterwards returned to his former ministry. 
 But whilst he remained with* the friends, he was a most trou 
 blesome and litigious man ; was for pushing the particularities 
 of quakerism to yet more extravagant lengths, and for making 
 new refinements, even where the most enthusiastick thought they 
 had gone far enough ; which rash and turbulent conduct raised 
 such a storm, as shook the church, he then adhered to, to the 
 very foundations. 
 
 This little sally into intolerance, as it is a single instance, and 
 with great provocation, ought by no means to be imputed to 
 the principles of the Quakers, considering the ample and hu 
 mane latitude they have allowed in all other respects. It was 
 certainly a very right policy to encourage the importation of fo 
 reigners into Pennsylvania, as well as into our other colonies. 
 By this we are great gainers, without any diminution of the in 
 habitants of Great Britain. But it has been frequently observed, 
 and, as it should seem, very justly complained of, that they are 
 left still foreigners, and likely to continue so for many genera 
 tions ; as they have schools taught, books printed, and even the 
 common newspaper in their own language ; by which means, 
 and as they possess large tracts of the country without any in- 
 ' termixture of English, there is no appearance of their blending 
 and becoming one people with us. This certainty is a great 
 irregularity, and the greater, as these foreigners, by their in 
 dustry, frugality, and a hard way of living, in which they greatly 
 exceed our people, have in a manner thrust them out in several 
 places ; so as to threaten the colony with the danger of being 
 wholly foreign in language, manners and perhaps even inclina 
 tions. In the year 1750, were imported into Pennsylvania and 
 its depencencies four thousand three hundred and seventeen 
 Germans, whereas of British and Irish but one thousand ar 
 rived ; 
 
400 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 rived ; a considerable number, if it was not so vastly overba 
 lanced by that of the foreigners. 
 
 I do by no means think that this sort of transplantations 
 ought to be discouraged; I only observe, along with others, 
 that the manner of their settlement ought to be regulated, and 
 means sought to have them naturalized in reality. 
 
 The present troubles have very unhappily reversed the system 
 so long pursued, and with such great success, in this part of the 
 world. The Pennsylvanians have suffered severely by the in 
 cursions of the savage Americans as well as their neighbours ; 
 but the Quakers could not be prevailed upon, by what did not 
 directly affect those of their own communion (for they were out 
 of the way of mischief in the more settled parts), to relinquish 
 their pacifick principles ; for which reason, a considerable oppo 
 sition,* in which, however, we must do the Quakers the justice 
 to observe they were not unanimous, was made, both within 
 their assembly as well as without doors, against granting any 
 money to carry on the war ; and the same, or a more vigorous 
 opposition, was made against passing a militia bill. A bill of 
 this kind has at length passed, but scarcely such as the circum* 
 stances of the country and the exigencies of the times required. 
 It may perhaps appear an errour, to have placed so great a part 
 of the government in the hands of men, who hold principles di 
 rectly opposite to its end and design. As a peaceable, indus 
 trious, honest people, the Quakers cannot be too much cherish 
 ed ; but surely they cannot themselves complain, that when, 
 by their opinions, they make themselves sheep, they should not 
 be entrusted with the office, since they have not the nature of 
 dogs. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 401 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OP PHILADELPHIA. ITS TRADE. NUMBER OY PEOPLE IN 
 
 PENNSYLVANIA. ITS FLOURISHING CONDITION. FEW NEGROES THERE, 
 
 THERE are so many good towns in the' province of Pennsyl 
 vania, even exceeding the capitals of some other provinces, that 
 nothing could excuse our passing them by, had not Philadelphia 
 drawn our attention wholly to 'itself. This city stands upon a 
 tongue of land, immediately at the confluence of two fine 
 rivers, the Delaware and the Schuylkil. It is disposed in the 
 form of an oblong, designed to extend two miles from river 
 to river ; but the buildings do not extend above a mile and a 
 half on the west side of Delaware in length, and not more than 
 half a mile where the town is broadest. The longest stretch, 
 when the original plan can be fully executed, is to compose 
 eight parallel streets, all of two miles in length ; these are to be 
 intersected by sixteen others, each in length a mile, broad, 
 spacious, and even ; with proper spaces left for the publick 
 buildings, churches, and market-places. In the center is a 
 square of ten acres, round which most of the publick buildings 
 are disposed. The two principal streets of the city are each 
 one hundred feet wide, and most of the houses have a small 
 garden and orchard ; from the rivers are cut several canals, 
 equally agreeable and beneficial. The quays are spacious and 
 fine ; the principal quay is two hundred feet wide, and to this 
 a vessel of five hundred tons may lay her broadside. The ware 
 houses are large, numerous and commodious, and the docks for 
 ship-building every way well adapted to their purposes. A great 
 
 3 p number 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 number of vessels have been built here ; twenty helve been up.*n 
 the stocks at a time. The city contains, exclusive of warehouses 
 and outhouses, about two thousand houses ; most of them of 
 brick, and well built ; it is said, there are several of them worth 
 four or five thousand pounds. The inhabitants are now about 
 thirteen thousand. 
 
 There are in this city a great number of wealthy merchants ; 
 which is no way surprising, when one considers the great trade 
 which it carries on with the English, French, Spanish, and 
 Dutch colonies in America ; with the Azores, the. Canaries, and 
 the Madeira islands ; with Great Britain and Ireland ; with 
 Spain, Portugal and Holland, and the great profits which are 
 made in many branches of this commerce. Besides the quan 
 tity of all kinds of the produce of this province which is brought 
 down the rivers Delaware and Schuylkil (the former of which is 
 navigable, for vessels of one sort or other, more than two hun 
 dred miles above Philadelphia) the Dutch employ between eight 
 and nine thousand waggons, drawn each by four horses, in bring 
 ing the product of their farms to this market. In the year 1749, 
 three hundred and three vessels entered inwards at this port, 
 and two hundred and ninety cleared outwards. There are, at 
 the other ports of this province, custom-house officers ; but the 
 foreign trade in these places is not worth notice. 
 
 The city of Philadelphia, though, as it may be judged, 
 far from compleating the original plan, yet, so far as it is 
 built, is carried on conformable to it, and increases in the 
 jnumber and beauty of its buildings every day. And as for the 
 province, of which this city is the capital, there is no part of 
 British America in a more growing condition. In some years, 
 more people have transported themselves into Pennsylvania, 
 than into all the other settlements together. In 1729, six thou 
 sand two hundred and eight persons came to settle here as pas 
 sengers 
 
ETTItOPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 sengers or servants, four fifths of whom at least were from Ire 
 land. In short, this province has increased so greatly from the 
 time of its first establishment, that, whereas lands were given by 
 Mr. Penn the founder of the colony at the rate of twenty pounds 
 for a thousand acres, reserving only a shilling every hundred 
 acres for quit-rent ; and this in some of the best situated parts 
 o the province : yet now, at a great distance from the naviga 
 tion, land is granted at twelve pounds the hundred acres, and a 
 quit-rent of four shillings reserved ; and the land which is near 
 Philadelphia rents for twenty shillings the acre. In many 
 places, and at the distance of several miles from that city, land 
 sells for twenty years purchase. 
 
 The Pennsylvanians are an industrious and hardy people ; 
 they are most of them substantial, though but a few of the 
 landed people can be considered as rich ; but they are all well 
 lodged, well fed, and, for their condition, well clad too ; and 
 this at the more easy rate, as their inferiour people manufacture 
 most of their own wear, both linens and woollens. There are 
 but few Blacks, not in all the fortieth part of the people of the 
 province* 
 
 3 F 2 CHAP. 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THF, 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 SITUATION, &C. OF VIRGINIA. CONVENIENCY OF ITS RIVERS FOR NAVI 
 GATION. BEASTS AND BIRDS OF THE COUNTRY. THE OPOSSUM. 
 
 THE whole country which the English now possess in North 
 America, was at first called Virginia ; but by the parcelling of 
 several portions of it into distinct grants and governments, the 
 country which still bears the name is now reduced to that tract 
 which has the river Potowmack upon the north ; the bay of 
 Chesapeak upon the east ; and Carolina upon the south. To the 
 westward, the grants extend it to the South-Sea; but their plant 
 ing goes no further than the great Alleghany mountains, which 
 boundaries leave this province in length two hundred and forty 
 miles, and in breadth about two hundred, lying between the 
 fifty-fifth and fortieth degrees of north latitude. 
 
 The whole face of this country is so extremely low towards 
 the sea, that, when you are come even within fifteen fathom 
 soundings, you can hardly distinguish land from the mast head. 
 However, all this coast of America has one useful particularity, 
 that you know your distance exactly by the soundings, which 
 uniformly and gradually diminish as you approach the land. 
 The trees appear as if they rose out of the water, and afford 
 the stranger a very uncommon, and not a disagreeable, view. 
 In sailing to Virginia or Maryland, you pass a streight, between 
 two points of land, called the Capes of Virginia, which opens 
 a passage into the bay of Chesapeak, one of the largest and 
 safest bays perhaps in the world ; for it enters the country near 
 
 three 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 40,} 
 
 three hundred miles from the south to the north, having the 
 eastern side of Maryland, and a small portion of Virginia on 
 the same peninsula, to cover it from the Atlantick Ocean. This 
 bay is about eighteen miles broad for a considerable way, and 
 seven where it is narrowest, the waters in most places being 
 nine fathom deep. Through its whole extent, it receives, both 
 on the eastern and western side, a vast number of fine navigable 
 rivers. Not to mention those of Maryland ; from the side of 
 Virginia, it receives James River, York River, the Rappahan- 
 nock, and the Potowmack. 
 
 All these great rivers in the order they are here set down 
 from south to north, discharge themselves, with several smaller 
 ones, into the bay of Chesapeak ; and they are all not only na 
 vigable themselves for very large vessels a prodigious way into 
 the country, but have so many creeks, and receive such a num 
 ber of smaller navigable rivers, as renders the communication 
 of all parts of this country infinitely more easy than that of any 
 country, without exception, in the world. The Potowmack is 
 navigable for near two hundred miles, being nine miles broad 
 at its mouth, and for a vast way not less than seven. The other 
 three are navigable upwards of eighty, and in the windings of 
 their several courses approach one another so nearly, that the 
 distance between one and the other is in some parts not more 
 than ten, sometimes not above five miles ; whereas in others 
 there is fifty miles space between each of these rivers. The 
 planters load and unload vessels of great burden each at his own 
 door; which, as their commodities are bulky, and of small 
 value in proportion to their bulk, is a very fortunate circum 
 stance ; else they could never afford to send their tobacco to 
 market low as they sell it, and charged, as it is in England, 
 with a duty of six times its original value. 
 
 The 
 
406 
 
 The climate and soil of Virginia was undoubtedly much 
 heightened in the first descriptions, for political reasons ; but, 
 after making all the necessary abatements which experience 
 since taught us, we still find it a most excellent country. The 
 heats in summer are excessively great, but not without the allay 
 of refreshing sea breezes. The weather is changeable, and the 
 changes- sudden and violent. Their winter frosts come on with 
 out the least warning. After a warm day, towards the setting 
 in of winter, so intense a cold often succeeds as to freeze over 
 the broadest and deepest of their great rivers in one night ; but 
 these frosts, as well as their rains, are rather violent than of 
 long continuance. They have frequent and terrible thunder 
 and lightning, but it does rarely any mischief. In general the 
 sky is clear, and the air thin, pure, and penetrating. 
 
 The soil in the low grounds of Virginia is a dark fat mould, 
 which, for many years, without any manure, yields plentifully 
 whatever is committed to it. The soil, as you leave the rivers, 
 becomes light and sandy, is sooner exhausted than the low 
 country, but is yet of a warm and generous nature, which, 
 helped by a kindly sun, yields tobacco and corn extremely well. 
 There is no better wheat than what is produced in this province 
 and Maryland ; but the culture of tobacco employs all their 
 attention, and almost all their hands ; so that they scarcely 
 cultivate wheat enough for their own use. 
 
 It may be judged, from the climate and the soil I have de 
 scribed, in what excellence and plenty every sort of fruit is found 
 in Virginia. Their forests are fall of timber trees- of all kinds ; 
 and their plains are covered for almost the whole year with a 
 prodigious number of flowers, and flowering shrubs, of colours 
 so rich, and of a scent so fragrant, that they occasioned the 
 name of Florida to be originally given to. this country. This 
 
 country 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMlilUCA.' 40? 
 
 country produces several medicinal herbs and roots, particu 
 larly the snake root ; and of late the celebrated ginseng of the 
 Chinese has been discovered there. 
 
 Horned cattle and hogs have multiplied almost beyond be 
 lief; though at the first settlement the country was utterly des 
 titute of these animals. The meat of the former is as much be 
 low the flesh of our oxen, as that of the latter exceeds that of our 
 hogs. The animals natural to the country are deer, of which 
 there are great numbers ; a sort of panther or tiger ; bears, 
 wolves, foxes, racoons, squirrels, wild cats, and one very un 
 common animal called the opossum. This creature is about 
 the size of a cat, and, besides the belly which it has in common 
 with others, has a false one beneath it, with a pretty large aper 
 ture at the end towards the hinder legs. Within this bag or 
 belly, on the usual parts of the common belly, are a number of 
 teats ; upon these, when the female of this creature conceives, 
 the young are formed, and there they hang like fruit upon the 
 stalk, until they grow in bulk and weight to their appointed 
 size ; then they drop off, and are received in the false belly, 
 from which they go out at pleasure, and in which they take 
 refuge when any danger threatens them. 
 
 They have all our sorts of tame and wild fowl in equal per 
 fection, and some which we have not ; and a vast number of 
 birds of various kinds, valuable for their beauty or their note. 
 The white owl of Virginia is far larger than the species which 
 we have, and is all over of a bright silver-coloured plumage, 
 except one black spot upon his breast ; they have the night 
 ingale called from the country, a most beautiful one, whose fea 
 thers are crimson and blue ; the mocking bird, thought to excel 
 all others in his own note, and imitating the notes of every one ; 
 the rock bird, very sociable, and his society very agreeable by 
 the sweetness of his musick ; the humming bird, the smallest 
 
 of 
 
408 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 of all the winged creation and the most beautiful, all arrayed 
 in scarlet, green, and gold. This bird is said to live by licking 
 off the dew that adheres to the flowers ; he is too delicate to 
 be brought alive into England. The sea-coasts and rivers of 
 Virginia abound not only in several of the species of fish known 
 in Europe, but in most of those kinds which are peculiar to 
 America. The reptiles are many ; it were tedious to enume 
 rate all the kinds of serpents bred here ; the rattle snake is the 
 principal, and too well known in general to need any de 
 scription. 
 
 CHAP, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 409 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 TOWNS IN VIRGINIA FEW AND SMALL. TOBACCO, ITS CULTIVATION. TRADE 
 
 IN THAT AND OTHER COMMODITIES. PEOPLE IN VIRGINIA. WHITE AND 
 
 BLACK. 
 
 THE great commodiousness of navigation and the scarcity of 
 handicraftsmen have rendered all the attempts of the govern 
 ment to establish towns in Virginia ineffectual. James's town, 
 which was anciently the capital, is dwindled into an insignifi 
 cant village ; and Williamsburgh, though the capital at present, 
 the seat of the governor, the place of holding the assembly and 
 courts of justice, and a college for the study of arts and sciences, 
 is yet but a small town. However, in this town are the best pub- 
 lick buildings in British America. The college, one hundred 
 and thirty- five feet long in front, resembling Chelsea hospital ; 
 the capitol directly facing it, at the other end of the design of a 
 noble street, not unlike the college in the fashion and the size 
 of the building, where the assembly and courts of justice are 
 held and the publick offices kept ; and the church, in the forni 
 of a cross, large and well ornamented. 
 
 The great staple commodity of this country, as well as Mary 
 land, is tobacco. This plant is aboriginal in America, and of 
 very ancient use, though neither so generally cultivated nor so 
 well manufactured as it has been since the coming of the Euro 
 peans. When at its just height, it is as tall as an ordinary-sized 
 man;. the stalk is straight, hairy, and clammy ; the leaves alter 
 nate, of a faded yellowish green, and towards the lower part of 
 
 3 G the 
 
 v 
 
4)0 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the plant of a great size. The seeds of tobacco are first sown 
 in beds, from whence they are transplanted, the first rainy wea 
 ther, into a ground disposed into little hillocks like an hop 
 garden. In a month's time from their transplantation they be 
 come a foot high ; they then top them, and prune off the lower 
 leaves, and with great attention clean them from weeds and 
 worms twice a week ; in about six weeks after, they attain to 
 their full growth, and they begin then to turn brownish. By 
 these marks they judge the tobacco to be ripe. They cut down 
 the plants as fast as they ripen, heap them up and let them lie 
 a night to sweat ; the next day they carry them to the tobacco 
 house, which is built to admit as much ait as is consistent with 
 keeping out rain, where they are hung separately to dry, for 
 four or five weeks ; then they take them down in moist weather, 
 or else they crumble to dust. After this they are laid upon sticks, 
 and covered up close to sweat for a week or two longer ; the* 
 servants strip and sort them, the top being the best, the bottom 
 the worst tobacco ; then they make them up in hogsheads, o* 
 form them into rolls. Wet seasons must be carefully laid hold 
 On for all this work, else the tobacco will not be sufficiently 
 pliable. 
 
 In trade they distinguish two sorts of tobacco, the first is 
 called Aranokoe, from Maryland and the northern parts of Vir 
 ginia ; this is strong and hot in the mouth, but it sells very well 
 in the markets of Holland, Germany, and the North. The 
 other sort is called sweet-scented, the best of which is from 
 James's and York rivers in the southern parts of Virginia. 
 There is no commodity to which the revenue is so much obliged 
 as to this. It produces a vast sum, and yet appears to lay but a 
 very inconsiderable burden upon the people in England ; all the 
 weight in reality falls upon the planter, who is kept down by the 
 lowness of the original price ; and as we have two provinces which 
 
 deal 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 411 
 
 deal iii the same commodity, if the people of Virginia were to 
 take measures to straiten the market and raise the price, those 
 of Maryland would certainly take the advantage of it ; the peo 
 ple of Virginia would take the same advantage of those of Mary 
 land in a like case. They have no prospect of ever bettering 
 their condition ; and they are the less able to endure it as they 
 live in general luxuriously, and to the full extent of their for 
 tunes. Therefore any failure in the sale of their goods brings 
 them heavily in debt to the merchants in London, who get 
 mortgages on their estates, which are consumed to the bone, 
 with the canker of an eight per cent usury. But, however the 
 planters may complain of the tobacco trade, the revenue flou 
 rishes by it, for it draws near three hundred thousand a year 
 from this one article only ; . and the exported tobacco, the 
 far greater part of the profits of which come to the English 
 merchant, brings almost as great a sum annually into the 
 kingdom. To say nothing of the great advantage we derive 
 from being supplied from our own colonies with that for which 
 the rest of Europe pays ready money, besides the employment 
 of two hundred large vessels, and a proportionable number of 
 seamen, which are occupied in this trade, From us the Vir 
 ginians take every article for convenience or ornament which 
 they use ; their own manufacture does not deserve to be men 
 tioned. The two colonies export about eighty thousand hogs 
 heads of tobacco of eight hundred weight. They likewise trade 
 largely with the West-Indies in lumber, pitch, tar, corn, and 
 provisions. They send home flax, hemp, iron, staves, and wal 
 nut and cedar plank. 
 
 The number of White people in Virginia, is between sixty 
 and seventy thousand ; and they are growing every day more nu 
 merous, by the migration of the Irish, who, not succeeding so 
 well in Pennsylvania as the more frugal and industrious Ger- 
 
 3 a 2 mans, 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF TIIF 
 
 mans, sell their lands in that province to the latter, and take 
 tip new ground in the remote counties in Virginia, Maryland", 
 and North Carolina. These are chiefly Presbyterians from the 
 northern part of Ireland, who in America are generally called 
 Scotch Irish. In Virginia there are likewise settled a consider- 
 
 o 
 
 able number of French refugees ; but much the larger part of 
 the inhabitants are negroe slaves, who cannot be much fewer 
 than a hundred thousand souls ; they annually import into the 
 two tobacco colonies between three and four thousand of these 
 slaves. The negroes here do not stand in need of such vast re 
 cruits as the West-India stock; they rather increase than 
 diminish ; a blessing derived from a more moderate labour, 
 better food, and a more healthy climate. The inhabitants of 
 Virginia are a chearful, hospitable, and many of them a genteel, 
 though something vain and ostentatious, people ; they are for 
 the greater part of the established church of England ; nor until 
 lately did they tolerate any other. Now they have some few 
 meeting-houses of Presbyterians and Quakers. 
 
 CHAP, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS* IN' AMERICA, 413 
 
 CHAP. XVI. 
 
 ATTEMPTS TO SETTLE VIRGINIA, THREE UNSUCCESSFUL. SETTLED AT LAST 
 
 BY LORD DELAWARE. 
 
 THIS of Virginia is the most ancient of our colonies. Though, 
 strictly speaking, the first attempts to settle a colony were not 
 made in Virginia, but in that part of North Carolina which im 
 mediately borders upon it. Sir Walter Raleigh, the most ex- 
 tra&dinary genius of his own or perhaps any other time, a 
 penetrating statesman, an accomplished courtier, a deep scholar, 
 a fine writer, a great soldier, and one of the ablest seamen in the 
 World ; this vast genius, that pierced so far and ran through so 
 many things, was of a fierce eccentrick kind, which led him into 
 daring expeditions and uncommon projects, which, not being 
 understood by a timid prince and envied and hated by the rivals 
 he had in so many ways of life, ruined him at last. In person, 
 he ran infinite risks in Guiana in search of gold mines : and 
 when this country was first discovered, he looked through the 
 work of an age at one glance, and saw how advantageous it might 
 be made to the trade of England. He was the first man in 
 England who had a right conception of the advantages of settle 
 ments abroad ; he was then the only person who had a thorough 
 insight into trade, and who saw clearly the proper methods of 
 promoting it. He applied to court, and got together a com 
 pany, which was composed of several persons of distinction and 
 several eminent merchants, who agreed to open a trade and settle 
 a colony in that part of the world, which, in honour of Queen 
 Elizabeth, he called Virginia. 
 
 Raleigh < 
 
414 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Raleigh had too much business upon his hands at court, and 
 found too few to second him in his designs, to enable him to 
 support the establishment with the spirit in which he began it. 
 If ever any design had an ominous beginning, and seemed to 
 forbid any attempts for carrying it on, it was that of the first 
 settlement of Virginia. Near half of the first colony was de 
 stroyed by the savages ; and the rest, consumed and worn down 
 by fatigue and famine, deserted the country, and returned home 
 in despair. The second colony was cut off, to a man, in a 
 manner unknown ; but they were supposed to be destroyed by 
 the Indians. The third had the same dismal fate; and the 
 fourth, quarrelling amongst themselves, neglecting their agri 
 culture to hunt for gold, and provoking the Indians by their 
 insolent and unguarded behaviour, lost several of their people, 
 and were returning, the poor remains of them, in a famishing 
 and desperate condTtion, to England, when just in the mouth of 
 Chesapeak bay they met the Lord Delaware, with a squadron 
 loaded with provision, and every thing for their relief and de 
 fence, who persuaded them to return. 
 
 This nobleman travelled with as much zeal and assiduity to 
 cherish and support the froward infancy of this unpromising 
 colony, as some have used in its better times for purposes of 
 another kind. Regardless of his life, and inattentive to his for 
 tune, he entered upon this long and dangerous voyage, and 
 accepted this barren province, which had nothing of a govern 
 ment but its anxieties and its cares, merely for the service of his 
 country ; and he had no other reward than that retired and in 
 ward satisfaction, which a good mind feels in indulging its own 
 propensity to virtue, and the prospect of those just honours 
 which the latest posterity will take a pleasure in bestowing upon 
 those, who prefer the interest of posterity to their own. After 
 he had prevailed upon the people to return, he comforted them 
 
 under 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 415 
 
 under their misfortunes, he pointed out their causes, and unit 
 ing the tenderness of a father with the steady severity of a 
 magistrate, he healed their divisions, and reconciled them to 
 authority and government, by making them feel by his conduct 
 what a blessing it could he made. 
 
 When he had settled the colony within itself, his next care 
 was to put them upon a proper footing with regard to the 
 Indians, whom he found very haughty and assuming, on account 
 of the late miserable state of the English ; but, by some well- 
 timed and vigorous steps, he humbled them, shewed he had 
 power to chastise them, and courage to exert that power ; and, 
 after having awed them into very peaceable dispositions and 
 Settled his colony in a very growing condition, he retired home 
 for the benefit of his health, which, by his constant attention to 
 business and the air of an uncultivated country, had been im 
 paired ; but he left his son, with the spirit of his father, his 
 deputy ; and Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Summers, the 
 honourable George Piercy, Sir Ferdinand Wenman, and Mr. 
 Newport, for his council. These, with other persons of rank 
 and fortune, attended him on this expedition, which gave a 
 credit to the colony. Though there are in England many young 
 gentlemen of fortunes disproportioned to their rank, I fear we 
 should not see the names of so many of them engaged in an 
 expedition, which had no better appearance than this had at 
 that time. 
 
 Lord Delaware did not forget the colony on his return to Eng 
 land; but, considering himself as nearer the fountain head, thought 
 it his duty to turn the spring of the royal favour more copiously 
 upon the province which he superintended. For eight years 
 together he was indefatigable in doing every thing that could" 
 tend to the peopling, the support, and the good government of 
 this settlement ; and he died in the pursuit of the same object 
 
 in 
 
416 AN ACCOUNT OF Till 
 
 in his voyage to Virginia, with a large supply of people, cloath- 
 ing and goods. 
 
 It-is one of the most necessary, and I am sure it is one of the 
 most pleasing, parts of this design to do justice to the names 
 of those men, who, by their greatness of mind, their wisdom 
 and their goodness, have brought into the pale of civility and 
 religion these rude and uncultivated parts of the globe ; who 
 could discern the rudiments of a future people, wanting only 
 time to be unfolded in the seed ; who could perceive, amidst 
 the losses and disappointments and expences of a beginning co 
 lony, the great advantages to be derived to their country from 
 such undertakings ; and who could pursue them in spite of the 
 malignity and narrow wisdom of the world. The ancient world 
 had its Osiris and Erichthonius, who taught them the use of 
 grain ; their Bacchus, who instructed them in the culture of 
 the vine ; and their Orpheus and Linus, who first built towns 
 and formed civil societies. The people of America will not fail, 
 when time has made things venerable, and when an intermix 
 ture of fable has moulded useful truths into popular opinions, to 
 mention with equal gratitude, and perhaps similar heightening 
 circumstances, her Columbus, her Castro, her Casca, her De 
 Poincy, her Delaware, her Baltimore, and her Penn. 
 
 CHAP 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN'AMERXCA. 417 
 
 C II A P. XVII. 
 
 VIRGINIA HOLDS OC'T AGAINST CROMWELLj AND IS IlEOLCIJ). BACON'S RE 
 BELLION. ITS CAUSES. BACON DIES. PEACE RESTORED. 
 
 THE colony of Virginia was so fast rooted by the care of Lord 
 Delaware, that it was enabled to stand two terrible storms ; two 
 massacres made by the Indians, in which the whole colony was 
 nearly cut off; and to subdue that people, so as to put it 
 utterly out of their power for many years past to give them the 
 least disturbance. 
 
 In the fatal troubles which brought Charles the First to the 
 block, and overturned the constitution of England, many of 
 the cavaliers fled for refuge, to this colony, which, by the ge 
 neral disposition of the inhabitants and the virtue of Sir Wil 
 liam Berkley, held out for the crown, until the parliament, 
 rather by stratagem than force, reduced them. And what is 
 remarkable, if it may be depended upon with any certainty, 
 they deposed Cromwell's governor, set up Sir William Berkley 
 again, and declared for King Charles the second, a good while 
 even before the news of Oliver's death could arrive in America. 
 
 After the Restoration, there is nothing very interesting in their 
 history ; except that soon after, a sort of rebellion arose in the 
 province, from mismanagements in the government, from the 
 decay of their trade, and from exorbitant grants inconsiderately 
 made, which included the settled property of many people ; 
 these grievances raised a general discontent amongst the plan 
 ters, which was fomented and brought to blaze out into an ac- 
 
 3 H tual 
 
418 AN ACCOUNT OP THE 
 
 tual war, by a young gentleman whose name was Bacon. He 
 was an agreeable man, of a graceful presence and winning car 
 riage. He had been bred to the law, had a lively and fluent 
 expression, fit to set off a popular cause, and to influence men 
 who were ready to hear whatever could be said to colour in a 
 proper manner, what was already strongly drawn by their own 
 feelings. This man, by a specious, or perhaps a real, though 
 ill-judged, regard for the publick good, finding the governor 
 slow in his preparations against the Indians, who were at that 
 time ravaging the frontiers of the province, took up arms, with 
 out any commission, to act against the enemy. When he had 
 sufficient force for this purpose, he found himself in a condition 
 not only to act against the enemy, but to give law to the go 
 vernor, and to force him to give a sanction by his authority to 
 those proceedings which were meant to destroy it. 
 
 Bacon, armed with the commission of a general and followed 
 by the whole force of the colony, prepared to march against the 
 Indians ; when Sir William Berkely, the governor, freed from 
 the immediate terrour of his forces, recalled him, proclaimed 
 him a traitor, and issued a reward for apprehending him as 
 such. This brought matters to extremities ; the people were 
 universally inflamed ; Bacon adhered to what he had done, the 
 people adhered to Bacon ; and the governor, who seemed no 
 ways inclined to temporize or yield to the storm, fled over the 
 river Potowmack, and proclaimed all Bacon's adherents traitors. 
 He put himself at the head of a small body of troops which he 
 had raised in Maryland, and of such of the Virginians as were 
 faithful to him, and wrote to England for supplies. On the other 
 hand, Bacon marched to the capital, called an assembly, and for 
 six months together disposed all things according to his own plea 
 sure, Every thing was now hastening to a civil war, when all 
 was quieted, in as sudden a manner as it had begun, by the 
 
 natural 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 natural death of Bacon, in the very height of the confusion. 
 The people, unable to act without a head, proposed terms of 
 accommodation ; the terms were listened to, and peace was re 
 stored and kept without any disturbance, not so much by the 
 removal of the grievances complained of, as by the arrival of a 
 regiment from England, which remained a long time in the 
 country. It must be remarked, in honour of the moderation 
 of the government, that no person suffered, in his life or his 
 estate, for this rebellion, which was the more extraordinaiy as 
 many people, at that time, were very earnest in soliciting grants 
 of land in Virginia. 
 
 The events in all countries which are not the residence of the su 
 preme power, and have no concern in the great business of trans 
 acting war and peace, have generally but little to engage the 
 attention of the reader. I have therefore entirely omitted the 
 tedious detail of the governors and their several transactions, 
 with which my materials so plentifully supply me ; and, for the 
 same reason, I shall be very concise in my account of Mary 
 land, which, agreeing altogether with Virginia in its climate, 
 soil, products, trade, and genius of the inhabitants, and having 
 few or no remarkable events to recommend it, will save much 
 trouble in that article. 
 
 3 H 2 CHAP. 
 
420 AN ACCOUNT OF THP. 
 
 C II A P. XVIII. 
 
 MARYLAND. TI-TE TIME OF SETTLING IT. GRANT TO LORD BALTIMORE.- 
 
 ATTEMPTS OF KING JAMES TO DEPRIVE HIM OF HIS JURISDICTION. HU 
 
 IS DEPRIVED OF IT ON THE REVOLUTION. HE IS RESTORED. CAPITAL 
 
 OF MARYLAND. ITS TRADE AND INHABITANTS. 
 
 IT was in the reign of Charles the First, that the Lord Balti 
 more applied for a patent for a part of Virginia, and obtained, 
 in 1632, a grant of a tract of land upon Chesapeak Bay, of 
 about an hundred and forty miles long, and an hundred and 
 thirty broad, having Pennsylvania, then in the hands of the 
 Dutch, upon the north, the Atlantick Ocean upon the east, and 
 the river Potowmack upon the south ; in honour of the queen, 
 he- called this province Maryland. 
 
 Lord Baltimore was a Roman Catholick, and was induced to 
 attempt this settlement in America, in hopes of enjoying liberty 
 of conscience for himself, and for such of his friends to whom 
 the severity of the laws might loosen their ties to their country,, 
 and make them prefer an easy banishment with freedom, to the 
 conveniencies of England, embittered as they were by the 
 sharpness of the laws, and the popular odium which hung over 
 them. The court at that time was certainly very little inclined 
 to treat the Roman Catholicks in a harsh manner, neither had 
 they in reality the least appearance of reason to do so ; but the 
 laws themselves were of a rigorous constitution ; and, however 
 the court might be inclined to relax them, they could not in 
 policy do it, but with great reserve. The Puritan party per 
 petually accused the court, and indeed the episcopal church, of 
 a desire of returning to popery ; and this accusation was so po 
 pular, that it was not in the power of the court to shew the 
 
 Papists 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 421 
 
 Papists that indulgence which they desired. The laws were 
 still executed with very little mitigation ; and they were in 
 themselves of a much keener temper, than those which had 
 driven the Puritans about the same time to seek a refuge in 
 the same part of the world. These reasons made Lord Balti 
 more desirous to have, and the court willing to give him, a 
 place of retreat in America. 
 
 The settlement of the colony cost the Lord Baltimore a large 
 sum. It was made, under his auspices, by his brother, and 
 about two hundred persons, Roman Catholicks, and most of 
 them of good families. This settlement, at the beginning, did 
 not meet with the same difficulties, which embarrassed and re 
 tarded most of the others we had made: The people were ge 
 nerally of the better sort ; a proper subordination was observed 
 amongst them ; and the Indians gave and took so little offence, 
 that they ceded one half of their principal town, and some time 
 after the whole of it, to these strangers. The Indian women 
 taught ours how to make bread of their corn ; their men went 
 out to hunt and fish with the English ; they assisted them in 
 the chace, and sold them the game they took themselves for 
 a trifling consideration ; so that the new settlers had a sort of 
 town readv built, ground ready cleared for their subsistence, 
 and no enemy to harass them. 
 
 They lived thus, without much trouble or fear, until some 
 ill-disposed persons in Virginia insinuated to the Indians, that 
 the Baltimore colony had designs upon them ; that they were 
 Spaniards and not Englishmen ; and such other stories as they 
 judged proper to sow the seeds of suspicion and enmity in the 
 minds of these people. Upon the first appearance, that the 
 malice of the Virginians had taken effect, the new planters were 
 not wanting to themselves. They built a good fort with all 
 expedition, and took every other measure necessaiy for their 
 defence ; but they continued still to treat the Indians with so 
 
 much 
 
422 , AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 much kindness, that, partly by that and partly by the awe of 
 their arms, the ill designs of their enemies were defeated. 
 
 As the colony met with so few obstructions, and as the Ro- 
 raan Catholicks in England were yet more severely treated in 
 proportion as the court party declined, numbers constantly ar 
 rived to replenish the settlement ; which " the lord proprietor 
 omitted no care, and withheld no expence, to support and en 
 courage ; until the usurpation overturned the government at 
 home, and deprived him of his rights abroad. Maryland re 
 mained under the governors appointed by the Parliament and 
 by Cromwell until the Restoration, when Lord Baltimore was 
 reinstated in his former possessions, which he cultivated with 
 his former wisdom, care, and moderation. No people could 
 live in greater ease and security ; and his lordship, willing that 
 as many as possible should enjoy the benefits of his mild and 
 equitable administration, gave his consent to an act of assembly, 
 which he had before promoted in his province, for allowing a 
 free and unlimited toleration for all who professed the Christian 
 religion, of whatever denomination. This liberty, which was 
 never in the least instance violated, encouraged a great number, 
 not only of the church of England, but of Presbyterians, 
 Quakers, .and all kinds of dissenters, to settle in Maryland, 
 which before that was almost wholly in the hands of Roman 
 Catholicks. 
 
 This lord, though guilty of no mal-administration in his go 
 vernment, though a zealous Roman Catholick, and firmly at 
 tached to the cause of King James the Second, could not pre 
 vent his charter from being questioned in that arbitrary reign, 
 and a suit from being commenced, to deprive him of the pro 
 perty and jurisdiction of a province granted by the royal favour, 
 and peopled at such a vast expence of his own. But it was 
 the errour of that weak, and unfortunate reign, neither to 
 know its friends nor its enemies ; but, by a blind precipitate 
 
 conduct, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS LN AMERICA, 423 
 
 conduct, to hurry on every thing of whatever consequence with 
 almost equal heat, and to imagine that the sound of the royal 
 authority was sufficient to justify every sort of conduct to every 
 sort of people. But these injuries could not shake the honour 
 and constancy of Lord Baltimore, nor tempt him to desert the 
 cause of his master. Upon the Revolution, he had no reason 
 to expect any favour ; yet he met with more than King James 
 had intended him ; he was deprived indeed of all his jurisdic 
 tion, but he was left the profits of his. province, which were by 
 no means inconsiderable ; and when his descendants had con 
 formed to the church of England, they were restored to all 
 their rights as fully as the legislature has thought fit that any 
 proprietor should enjoy them. 
 
 When, upon the Revolution, power changed hands in that 
 province, the new men made but an indifferent requital for the 
 liberties and indulgences they hatf enjoyed under the old admi 
 nistration. They not only deprived the Roman Catholicks of 
 all share in the government, but of all the rights of freemen ; 
 they have even adopted the whole body of the penal laws of 
 England against them ; they are at this day meditating new 
 laws in the same spirit, and they would undoubtedly go to the 
 greatest lengths in this respect, if the moderation and good 
 sense of the government in England did not set some bounds 
 to their bigotry ; thinking very prudently that it were highly 
 unjust, and equally impolitick, to allow an asylum abroad to 
 any religious persuasions which they judged it improper to to 
 lerate at home, and then to deprive them of its protection ; 
 recollecting at the same time, in the various changes which our 
 religion and government have undergone, which have in their 
 turns rendered every sort 'of party and religion obnoxious to 
 the reigning powers, that this American asylum, which has 
 been admitted in the hottest times of persecution at home, has 
 proved of infinite service, not only to the present peace of 
 
 England, 
 
42-1 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 England, but to the prosperity of its commerce and the estab 
 lishment of its power. There are a sort of men, who will not 
 see so plain a truth ; and they are the persons who would appear 
 to contend most warmly for liberty ; but it is only a party li-- 
 berty for which they contend ; a liberty, which they would 
 stretch out one way only to narrow it in another ; they are not 
 ashamed of using the very same pretences for persecuting 
 others, that their enemies use for persecuting them. 
 
 This colony, as for a long time it had with Pennsylvania the 
 honour of being unstained with any religious persecution, so 
 neither they nor the Pennsylvanians have ever until very 
 lately been harassed by the calamity of any war, offensive or 
 defensive, with their Indian neighbours, with whom they always 
 lived in the most exemplary harmony. Indeed, in a war which 
 the Indians made upon the colony of Virginia, by mistake 
 they made an incursion into the bounds of Maryland ; but 
 they were soon sensible of their mistake, and atoned for it. 
 This present war indeed has changed every thing, and the In 
 dians have been taught to laugh at all their ancient alliances. 
 
 Maryland, like Virginia, has no considerable town, and for 
 the same reason ; the number of na\ 7 igable creeks and rivers. 
 Annapolis is the seat of government. It is a small but beauti 
 fully situated town, upon the river Severn. 
 
 Here is the seat of the governor, and the principal custom 
 house collection. The people of Maryland have the same estab 
 lished religion with those of Virginia, that of the church of 
 England ; but here the clergy are provided for in a much more 
 -liberal manner, and they are the most decent, and the best of 
 the clergy in North America. They export from Maryland 
 the same things in all respects that they do from Virginia. 
 Their tobacco is about forty thousand hogsheads. The white 
 inhabitants are about forty thousand ; the negroes upwards of 
 sixty thousand. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IX AMERICA 
 
 C II A P. XIX. 
 
 ATTEMPTS OF THE FRENCH TO SETTLE CAROLINA. THEY ARE KL:AT OFF BV 
 
 THE SPANIARDS. 
 
 IT must not be forgot, that we formerly called all the coast of 
 North America by the name of Virginia. The province pro 
 perly so called, with Maryland and the Carolina*, was known 
 by the name of South Virginia. By the Spaniards it was con 
 sidered as part of Florida, which couritry they made to extend 
 from New Mexico to the Atlantick Ocean. By them it was first 
 discovered ; but they treated the natives with an inhumanity 
 which filled them with so violent an hatred to the Spanish name, 
 as rendered their settlement there very difficult ; nor did they 
 push it vigorously, as the country shewed no marks of pro 
 ducing gold or silver, the only things for which the Spaniards 
 then valued any country. Florida therefore remained under an 
 entire neglect in Europe, until the reign of Charles the Ninth, 
 king of France. 
 
 The celebrated leader of the Protestants in that kingdom, 
 
 O 
 
 the Admiral Chastillon, who was not only a great commander, 
 but an able statesman, was a man of too comprehensive views 
 not to see the advantages of a settlement in America ; he pro 
 cured two vessels to be fitted out for discoveries upon that coast. 
 lie had it probably in his thoughts to retire thither with those 
 of his persuasion, if the success, which hitherto suited so ill 
 with his great courage and conduct, should at last entirely de 
 stroy his cause in France. These ships in two months arrived 
 upon the coast of America, near the river now called A be- 
 
 3 i marie, 
 
426 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 marie, in the province of North Carolina. The French gave 
 the Indians to understand, in the best manner they were able, 
 that they were enemies to the Spaniards, which secured them 
 a friendly reception and the good offices of the inhabitants. 
 They were, however, in no condition to make any settlement. 
 
 On their return to France, the Admiral, at this time, by the 
 abominable policy of the court, apparently in great favour, 
 was so well satisfied with the account they had given of the 
 country, that, in 1564, he fitted out five or six ships, with as 
 many hundred men aboard, to begin a colony there. This was 
 accordingly done at the place of their landing in the first ex 
 pedition. They built a fort here, which they called Fort 
 Charles, as they called the whole country Carolina, in honour 
 of their king then reigning. The Spaniards, who had intelli 
 gence of their proceedings, dispatched a considerable force to 
 attack this colony, who, not satisfied with reducing it, put all 
 the people to the sword, after quarter given ; and, committing 
 great outrages on the natives, they paved the way for the ven 
 geance which soon after fell upon them for such an unnecessary 
 and unprovoked act of cruelty. For, though the Admiral and 
 his party were by this time destroyed in the infamous mas 
 sacre of St. Bartholomew, and though the design of a colony 
 died with him, one M. de Gorgues, a private gentleman, fitted 
 out some ships, which sailed to that coast purely to revenge the 
 murder of his countrymen and his friends. The Indians greedily 
 embraced the opportunity of becoming associates in the punish 
 ment of the common enemy. They joined in the siege of two 
 or three forts the Spaniards had built there ; they took them, 
 and, in all of them, put the garrison to the sword without 
 mercy. 
 
 Satisfied with this action, the adventurers returned, and, hap 
 pily for us, the French court did not understand, blinded as 
 
 they 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 427 
 
 they were by their bigotry, the advantages which might have 
 been derived from giving America to the Protestants, as we 
 afterwards did to the Dissenters, as a place of refuge ; if they 
 had taken this step, most certainly we should have either had 
 no settlements in America at all, or they must have been small 
 in extent, and precarious in their tenure, to what they are at 
 this day. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
428 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 C II A P. XX. 
 
 CAROLINA IS SETTLED BY THE ENGLISH. ITS CONSTITUTION THE LORDS 
 
 PROPRIETORS RESIGN THEIR CHARTER. MADE ROYAL GOVERNMENT,, AND 
 
 DIVIDED INTO TWO PROVINCES. 
 
 AFTER the French expedition, the country of Carolina remained 
 without any attention from Spaniards, French, or English, 
 until, as we observed in the article of Virginia, Sir Walter Ra 
 leigh projected an establishment there. It was not in the part 
 now called Virginia, but in North Carolina, that our first un 
 happy settlements were made and destroyed. Afterwards the 
 adventurers entered the bay of Chesapeak, and fixed a perma 
 nent colony to the northward ; so that, although Carolina was 
 the first part of the Atlantick coast of America, which had an 
 European colony, yet, by an odd caprice, it was for a long time 
 deserted by both England and France, who settled with infi 
 nitely more difficulty in climates much less advantageous or 
 agreeable. 
 
 It was not until the year 1663, in the reign of Charles the 
 Second, that we had any notion of formally settling that coun 
 try. In that year, the Earl' of Clarendon lord chancellor, the 
 Duke of Albemarle, the Lord Craven, Lord Berkley, Lord 
 Ashley, afterwards Earl of Shaftesbury, Sir George Carteret, 
 Sir William Berkley, and Sir George Colleton, obtained a char 
 ter for the property and jurisdiction of that country, from the 
 31st degree of north latitude to the 36th ; and, being invested 
 with full power to settle and govern the country, they had the 
 - model 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. , 42,9 
 
 model of a constitution framed, and a body of fundamental 
 laws compiled, by the famous philosopher Mr. Locke. On tlm 
 plan, the lords proprietors themselves stood in place of the 
 king, gave their assent or dissent, as they thought proper, to 
 all laws, appointed all officers, and bestowed all titles of dig 
 nity. In his turn, one of these lords acted for the rest. In the 
 province they appointed two other branches, in a good measure 
 analagous to the legislature in England. They made three 
 ranks, or rather classes of nobility. The lowest was composed 
 of those to whom they had made grants of twelve thousand acres 
 of land, whom they called barons ; the next order had twenty- 
 four thousand acres, or two baronies, with the title of cassiques ; 
 these were to answer our earls ; the third had two casaiqueships, 
 or forty-eight thousand acres, and were called landgraves, a 
 title in that province analogous to duke. This body formed 
 the upper house ; their lands were not alienable by parcels, 
 The lower house was formed, as it is in the other colonies of 
 representatives from the several towns or counties. But the 
 whole was not called, as in the rest of the plantations, an as- 
 sen\bly> but a parliament. 
 
 They bega'i their first settlement at a point of land towards 
 the southward of their district, between two navigable rivers, 
 though of no long course, called Ashley and Cowper rivers ; 
 and there laid the foundation of a city, called Charles-town, 
 which was designed to be, what it now is, the capital of the 
 province. They expended about twelve thousand pounds in 
 the first settlement. But it was not chiefly to the funds of the 
 lords proprietors that this province owed its establishment. 
 They observed what advantages the o^her colonies derived from 
 opening an harbour for refugees ; and, not only from this con 
 sideration, but from the humane disposition of that excellent 
 man who formed the model of their government, they gave an 
 
 unlimited 
 
430 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 unlimited toleration to people of all religious persuasions. This 
 induced a great number of dissenters, over whom the then go- 
 
 ~ * o 
 
 vernment held a more severe hand than was consistent with ' 
 justice or policy, to transport themselves with their fortunes 
 and families into Carolina. They became soon at least as nu 
 merous as the churchmen ; and, though they displayed none of 
 that frantick bigotry which disgraced the New England refugees, 
 they could not preserve themselves from the jealousy and hatred 
 of those of the church of England, who, having a majority in 
 one of the assemblies, attempted to exclude all dissenters from 
 a right of sitting there. This produced dissensions, tumults, 
 and riots every day, which tore the colony to pieces, and hin 
 dered it for many years from making that progress which might 
 be expected from its great natural advantages. The people fell 
 into disputes of no less violent a nature with the lords pro 
 prietors ; and, provoking the Indians by a series of unjust and 
 violent actions, they gave occasion to two wars, in which how 
 ever they were victorious, and subdued almost all the Indian 
 nations within their own bounds on this side of the Apalachian 
 '.mountains*, 
 
 Their intestine distractions and their foreign wars kept the 
 colony so low, that an act of parliament, if possible to prevent 
 the last ruinous consequences of these divisions, put the pro 
 vince under the immediate cai'e and inspection of the crown. 
 "The lords proprietors, making a virtue of necessity, accepted 
 a recompence of about twenty-four thousand pounds, both for 
 the property and jurisdiction ; except the Earl Granville, who 
 kept his eighth part of the property, which comprehends very 
 near half of North Carolina, on that part which immediately 
 borders upon the province of Virginia. Their constitution, in 
 those points wherein it differed from that of the other colo 
 nies, was altered ; and the country, for the more commo 
 dious 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA, 431 
 
 dious administration of affairs, was divided into two distinct 
 independent governments, called North Carolina and South 
 Carolina. This was in the year 1728. In a little time, a firm 
 peace was established with all the neighbouring Indian nations, 
 the Cherokees, the Creeks, and the Cataubas ; the province 
 began to breathe from its internal quarrels, and its trade has 
 advanced every year since that time with an astonishing ra 
 pidity. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 C H A P. XXI. 
 
 SITUATION, CLIMATE, &C. OF CAROLINA. ITS ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE 
 
 PRODUCTIONS. 
 
 THESE two provinces, lying between the 31st and 36th degrees 
 of latitude, are upwards of four hundred miles in length, and 
 in "breadth to the Indian nations near three hundred. The 
 climate and soil in these countries do not considerably differ 
 from those of Virginia ; but, where they differ, it is much to 
 the advantage of Carolina, which, on the whole, may be con 
 sidered one of the finest climates in the world.' The heat in 
 summer is very little greater than in Virginia ; but the winters 
 are milder and shorter, and the year, in all respects, does not 
 come to the same violent extremities. However, the weather, 
 though in general serene as the air is healthy, yet, like all 
 American weather, makes such quick changes, and those so 
 sharp, as to oblige the inhabitants to rather more caution in 
 their dress and diet, than we are obliged to itse in Europe. 
 Thunder and lightning is frequent ; and it is the only one of 
 our colonies upon the continent which is subject to hurricanes ; 
 but they are very rare, and not near so violent as those of the 
 West-Indies. Part of the month of March, and all April, 
 May, and the greatest part of June, are here inexpressibly 
 temperate and agreeable, but in July, August, and for almost 
 the whole of September, the heat is very intense ; and, though 
 the winters are sharp, especially when the north-west wind 
 prevails, yet they are seldom severe enough to freeze any consi- 
 'siderable water, affecting only the mornings and evenings ; the 
 
 frosts 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 frosts have never sufficient strength to resist the noon-day sun, 
 so that many tender plants, which do not stand the winter of 
 Virginia, flourish in Carolina; for they have oranges in great 
 plenty near Charles-Town, and excellent in their kinds, both 
 sweet and sour. Olives are rather neglected by the planter, 
 than denied by the climate. The vegetation of every kind of 
 plant is here almost incredibly quick ; for there is something 
 so kindly in the air and soil, that, where the latter has the most 
 barren and unpromising appearance, if neglected for a while, 
 of itself it shoots out an immense quantity of those various 
 plants and beautiful flowering shrubs and flowers, for which 
 this country is so famous, and of which Mr. Catesby, in his 
 Natural History of Carolina, has made such 'fine drawings. 
 
 The whole country is in a manner one forest, where our 
 planters have not cleared it. The trees are almost the same in 
 every respect with those produced in Virginia; and, by the 
 different species of these, the quality of the soil is easily 
 known ; for those grounds which bear the oak, the walnut, and 
 the hickory, are extremely fertile ; they are of a dark sand, 
 intermixed with loam, and, as all their land abounds with 
 nitre, it is a long time before it is exhausted ; for here they 
 never use any manure. The pine barren is the worst of all ; 
 this is an almost perfectly white sand, yet it bears the pine tree 
 and some other useful plants naturally, yielding good profit in 
 pitch, tar, and turpentine. When this species of land is cleared, 
 for two or three years together it produces very tolerable crops 
 of Indian corn and peas ; and, when it lies low and is flooded, 
 it even answers well for rice. But, what is the best' of all for 
 this province, this worst species of its land is favourable to a 
 species of the most valuable of all its products, to one of the 
 kinds of indigo. There is another sort of ground, which lies 
 low and wet upon the banks of some of their rivers ; this is 
 called swamp, which in some places is in a manner useless, in. 
 
 3 K others 
 
434 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 ^ 
 
 others it is far the richest of all their grounds ; it is a black 
 fat earth, and bears their great staple rice, which must have 
 in general a rich moist soil, in the greatest plenty and perfec 
 tion. The country near the sea and at the mouths of the 
 navigable rivers is much the worst ; for the most of the land 
 there is of the species of the pale, light, sandy-coloured ground ; 
 and what is otherwise in those parts is little better than an 
 unhealthy and unprofitable salt marsh ; but the country, as 
 you advance in it, improves continually ; and at an hundred 
 miles distance from Charles-town, where it begins to grow 
 hilly, the soil is of a prodigious fertility, fitted for every pur 
 pose of human life. The air is pure and wholesome, and the 
 summer heats much more temperate than in the flat country ; 
 for Carolina is all an even plain for eighty miles from the sea ; 
 no hill, no rock, scarce even a pebble to be met with : so that 
 the best part of the maritime country, from this sameness, must 
 want something of the fine effect which its beautiful products 
 would have by a more variegated and advantageous dispo 
 sition ; but nothing can be imagined more pleasant to the eye 
 than the back country, and its fruitfulness is almost incredible. 
 Wheat grows extremely well there, and yields a prodigious in 
 crease. In the other parts of Carolina they raise but little,, 
 where it is apt to mildew and spend itself in straw ; and these 
 evils the planters take very little care to redress, as they turn 
 their whole attention to the culture of rice, which is more pro 
 fitable, and in which they are unrivalled ; being supplied with 
 what wheat they want in exchange for this grain from New 
 York and Pennsylvania. 
 
 The land in Carolina is very easily cleared every where, as 
 there is Httle or no underwood. Their forests consist mostly 
 of great trees at a considerable distance asunder ; so that they 
 can clear in Carolina more land in a week, than in the forests 
 ef Europe they can do in a month. Their method is to cut 
 
 them 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 435 
 
 them at about a foot from the ground, and then saw the trees 
 into boards, or convert them into staves, heading, or other 
 species of lumber, according to the nature of the wood or the 
 demands at the market. If they are too far from navigation, 
 they heap them together, and leave them to rot. The roots 
 soon decay ; and, before that, they find no inconvenience from 
 them, where land is so plenty. 
 
 The aboriginal animals of this country are in general the 
 same with those of Virginia, but there is yet a greater number 
 and variety of beautiful fowls. All the animals of Europe are 
 here in plenty ; black cattle are multiplied prodigiously. 
 About fifty years ago, it was a thing extraordinary to have 
 above three or four cows ; now some have a thousand ; some in 
 North Carolina a great many more ; but to have two or three 
 hundred is very common. These ramble all day at pleasure in 
 the forests; but, their calves being separated and kept in 
 fenced pastures, the cows return every evening to them ; they 
 are then milked, detained all night, milked in the morning, 
 and then let loose a^ain. The ho;s ran^e in the same manner, 
 
 o o o * 
 
 and return like the cows, by having shelter and some victuals 
 provided for them at the plantation; these are vastly numerous, 
 and many quite wild ; many horned cattle and horses too run 
 wild in their woods ; though at their first settlement there was 
 not one of these animals in the country. They drive a great 
 many cattle from North Carolina every year into Virginia, to 
 be slaughtered there ; and they kill and salt some beef, and a 
 good deal of pork, for the West-Indies, within themselves ; but 
 the beef is neither so good, nor does it keep near so long, as 
 what is sent to the same market from Ireland. They export a 
 considerable number of live cattle to Pennsylvania and the 
 West-Indies. Sheep are not so plenty as the black cattle or 
 hogs, neither is their flesh so good ; their wool is very ordinary. 
 
 3 K 2 CHAP. 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THF 
 
 C II A P. XXII. 
 
 THE COMMODITIES OF CAROLINA FOR EXPORT. RICE, INDIGO, PITCH, AND 
 TAR. PROCESS IN RAISING AND MANUFACTURING THESE COMMODITIES. 
 
 THE trade of Carolina, besides the lumber, provision, and the 
 like, which it yields in common with the rest of America, has 
 three great staple commodities, indigo, rice, and the produce 
 of the pine, turpentine, tar, and pitch. The two former com 
 modities South Carolina has intirely to itself; and, taking in 
 North Carolina, this part of America yields more pitch and tar 
 than all the rest of our colonies. 
 
 Rice anciently formed by itself the staple of this province ; 
 this wholsome grain makes a great part of the food of all ranks of 
 people in the southern parts of the world ; in the northern, it is 
 not so much in request. Whilst the rigour of the act of navigation 
 obliged them to send all their rice directly to England, to be re- 
 shipped for the markets of Spain and Portugal, the charges inci 
 dent to this regulation lay so heavy upon the trade, that the cul 
 tivation of rice, especially in time of war, when these charges 
 were greatly aggravated by the rise of the freight and insurance, 
 hardly answered the charges of the planter ; but now the legis 
 lature has relaxed the law in this respect, and permits the Caro 
 linians to send their rice directly to any place to the southward 
 of Cape Finisterre. This prudent indulgence has again revived 
 the rice trade ; and, though they have gone largely, and with 
 great spirit, into the profitable article of indigo, it has not di 
 verted their attention from the cultivation of rice ; they raise 
 now above double the quantity of what they raised some years 
 
 ago; 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 43? 
 
 ago ; and this branch alone of their commerce is, at the lowest 
 estimation, worth one hundred and fifty thousand pounds ster 
 ling annually. 
 
 Indigo is a dye made from a plant of the same name, which 
 probably was so called from India, where it was first cultivated, 
 and from whence we had, for a considerable time, the whole of 
 what we consumed in Europe. This plant is very like the fern 
 when grown, and, when young, hardly distinguishable from 
 lucern-grass ; its leaves in general are pennated and terminated 
 by a single lobe ; the flowers consist of five leaves, and are of 
 the papilionaceous kind ; the uppermost petal being larger and 
 rounder than the rest, and lightly furrowed on the side ; the 
 lower ones are short, and end in a point; in the middle of the 
 flower is situated the stile, which afterwards becomes a pod, 
 containing the seeds. 
 
 They cultivate three sorts of indigo in Carolina, which de 
 mand the same variety of soils. First, the French or Hispa- 
 niola indigo, which striking a long tap-root, will only flourish 
 in a deep rich soil ; and therefore, though an excellent sort, is 
 not so much cultivated in the maritime parts of Carolina, which 
 are generally sandy ; but no part of the world is more fit to 
 produce it in perfection than the same country, an hundred 
 miles backwards ; it is neglected too on another, accout, for it 
 hardly bears a winter so sharp as that of Carolina. 
 
 The second sort, which is the false Guatemala or true Ba 
 hama, bears the winter better, is a more tall and vigorous plant, 
 is raised in greater quantities from the same compass of ground ; 
 is content with the worst soils in the country, and is therefore 
 more cultivated than the first sort, though inferiour in the qua^ 
 lity of its dye. 
 
 The third sort is the wild indigo, which is indigenous here ; 
 this, as it is a native of the country, answers the purposes of the 
 planter the best of all, with regard to the hardiness of the plant, 
 
 the 
 
438 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the easiness of the culture, and the quantity of the produce ; 
 of the quality there is some dispute, not yet settled amongst 
 the planters themselves ; nor can they as yet distinctly tell 
 when they are to attribute the faults of their indigo to the 
 nature of the plants, to the seasons, which have much influence 
 upon it, or to some defect in the manufacture. 
 
 The time of planting the indigo is generally after the first rains 
 succeeding the vernal equinox ; the seed is sowed in small straight 
 trenches, about eighteen or twenty inches asunder ; when it is at 
 its height, it is generally eighteen inches tall. It is fit for cutting, 
 if all things answer well in the beginning of July. Towards the 
 end of August, a second cutting is obtained ; and* if they have a 
 mild autumn, there is a third cutting at Michaelmas ; the indigo 
 land must be weeded every day, and the plants cleansed from 
 worms,, and the plantation attended with the greatest care and 
 diligence ; about twenty-five negroes may manage a plantation 
 of fifty acres, and compleat the manufacture of the drug, besides 
 providing their own necessary subsistence, and that of the 
 planter's family. Each acre yields, if the land be very good, 
 sixty or sventy pounds weight of indigo ; at a medium the pro 
 duce is fifty pounds. When the plant is beginning to blossom 
 it is fit for cutting ; and, \vhen cut, great care ought to be taken 
 to bring it to the steeper, without pressing or shaking it, as a 
 great part of the beauty of the indigo depends upon the fine 
 farina which adheres to the leaves of this plant. 
 
 The apparatus for making indigo is pretty considerable, 
 though not very expensive ; for, besides a pump, the whole 
 consists only of vats and tubs of cypress wood, common and 
 cheap in this country. The indigo, when cut, is first laid in a 
 vat about twelve or fourteen foot long, and four deep, to the 
 height of about fourteen inches, to macerate and digest. Then 
 this vessel, which is called the steeper, is filled with water ; the 
 whole having lain from about twelve or sixteen hours, accord 
 ing 
 
EUROPEAN" SETTLEMfiNtS IN AMERICA. 439 
 
 ing to the weather, beigns to ferment, swell, rise, and grow sen 
 sibly warm ; at this time spars of wood are run across to pre 
 vent its rising too much, and a pin is then set to mark the 
 highest point of its ascent ; when it falls below this mark, they 
 judge that the fermentation has attained its due pitch, and 
 begins to abate ; this directs the manager to open a cock, and 
 let off the water into another vat, which is called the beater ; 
 the gross matter that remains in the first vat is carried off to 
 manure the ground, for which purpose it is excellent, and new 
 cuttings are put in. as long as the harvest of this weed con 
 tinues. 
 
 When the water, strongly impregnated with the particles of 
 the indigo, has run into the second vat or beater, they attend 
 with a sort of bottomless buckets, with long handles, to work 
 and agitate it ; which they do incessantly until it heats, froths, 
 ferments, and rises above the rim of the vessel which contains 
 it ; to allay this violent fermentation, oil is thrown in as the 
 froth rises, which instantly sinks it. When this beating has 
 continued for twenty, thirty, or thirty-five minutes, according 
 to the state of the weather (for in cool weather it requires the 
 longest continued beating) a small muddy grain begins to be 
 formed; the salts and other particles of the plant united and dis 
 solved before with the water, are now re-united, and begin to 
 granulate. 
 
 To discover these particles the better, and to find when the 
 liquor is sufficiently beaten, they take up some of it from time 
 to time on a plate or in a glass ; when it appears in an hopeful 
 condition, they let loose some lime water from an adjacent 
 vessel, gently stirring the whole, which wonderfully facilitates 
 the operation ; the indigo granulates more fully, the liquor as 
 sumes a purplish colour, and the whole is troubled and muddy ; 
 i* is now suffered to settle ; then the clearer part is let to run 
 
 off 
 
440 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 off into another succession of vessels, from whence the water 
 is conveyed away as fast as it clears at the top, until nothing 
 remains but a thick mud, which is put into bags of coarse linen. 
 These are hung up and left for some time, until the moisture is 
 entirely drained off. To finish the drying, this mud is turned 
 out of the bags, .and worked upon boards of some porous timber 
 with a wooden spatula ; it is frequently exposed to the morning 
 and evening sun, but for a short time only ; .and then it is put 
 into boxes or frames,, which is called the curing, exposed again 
 to the sun in the same cautious manner, until with great labour 
 and attention the operation is finished, and that valuable drug, 
 called indigo, fitted for the market. The greatest skill and care 
 is required in every part of the process, or there may be great 
 danger of ruining the whole ; the water must not be suffered to 
 remain too short or too long a time, either in the steeper or 
 beater ; the beating itself must be nicely managed so as not to 
 exceed or fall short; and, in the curing, the exact medium be 
 tween too much or too little drying is not easily attained. No 
 thing but experience can make the overseer skilful in these 
 matters. 
 
 There are two methods of trying the goodness of indigo ; by 
 fire and by water ; if it swims it is .good, if it sinks it is naught, 
 the heavier the worse ; so if it wholly dissolves in water it is 
 " good. Another way of proving is, by the fire ordeal; if it en 
 tirely burns away, it is good ; the adulterations remain un 
 touched. 
 
 There is perhaps no branch of manufacture, in which so large 
 profits may be made upon so moderate a fund, as that of indigo ; 
 and there is no country in which this manufacture can be car 
 ried on to such advantage as in Carolina, where the climate is 
 healthy, provisions plentiful and cheap, and every thing ne 
 cessary for that business had with the greatest ease. To-do 
 
 justice 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 441 
 
 justice to the Carolinians, they have not neglected these ad 
 vantages ; and, if they continue to improve them with the same 
 spirit in which they have begun and attend diligently to the 
 quality of their goods, they must naturally and necessarily come 
 to supply the whole consumption of the world with this com 
 modity ; and consequently make their country the richest, as it 
 is the pleasantest and most fertile, part of the British domi 
 nions, 
 
 In all parts of Carolina, but especially in North Carolina, 
 they make great quantities of turpentine, tar and pitch. They 
 are all the produce of the pine. The turpentine is drawn simply 
 from incisions made in the tree; they are made from as great 
 an height as a man can reach with an hatchet ; these incisions 
 meet at the bottom of the tree in a point, where they pour their 
 contents into a vessel placed to receive them. There is nothing- 
 further in this process. But tar requires a more considerable 
 apparatus and great trouble. They prepare a circular floor of 
 clay, declining a little towards the center ; from this is laid a 
 pipe of wood, the upper part of which is even with the floor, 
 and reaches ten feet without the circumference ; under the end 
 the earth is dug away, and barrels- placed to receive the tar as it 
 runs. Upon the floor is built up a large pile of pine wood split 
 in pieces, and surrounded with a wall of earth, leaving only a 
 small aperture at the top where the fire is first kindled. When 
 the fire begins to burn, they cover this opening likewise to con 
 fine the fire from flaming out, and to leave only sufficient heat 
 to force the tar downwards to the floor. They temper the heat 
 as they please, by running a stick into the wall of clay, and. 
 giving it air. Pitch is made by boiling tar in large iron kettles 
 set in furnaces, or burning' it in round clay holes made in the 
 earth. The greatest quantity of pitch and tar is .made in North 
 Carolina, 
 
 3.L. CHAP, 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 C H A P. XXIII. 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA, SOME ACCOUNT OF ITS SETTLEMENT. BAO STATE OF 
 
 THAT PROVINCE. IS CONSIDERABLY IMPROVED. CHIEF TOWN. 
 
 THERE are, in the two provinces which compose Carolina, tea 
 navigable rivers of a very long course, and innumerable smaller 
 ones, which fall into them, all abounding in fish. About fifty 
 or sixty miles from the sea, there are falls in most of the great 
 rivers, which, as you approach their sources, become more fre 
 quent. This is the case of almost all the American rivers ; at 
 these fal.ls, those who navigate these rivers land their goods, 
 carry them beyond the cataract on horses or waggons, and then 
 re-ship them below or above it. 
 
 The mouths of the rivers in North Carolina form but ordi 
 nary harbours, and do *not admit, except at Cape Fear, vessels 
 of above seventy or eighty tons ; so that large ships are obliged 
 to lye off in a sound called Ocacock, which is formed between 
 some islands and the continent. This lays a weight upon their 
 trade by the expence of lighterage. North Carolina, partly 
 upon that occasion, but principally that the first settlements 
 were made as near as possible to the capital, which lies consi 
 derably to the southward, was greatly neglected. For a long 
 time it was but ill inhabited, and by an indigent and disorderly 
 people, who had little property, and hardly any law or govern 
 ment to protect them in what they had. As commodious land 
 grew scarce in the other colonies, people in low circumstances, 
 observing that a great deal of excellent and convenient land was 
 
 yet 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 443 
 
 yet to be patented in North Carolina, were induced by that cir 
 cumstance to plant themselves there. Others, who saw how they 
 prospered, followed their example. The government became 
 more attentive to the place as it became more valuable ; by de 
 grees something of a better order was introduced. The effect of 
 which is, that, though by no means as wealthy as South Caro 
 lina, North Carolina has many more white people ; things begin 
 to wear a face of settlement ; and the difficulties they have lain 
 under are not so many nor so great, as to make us neglect all 
 future efforts, or hinder us from forming very reasonable expec 
 tations of seeing the trade of this country, with proper manage 
 ment, become a flourishing and fruitful branch of the British 
 American commerce. That even now it is far from con 
 temptible, may appear by a list of their exported commodities, 
 which I shall subjoin. 
 
 Edenton was formerly the capital of North Carolina, if a 
 trifling village can deserve that denomination; but the present 
 governor Mr. Dobbs has projected one further south upon the 
 river Neus ; which, though it has the advantage of being some 
 thing more central, is by no means equally well situated for 
 trade, which ought always to be of the first consideration in 
 whatever regards any of the colonies. However., none of their 
 towns are worth mentioning ; the conveniency of inland navi 
 gation in all our southern colonies, and the want of handicraft** 
 men, is a great and almost insuperable obstacle to their ever 
 having any considerable. 
 
 3 L 2 , CHAP, 
 
444 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 C II A P. XXIV. 
 
 AN ACCOUNT OF CHARLES-TOWN. PORT-ROYAL. THE TRADE OF CAllOLlNA. 
 
 ITS VAST INCREASE. ARTICLES NOT SUFFICIENTLY ATTENDED TO 
 
 THERE. 
 
 THE only town in either of the Carolinas which can draw our 
 attention is Charles-town ; and this is one of the first in North 
 America for size, beauty, and train" ck'. Its situation I have 
 already mentioned, so admirably chosen at the confluence of 
 two navigable rivers. Its harbour is good in every respect, 
 but that of a bar, which hinders vessels of more than two hun 
 dred tons burden from entering. The town is regularly and 
 pretty strongly fortified both by nature and art ; the streets are 
 well cut ; the houses are large and well built, and rent ex 
 tremely high. The church is very spacious, and executed in a 
 very handsome taste, exceeding every thing of that kind which 
 we have in America. Here, besides, the several denominations 
 of dissenters have their meeting houses. It contains about 
 eight hundred houses, and is the seat of the governor and the 
 place of meeting of the assembly. Several handsome equipages 
 are kept here. The planters and merchants are rich and well 
 bred; the people are shewy and expensive in their dress and 
 way of living ; so that every thing conspires to make this by 
 much the liveliest and politest place, as it is one of the richest 
 too, in all America. 
 
 The best harbour in this province is far to the southward, on 
 the borders of Georgia, called Port- Royal. This might give a 
 capacious and safe reception to the largest fleets of the greatest 
 bulk and burden ; yet the town, which is called Beaufort, built 
 
 upon 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 upon an island of the same name with the harbour, is not as yet 
 considerable, but it bids fair in time for becoming the first 
 trading town in this part of America. 
 
 The import trade of South Carolina from Great Britain and 
 the West-Indies is the same in all respects with that of the rest 
 of the colonies, and is very large. 'Their trade with the Indians 
 is likewise in a very flourishing condition. As for its export, 
 both the nature of that and its prodigious increase may be dis 
 cerned from the following comparative tables, which let us see 
 how much this colony has really advanced in a few years ; as an 
 attentive consideration of its natural advantages must shew us 
 how much it must advance, if properly managed, as there is 
 scarce any improvement of which this excellent country -is not 
 capable. 
 
 Exported from Charles-Town. 
 
 In the year 17-31. 
 Rice 41,957 barrels 
 
 Indigo, 00,000 pounds 
 Deerskins, 300 hogsheads 
 Pitch, 10,750 barrels 
 
 Tar, 2,063 ditto 
 
 Turpentine, 759 ditto 
 
 Beef, pork, &c. not parti 
 cularized. 
 
 In the year 1754. 
 Rice, 104,682 barrels 
 
 Indigo, 216,924 pounds 
 
 Deerskins, 
 
 Pitch, 
 
 Tar, 
 
 Turpentine, 
 
 Beef, 
 
 Pork, 
 
 Ind. corn, 
 
 Peas, 
 
 460 hogsheads 
 
 114 bundles 
 
 508 loose 
 5,869 barrels 
 2,945 ditto 
 
 759 ditto 
 
 416 ditto 
 1,560 ditto 
 16,428 bushels 
 9,162 ditto 
 
 Tanned leat. 4,196 barrels 
 Hides in the hair 
 
 1,200 
 
 Shing. 1,114,000 
 Staves, 206,000 
 Lumber, 395,000 feet 
 
446 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Besides a great deal of live cattle, horses, cedar, cypress, 
 and walnut plank ; bees-wax, myrtle, and some raw silk and 
 cotton. 
 
 North Carolina, which is reputed one of the least flourishing 
 of our settlements, and which certainly lay under great diffi 
 culties, yet is within a few years greatly improved. The con 
 sequence of this inferiour province may appear -by the following 
 view of its trade, which I can take upon me. to say is not very 
 far from being exact ; it is at least sufficiently so to enable us 
 to form a proper idea of this province, and its commerce. 
 
 Exported from all the ports of North Carolina in 1753. 
 
 Tar . . . 61,528 barrels. 
 
 Pitch . . . 12,055 ditto. 
 
 Turpentine . . 10,429 ditto. 
 
 Staves . . 762,330 number. 
 
 Shingles . . 2,500,000 number. 
 
 Lumber . . 2,000,647 feet. 
 
 Corn . . . 61,580 bushels. 
 
 Peas, about . . 10,000 ditto. 
 
 Pork and beef . 3,300 barrels. 
 
 Tobacco, about . 100 hogsheads. 
 
 Tanned leather, about 1,000 hundred weight 
 
 Deerskins, in all ways, about 30,000. 
 
 Besides a very considerable quantity of wheat, rice, bread, 
 potatoes, bees-wax, tallow, candles, bacon, hog's lard, some 
 cotton, and a vast deal of squared timber of walnut and cedar, 
 and hoops and headings of all sorts. Of late they raise indigo, 
 but in what quantity I cannot determine, for it is all exported 
 from South Carolina. They raise likewise much more tobacco 
 than I have mentioned, but this, as it is produced on the fron 
 tiers of Virginia, so it is exported from thence. They export 
 
 too 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 44? 
 
 too no inconsiderable quantity of beaver, racoon, otter, fox, minx, 
 and wild cats', skins, and in every ship a good deal of live cattle, 
 besides what they vend in Virginia. Both in North and South 
 Carolina they have made frequent, but I think not vigorous 
 nor sufficiently continued, efforts in the cultivation of cotton 
 and silk. What they have sent home of these commodities is of 
 so excellent a kind, as to give us great encouragement to pro 
 ceed in a business which we have not taken to heart with all 
 that warmth which its importance in trade and the fitness of the 
 climate for these most valuable articles certainly deserve. It 
 was a long time before this province went into the profitable 
 trade of indigo, notwithstanding a premium subsisted a good 
 many years for all that should be raised in our plantations ; the 
 thing was at first despaired of, and it was never judged that 
 Carolina could produce this drug ; but no sooner had a few 
 shewn a spirited and successful example, than all went into it 
 so heartily, that though it is but about six years since they be 
 gan, I am informed that five hundred thousand weight was made 
 last year ; and as they go on, in a very little time they will supply 
 the market with a commodity, which before we purchased every 
 ounce from the French and Spaniards. Silk requires still more 
 trouble, and a closer attention ; as yet it proceeds with lan 
 guor, nor will a premium alone ever suffice to set on foot in a 
 vigorous manner a manufacture which will find great difficulties 
 in any country, which does not abound in hands that can work 
 for very trifling wages. The want of this advantage in Caro 
 lina, though no part of the world is fitter for this business and 
 no business could be so advantageous to England, will, for a 
 very long time, be an impediment to the manufacture of raw 
 silk, unless some proper, well-studied, and vigorously executed 
 scheme be set on foot for that purpose ; and surely it is a matter 
 worthy of a very serious consideration. America is our great re 
 source : 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 source ; this will remain to us when our other branches of our trade 
 are decayed, or exist no more ; and therefore we ought to grudge 
 no expence that may enable them to answer this end so effec 
 tually, as one day to supply the many losses we have already 
 had, and the many more we have but too much reason to ap 
 prehend, in our commerce. These expences are not like the 
 expcaces of war, heavy in their nature, and precarious in their 
 effects ; but, when judiciously ordered, the certain and infallible 
 means of rich and successive harvests of gain to the latest pos 
 terity > at the momentary charge of a comparatively small 
 quantity of seed, and of a moderate husbandry to the present 
 generation* 
 
 CHAP. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA, 449 
 
 CHAP. xxv. 
 
 SETTLEMENT OF G EORG1A. REASONS FOR IT. THE PL4N OF THE SETTLE 
 MENT DEFECTIVE. ATTEMPTS TO REMEDY IT. 
 
 IN the year 1732, the government, observing that a great tract 
 of land in Carolina, upon the borders of the Spanish Florida, 
 lay waste and unsettled, resolved to erect it into a separate 
 province, and to send a colony thither. This they were ra 
 ther induced to do, because it lay on the frontier of our pro 
 vinces, naked and defenceless ; whereas, if it could be properly 
 settled, it would be a strong barrier to them upon that side, or 
 at least would be sufficient to protect Carolina from the incur 
 sions which the Indians, instigated by the French or Spaniards, 
 might make upon that province. They had it likewise in 
 their view to raise wine, oil, and silk, and to turn the industry 
 of this new people from the timber and provision trade, which 
 the other colonies had gone into too largely, into channels more 
 advantageous -to the publick. Laudable designs in every 
 respect; though perhaps the means which were taken to put 
 them in execution were not altogether answerable. 
 
 That whole country which lies between the rivers Savannah 
 and Alatamaha north and south, and from the Atlantick Ocean 
 on the east to the great South-Sea upon the west, was vested 
 in trustees ; at the end of that period, the property in chief 
 was to revert to the crown. ' This country extends about sixty 
 miles from north and south near the sea, but widens in the 
 more remote parts to above one hundred and fifty. From the 
 
 % M 
 
450 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 sea to the Apalachian mountains, it is not much short of three 
 hundred. 
 
 In pursuance of the original design, the trustees resolved to 
 encourage poor people to settle in the province, which had 
 been committed to their care ; and to this purpose found them 
 in necessaries to transport them into a country, of which they 
 had previously published a most exaggerated and flattering de 
 scription. In reality, the country differs little from South 
 Carolina, but that the summers are, yet hotter, and the soil in 
 the general of a poorer kind. The colony was sent over under 
 the care of Mr. Oglethorpe, who very generously bestowed his 
 own time and pains, without any reward, for the advancement 
 of the settlement. 
 
 The trustees had very well observed, that many of our colo 
 nies, especially that of South Carolina, had beeii very much 
 endangered, both internally and externally, by suffering the 
 Negroes to grow so much more numerous than the Wiu 
 An errour of this kind, they judged, in a colony which was not 
 only to defend itself but to be in some sort a protection to the 
 others, would have been inexcusable ; they, for that reason, 
 forbid the importation of Negroes in Georgia. In the next 
 place, they observed that great mischiefs happened in the other 
 settlements from making vast grants of land, which the 
 grantees jobbed out again to the discouragement of the settlers; 
 or, what was. worse, suffered to lie idle and uncultivated. To 
 avoid this mischief, and to prevent the people from becoming 
 wealthy and luxurious, which they thought inconsistent with 
 the military plan upon which this colony was founded r they 
 allowed in the common course of each family but twenty-five 
 acres; and none could, according to the original scheme, by 
 any menus come to possess more than five hundred. Neither did 
 they give an inheritance in fee simple* or to the heirs general 
 
 of 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS INAAMERICA. 4-51 
 
 of the settlers, but granted them their lands inheritable only by 
 their mate issue. They likewise forbid the importation of ruin 
 into the province, to prevent the great disorders which they 
 observed to arise in the other parts of North America, from the 
 abuse of spirituous liquors. 
 
 These regulations, though well intended and meant to bring 
 about very excellent purposes, yet it might at first, as it did 
 afterwards, appear, that they were made without sufficiently 
 consulting the nature of the country or the disposition of the 
 people which they regarded. For, in the first place, as the di- 
 mate is excessively hot, and field work very laborious in a new 
 colony, as the ground must be cleared, tilled, and sowed, all 
 with great and incessaajt toil for their* bare subsistence, the load 
 was too heavy for the White men, especially men who had not 
 been seasoned to the country. The consequence of which was, 
 that the greatest part of their time, all the heat of the day, was 
 spent in - idleness,, which brought certain want along with it. 
 It is true, that all our colonies on the continent, even Virginia 
 and Carolina, were originally settled without the help oi" 
 Negroes. The White men were obliged to labour, and they 
 underwent it, because they then saw no other way ; but it is 
 the nature of man not to submit to extraordinary hardships in 
 one spot, when they see their neighbours in another, without 
 any difference in the circumstances of things, in a much more 
 easy .condition. Besides, there .were no methods taken to ani 
 mate them under the hardships they endured. All things con 
 tributed to dispirit them. 
 
 A levelling scheme in a new colony is a thing extremely un* 
 adviseable. Men are seldom induced to leave their country, 
 but upon some extraordinary prospects ; there ought always to 
 be something of a vastness in the view that is presented to them, 
 to strike powerfully upon their imagination; and this will ope- 
 
 3 M 2 rate 
 
452 AN ACCOUNT OF THfe 
 
 rate, because men will never reason well enough to see, that the 
 majority of mankind are not endued with dispositions proper 
 to make a fortune any where, let the proposed advantages be 
 what they will. The majority of mankind must always be in 
 digent ; but in a new settlement they must be all so, unless 
 some persons there are on such a comfortable and substantial 
 footing as to give direction and vigour to the industry of the 
 rest ; for, in every well contrived building, there must be strong 
 beams and joists, as well as smaller bricks, tiles, and laths. 
 Persons of substance Found themselves discouraged from at 
 tempting a settlement, by the narrow bounds which no industry 
 could enable them to pass ; and the design of confirming the 
 inheritance to the male line was an additional discouragement. 
 The settlers found themselves not upon a par with the other 
 colonies. There was an obvious inconvenience in leaving no 
 provision at all for females, as in a new colony the land must 
 be, for some time at least, the only wealth of the family. The 
 quantity of twenty-five acres was undoubtedly too small a por 
 tion, as it was given without any consideration of the quality of 
 the land, and was therefore in many places of very little value. 
 .Add to this that it was clogged, after a short free tenure, with 
 a much greater quit- rent than is paid in our best and longest 
 settled colonies. Indeed, through the whole manner of grant 
 ing land, there appeared, I know not what low attention to the 
 trifling profits that might be derived to the trustees or the 
 crown by rents and escheats, which clogged the liberal scheme 
 that was first laid down, and was in itself extremely injudicious. 
 When you have a flourishing colony, with extensive settle 
 ments, from the smallest quit-rents the crown receives a large 
 revenue ; but, in an ill-settled province, the greatest rents 
 make but a poor return, and yet are sufficient to burden and 
 Impoverish the people. 
 
 The 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 433 
 
 % 
 
 The tail male grants were so grievous, that the trustees them 
 selves corrected that errour in a short time. The prohibition 
 of rum, though specious in appearance, had a very bad effect. 
 The waters in this unsettled country, running through such an 
 extent of forest, were not wholesome drinking, and wanted the 
 corrective of a little spirit, as the settlers themselves wanted 
 something to support their strength in the extraordinary and 
 unusual heat of the climate, and the dampness of it in several 
 places disposing them to agues and fevers. But, what was 
 worse, this prohibition in a manner deprived them of the only 
 vent they had for the only commodities they could send to 
 market, lumber and corn, which could sell no where but in the 
 sugar islands ; and, with this restriction of negroes and rum, they 
 could take very little from them in return. 
 
 CHAP 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 C H A P. XXVI. 
 
 COLONY NEW MODELLED. FAULTS IN THE NEW CONSTITUTION. TRAUE Of' 
 
 THIS PROVINCE. 
 
 ALL these and several other inconveniencies, in the plan of the 
 settlement, raised a general discontent in the inhabitants ; they 
 quarrelled with one another and with their magistrates ; they 
 complained ; they remonstrated ; and, finding no satisfaction, 
 many of them fled out of Georgia, and dispersed themselves 
 where they deemed the encouragement better, to all the other 
 colonies. So that of above two thousand people, who had trans 
 ported themselves from Europe, in a little time not above six 
 or seven hundred were to be found in Georgia ; so far were they 
 from increasing. The mischief grew worse and worse every 
 day, until the government revoked the grant to the trustees, 
 took the province into their own hands, arid annulled all the 
 particular regulations that were made. It was then left exactly 
 on the same footing with Carolina. 
 
 O 
 
 Though this step has probably saved the country from entire 
 ruin, yet it was not perhaps so well done to neglect entirely the 
 first views upon which it was- settled. These were undoubtedly 
 judicious ; and, if the methods taken to compass them were not 
 so well directed, it was no argument against the designs them 
 selves, but a reason for some change in the instruments designed 
 to put them in execution. Certainly nothing wants a regula 
 tion more, than the dangerous inequality in the number of Ne 
 groes and Whites in such of our provinces where the former are 
 used. South Carolina, in spite of its great wealth, is really in 
 a more defenceless condition, than a knot of poor townships on 
 the frontiers of New England. In Georgia, the first errour of 
 absolutely prohibiting the use of negroes, might be turned 
 
 to 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 4,M 
 
 to very good account ; for they would have received the per 
 mission to employ them under what qualifications soever, not 
 as a restriction, but as a favour and indulgence ; and by exe 
 cuting whatever regulations we should make in this point with 
 strictness, by degrees we might see. a province fit to answer all 
 the ends of defence and traffick too ; whereas we have let them 
 use such a latitude in that affair, which we were so earnest to- 
 prevent, that Georgia, instead of being any defence to Carolina, 
 does actually stand in need of a considerable force to defend 
 itself. 
 
 As for the scheme of vines and silk, w.e were extremely eager 
 in this respect in the beginning ; and very supine ever since. 
 Ac that time such a design was cleariy impracticable; because 
 a few people seated in a wild country must first provide every 
 thing for the support of life, by raising coin and breeding cattle, 
 before they can think of manufactures of any kind ; and they 
 must grow numerous enough to -spare a number of hands from 
 that most necessary employment, before they can send such 
 tilings in any degree of cheapness or plenty to a good market. 
 But now there is little said of either of these articles, though 
 the province is longer settled and grown more populous. But 
 the misfortune is, that, though no people upon earth originally 
 conceive things better than the English do, they want the un 
 remitting perseverance which is necessary to bring designs of 
 consequence to perfection. We are apt suddenly to change our 
 measures upon any failure ; without sufficiently considering 
 whether the failure has been owing to a fault in the scheme it 
 self; this does not arise from any defect peculiar to our people, 
 for it is the fault of mankind in general if left to themselves. 
 What is done by us is generally done by the spirit of the people ; 
 as far as that can go we advance, but no further. \Ve want po 
 litical regulations, and a steady plan in government, to remedy 
 
 the 
 
456 AN ACCOUNT OF 
 
 the defects that must be in all things, which depend merely on 
 the character and disposition of the people. 
 
 At present, Georgia is beginning to emerge, though slowly, 
 out of the difficulties that attended its first establishment. It 
 is still but indifferently peopled, though it is now twenty-six 
 years since its first settlement. Not one of our colonies was of 
 so slow a growth, though none had so much of the attention of 
 the government or of the people in general, or raised so great 
 expectations in the beginning. They export some corn and 
 lumber to the West Indies ; they raise some rice, and of late 
 are going with success into indigo. It is not to be doubted 
 but in time, when their internal divisions are a little better 
 composed, the remaining errours in the government corrected, 
 and the people begin to multiply, they will become a useful 
 province. 
 
 Georgia has two towns already known in trade ; Savannah 
 the capital, which stands very well for business about ten miles 
 from the sea, upon a noble river of the same name, which is na 
 vigable two hundred miles further for large boats, to the second 
 town, called Augusta ; this stands upon a spot of ground of the 
 greatest fertility, and is so commodiously situated for the Indian 
 trade, that, from the first establishment of the colony, it has 
 been in a very flourishing condition, and maintained very early 
 six hundred Whites in that trade alone. The Indian nations 
 on their borders are the Upper and Lower Creeks, the Chicke- 
 saws, and the Cherokees ; who are some of the most numerous 
 and powerful tribes in America. The trade of skins with this 
 people is the largest we have ; it takes in that of Georgia, the 
 two Carolinas, and Virginia. We deal with them somewhat 
 in furs likewise, but they are of an inferiour sort. All species of 
 animals that bear the fur, by a wise Providence, have it more 
 thick, and of a softer and finer kind, as you go to the north 
 ward ; the greater the cold, the better they are clad. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 457 
 
 C H A P. XXVII. 
 
 KOVA SCOTIA, THE TIME AND REASONS OF ITS SETTLEMENT. FRENCH THERE. 
 
 CLIVATE AND SOIL. ANNAPOLIS, HALIFAX, AND LUNENBURG. 
 
 THE last province we have settled, or rather began to settle, 
 upon the continent of North America, is Nova Scotia. This 
 vast province, called by the French Acadie, has New England 
 and the Atlantick Ocean to the south and south-west, and the 
 river and gulph of St. Laurence to the north and north-east. 
 It lies between the 44th and 50th degrees of north latitude, and, 
 though in a very favourable part of the temperate zone, has a 
 winter of an almost insupportable length and coldness, continu 
 ing at least seven months in the year ; to this immediately sue* 
 ceeds, without the intervention of any thing that may be called 
 spring, a summer of an heat as violent as the cold, though of 
 no long continuance ; and they are wrapt in the gloom of a per 
 petual fog, even long after the summer season has commenced. 
 In most parts, the soil is thin and barren, the corn it produces of 
 a shrivelled kind like rye, and the grass intermixed with a cold 
 spongy moss. However, it is not uniformly bad ; there are 
 tracts in Nova Scotia, which do not yield to the best land in 
 New England. 
 
 Unpromising as this country is, yet, neglecting ali those de 
 lightful tracts to the southward, it was here that some of the 
 first European settlements were made. The French seated 
 themselves here before they made any establishment in Canada ; 
 but whatever unaccountable ignorance influenced their choice, 
 
 3 N the 
 
the industry and vigour of that time deserve our applause ; for, 
 though they had infinitely more difficulties to struggle with 
 than we have at this day, and not the hundredth part of the 
 succours from Europe, yet they subsisted in a tolerable manner, 
 and increased largely ; when the colony which in our days we 
 have fixed there, if the support of the royal hand was withdrawn 
 but for a moment, after all the immense sums which have been 
 expended in its establishment, would undoubtedly sink into 
 nothing. It is with difficulty it subsists, even encouraged and 
 supported as it is. Yet the design of establishing a colony here, 
 with whatever difficulties it might have been attended, was a 
 very prudent measure ; for the French would undoubtedly have 
 profited of our neglects, and have by some means got this 
 country into their hands, to the great annoyance of all our co 
 lonies, and to the great benefit both of their fishery and their 
 sugar islands. 
 
 This country has frequently changed hands from one private 
 proprietor to the other, and from the French to the English 
 nation, backward and forward ; until the treaty of Utrecht 
 established our right in it finally ; as the treaty of Aix-la-Cha- 
 pelle confirmed it. But both were deficient in not ascertain 
 ing distinctly what bounds this province ought to have. This 
 was left to be adjusted by commissaries. Whilst they were de 
 bating, the French built forts, and secured such a part of the 
 province as they were resolved to hold. I have not, throughout 
 this work, chosen to enter into territorial disputes, because they 
 convey very little private instruction, and do nothing at all to 
 wards the establishment of the publick rights ; yet it is difficult 
 to avoid remarking, that the line which the French have drawn 
 in Nova Scotia is not only not drawn by any treaty, but that 
 it is very apparently calculated to secure them those parts of the 
 province which they value most, and at the same time, to pay 
 
 an* 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 an apparent respect to the treaty of Utretcht by leaving us come 1 
 part of Acadia. 
 
 The chief town we had formerly in this province, was called 
 Annapolis Royal ; but, though the capital, it was a small place, 
 wretchedly fortified, and yet worse built and inhabited. Here 
 were stationed the remains of a regiment, which continued there, 
 very little recruited, since the reign of queen Anne ; but though 
 this place never flourished, it stood upon the very best harbour, 
 as it is said, in North America ; but it was not here, but on 
 the south-east side of the peninsula, that the settlement, re 
 solved and executed with so much spirit at the end of the last 
 war, was established. This too stands upon a fine harbour, 
 very commodiously situated, and rather better than Aiinapolis 
 for the fishery. The town is called Halifax from the present 
 earl, to whose wisdom and care we owe this settlement. In 
 1743, three thousand families, at an immense charge to the go 
 vernment, were transported into this country at once, and (I 
 think) three regiments stationed there to protect them from tl^e 
 Indians, who have always shewed themselves our most im 
 placable enemies. The town is large, and, for so new a set 
 tlement, well built. It has a good retrenchment of timber, 
 strengthened with forts of the same materials, so as to be in 
 little danger at least from an Indian enemy. 
 
 Though this town of Halifax has, all things considered, a 
 tolerable appearance, the adjacent country is not improved in 
 proportion ; the ground is very hard to be cleared ; when clear 
 ed does not produce a great deal, and labour is extravagantly 
 dear. But this colony has suffered more from the incursions 
 of the Indians than from any thing else. Their incursions have 
 been so frequent, and attended with such cruelties, that the 
 people can hardly ea^tend themselves beyond the cannon of the 
 fort, nor attend their works of agriculture even there without 
 
 3 N 2 the 
 
460 AN ACCOUNT OP THE 
 
 the greatest danger. The consequence of this is, that they do 
 not raise the fifth part of what is sufficient to maintain them. 
 Host of their provision of every sort comes from New England, 
 and they must have starved if it were not for the fishery, which 
 it must be owned is not contemptible, and for some little naval 
 stores, and the pay of the garrison, the spending of which here 
 is the principal use of the troops ; against the Indian enemy 
 they are of very little effect ; though there are three regiments, 
 and all the fighting men the Indians can raise in that province 
 are not five hundred. The soldiers, inactive by their confine 
 ment in their barracks, diseased for the most part with the 
 scurvy, and debilitated by the use of spirituous liquors, are 
 quite an undermatch for the activity, vigilance, patience, and 
 address of the American. A company of wood rangers kept con 
 stantly to scour the country near our settlements, and a small 
 body of Indians who might be brought at an easy rate from the 
 friendly tribes who inhabit our other settlements, and encou 
 raged by a reward for what scalps they should bring home, sent 
 to infest the enemy amongst their own inhabitants, would have 
 protected our colony, and long ago exterminated the Indians, 
 or reduced them to an useful subjection, since unfortunately we 
 have not the secret of gaining their affections. The easy plan 
 I have mentioned would not have had half the expence attend 
 ing it, that the maintenance of a numerous and almost useless 
 garrison has had. A little experience will shew to the most or 
 dinary understandings, what hardly any sagacity could have with 
 out it, unveiled to the most penetrating statesman- It was a want 
 of this experience that caused another mistake of almost as bad 
 a nature. Until the beginning of this war, a number of the an 
 cient French colony,, some say ten or twelve thousand souls, 
 remained in the country, and were called and treated in a man- 
 Tier as a neutral people, though they ought to have been the 
 
 king's 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 461 
 
 king's subjects ; but they yielded very little obedience to the 
 crown of England, as in truth they had from us very little pro 
 tection ; and they were even accused of encouraging the Indian 
 incursions, and supplying them with arms and ammunition to 
 annoy our people. Had we erected in their country a little fort, 
 and in it kept a small garrison, to be maintained by that people 
 themselves, appointed magistrates, and made them know the 
 benefit and excellency of the British laws, and, at the same time, 
 impressed them with a dread of the British power, we might 
 have saved many useful people to this colony, and prevented 
 the necessity (if it was a neces>sity) of using measures, which, if 
 they are not impolitic, are certainly such as an humane and ge 
 nerous mind is never constrained to but with regret. 
 
 Besides Annapolis and Halifax, we have another settlement a 
 little to the south-west of the latter, called Lunenburg. This 
 is a branch of Germans from Halifax, who, being discontented 
 at the infertility of the soil there, desired to go where there was 
 better land to be had, undertaking their own defence ; accord 
 ingly they settled where they desired, to the number of seven or 
 eight hundred, and succeed tolerably well. Upon a tumult 
 which arose amongst them, the governor sent a party of soldiers 
 to protect them from their own discords, and from the enemy. 
 This province is yet but in its beginning ; and therefore, ex 
 cept in prospect, can afford us no great subject matter of spe- . 
 culation, 
 
 CHAP; 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 CHAP. XXVIII. 
 
 THE ISLAND OF NEWFOUNDLAND. THE FISHERY THERE. THE BERMUDA'S. 
 
 THEIR SETTLEMENT AND TRADE. THE BAHAMAS. 
 
 To the east of this province lies the great isle of Newfoundland, 
 above three hundred miles long, and two hundred broad, ex 
 tending quite up to New Britain, and forming the eastern 
 boundary of the Gulf of St. Laurence. This island, after va 
 rious disputes about the property, was entirely ceded to Eng 
 land by the treaty of Utrecht. From the soil of this island we 
 were far from reaping any sudden or great advantage ; for the 
 cold is long continued and intense ; and the summer heat, though 
 violent, warms it not enough to produce any thing valuable ; 
 for the soil, at least in those parts of the island with which we 
 are acquainted (for we are far from knowing the whole), is 
 rocky and barren. However, it hath many large and safe har 
 bours ; and several good rivers water it. This island, whenever 
 the continent shall come to fail of timber convenient to naviga 
 tion (which perhaps is no very remote prospect), will afford a 
 copious supply for masts, yards, and all sorts of lumber, for 
 the West India trade. But what at present it is chiefly valu 
 able for, is the great fishery of cod, which is carried on upon 
 those shoals which are called the Banks of Newfoundland. In 
 that the French and Spaniards, especially the former, have a 
 large share. Our share of this fishery is computed to increase 
 the national stock by three hundred thousand a year, in gold 
 and silver, remitted to us for the cod we sell in the North, in 
 Spain, Portugal, Italy, and the Levant. The plenty of cod, 
 
 both 
 
EUROPEAN* SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 both on the great bank and the lesser ones which lie to the east 
 and south-east of this island, is inconceivable ; and not only 
 cod, but several other species of fish are there in abundance ; 
 all these species are nearly in an equal plenty all along the 
 shores of New E igland, Nova Scotia, and the isle of Cape Bre 
 ton ; and consequently excellent fisheries are carried on upon 
 all their coasts. Where our American colonies are so ill peopled 
 or so barren as not to produce any thing from their soil, their 
 coasts make us ample amends ; and pour in upon us a wealth 
 of another kind, and no way inferior to the former, from their 
 fisheries. 
 
 We have in North America, besides this, two clusters of 
 islands ; the Bermudas or Summer Islands, at a vast distance 
 from the continent, in lat. 31, and the Bahama Islands. The 
 former were very early settled, and were much celebrated in the 
 time of the civil wars ; when, several of the cavalier party being 
 obliged to retire into America, some of them, in particular Mr. 
 Waller, the poet, spent some time in this island. Waller was 
 extremely enamoured with the serenity of the air, and the beauty 
 and richness of the vegetable productions of these islands ; he 
 celebrated them in a poem, which is fine but unequal, written 
 by him upon this subject. 
 
 The Bermudas are but small, not containing in all upwards 
 of twenty thousand acres. They are very difficult of access, 
 being, as Waller expresses it, walled with rocks. What has been 
 said of the clearness and serenity of the air, and of the healthi 
 ness of the climate, was not exaggerated ; but the soil could 
 never boast of an extraordinary fertility. Their best production 
 was cedar, which was superior to any thing of the kind in Ame 
 rica. It is still so, though diminished considerably in quantity, 
 which has, as it is imagined, changed the air much for the 
 worse ; for now it is much more inconstant than formerly ; and 
 
 several 
 
464 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 several tender vegetables, which flourished here at the first set 
 tlement, being deprived of their shelter, and exposed to the 
 bleak northerly winds, are seen no more. 
 
 The chief and indeed only business of these islanders is the 
 building and navigating of light sloops and brigantines, built 
 with their cedar, which they employ chiefly in the trade be 
 tween North America and the West Indies. These vessels are 
 as remarkable for their swiftness, as the wood of which they 
 are built is for its hard and durable quality. They export no 
 thing from themselves but some white stone to the West Indies 
 and some of their garden productions. To England they send 
 nothing. Formerly they made a good deal of money of a sort 
 of hats for women's wear of the leaves of their palmettos, which, 
 whilst the fashion lasted, were elegant, but the trade and the 
 fashion are gone together. 
 
 Their Whites are computed to be about five thousand, the 
 Blacks which they breed are the best in America, and as useful 
 as the Whites in their navigation. The people of the Bermudas 
 are poor but healthy, contented and remarkably cheerful. It 
 is extremely surprising that they do not set themselves heartily 
 to the cultivation of vines in this island, to which their rocky 
 soil seems admirably adapted ; and their situation and the man 
 ner of trade they are already engaged in, would facilitate the 
 distribution of their wine to every part of North America and 
 the West Indies. 
 
 The Bahamas are situated to the south of Carolina, from lat. 
 22 to 27, and they extend along the coast of Florida quite down 
 to the Isle of Cuba; and are said to be five hundred in number; 
 some of them only mere rocks ; but a great many others large, 
 fertile, and in nothing differing from the soil of Carolina. All 
 are however ubsokitely uninhabited, except Providence, which 
 
 is neither the largest nor the most fertile. 
 
 This 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 This island was formerly a receptacle for the pirates, who, 
 for a Ions time, infested the American navigation. This obliged 
 
 ^j . ^~* ^j 
 
 the government to erect a fort there, to station an independent 
 company in the island, and to send thither a governor. This 
 island has at present not much trade, some oranges it sends to 
 North America excepted. However, in time of war, it makes 
 considerably by the prizes condemned here ; and in time of 
 peace, by the wrecks, which are frequent in this labyrinth of 
 innumerable rocks and shelves. 
 
 This is all the benefit we derive from so many large and fer 
 tile islands, situated in, such a climate as will produce any thing, 
 and which, as it is never reached by apy frosts, would yield, in 
 all probability, even sugars of as good a sort, and in as great 
 abundance, as any islands in the West Indies. Nothing more 
 fully shews the present want of that spirit of adventure and en 
 terprise, which was so common in the two last centuries, and 
 which is of such infinite honour and advantage to any time or 
 nation, than that these islands so situated can lie unoccupied, 
 whilst we complain of the want of land proper for sugar, and 
 whilst an hundred pounds an acre is sometimes paid for such 
 in the Caribbees. This point, to any who will be at the pains 
 of studying the situation of these islands, and the consequences 
 which may result from the improvement or neglect of them, 
 will appear of no small importance : and perhaps an enquiry 
 into the causes of the strange degree of backwardness in which 
 they are at ^present, may be a very prudent and perhaps a ne 
 cessary measure. 
 
 3 o CHAP. 
 
466 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 C II A P. XXIX. 
 
 HUDSON'S BAY.- ATTEMPTS FOR THE DISCOVERY OF A NORTH-WEST PAS 
 SAGE. THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY. THOUGHTS UPON ITS TRADE.- 
 CLIMATE AND SOIL OF THE COUNTRIES THERE. CONCLUSION. 
 
 THE countries about Hudson's and Baffin's Bay make the last 
 object of our speculation in America. The knowledge of these 
 seas was owing to a project for the discovery of a north-west 
 passage to China. So early as the year 1576 this noble design 
 was conceived ; since then, it has been frequently dropped ; it 
 has often been revived ; it is not yet compleated ; but was never 
 despaired of by those whose knowledge and spirit make them 
 competent judges and lovers of such undertakings. Frobisher 
 only discovered the main of New Britain, or Terra de Labrador^ 
 and those straits to which he has given his name. In 1585, 
 John David sailed from Dartmouth, and viewed that and the 
 more northerly coasts ; but he seems never to have entered the 
 bay. 
 
 Hudson made three voyages on the same adventure, the first 
 in 1607, the second in 1608, and his third and last in 1610. 
 This bold and judicious navigator entered the straits that lead 
 into this new Mediterranean, coasted a great part of it, and 
 penetrated to eighty degrees twenty-three minutes, into the 
 heart of the frozen zone. His ardour for the discovery not being 
 abated by the difficulties he struggled with in this empire of 
 winter and world of frost and snow, he staid here until the en 
 suing spring, and prepared in the beginning of 1611 to pursue 
 his discoveries ; but his crew, who suffered equal hardships 
 
 without. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IX AMERICA. 
 
 without the same spirit to support them, mutinied, seized 
 upon him and seven of those who were most faithful to aim, 
 and committed them to the fury of the seas in an open boat. 
 Hudson and his companions were either swallowed up by the 
 waves, or, gaining the inhospitable coast which they water, were 
 destroyed by the savages ; but his fate so calamitous cannot so 
 much discourage a generous mind from such undertakings, as 
 the immortality of his name, which he has secured by having 
 given it to so great a sea, will be a spur to others to expect an 
 equal honour, and perhaps with better success. 
 
 From the first voyage of Frobisher an hundred and ten years 
 ago, to that of Captain Ellis, notwithstanding so many disap 
 pointments, the rational hopes of this grand discovery have 
 grown greater by every attempt, and seem to spring even out of 
 our very failures. The greater swell of the tides in the inner 
 
 * O 
 
 part of the bay than near the straits, an appearance so unknown 
 in any other inland seas, and the increase of this swell with west 
 erly winds, seem, without any other arguments, to evince the 
 certain existence of such a passage as we have so long sought 
 without success. 
 
 But though we have hitherto failed ^.in the original purpose 
 for which we navigated this bay, yet such great designs even in 
 their failures bestow a sufficient reward for whatever has been 
 expended upon them. In 1670, the charter was granted to a 
 company for the exclusive trade to this bay, and they have 
 acted under it ever since with great benefit to the private men 
 who compose the company, though comparatively with little 
 advantage to Great Britain. It is true, that their trade in bea- 
 
 o 
 
 vers and other species of furs is not inconsiderable, and it is a 
 trade in itself of the best kind ; its object enters largely into 
 our manufactures, and carries nothing but our manufacture* 
 from us to procure it ; and thus it has the qualities of the most 
 
 3 o 2 advantageous 
 
468 AN ACCOUNT OB THE 
 
 advantageous kinds of traffick. The company has besides pretty 
 large returns in beaver and deer skins. It is said that the di 
 vidends of this company are prodigious ; far exceeding what is 
 gained in any other of the great trading bodies ; yet their ca 
 pital is small, they seem little inclined to enlarge their bottom, 
 and appear strongly possessed with that spirit of jealousy that 
 prevails in some degree in all knots and societies of men endued 
 with peculiar privileges. The officers of the company have be 
 haved to those who wintered within their jurisdiction in search 
 of the north-west passage (one of the purposes for which the 
 company itself was originally instituted) in such a manner as to 
 give us the truest idea of this spirit. If I had been singular in 
 this opinion, I should have expressed my sentiments with much 
 greater diffidence ; but this abuse has been often and loudly 
 complained of. It would appear astonishing that this trade has 
 not hitherto been laid open, if, in the perplexing multiplicity of 
 affairs that engages our ministry, something must not necessa 
 rily pass unredvessed. 
 
 The vast countries which surround this bay all abound with 
 animals, whose fur is excellent, and some of kinds which are not 
 yet brought into commerce ; and the company is very far from 
 any attempt to stretch this trade to its full extent. If the trade 
 were laid open, it seems of necessity that three capital advan 
 tages would ensue ; first, that the trade going into a number of 
 rival hands, with a more moderate profit to individuals, would 
 consume a much greater quantity of our manufactures, employ 
 more of our shipping and seamen, and of course bring home 
 more furs ; and, by lowering the price of that commodity at 
 home, increase the demand of those manufactures into which 
 they enter at the foreign markets : it might bring home other 
 species of furs than those we deal in at present, and thus open 
 new channels of trade, which in commerce is a matter of great 
 
 consideration. 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 consideration. Secondly, this more general intercourse would 
 make the country better known ; it would habituate great 
 numbers of our people to it ; it would discover the most toler 
 able parts for a settlement ; and thus instead of a miserable fort 
 or two, time might shew an English colony at Hudson's Bay, 
 which would open the fur trade yet more fully, and increase the 
 vent of our manufactures yet further. Thirdly, this more ge 
 neral trade on the Bay would naturally, without any new ex- 
 pence or trouble whatsoever, in a very short space of time, dis 
 cover to us the so much desired north-west passage, or shew 
 us clearly and definitely that we ought to expect no such thing. 
 These advantages, and even yet more considerable ones, would 
 be derived from laying open this trade, under such proper re 
 gulations as the nature of the object would point out of itself. 
 
 No colony has been hitherto attempted at Hudson's Bay. 
 The company has two inconsiderable forts there. The country 
 is every where barren ; to the northward of the bay even the 
 harJy pine is seen no longer, and the cold womb of the earth is 
 incapable of any better production than some miserable shrubs. 
 The winter reigns with an inconceivable rigour for near nine 
 months of the year ; the other three are violently hot, except 
 when the north-west wind renews the memory of the winter. 
 Every kind of European seed, which we have committed to the 
 earth in this inhospitable climate, has hitherto perished ; but, 
 in all probability, we have not tried the seed of corn from the 
 northern parts of Sweden and Norway ; in such cases, the place 
 from whence the seed conies is of great moment. All this seve 
 rity and long continuance of winter, and the barrenness of the 
 earth which arises from thence, is experienced, in the latitude 
 of 51, in the temperate latitude of Cambridge. However, it is 
 far from increasing uniformly as you go northwards. Captain 
 James wintered in Charlton island, in latitude 51 ; he judged 
 
 that 
 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 that the climate here was to be deemed utterly uninhabitable 
 on account of the surprising hardships which he suffered ; yet 
 the company has a fort several degrees more to the northward, 
 where their servants make a shift to subsist tolerably. It is 
 called Fort Nelson, and is in the latitude '54. 
 
 All the animals of these countries are cloathed with a close, 
 soft, warm fur. In summer there is here, as in other places, a 
 variety in the colours of the several animals ; when that is over, 
 they all assume the livery of winter, and every sort of beasts, 
 and most of their fowls, are of the colour of the snow ; every 
 thing animate and inanimate is white. This is a surprising phe 
 nomenon. But what is yet more surprising, and what is indeed 
 one of those striking things that draw the most inattentive to 
 an admiration of the wisdom and goodness of Providence, is, 
 that the dogs and cats from England, that have been carried 
 into Hudson's Bay, on the approach of winter have entirely 
 changed their appearance, and acquired a much longer, softer, 
 and thicker coat of hair than they had originally. As for the 
 men of the country, Providence there, as every where else, has 
 given them no provision but their own art and ingenuity, and 
 they shew a great deal in their manner of kindling a fire, in 
 cloathing themselves, and in preserving their eyes from the ill 
 effects of that glaring white which every where surrounds them 
 for the greatest part of the year ; in other respects they are very 
 savage. In their shapes and faces, they do not resemble the 
 Americans who live to the southward ; they are much more like 
 the Laplanders and Samoeids of Europe, from whom they are 
 probably descended. The other Americans seem to be of a 
 Tartar original. 
 
 I have now finished upon my plan the survey of the English 
 colonies in America. I flatter myself that so full an idea has 
 not been given of them before in so narrow a compass. By 
 
 this 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 471 
 
 this the reader will himself be enabled to judge, for it is not 
 my design to pre-occupy his judgment in these particulars, how 
 our colonies have grown, what their vegetative principle has 
 been, in what vigour it subsists, or what signs of corruption ap 
 pear in any of them ; how far we have pursued the advantages 
 which our situation and the nature of the country have given 
 us ; or, where we have pursued them, whether we have gone to 
 the ultimate point. He will see how far the colonies have served 
 the trade of the mother country, and how much the mother 
 country has done or neglected to do towards their happiness 
 and prosperity. Certainly our colonies deserve, and would 
 fully reward an attention of a very different kind from any that 
 has ever yet been given to them. Even as they are circum 
 stanced, I do not in the least hesitate to say that we derive 
 more advantage, and of a better kind, from our colonies, than 
 the Spaniards and Portuguese have from theirs, abounding as 
 they are with gold and silver and precious stones ; although in 
 ours there is no appearance at all of such dazzling and delusive 
 wealth. But then I conceive it might be made very clear, that, 
 had they yielded us these splendid metals in lieu of what they 
 now produce, the effect would be far less to our advantage. Our 
 present intercourse with them is an emulation in industry ; they 
 have nothing that does not arise from theirs, and what we re 
 ceive enters into our manufactures, excites our industry, and 
 increases our commerce ; whereas gold is the measure or account, 
 but not the means, of trade. And it is found in nations as it is 
 in the fortunes of private men, that what does not arise from 
 labour, but is acquired by other means, is never lasting. Such 
 acquisitions extinguish industry, which alone is the parent of 
 any solid riches. 
 
 The barbarism of our ancestors could not. comprehend how a 
 nation could grow more populous by sending out a part of its 
 
 people. 
 
4~~ AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 people. We have lived to see this paradox made out by expe 
 rience, but we have not sufficiently profited of this experience ; 
 since we begin, some of us at least, to think that there is a dan 
 ger of dispeopling ourselves by encouraging new colonies, or in 
 creasing the old. If our colonies find, as hitherto they have 
 constantly done, employment for a great number of hands, there 
 is no danger but that hands will be found for the employment. 
 That a rich, trading, and manufacturing nation should be long 
 in want of people, is a most absurd supposition ; for besides 
 that the people within themselves multiply the most where the 
 means of subsistence are most certain, it is as natural for people 
 to flock into a busy and wealthy country, that by any accident 
 may be thin of people, as it is for the dense air to rush into 
 those parts where it is rarefied. lie must be a great stranger 
 to this country, who does not observe in it a vast number of 
 people, whose removal from hence, if they could be of any use 
 elsewhere, would prove of very little detriment to the publick. 
 I have already observed, that the trade of our colonies de 
 serves a more particular attention than any other, not only on 
 account of the advantages I have just mentioned, but because 
 our attention is sure of being sufficiently rewarded. The object is 
 in our own power ; it is of a good kind ; and of such extent and 
 variety, as to employ nobly the most inventive genius in those 
 matters. Foreign politicks have something more splendid and 
 entertaining than domestick prudence ; but this latter is ever 
 attended, though with less glaring, yetw r ith infinitely more so 
 lid, secure, and lasting advantages. The great point of our 
 regard in America ought therefore to be, the effectual peopling, 
 employment, and strength of our possessions there ; in a sub 
 ordinate degree, the management of our interests with regard to 
 the French and Spaniards. The latter we have reason to re 
 spect, to indulge, and even perhaps to endure ; and more, it is 
 
 probable, 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 473 
 
 probable, may be had from them in that way than by the vio 
 lent methods which some have so warmly recommended, and 
 still urge, though we have had some experience to convince us 
 of their insufficiency. But the nature of the French, their situ 
 ation, their designs, every thing has shewn that we ought to use 
 every method to repress them, to prevent them from extending 
 their territories, their trade, or their influence, and above all to 
 connive at not the least encroachment ; but this in such a man 
 ner as not to strain our own strength, or turn our eyes from 
 serving ourselves by attempts to distress them. But as we are 
 now in the midst of a war, until that is decided, it will be im 
 possible to say any thing satisfactory on our connexions with 
 French America, until we see what the next treaty of peace 
 will do in the distribution of the territory of the two nations 
 there* 
 
 3 P CHAP, 
 
47-4 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 CHAP. XXX. 
 
 THE ROYAL, PROPRIETARY, AND CHARTER GOVERNMENTS. LAWS OF THE 
 COLONIES. - PAPER CURRENCY. - ABUSES IN IT. - ANOTHER SORT Of 
 MONEY PROPOSED. 
 
 settlement of our colonies was never pursued upon any 
 regular plan ; but they were formed, grew, and flourished, as 
 'accidents; the nature, of the -cli-mate, or the dispositions of pri 
 vate men, happened to operate. We ought not therefore to 
 be surprised to find, in the several constitutions and govern 
 ments of our colonies, so little of any thing like uniformity. 
 It has been said that there is scarce any form of government 
 known, that does not prevail in some of our plantations ; the 
 variety is certainly great and vicious ; but the latitude of the 
 observation must be somewhat restrained ; for some forms they 
 are certainly strangers to. To pass over several, nothing like 
 a pure hereditary aristocracy has ever appeared in any of them. 
 
 The first colony which we settled, was that of Virginia. It 
 was governed for some time by a president and a council, ap 
 pointed by the crown ; but when the people were increased to 
 a considerable body, it was not thought reasonable to leave 
 them longer under a mode of government so averse from that 
 which they had enjoyed at home. They were therefore em 
 powered to elect representatives for the several counties into 
 which this province is divided, with privileges resembling those 
 of -the representatives of the commons in England. The per 
 
 sons 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 47^5 
 
 sons so elected form what is called the lower house of assembly. 
 This was added to the council which still subsisted, and the 
 members of which were, and to this day are, nominated by the 
 crown, as at the first ; and they are not only nominated by the 
 crown but hold their seats during the king's pleasure, as signi 
 fied by his governor. They are styled honourable, and are 
 chosen from the persons of the best fortunes and most consi 
 derable influence in the country. They form another branch 
 of the legislature, and are sometimes called the upper house of 
 assembly. They answer in some measure to the house of peers 
 in our constitution. As the lower house of assembly is the 
 guardian of the people's privileges, the council is appointed 
 chiefly to preserve the prerogative of the crown, and to secure 
 the dependence of the colony ; it is the more effectually to an 
 swer these ends, that the members of the council only are ap 
 pointed during pleasure. 
 
 When any bill has passed the two houses, it comes before 
 the governor, who represents the king, and gives his assent or 
 negative, as he thinks proper. It now acquires the force of a 
 law, but it must be afterwards transmitted to the king and 
 council in England, where it may still receive a negative that 
 takes away all its effect. The upper house of assembly not only 
 forms a part of the legislature of the colony, but it acts as a 
 privy council to the governor, without whose concurrence he 
 can do nothing of moment ; it sometimes acts as a court of 
 chancery. This is the common form of government, and the 
 best too that is in use in the plantations. This is the manner 
 of government in all the islands of the West-Indies ; in Nova 
 Scotia; in one province of Mew England, and, with some re 
 striction, in another ; in New York, New Jersey, Virginia, the 
 two Carolinas, and Georgia. This form is commonly called a 
 royal government. 
 = " .- . 3r 2 Tl , 
 
476 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 The second form in use in our settlements in America is called 
 a proprietary government. At our first planting that part of 
 the world, it was not difficult for a person who had interest at 
 court, to obtain large tracts of land, not inferiour in extent to. 
 many kingdoms; and to be invested with a power very little 
 less than regal over them ; to govern by what laws, and to form 
 what sort of constitution, he pleased. A dependence upon the 
 crown of England was shewn only by the payment of an Indian 
 arrow, a few skins, or some other trifling acknowledgment of 
 the same nature. We had formerly many more governments 
 of that sort, than we have at -present; in the West- Indies, the 
 island of Barbadoes was granted to the Earl of Carlisle ; and 
 we have seen a like grant made of the island of St. Lucia to the 
 Duke of Montague in this age, which, after an infinite charge 
 to that benevolent nobleman, came to nothing, by a sort of 
 tacit allowance of the French claim to it. This was in 1722, 
 when our connexion with France hindered us from exerting 
 
 D 
 
 our rights with the necessary vigour. Carolina was formerly 
 a government of this kind, but it was lodged in eight pro 
 prietaries. How they parted with their rights we have seen 
 already. New Jersey was likewise a proprietary government; 
 but this too failed like the others. The only governments in 
 this form which remain at present, but considerably abridged 
 of their privileges, are Pennsylvania and Maryland. In the 
 latter, the constitution exactly resembles that of the royal go 
 vernments ; a governor, council, and assembly of the represen 
 tatives of the people ; but the governor is appointed by th-e 
 proprietary, and approved by the crown. The customs are 
 reserved to the crown likewise ; and the officers belonging to 
 them are independent of the government of the province. In 
 Pennsylvania, the proprietary is under the same restrictions 
 that limit the proprietary of Maryland, on the side of the 
 
 crown ; 
 
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. -it T 
 
 crown ; on the side of the people, he is yet more restrained ; for 
 their legislature has but two parts, the assembly of the people 
 and the governor ; so that the governor, wanting the great in 
 fluence which the council gives in other places, whenever his 
 sentiments differ from those of the assembly, is engaged in a 
 very unequal contest. 
 
 The third form is called a charter government ; this originally 
 prevailed in all the provinces of New England and still remains 
 in two of them, Connecticut and Rhode Island. By the char 
 ters to these colonies, the exorbitant power, which was <riven 
 in the proprietary governments to single men. was here vested, 
 and I apprehend much more dangerously, in the whole body 
 of the people. It is to all purposes 'a mere democracy. They 
 elect every one of their own officers, from the highest to the 
 lowest ; they displace them at pleasure ; and the laws which 
 they enact, are valid without the royal approbation. This state 
 of unbounded freedom, I believe, contributed in some degree 
 to make those settlements flourish ; but it certainly contributed 
 as much to render their value to their mother country far more 
 precarious, than a better digested plan would have done that 
 mi^ht have taken in the interests both of Great Britain and of 
 the new settlement. The truth is, nothing of an enlarged and 
 legislative spirit appears in the planning of our colonies ; the 
 charter governments were evidently copied from some of our 
 corporations at home, which, if they are good institutions 
 themselves, yet are by no means fit to be imitated by a new 
 people goinc* into a remote country, far from the eye and hand 
 of the supreme power. What may be an useful institution for 
 an inferiour member of some great body, and closely united to 
 it, may be not all proper for a new settlement, which is to form 
 a sort of dependent commonwealth in a remote part of the world. 
 Here the ends to be answered are, to make the new establish 
 ment 
 
478 AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 ment as useful as possible to the trade of the mother country; 
 to secure its dependence ; to provide for the ease, safety, and 
 happiness of the settlers ; to protect them from their enemies, 
 and to make an easy and effectual provision to preserve them 
 from the tyranny and avarice of their governors, or the ill con 
 sequences of their own licentiousness; that they should not, by 
 growing into an unbounded liberty, forget that they were sub 
 jects, or, lying under a base servitude, have no reason to think 
 themselves British subjects. This is all that colonies, accord 
 ing to the present and best ideas of them, can or ought to be. 
 The charter governments had nothing of this in view, and con 
 sequently provided for it but very indifferently. 
 
 The province of Massachusets Bay, which is partly a govern-: 
 ment of this popular kind, but tempered with something more 
 of the royal authority, seems to be on still a worse footing, 
 through the one errour of having no established provision for the 
 governor; this one mischief is productive of a thousand others, 
 because the governor in a manner is obliged to keep intrigues 
 and devices on foot, to reconcile the various parts which he 
 must act, and is necessitated to govern by faction and cabal. 
 Hence it is that the charges of this one government are greater 
 than those not only of the other provinces of New England taken 
 together, but of those of Pennsylvania and New York added 
 to them ; they are deeply in debt, they are every day plunging 
 deeper, their taxes increase, and their trade declines. 
 
 It has been an old complaint, that it is not easy to bring Ame 
 rican governors to justice for mismanagements in their province, 
 or to make them refund to the injured people the wealth raised 
 by their extortions. Against such governors at present there 
 are three kinds of remedy; the privy council, the king's bench, 
 and the parliament. The council, on just cause of complaint, 
 may remove the governor ; the power of the council seems to 
 
 extend 
 
EUROPEAN SI/1 1 J.I. MK N IS IX AMERICA. "' 
 
 extend no further. The king's bench may punish the governors 
 for their offences committed in America, as if done in England; 
 The power of parliament is unlimited in the ways of enquiry 
 into the crime, or of punishing it. The first of these remedies 
 can never be sufficient to terrify a governor grown rich by ini 
 quity, and willing to retire uietly, though dishonourably, to 
 enjoy the fruits of it. The king's bench > or any other merely 
 law court, seems equally insufficient for this purpose ; because 
 offences in government, though very grievous, can hardly ever 
 be so accurately defined as to be a proper object of any court 
 of justice, bound up by forms and the rigid letter of the law. 
 The parliament is equal to every thing ; but whether party, and 
 other bars to a quick and effectual* proceeding, may not here 
 leave the provinces as much unredressed as in the other courts-, 
 I shall not take upon me to determine. 
 
 The law in all our provinces, besides those acts which from 
 time to time they have made for themselves, is the common law 
 of England, the old statute law, and a great part of the new, 
 which in looking over their laws I find many of our settlements 
 have adopted, with very little choice or discretion. And indeed 
 the laws of England, if in the long period of their duration they 
 have had. many improvements, so they have grown more tedious; 
 perplexed, and intricate, by the heaping up many abuses in one 
 age, and the. attempts to remove them in another. These infant' 
 settlements surely demanded a more simple, clear, arid deter 
 minate-legislation, though it were of somewhat an homelier kind ; 
 laws suited to the time, to their country, and the nature of 
 their new way of life. Many things still subsist in the law uT 
 England, which are built upon causes and reasons that have* 
 long ago ceased ; many things are in those laws suitable to 
 England only. But the whole weight of this ill-agreeing mass; 
 which neither we nor our fathers were well able to bear, is lai i- 
 - upon 
 
AN ACCOUNT OP THE 
 
 upon the shoulders of these colonies, by which a spirit of con-, 
 tention is raised, and arms offensive and defensive are supplied, 
 to keep up and exercise this spirit, by the intricacy and un- 
 suitableness of the laws to their object. And thus, in many of 
 our settlements, the lawyers have gathered to themselves the 
 greatest part of the wealth of the country ; men of less use in 
 such establishments than in more settled countries, where the 
 number of people naturally sets many apart from the occupa 
 tions of husbandry, arts, or commerce. Certainly our Ame 
 rican brethren might well have carried with them the privileges 
 which make the glory and happiness of Englishmen, without 
 taking them encumbered with all that load of matter, perhaps 
 so useless at home, without doubt so extremely prejudicial in 
 the colonies. 
 
 Laws themselves are hardly more the cement of societies than 
 mtmey ; and societies flourish or decay according to the condi 
 tion of either of these. It may be easily judged, as the balance 
 of trade with Great Britain is very much against the colonies, 
 that therefore whatever gold or silver they may receive from the 
 other branches of their commerce makes but a short stay in 
 America. This consideration at first view would lead one tp 
 conclude, that in a little time money for their ordinary circula- 
 1,ion would be wanting ; and this is apparently confirmed by 
 experience. Very little money is seen amongst them, notwith 
 standing the vast increase of their trade. This deficiency is 
 3npplied, or, more properly speaking, it is caused, by the use 
 of money of credit, which they commonly call paper currency. 
 This money is not created for the conveniency of traffick, but 
 by the exigencies of the government, and often by the frauds 
 and artifices of private men for their particular profit. Before 
 this invention, money was indeed scarce enough in America ; 
 but they raised its value, and it served their purpo^ tolerably. 
 
 I shall 
 
EUROPEAN "SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 481 
 
 I shall forbear entering into the causes that increased the charges 
 
 o r; 
 
 of government so greatly in all our American provinces. But 
 the execution of projects too vast for their strength made large 
 sums necessary. The feeble state of a colony which had hardly 
 taken root in the country could not bear them; and to raise 
 sudden and heavy taxes, would destroy the province without 
 answering their purpose. Credit then came in aid of money, 
 and the government issued bills to the amount of what they 
 wanted, to pass current in all payments ; and they commonly 
 laid a tax, or found some persons willing to engage their lands 
 as security, for gradually sinking this debt, and calling in these 
 bills. But before the time arrived at which these taxes were 
 to answer their end, new exigencies made new emissions of paper 
 currency necessary ; and thus things went from debt to debt, 
 until it became very visible that no taxes which could be im 
 posed could discharge them ; and that the land securities given 
 were often fraudulent, and almost always insufficient. Then 
 the paper currency became no longer to be weighed against the 
 credit of the government, which depended upon its visible re 
 venue. It was compared to the trade, to which it was found so 
 disproportionate, that the bills fell ten, twenty, fifty, and eighty 
 per cent in some places. It was to no purpose that the govern 
 ment used every method to keep up their credit, and even to 
 compel the receiving of these bills at the value for which they 
 were emitted, and to give no preference over them to gold and 
 silver ; they were more depreciated every day ; whilst the go 
 vernment every day emitted more paper, and grew less soli 
 citous about their old bills, being entirely exhausted to find 
 means of giving credit to the new. 
 
 It is easy to perceive how much the intercourse of business 
 must suffer by this uncertainty in the value of money, when a 
 man receives that in payment this day for ten shillings, which to- 
 
 3 Q morrow 
 
182 AN ACCOUNT OF TJfE 
 
 morrow he will not find received from him for five, or perhaps 
 for three. Real money can hardly ever multiply too much in 
 any country, because it will always as it increases be the certain 
 sign of the increase of trade, of which it is the measure, and 
 consequently of the soundness and vigour of the whole body. 
 But this paper money may, and does increase, without any in 
 crease of trade, nay often when it greatly declines, for it is not 
 the measure of the trade of the nation, but of the necessity 
 of its government; and it is absurd, and mu^t be ruinous, that 
 the same cause which naturally exhausts the wealth of a nation, 
 should likewise be the only productive cause of money.. 
 
 The currency of our plantations must not beset upon a level 
 with the funds in England. For besides that the currency carries 
 no interest to make some amends for the badness of the security; 
 the security itself is so rotten, that no art can give it any last 
 ing credit ; as there are parts of New England wherein, if the 
 whole stock and the people along with it were sold, they would 
 not bring money enough to take in all the bills which have been 
 emitted. 
 
 I hope it is not too late to contrive some remedy for this evil, 
 as those at the head of affairs here are undoubtedly very soli 
 citous about so material a grievance. I should imagine that 
 one current coin for the whole continent might be struck here, 
 or there, with such an alloy as might at once leave it of some 
 real value, and yet so debased as to prevent its currency else 
 where, and so to keep it within themselves. This expedient 
 has been practised, and with success, in several parts of Europe ; 
 but particularly in Holland, a country which undoubtedly is 
 perfectly acquainted with its commercial interest. 
 
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