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however to consider New England as peculiar | tury. The why and wherefore well de

to this culpable credulity, with its sanguinary effects; for more persons have been put to death for witchcraft in a single county in England in a short space of time, than have suffered, for the same cause, in all New England since its first settlement.

Although the trials on indictment for witchcraft were prosecuted the subsequent year, yet no execution appears to have taken place. Time gradually detected the delusion.Persons in high stations, and of irreproachable characters, were at length accused. The spectral evidence was no longer admitted: The voice of Reason was heard; and all, who had been imprisoned were set at liberty.

serve the politician's inquiry. The settlement of the province of Georgia, may be taken as an instance of the mode of conducting an original treaty of settlement, between the English and the Indians.

1733. The trustees of Georgia lost no time in the prosecution of their design for planting a colony. James Oglethorpe, esq. one of the trustees, had embarked at Gravesend for Georgia, in November, with one hundred and sixteen persons, destined for settlement in the country. On the fifteenth of January he arrived at Charlestown, where he was treated with hospitality and respect by the governor and council of South Carolina, We do not perceive that Dr. H. has and received great encouragement and assistquoted Mather on this subject, though he ance. Arriving on the first of February at has on others: yet some of Mather's Yamacraw, on the Savannah river, he exstories we remember to have perused withplored the country, and fixed on a high spot mingled pity and astonishment. Some late events in the North of England have contributed to induce our selection of this passage: We trust that we need not caution the present time against indulging a superstitious bitterness of spirit in opposition to superstition itself.

1701. The number of inhabitants in the English American colonies, and about the commencement of this century, was estimated at 262,000.

The particulars of this estimate are as follow:

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Souls.

30,000

of ground, in the vicinity of that Indian town, as the most convenient and healthful situation for the settlers. The tents were set up that night; and the people were occupied until the seventh in unloading and making a crane. Oglethorpe then employed some of them in erecting a fortification, and in felling the woods, while he marked out the town and common. The first house was begun on the ninth; and the town, after the Indian name of the river, which ran by it, was called Savannah. The fort being completed, the guns mounted, and the colony put in a state of safety, the next object of Oglethorpe's attention was, to treat with the Indians for a share of their possessions. The 15,000 territory was principally occupied by the 20,000 Upper and Lower Creeks, who were com40,000 puted to amount to about twenty-five thousand, men, women, and children; and these tribes, according to a treaty formerly made with governor Nicholson, laid claim to the lands, lying south-west of Savannah river. The tribe of Indians settled at Yamacraw, was inconsiderable. It appeared therefore of the highest consequence to procure the friendship, not of that tribe only, but of the more formidable Creeks. By the assistance of an Indian woman, who had married a trader from Carolina, and who could speak 4,500 the English and Creek languages, Oglethorpe summoned a general meeting of the chiefs, to hold a congress with him at Savannah, in order to procure their consent to the peacea ble settlement of his colony.

25,000

5,060

7,000

142,000 There arrived, in 1729, at Pennsylvania, from Europe, 6,208 persons, for the purpose of settling in that colony. following were the proportions:

English and Welsh passengers and servants
Scots servants.

Irish passengers and servants
Palatine passengers

The

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1,153

Arrived at Newcastle government alone, passengers and servants, chiefly from Ireland, about

Total.

243

6,208

This migration of the Irish from their country in much greater numbers than the English or Scotch, is not unworthy attention. We should be glad to know whether any account, to be depended on, has been kept, of the Irish emigrants: they must have amounted to a considerable number in the course of the last cen

Ogle

which fifty chieftains were present.
A congress was accordingly holden, at
thorpe represented to them the great power,
wisdom, and wealth of the English; and
the many advantages, that would accrue to
Indians in general from a connection with
that nation; and expressed his hope, that,

had pretty well made up their minds of what they intended. Dr. H. gives the article of this treaty at length; which proves that he attaches great importance to it, though he does not avow those sentiments which we have had abundant opportunities of knowing were prevalent, both in the "old country" and in the new.

The augmentation of inhabitants in America may be estimated from the following table. In 1790, the number was, 3,929,326. In 1800, the number was 5,305,482, which was resident in the different provinces in the following proportions:

as they had a plenty of lands, they would
freely resign a share of them to his people,
who, for their benefit and instruction, had
come to settle among them. After he had
distributed presents among the Indians, an
agreement was made; and Torochichi, in
the name of the Creek warriors, made a
speech to him. Among other observations,
he said, "Here is a little present," and then
gave him a buffalo's skin, painted on the
Inside with the head and feathers of an eagle,
and desired him to accept it, "because the
eagle signified speed, and the buffalo, strength.
The English," he proceeded, "are as swift
as the bird, and as strong as the beast;
since, like the first, they fly from the utmost
parts of the earth over the vast seas, and,
like the second, nothing can withstand them.
The feathers of the eagle are soft, and sig-
ify love; the buffalo's skin warm, and sig-
nities protection; he hoped therefore, that
they would love and protect their little fami-
lies." Oglethorpe, having concluded this
treaty of friendship with the natives, and
placed his colony in the best posture of de-
fence, returned to England,, carrying with Pennsylvania
him Tomochichi, his queen, and several
other Indians.

The number of warriors of the principal Indian nations, in the neighbourhood of Carolina and Georgia, is estimated to have been, at this period, upwards, of fourteen thousand.

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1790.

Vermont
New Hampshire
Maine

Massachusetts.
Rhode Island .
Connecticut
New York
New Jersey.

Delaware
Maryland
Virginia

South Carolina
Georgia
Kentucky
Tennessee

North Carolina

District of Columbia
and Western Dis-
tricts.

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Table of its imports and exports, as extracted by Dr. H. from the Encyclopédie Méthodique. [Art. COMMERCE, Art, ANGLETERRE.]

Colonies.
1753.

Carolinas

Georgia.
New York.
Pennsylvania
Virginia and Maryland
New England
Nova Scotia
Hudson's Bay

1763.

Imports.
L. 8. d.
164634 10 11
3057 0 6
50553 2 4
38527 12 5
632574 4 8
83395 13.5
934 9 7
9874 10 1

14469 18 282366 3

The peace of 1763 was a very important era in the history of the North American colonies. Whether it was wise in the British statesmen of that day to relieve the colonists from every apprehension of their once dreaded enemies, was questioned at the time; and subsequent events have proved that it was not questioned without cause. We believe the fact to have been, that many private persons connected with America, had more correct intelligence of the disposition of the people there than the British government had, by its official communications. The public officers sent over from Britain to America, were not admitted into that confidential intimacy Virginia and Maryland 589803 14

among the people, which certain individuals of a different description enjoyed; and we know well, that Americans who came over to England, were sufficiently free in their predictions of what would happen, to justify the inference that they

Georgia.
Carolinas
Virginia and Maryland
Pennsylvania
New York.
New England
Nova Scotia
Canada.
Newfoundland .
Hudson's y
Florida.

Carolinas
Georgia

1773.

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Pennsylvania.
New York.
New England
Cape Breton
Nova Scotia
Hudson's Bay
Canada.
Florida.
Newfoundland

Exports. L. 8. d. 213009 18 7 14128 8 а

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have transferred into their hands. Had

A Voyage to the Demerary, containing a this augmentation of value been the result Statistical Account of the Settlements there, of Dutch capital, labour, and understandand of those on the Essequebo, the Bering, freely exercised under British gothose we have hinted at, might have slept vernment, objections of the nature of

bice, and other contiguous Rivers of Guyana. By Henry Bolingbroke, Esq. of Norwich, Deputy Vendue Master at Surinam. 2to. pp. 400. Price London, Phillips, 1807.

in silence.

The consideration of the cost bestowed on these colonies, and their increased production in consequence of British im provements, naturally leads their British proprietors to desire, that, whenever peace arrives, they should be retained under our national protection. Hence arises a diffi culty: if they be given up to our present enemies, the parties who now hold them must either relinquish them, to a great disadvantage, if they desire to continue British subjects; or if they prefer the continuing with their possessions, they must transfer their allegiance to a foreign power, and they become aliens from their parent state. In proportion to their increased importance will be the reluctance of Britain to part with them, and the embarrassment of our negociators arising from the difficulty of fixing on an equivalent for them. This consideration, with others usual on such occasions, reduce the jargon of uti possidetis, statu quo, and other Latin barbarisms, to their true value.

WHAT is the characteristic of the British nation, at present?-Improvement. An almost restless desire of producing greater effects than have been accomplished by former generations. We have improved our native island; and very greatly and honourably, too. We have improved our colonies; and if year after year does not discover a progress, the public is dissatisfied, if not disappointed. We have carried this principle so far, that when the chance of war has given us a possession of our enemies' colonies, we have improved them, too; and we certainly restored the Dutch settlements to that power, at the peace of Amiens, in a condition incomparably superior that in which they were when they surrendered to us. Whether it was wise, in individuals, to engage such, considerable sums as they did, on the speculation of what the arrangements at a peace might be, we do not inquire; but it will We singerely wish that the spirit of be admitted, by foreigners, at least, that pacification would allow the British gothe amelioration of the soil, and the aug-vernment to take its choice of the diffimentation of the products of the colonies culties we have stated. Very far should of Demerary, &c. at the expence of fifteen we be from interposing obstacles to such or twenty millions sterling, was a specu- a happy incident. But, in the meantime, lation that Britain, and Britain only, we accept with pleasure every attempt to would have conceived, or undertaken, or inform us, not only on the actual condi❤ could have accomplished. tion of our distant possessions, but on their capabilities, and what may be hoped for from them, though at a distant day.

to

We confess, that we have not seldom doubted the propriety of such speculations: and if, at the close of the present contest, these establishments should be returned to their former masters, we do not discover the advantage that will accrue to our nation from the labour, the judgment, and the expenditure of our fellow-subjects. It will be found, in that case, that we have shewn the Hollanders the way to make the most of their property. If they continue to follow the example we have set them, though it may be honourable to us to have overcome difficulties which they found insuperable; yet the honour will very barely compensate for the inreased power of rivalship, that we shall VOL. V. Lit. Pan. Feb. 1809.]

When a nation has many colonies, some will be more favoured than others; their real value will be greater; or the importance attached to them from circumstances, rather relative than intrinsic, wif be more prominent. The writer before us asserts, that the colonies of Demerary, &c. have hitherto been greatly undervalued; and that neither the Batavian government nor the British, has duly appreciated them. He is entitled to considerable allowance, when he thus declares his opinion. He ought to esteem them more highly than others can, in proportion to his better acquaintance with them, 2 H

if they deserve it; and it is perfectly na- | tural that he should express that esteem by language in which others may suppose they discover traces of partiality.

We are always favourable to notes taken on the spot; to observations made with the subject under the immediate inspection of the observer. The present volume is composed from letters written by the author while resident in the colony, and though this occasionally produces an irregularity in the language, yet it also adds a force which is far from injurious. There is a philosophical spirit of disquisition in some parts of the work, which is less commendable. A loose state of morals never was, and never can be truly advantageous to any community: and however use may conceal the evils of licentiousness from those accustomed to behold it, yet they are evils, notwithstanding. Their nature is not changed, although it may be overlooked. Providence has connected cause and effect together, by indissoluble bands, and if any treat the absence of morals as no injury to the commonwealth, they assume a false principle, and must be mistaken. We could have been glad if this volume had given no occasion to similar remarks. But, as we find much to commend in it, we shall take advantage of what affords us the opportunity; with out fastidiously urging further censure.

Mr. B. assures us, that our old West India islands are worn out; and that the people of Barbadoes sent to the Demerary many vessels for cargoes of earth, with which they manured their lands." This

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traffic would have been carried on to a considerable extent, but the bottoms of

the vessels were infested by the worms.

The seasons in these settlements are two

wet and two dry, in the year: the former commences in December, and continues January and February; also June, July, and August: the latter occupies the intervening months.

perty may be acquired in these colonies:
but the manner of enjoying it, is very
confined. The means of intellectual gra-
tification are rare; those of the senses
are in plenty. Property, however, by the
change of sovereignty, at the last peace,
was sunk to half its cost; and at that
price was offered in vain. The losses
sustained by the colony in consequence of
returned bills, and other mercantile mis-
fortunes attendant on the renewal of the
war, are stated by Mr. B. at £1,135,000;
and this, notwithstanding some alleviation
was obtained from an order of the king
in council. Mr. B. states the following
particulars of this injury:

Damages on bills returned...... £250,000
Expences of law suits, noting,
protesting, postage, interest,
&c.......

10,000

Captures made by the British.. 1,000,000

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This diminution of capital, could not but produce severe sufferings in a colony only rising into importance. This was perhaps inevitable. However, it did not alienate the minds of the Dutch planters: nor blind them to the advantages they had derived from British spirit and capital. The enterprise of capturing these districts was far enough from being of the most arduous description; and when it is known, that the British fleet was waited for; and that many ships laden with goods accompanied the assailants, we cannot rank the atchievement among the most brilliant, though it may deserve a place, if our author be correct, among the most bette

ficial.

Stabroek is the capital of the colony; and if the reader desires to know what

scribe it to him.

Mr. B. speaks favourably of the cli-kind of a capital it is, Mr. B. will demate of the West Indies; but the fatal effects of indulgence in new rum, expressively and justly called "kill devil," he states very forcibly. We believe that intemperance slays its ten thousands; but that the climate, and the seasoning does not slay its thousands, will require accumulated evidence to persuade

us.

Even our author's own experience, (p. 89,) militates against his opinion. Pro

Stabroek was to me quite a new sight. I recollected no English town which bore the least resemblance. It stands on the flat strand, and canals, where black and tawny inclose the main street: while wooden children were plunging about like didappers, houses, with colonnaded porticoes and balconies shaded by a projecting roof, are orderly arranged between spacious intervals in thres parallel lines. They are seldom above two

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story high : they stand on low brick founda- | assemble to sell their trick, such as fruit, tions, and are roofed with a red wood, which vegetables, fowls, eggs, and where the huckI took for mahogany. No where the glitter sters expose for sale articles of European maof a glass casement; Venetian blinds, or nufacture (much in the same manner as the jealousees as they are called by the inhabi- pedlars do in England) in addition to salt tants, close every window; and the rooms beef, pork, and fish, bread, cheese, pipes, project in all directions to catch the luxury of tobacco, and other articles, in small quanti a thorough draft of air, so that the ground- ties, to enable the negroes to supply themplan of a dwelling is mostly in the shape of a selves agreeably to the length of their purses. cross. There are no trees in the streets as in Hucksters are free women of color, who purHolland; the town would have been plea- chase their coinmodities of merchants at two santer with this imitation of the old country; or three months credit, and retail them out in but casks and bales lie about, as if every road the manner described. Many of them are, was a wharf, and numerons warehouses are indeed, wealthy, and possess ten, fifteen, and intermingled with the dwellings Even the twenty negroes, all of whom they employ in public buildings are of wood. Blacks clad this traffic. It is by no means an uncomonly with a blue pantaloon, or with a mere mon thing for negroes in this line to be tra towel of checking supported by a string about velling about the country for several weeks the loins, come to perform every office. Here together, sometimes with an attendant, havand there a white man in a muslin shirt, ing trunks of goods to a considerable amount, and gingham trowsers is seen smoking his say two hundred pounds, and when a good segar, and giving directions from under an opportunity offers, they remit to their misumbrella to his sable messengers; or is led tresses what money they have taken. It is about in a phaeton drawn by ponies to su- really surprizing what a large sum is thus perintend the shipping of his goods. A noon- returned by these people going from one esday sultriness and silence prevail: every mo- tate to another. The permission of the mation is performed with such tranquillity for nager on every plantation is always necessary, fear of kicking up a dust, that one would before the huckster ventures to the negro suppose the very labourers at work in a houses, where the bargains are made. Those church during service. that have not money barter their fowls, pigs, s gars, for what they stand in need of. The hucksters are provided with such an assortment as to be able to supply the negro with a coarse check, or the manager with a fine cambric, for his shirts. Coloured women of all descriptions are extravagantly fond of dress but those resident in the country, not having such an opportunity as the Stabroek ladies of seeing every thing new as it arrives, feel a lively sensation of joy and pleasure at the sight of a huckster, and anticipate the pleasure of tumbling over the contents of her trunk; and if it contains any new articles of fashion, their hearts beat high with wishes to obtain them. If a joe or a dollar be still remaining, it is sure to go: should their purse be empty, they make no hesitation in asking for credit / such is the general chaFacter and conduct of coloured women.

By the time I had unpacked, washed, and dressed, dinner was ready, namely at five.

A dinner at Stabroek is a sort of mercantile medley of the imitable parts of the manners of remote nations. There was soup to begin with, as in France, and salted ling to begin with as in Holland: there was an English huge joint of beef and a couple of Moscovy ducks: there was an Italian desert of Bologna sausages and sallad, anchovies and olives: there was fruit of all kinds, pine-apples, guavas, oranges, shaddocks and avoiras. Wine was taken during the repast, and porter between the courses, for a bonne bouche.

At dusk, spermaceti candles were lighted, and placed within large cones of glass, to prevent the wind from blowing them aside. Segars were offered to us at the whist table, and most of the party smoaked, and drank coffee. A hammock, protected by a gauze curtain against the mosquitoes, was allotted me to sleep in, until beds could be put up.

The household establishment I found to consist of eight male and two female negroservants; a strange disproportion. The house was spacious, airy, and open, with pervious shutters, to admit everywhere a free circulation of air.

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The market is copiously supplied with butchers' meat, but at a most extravagant rate: mutton 3s. veal 2s. 6d. beef 2s. id.

pork 10d. per pound. With fish, the town is not so well provided as the country, no fish-monger has ever yet engaged in the busi ness upon a scale sufficiently extensive to supply the population. The utmost endeavour yet made is that of some negroes, who hire themselves of their masters, at so much day or month, and go a little beyond themouth of the river in canoes, returning by one or two o'clock and selling what they may have caught. A very glutinous fish, called a There is a market-place where the negroes paukama, which is esteemed a dainty, is

Mr. B. gives a very favourable account of the negroes in several parts of his work. We shall offer some of his remarks.

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