ginia; as the mustachio was then universal. Captain Smith speaks of accidentally meeting" his old friend Mosco, a lusty savage of Wichomoco," whom he took to be "a Frenchman's son, because he had acquired a black bushy beard." -"Buffon," observes Mr. Charles Thomson, in allusion to the characteristic traits of the aborigines, "has, indeed, given an affecting picture of the man of America: but, sure I am, that there never was a picture more unlike the original. They have no beard,' that author asserts! Had he known the pains and trouble it costs the men to pluck out, by the roots, the hair which grows on their faces, he would have confessed that nature had not been deficient in that respect. I have seen an Indian beau, with a glass in his hand, examining his face for hours together, and pulling out every hair he could discover, with a kind of tweezer, which he used with great dexterity.”

In dress, and artificial appearance in general, they resem bled the ancient Britons. They were partially clothed in deerskins, coloured yellow, red, russet, or black: their bodies, also, were stained, and punctured with thorns, to make the paint more lasting. The women sometimes wore gowns of moss, ingeniously matted into a kind of cloth. A few of the men had in their ears a small green and yellow snake, about half a yard in length; which, twining itself around their necks, would often familiarly kiss their lips. Some ornamented their heads with the wing of a bird, or a large feather and a rattle: others, with the entire skin of a hawk, stuffed, and the wings extended. Their arms were similar to those used by all nations unacquainted with gunpowder, —bows, darts, and clubs. Their boats were formed mostly from the solid tree, hollowed by stones and fire; and many were capacious enough to carry twenty men, with their arms and baggage.

The Indian is more remarkable for agility than strength; fitted rather for the rapid pursuit of the forest game, than the laborious duty of agriculture. His frame has habitually assumed a texture corresponding with his employment; and, in a thinly populated country, this lies amidst the swift-footed tenants of the woods. In the same manner, the miller, the porter, the city chairman, display their several professions, in the conformation of their shoulders, and the muscular rotundity of their legs or amns.

Of all uncivilized people, the Indians are the most distinguished orators. When addressing the passions, their language is highly figurative and bold; warin, animating

and interesting. They have an ingenious mode of retain ing the substance of their debates. A number of persons stand around the speaker, and, at the end of every division of his discourse, receive from him, in succession, a small piece of stick, as a memorial of the preceding passage; which, on any future occasion, they are thus enabled fully to recollect.

These are all the observations which it is thought ma terial to make, in this place, respecting the aborigines of America. We have not endeavoured to give extraneous ornament to history, by ingenious fictions of the imagination; to associate falsehood with truth, and degrade millions of our fellow beings, by unsupported assertions of physical inferiority. European writers have assigned to the Indian, qualities of mind and body; passions of the one, and imbecilities of the other; which are alike erroneous and unfounded. Having discovered a new world, they think that it should be inhabited by a people wholly different from those of the old, in every thing except the human form: but, recollecting that the whole race of man are descended from a common parent, and that this parent was created in Asia, they trace his journey from the old world, and show, with industrious anxiety, his Asiatic resemblance. They pursue another branch of their flimsy system, and before their treatise is concluded, destroy the entire romance by unavoidable collision.

CHAPTER IV.

Settlement of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Neu Hampshire, and the district of Maine. Sir William Phipps.

WE have already mentioned the partition made of the great territory of Virginia, into North and South colonies. The operations of the Plymouth company, to whom was assigned the conduct of the northern division, were still more feeble than those of the southern; though animated by the zeal of sir John Popham, chief justice of England, sir Ferdinando Gorges, and other public spirited gentlemen of the west.

The first vessel which they sent out was captured by the Spaniards; and their next attempt was not more successful.

In the following year, 1607, the same in which Jamestown was founded, they began a small settlement on the river Sagahadoc, now called the Kennebec: but, on account of the rigour of the climate, it was soon abandoned; and, for some time, nothing farther was attempted than a few fishing voyages to Cape Cod, or a petty traffic with the natives. One of the vessels equipped for this purpose, in 1614, was commanded by captain Smith; who was employ ed also on objects more congenial with his enterprising mind. He explored its coast and delineated its bays and harbours On his return, he laid before the prince of Wales, the map, on which he had inscribed "New England;" a title that the prince, delighted by the representations of Smith, immediately confirmed.

Although that adventure had been lucrative, and easily accomplished, it was not sufficient to allure the people to emigration. The splendid description which Smith published of his discoveries, as well as the profit arising from his voyage, was regarded with suspicion. The one was viewed as the transcript of a mind naturally enthusiastic and easily deceived by novelty; the other, as the fruits of piratical violence. But, what could not be effected by the desire of pecuniary emolument, was accomplished by the operations of a higher principle. Religion had gradually excited amongst a large body of the English, a spirit eminently fitted to encounter the dangers, and surmount the obstacles, which, hitherto, had rendered abortive the schemes of the company at Plymouth. To this, are the various settlements in New England indebted for their origin. It is not our intention, nor is it essential, to trace, minutely, the various decrees fulminated against the exercise of all religious ceremonies, or against the promulga tion of religious tenets, at variance with the court opinions, by the tyrannical Henry, or the less severe ministers of Edward; the Mary, or the more cautious, and less rigid, policy, of Elizabeth and James. To the disgrace of Christian professors, the sacred rights of conscience and of private judgment, were not properly understood; nor the charity and mutual forbearance taught by their sacred master, at that period practised, in any country. Every church employed the hand of power, in supporting its own doc trines and opposing the tenets of another; in disseminating its own truth, and destroying another's error. When reforming the ritual and exterior symbols of the church of England, Elizabeth, lest, by a too wide departure from the

Roman church, she might alarm the populace, who are attached to religious worship, more through the medium of the senses than of the understanding, had allowed many of the ancient ceremonies to remain unaltered. With several of these, however, a large number of her subjects being dissatisfied, they wished to address their Creator agreeably to their own opinions, but were subjected to very rigorous penalties. One of the most strenuous and popular declaimers against the established church, was Robert Brown; who reduced his ideas to a system, and prohibited his people from holding communion with any other. From their founder, his followers were called Brownists; and, though he abandoned his disciples, and accepted a benefice in the established church, the sect continued to spread, especially in the middle and lower ranks of life. But, as they were carefully observed, and rigorously punished, a body, weary of living in continual danger and alarm, retired to Holland, and settled in Leyden, under the care of a respectable pastor, Mr. John Robinson. After remaining there for many years, the society were desirous of removing to some other place, where they might profess and disseminate their opin ions with more pleasure and success; and, not deterred by the hardships to which all former emigrants had been exposed, they turned their thoughts upon America, and applied to James; who, though he refused to give them any positive assurance of toleration, seems to have inti mated some promise of passive indulgence, so long as their conduct was inoffensive.

Accepting the terms, they readily procured a tract of land from the company of Plymouth. But their preparations were very inadequate to begin a settlement in a distant region. Only one hundred and twenty persons were collected for this arduous undertaking. They sailed from Plymouth, in 1620; their destination being Hudson's River: however, the captain of their vessel having been bribed, it is said, by the Dutch, who had already formed a plan, afterwards accomplished, of sending thither a colony, carried them so far towards the north, that the first land they reached was Cape Cod. This treacherous behaviour placed them not only beyond their stipulated territory, but even beyond the boundaries of the company from whom they derived their title. To proceed farther was dangerous. It was now the 11th of November. Winter was approaching, and the hardships of a long voyage had caused a generai imbecility and sickness. But the disappointment, so far

Be

from being injurious, seems a fortunate event: as the country of their destination was thickly inhabited by Indians, and this, almost depopulated; a pestilence having recently swept off more than three fourths of its inhabitants. fore landing, they bound themselves, by a written covenant, to be ruled by the majority; elected John Carver their governor for one year; and, on the 11th of December, chose for their station a place called by the Indians Patuxet, to which they gave the name of New Plymouth; partly because the harbour in which it is situated had been styled Plymouth by captain Smith, and partly in remembrance of the kind treatment they had received in the port of that name in England.

Before the spring, half their number were cut off by famine or disease; and even those who remained were unable to give the requisite attention to the providing of food. They were frequently employed in skirmishing with the Indians. Let it not, however, be imagined, that the latter were the aggressors. The records of the ancient settlers incontestibly prove that the Indians were attacked without provocation. In a few days after the English landed, captain Standish, with a party of sixteen men, well armed, went to explore the country; and, about a mile from the sea, discovered five "savages," who immediately fled. "He pursued them about ten miles; but, night coming on, he placed sentinels, kindled a fire, and rested quietly. lo the morning, he continued the pursuit, as far as Pamet river, without seeing either inhabitants or habitations. Early in December, he set out upon a fourth expedition of discovery. On the first day, he saw a small party of Indians, who fled; and about midnight, when sleeping in the woods, being roused by the sentinel, his men fired two guns, but perceived no enemy: the shots, however, alarmed the poor natives, who were probably lurking in the neighbourhood, anxious to watch the motions of an enemy, who had invaded their territory, and assailed them without reason. Wherefore, in the morning, a shower of arrows was poured against the English, accompanied by savage yells, no less terrible to the Europeans, than were the explosions of the death-dealing musket to the Indians.

Amongst the various traces of civilized life, then observed, there was one evidence worthy of attention, as it will aid in removing the erroneous estimate of the social improvement of those people, so generally entertained. Af ter passing some corn-fields, the notice of the English was