The only passion, which can be immediately substituted for the Indian love of glory, is that, which has been substituted in every civilized nation: viz. the love of property. Wherever this can be established, Indians may be civilized: wherever it cannot, they will still remain Indians.

The belief, that our exer

tions will promote our benefit, and our consequence, will ever stimulate us to exertion. Without this belief, the great body of mankind will not exert themselves at all.

If the period should ever arrive, in which the inhabitants of the United States should set themselves in earnest to do good to this miserable people; and under a sense of obligations, which can neither be denied, nor lessened, should seriously attempt to make them comfortable, virtuous, and useful, here, and happy hereafter ; common sense will require, that such of them, as remain in the English settlements, should be gathered on tracts, inhabited by themselves only. Those, indeed, who are to be the immediate agents in accomplishing this object, must reside with them; but no others. The contempt, which this degraded people will always experience from us, and the sense of their own degradation and our superiority, will for ever keep them in their present state, if they are to remain dispersed among the English inhabitants. When they are by themselves, they will be equals; and may, therefore, imbibe, gradually, a sense of personal character. Until this can be accomplished, nothing can be done unless they can be persuaded cordially to embrace Christianity. Concerning this subject I may have opportunity to make some observations to you hereafter.

The inhabitants of Stonington have suffered in their religious interests from their neighbourhood to Rhode-Island. There are six congregations in this town: three of them composed of Baptists. The number of Baptist ministers, I know not. There was no Congregational minister here; and the Baptist preachers were mere uneducated farmers or mechanics. Public worship, therefore, was either not celebrated at all, or celebrated in a forbidding and vulgar manner. Licentiousness always follows, instantly, the loss of public worship; and contempt for relgion

Man

regularly follows the administration of it by ignorant men. kind are creatures of instruction, as well as of habit. When they are not taught, they will of course be ignorant; and, when they are not admonished, and reproved, they will of course be loose. The inquiries, which I made concerning this town, of persons whose respectability could not be questioned, terminated in satisfactory evidence, that, although there were some religious, and many respectable people here, yet, by the mass of inhabitants, religion was little regarded, and the standard of morals low; facts but too common along this border of Connecticut.*

In the year 1756, Stonington contained 3,518 inhabitants: blacks 200: Indians 365; in 1774, 5,412: blacks 219: Indians 245; in 1790, 5,648; in 1800, 5,437: blacks 42; and, in 1810, 3,043. The same year, North-Stonington contained 2,534: total, 5,577. I am, Sir, yours, &c.

* Within a few years past a respectable minister has been settled in Stonington.

LETTER V.

Westerly-Charlestown-South-Kingston-Aboriginal Tribes formerly inhabiting New-England-Their population-Number of warriors as estimated by General Gookin--War with the Narrbagansetts-Attack and capture of their FortressGallant conduct of Captain Denison and others--Death of Nanuntenoo.

Dear Sir,

SATURDAY, September 20th, we left the hospitable house of Mr. D; and rode to Newport through Westerly, Charlestown, South-Kingston, and Jamestown on Canonicut island; thirty-eight miles.

In

About two miles from Mr. D's we crossed Paukatuc river; which divides Connecticut from Rhode-Island, and Stonington from Westerly. At the bridge there is a pretty village, principally in Westerly, containing perhaps twenty houses. this village a bank has lately been established with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars, which may be increased to one hundred and fifty thousand.

Paukatuc river forms the only harbour in Westerly; and furnishes excellent fisheries for bass, eels, black-fish, shad, and herrings. In the bay, which is formed at its mouth, these kinds of fish are caught in as great abundance, as perhaps in any part of New-England. Long and round clams, also, oysters, and a little farther out in the sound lobsters, are found in great numbers.

The land in this township is divided into two kinds. The border of the sound, which is generally good; and that in the interiour, which is a collection of hills, stony, sandy, and lean; originally covered with shrub oaks and pitch pines. This ground, which constitutes a considerable part of the township, produces scarcely any thing, beside small crops of rye. On the former of these tracts the inhabitants are generally in good circumstances. On the latter, though said to be industrious, they are generally, and indeed necessarily, poor and unthrifty. Except the village above mentioned, Westerly is a collection of farms.

There is a good common school near the bridge, styled an academy. There are several other schools in the township, as much inferiour to this, as the parochial schools in other parts of New-England are to the academies.

Immediately after leaving Paukatuc village, a traveller is struck with the sudden change of the whole artificial scenery. The houses, a few excepted, are small, old, and ragged. The barns vanish; and the tidy, thrifty appearance of Connecticut ceases. Every thing indicates a want of energy; a destitution of all views, and efforts, towards improvement; a sluggish acquiescence in inconveniences, and imperfections, which a more vigorous disposition would easily remove.

About one fourth of the people of Westerly are supposed to be Sabbatarians, or seventh-day Baptists. Some of these people appear to be religious, and are more distinguished by good morals than most of their neighbours. The remainder are chiefly Baptists.

Charlestown resembles Westerly in soil and surface, in its houses and inhabitants. The lands on the sound are however more beautiful, and more fertile, consisting of smooth, easy slopes, and handsome plains, divided into spacious fields, and fed by fine herds of cattle. The season was now remarkably dry; yet there were sufficient proofs of the fertility of these grounds. A great part of the houses are ill-built, misshapen, and unrepaired; and exhibit an absolute want of both taste and economy. The people of Charlestown, who live on the Sound lands, appear to be in good circumstances; and furnish for exportation a considerable quantity of beef, butter, and cheese: all in good reputation. The whole of this tract seems to have reached the highest point of improvement, aimed at by the inhabitants, and to be either stationary or declining. Their products, their houses, their manners, and their enjoyments, are much the same, as they were fifty years ago, and as they probably will be fifty years to

come.

In the Southern part of this township is a pond, called Pauwaget, or Charlestown Pond, and part of another called Conaquotoag: VOL. III.

6

the remaining part being in Westerly. The former is about four miles in length, and extensively visible along this road. It is separated from the Sound by a narrow beach, through which several passages have been made for the admission of fish. In these two ponds, and several others in Westerly, Charlestown, and SouthKingston, immense numbers of streaked bass, and various other kinds of fish, are caught annually.

Westerly contained, in 1790, 2,298 inhabitants; in 1800, 2,329; and, in 1810, 1,911.*

Charlestown, in 1790, contained 2,022 inhabitants; in 1800, 1,454; and, in 1810, 1,174. This extraordinary decrease I am unable to explain.

On the North side of the road through both Westerly and Charlestown the ranges of hills which are numerous and sudden, terminate either immediately on the road, or at a small distance; presenting to the eye their rough, ragged ends, covered with sands, or loaded with a dismal collection of naked rocks. Desolate and barren grounds are often scenes of romantic wildness and grandeur: here they were objects of mere disgust.

About ten miles from Newport the road turns directly Northward round a handsome hill, and winds along its Eastern margin by the side of a river. At the end of two or three miles it turns Eastward again, and crossing the river ascends a beautiful slope, and descends another of the same appearance to Canonicut ferry.

The whole of South-Kingston, the next township to Charlestown, so far as it is visible in the road, is pleasant and fertile. The surface is extensively undulating. The hills rise and fall with great ease and elegance, and are rounded with lines peculiarly flowing and graceful. The inhabitants appeared to be prosperous, and the agriculture superiour to what we had before seen in this State. In 1790 this township contained 4,131 inhabitants ; in 1800, 3,438; and, in 1810, 3,560.

The flat country in these three, townships, is appropriately called Narrhaganset, or the Narrhaganset country.

Westerly was the principal seat of Ninigret, one of the two chief Sachems of the Narrhagansets.