that thefe infidels, by our converfation and neighbourhood, are become worse than they were before they knew us. Inftead of virtues, we have only taught them vices, which they were entirely free from before that time.' In another place he obferves, on the fame fubject, that this cruelty of revenge, is not peculiar to the Five Nations, but is common to all the other Indians. To blunt, however, the keennefs of that cenfure we might be apt to caft on them, upon this account, he hath the following juft reflection: It is wonderful, how cuftom and education åre able to foften the most horrid actions, even among a polite and learned people. Witnefs the Carthaginians and Phænicians burning their own children alive in facrifice; and feveral paffages in the Jewith hiftory;-and witness, in later times, the Chriftians burning one another for God's fake!'

The Equality of Mankind, a Poem. By Mr. Wodhull. 4to. Is. 6d. Becket.

MR

R. Wodhull feems ftrongly to have imbibed the spirit of that Platenic and Rouffvian ENTHUSIASM, which, worThipping at the feet of FREEDOM, looks up to the goddess and fees nothing befide. Philofophy, in this, more, perhaps, than in any other inftance, indulges the influences of Fancy, and is fatisfied with the image of Truth. While the has the moral liberty of mankind in view, fhe finds nothing in real life that is adequate to her ideas of it; yet, willing to believe that men have fometime or other exifted in fuch forms of fociety as in her own fyftems fhe conceives to be poffible, fhe eafily gives herfelf up to the delufions of Poetry, and wanders with her through ages of vifionary perfection.

Ye happier times of innocence and truth,
Pleafing inftruciors of my thoughtless youth,
When none the image of his God belied,
No minions crouch'd beneath a fultan's pride,
No wealth enfnar'd, no poverty diftrefs'd,
No ruffians plunder'd, and no kings opprefs'd;
Tho' doom'd to grovel in a bafer age
Will I from memory's enchanting page
Retrace your fcatter'd annals.-When of old
Arcadia's peaceful fhepherds uncontrol'd

Their ranging flocks thro' boundless paftures drove,
Or tun'd their pipes beneath the myrtle grove,
Their laws on brazen tablets unimprest
Were deeply grav'd on each ingenuous breast,
No proud vicegerent of Aftrea reign'd,
Aftrea's felf her own decrees maintain'd..

Books,

Books, useless lumber, yet in embryo slept,
No Damon rav'd in rhyme, no Delia wept;
Nor had, nor needed they the cafuilt's page;
Plain were the duties of that fimpler age:
For Nature beft of mothers pleas'd to teach
Virtues no modern theorist can reach;
With characters indelible, on high
Blazon'd her fyftem of Equality.

There is no fubject fo flattering to the heart of man as the original privileges of his being; but in this cafe, as in a thoufand others, his reafon is made the dupe of his vanity: he contemplates his nature only on the favourable fide, and confiders what fome of his qualities may entitle him to enjoy, without reflecting what others muft oblige him to fuffer. It is in vain, therefore, that the philofopher amuses himself with Utopian eftablishments, and ideal perfection; vain, at least, while there are fuch things as vice or folly in the world; for the latter will always make undue conceffions to power, and the former will never fail to abuse it. Where then is the equality of man? Not in any state of fociety; for under the beft inftitutions of government there will be very little of it, and in the worst there is none at all. Yet to ftand forth in defence of the common liberties of mankind; to brand with infamy the names of tyrants; and to rescue from oblivion the friends of human nature, is certainly a laudable, if not an useful employment for the moral mufe.

Curse on the shouts of that licentious throng,
Whofe merriment, (more brutal than the fong
Of mad Agave, when wild Hæmus o'er
Her Pentheus' mangled limbs the mother bore ;)
Proclaims the fall of liberty:-
:-ye shades
Of mighty chiefs from your Elyfian glades
Look down benign, avert the dire prefage,
Nor with two Charlefes brand one finful age.
O my poor country! what capricious tide.
Of fortune fwells the tyrant's motley pride!
Around his brows yon fervile prelates twine
The ftale and blasted wreath of right divine;
While harlots, like the Coan Venus fair,
Move their light feet to each lafcivious air.

Hence with your orgies!-righteous Heaven ordains

A purer worship, lefs audacious ftrains.

When falls by William's fword (as foon it muft)

This edifice of bigotry and luft;

The mufe shall start from her inglorious trance,
And give to fatire's grafp her vengeful lance,
At truth's hiftoric fhrine fhall victims smoke,
And a fresh Stuart bleed at ev'ry stroke:
Thine too, perfidious Albemarle, (whose steel
Drawn to protect embroil'd Britannia's weal

C 4

Shrunk

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They already carry on a very confiderable trade with the Indians, and export great quantities of deer-fkins and furs. The French inhabitants here raife confiderable quantities of rice, and build fome veffels.

• There are at prefent, as I am told, about 6coo inhabitants in this province, which increafe very faft, it being much more healthy and inviting than Eaft Florida; especially the western parts upon the banks of the Miffiffipi, where it is faid to be agreeable enough to English conftitutions. In short, it is not to be doubted but that in a few years this will be a rich and flourishing province, nature having denied it nothing that is neceffary to make it fo.'

How far our Author's account of these two fettlements may, in every circumftance, be depended upon, is a point not perfectly clear to us, as we are not precifely informed whether he hath related all of them from his own perfonal acquaintance with those provinces; or whether he hath not chiefly made his report from the information of others. He appears, however, to be fo honeft a Writer, that we do not fufpect him to be capable of any intention to mislead his Readers, in any respect whatever.

In our Author's defcription of the manners and customs of the Indians, particularly thofe called the FIVE NATIONS, are many curious particulars; fome of which may ferve as a proper fupplement to the account extracted, in the preceding article, from Lieutenant Timberlake's Memoirs: and the obfervations of both thefe Writers may, perhaps, be confidered by the judicious Readers as a valuable addition to the more elaborate performance of Cadwallader Colden Efq; publifhed not long before the commencement of our Review.

Thefe five Nations, are, beyond all the other Indian tribes, the moft diftinguished for their underftanding, their valour, and above all, for their glorious fpirit of liberty: in which refpect even Britons may be proud to call them their brethren. Of thefe, again, the Mohawks are the firft in rank, (in regard to the aforementioned virtues) though at prefent the fmalleft in number: to which circumftance they have been reduced, from being the most numerous, by their continual wars, The union of the five nations, fomewhat refembles that of the Dutch United Provinces; and this republican league, or confederacy, in which no one nation hath any fuperiority over the other, hath fubfifted fo long, that the Europeans, fays Mr. Colden,

The hiftory of the Five Indian Nations of Canada; viz. The Mohawks, Oneydoes, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senekas; to whom are alfo added, as a fixth nation, the Tufcaroras. The Necariages of MifiImakinac, have alfo been received as a feventh nation.

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know nothing of its origin. Their most northern fettlement, fays Mr. Rogers, is a town called Chockonawago, on the fouth of the river St. Lawrence, oppofite to Montreal; but their largest settlements are between Lake Ontario and the provinces of New York and Penfylvania, or the heads of the Mohock, Tanefee, Oneoida and Onondaga rivers. They claim all the country fouth of the river St. Lawrence to the Ohio, and down the Ohio to the Wabach, from the mouth of the Wabach to the bounds of Virginia; wefterly, to the Lakes Ontario and Erie, and the river Miamee; their eastern boundaries are lake Champlain, and the British colonies. When the Englifh first fettled in America, they could raise 15.000 fighting men; but now, including the Delawares and Shawanees, they do not amount to more than between three or four thousand, having been thus reduced by the inceffant wars they have maintained with the other Indians, and with the French, in Canada.'

Speaking of the great military exploits of the Mohawks, our Author affures us, that they have been inveterate enemies to the French, ever fince their first fettlement in Canada; that they once burned the city of Montreal; and that they are almost the only Indians within may hundred miles, that have been proof against the folicitations of the French to turn againft us; but the greatest part of them have maintained their integrity, and been our ftedfast friends and faithful allies.As to their perfons, Mr. Rogers remarks, that there is rarely found, among the Indians, a perfon that is any way deformed, or that is deprived of any fenfe, or decrepid in any limb, notwithstanding the little care taken about the mother in the time of her pregnancy, the neglect the infant is treated with when born, and the fatigues the youth is obliged to fuffer; yet generally they are of a hale, robust, and firm conftitution; but fpirituous liquors, of which they are infatiably fond, and the women as well as the men, have already furprizingly leffened their numbers, and will, in all probability, in one century more nearly clear the country of them.':

How greatly have thefe untutored people the advantage over us, in respect to what is obferved, in the beginning of this laft quotation! To what can it be owing that, among us, SO MANY are found deformed, or deprived of one or other of their fenfes ? To what more than the fpirit of Quackery which, for many ages paft, hath taken poffeffion of us, inftead of the fimplicity of former times? Quackery feems, indeed, to have vitiated our whole National Conftitution and character: it hath infect

This term may be used in a religious, moral, political or œconomical, as well as in a medical fenfe.

ed

*704 x Svag pace am stat The ITIL kay, says he, 2 command of every pain hydrogen or Cara whay at TL way be tam bearing the mot fuae ad te

wwws with calls and compofure of mind, wELOUD & WIL Mwenge of countenance; even a prifoner, we have not where his captivity may end, or wherner be may aw hours be put to a molt cruel death, never loes a moments Aeep on this account, and eats and drinks with as mucz charfulness as thofe into whole hands he has fallen.

Their refolution and courage under fickness and pain s truly furprising. A young woman will be in labour 2 whe day without uttering one groan or cry; fhould fhe betray fath a weaknefs, they would immediately fay, that fhe was unworthy to be a mother, and that her offspring could not fail of being Cowards. Nothing is more common than to fee perfons, young and old of both fexes, fupporting themfelves with fuch conHaney under the greateft pains and calamities, that even when under thofe fhocking tortures which prifoners are frequently put so, they will not only make themfelves chearful, but provoke and irritate their tormentors with moft cutting reproaches.'

Their method of declaring war is very folemn, and attended, fays our Author With many ceremonies of terror.' In the first place, they call an aflembly of the Sachems [old men] and warriors to deliberate on the affair; in which congrefs the wo, as well as the men. Take our Author's his own words,

are aflembled, the prefident or chief Sachem they have met to consult upon, and, taking which lies by him) days, who among you will againit fuch a nation? Who among you will go captives from thence, so replace our deceased friends, wrongs may be avenge and our name and honour ned as long as rivers Row, gos, or the fan and endure He having this one of the princal ors rifes, and harangues the whole send an