Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

he had long plagued them with what they noways understood, and that they defired him to depart the country. This, probably, was at the inftigation of their conjurers, to whom these people pay a profound regard; as Chriftianity was entirely oppofite, and would foon difpoflefs the people of their implicit be lief in their juggling art, which the profeffors have brought to fo great perfection as to deceive Europeans, much more an ignorant race, whose ideas will naturally augment the extraordinary of any thing the leaft above their comprehenfion, or out of the common tract. After this I need not fay that in every particular they are extremely fuperftitious, that and ignorance going always hand in hand.

They have few religious ceremonies, or ftated times of general worship: the green corn dance feems to be the principal, which is, as I have been told, performed in a very folemn manner, in a large fquare before the town-house door: the motion here is very flow, and the fong in which they offer thanks to God for the con he has fent them, far from unpleafing. There is no kind of rites or ceremonies at marriage, courtship and all being concluded in half an hour, without any other celebration, and it is as little binding as ceremonious; for though many laft till death, especially when there are children, it is common for a perfon to change three or four times a-year.'

To the honour of the female fex, however, we find, that notwithstanding what has been faid of their freedom from matrimonial fhackles, the women are here, as every where else, much more faithful to their nuptial engagements than the men are. Our Author relates an inftance of the remarkable fidelity of fome Indian wives, who had-European hufbands, among our foldiers, in the garrifon of Fort Loudoun. Our Readers cannot have forgot the late memorable fiege and blockade of that fort, by the enemy Indians, under Willanawaw. The garrifon being reduced to great distress, for want of provisions, and several of our foldiers having Indian wives, thefe faithful creatures went out every day, and brought them continual fupplies, notwithstanding Willanawaw threatned them with death for fo doing. Thefe heroines, nevertheless, perfifted in this method of foraging; braving the vengeance of the enemy chief, who certainly had it in his power to cut them off, every day. But they boldly declared to him, that they would continue to fuccour their hufbands; and reminded him, that fhould he kill them, their relations would make his death atone for theirs.' Willanawaw was too fenfible of the force of this argument, to put his threats

No great inconveniency arifes, it feems, from this cuffom, as the wives are allowed feparate property; which alfo prevents their being left deflitute, at the death of their husbands.

in execution; fo that the garrifon fubfifted a long time on the provifions brought to them in this manner.

When the Indian husband and wife part, the children go with and are provided for by, the mother. As foon as a child is born, which is generally without help, it is dipped into cold water and washed, which is repeated every morning for two years afterward, by which the children acquire fuch strength, that no ricketty or deformed are found amongst them. When the woman recovers, which is at latest in three days, the carries it herself to the river to wash it; but though three days is the longest time of their illness, a great number of them are not fo many hours; nay, I have known a woman delivered at the fide of a river, wash her child, and come home with it in one hand, and a goard full of water in the other.'

In fpeaking of their government, if it be proper to call that a government which hath neither law nor power for its fupport, our Author informs us, that the story of the Amazons is here realized; many of the Cherokee ladies being both famous in war, and powerful in the council.-Speaking of the honorary titles among the Indian warriors, Mr. Timberlake gives the fol lowing account, which may be fatisfactory to many readers of the paragraphs from North-America, commonly inferted in our news-papers, viz.

Thefe titles are ufually conferred in reward of fome great action. The first is Outacity, or Outacitee; which, if we miftake not, was the name by which Mr. Timberlake's friend, Oneflaco, was generally called, when in England: which muft have been erroneous, as that chief was diftinguished by an appellation of less terrible import, which we shall come to, prefently.

The fecond title, adds the Author, is Colona, or the Raven. Old warriors likewife, or war-women, who can no longer go to war, but have diftinguished themselves in their younger days, have the title of Beloved. This is the only title females can enjoy; but it abundantly recompences them, by the power they acquire by it, which is fo great, that they can, by the wave of a fwan's wing, deliver a wretch condemned by the council, and already tied to the ftake.'

The title of Little Carpenter, we find, was given to Attakullakulla, from his excelling in building houfes; and that of Judd's Friend, to Oftenaco, from his faving a man named Judd, (an European, we fuppofe) from the fury of his countrymen. The former of these has greatly fignalized himself by his policy and negociations, rather than by his military exploits; while the latter hath been equally distinguished, both in war and

[blocks in formation]

peace.There is another chief among the Cherokees, who, from the account here given of him, is perhaps as great a genius as our celebrated John Duke of Marlborough. This perfon is Oconneftoto, furnamed the Great Warriour; of whom it is related, that, in all his expeditions, his meafures were fo prudently taken, that he never loft one man!

As fome readers may think it a little extraordinary to hear our Author talk of policy among thefe barbarians, as we deem them, he makes the following fenfible remark on this subject: Though, fays he, I own their views are not fo clear and refined as thofe of European ftatefmen, their alliance with the French feems equal, proportioning the lights of favages and Europeans, to our most masterly strokes of policy; and yet we cannot be furprized at it, when we confider that merit alone creates their minifters, and not the prejudices of party, which

often create ours.

The English are now fo nigh, and encroached daily fo far upon them, that they not only felt the bad effects of it in their hunting grounds, which were spoiled, but had all the reafon in the world to apprehend being swallowed up, by fo potent neighbours, or driven from the country, inhabited by their fathers, in which they were born, and brought up, in fine, their native foil, for which all men have a particular tenderness and affection. The French lay farther off, and were not fo powerful; from them, therefore, they had lefs to fear. The keeping these foreigners then more upon a footing, as a check upon one another, was providing for their own fafety, and that of all America, fince they forefaw, or the French took care to fhew them, that, fhould they be driven out, the English would in time extend themselves over all North America.'

Our Author now proceeds to give a farther account of the cuftoms and manners of thefe Indians; and in particular of their games and amufements; after which, we come to his detail of the manner of his leaving the Cherokee country; of the motives which led Oftenaco to undertake his voyage to England, in which Mr. Timberlake was prevailed on to bear him company; the impolitic, inhospitable reception which this chief and his attendants met with here; their departure; and the Author's reflections on the poffible unhappy confequences of their voyage. Moft unhappy, however, were the confequences, to poor Lieut. Henry Timberlake; for, having never been rewarded for the fervices he endeavoured to render his country, by his visit to the Cherokees, nor even fully reimburfed the expences he had incurred by accompanying Oftenaco to England, and providing him and his attendants with neceflaries, our unfortunate Author became fo great a fufferer, and fo reduced in his circumstances, that (after undergoing a variety of difappointments, vexations,

arrefts

arrefts and imprisonments) he died, in the flower of his age, and -we much fear, of a broken heart.

How far INGRATITUDE, in governments, may be good policy; and in what measure it might be judged expedient, for the ho-. nour or intereft of Great Britain, to difcourage the North-American Indians from travelling hither, we cannot pretend to fay, But in this reflection, many who read these memoirs will perhaps concur, that a fatality feems to have attended the late miniftry, in every thing relating to our connections in the western world.

G.

A concife Account of North America: Containing a Defcription of the feveral British Colonies on that Continent, including the Islands of Newfoundland, Cape Breton, &c. as to their Situatim, Extent, Climate, Soil, Produce, Rife, Government, Religion, prefent Boundaries, and the Number of Inhabitants supposed to be in each. Alfo of the interior, or Wefterly Parts of the Country, upon the Rivers St. Laurence, the Miffiffipi, Chriftino, and the Great Lakes. To which is fubjoined, an Account of the feveral Nations and Tribes of Indians refiding in thofe Parts, as to their Customs, Manners, Government, Numbers, &c. containing many useful and entertaining Facts, never before treated of. By Major Robert Rogers. 8vo. 5s. bound, Millan.

F

EW of our Readers, we apprehend, are unacquainted with

the name, or ignorant of the exploits, of Major Rogers; who, with fo much reputation, headed the provincial troops called Rangers, during the whole courfe of our late fuccessful wars in America. To this brave, active, judicious officer, it is, that the public are obliged for the most fatisfactory account we have ever yet been favoured with, of the interior parts of that immenfe continent which victory hath fo lately added to the British empire.-For, as to what Charlevoix, and other French writers, have related, experience hath fhewn with what artful fallacy their accounts have been drawn up: -with the obvious defign of concealing, from other nations, the true fituation, and real circumstances of that country, of which we were, in many respects, totally ignorant, till the British lion, in revenge of repeated infults, tore away the veil, and opened to our view, the wide, extended, glorious profpect!

The prefent publication, however, as may be fupposed, from the quantity and price above specified, contains but a part of the Major's intended work; the remainder being proposed to be printed by fubfcription; and to be illuftrated with maps of the

feveral

ས།

feveral colonies, and of the interior country of North America. These we are affured, in the Author's advertisement, will be. more correct, and eafier to be understood, than any yet publifhed.'

was

Our Author was, happily for his country, the better qualified not only for the task he hath now enjoined his pen, but also for the atchievements in which his fword hath been employed, by the circumftance of his having received his early education in a frontier town in the province of New Hampshire, where he could hardly avoid obtaining fome knowlege of the manners, cufton, and language of the Indians, as many of them refided in the neighbourhood, and daily converfed with the English.Between the years 1743 and 1755, his manner of life* fuch, as led him to a general acquaintance both with the British and French fettlements in North America, and especially with the uncultivated defart, the mountains, valleys, rivers, lakes, and feveral paffes that lay between and contiguous to the faid fettlements. Nor did he content himself with the accounts he received from the Indians, or the information of hunters, but travelled over large tracts of the country himself; which tended not more to gratify curiofity, than to inure him to hardships. And hardships † enough he was destined to endure !

The accounts here given of the British colonies are very brief. They seem to have been chiefly intended to form an introduction to the Major's description of our late conquefts in that part of the world; and which muft, undoubtedly, be confidered as the moft valuable part of his work. Accordingly he himself obferves, that it will not be expected, after volumes on volumes that have been publifhed concerning the British colonies on the eaftern fhore of the American continent, that any thing materially new can be related of them.' The only thing, adds he, ⚫ that I mean to attempt with regard to this is, to collect fuch facts and circumftances, as in a political and commercial view, appear to me to be moft interefting; to reduce them to an eafy and familiar method, and contract them within fuch narrow limits, that the whole may be seen as it were at once, and every

What that manner of life was, the Author hath not more particularly intimated; but we do not fuppofe he was employed in any military capacity.

For a detail of our Author's adventures, after he obtained the command of thofe American light-armed infantry, called Rangers, fee the Journals of Major Rogers, mentioned in our Catalogue for this month: a work wrote, as he declares, not with filence and leifure, but in defarts, on rocks and mountains, amidst the hurries, diforders, and noife of war, and under that depreffion of fpirits, which is the natural confequence of exhaufting fatigue."

« AnteriorContinuar »