C018/Y01742.json

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{"source_document": "", "creation_year": 1742, "culture": " English\n", "content": "Produced by Wallace McLean, David King, and the PG Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team\nAN\nACCOUNT\nOF THE\nCUSTOMS and MANNERS\nOF THE\nMICMAKIS and MARICHEETS\nSAVAGE NATIONS,\nNow Dependent on the\nGovernment of CAPE-BRETON.\nFROM\nAn Original French Manuscript-Letter,\nNever Published,\nWritten by a French Abbot,\nWho resided many Years, in quality of Missionary, amongst them.\nTo which are annexed,\nSeveral Pieces, relative to the Savages, to Nova\nScotia, and to North-America in general.\nLONDON:\nPrinted for S. Hooper and A. Morley at Gay's-Head,\nnear Beaufort-Buildings in the Strand. MDCCLVIII.\nPREFACE.\nFor the better understanding of the letter immediately following, it may\nnot be unnecessary to give the reader some previous idea of the people\nwho are the subject of it, as well of the letter-writer.\nThe best account of the _Mickmakis_ I could find, and certainly the most\nauthentic, is in a memorial furnished by the French ministry in April,\n1751, from which the following paragraph is a translated extract:\n\"The government of the savages dependent on Cape-Breton exacts a\nparticular attention. All these savages go under the name of\n_Mickmakis_. Before the last war they could raise about six hundred\nfighting-men, according to an account given in to his most Christian\nmajesty, and were distributed in several villages established on\nCape-Breton island, island of St. John, on both the coasts of Acadia\n(Nova-Scotia) and on that of Canada. All, or most of the inhabitants of\nthese villages have been instructed in the Christian religion, by\nmissionaries which the king of France constantly maintains amongst them.\nIt is customary to distribute every year to them presents, in the name\nof his majesty, which consist in arms, ammunition of war, victuals,\ncloathing, and utensils of various sorts. And these presents are\nregulated according to the circumstances of the time, and to the\nsatisfaction that shall have been given to the government by the conduct\nof these savages. In the last war they behaved so as to deserve our\napprobation, and indeed have, on all occasions, given marks of their\nattachment and fidelity. Since the peace too, they have equally\ndistinguished themselves in the disturbances that are on foot on the\nside of Acadia (Nova-Scotia).\"\nThe last part of this foregoing paragraph needs no comment. Every one\nknows by what sort of service these savages merit the encouragement of\nthe French government, and by what acts of perfidy and cruelty exercised\non the English, they are to earn their reward.\nThe _Maricheets_, mentioned in the said letter form a distinct nation,\nchiefly settled at St. John's, and are often confounded with the\n_Abenaquis_, so as to pass for one nation with them, though there is\ncertainly some distinction. They used, till lately, to be in a constant\nstate of hostility with the Mickmakis. But, however, these nations may\nbe at peace or variance with one another, in one point they agree, which\nis a thorough enmity to the English, cultivated, with great application\nby the missionaries, who add to the scandal of a conduct so contrary to\ntheir profession, the baseness of denying or evading the charge by the\nmost pitiful equivocations. It is with the words peace, charity, and\nuniversal benevolence, for ever in their mouths, that these\nincendiaries, by instigations direct and indirect, inflame and excite\nthe savages to commit the cruellest outrages of war, and the blackest\nacts of treachery. Poor Captain How! is well known to have paid with his\nlife, infamously taken away by them, at a parley, the influence one of\nthese missionaries (now a prisoner in the island of Jersey,) had over\nthese misguided wretches, whose native innocence and simplicity are not\nproof against the corruption, and artful suggestions of those holy\nseducers.\nIt would not, perhaps, be impossible for the English, if they were to\napply proper means, and especially lenient ones, to recover the\naffections of these people, which, for many reasons, cannot be entirely\nrooted in the French interest. That great state-engine of theirs,\nreligion, by which they have so strong a hold on the weak and credulous\nsavages, might not, however, be an invincible bar to our success, if it\nwas duly counter-worked by the offer of a much more pure and rational\none of our own, joined to such temporal advantages as would shew them\ntheir situation capable of being much meliorated, in every respect; and\nespecially that of freedom, which they cannot but be sensible, is daily\ndecreasing under the insidious encroachments and blandishments of the\nFrench, who never cares but to enslave, nor hug but to stifle, whose\npretences, in short, to superior humanity and politeness, are not\namongst their least arts of conquest.\nAs to the letter-writer, he is an abbot much respected in those parts,\nwho has resided the greatest part of his life amongst the Mickmakis, and\nis perfectly acquainted with their language, in the composing of a\nDictionary of which he has labored eighteen or twenty years; but I\ncannot learn that it is yet published, and probably for reasons of\nstate, it never may. The letter, of which the translation is now given,\nexists only in a manuscript, having never been printed, being entirely\nwritten for the satisfaction of a friend's curiosity, in relation to the\noriginal manners and customs of the people of which it treats, and\nwhich, being those of savages in the primitive state of unpolished\nnature, may perhaps, to a philosophical enquirer, afford more amusement\nand instruction than those of the most refined societies. What man\nreally is, appears at least plainer in the uncultivated savage, than in\nthe civilized European.\nThe account of Acadia (Nova-Scotia) will, it is to be hoped, appear not\nuncurious; allowance being made for its being only in form of a letter.\nA\nLETTER, &c.\n_Micmaki-Country_, March 27, 1755.\nSIR,\nI should long before now have satisfied you in those points of curiosity\nyou expressed, concerning the savages amongst whom I have so long\nresided, if I could have found leisure for it. Literally true it is,\nthat I have no spare time here, unless just in the evening, and that not\nalways. This was my case too in Louisbourg; and I do not doubt but you\nwill be surprised at learning, that I enjoy as little rest here as\nthere.\nHad you done me, Sir, the honor of passing with me but three days only,\nyou would soon have seen what sort of a nation it is that I have to deal\nwith. I am obliged to hold frequent and long parleys with them, and, at\nevery occasion, to heap upon them the most fair and flattering promises.\nI must incessantly excite them to the practice of acts of religion, and\nlabor to render them tractable, sociable, and loyal to the king (of\nFrance). But especially, I apply myself to make them live in good\nunderstanding with the French.\nWith all this, I affect a grave and serious air, that awes and imposes\nupon them. I even take care of observing measure and cadence in the\ndelivery of my words, and to make choice of those expressions the\nproperest to strike their attention, and to hinder what I say from\nfalling to the ground. If I cannot boast that my harangues have all the\nfruit and success that I could wish, they are not however wholly without\neffect. As nothing inchants those people more than a style of metaphors\nand allegories, in which even their common conversation abounds, I adapt\nmyself to their taste, and never please them better than when I give\nwhat I say this turn, speaking to them in their own language. I borrow\nthe most lively images from those objects of nature, with which they are\nso well acquainted; and am rather more regular than even themselves, in\nthe arrangement of my phrases. I affect, above all, to rhime as they do,\nespecially at each member of a period. This contributes to give them so\ngreat an idea of me, that they imagine this gift of speaking is rather\nan inspiration, than an acquisition by study and meditation. In truth, I\nmay venture to say, without presumption, that I talk the _Micmaki_\nlanguage as fluently, and as elegantly, as the best of their women, who\nmost excel in this point.\nAnother of my occupations is to engage and spur them on to the making a\ncopious chace, when the hunting-season comes in, that their debts to the\ndealers with them may be paid, their wives and children cloathed, and\ntheir credit supported.\nIt is neither gaming nor debauchery that disable them from the payment\nof their debts, but their vanity, which is excessive, in the presents of\npeltry they make to other savages, who come either in quality of envoys\nfrom one country to another, or as friends or relations upon a visit to\none another. Then it is, that a village is sure to exhaust itself in\npresents; it being a standing rule with them, on the arrival of such\npersons, to bring out every thing that they have acquired, during the\nwinter and spring season, in order to give the best and most\nadvantageous idea of themselves. Then it is chiefly they make feasts,\nwhich sometimes last several days; of the manner of which I should\nperhaps spare you the description, if the ceremony that attends them did\nnot include the strongest attestation of the great stress they lay on\nhunting; the excelling wherein they commonly take for their text in\ntheir panegyrics on these occasions, and consequently enters, for a\ngreat deal, into the idea you are to conceive of the life and manners of\nthe savages in these parts.\nThe first thing I am to observe to you is, that one of the greatest\ndainties, and with which they crown their entertainments, is the flesh\nof dogs. For it is not till the envoys, friends, or relations, are on\nthe point of departure, that, on the eve of that day, they make a\nconsiderable slaughter of dogs, which they slea, draw, and, with no\nother dressing, put whole into the kettle; from whence they take them\nhalf boiled, and carve out into as many pieces as there are guests to\neat of them, in the cabbin of him who gives the treat. But every one,\nbefore entering the cabbin, takes care to bring with him his _Oorakin_,\nor bowl, made of bark of birch-tree, either polygone shaped, or quite\nround; and this is practised at all their entertainments. These pieces\nof dogs flesh are accompanied with a small _Oorakin_ full of the oil or\nfat of seal, or of elk's grease, if this feast is given at the\nmelting-time of the snow. Every one has his own dish before him, in\nwhich he sops his flesh before he eats it. If the fat be hard, he cuts a\nsmall piece of it to every bit of flesh he puts into his mouth, which\nserves as bread with us. At the end of this fine regale, they drink as\nmuch of the oil as they can, and wipe their hands on their hair. Then\ncome in the wives of the master and persons invited, who carry off their\nhusbands plates, and retire together to a separate place, where they\ndispatch the remains.\nAfter grace being said by the oldest of the company, who also never\nfails of pronouncing it before the meal, the master of the treat appears\nas if buried in a profound contemplation, without speaking a word, for a\nfull quarter of an hour; after which, waking as it were out of a deep\nsleep, he orders in the _Calumets_, or _Indian_ pipes, with tobacco.\nFirst he fills his own, lights it, and, after sucking in two or three\nwhiffs, he presents it to the most considerable man in the company:\nafter which, every one fills his pipe and smoaks.\nThe calumets lighted, and the tobacco burning with a clear fire, are\nscarce half smoked out, before the man of note before mentioned (for the\ngreatest honors being paid him) gets up, places himself in the midst of\nthe cabbin, and pronounces a speech of thanksgiving. He praises the\nmaster of the feast, who has so well regaled him and all the company. He\ncompares him to a tree, whose large and strong roots afford nourishment\nto a number of small shrubs; or to a salutary medicinal herb, found\naccidentally by such as frequent the lakes in their canoes. Some I have\nheard, who, in their winter-feasts, compared him to the turpentine-tree,\nthat never fails of yielding its sap and gummy distillation in all\nseasons: others to those temperate and mild days, which are sometimes\nseen in the midst of the severest winter. They employ a thousand\nsimilies of this sort, which I omit. After this introduction, they\nproceed to make honorable mention of the lineage from which the matter\nof the feast is descended.\n\"How great (will the oldest of them say) art thou, through thy great,\ngreat, great grand-father, whose memory is still recent, by tradition,\namongst us, for the plentiful huntings he used to make! There was\nsomething of miraculous about him, when he assisted at the beating of\nthe woods for elks, or other beasts of the fur. His dexterity at\ncatching this game was not superior to our's; but there was some\nunaccountable secret he particularly possessed in his manner of seizing\nthose creatures, by springing upon them, laying hold of their heads, and\ntransfixing them at the same time with his hunting-spear, though thrice\nas strong and as nimble again as he was, and much more capable with\ntheir legs only, than we with our rackets [a sort of buskined shoes made\npurposely for the Indian travels over the snow], to make their way over\nmountains of snow: he would nevertheless follow them, dart them, without\never missing his aim, tire them out with his chace, bring them down, and\nmortally wound them. Then he would regale us with their blood, skin\nthem, and deliver up the carcass to us to cut to pieces. But if thy\ngreat, great, great grand-father made such a figure in the chace, what\nhas not thy great, great grand-father done with respect to the beavers,\nthose animals almost men? whose industry he surpassed by his frequent\nwatchings round their cabbins, by the repeated alarms he would give them\nseveral times in one evening, and oblige them thereby to return home, so\nthat he might be sure of the number of those animals he had seen\ndispersed during the day, having a particular foresight of the spot to\nwhich they would come to load their tails with earth, cut down with\ntheir teeth such and such trees for the construction of their huts. He\nhad a particular gift of knowing the favorite places of those animals\nfor building them. But now let us rather speak of your great\ngrand-father, who was so expert at making of snares for moose-deer,\nmartins, and elks. He had particular secrets, absolutely unknown to any\nbut himself, to compel these sort of creatures to run sooner into his\nsnares than those of others; and he was accordingly always so well\nprovided with furs, that he was never at a loss to oblige his friends.\nNow let us come to your grand-father, who has a thousand and a thousand\ntimes regaled the youth of his time with seals. How often in our young\ndays have we greased our hair in his cabbin? How often have we been\ninvited, and even compelled by his friendly violence, to go home with\nhim, whenever we returned with our canoes empty, to be treated with\nseal, to drink the oil, and anoint ourselves with it? He even pushed his\ngenerosity so far, as to give us of the oil to take home with us. But\nnow we are come to your father: there was a man for you! He used to\nsignalize himself in every branch of chace; but especially in the art of\nshooting the game whether flying or sitting. He never missed his aim. He\nwas particularly admirable for decoying of bustards by his artificial\nimitations. We are all of us tolerably expert at counterfeiting the cry\nof those birds; but as to him, he surpassed us in certain inflexions, of\nhis voice, that made it impossible to distinguish his cry from that of\nthe birds themselves. He had, besides, a particular way of motion with\nhis body, that at a distance might be taken for the clapping of their\nwings, insomuch that he has often deceived ourselves, and put us to\nconfusion, as he started out of his hiding-place.\n\"As for thyself, I say nothing, I am too full of the good things thou\nhast feasted me with, to treat on that subject; but I thank thee, and\ntake thee by the hand, leaving to my fellow-guests the care of\nacquitting themselves of that duty.\"\nAfter this, he sits down, and some other younger, and in course of less\nnote, for they pay great respect to age, gets up, and makes a summary\nrecapitulation of what the first speaker has said; commending his manner\nof singing the praises of the master of the feast's ancestors: to which\nhe observes, there is nothing to be added; but that he has, however,\nleft him one part of the task to be accomplished, which is, not to pass\nover in silence the feast to which he and the rest of his brethren are\ninvited; neither to omit the merit and praises of him who has given the\nentertainment. Then quitting his place, and advancing in cadence, he\ntakes the master of the treat by the hand, saying, \"All the praises my\ntongue is about to utter, have thee for their object. All the steps I am\ngoing to take, as I dance lengthwise and breadthwise in thy cabbin, are\nto prove to thee the gaiety of my heart, and my gratitude. Courage! my\nfriends, keep time with your motions and voice, to my song and dance.\"\nWith this he begins, and proceeds in his _Netchkawet_, that is,\nadvancing with his body strait erect, in measured steps, with his arms\na-kimbo. Then he delivers his words, singing and trembling with his\nwhole body, looking before and on each side of him with a steady\ncountenance, sometimes moving with a slow grave pace, then again with a\nquick and brisk one.\nThe syllables he articulates the most distinctly are, _Ywhannah, Owanna,\nHaywanna, yo! ha! yo! ha!_ and when he makes a pause he looks full at\nthe company, as much as to demand their chorus to the word _Heh!_ which\nhe pronounces with great emphasis. As he is singing and dancing they\noften repeat the word _Heh!_ fetched up from the depth of their throat;\nand when he makes his pause, they cry aloud in chorus, _Hah!_\nAfter this prelude, the person who had sung and danced recovers his\nbreath and spirits a little, and begins his harangue in praise of the\nmaker of the feast. He flatters him greatly, in attributing to him a\nthousand good qualities he never had, and appeals to all the company for\nthe truth of what he says, who are sure not to contradict him, being in\nthe same circumstance as himself of being treated, and answer him by the\nword _Heh_, which is as much as to say, _Yes_, or _Surely_. Then he\ntakes them all by the hand, and begins his dance again: and sometimes\nthis first dance is carried to a pitch of madness. At the end of it he\nkisses his hand, by way of salute to all the company; after which he\ngoes quietly to his place again. Then another gets up to acquit himself\nof the same duty, and so do successively all the others in the cabbin,\nto the very last man inclusively.\nThis ceremony of thanksgiving being over by the men, the girls and women\ncome in, with the oldest at the head of them, who carries in her left\nhand a great piece of birch-bark of the hardest, upon which she strikes\nas it were a drum; and to that dull sound which the bark returns, they\nall dance, spinning round on their heels, quivering, with one hand\nlifted, the other down: other notes they have none, but a guttural loud\naspiration of the word Heh! Heh! Heh! as often as the old female savage\nstrikes her bark-drum. As soon as she ceases striking, they set up a\ngeneral cry, expressed by Yah! Then, if their dance is approved, they\nbegin it again; and when weariness obliges the old woman to withdraw,\nshe first pronounces her thanksgiving in the name of all the girls and\nwomen there. The introduction of which is too curious to omit, as it so\nstrongly characterises the sentiments of the savages of that sex, and\nconfirms the general observation, that where their bosom once harbours\ncruelty, they carry it greater lengths than even the men, whom\nfrequently they instigate to it.\n\"You men! who look on me as of an infirm and weak sex, and consequently\nof all necessity subordinate to you, know that in what I am, the Creator\nhas given to my share, talents and properties at least of as much worth\nas your's, I have had the faculty of bringing into the world warriors,\ngreat hunters, and admirable managers of canoes. This hand, withered as\nyou see it now, whose veins represent the root of a tree, has more than\nonce struck a knife into the hearts of the prisoners, who were given up\nto me for my sport. Let the river-sides, I say, for I call them to\nwitness for me, as well as the woods of such a country, attest their\nhaving seen me more than once tear out the heart, entrails, and tongue,\nof those delivered up to me, without changing color, roast pieces of\ntheir flesh, yet palpitating and warm with life, and cram them down the\nthroats of others, whom the like fate awaited. With how many scalps have\nnot I seen my head adorned, as well as those of my daughters! With what\npathetic exhortations have not I, upon occasion, rouzed up the spirit of\nour young men, to go in quest of the like trophies, that they might\natchieve the reward, honor, and renown annexed to the acquisition of\nthem: but it is not in these points alone that I have signalized myself.\nI have often brought about alliances, which there was no room to think\ncould ever be made; and I have been so fortunate, that all the couples\nwhose marriages I have procured, have been prolific, and furnished our\nnation with supports, defenders, and subjects, to eternize our race, and\nto protect us from the insults of our enemies. These old firs, these\nantient spruce-trees, full of knots from the top to the root, whose bark\nis falling off with age, and who yet preserve their gum and powers of\nlife, do not amiss resemble me. I am no longer what I was; all my skin\nis wrinkled and furrowed, my bones are almost every where starting\nthrough it. As to my outward form, I may well be reckoned amongst the\nthings, fit for nothing but to be totally neglected and thrown aside;\nbut I have still within me wherewithal to attract the attention of those\nwho know me.\"\nAfter this introduction follow the thanksgiving and encomiums, much in\nthe same taste as the first haranguer's amongst the guests. This is what\nis practised in all the more solemn entertainments, both on the men and\nwomen's side. Nor can you imagine, how great an influence such praises\nhave over them, derived as they are from the merit of hunting, and how\ngreatly they contribute to inflame their passion for it. Nor is it\nsurprising, considering how much almost the whole of their livelihood\ndepends upon the game of all sorts that is the object of their chace.\nThey have also a kind of feasts, which may be termed war-feasts, since\nthey are never held but in time of war, declared, commenced, or\nresolved. The forms of these are far different from those of pacific and\nfriendly entertainments. There is a mixture of devotion and ferocity in\nthem, which at the same time that it surprises, proves that they\nconsider war in a very solemn light, and as not to be begun without the\ngreatest reason and justice; which motives, once established, or, which\nis the same thing, appearing to them established, there is nothing they\ndo not think themselves permitted against their enemy, from whom they,\non the other hand, expect no better quarter than they themselves give.\nTo give you an idea of their preparatory ceremony for a declaration of\nwar, I shall here select for you a recent example, in the one that broke\nout not long ago between the Micmaquis, and Maricheets. These last had\nput a cruel affront on the former, the nature of which you will see in\nthe course of the following description: but I shall call the Micmaquis\nthe aggressors, because the first acts of hostility in the field began\nfrom them. Those who mean to begin the war, detach a certain number of\nmen to make incursions on the territories of their enemies, to ravage\nthe country, to destroy the game on it, and ruin all the beaver-huts\nthey can find on their rivers and lakes, whether entirely, or only\nhalf-built. From this expedition they return laden with game and peltry;\nupon which the whole nation assembles to feast on the meat, in a manner\nthat has more of the carnivorous brute in it than of the human creature.\nWhilst they are eating, or rather devouring, all of them, young and old,\ngreat and little, engage themselves by the sun, the moon, and the name\nof their ancestors, to do as much by the enemy-nation.\nWhen they have taken care to bring off with them a live beast, from the\nquarter in which they have committed their ravage, they cut its throat,\ndrink its blood, and even the boys with their teeth tear the heart and\nentrails to pieces, which they ravenously devour, giving thereby to\nunderstand, that those of the enemies who shall fall into their hands,\nhave no better treatment to expect at them.\nAfter this they bring out _Oorakins_, (bowls of bark) full of that\ncoarse vermillion which is found along the coast of Chibucto, and on the\nwest-side of Acadia (Nova-Scotia) which they moisten with the blood of\nthe animal if any remains, and add water to compleat the dilution. Then\nthe old, as well as the young, smear their faces, belly and back with\nthis curious paint; after which they trim their hair shorter, some of\none side of the head, some of the other; some leave only a small tuft on\nthe crown of their head; others cut their hair entirely off on the left\nor right side of it; some again leave nothing on it but a lock, just on\nthe top of their forehead, and of the breadth of it, that falls back on\nthe nape of the neck. Some of them bore their ears, and pass through the\nholes thus made in them, the finest fibril-roots of the fir, which they\ncall _Toobee_, and commonly use for thread; but on this occasion serve\nto string certain small shells. This military masquerade, which they use\nat once for terror and disguise, being compleated, all the peltry of the\nbeasts killed in the enemy's country, is piled in a heap; the oldest\n_Sagamo_, or chieftain of the assembly gets up, and asks, \"What weather\nit is? Is the sky clear? Does the sun shine?\" On being answered in the\naffirmative, he orders the young men to carry the pile of peltry to a\nrising-ground, or eminence, at some little distance from the cabbin, or\nplace of assembly. As this is instantly done, he follows them, and as he\nwalks along begins, and continues his address to the sun in the\nfollowing terms:\n\"Be witness, thou great and beautiful luminary, of what we are this day\ngoing to do in the face of thy orb! If thou didst disapprove us, thou\nwouldst, this moment, hide thyself, to avoid affording the light of thy\nrays to all the actions of this assembly. Thou didst exist of old, and\nstill existeth. Thou remainest for ever as beautiful, as radiant, and as\nbeneficent, as when our first fore fathers beheld thee. Thou wilt always\nbe the same. The father of the day can never fail us, he who makes every\nthing vegetate, and without whom cold, darkness, and horror, would every\nwhere prevail. Thou knowest all the iniquitous procedure of our enemies\ntowards us. What perfidy have they not used, what deceit have they not\nemployed, whilst we had no room to distrust them? There are now more\nthan five, six, seven, eight moons revolved since we left the principal\namongst our daughters with them, in order thereby to form the most\ndurable alliance with them, (for, in short, we and they are the same\nthing as to our being, constitution, and blood); and yet we have seen\nthem look on these girls of the most distinguished rank,\n_Kayheepidetchque_, as mere playthings for them, an amusement, a pastime\nput by us into their hands, to afford them a quick and easy consolation,\nfor the fatal blows we had given them in the preceding war. Yet, we had\nmade them sensible, that this supply of our principal maidens was, in\norder that they should re-people their country more honorably, and to\nput them under a necessity of conviction, that we were now become\nsincerely their friends, by delivering to them so sacred a pledge of\namity, as our principal blood. Can we then, unmoved, behold them so\nbasely abusing that thorough confidence of ours? Beautiful, all-seeing,\nall-penetrating luminary! without whose influence the mind of man has\nneither efficacy nor vigor, thou hast seen to what a pitch that nation\n(who are however our brothers) has carried its insolence towards our\nprincipal maidens. Our resentment would not have been so extreme with\nrespect to girls of more common birth, and the rank of whose fathers had\nnot a right to make such an impression on us. But here we are wounded in\na point there is no passing over in silence or unrevenged. Beautiful\nluminary! who art thyself so regular in thy course, and in the wise\ndistribution thou makest of thy light from morning to evening, wouldst\nthou have us not imitate thee? And whom can we better imitate? The earth\nstands in need of thy governing thyself as thou dost towards it. There\nare certain places, where thy influence does not suffer itself to be\nfelt, because thou dost not judge them worthy of it. But, as for us, it\nis plain that we are thy children; for we can know no origin but that\nwhich thy rays have given us, when first marrying efficaciously, with\nthe earth we inhabit, they impregnated its womb, and caused us to grow\nout of it like the herbs of the field, and the trees of the forest, of\nwhich thou art equally the common father. To imitate thee then, we\ncannot do better than no longer to countenance or cherish those, who\nhave proved themselves so unworthy thereof. They are no longer, as to\nus, under a favorable aspect. They shall dearly pay for the wrong they\nhave done us. They have not, it is true, deprived us of the means of\nhunting for our maintenance and cloathing; they have not cut off the\nfree passage of our canoes, on the lakes and rivers of this country; but\nthey have done worse; they have supposed in us a tameness of sentiments,\nwhich does not, nor cannot, exist in us. They have defloured our\nprincipal maidens in wantonness, and lightly sent them back to us. This\nis the just motive which cries out for our vengeance. Sun! be thou\nfavorable to us in this point, as thou art in that of our hunting, when\nwe beseech thee to guide us in quest of our daily support. Be propitious\nto us, that we may not fail of discovering the ambushes that may be laid\nfor us; that we may not be surprized unawares in our cabbins, or\nelsewhere; and, finally, that we may not fall into the hands of our\nenemies. Grant them no chance with us, for they deserve none. Behold the\nskins of their beasts now a burnt-offering to thee! Accept it, as if the\nfire-brand I hold in my hands, and now set to the pile, was lighted\nimmediately by thy rays, instead of our domestic fire.\"\nEvery one of the assistants, as well men as women, listen attentively to\nthis invocation, with a kind of religious terror, and in a profound\nsilence. But scarce is the pile on a blaze, but the shouts and war-cries\nbegin from all parts. Curses and imprecations are poured forth without\nmercy or reserve, on the enemy-nation. Every one, that he may succeed in\ndestroying any particular enemy he may have in the nation against which\nwar is declared, vows so many skins or furs to be burnt in the same\nplace in honor of the sun. Then they bring and throw into the fire, the\nhardest stones they can find of all sizes, which are calcined in it.\nThey take out the properest pieces for their purpose, to be fastened to\nthe end of a stick, made much in the form of a hatchet-handle. They slit\nit at one end, and fix in the cleft any fragment of those burnt stones,\nthat will best fit it, which they further secure, by binding it tightly\nround with the strongest _Toobee_, or fibrils of fir-root\nabove-mentioned; and then make use of it, as of a hatchet, not so much\nfor cutting of wood, as for splitting the skull of the enemy, when they\ncan surprize him. They form also other instruments of war; such as long\npoles, one of which is armed with bone of elk, made pointed like a\nsmall-sword, and edge of both sides, in order to reach the enemy at a\ndistance, when he is obliged to take to the woods. The arrows are made\nat the same time, pointed at the end with a sharp bone. The wood of\nwhich these arrows are made, as well as the bows, must have been dried\nat the mysterious fire, and even the guts of which the strings are made.\nBut you are here to observe, I am speaking of an incident that happened\nsome years ago; for, generally speaking, they are now better provided\nwith arms, and iron, by the Europeans supplying them, for their chace,\nin favor of their dealings with them for their peltry. But to return to\nmy narration.\nWhilst the fire is still burning, the women come like so many furies,\nwith more than bacchanalian madness, making the most hideous howlings,\nand dancing without any order, round the fire. Then all their apparent\nrage turns of a sudden against the men. They threaten them, that if they\ndo not supply them with scalps, they will hold them very cheap, and look\non them as greatly inferior to themselves; that they will deny\nthemselves to their most lawful pleasures; that their daughters shall be\ngiven to none but such as have signalized themselves by some military\nfeat; that, in short, they will themselves find means to be revenged of\nthem, which cannot but be easy to do on cowards.\nThe men, at this, begin to parley with one another, and order the women\nto withdraw, telling them, that they shall be satisfied; and that, in a\nlittle time, they may expect to have prisoners brought to them, to do\nwhat they will with them.\nThe next thing they agree on is to send a couple of messengers, in the\nnature of heralds at arms, with their hatchets, quivers, bows, and\narrows, to declare war against the nation by whom they conceive\nthemselves aggrieved. These go directly to the village where the bulk of\nthe nation resides, observing a sullen silence by the way, without\nspeaking to any that may meet them. When they draw near the village,\nthey give the earth several strokes with their hatchets, as a signal of\ncommencing hostilities in form; and to confirm it the more, they shoot\ntwo of their best arrows at the village, and retire with the utmost\nexpedition. The war is now kindled in good earnest, and it behoves each\nparty to stand well on its guard. The heralds, after this, return to\nmake a report of what they have done; and to prove their having been at\nthe place appointed, they do not fail of bringing away with them some\nparticular marks of that spot of the country. Then it is, that the\ninhabitants of each nation begin to think seriously, whether they shall\nmaintain their ground by staying in their village, and fortifying it in\ntheir manner, or look out for a place of greater safety, or go directly\nin quest of the enemy. Upon these questions they assemble, deliberate,\nand hold endless consultations, though withal not uncurious ones: for it\nis on these occasions, that those of the greatest sagacity and eloquence\ndisplay all their talents, and make themselves distinguished. One of\ntheir most common stratagems, when there were reasons for not attacking\none another, or coming to a battle directly, was for one side to make as\nif they had renounced all thoughts of acting offensively. A party of\nthose who made this feint of renunciation, would disperse itself in a\nwood, observing to keep near the borders of it; when, if any stragglers\nof the enemy's appeared, some one would counterfeit to the life the\nparticular cry of that animal, in the imitation of which he most\nexcelled; and this childish decoy would, however, often succeed, in\ndrawing in the young men of the opposite party into their ambushes.\nSometimes the scheme was to examine what particular spot lay so, that\nthe enemies must, in all necessity, pass through it, to hunt, or provide\nbark for making their canoes. It was commonly in these passes, or\ndefiles, that the bloodiest encounters or engagements happened, when\nwhole nations have been known to destroy one another, with such an\nexterminating rage on both sides, that few have been left alive on\neither; and to say the truth, they were, generally speaking, mere\ncannibals. It was rarely the case that they did not devour some limbs,\nat least, of the prisoners they made upon one another, after torturing\nthem to death in the most cruel and shocking manner: but they never\nfailed of drinking their blood like water; it is now, some time, that\nour Micmakis especially are no longer in the taste of exercising such\nacts of barbarity. I have, yet, lately myself seen amongst them some\nremains of that spirit of ferocity; some tendencies and approaches to\nthose inhumanities; but they are nothing in comparison to what they used\nto be, and seem every day wearing out. The religion to which we have\nbrought them over, and our remonstrances have greatly contributed to\nsoften that savage temper, and atrocious vindictiveness that heretofore\nreigned amongst them. But remember, Sir, that as to this point I am now\nonly speaking, upon my own knowlege, of the Micmakis and Mariquects,\nwho, though different in language, have the same customs and manners,\nand are of the same way of thinking and acting.\nBut to arrive at any tolerable degree of conjecture, whence these people\nderive their origin own myself at a loss: possibly some light might be\ngot into it, by discovering whether there was any affinity or not\nbetween their language, and that of the Orientalists, as the Chinese or\nTartars. In the mean time, the abundance of words in this language\nsurprized, and continues to surprize me every day the deeper I get into\nit. Every thing is proper in it; nothing borrowed, as amongst us. Here\nare no auxiliary verbs. The prepositions are in great number. This it is\nthat gives great ease, fluency, and richness to the expression of\nwhatever you require, when you are once master enough to join them to\nthe verbs. In all their absolute verbs they have a dual number. What we\ncall the imperfect, perfect, and preter-perfect tenses of the indicative\nmood, admits, as with us, of varied inflexions of the terminations to\ndistinguish the person; but the difference of the three tenses is\nexpress, for the preter-perfect by the preposition _Keetch_; for the\npreter-pluperfect by _Keetch Keeweeh_: the imperfect is again\ndistinguished from them by having no preposition at all.\nThey have no feminine termination, either for the verbs or nouns. This\ngreatly facilitates to me my composition of songs and hymns for them,\nespecially as their prose itself naturally runs into poetry, from the\nfrequency of their tropes and metaphors; and into rhime, from their\nnouns being susceptible of the same termination, as that of the words in\nthe verbs which express the different persons. In speaking of persons\nabsent, the words change their termination, as well in the nouns as in\nthe verbs.\nThey have two distinctions of style; the one noble, or elevated, for\ngrave and important subjects, the other ignoble, or trivial, for\nfamiliar or vulgar ones. But this distinction is not so much with them,\nas with us, marked by a difference of words, but of terminations. Thus,\nwhen they are treating of solemn, or weighty matters, they terminate the\nverb and the noun by another inflexion, than what is used for trivial or\ncommon conversation.\nI do not know, whether I explain clearly enough to you this so material\na point of their elocution; but it makes itself clearly distinguished,\nwhen once one comes to understand the language, in which it supplies the\nplace of the most pathetic emphasis, though even that they do not want,\nnor great expression in their gestures and looks. All their conjugations\nare regular and distinct.\nYet, with all these advantages of language, the nation itself is\nextreamly ignorant as to what concerns itself, or its origin, and their\ntraditions are very confused and defective. They know nothing of the\nfirst peopling of their country, of which they imagine themselves the\nAborigines. They often talk of their ancestors, but have nothing to say\nof them that is not vague or general. According to them, they were all\ngreat hunters, great wood-rangers, expert managers of canoes, intrepid\nwarriors, that took to wives as many as they could maintain by hunting.\nThey had too a custom amongst them, that if a woman grew pregnant whilst\nshe was sucking a child, they obliged her to use means for procuring an\nabortion, in favor of the first-come, who they supposed would otherwise\nbe defrauded of his due nourishment. Most of them also value themselves\non being descended from their Jugglers, who are a sort of men that\npretend to foretel futurity by a thousand ridiculous contorsions and\ngrimaces, and by frightful and long-winded howlings.\nThe great secret of these Jugglers consists in having a great _Oorakin_\nfull of water, from any river in which it was known there were\nbeaver-huts. Then he takes a certain number of circular turns round this\nOorakin, as it stands on the ground, pronouncing all the time with a low\nvoice, a kind of gibberish of broken words, unintelligible to the\nassistants, and most probably so to himself, but which those, on whom he\nmeans to impose, believe very efficacious. After this he draws near to\nthe bowl, and bending very low, or rather lying over it, looks at\nhimself in it as in a glass. If he sees the water in the least muddy, or\nunsettled, he recovers his erect posture, and begins his rounds again,\ntill he finds the water as clear as he could wish it for his purpose,\nand then he pronounces over it his magic words. If after having repeated\nthem twice or thrice, he does not find the question proposed to him\nresolved by this inspection of the water, nor the wonders he wants\noperated by it, he says with a loud voice and a grave tone, that the\n_Manitoo_, or _Miewndoo_, (the great spirit) or genius, which, according\nto them, has all knowledge of future events, would not declare himself\ntill every one of the assistants should have told him (the Juggler) in\nthe ear what were his actual thoughts, or greatest secret. [A Romish\nmissionary must, with a very bad grace, blame the Jugglers, for what\nhimself makes such a point of religion in his _auricular confession_.\nEven the appellation of _Juggler_ is not amiss applicable to those of\ntheir craft, considering all their tricks and mummery not a whit\nsuperior to those of these poor savages, in the eyes of common-sense.\nWho does not know, that the low-burlesque word of _Hocus-pocus_, is an\nhumorous corruption of their _Hoc est corpus meum_, by virtue of which,\nthey make a _God_ out of a vile wafer, and think it finely solved, by\ncalling it a _mystery_, which, by the way is but another name for\n_nonsense_. Is there any thing amongst the savages half so absurd or so\nimpious?] To this purpose he gets up, laments, and bitterly inveighs\nagainst the bad dispositions of those of the assistants, whose fault it\nwas, that the effects of his art were obstructed. Then going round the\ncompany, he obliges them to whisper him in the ear, whatever held the\nfirst place in their minds; and the simplicity of the greater number is\nsuch, as to make them reveal to him what it would be more prudent to\nconceal. By these means it is, that these artful Jugglers renders\nthemselves formidable to the common people, and by getting into the\nsecrets of most of the families of the nation, acquire a hank over them.\nSome, indeed, of the most sensible see through this pitiful artifice,\nand look on the Jugglers in their proper light of cheats, quacks, and\ntyrants; but out of fear of their established influence over the bulk of\nthe nation, they dare not oppose its swallowing their impostures, or its\nregarding all their miserable answers as so many oracles. When the\nJuggler in exercise, has collected all that he can draw from the inmost\nrecesses of the minds of the assistants, he replaces himself, as before,\nover the mysterious bowl of water, and now knows what he has to say.\nThen, after twice or thrice laying his face close to the surface of the\nwater, and having as often made his evocations in uncouth,\nunintelligible words, he turns his face to his audience, sometimes he\nwill say, \"I can only give a half-answer upon such an article; there is\nan obstacle yet unremoved in the way, before I can obtain an entire\nsolution, and that is, there are some present here who are in such and\nsuch a case. That I may succeed in what is asked of me, and that\ninterests the whole nation, I appoint that person, without my knowing,\nas yet, who it is, to meet me at such an hour of the night. I name no\nplace of assignation but will let him know by a signal of lighted fire,\nwhere he may come to me, and suffer himself to be conducted wherever I\nshall carry him. The _Manitoo_ orders me to spare his reputation, and\nnot expose him; for if there is any harm in it to him, there is also\nharm to me.\"\nThus it is the Juggler has the art of imposing on these simple credulous\ncreatures, and even often succeeds by it in his divinations. Sometimes\nhe does not need all this ceremonial. He pretends to foretell off-hand,\nand actually does so, when he is already prepared by his knowledge,\ncunning, or natural penetration. His divinations chiefly turn on the\nexpedience of peace with one nation, or of war with another; upon\nmatches between families, upon the long life of some, or the short life\nof others; how such and such persons came by their deaths, violently or\nnaturally; whether the wife of some great _Sagamo_ has been true to his\nbed or not; who it could be that killed any particular persons found\ndead of their wounds in the woods, or on the coast. Sometimes they\npretend it's the deed of the _Manitoo_, for reasons to them unknown:\nthis last incident strikes the people with a religious awe. But what the\nJugglers are chiefly consulted upon, and what gives them the greatest\ncredit, is to know whether the chace of such a particular species of\nbeasts should be undertaken; at what season, or on which side of the\ncountry; how best may be discovered the designs of any nation with which\nthey are at war; or at what time such or such persons shall return from\ntheir journey. The Juggler pretends to see all this, and more, in his\nbowl of water: divination by coffee-grounds is a trifle to it. He is\nalso applied to, to know whether a sick person shall recover or die of\nhis illness. But what I have here told you of the procedure of these\nJugglers, you are to understand only of the times that preceded the\nintroduction of Christianity amongst these people, or of those parts\nwhere it is not yet received: for these practices are no longer suffered\nwhere we have any influence.\nAmongst the old savages lately baptized, I could never, from the\naccounts they gave me of the belief of their ancestors, find any true\n_knowledge_ of the supreme Being; no idea, I mean, approaching to that\nwe have, or rather nothing but a vague imagination. They have, it is\ntrue, a confused notion of a Being, acting they know not how [Who\ndoes?], in the universe, but they do not make of him a great soul\ndiffused through all its parts. They have no conception or knowledge of\nall the attributes we bestow on the Deity. Whenever they happen to\nphilosophize upon this _Manitoo_, or great spirit, they utter nothing\nbut _r\u00eaveries_ and absurdities. [Are not there innumerable volumes on\nthis subject, to which the same objection might as justly be made?\nPossibly the savages, and the deepest divines, with respect to the\nmanner of the Deity's existence, may have, in point of ignorance,\nnothing to reproach one another. It matters very little, whether one\nsees the sun from the lowest valley, or the highest mountain, when the\nimmensity of its distance contracts the highest advantage of the\neminence to little less than nothing. Surely the infinite superiority of\nthe Deity, must still more effectually mock the distinction of the\nmental eye, at the same time that his existence itself is as plain as\nthat of the sun, and like that too, dazzling those most, who contemplate\nit most fixedly; reduces them to close the eye, not to exclude the\nlight, but as overpowered by it.]\nAmongst other superstitious notions, not the least prevalent is that of\nthe _Manitoo_'s exercise of his power over the dead, whom he orders to\nappear to them, and acquaint them with what passes at a distance, in\nrespect to their most important concerns; to advise them what they had\nbest do, or not do; to forewarn them of dangers, or to inspire them with\nrevenge against any nation that may have insulted them, and so forth.\nThey have no idea of his spirituality, or even of the spirituality of\nthat principle, which constitutes their own vital principle. They have\neven no word in their language that answers to that of soul in ours. The\nterm approaching nearest thereto that we can find, is _M'cheejacmih_,\nwhich signifies _Shade_, and may be construed something in the nature of\nthe _Manes_ of the Romans.\nThe general belief amongst them is, that, after death, they go to a\nplace of joy and plenty, in which sensuality is no more omitted than in\nMahomet's paradise. There they are to find women in abundance, a country\nthick of all manner of game to humor their passion for hunting, and bows\nand arrows of the best sort, ready made. But these regions are supposed\nat a great distance from their's, to which they will have to travel; and\ntherefore it's requisite to be well-provided, before they quit their own\ncountry, with arrows, long poles fit for hunting, or for covering\ncabbins, with bear-skins, or elk-hides, with women, and with some of\ntheir children, to make their journey to that place more commodious,\nmore pleasant, and appear more expeditious. It was especially in\ncharacter for a warrior, not to leave this world without taking with him\nsome marks of his bravery, as particularly scalps. Therefore it was,\nthat when any of them died, he was always followed by, at least, one of\nhis children, some women, and above all, by her whom in his life he had\nmost loved, who threw themselves into the grave, and were interred with\nhim. They also put into it great strips, or rolls of the bark of birch,\narrows, and scalps. Nor do they unfrequently, at this day, light upon\nsome of these old burying-places in the woods, with all these funeral\naccompanyments; but of late, the interment of live persons has been\nalmost entirely disused.\nI never could learn whether they had any set formulary of prayer, or\ninvocation to the _great Manitoo_; or whether they made any sacrifices\nof beasts or peltry, to any other _Manitoo_, in contradiction to him, or\nto any being whom they dreaded as an evil genius. I could discover no\nmore than what I have above related of the ceremonies in honor of the\nsun. I know, indeed, they have a great veneration for the moon, which\nthey invoke, whenever, under favor of its light, they undertake any\njourneys, either by land or water, or tend the snares they have set for\ntheir game. This is the prayer they occasionally address to it:\n\"How great, O moon! is thy goodness, in actually, for our benefit,\nsupplying the place of the father of the day, as, next to him, thou hast\nconcurred to make us spring out of that earth we have inhabited from the\nfirst ages of the world, and takest particular care of us, that the\nmalignant air of the night, should not kill the principle and bud of\nlife within us. Thou regardest us, in truth, as thy children. Thou hast\nnot, from the first time, discontinued to treat us like a true mother.\nThou guidest us in our nocturnal journies. By the favor of thy light it\nis, that we have often struck great strokes in war; and more than once\nhave our enemies had cause to repent their being off their guard in thy\nclear winter-nights. Thy pale rays have often sufficiently lighted us,\nfor our marching in a body without mistaking our way; and have enabled\nus not only to discover the ambushes of the enemy, but often to surprize\nhim asleep. However we might be wanting to ourselves, thy regular course\nwas never wanting to us. Beautiful spouse of the sun! give us to\ndiscover the tracks of elks, moose-deer, martins, lynxes, and bears,\nwhen urged by our wants, we pursue by night the hunt after these beasts.\nGive to our women the strength to support the pains of child-birth\n[_Lucina fer opem_, was also the cry amongst the ancient heathens],\nrender their wombs prolific, and their breasts inexhaustible fountains.\"\nI have often tried to find out, whether there was any tradition or\nknowledge amongst them of the deluge, but always met with such\nunsatisfactory answers, as entirely discouraged my curiosity on that\nhead.\nThis nation counts its years by the winters. When they ask a man how old\nhe is, they say, \"How many winters have gone over thy head?\"\nTheir months are lunar, and they calculate their time by them. When we\nwould say, \"I shall be six weeks on my journey;\" they express it by, \"I\nshall be a moon and a half on it.\"\nBefore _we_ knew them, it was common to see amongst them, persons of\nboth sexes of a hundred and forty, or a hundred and fifty years of age.\nBut these examples of longevity are grown much more rare.\nBy all accounts too, their populousness is greatly decreased. Some\nimagine this is owing to that inveterate animosity, with which these so\nmany petty nations were continually laboring one another's destruction\nand extirpation. Others impute it to the introduction by the Europeans,\nof the vice of drunkenness, and to the known effect of spirituous\nliquors in the excesses of their use, to which they are but too prone,\nin striking at the powers of generation, as well as at the principles of\nhealth and life. Not improbably too, numbers impatient of the\nencroachments of the Europeans on their country, and dreading the\nconsequences of them to their liberty, for which they have a passionate\nattachment, and incapable of reconciling or assimilating their customs\nand manners to ours, have chosen to withdraw further into the western\nrecesses of the continent, at a distance impenetrable to our approach.\nBut which ever of these conjectures is the truest, or whether or not all\nof these causes have respectively concurred, in a lesser or greater\ndegree, the fact is certain, that all these northern countries are\nconsiderably thinned of their natives, since the first discovery of them\nby the Europeans. Nor have I reason to think, but that this is true of\nAmerica in general, wherever they have carried their power, or extended\ntheir influence.\nIt is also true, that the women of this country are naturally not so\nprolific as those of some other parts of the world in the same latitude.\nOne reason for this may be, their not having their menstrual flux so\ncopiously, or for so long a time as those of Europe. Yet one would\nthink, the plurality of wives permitted amongst them, might in some\nmeasure compensate for this defect, which, however, it evidently does\nnot.\nTheir women have always observed, not to present themselves at any\npublic ceremony, or solemnity, whilst under their monthly terms, nor to\nadmit the embraces of their husbands.\nAt stated times they repair to particular places in the woods, where\nthey recite certain formularies of invocation to the _Manitoo_ dictated\nto them by some of their oldest _Sagamees_, or principal women, and more\nfrequently by some celebrated Juggler of the village, that they may\nobtain the blessing of fruitfulness. For it is with them, as amongst the\nJews, that barrenness is accounted opprobrious. A woman is not looked\nupon as a woman, till she has proved it, by her fulfilling what they\nconsider as one of the great ends of her creation. Failing in that, she\nis divorced from her husband, and may then prostitute herself without\nany scandal. If she has no inclination or relish for this way of life,\nthey compel her to it, in regard to their young men, who do not care to\nmarry, till they are arrived at full-ripe years, and for whom, on their\nreturn from their warlike or hunting expeditions, they think it\nnecessary to provide such objects of amusement. They pretend withal,\nthat they are subject to insupportable pains in their loins, if such a\nremedy is not at hand to relieve them. But once more you are to\nremember, that I am only speaking of those people not yet converted to\nChristianity, by which this licentiousness is not allowed. And yet,\nnotwithstanding the maxims we inculcate to them, the natives continue no\nother than what they were before, that is to say, as much addicted to\nvenery as ever, and rarely miss an occasion of gratifying their appetite\nto it. The only way we can think of to prevent their offending religion,\nis to have them married as soon as they begin to feel themselves men.\nThe restraint however in this point is, what they can least endure.\nIn their unconverted state, their manner of courtship and marriage is as\nfollows: When a youth has an inclination to enter into the connubial\nstate, his father, or next relation, looks out for a girl, to whose\nfather the proposal is made: this being always transacted between the\nparents of the parties to be married. The young man, who is commonly\nabout thirty years of age, or twenty at the least, rarely consults his\nown fancy in this point. The girl, who is always extreamly young, is\nnever supposed to trouble her head about the measures that are taking to\nmarry her. When the parents on each side have settled the matter, the\nyouth is applied to, that he may prepare his calumet as soon as he\npleases.\nThe calumet used on these occasions, is a sort of spungeous reed, which\nmay furnish, according to its length, a number of calumets, each of\nwhich is about a foot long, to be lighted at one end, the other serving\nto suck in the smoak at the mouth, and is suffered to burn within an\ninch of the lips.\nThe speech made to the youth on this occasion is as follows: \"Thou\nmay'st go when thou wilt, by day or by night, to light thy calumet in\nsuch a cabbin. Thou must observe to direct the smoak of it towards the\nperson who is designed for thee, and carry it so, that she may take such\na taste to this vapor, as to desire of thee that she may smoak of thy\ncalumet. Show thyself worthy of thy nation, and do honor to thy sex and\nyouth. Suffer none in the cabbin to which thou art admitted, to want any\nthing thy industry, thy art, or thy arrows can procure them, as well for\nfood, as for peltry, or oil, for the good of their bodies, inside and\noutside. Thou hast four winters given thee, for a trial of thy patience\nand constancy.\"\nAt this the youth never fails of going to the place appointed. If the\ngirl, (who knows the meaning of this) has no particular aversion to him,\nshe is soon disposed to ask his calumet of him. In some parts, but not\nin this where I am, she signifies her acceptance by blowing it out. Here\nshe takes it from him, and sucking it, blows the smoak towards his\nnostrils, even sometimes so violently, as to make him qualm-sick, at\nwhich she is highly delighted. Nothing, however, passes farther against\nthe laws of modesty, though she will tress his hair, paint his face, and\nimprint on various parts of his body curious devices and flourishes, all\nrelative to their love; which she pricks in, and rubs over with a\ncomposition that renders the impression uncancellable.\nIf the parents of the girl are pleased with the procedure of the suitor,\nthey commonly, at the end of the second year, dispense, in his favor,\nwith the rest of the probation-time; and, indeed, they could not well\nbefore, the girl almost always wanting, from the time she is first\ncourted, at least two years to bring on the age of consummation. They\ntell him, \"Thou may'st now take a small part of the covering of thy\nbeloved whilst she sleeps.\" No sooner is this compliment made him, than,\nwithout saying any thing, he goes out of the cabbin, armed with his bow\nand arrows, and hurrying home acquaints his friends, that he is going to\nthe woods, whence he shall not return till it pleases his beloved to\nrecall him.\nAccordingly he repairs forthwith to the woods, and stays there for two\nor three days, diverting himself with hunting; at the end of which it\nhas been agreed on, to send all the youths of the village to fetch him:\nand they come back loaded with game of all sorts, though the bridegroom\nis not suffered to carry any thing. There is also great provision made\nof seal and sea-cows for the wedding-feast.\nThe head Juggler of the village, meets the bridegroom who is at the head\nof the procession, takes him by the hand, and conducts him to the cabbin\nof the bride, where he is to take part of her bed; upon which he lies\ndown by her side, and both continue unmoveable and silent like two\nstatues, whilst they are obliged to hear the long tedious harangues of\nthe Juggler, of the parents of both, and of their oldest relations.\nAfter that, they both get up, and are led, the one by the young men, the\nother by the girls, to the place of entertainment, all singing,\nshooting, and dancing.\nThe bridegroom is seated amongst the young men on one side, and the\nbride amongst the girls on another. One of his friends takes an\n_Oorakin_, loads it with roast-meat, and sets it down by him, whilst one\nof her's does the same thing, with an _Oorakin_ of the same size, and\nnearly alike, which is placed by the bride's side. After this ceremony\nof placing the _Oorakin_, the Juggler pronounces certain magical words\nover the meat: he foretels, especially to the bride, the dreadful\nconsequences she must expect from the victuals she is about to eat, if\nshe has in her heart any perfidiousness towards her husband: that she\nmay be assured of finding in the _Oorakin_ that contains them, a certain\nprognostic of her future happiness, or unhappiness: of happiness, if she\nis disposed never in her life to betray her nation, nor especially her\nhusband, upon any occasion, or whatever may befal her: of unhappiness,\nif through the caresses of strangers, or by any means whatever she\nshould be induced to break her faith to him, or to reveal to the enemy\nthe secrets of the country.\nAt the end of every period, all the assistants signify their assent to\nthe Juggler's words, by a loud exclamation of _Hah!_ Whilst he is\ntalking, the particular friend of the bridegroom, and that of the bride,\nkeep their eyes fixed on the two _Oorakins_; and as soon as he has done,\nthe bride's friend making as if she did not think of what she was about,\ntakes the _Oorakin_ allotted for the bridegroom, and carries it to the\nbride, whilst the bridegroom's friend, (the thing being pre-concerted)\nacts the like mummery of inadvertence, and sets before the bridegroom\nthe _Oorakin_ belonging to the bride; after which the dishes are served\nin to the rest of the company. When they are all served, the two friends\nof the parties musing a little, pretend to have just then discovered\ntheir exchange of the bride and bridegroom's _Oorakins_. They declare it\nopenly to each other, at which the Juggler takes up his cue, and with a\nsolemn face says, \"The _Manitoo_ has had his designs in this mistake: he\nhas vouchsafed to give an indubitable sign of his approbation of the\nstrait alliance this day contracted. What is the one's, is the same as\nthe other's. They are henceforward united, and are as one and the same\nperson. It is done. May they multiply without end!\" At this the\nassistants all start up, and with cries of joy, and congratulation, rush\nto embrace the bride and bridegroom, and overwhelm them with caresses.\nAfter which they sit very gravely down again to the entertainment before\nthem, and dispatch it in great silence. This is followed by dances of\nall kinds, with which the feast for the day concludes, as must this\nletter, in which I have certainly had less attention to the observing\nthe limits of one, than to the gratifying your curiosity, with respect\nto these people, amongst whom my lot has so long been cast.\nI am, Sir,\nYour most obedient\nHumble servant,\n_To understand the following piece, it is necessary to know, that after\nthe insidious peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, the savage nations, especially\nthe Mickmakis and Maricheets continued hostilities against the English,\nat the underhand instigation of the French, who meant thereby to\nprevent, or at least distress, as much as obstruct, our new settlements\nin Nova-Scotia. For this purpose, the French missionaries had their cue\nfrom their government to act the incendiaries, and, to inflame matters\nto the highest pitch. These being, however, sensible, that the part\nassigned them was a very odious one, and inconsistent with the spirit of\nthat religion for which they profess such zeal, one of them, by way of\npalliation, and in order to throw the blame on the English themselves,\ndrew up the following state of the case, between our nation and the\nsavages, viz._\nMEMORIAL\nOF THE\nMotives of the Savages, called _Mickmakis_\nand _Maricheets_, for continuing\nthe War with _England_ since the last\nPeace.\nDated _Isle-Royal_, 175-.\nThese nations have never been able to forget all that the English\nsettled in North-America have done since the very first of their\nestablishment, towards destroying them root and branch. They have\nespecially, at every moment, before their eyes the following\ntransactions:\nIn 1744, towards the end of October, Mr. Gorrhon, (perhaps Goreham)\ndeceased, commanding a detachment of the English troops, sent to observe\nthe retreat the French and savages were making from before Port-Royal\n(Annapolis) in Acadia, (Nova-Scotia): this detachment having found two\nhuts of the Mickmaki-savages, in a remote corner, in which there were\nfive women and three children, (two of the women were big with child)\nransacked, pillaged, and burnt the two huts, and massacred the five\nwomen and three children. It is to be observed, that the two pregnant\nwomen were found with their bellies ripped open. An action which these\nsavages cannot forget, especially as at that time they made fair war\nwith the English. They have always looked on this deed as a singular\nmark of the most unheard-of cruelty. [Who would not look on it in the\nsame light? But as no nation on earth is known to have more than ours\nconstitutionally, a horror for such barbarities, especially in cold\nblood; it may be very easily presumed, that this fact was, if true,\ncommitted by some of the savages themselves, without the knowledge of\nthe commander, or of any of the English troops.]\nFive months before this action, one named _Danas_, or _David_, an\nEnglish privateer, having treacherously hoisted French colors in the\nStreights of Fronsac, by means of a French deserter he had with him,\ndecoyed on board his vessel the chief of the savages of Cape-Breton,\ncalled James Padanuque, with his whole family, whom he carried to\nBoston, where he was clapped into a dungeon the instant he was landed;\nfrom which he was only taken out to stifle him on board of a vessel, in\nwhich they pretended to return him safe to Cape-Breton. His son, at that\ntime a boy of eight years of age, they will absolutely not release;\nthough, since their detention of that young savage, they have frequently\nhad prisoners sent back to them, without ransom, on condition of\nrestoring the young man to his country: but though they accepted the\ncondition, they never complied with it.\nIn the month of July, 1745, the same Danas, with the same success,\nemployed the same decoy on a savage-family, which could not get out of\ntheir hands, but by escaping one night from their prisons.\nAbout the same time one named Bartholomew Petitpas, an appointed\nsavage-linguist, was carried away prisoner to Boston. The savages have\nseveral times demanded him in exchange for English prisoners they then\nhad in their hands, of whom two were officers, to whom they gave their\nliberty, on condition of the Bostoners returning of Petitpas; whom,\nhowever, they not only kept prisoner, but afterwards put to death.\nIn the same year, 1745, a missionary of the savages of Cape Breton,\nNatkikouesch, Picktook, and of the island of St. John, having been\ninvited by several letters, on the part of the commodore of the\n_English_ squadron, and of the general of the land-forces, to a parley,\nthose gentlemen desired with him, concerning the savages, repaired to\nLouisbourg, at that time in possession of the English, on the assurances\nthey had given him in writing, and on the formal promises they had bound\nwith an oath, of full liberty to return from whence he came, after\nhaving satisfied them in all they wanted of him. They detained him at\nLouisbourg, where they gave him a great deal of ill usage, and obliged\nhim to embark, all sick as he was, and destitute of necessaries, on\nboard of one of the ships of the squadron, in which he was conveyed to\nEngland, from whence he at length got to France. [Most probably he had\nnot given the satisfaction required by those gentlemen, which had been\nconfessedly by himself made the condition of his return.]\nThe same year, 1745, several bodies of the savages, deceased, and buried\nat _Port Tholouze_, were dug up again by the Bostoners, and thrown into\nthe fire. The burying-place of the savages was demolished, and all the\ncrosses, planted on the graves, broke into a thousand pieces.\nIn 1746, some stuffs that the savages had bought of the English, who\nthen traded in the bay of Megagouetch at _Beau-bassin_, there being at\nthat time a great scarcity of goods over all the country, were found to\nbe _poisoned_, [Is it possible a missionary of the truths of the Gospel\ncould gravely commit to paper such an infernal lie? If even the savages\nhad been stupid enough of themselves to imbibe such a notion, was it not\nthe duty of a Christian to have shewn them the folly of it, or even but\nin justice to the Europeans? But what must be their guilt, if they\nsuggested it? Surely, scarce less than that of the action itself.] so\nthat more than two hundred savages of both sexes perished thereby.\nIn 1749, towards the end of the month of May, at a time that the\nsuspension of arms between the two crowns was not yet known in New\nFrance, the savages, having made prisoners two Englishmen of\nNewfoundland, had from these same prisoners the first news of the\ncessation of hostilities. They believed them on their bare words,\nexpressed their satisfaction to them, treated them like brothers,\nunbound them, and carried them to their huts. The said prisoners rose in\nthe night, and massacred twenty-five of these savages, men, women, and\nchildren. There were but two of the savages escaped this carnage, by\nbeing accidentally not present. [_How improbable is the whole of this\nstory?_]\nTowards the end of the same year, the English being come to Chibuckto,\nmade the report be every where spread [The missionaries in those parts\nmight indeed raise such reports; the which giving the savages an\naversion to the English, forced them to take hostile measures against\nthem in their own defence: but who would suspect the English themselves\nof raising them, in direct opposition to their own interest?], that they\nwere going to destroy all the savages. They seemed to act in consequence\nthereto, since they sent detachments of their troops, on all sides, in\npursuit of the savages.\nThese people were so alarmed with this procedure of the English, that\nfrom that time they determined, as weak as they were, to declare open\nwar against them. Knowing that France had concluded a peace with\nEngland, they nevertheless resolved not to cease from falling on the\nEnglish, wherever they could find them; saying, they were indispensably\nobliged to it, since, against all justice, they wanted to expel them out\nof their country. They then sent a declaration of war in form to the\nEnglish, in the name of their nation, and of the savages in alliance\nwith it.\nAs to what concerns the missionaries to the savages, they cannot be\nsuspected of using any connivence in all this, if justice is done to the\nconduct they have always observed amongst them, and especially in the\ntime of the last war. How many acts of inhumanity would have been\ncommitted by this nation, naturally vindictive, if the missionaries had\nnot taken pains, in good earnest, to put such ideas out of their heads?\nIt is notorious, that the savages believe that there are no extremities\nof barbarity, but what are within the rules of war against those whom\nthey consider as their enemies. Inexpressible are the efforts which\nthese same missionaries have employed to restrain, on such occasions,\nthis criminal ferocity, especially as the savages deemed themselves\nauthorized by right of reprisals. How many unfortunate persons of the\nEnglish nation would have been detained for ever captives, or undergone\nthe most cruel deaths, if, by the intervention of the missionaries, the\nsavages had not been prevailed on to release them?\nThey are even ready to prove, by their written instructions, the lessons\nthey inculcate to the savages, of the humanity and gentleness they ought\nto practise, even in time of war. It is especially ever since about\nseventeen years ago, that they do not cease declaiming against those\nbarbarous and sanguinary methods of proceeding that seem innate to them.\nOn this principle it is, that in the written maxims of conduct for them,\ncare has been taken to insert a chapter, which, from the beginning to\nthe end, places before their eyes the extreme horror they ought to have\nof such enormities. Their children particularly are sedulously taught\nthis whole chapter, whence it comes, that one may daily perceive them\ngrowing more humane, and more disposed to listen, on this head, to the\nremonstrances of the missionaries.\n[_To this plea of innocence in the French missionaries, as to any\ninstigation of the savages to hostilities against the English, we shall\noppose the testimony of their own court, in the following words of the\nFrench ministry, in the very same year_, 1751.\n\"His Majesty (the French king) has already observed, that the savages\nhave hitherto been in the most _favorable dispositions_; and it even\nappears, that the conduct of the general C--n--ll--s, with respect to\nthem, has only served to exasperate them more and more. It is of the\n_greatest importance_, both for the present and future, to keep them up\nto that spirit. The _missionaries_ amongst them, are more than any one\nat hand to _contribute thereto_, and his majesty has _reason_ to be\n_satisfied_ with the _pains_ they take in it. Our governor must excite\nthese _missionaries_ not to _slacken their endeavours_ on this head. But\nhe should advise them to _contain_ their _zeal_ within due bounds, so as\nnot to render themselves _obnoxious_ to the English, unless for very\ngood purpose, and so as to avoid giving handle for just complaints.\"\n_In this his most Christian Majesty has been faithfully served by these\nmissionaries, in all points, except that political injunction of not\ngiving a handle for just complaints, which they overshot in the ardor of\ntheir zeal; since it is undoubted matter of fact, that the missionaries\nopenly employed all their arts, and all the influence of religion, to\ninvenom the savages against us. Thence, besides a number of horrid\ncruelties, the most treacherous and base murder of captain How, at a\nconference, by some savages they set on, who perpetrated it within sight\nof the French forces. The publishing, however, of the foregoing memorial\nmay have this good effect, that it will apprise the English of the\nmatter of accusation against them, and enable them to counter-work those\nholy engines of state, and emissaries of ambition. It is also certain,\nthat this very memorial was drawn up by a French priest, purely to\nfurnish the French ministry a specious document to oppose to the most\njust representations of the British government. Besides the fictions\nwith which it abounds, he has taken care to suppress the acts of cruelty\ncommitted, and the atrocious provocations given by the savages, at the\ninstigation of his fellow-laborers sedition and calumny._]\nLETTER\nFROM\nMons. DE LA VARENNE,\nTO HIS\nFRIEND at ROCHELLE.\n_Louisbourg_, the 8th of _May_, 1756.\nThough I had, in my last, exhausted all that was needful to say on our\nprivate business, I could not see this ship preparing for France,\nespecially with our friend _Moreau_ on board, without giving you this\nfurther mark of how ardently I wish the continuance of our\ncorrespondence. It will also serve to supplement any former deficiencies\nof satisfaction to certain points of curiosity you have stated to me;\nthis will give to my letter a length beyond the ordinary limits of one:\nand I have before-hand to excuse to you, the loose desultory way in\nwhich you will find I write, as things present themselves to my mind,\nwithout such method or arrangement, as a formal design of treating the\nsubject would exact. But who looks for that in a letter?\nI need not tell you how severely our government has felt the\ndismemberment of that important tract of country already in the\npossession of the English, under the name of Acadia; to say nothing of\ntheir further pretentions, which would form such terrible encroachments\non Canada. And no wonder it should feel it, considering the extent of so\nfruitful, and valuable a country as constitutes that peninsula. It might\nof itself form a very considerable and compact body of dominion, being,\nas you know, almost everywhere surrounded by the sea, and abounding with\nadmirable and well-situated ports. It is near one hundred leagues in\nlength, and about sixty in breadth. Judge what advantages such an area\nof country, well-peopled, and well-cultivated, and abounding in mines,\nmight produce. It is full of hills, though I could not observe any of an\nextraordinary heighth, except that of Cape Doree, at the mouth of the\nriver _des Mines_, the most fertile part of it in corn and grain, and\nonce the best peopled. There are a number of rivers very rapid, but not\nlarge, except that of St. John's, which is the finest river of all\nAcadia, where good water is rather scarce.\nThe soil in the vallies is rich, and even in the uplands, commonly\nspeaking, good. The grains it yields are wheat, pease, barley, oats,\nrye, and Indian corn, and especially that of the vallies, for the higher\nground is not yet cultivated. The pastures are excellent and very\ncommon, and more than sufficient to supply Cape-Breton, with the cattle\nthat may be raised. There is fine hunting, and a plentiful fishing for\ncod, salmon, and other fish, particularly on the east-side, which is\nfull of fine harbours at the distance of one, two, three, four, or of\nsix or seven leagues at farthest from one another, within the extent of\nninety leagues of coast. It is thought, in short, this fishery is better\nthan any on the coasts belonging to France.\nThe air is extreamly wholesome, which is proved by the longevity of its\ninhabitants. I myself know some of above an hundred years of age,\ndescendants from the French established in Acadia. Distempers are very\nrare. I fancy the climate is pretty near the same as in the north of\nChina, or Chinese-Tartary. This country too, being rather to the\nsouthward of Canada, is not so cold as that; the snow not falling till\ntowards St. Andrew's day: nor does it lie on the ground above two or\nthree days at most, after which it begins to soften; and though the thaw\ndoes not take place, the weather turns mild enough to allow of working,\nand undertaking journeys. In short, what may be absolutely called cold\nweather, may be reduced to about twenty-five or thirty days in a winter,\nand ceases entirely towards the end of March, or at latest, the middle\nof April. Then comes the seed-time. Then are made the sugar and syrups\nof maple, procured from the juice or sap of that tree, by means of\nincisions in the bark; which sap is carefully received in proper\nvessels.\nI could never find any ginseng-root; yet I have reason to believe there\nmay be some in or near the hills, as the climate and situation have so\nmuch affinity to the northern provinces of China, or Northwest Tartary,\nas described to us by our missionaries.\nWe have very little knowledge of the medicinal herbs in this country,\nthough some of them have certainly great virtue. There are the\nmaiden-hair, the saxi-frage, and the sarsaparilla. There is also a\nparticular root in this country of an herb called _Jean Hebert_, about\nthe ordinary size of the _Salsifix_, or _Goatsbread_, with knots at\nabout an inch, or an inch and an half distance from one another, of a\nyellowish colour, white in the inside, with a sugarish juice, which is\nexcellent for the stomach.\nThere has been lately discovered in these parts a poisonous root, much\nresembling, in color and substance, a common carrot. When broke it has a\npleasing smell; but between the flakes may be observed a yellowish\njuice, which is supposed to be the poison. Of four soldiers that had\neaten of it in their soup lately, two were difficultly preserved by dint\nof antidotes; the other two died in the utmost agonies of pain, and\nconvulsions of frenzy. One of them was found in the woods sticking by\nthe head in a softish ground, into which he had driven it, probably in\nthe excess of his torture. Such a vegetable must afford matter of\ncurious examination to a naturalist; for as it does so much harm, it may\nalso be capable of great good, if sought into by proper experiments.\nThe spirit of turpentine is much used by the inhabitants. The gum itself\nis esteemed a great vulnerary; and purges moderately those who are full\nof bilious, or gross humors.\nFor the rest there is, I believe, hardly any sort of grain, tree, or\nvegetable, especially in the north of France that might not be\nsuccessfully raised in Acadia. The rains are frequent in every season of\nthe year. There are indeed often violent squalls of wind, especially\nfrom the South, and seem the West, but nothing like the hurricanes in\nthe West-Indies. It is a great rarity if thunder does any mischief. Some\nyears ago there was a man killed in his hut by it; but the oldest men of\nthe country never remembered to have known or heard of any thing like it\nbefore. There have been earthquakes felt but rarely, and not very\nviolent. This country produces no venomous beasts, at least, that I\ncould hear of. In the warmer season there are sometimes found snakes,\nnot, however, thicker than one's finger, but their bite is not known to\nbe attended with any fatal consequences, There are no tygers, nor lions,\nnor other beasts of prey to be afraid of unless bears, and that only in\ntheir rutting-time, and even then it is very rare that they attack. As\nthere are then no carnivorous animals except the lynxes, who have a\nbeautiful skin, and these rarely fall upon any living creatures; the\nsheep, oxen, and cows, are turned out into the woods or commons, without\nany fear for them. Partridges are very common, and are large-sized, with\nflesh very white. The hares are scarce, and have a white fur. There are\na great many beavers, elks, cariboux, (moose-deer) and other beasts of\nthe cold northern countries.\nThe original inhabitants of this country are the savages, who may be\ndivided into three nations, the _Mickmakis_, the _Maricheets_, or\n_Abenaquis_, (being scarcely different nations) and the _Canibats_.\nThe _Mickmakis_ are the most numerous, but not accounted so good\nwarriors as the others: but they are all much addicted to hunting, and\nto venery; in which last, however, they observe great privacy. They are\nfond of strong liquors, and especially of brandy: that is their greatest\nvice. They are also very uncurious of paying the debts they contract,\nnot from natural dishonesty, but from their having no notion of\nproperty, or of meum or tuum. They will sooner part with all they have,\nin the shape of a gift, than with any thing in that of payment. Honors\nand goods being all in common amongst them, all the numerous vices,\nwhich are founded upon those two motives, are not to be found in them.\nYet it is true, that they have chiefs to whom they give the title of\n_Sagamo_; but all of them almost, at some time or other, assume to\nthemselves this quality, which is never granted by universal consent,\nbut to the personal consideration of distinguished merit in councils, or\nin arms. Their troops have this particularity, that they are, for the\nmost part, composed of nothing but officers; insomuch that it is rare to\nfind a savage in the service that will own himself a private man. This\nwant of subordination does not, however, hinder them from concurring\ntogether in action, when their native ferocity and emulation stand them,\nin some sort, instead of discipline.\nThey are extreamly vindictive, of which I shall give you one example.\nMons. _Daunay_, a French captain, with a servant, being overset in a\ncanoe, within sight of some savages, they threw themselves into the\nwater to save them, and the servant was actually saved. But the savage,\nwho had pitched upon Mons. _Daunay_, seeing who it was, and remembering\nsome blows with a cane he had a few days before received from him, took\ncare to souse him so often in the water, that he drowned him before he\ngot ashore.\nIt is remarked, that in proportion as the Europeans have settled in this\ncountry, the number of the savages considerably diminishes. As they live\nchiefly upon their hunting, the woods that are destroyed to cultivate\nthe country, must in course contract the district of their chace, and\ncause a famine amongst them, that must be fatal to them, or compel them\nto retire to other countries. The English, sensible of this effect, and\nwho seemed to place their policy in exterminating these savage nations,\nhave set fire to the woods, and burnt a considerable extent of them. I\nhave myself crossed above thirty leagues together, in which space the\nforests were so totally consumed by fire, that one could hardly at night\nfind a spot wooded enough to afford wherewithal to make an extempore\ncabbin, which, in this country, is commonly made in the following\nmanner: Towards night the travellers commonly pitch upon a spot as near\na rivulet or river as they can; and as no one forgets to carry his\nhatchet with him, any more than a Spanish don his toledo, some cut down\nwood for firing for the night; others branches of trees, which are stuck\nin the ground with the crotch uppermost, over which a thatching is laid\nof fir-boughs, with a fence of the same on the weather-side only. The\nrest is all open, and serves for door and window. A great fire is then\nlighted, and then every body's lodged. They sup on the ground, or upon\nsome leaved branches, when the season admits of it; and afterwards the\ntable serves for a bed. The savages themselves rarely have any fixed\nhut, or village, that maybe called a permanent residence. If there are\nany parts they most frequently inhabit, it is only those which abound\nmost in game, or near some fishing-place. Such were formerly for them,\nbefore the English had driven them away, _Artigoneesch_, _Beaubassin_,\n_Chipoody_, _Chipnakady_, _Yoodayck_, _Mirtigueesh_, _La H\u00e9ve Cape\nSable_, _Mirameeky_, _Fistigoisch_, _La Baye des Chaleurs Pentagony_,\n_Medochtek_, _Hokepack_, and _Kihibeki_.\nAt present these savage nations bear an inveterate antipathy to the\nEnglish, who might have easily prevented or cured it, if instead of\nrigorous measures, they had at first used conciliative ones: but this it\nseems they thought beneath them. This it is, that has given our\nmissionaries such a fair field for keeping them fixed to the French\nparty, by the assistance of the difference of religion, of which they do\nnot fail to make the most. But lest you may imagine I am giving you only\nmy own conjectures, take the following extract from, a letter of father\nNoel de Joinville, of a pretty antient date.\n\"I have remarked in this country so great an aversion in the\nconvert-savages to the English, caused by difference of religion, that\nthese scarce dare inhabit any part of Acadia but what is under their own\nguns. These savages are so zealous for the Roman Catholick church, that\nthey always look with horror upon, and consider as enemies those who are\nnot within the pale of it. This may serve to prove, that if there had\nbeen _priests_ provided in time, to work at the conversion of the\nsavages of New-England, before the English had penetrated into the\ninterior of the county as far as they have done, it would not have been\npossible for them to appropriate to themselves such an extent of country\nas, at this day, makes of New-England alone the most magnificent colony\non the face of the earth.\" [This pompous epithet might have yet been\nmore just, if the improvement of that colony had been enough the care of\nthe state, to have been pushed all the lengths of which it was so\nsusceptible. Few Englishmen will, probably, on reflexion deny, that if\nbut a third of those sums ingulphed by the ungrateful or slippery powers\non the continent, upon interests certainly more foreign to England than\nthose of her own colonies, or lavished in a yet more destructive way,\nthat of corrupting its subjects in elections: if the third, I say, of\nthose immense sums, had been applied to the benefit of the plantations,\nto the fortifying, encouraging, and extending them, there would, by this\ntime, have hardly been a Frenchman's name to be heard of in\nNorth-America especially.]\nBut with this good father's leave, he attributes more influence to\nreligion, though as the priests manage it, it certainly has a very\nconsiderable one, than in fact belongs to it. Were it not for other\nconcurring circumstances that indispose the savages against the English,\nreligion alone would not operate, at least so violently, that effect.\nEvery one knows, that the savages are at best but slightly tinctured\nwith it, and have little or no attachment to it, but as they find their\nadvantage in the benefits of presents and protection, it procures to\nthem from the French government. In short, it is chiefly to the conduct\nof this English themselves, we are beholden for this favorable aid of\nthe savages. If the English at first, instead of seeking to exterminate\nor oppress them by dint of power, the sense of which drove them for\nrefuge into our party, had behaved with more tenderness to them, and\nconciliated their affection by humoring them properly, and distributing\na few presents, they might easily have made useful and valuable subjects\nof them. Whereas, disgusted with their haughtiness, and scared at the\nmenaces and arbitrary encroachments of the English, they are now their\nmost virulent and scarce reconcileable enemies. This is even true of\nmore parts in America, where, though the English have liberally given\npresents to ten times the value of what our government does, they have\nnot however had the same effect. The reason of which is clear: they make\nthem with so ill a grace, and generally time their presents so\nunjudiciously, as scarce ever to distribute them, but just when they\nwant to carry some temporary point with the savages, such, especially,\nas the taking up the hatchet against the French. This does not escape\nthe natural sagacity of the savages, who are sensible of the design\nlurking at bottom of this liberality, and give them the less thanks for\nit. They do not easily forget the length of time they had been\nneglected, slighted, or unapplied to, unless by their itinerant traders,\nwho cheat them in their dealings, or poison them with execrable spirits,\nunder the names of brandy and rum. Whereas, on the contrary, the French\nare assiduously caressing and courting them. Their missionaries are\ndispersed up and down their several cantonments, where they exercise\nevery talent of insinuation, study their manners, nature, and\nweaknesses, to which they flexibly accommodate themselves, and carry\ntheir points by these arts. But what has, at least, an equal share in\nattaching the savages to our party, is the connivence, or rather\nencouragement the French government has given to the natives of France,\nto fall into the savage-way of life, to spread themselves through the\nsavage nations, where they adopt their manners, range the woods with\nthem, and become as keen hunters as themselves. This conformity endears\nour nation to them, being much better pleased with seeing us imitate\nthem, than ready to imitate us, though some of them begin to fall into\nour notions, as to trafficking and bartering, and knowing the use of\nmoney, of which they were before totally ignorant. We employ besides a\nmuch more effectual method of uniting them to us, and that is, by the\nintermarriages of our people with the savage-women, which is a\ncircumstance that draws the ties of alliance closer. The children\nproduced by these are generally hardy, inured to the fatigues of the\nchace and war, and turn out very serviceable subjects in their way.\nBut what is most amazing is, that though the savage-life has all the\nappearance of being far from eligible, considering the fatigues, the\nexposure to all weathers, the dearth of those articles which custom has\nmade a kind of necessaries of life to Europeans, and many other\ninconveniencies to be met with in their vagabond course; yet it has such\ncharms for some of our native French, and even for some of them who have\nbeen delicately bred, that, when once they have betaken themselves to it\nyoung, there is hardly any reclaiming them from it, or inducing them to\nreturn to a more civilized life. They prefer roving in the woods,\ntrusting to the chapter of accidents for their game which is their chief\nsupport, and lying all night in a little temporary hut, patched up of a\nfew branches; to all the commodiousness they might find in towns, or\nhabitations, amongst their own countrymen. By degrees they lose all\nrelish for the European luxuries of life, and would not exchange for\nthem the enjoyments of that liberty, and faculty of wandering about, for\nwhich, in the forests, they contract an invincible taste. A gun with\npowder and ball, of which they purchase a continuation of supplies with\nthe skins of the beasts they kill, set them up. With these they mix\namongst the savages, where they get as many women as they please: some\nof them are far from unhandsome, and fall into their way of life, with\nas much passion and attachment, as if they had never known any other.\nMons. _Delorme_, whom you possibly may have seen in Rochelle, where he\nhad a small employ in the marine-department, brought over his son here,\na very hopeful youth, who had even some tincture of polite education,\nand was not above thirteen years old, and partly from indulgence, partly\nfrom a view of making him useful to the government, by his learning, at\nthat age, perfectly the savage language, he suffered him to go amongst\nthe savages. The young _Delorme_ would, indeed, sometimes return home\njust on a visit to his family; but always expressed such an impatience,\nor rather pining to get back again to them, that, though reluctantly,\nthe father was obliged to yield to it. No representations in short,\nafter some years, could ever prevail on him to renounce his connexions,\nand residence amongst the _Abenaquis_, where he is almost adored. He has\nlearned to excel them all, even in their own points of competition. He\nout-does them all in their feats of activity, in running, leaping,\nclimbing mountains, swimming, shooting with the bow and arrow, managing\nof canoes, snaring and killing birds and beasts, in patience of fatigue,\nand even of hunger; in short, in all they most value themselves upon, or\nto which they affix the idea of personal merit, the only merit that\ncommands consideration amongst them. They are not yet polished enough to\nadmire any other. By this means, however, he perfectly reigns amongst\nthem, with a power the greater, for the submission to it not only being\nvoluntary, but the effect of his acknowledged superiority, in those\npoints that with them alone constitute it. His personal advantages\nlikewise may not a little contribute thereto, being perfectly well-made,\nfinely featured, with a great deal of natural wit, as well as courage.\nHe dresses, whilst with the savages, exactly in their manner, ties his\nhair up like them, wears a tomby-awk, or hatchet, travels with\n_rackets_, (or Indian shoes) and, in short, represents to the life the\ncharacter of a compleat savage-warrior. When he comes to _Quebec_, or\n_Louisbourg_, he resumes his European dress, without the least mark\nappearing in his behaviour, of that wildness or rudeness one would\nnaturally suppose him to have contracted by so long a habit of them with\nthe savages. Nobody speaks purer French, or acquits himself better in\nconversation. He takes up or lays down the savage character with equal\ngrace and ease. His friends have, at length, given over teazing him to\ncome and reside for good amongst them; they find it is to so little\npurpose. The priests indeed complain bitterly, that he is not overloaded\nwith religion, from his entering so thoroughly into the spirit of the\nsavage-life; and his setting an example, by no means edifying, of a\nlicentious commerce with their women; besides, his giving no signs of\nhis over-respecting either their doctrine or spiritual authority. This\nthey pretend hurts them with their actual converts, as well as with\nthose they labor to make; though, in this conduct, he is not singular,\nfor the French wood-rangers, in general, follow the like course in a\ngreater or lesser degree. These representations of the priests would,\nhowever, have greater influence with our government, if the temporal\nadvantage they derive from these rovers, undisciplined as they are, did\nnot oblige them to wink at their relaxation in spirituals.\nBut it is not only men that have taken this passion for a savage life;\nthere have been, though much rarer, examples of our women going into it.\nIt is not many years since a very pretty French girl ran away into the\nwoods with a handsome young savage, who married her after his country\nfashion. Her friends found out the village, or rather ambulatory tribe\ninto which she had got; but no persuasions, or instances, could prevail\non her to return and leave her savage, nor on him to content to it; so\nthat the government not caring to employ force, for fear of disobliging\nthe nation of them, even acquiesced in her continuance amongst them,\nwhere she remains to this day, but worshipped like a little divinity,\nor, at least, as a being superior to the rest of their women. Possibly\ntoo she is not, in fact, so unhappy, as her choice would make one think\nshe must be; and if opinion constitutes happiness, she certainly is not\nso.\nThere are not wanting here, who defend this strange attachment of some\nof their countrymen to this savage life, on principles independent of\nthe reason of state, for encouraging its subjects to spread and gain\nfooting amongst the savage nations, by resorting to their country, of\nwhich they, at the same time, gain a knowledge useful to future\nenterprizes, by a winning conformity to their actions, and by\nintermarriages with them. They pretend, that even this savage life\nitself is not without its peculiar sweets and pleasures; that it is the\nmost adapted, and the most natural to man. Liberty, they say, is no\nwhere more perfectly enjoyed, than where no subordination is known, but\nwhat is recommended by natural reason, the veneration of old age, or the\nrespect of personal merit.\nThe chace is at once their chief employment and diversion; it furnishes\nthem with means to procure those articles, which enter into the small\nnumber of natural wants. The demands of luxury, they think too dearly\nbought with the loss of that liberty and independence they find in the\nwoods. They despise the magnificence of courts and palaces, in\ncomparison with the free range and scope of the hills and vales, with\nthe starry sky for their canopy: they say, we enjoy the Universe only in\nminiature, whilst the savage-rovers enjoy it in the great. Thus reason\nsome of our admirers here of the savage-system of life, and yet I do not\nfind that these refining advocates for it, are themselves tempted to\nembrace it. They are content to commend what themselves do not care to\npractise. Those who actually do embrace it, reason very little about it,\nthough no doubt, the motives above assigned for their preference, are\ngenerally, one may say instinctively, at the bottom of it. Their\ngreatest want is of wine, especially at first to those who are used to\nit; but they are soon weaned from it by the example of others, and\ncontent themselves with the substitution of rum, or brandy, of which\nthey obtain supplies by their barter of skins and furs. In short, their\nhunting procures them all that they want or desire, and their liberty or\nindependence supplies to them the place of those luxuries of life, that\nare not well to be had without the sacrifice in some sort of it.\nIt is more difficult to find an excuse for the shocking cruelties and\nbarbarities, exercised by the savages on their unhappy captives in war.\nThe instances, however, of their inhumanity, are certainly not\nexagerated, nor possible to be exagerated, but they are multiplied\nbeyond the limits of truth. That they put then their prisoners to death\nby exquisite tortures, is strictly true; but it is as true too, that\nthey do not serve so many in that manner as has been said. Numbers they\nsave, and even incorporate with their own nation, who become as free as,\nand on a footing with, the conquerors themselves. And even in that\ncruelty of theirs, there is at the bottom a mixture of piety with their\nvindictiveness. They imagine themselves bound to revenge the deaths of\ntheir ancestors, their parents, or relations, fallen in war, upon their\nenemies, especially of that nation by whom they have fallen. It is in\nthat apprehension too, they extend their barbarity to young children,\nand to women: to the first, because they fear they may grow up to an\nage, when they will be sure to pursue that revenge of which the spirit\nis early instilled into them; to the second, lest they should produce\nchildren, to whom they would, from the same spirit, be sure to inculcate\nit. Thus, in a round natural enough, their fear begets their cruelty,\nand their cruelty their fear, and so on, _ad infinitum_. They consider\ntoo these tortures as matter of glory to them in the constancy with\nwhich they are taught to suffer them; they familiarize to themselves the\nidea of them, in a manner that redoubles their natural courage and\nferocity, and especially inspires them to fight desperately in battle,\nso as to prefer death to a captivity, of which the consequences are, and\nmay be, so much more cruel to them. Another reason is also assignable\nfor their carrying things to these extremities: War is considered by\nthese people as something very sacred, and not lightly to be undertaken;\nbut when once so, to be pushed with the utmost rigor by way of terror,\njoining its aid towards the putting the speediest end to it. The savage\nnations imagine such examples necessary for deterring one another from\ncoming to ruptures, or invading one another upon slight motives,\nespecially as their habitations or villages used to be so slightly\nfortified, that they might easily be surprised. They have lately indeed\nlearned to make stronger inclosures, or pallisadoes, but still not\nsufficient entirely to invalidate this argument for their guarding\nagainst sudden hostilities, by the idea of the most cruel revenge they\nannex to the commission of them. It is not then, till after the maturest\ndeliberation, and the deepest debates, that they commonly come to a\nresolution of _taking up the hatchet_, as they call declaring of war;\nafter which, there are no excesses to which their rage and ferocity do\nnot incite them. Even their feasting upon the dead bodies of their\nenemies, after putting them to death with the most excruciating tortures\nthey can devise, is rather a point of revenge, than of relish for such a\nbanquet.\nThat midst all their savageness they have, however, some glimmering\nperception of the _laws of nations_, is evident from the use to which\nthey put the _calumet_, the rights of which are kept inviolate, thro'\nespecially the whole northern continent of America. It answers nearest\nthe idea of the olive-branch amongst the ancients.\nAs to your question, Sir, about the English being in the right or wrong,\nin their treatment of the _Acadians_, or descendants of the Europeans\nfirst settled in Acadia, and in their scheme of dispersing them, the\npoint is so nice, that I own I dare not pronounce either way: but I will\ncandidly state to you certain facts and circumstances, which may enable\nyourself to form a tolerably clear idea thereon.\nBut previously I shall give you a succinct description of these people:\nThey were a mixed breed, that is to say, most of them proceeded from\nmarriages, or concubinage of the savage women with the first settlers,\nwho were of various nations, but chiefly French, the others were\nEnglish, Scotch, Swiss, Dutch, &c. the Protestants amongst whom, and\nespecially their children were, in process of time, brought over to a\nconformity of faith with ours. They found they could not easily keep\ntheir footing in the country, or live sociably with the great majority\nof the French, but by this means of coming over to our religion.\nCertain Normans, of which number was Champlein, were the _first_ French\nthat discovered Port-Royal, now Annapolis, where they found some Scotch\nsettled, who had built a fort of turf, and planted in the area before it\nsome plumb-trees, and walnut-trees, which was all the works of\nagriculture, and fortification the British nation had made in this\ncountry before the year 1710. This is the chief reason [And a very good\none surely.] too, why they so much insist on calling Acadia,\nNova-Scotia, and pretend to be the first inhabitants and true\nproprietors. These Scotch were driven from Port-Royal by the Normans. It\nis true, they had discovered the river of Port-Royal _before_ the\nNormans, and had built a turf-fort; but it is by no means true, that\nthey were therefore the true settlers on this river, and less yet in the\nwhole of Acadia. [Nothing can be more false and pitiful, than what\nfollows of this Frenchman's reasoning. If a fort is not a settlement,\nwhat can be called one? Is it not one of the most valid, and generally\nreceived marks of taking possession? It supposes always a design to\ncultivate and improve; and no doubt but these first settlers would have\ndone both, if they had not been untimely driven away.] The true\ninhabitants are those who cultivate a country, and thereby acquire a\nreal permanent situation. The property of ground is to them who clear,\nplant, and improve it. The English had done nothing in this way to it\ntill the year 1710. They never came there, but on schemes of incursion\nor trade; and in all the wars they had with the French, on being\nsuperior to them, they contented themselves with putting them to ransom;\nand though they sometimes took their fortified places, they did not\nsettle in them. As all their pretension in Acadia was trade, they\nsometimes indeed detained such French as they could take prisoners; but\nthat was only for the greater security of their traffic in the mean\nwhile with the savages. Traders, continually obliged to follow the\nsavages in their vagabond journeys, could not be supposed to have time\nor inclination for agriculture. This title then the French settlers had;\nand in short, the whole body of the inhabitants of Acadia, from time\nimmemorial, may be averred to have been French, since a few families of\nEnglish, and other Europeans, cannot be said to form an exception, and\nthose, as I have before observed, soon became frenchified. Except a few\nfamilies from Boston or New-England I could never learn there were above\nthree of purely British subjects, who also, ultimately conforming both\nin the religious and civil institutions to the French, became\nincorporated with them. These families were the _Peterses_, the\n_Grangers_, the _Cartys_. These last indeed descended from one Roger\nJohn-Baptist Carty, an Irish Roman-Catholic. He had been an indented\nservant in New-England, and had obtained at length his discharge from\nhis master, with permission to remain with the French Acadians for the\nfreer exercise of his religion. Peters was an iron-smith in England, and\ntogether with Granger, married in Acadia, and was there naturalized a\nFrenchman. Granger made his abjuration before M. Petit, secular-priest\nof the seminary of Paris, then missionary at Port-Royal (Annapolis).\nThese and other European families then soon became united with the\nFrench Acadians, and were no longer distinguished from them. Most of\nthese last were originally from _Rochelle_, _Xaintonge_, and _Poitou_;\nbut all went under the common name of Acadians; and were once very\nnumerous. The Parish of _Annapolis-Royal_ alone in 1754, according to\nthe account of father _Daudin_, contained three hundred habitations, or\nabout two thousand communicants. The _Mines_, which are about\nfive-and-thirty leagues from Port-Royal, and the best corn country in\nAcadia, were also very populous; nor were there wanting inhabitants in\nmany commodious parts of this peninsula.\nThe character of the French Acadians was good at the bottom: their\nmorals far from vitious; their constitution hardy, and yet strongly\nturned to indolence and inaction, not caring for work, unless a point of\npresent necessity pressed them; much attached to the customs of the\ncountry, which have not a little of the savage in them, and to the\nopinions of their fore-fathers, which they cherished as a kind of\npatrimony; it was hard to inculcate any novelty to them. They had many\nparts of character in common with the Canada French. A little matter\nsurprises, and sets them a staring, without stirring their curiosity to\nexamine, or exciting their inclination to adopt or embrace it. They are\nremarkably fond of rosaries, crucifixes, agnus deis, and all the little\ntrinkets consecrated by religion, with which they love to adorn their\npersons, and of which the priests make no little advantage in disposing\nof amongst them: and in truth, it is almost incredible what a power and\ninfluence these have over them, and with which they despotically govern\nthem. One instance I am sure cannot but make you laugh. In September,\n1754, the priest at _Pigigeesh_, had appointed his parishioners to\nperform the religious ceremony of a _Recess_, and to make them expiate\nsome disgust they had given him, obliged them, men, women, and children,\nto attend the adoration of the holy-sacrament with a rope about their\nnecks; and what is more, he not only made them all buy the rope of him,\nin which you may be sure he took care to find his account, but exacted\ntheir coming to fetch it bare-footed, from his parsonage house; and this\nthey quietly submitted to. In short, considering the sweets of power on\nwhomsoever exercised, our good fathers the missionaries are not so much\nto be pitied, as they would have us believe, for their great apostolical\nlabors, and exposure to fatigue; since it is certain, they live like\nlittle kings in their respective parishes, and enjoy in all senses the\nbest the land affords; and even our government itself, for its own ends,\nis obliged to pay a sort of court to them, and to keep them in good\nhumour.\nThe Acadian men were commonly drest in a sort of coarse black stuff made\nin the country; and many of the poorer sort go bare-footed in all\nweathers. The women are covered with a cloak, and all their head-dress\nis generally a handkerchief, which would serve for a veil too, in the\nmanner they tied it, if it descended low enough.\nTheir dwellings were almost all built in an uniform manner; the\ninhabitants themselves it was who built them, each for himself, there\nbeing but few or no mechanics in the country. The hatchet was their\ncapital and universal instrument. They had saw-mills for their timber,\nand with a plane and a knife, an Acadian would build his house and his\nbarn, and even make all his wooden domestic furniture. Happy nation!\nthat could thus be sufficient to itself, which would always be the case,\nwere the luxury and the vanity of other nations to remain unenvied.\nSuch in short were the French Acadians, who fell under the dominion of\nthe king of Great Britain, when the English experienced, from both the\nAcadians and savages, a most thorough reluctance to the recognition of\ntheir new sovereign, which has continued to this day.\nAs to the savages it is certain, that the governors for the English\nacted entirely against the interest of their nation, in their procedure\nwith them. They had been long under the French government, so far as\ntheir nature allows them to be under any government at all; and besides\nalmost all the Micmakis, and great numbers of the Maricheets, or\nAbenaquis, were converted to our faith, and were consequently under the\ninfluence of the priests. It could not then be expected, naturally\nspeaking, that these people could all of a sudden shake off their\nattachment to, and connexions with our nation; so that, even after the\ncession of Acadia, they continued, with a savage sulleness, to give\nmarks of their preference of our government. This could not fail of\ngiving the English umbrage; and their impatience not brooking either\ndelays, or soothing them into a temper and opinion more favorable to\nthem: they let it very early be seen, and penetrated by the savages,\nthat they intended to clear the country of them. Nor would this\nexterminating plan, however not over-humane, have been perhaps wholly an\nimpolitical one, if they had not had the French for neighbors, who, ever\nwatchful and alert in concerning themselves with what past in those\nparts, took care underhand, by their priests and emissaries, to inflame\nthem, and to offer them not only the kindest refuge, but to provide them\nwith all necessaries of life, sure of being doubly repaid by the service\nthey would do them, if but in the mischief they would do the English, to\nwhom it was a great point with our government to make Acadia as\nuncomfortable, and as untenable as possible. It was no wonder then, that\nthe savages, ill-used by the English, and still dreading worse from\nthem, being constantly plied by our caresses, presents, and promises,\nshould prefer our nation to that. I have before said, that religion has\nno great hold of these savages, but it could not be but of some weight\nin the scale, where their minds were already so exulcerated against\nthose of a different one, whom they now considered as their capital\nenemies. You may be sure like-wise, our priests did not neglect making\nthe most of this advantage, which the English themselves furnished them\nby their indiscreet management: for certain it is, that a few presents\nwell placed, proper methods of conciliation, and a very little time,\nwould have entirely detached the savages from our interest, and have\nturned the system of annoyance of the English against the French\nthemselves. Some English governors indeed grew sensible of this, and\napplied themselves to retrieve matters by a gentler treatment, but the\nmischief was already done and irretrieveable; and our missionaries took\ncare to widen the breach, and to keep up their spirit of hatred and\nrevenge, by instilling into them the notions of jealousy, that such\novertures of friendship, on the part of the English, were no better than\nso many snares laid to make them perish, by a false security, since they\ncould not hope to do it by open violence. One instance may serve to show\nyou the temper of these people: Some years ago the English officers\nbeing assembled at the _Mines_, in order to take a solemn recognition\nfrom them of the king of Great Britain, when a savage, a new convert,\ncalled _Simon_, in spite of all dissuasion, went himself alone to the\nEnglish commander, and told him, that all his endeavours to get the king\nof England acknowledged, would be to no purpose; that, for his part, he\nshould never pay any allegiance but to the king of France, and drawing a\nknife, said, \"This indeed is all the arms I have, and with this weapon\nalone, I will stand by the king of France till death.\"\nYet, with all this obstinacy of sentiments, once more I dare aver, the\nsavages would have been easily won over and attached to the English\nparty, had these gone the right way about it: and I well know that the\nFrench, who knew best the nature of the savages, much dreaded it; and\nwere not a little pleased to see the English take measures so contrary\nto their own interest, and play the game so effectually into our hands.\nIn short, we took, as was natural, all the advantage of their\nindiscretion and over-sight.\nI come now to the Acadians, or what may more properly be called the\nFrench Acadians. These would undoubtedly have proved very valuable\nsubjects to the English, and extreamly useful to them in improving a\ndominion so susceptible of all manner of improvement as _Acadia_,\n(Nova-Scotia) if they could have been, prevailed on to break their\nformer ties of allegiance to the king of France, and to have remained\nquietly under the new government to which they were now transferred. But\nfrom this they were constantly dissuaded, and withheld by the influence\nof our French priests, cantoned, amongst them [The letter-writer might\nhave here added the infamous arts and falsities by which these\nemissaries of the French imposed on those bigotted deluded people, and\nto that end made religion a vile tool of state. They represented to\nthese Acadians, that it was an inexpiable crime against their faith, to\nhold any commerce with heretics, and much more so to enter into their\ninterests;--that there would be no pardon for them, either in the other\nworld, or even in this, when the French should regain, as they certainly\nwould, possession of a country ceded so much against the grain. In\nshort, they succeeded but too well in keeping up the spirit of rebellion\namongst those infatuated devotees of theirs, who remained sullen and\nrefractory to all the advances the English made to gain them.], who kept\nthem steady to our party. You may be sure our government did not fail of\nconstantly inculcating the expediency of this conduct to our priests;\nwho not only very punctually and successfully conformed to their\ninstructions on this head, but very often in the heat of their zeal so\nmuch exceeded them, as to draw on themselves the animadversion of the\nEnglish government. This answered a double end, of hindering that nation\nfrom finding those advantages in this country, by the prospect of which\nit had been tempted to settle in it, and of engaging it to consider\nAcadia itself, as something not material enough to think worth its\nkeeping, at the expence which it must occasion, and consequently induce\nthe English to be the readier to part with it again, on any future\ntreaty of peace. This too is certain, that the French themselves knew\nneither the extent, nor the value of this country, till they were\nsensible of the improvements the English were projecting; and the use\nnow so easy to discover might be made of so fine an establishment. But\nto return to the Acadians: It must be confest the English had, with\nrespect to them, a difficult game to play. To force such a number of\nfamilies, of which too such great use might have been made, to evacuate\nthe country, seems at first both impolitic and inhuman. But then it must\nbe considered, that these people were absolutely untractable as to the\nEnglish, and thoroughly under the direction of priests in an interest\nquite opposite to theirs. To have taken those priests entirely from\nthem, would have exasperated them yet more, and was, in fact, a measure\nrepugnant to that spirit of toleration in religious matters, of which\nthey boast, and to which it must be owned they constantly adhered, as to\nthese people, both in speculation and practice.\n[Might not this dilemma have been removed, by procuring for them\npriests, since priests they must have, from neutral nations, such as the\nFlemings, the Roman Swiss Cantons, &c. whom a very small matter of\nreward and encouragement would, it is probable, have fixed in the\nEnglish interest? At least, they could not have the same motives for\nfomenting rebellious principles, as the French priests, who were set on\nby that government.]\nNone of the Acadians were ever molested purely for their religion; and\neven the priests of our nation were always civilly treated by them,\nwhenever they had not reason to think they meddled in temporal matters,\nor stirred up their parishioners to rebellion. I have seen many of their\nown letters that acknowledge as much; so that upon the whole, I do not\nsee that the English could do otherwise than they did, in expelling\ntheir bounds a people, who were constitutionally, and invincibly, a\nperpetual thorn in their side, whom they could at best look on as secret\ndomestic enemies, who wanted nothing but an occasion to do them all the\nmischief in their power, and of whom, consequently, there could not, for\ntheir interest and safety, remain too few in the land.\nIn the mean time the French took special care to appear at least to\nreceive with open arms those _refugees_, whom their fear or hatred of\nthe English drove out of that country; they gave them temporary places\nof habitation, both for them and their cattle, besides provisions, arms,\ntools, &c. till they should fix a settlement in some part of the French\ndominions here, which they recommended especially in the island of, or\non the banks of the river of St. John; but they were at first very loth\nto come to a determination. And surely, these unfortunate victims of\ntheir attachment to the French government deserved all the reparation in\nits power to give them, for what they had quitted for the sake of\npreserving allegiance to it, even after their country had been\ntransferred to another sovereign. I cannot, however, consistently with\ntruth say, they were received as kindly as they deserved, which probably\nbred that undetermination of their's to fix a new settlement, as they\nwere pressed to do by the French government. They retained still a\nhankering after their old habitations: the temporary new ones were far\nfrom being equally agreeable or convenient; and even the ancient\nsettlers in those places where these refugees were provisionally\ncantoned, began to make complaints of their encroaching upon them, and\nto represent their apprehensions of their becoming burthensome to them.\nSome of our people in power, more sollicitous for their own private\ninterest, than for the public good, were but too remiss in relieving and\ncomforting these poor people. This, at length, indisposed them so, that\nafter very pathetic remonstrances on the hardship of their case, and the\nmotives upon which they thus suffered, great numbers of them began to\nlisten seriously to the proposals made them by the English, to return\nupon very inviting terms to the settlements they had quitted. In short,\nit required the utmost art of the missionaries, and even a kind of\ncoercion from the military power, to keep them from accepting the\nEnglish offers. For when they presented a petition to Mons. _de Vergor_,\nfor leave to return to the English district, this commander, after\nhaving remonstrated to them that he could not grant their request, nor\ndecide any thing of himself in a matter of that importance, was forced,\nat length, to declare to them, that he would _shoot_ any man who should\nattempt to go over to the English. [It should here be remarked, that\nthese very people had taken the oath of allegiance to the crown of\nEngland, agreeable to the tenor of the treaty of Utrecht. But the\nFrench, not content with harbouring these causeless malecontents, that\nwere actually deserters over to them, kept continually, by means of the\npriests, plying such as staid behind with exhortations, promises,\nmenaces, in short, with every art of seduction, to engage them to\nwithdraw their sworn allegiance to their now lawful sovereign. In short,\nif all the transactions of the French in those parts were thrown into a\nhistory, it would lay open to the world such a scene of complicated\nvillainy, rebellion, perjury, subornation of perjury, perfidiousness,\nand cruelty, as would for ever take from that nation the power of\npluming itself, as it now so impudently does, on its sincerity,\nfairness, and moderation. The English, on the other hand, too conscious\nof the justice of their cause at bottom, have been too remiss in their\nconfutation of the French falsities: content with being in the right,\nthey cared too little for having the appearance of being so, as if the\nworld was not governed by appearances.] Thus these poor people remained\nunder this deplorable dilemma. Some of them too, had not even\nhabitations to go back if they would: they had been forced into the\nmeasure of deserting their country, and passing over to the French side,\nby the violence of the Abbot de Loutre, who had not only preached them\ninto this spirit, but ordered the savages, whom he had at his disposal,\nto set fire to their habitations, barns, &c. particularly at\n_Mirtigueesh_. [The reader is desired to observe, that in the memorials\ndelivered into the English court by the French ministers, this burning\nof villages was specifically made an article of complaint, at the same\ntime that it was their own incendiary agent, at their own instigation,\nwho had actually caused fire to be set to them by his savages. Could\nthen impudence be pushed farther than it was on this occasion?]\nIn the mean time the French did not spare, at least, the consolation of\nwords and promises to these distrest Refugee-acadians. They were\nassured, that they would infallibly be relieved on the regulation of the\nlimits taking place, which was then on the point of being settled, by\ncommissaries, between the two crowns. [The truth is, that in these\nassurances the French government, which never intended a conclusion, but\nonly an amusement, did not scruple equally deceiving the English, and\nthese infatuated Acadian subjects of ours, who, to the French interest\nhad sacrificed their own, their possessions in their country, their\nsworn faith, in short, their ALL. Whoever has the patience to go through\nthe French memorials, in their procedure with our commissaries, may see\nsuch instances of their pitiful prevarications, petty-fogging chicanery,\nquirks, and evasions, as would nauseate one. The whole stress of their\nargument, in short, turns merely upon names, where the things themselves\nwere absolutely out of the question, from the manifest notoriety of\nthem.] This hope, in some sort, pacified them; and they lived as well as\nthey could in the expectation of a final decision, which was not so soon\nto come.\nYet even this example of the sufferings of these people, purely on\naccount of their attachment to the French government, could not out\nbalance with the French Acadians, who remained in the English district,\nthe assiduous applications of our priests to keep them firm in the\nFrench interest. They never ceased giving every mark in their power of\ntheir preference of our government to that, under which the treaty of\nUtrecht had put them. The English, however, at length finding that,\nneither by fair nor foul means, could they reclaim or win them over to\ntheir purpose, so as that they might in future depend upon them, came at\nonce to a violent resolution. They surprized and seized every French\nAcadian-man they could lay their hands on, (the women they knew would\nfollow of course) and, to clear the country effectually of them,\ndispersed them into the remotest parts of their other settlements in\nNorth-America, where they thought they could do the least mischief to\nthem. Some were shipped off for England: the priests shared the same\nfate, and were conveyed to Europe. With this evacuation, the very\nexistence of the French Acadians may be said to have ended; for in\nAcadia there are scarce any traces of them left, few or none having\nescaped this general seizure and transportation, for the necessity of\nwhich, the English were perhaps more to be pitied than blamed.\nIn the mean time our government had so far succeeded, as to force the\nEnglish, thus to deprive themselves of such a number of subjects, who,\nbut for the reasons above deduced, might have been very valuable ones,\nand a great strengthening of their new colony. Hitherto then our\nneighborhood has made it almost as irksome, and uncomfortable to them,\nas we could wish; and this fine spot of dominion does not nigh produce\nto them the advantages that might otherwise naturally be expected from\nit. Numbers of themselves begin to exclaim against it, as if its value\nand importance had been overrated; not considering, that it is on the\ncircumstances of their possession, and not on the nature of the\npossession itself, that their complaints and murmurings should fall. It\nis very likely, that whenever we get it back again, we shall know very\nwell what to do with it. They have begun to teach us the value of what\nwe thus inadvertently parted with to them; and it will be hard, indeed,\non recovering it, if we do not improve upon their lessons.\nIn the mean time you in Europe are cruelly mistaken, if you do not annex\nan idea of the highest consequence and value, to the matters of dominion\nnow in dispute, between the crowns of France and Great Britain, between\nwhom the war is in a manner begun, by the capture of the Alcides and\nLys, and which, even without that circumstance, was inevitable. I know\nthat our (French) government, is indeed fully sensible of the capital\nimportance to it of its interest in these parts, and has proceeded in\nconsequence. But it is not so, I find by your letters, and the reports\nof others, with numbers in Europe, who do not conceive, that the present\nobject of the war is so considerable as it really is.\nTo say nothing of the vast extent of country that falls under the claim\nof the English to Acadia (Nova-Scotia) which alone would form an immence\nmass of dominion, greatly improveable in a number of points, its\nsituation is yet of greater weight. By the English possessing it, Canada\nitself would be so streightened, so liable to harrassment, and\nespecially to the comptrol of its navigation, that it would scarce be\ntenable, and surely not worth the expence of keeping. The country\npretended to have been ceded is far preferable to it; and the masters of\nit would be equally masters of the sea all over North-America. Hallifax,\nfor example, according to which of the nation's hand it should be in,\nmay be equally an effectual check on Quebec, or Boston.\nYou will then allow, that was there even nothing more in dispute than\nthe limits of the cession of Acadia, or Nova-Scotia, together with its\nnecessary dependence, that alone would form such a considerable object,\nas not easily to be given up on either side. The commissaries appointed\nby both crowns, then failing of coming to any agreement or regulation,\nit is no wonder to see the appeal lodged with the sword; especially when\nthere is another point yet remains, of perhaps equal, if not superior,\nimportance, depending on the issue of the war: and that is, the western\ninland frontiers of the English colonies. Should we ever command the\nnavigation of the lakes and rivers, behind their settlements, you can\neasily figure to yourself, not only the vast advantages of preserving\nthat communication of Canada, with New Orleans and the Mississippi, so\nabsolutely essential to both these our colonies, but the facility it\nwill give us on all occasions of distressing the English, where neither\ntheir marine-force can succor them, nor can they be able to resist the\nattack, since we may make it wherever ever we please, and effectually\ndodge any land-force they might assemble in any one or two parts to\noppose us. We may then carry the war into the quarter most convenient;\nand most safe for us, if we should ever have the whole navigation of the\nlakes so far at our disposal, as to prevent their constructing any\nmaterial number vessels to dispute it with us. Thus we can penetrate\ninto the heart of any of their colonies, that may best suit us,\nespecially with the concurrent aid of the savages, whom we have found\nmeans to attach so strongly to us, and on whom we can greatly depend for\nthe effectual harrassment of, especially, the back-plantations of the\nEnglish.\nYou see then, Sir, by this summary sketch of the points in contest, that\nthe war being once engaged, it will not be so easy a matter as many in\nEurope imagine, to adjust the pretensions, so various and so important,\nof the respective nations, so as to be able to procure a peace. Some, of\nthe points appear to me absolutely _untreatable_. You may observe too,\nthat I do not so much as touch upon the dispute about Tabago,\nSanta-Lucia, or any of the Leeward islands, which are not, however, of\nsmall consequence. In short, the war must, in all human probability, be\na much longer one, than is commonly believed. Neither nation can\nmaterially relax of its claims, without such a thorough sacrifice of its\ninterest in America, as nothing but the last extremities of weakness can\ncompel.\nLong as this letter is, I cannot yet close it without mentioning to you\na singular phenomenon of nature, in the island of St. John. You know it\nis a flat, level island, chiefly formed out of the congestion of sand\nand soil from the sea. Tradition, experience, and authentic public acts\n(_Proc\u00e9s verbaux_) concur to attest that every seven years, it is\nvisited by swarms either of locusts, or of field-mice, alternately,\nnever together; without its being possible to discover hitherto either\nthe reason, or the origin of these two species, which thus in their\nturns, at the end of every seventh year, pour out all of a sudden in\namazing numbers, and having committed their ravages on all the fruits of\nthe earth, precipitate themselves into the sea. Neither has any\npreventive remedy for this evil been yet discovered. It is well known\nhow they perish, but, once more, how they are produced no one, that I\ncould learn, has as yet been able to trace. The field-mice are\nundoubtedly something in the nature of those swarms of the sable-mice,\nthat sometimes over-run Lapland and Norway, though I do not know that\nthese return so regularly, and at such stated periods, as those of this\nisland.\nI am, Sir,\nYour most obedient,\nHumble servant.\nCHARACTER\nOF THE\nSAVAGES of NORTH-AMERICA,\nEXTRACTED FROM\nA LETTER of the Father CHARLEVOIX,\nTO\nA LADY of Distinction,\nTo give you, Madam, a summary sketch of the character of the savages in\nthis country, I am to observe to you, that under a savage appearance,\nwith manners and customs, that favor entirely of barbarism, may be found\na society exempt from almost all the faults that so often vitiate the\nhappiness of ours.\nThey appear to be without passion, but they are in cold blood, and\nsometimes even from principle, all that the most violent and most\nunbridled passion can inspire into those, who no longer listen to\nreason.\nThey seem to lead the most miserable of lives, and they are, perhaps,\nthe only happy of the earth. At least those of them are still so,\namongst whom the knowledge of those objects that disturb and seduce us,\nhas not yet penetrated, or awakened in them, those pernicious desires\nwhich their ignorance kept happily dormant: it has not, however,\nhitherto made great ravages amongst them.\nThere may be perceived a mixture in them of the most ferocious and the\nmost gentle manners; of the faults reproachable to the carnivorous\nbeasts, with those virtues and qualities of the head and heart, that do\nthe most honor to human-kind.\nOne would, at first, imagine, that they had no sort of form of\ngovernment, that they knew no laws nor subordination, and that living in\nan entire independence, they suffered themselves to be entirely guided\nby chance, or by the most wild, untamed caprice: yet they enjoy almost\nall the advantages, which a well-regulated authority can procure to the\nmost civilized nations. Born free and independent, they hold in horror\nthe very shadow of despotic power; but they rarely swerve from certain\nprinciples and customs, founded upon good-sense, which stand them in the\nstead of laws, and supplement in some sort to their want of legal\nauthority. All constraint mocks them; but reason alone hold them in a\nkind of subordination, which, for its being voluntary, does not the less\nanswer the proposed end.\nA man, whom they should greatly esteem, would find them tractable and\nductile enough, and might very nearly make them do any thing he had a\nmind they should; but it is not easy to gain their esteem to such a\npoint. They grant it only to merit, and that merit a very superior one,\nof which they are as good judges as those, who, amongst us, value\nthemselves the most upon being so. They are, especially, apt to be taken\nwith physiognomy; and there are not in the world, perhaps, men who are\ngreater _connoisseurs_ in it: and that is, because they have for no man\nwhatever, any of those respects that prejudice or impose on us, and that\nstudying only nature, they understand it well. As they are not slaves to\nambition or interest, those two passions that have chiefly cancelled in\nus that sentiment of humanity, which the author of nature had engraved\nin our hearts; the inequality of conditions is not necessary to them,\nfor the support of society.\nThere are not therefore, Madam, to be seen amongst them, or at least,\nare rarely to be met with, those arrogant haughty characters, who, full\nof themselves of their greatness, or their merit, look on themselves\nalmost as a species a-part, and disdain the rest of mankind, of whom\nconsequently they can never have the confidence or love. Their equals\nthese rarely know any thing of, because the jealousy that reigns amongst\nthe great, hinders them from being intimate enough with one another.\nNeither do they know themselves, from their never studying themselves,\nand from their constant self-flattery. They never reflect, that to gain\nadmission into the hearts of men, they must make themselves their\nequals; so that with this pretended superiority of enlightened\nunderstanding, which they look on as an essential property of the rank\nthey hold, the most part of them live groveling in a proud and incurable\nignorance of all that it would be the most important for them to know,\nand never enjoy the true sweets of life.\nIn all this how wretchedly different from the savages! In this country,\nall the men esteem themselves equally men; and in man, what they most\nesteem is, the man. No distinction of birth; no prerogative attributed\nto rank, to the prejudice of the other free members of society; no\npre-eminence annexed to merit that can inspire pride, or make others\nfeel too much their inferiority. There is, perhaps, less delicacy in\ntheir sentiments than amongst us, but surely more uprightness; less\nceremony; less of all that can form a dubious character; less of the\ntemptations or illusions or self-love.\nReligion only can perfect these people in what is good in them, and\ncorrect what bad. This indeed is not peculiar to them, but what is so,\nis, that they bring with them fewer obstacles to religious devotion when\nonce they have begun to believe, which can only be the effect of a\nspecial grace. It is also true, that to establish firmly the empire of\nreligion over them, it would be necessary that they should see it\npractised in all its purity by those who profess it. They are extremely\nsusceptible of the scandal given by bad Christians, as are all those who\nare, for the first time, instructed in the principles of the\nGospel-morality.\nYou will perhaps ask me, Madam, if they have a religion? To this I\nanswer, that it cannot be said they have not one, though it is difficult\nto give a definition of what it is. I shall sometime or other, take\noccasion to enter into more particulars on this head. This letter, like\nmost of the others that have preceded it, prove sufficiently that I do\nnot pretend to write to you methodically.\nI shall then now only content myself with adding, by way of finishing,\nto this picture of the savages, that even in their most indifferent\nactions, may be perceived the traces of the primitive natural religion,\nbut which escape those who do not study them enough, because they are\nyet more defaced by the want of instruction, [This want of instruction\nis wretchedly supplemented amongst the savage-converts to the Popish\nreligion, by that superstitious worship, and those fabulous traditions,\nits missionaries have introduced amongst them, and which must be only\nthe more execrable, for their being a superstructure on so fair a\nfoundation as that of the truths of the Gospel. At least, the savages,\nin their genuine unsophisticated state, have no such base, absurd,\nderogatory ideas of the Deity, as are implied by the doctrines of\ntransubstantiation, purgatory, absolution, and the like fictions in the\nRomish church, which have been the more than mines of Mexico and Peru,\nof its clergy.] than adulterated by the mixture of a superstitious\nworship, and by fabulous traditions.\n_FINIS._", "source_dataset": "gutenberg", "source_dataset_detailed": "gutenberg -  An Account of the Customs and Manners of the Micmakis and Maricheets Savage Nations, Now Dependent on the Government of Cape-Breton\n"},
{"created_timestamp": "02-20-1742", "downloaded_timestamp": "10-18-2021", "url": "https://founders.archives.gov/API/docdata/Franklin/01-02-02-0081", "content": "Title: Articles of Agreement with James Parker, 20 February 1742\nFrom: Franklin, Benjamin,Parker, James\nTo: \nArticles of Agreement indented made the twentieth Day of February in the year of our Lord, One Thousand seven Hundred and Forty-One, Between Benjamin Franklin, of the City of Philadelphia in the Province of Pennsylvania Printer, of the One Part, and James Parker of the said City, Printer, of the other Part: Whereas the said Benjamin Franklin, and James Parker have determined to enter into a Copartnership for the Carrying on the Business of Printing in the City of New-York: It IS THEREFORE covenanted granted and agreed by and between the said Parties to these Presents; and the said Benjamin Franklin and James Parker do each of them covenant, and mutually agree each with the other of them, and to and with the Heirs, Executors and Administrators of the other of them, in Manner following, That is to say\nThat they, the said Benjamin Franklin and James Parker shall be Partners in carrying on the Trade and Business of Printing in New-York aforesaid, for and during the Term of Six Years from the Day on which the said James Parker shall be in Possession of a Printing-Press, Types and Materials in the City of New-York aforesaid, provided by the said Benjamin Franklin, if they the said Benjamin and James shall so long live. That the said Benjamin Franklin, shall be at the sole Charge of providing a Printing-Press with all its necessary Appurtenances, together with Four Hundred Pounds Weight of Letters (if the said James shall require so great a Quantity) and shall cause the same to be transported at his own Risque and Expence, to the City of New-York aforesaid, and to be there put into the Possession of the said James Parker. That the Business and Working Part of Printing, and of Disposing of the Work printed: shall be under the sole Management and Direction of, and performed by the said James Parker or at his Expence. That all Charges for Paper, Ink, Balls, Tympans, Wool, Oyl, and other Things necessary to Printing, together with the Charge of all common and necessary Repairs of the Press and its Appurtenances, and also the Charge of Rent for a Shop, and for so much Room as is necessary to be used in the Management of the Business of Printing aforesaid, shall be divided into three equal Parts, two of which said Parts shall be defrayed by and paid as due from the said James Parker and the remaining Third Part shall be defrayed and allowed to be paid as due from the said Benjamin Franklin, and deducted out of the Income next herein after mentioned. That as Money received or to be received for Printing, or for any Thing done or to be done relating to the Business of Printing aforesaid, by the said James Parker, either as Gratuity, Premium or Reward or Salary, from the Government, or from others, shall be divided into three equal Parts Two of which said Parts the said James Parker shall have for his Care, Management and Performance aforesaid, and the said Benjamin Franklin shall have the remaining Third Part thereof. That for the regular transacting the Affairs in Copartnership aforesaid the said James Parker shall keep fair and exact Books of Accounts of and concerning all Work done and delivered or sold by him, and of all his Receipts and Disbursements relating to the Business of Printing in Copartnership aforesaid, with the Day, Month and Year of each Entry, and submit the same to the View of the said Benjamin Franklin, his lawful Attorney, Executors or Administrators, as often as thereunto required. And that all the Accounts of the Copartners in Copartnership aforesaid, shall be drawn out plain and communicated to each other, and settled once a Quarter, to wit, at Midsummer, Michaelmas, Christmas, and Lady-Day, during the Copartnership aforesaid, or oftner, if either of them the said Copartners shall require it. And that upon such Settlement, the said James Parker shall remit the Part by this Agreement belonging to the said Benjamin Franklin, in such Wares or Merchandizes, or in Bills of Exchange or in Money, as the said Benjamin Franklin shall direct, by Letter or Order under his Hand, on board such Vessel and to such Port, or by such Person or Conveyance as the said Benjamin shall also require, by Letter or Order as aforesaid, at the proper Risque of the said Benjamin. That the said James Parker shall not work with any other Printing Materials than those belonging to the said Benjamin Franklin, nor follow any other Business but Printing, during the Continuance of the Copartnership aforesaid, occasional Buying and Selling excepted. That the Loss by bad Debts shall be divided and sustained by both Parties, in the same Proportion as the Money ought to have been divided by this Agreement, if it had been received. That neither of the said Parties shall reap any Benefit or Advantage by Survivorship, if the other of them shall depart this Life before the Expiration of the said Term of Six Years; but that if the said James Parker shall depart this Life before the Expiration of the said Term, his Executors or Administrators, shall deliver up the Press, Types, and all other Materials of Printing which have been provided by the said Benjamin Franklin, or at his Charge, to the said Benjamin, his certain Attorney, Executors or Administrators, upon Demand, in good Order and Condition, (allowing for the usual Wear and Decay of such Things) as also the Share of Money, Effects and Debts belonging to the said Benjamin by this Agreement. And if the said Benjamin Franklin shall depart this Life before the Expiration of the Term of Copartnership aforesaid, the said James Parker shall continue the Business nevertheless, paying and remitting the Part, by this Agreement belonging to the said Benjamin Franklin, unto the Executors, Administrators, or Assigns of the said Benjamin, they performing all parts of this Agreement to the said James, which the said Benjamin ought to have done, if he had lived. And [at] the Expiration of the Term of Six Years aforesaid, the said James Parker, shall have the Preference of purchasing the said Printing-Press, Types and Materials, if he shall be so disposed, at their present Value, allowing for the Wear thereof which shall be judged a reasonable Abatement, considering the Time they then have been used: But if the said James shall not be inclined to purchase them he shall transport, or cause to be transported to and delivered at Philadelphia, the said Printing-Press, Types and Materials, at his own proper Risque and Charge, to the said Benjamin Franklin, his Executors, Administrators or Assigns. And if any unusual Damage, by bad Usage or Negligence, shall have happened to them the said James shall make it good: But if the Damage be occasioned by some unavoidable Accident, the Loss shall be divided and sustained by both Parties, in the same Manner as the Loss by bad Debts is by this Agreement to be divided and sustained: Provided nevertheless, that if the said Printing Press, Materials and Types which the said Benjamin provides, shall be lost in the Conveyance to New-York, by any Accident of Water or Fire, Enemy or the like; then the Loss thereby shall be wholly sustained by the said Benjamin Franklin, and the Copartnership hereby made, shall be dissolved and abolished, unless the said Benjamin be willing to continue it, and provide another Press and Types as aforesaid, and send them at his own Risque to New-York aforesaid, there to be delivered to the said James Parker Any Thing herein before contained to the Contrary not withstanding. In Witness whereof the Parties to these Presents have interchangeably set their Hands and Seals hereunto. Dated the Day and Year first above-written.\nJames Parker [Seal]B Franklin [Seal]\nSealed and Deliveredin the Presence of us\u2003 Robt Grace\u2003 Lewis Evans\n Endorsed: Articles of Agreement between B. Franklin and James Parker Feby. 20. 1741, 2", "culture": "English", "source_dataset": "Pile_of_Law", "source_dataset_detailed": "Pile_of_Law_founding_docs", "source_dataset_detailed_explanation": "Letters from U.S. founders.", "creation_year": 1742},
{"created_timestamp": "05-03-1742", "downloaded_timestamp": "10-18-2021", "url": "https://founders.archives.gov/API/docdata/Franklin/01-02-02-0082", "content": "Title: Library Company: Acceptance of the Charter, 3 May 1742\nFrom: Library Company of Philadelphia\nTo: \nThe increasing property of the Library Company suggested that the time had come to incorporate it. On June 21, 1739, Rev. Richard Peters informed the Directors that the Proprietor was willing to grant a charter, and he proposed to have one drafted for their perusal. \u201cThis Discourse of Mr. Peters\u2019s was very pleasing to the Directors present,\u201d the minutes noted. The matter progressed slowly. The Directors approached Thomas Penn informally; they canvassed the subscribers; and, meeting with general approval, appointed a committee (its composition is not known) to draft a charter. By July 1741, however, when they were about to lay it before the Proprietor, they learned that some subscribers felt strongly that they had exceeded their authority \u201cand were about to obtrude a disadvantageous Charter upon the Company without their [the subscribers\u2019] Consent.\u201d A few wanted no charter at all. The Directors called a special meeting for August 3, to explain their acts and purposes and to ask the subscribers to \u201cdetermine whether in their opinion a Charter will be of Service to them, and what Method of Application shall be made Use of to obtain it.\u201d Forty-five members appeared, several were represented by proxies, and after some debate they unanimously resolved to apply for a charter. The draft the Directors were considering was read article by article, and two changes were ordered: the Company should reserve specifically the power of making laws for its own government, and a quorum for making laws after notice given should be one fourth of the subscribers, instead of one fifth as proposed. The charter thus amended was transcribed and carried to the Proprietor. He referred it to Governor Thomas, who signed it on August 19, 1741.\nWhen the subscribers were asked to signify their acceptance, two new objections were made: the charter did not specifically apply to the successors of the present members, and (doubtless through the scrivener\u2019s error) the subscribers were liable not only for their annual 10s. payments but for greater sums \u201cin lieu thereof.\u201d The necessary change and correction were made, to the satisfaction of the dissenters; and on March 15 Samuel Rhoads showed the Directors the charter as \u201cfairly engrossed\u201d by Joseph Breintnall. They presented it to Governor Thomas, and he signed it on March 25, 1742. At their annual meeting on May 3 the subscribers approved it unanimously.\nThe third Day of May Anno Domini 1742 We the Subscribers Members of the Library Company of Philadelphia being met in pursuance of Notice for that purpose given do thankfully receive and accept of the Charter granted to the said Company by the honourable the Proprietaries of Pensylvania. Witness our Hands.\nJno Langdale\nSaml. Hale,\n  John Roberts\n  \u2003by his Proxy Wm Parsons\n  Isaiah Warner\n  Nichs. Scull,\n  Philip Syng\n  \u2003by his Proxy Wm Parsons\n  George Emlen Jr.\n  Willm. Maugridge,\n  John Jones jun.\n  \u2003by his Proxy Wm Parsons\n  Thos: Hopkinson 1742\nWm. Parsons\n  Richard Peters\nJas: Morris\n  William Peters\nJoseph Stretch\n  \u2003by his Proxy\nIsaac Williams\n  \u2003Richard Peters\n  \u2003by his Proxy Henry Pratt\n  Alex: Graydon\nHenry Pratt\n  Andrew Hamilton\nEvan Morgan\n  Robt Greenway\nThomas Shaw\n  Saml: Morris\n  \u2003by his Proxy Jacob Duch\u00e9\n  Saml: Coates\nJacob Duch\u00e9\n  Benja: Shoemaker\nCharles Meredith\n  Hugh Roberts\n  \u2003by his Proxy Henry Pratt\n  Wm: Coleman\nWm Callender\n  Joseph Breintnall\nJoseph King\n  Saml Norris\nBenja: Paschall\n  B Franklin\nJohn Paschall\n  Richd Standley\nWm Plumsted\n  Tench Francis\nWill. Allen\n  John Read\nFras. Richardson\n  Anth Nicholas\nIsr: Pemberton junr:\nJames Hamilton\nSamuel Rhoads\nThos Godfrey\nJames Bingham\nWm Crosthwaite\n        Thomas Bond\n        by their proxy\n        Reece Lloyd\n        Hugh Roberts\nSamuel M\u2019Call\nJohn Sober", "culture": "English", "source_dataset": "Pile_of_Law", "source_dataset_detailed": "Pile_of_Law_founding_docs", "source_dataset_detailed_explanation": "Letters from U.S. founders.", "creation_year": 1742},
{"created_timestamp": "07-01-1742", "downloaded_timestamp": "10-18-2021", "url": "https://founders.archives.gov/API/docdata/Franklin/01-02-02-0083", "content": "Title: Directors of Library Company to Proprietors and Reply, July 1742\nFrom: Directors of Library Company\nTo: \nThe charter having been accepted, the Directors of the Library Company on May 10 named Franklin, Thomas Hopkinson, and William Coleman to prepare an address of thanks to the Proprietors. On June 14 a draft was presented, read, and approved; but apparently it was not engrossed and signed until July.\nJuly 1742\nTo the honourable John Penn Thomas Penn and Richard Penn Esquires, true and absolute Proprietaries of the Province of Pennsylvania &c.\nThe humble Address of the Directors of the Library Company of Philadelphia, in Behalf of themselves and Others the Members of the said Company\nMay it please the Proprietaries,\nWe the Directors of the Library Company of Philadelphia, by the Appointment and Direction of a general Meeting of the said Company, return your Honours most sincere Thanks for the Charter of Privileges to them granted. It is with the greatest Satisfaction we receive this extraordinary Mark of your Favour and Regard; and what heightens the Obligation is, that it was purely the Effect of your own Goodness and Generosity without being solicited: But we have the pleasure to observe, this is not the first Instance of your kind Concern for the Advancement of the Library, even beyond what the Company could have hoped for; And tho\u2019 we may be wanting in Expression and suitable Acknowledgments, yet we assure your Honours we have the most grateful Sense of the Benefits received, and of the favourable Regard of our Proprietaries towards us.\nThe Powers and Privileges now granted us will, without Doubt, very much conduce to the Increase and Reputation of the Library; and as valuable Books come to be in more general Use and Esteem, we hope they will have very good Effects on the Minds of the People of this Province, and furnish them with the most useful kind of Knowledge, that which renders Men benevolent and helpful to one another. Our unhappy Divisions and Animosities, of late, have too much interrupted that charitable and friendly Intercourse which formerly subsisted among all Societies in this Place; but as all Parties come to understand their true Interest, we hope these Animosities will cease, and that Men of all Denominations will mutually assist in carrying on the publick Affairs in such manner as will most tend to the Peace and Welfare of the Province.\nB. Franklin\nPhilip Syng\nHugh Roberts\nSamuel Rhoads\nJoseph Stretch\nJohn Jones Jr\nThos. Hopkinson 1742\nEvan Morgan\nJacob Duch\u00e9\nSaml: Morris\nGentlemen\nAs wee think it our Duty to improve every oppertunity that offers of advancing the Interest of our Province and the welfare of its Inhabitants wee could not but with great pleasure promote an undertaking calculated to form their Minds and influence them to good and Virtuous Actions. If this should be the happy Consequence of forming your Society wee shal have great reason to be highly satisfied with the Assistance wee have given you, and in order to it wee must recommend to you that ever having that design in view that you lay aside all personal dislikes and with a benevolence of disposition which is the greatest ornament of Human Nature endeavour to impress such Principles on the Minds of those who may want direction as may tend to make them easy [and] happy. Wee are well pleas\u2019d by your Address to find these your Sentiments. While you make this your endeavour you may be assured of our ready and Chearfull Assistance.\n Endorsed: Ruff answer to Library Company", "culture": "English", "source_dataset": "Pile_of_Law", "source_dataset_detailed": "Pile_of_Law_founding_docs", "source_dataset_detailed_explanation": "Letters from U.S. founders.", "creation_year": 1742},
{"created_timestamp": "09-20-1742", "downloaded_timestamp": "10-18-2021", "url": "https://founders.archives.gov/API/docdata/Franklin/01-02-02-0084", "content": "Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Jacob Spicer, 20 September 1742\nFrom: Spicer, Jacob\nTo: Franklin, Benjamin\nMr. Franklin,\nSir,\nCape May Sepr. 20th. 1742\nThe difficulty I have Labour\u2019d under Some time in the management of my Fathers affairs, for want of giving publick notice, Obliges me to desire you would Insert the advertisement Inclos\u2019d, and for defraying the Charge thereof, I have also Inclos\u2019d Five Shillings, if I mistake not the usual Sum that is Generally given for Services of that Kind, But if in Case it is not Sufficient then I will pay the whole of your demand; unto you or your Order upon the first Notice.\nMr. Flower Inform\u2019d me he had agreed with you for your Gazette for one year on our Joint account, Whereof I have Received Several, and if the usual advance be behind unpaid, Let me know it and that shall be discharg\u2019d also. I am Your Humble Servant\nJacob Spicer\n Addressed: To \u2002Mr. Benjn. Franklin Printer \u2002In Philadelphia \u2002These", "culture": "English", "source_dataset": "Pile_of_Law", "source_dataset_detailed": "Pile_of_Law_founding_docs", "source_dataset_detailed_explanation": "Letters from U.S. founders.", "creation_year": 1742},
{"created_timestamp": "09-23-1742", "downloaded_timestamp": "10-18-2021", "url": "https://founders.archives.gov/API/docdata/Franklin/01-02-02-0085", "content": "Title: Card to the Public, 23 September 1742\nFrom: Franklin, Benjamin\nTo: \nIt being asserted in a printed Paper, directed to the Freeholders of Pennsylvania, that the Assembly had concealed the State of the publick Accounts from the People, by artfully deferring the Publication of their Minutes, in order to prevent a Detection of some suppos\u2019d Mismanagement of the publick Money; I think I owe this Justice to that Honourable House, as to declare, that I have had the Minutes in my Hands for Publication ever since the Adjournment; that I receiv\u2019d no Directions from the House to delay it, nor the least Intimation from any Member, that such Delay would be agreeable; that no Person has been refus\u2019d a Sight of them, and that the sole Cause of the Delay was my Desire of first finishing the Body of Laws, the Minutes being very little enquired after.\nB. Franklin", "culture": "English", "source_dataset": "Pile_of_Law", "source_dataset_detailed": "Pile_of_Law_founding_docs", "source_dataset_detailed_explanation": "Letters from U.S. founders.", "creation_year": 1742},
{"created_timestamp": "12-22-1742", "downloaded_timestamp": "10-18-2021", "url": "https://founders.archives.gov/API/docdata/Franklin/01-02-02-0086", "content": "Title: Receipt Book, 1742\u201364\nFrom: Franklin, Benjamin,Franklin, Deborah\nTo: \nAs a man of affairs who frequently made large cash payments, Franklin kept a book for receipts, in which he or the creditor would write out a form of acknowledgment which the creditor would sign on receiving payment. He used this book from 1742 until 1757, when he went abroad; his wife kept it until his return in 1762, when he himself resumed it. There are about 300 receipts; the first is dated December 22, 1742, and the last, October 29, 1764, less than a week before he sailed again to England. The ms has only incidental and limited usefulness to biographers and historians.\nAmong the persons who signed receipts in this volume are William Coats, Robert and Rebecca Grace, Thomas Smith, Christopher Thompson, Timothy Matlack, and John Wister, from each of whom Franklin held or rented property in Philadelphia; Theophilus Grew, the schoolmaster; David Hall, his journeyman and partner; Mathias Meuris, Anthony Newhouse, J. Conrad Schutz, and Thomas Wilcox, paper-makers; William Parks, printer of Williamsburg, Va.; Isaiah Warner, who composed and printed in his own shop jobs for other printers; Adolph Young, bookbinder; and several post riders. A few receipts specify the goods or services for which Franklin paid. On May 1, 1744, for example, he paid his barber George Cuningham \u00a35 for \u201ca light Wig\u201d; and on August 20, 1755, he bought \u201ca Greay wigge\u201d for \u00a33. A carpenter charged him \u00a35 14s. 6d. in 1747 for \u201cStuff and Work of a Shaise House.\u201d When he was building a new house in 1763\u201364 Franklin paid the architect Robert Smith \u00a396 on April 6, 1763, \u201ctowards Purchasing Materials,\u201d and on November 26 he paid Smith \u00a380 \u201con Acct. of Building his House.\u201d The plastering cost \u00a325. According to an entry of March 28, 1757, Franklin bought a bill of exchange for \u00a31500 sterling before departing for London as agent of the Pennsylvania Assembly. The following receipt is typical in form:\nJuly 9, 1745. Receiv\u2019d of Benja. Franklin at sundry Times Cash Forty four Pounds to this Day, which with my Diet, &c. to the 20th of June past Twenty-Six pounds, makes in all, Seventy Pounds, per me\nDavid Hall", "culture": "English", "source_dataset": "Pile_of_Law", "source_dataset_detailed": "Pile_of_Law_founding_docs", "source_dataset_detailed_explanation": "Letters from U.S. founders.", "creation_year": 1742},
{"created_timestamp": "01-01-1742", "downloaded_timestamp": "10-18-2021", "url": "https://founders.archives.gov/API/docdata/Franklin/01-02-02-0087", "content": "Title: I Sing My Plain Country Joan, 1742\nFrom: Franklin, Benjamin\nTo: \nThere can be little doubt that Franklin composed these verses to his wife. They are assigned to him in two different anecdotes, which, though the incidents described are separated by forty years, are not inconsistent. The first, from the family of Franklin\u2019s friend John Bard, relates how, at a meeting of some club, possibly the Junto, someone jokingly took exception to the practice of married men singing songs poets had written in praise of their mistresses. Next morning Dr. Bard, who had been one of the company and may have been the expostulator, received the following song from Franklin, with a request that he be ready to sing it at the next meeting. The second anecdote was conveyed to a London magazine by one John Ellis, Jr., in 1807. Franklin was one of the guests at a dinner in Paris at which each person was to compose verses in praise of a wife. When his turn came Franklin had ready this song. He subsequently gave a copy to a woman friend, and told her the circumstances; and she gave them to Ellis to publish.\nFranklin himself provided further evidence of his connection with the song. Writing in playful vein to Catharine Ray, September 11, 1755, he informed her that Deborah Franklin \u201ctalks of bequeathing me to you as a Legacy; But I ought to wish you a better, and hope she will live these 100 Years; for we are grown old together, and if she has any faults, I am so us\u2019d to \u2019em that I don\u2019t perceive \u2019em, as the Song says,\u201d and he quoted the stanza here inserted next to the last.\nFinally, the manuscript from which the song is printed here, though not in Franklin\u2019s hand, certainly belonged to him. It is preserved among his papers and Deborah has written on the back of one sheet a note of charges to an unknown customer at the New Printing-Office\u20148d. for an almanac, for example. Carl Van Doren printed the verses without assigning a date, though he mentions that Bard moved from Philadelphia in 1746. If Franklin\u2019s \u201cplain Country Joan\u201d was Deborah, the reference to twelve years of marriage would fix the date of composition at about 1742.\nOf their Chloes and Phillisses Poets may prate\nI sing my plain Country Joan\nNow twelve Years my Wife, still the Joy of my Life\nBlest Day that I made her my own,\nMy dear Friends\nBlest Day that I made her my own.\nNot a Word of her Face, her Shape, or her Eyes,\nOf Flames or of Darts shall you hear;\nTho\u2019 I Beauty admire \u2019tis Virtue I prize,\nThat fades not in seventy Years,\nMy dear Friends\nIn Health a Companion delightfull and dear,\nStill easy, engaging, and Free,\nIn Sickness no less than the faithfullest Nurse\nAs tender as tender can be,\nMy dear Friends\nIn Peace and good Order, my Houshold she keeps\nRight Careful to save what I gain\nYet chearfully spends, and smiles on the Friends\nI\u2019ve the Pleasures to entertain\nMy dear Friends\nShe defends my good Name ever where I\u2019m to blame,\nFriend firmer was ne\u2019er to Man giv\u2019n,\nHer compassionate Breast, feels for all the Distrest,\nWhich draws down the Blessing from Heav\u2019n,\nMy dear Friends\nAm I laden with Care, she takes off a large Share,\nThat the Burthen ne\u2019er makes [me] to reel,\nDoes good Fortune arrive, the Joy of my Wife,\nQuite doubles the Pleasures I feel,\nMy dear Friends\nIn Raptures the giddy Rake talks of his Fair,\nEnjoyment shall make him Despise,\nI speak my cool sence, that long Experience,\nAnd Enjoyment have chang\u2019d in no wise,\nMy dear Friends\n[Some Faults we have all, and so may my Joan,\nBut then they\u2019re exceedingly small;\nAnd now I\u2019m us\u2019d to \u2019em, they\u2019re just like my own,\nI scarcely can see \u2019em at all,\nMy dear Friends,\nI scarcely can see them at all.]\nWere the fairest young Princess, with Million in Purse\nTo be had in Exchange for my Joan,\nShe could not be a better Wife, mought be a Worse,\nSo I\u2019d stick to my Joggy alone\nMy dear Friends\nI\u2019d cling to my lovely ould Joan.", "culture": "English", "source_dataset": "Pile_of_Law", "source_dataset_detailed": "Pile_of_Law_founding_docs", "source_dataset_detailed_explanation": "Letters from U.S. founders.", "creation_year": 1742}
]