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serable country they did not turn back; unless indeed their spirit of enterprise was greater than that of men in these degenerate days.

But why should we reason about Miracles? We know that the whole of animated Nature was destroyed at the Deluge, with the exception of those men, beasts, &c. preserved in the Ark. Therefore all animated nature must have been destroyed in America; and I presume few will maintain, that the emigrants who peopled that country, brought with them the progenitors of all the Couguars, Jaguars, Tapirs, Llamas, Rattlesnakes, &c., that at present abound in that quarter of the globe, but are found no where else. Yet otherwise how did the said couguars, jaguars, &c., first get to America? They could hardly have swum across Behring's Strait. It is miraculous therefore how men first peopled the Western Hemisphere; it is miraculous how that continent was stocked with animals, tropical birds, and reptiles; and it is miraculous how the dif ferent tribes and nations should differ so totally in language and appearance. But let no one be astonished; for there are circumstances connected with the peopling the Old World nearly as miraculous. Climate will alter the complexion of the adult, but not change the colour of the rete mucosum. The negroes in Canada never become white, nor do the English in Africa ever have a black skin, woolly hair, thick lips, and flat noses, Adam was a red

man.* His descendants are not only red, but white and black. Some have wool on their heads, and others hair; some have flat noses and thick

lips, others thin lips and sharp noses. This again

is miraculous.

Vide Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, cap. 1.

i.

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CHAPTER XVI.

BACKWOODSMEN ADVICE TO TRAVELLERS.

FROM Chillicothe I continued my route towards Wheeling, passing through Zanesville and several other flourishing little towns. As the road approaches the Ohio, the country around is heavily timbered; and though it becomes more hilly and even mountainous, yet it is nevertheless very fertile, and is rapidly coming into cultivation. Coal is here very abundant, and will in a short time be of great value to the State. This is a part of the great coal formation, that begins at Cumberland on the Potowmac, and terminates in the State of Ohio.

Several days of slow and tedious travelling brought me to Wheeling. As at this place I took leave of the Western States, I shall here give a short sketch of their inhabitants.

The first circumstance that struck me in these people was their extraordinary stature, which far exceeds that of all the other nations I have ever seen. I could not however hear of any particular cause for this, and must therefore only attribute it to abundance of food, and habits of great activity. The King of Prussia would easily have filled up his regiment of tall Grenadiers if he could have recruited among the Kentuckians, as almost every

man in the State would have been considered a good recruit. I am certain if Monsieur de Buffon could have seen them, he would have completely altered his opinion, that men degenerate in the New World.

It is indeed remarked, that the members sent to Congress from the Western States are of Patagonian stature, as compared to those of their fellow citizens, who dwell to the East of the Alleghanies.

Great part of Kentucky and Ohio are now becoming so thickly settled that most of the real Backwoodsmen, such as Old Leather Stocking,* finding themselves crowded, that is having culti vators of the earth within five or six miles of them, have moved off towards the frontier, and are now chiefly to be found in Indiana, Illinois, and the Missouri.

The Backwoodsmen unite a great deal of hospitality to the most perfect independence, which occasionally indeed verges on rudeness. They are brave and hardy, appearing to delight in danger. This character is even preserved by many of their descendants, who, remaining in Kentucky and Ohio, have adopted a mode of life perfectly different from that of their forefathers. The mere circumstance that Lexington was illuminated, when war was proclaimed against Great Britain in 1812, may perhaps be considered a sufficient proof that much of

Vide, The Pioneers, an American novel.

the turbulent spirit of the old Backwoodsmen still animates their more polished offspring.

The following is the manner in which land is at present obtained from the Indians. The United States send proposals to the tribe of Indians to whom the district belongs, and signify that they wish to purchase it. The tribe then holds a general council, and decides, whether they shall sell, how much they shall demand, and what portions of the district they shall reserve. After this is decided, they conclude a treaty with commissioners appointed by the United States, and receive the sums of money, and the blankets, guns, &c. for which they have stipulated. These are generally paid to the tribe annually, in order that their descendants may not suffer from the sale effected by their forefathers. Individuals cannot buy land of the Indians under any pretence whatsoever; but as soon as a district comes into the possession of the United States, it is surveyed and sold at the prices settled by Congress, and the money is paid into the public treasury. The price of Congress land is at present a dollar and a half per acre.

Before this fair and just method of obtaining land was adopted, it was the custom to drive off the Indians by force, which, as might be supposed, occasioned frequent wars, and, at times, a great deal of blood-shed. Colonel Boon, whose memory will long be venerated by the Backwoodsmen, who look upon him as one of the greatest heroes that ever

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