morning. Two of the hunters went out On the 23rd of March, the party abandoned their winter quarters in tolerable health (considering that from the 4th of November to the 25th of March there had been only twelve days without rain) and arrived without accident on the 7th of May at the place where the voyage down the Kooskooskee had commenced in the preceding Oc tober. The mountains were still covered with snow, and from the reports of the natives, would continue to be impassable for more than a month longer, Captains Lewis and Clarke with their companions, were there fore compelled, though much a The expedition was here divided into two or three parties, one of which was dispatched to the place of which, many hardships and sufferings had been endured by the party: the whole, however, returned in health and spirits, with the exception of one individual who died after a day's illness, about two months after their first setting out. on Jefferson river, where the canoes had been deposited, while the others were employed in exploring the country. On the 28th of July, all the detachments again joined at the confluence of Maria's river with the Missouri. The pereague and heavy baggage that had been buried here about 13 months before were dug up; and on the following day the horses were turned loose and the party embarked. The rapid current of the Missouri being now in their favour they glided swiftly along, and notwithstanding one undescribed species of deer, that they were detained a few days by bad weather, and by interviews with the Mandan Indians and other tribes, they arrived on the 19th ot September at St. Louis, a part of the United States at the mouth of the Missouri. The time spent on this important expedition was two years, four months and ten days, in the course Natural history will probably derive several valuable accessions from the facts and specimens collected during this journey; since it appears even from Mr. Gass's unscientific narrative that at least with small horns and long tails, was acquired; also a bear of a brownish grey colour and larger than the black bear of America ; a species of sheep of a dun colour, with enormous horns, and larger than a deer; and a species of goat or antelope very abundant in the mountainous country about the upper part of the Missouri. ART. V. Travels in America, performed in 1806, for the Purpose of exploring the Rivers Alleghany, Monongahela, Ohio, and Mississippi, and ascertaining the Produce and Condition of their Banks and Vicinity. By THOMAS ASHE, ESQ. 12mo. 3 vols. IN the overflowing of our charity we are willing to believe, that the author of this work is not the writer of the preface which introduces it that Mr. Ashe is not the unblushing boaster of his own accomplishments, but that he has decently left these to be proclaimed with the sound of the trumpet and the flourish of the flag by some obsequious herald, ycleped an editor. Mr. Ashe himself is a modest man; although he actually makes philosophical systems with as much celerity and ease as a school-boy blows soap-bubbles, and takes as much delight in the pastime; he says to his friend in the very first letter," I had hopes, my dear sir, that you entertained too just an opinion of my head to expect from me extraordinary discoveries in philosophy or politics." No, ANN. REV. VOL. VII. no: Mr. Ashe himself does not tell you point blank, that " if the voyages of a Cook and his followers exploratory of the South Sea islands, and the travels of a Bruce or a Park in the interior regions of Africa have merited and obtained celebrity, the work now presented to the public, cannot but claim a similar merit:" he does not tell you that he himself "was furnished with all the necessary acquirements" for his own exploratory journey" through the vast wilds and immeasurable Savannahs of America; that "his researches, delivered in the familiar style of letters, in which he carries the reader along with him, cannot fail to interest and inform the politician, the statesman, the philosopher, and antiquary." No, no he rates his own attainments if not more justly, at least D more humbly-flocci, nauci, nihili, pili, assis-he contents himself with simply holding in scorn the attainments of other people, modestly leaving his own superiority to be drawn as an inference. One can not but admire the amiable tenderness with which he makes his enquiries in the course of his travels, cautiously restricting himself to those vulgar topics which may not exceed the limited and low capacities of those to whom he is at any time addressing himself; thus restraining his own ardent curiosity, and doing violence to his feelings, that he may not injure those of others by awakening in them an humiliating sense of their own utter ignorance! He Mr. Ashe's first four or five letters are dated Pittsburg, in Pennsylvania, and contain a rapid account of his journey thither from Philadelphia, the capital of the same state. With epic boldness he rushes at once into the middle of his subject-in medias res-and in a sweeping exordium gives a general character of America; of the North-Eastern States, the middle, and the Southern ones. begins by telling his friend, that the American States through which he had passed, are unworthy of his observation! This, to be sure, is somewhat discouraging if understood literally, but perhaps it should rather be considered as an evidence of the Author's own exalted mind. From such an eminence, indeed, "How dizzy'tis to cast one's eyes so low," as on the vulgar herd of mortals, who, "scarcely shew so gross as beetles." The States to the North East are indebted to nature for but few gifts; whilst bigotry, pride, and a malignant hatred to the mother-country, characterize the inhabitants. The middle States are 'less contemptible: they produce grain far exportation, notwith standing that wheat requires much labour and is liable to blast on the sea shore!! "The national features here are not strong, and those of different emigrants have not yet composed a face of local deformity." For the Southern States, nature has done much, but man little : society is here in a shameful degeneracy, an additional proof of the pernicious tendency of Jacobinism which is destructive of all regular authority; which makes men turbulent citizens, abandoned Christians, inconstant husbands, unnatural fathers, and treacherous friends-all which conclusions are as palpably deduced from the premises, as those of any syllogism in Watts's Logic! Q. E. D. These general remarks on the state of society are very properly enforced by more particular observations: "I now speak only of its civilized ject, alas! it may be said with the greatthe United States; but on this subparts, est truth: "Man is the only growth that dwindles here," "You may perhaps have heard so men, politicians, churchmen, lawyers, much of great American warriors, statesphysicians, astronomers, &c. that you are astonished to hear any one bold enough to dispute the fact. I say the fact, because in my correspondence with you, you may have already perceived my determination of making ne general assertion but such as I can establish by actual evidence and decisive testimonies. I know of no great warriors in America. I cannot honor by that name even the men who overwhelmed a handful of British, and after several years combat obtained an unprofitable victory. In like manner I have whale on the coast of Cornwall, but it known a shoal of herrings run down a this accident to the individual prowess did not follow that I was to attribute of any of such contemptible animals, or to the absence of strength and capacity in the whale,' This simile of a whale upon the Cornish coast is too good a thing to be lost; it must strike every one as eminently applicable. With respect to statesmen, Mr. Adams, and Mr. Jefferson are the only two men in America, who have the remotest pretension to that character, and the latter has this compliment paid him, because Mr. Ashe is desirous "to shew some respect to the cry of the world," which will have it that Mr. Jefferson is no fool. Nor has the church any brighter ornaments than the state: the members of it have no conception of elo. quence; the law is as badly off as church and state, and there is no profession in America so shameful. ly neglected as that of physic, or more destitute of able practitioners. With respect to the department of science the favourite, and still more the favoured pursuit of Mr. Ashe-he" has been told that there has been [have been] a Franklin and a Rittenhouse; that the former shone in electricity, and the latter constructed an orrery on true principles." This, Mr. Ashe, in the superabundance of his liberality, is disposed to allow; but he contends that these two instances by no means justify Mr. Jefferson in saying that Buffon was guilty of a gross error when he asserted that man and beast degenerated in America. "Mr. Buffon was perfectly right in his assertion and principle, but wrong in the proof he adduced." To what numerous and cutting mortifications must such an eagle flighted genius as that of Mr. Ashe have been exposed in travelling through an outcast country, where "his propensity to the cultivation of literature has not been encouraged, where sordid speculators alone succeed, where classic fame is held in derision, where grace and taste are unknown, and where the ornaments of style are condemned or forgotten!" I these "chilling regions of thickribbed" ignorance and dulness it is infinitely to the credit of Mr. Ashe that the stream of his own eloquence should have remained unfrozen. The vigor of his imagination and the brilliancy of his ideas are evinced by the following description of a night passed on the summit of a mountain. derably advanced; and the powerful ex"The progress of night was consihalations of the preceding sun, for want of wind to disperse or waft them to other parts, were returning to their parent woods. They at first hovered, in the form of transparent clouds, over small creeks and rivulets in the intervals of the mountain; and then assumed a wider range, spreading over the entire valley, and giving to it the appearance of a calm continued sea. beautiful transfiguration took place This several hundred feet below me; while the summit of the hill had no mist, and the dew was not sensible. The moon shone, but capriciously: for though some places were adorned with her brighest beams, and exhibited various fantastic forms and colours, others were unaffected by her light, and awfully maintained an unvaried gloom; a "darkness visible," conveying terror and dismay. "Such apprehensions were gaining fast on my imagination, till an object of direction to my thoughts, and seized the inexpressible sublimity gave a different entire possession of my mind. The heavenly vault appeared to be all on fire: not exhibiting the stream or character of the aurora-borealis; but an immensity vivid and clear, through which the stars, detached from the firmament, traversed in eccentric direc tions, followed by trains of light of diver◄ sified magnitude and brightness. Many meteors rose majestically out of the ho elevation of thirty degrees, suddenly rizon and having gradually attained an burst; and descended to the earth in a shower of brilliant sparks, or glittering gems. This splendid phenomenon was succeeded by a multitude of shootingstars, and balls and columns of fire; which, after assuming a variety of forms repose." Would it had continued so for a time! Certainly Mr. Ashe cannot be said to have forgotten the ornaments of style, or neglected the graces of composition when he illuminates his letters with such "brilliant sparks" and "glittering gems" as these. Take another passage, the unintelligibility of which, if we are allowed so long a word, detracts nothing from its merit as a model of melodious writing. The author is describing the Monongahela river, which in autumn and spring is generally covered with boats, some loaded with flour, whiskey, bacon, earthen-ware, &c. &c. the produce and manufacture of the country, and which are destined for Kentucky or New Orleans; while others carry furniture, utensils, and tools for the cultivation of the soil. "No scene," continues our traveller, "can be more pleasing to a philosophic mind than this: which presents to view a floating town, as it were, on the face of a river whose gentle rapidity, and flowered banks add sublimity to cheerfulness; and the sweet harmony of the songsters of the woods, to the hoarseness of the falling cataract or the murmur of the quiet stream." Our readers must now take their leave of these musical and wellpoised periods, and be content with humble narrative in humble prose. The only incident worth noticing in the journey from Philadelphia to Pittsburg is the discovery of an Indian camp at no great distance from the latter," hidden in the depth of a valley amidst the proconsisted of 1. A regular circle, foundest gloom of the woods." It 100 paces in diameter, the perpendicular rise of whose circumference was about four feet: 2. the site of about 200 huts, placed at regular distances between the circle and the foot of a steep hill: and 3. the mounds of the dead. Pittsburg is about 300 miles west of Philadelphia; of which space, says our traveller, 150 miles are a continued succession of mountains "serving as a barrier against contending seas." What these seas are, we are quite at a loss to conjecture: the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, in the latitude of Philadelphia, are separated by a Continent two thousand miles across; surely they are too far asunder to have many contentions. Pittsburg is situated at the head of the Ohio, on a point of land formed by the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers: it is considered as the key of the Western territory; and Fort Fayette, built a few years since within the limits of the town, is generally made head-quarters of the army of the United States. The town contains about 400 houses, many of them large and handsome, and above 2000 inhabitants: it abounds with mechanics and has many valuable manufactories, among which latter are those of glass particularly, nails, hats, and tobacco. Ship building is carried on to a considerable extent: vessels of 350 tons are built here, are laden with goods or provisions, and descend along the stream 2300 miles inland to the sea! Pittsburg must be a thriving town, as it is the emporium for goods, which in spring and autumn are conveyed thither in waggons over the mountains for the Kentucky and Louisi |