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No. I.

THE preceding fheets having been fubmitted to my friend

Mr. Charles Thompson, secretary of Congrefs, he has furnished me with the following obfervations, which have too much merit not to be communicated.

(1.) p. 21. Befides the three channels of communication mentioned between the western waters and the Atlantic, there are two others, to which the Pennfylvanians are turning their attention; one from Prefque-ifle, on Lake Erie, to Le Boeuf, down the Alleghaney to Kiskiminitas, then up the Kiskiminitas, and from thence, by a small portage, to Juniata, which falls into the Susquehanna : the other from Lake Ontario to the East Branch of the Delaware, and down that to Philadelphia. Both these are faid to be very practicable and, confidering the enterprising temper of the Pennfylvanians, and particularly the merchants of Philadelphia, whose object is concentered in-promoting the commerce and trade of one city, it is not improbable but one or both of these communications will be opened and improved.

(2.) p. 24. The reflections I was led into on viewing this paffage of the Patowmac through the Blue ridge were, that this country muft have fuffered fome violent convulfion, and that the face of it must have been changed from what it probably was fome centu ries ago that the broken and ragged faces of the mountain on each fide of the river; the tremendous rocks, which are left with one end fixed in the precipice, and the other jutting out, and feemingly ready to fall for want of fupport; the bed of the river for feveral miles below obftructed, and filled with the loose ftones carried from this mound; in fhort, every thing on which you caft your

eye evidently demonftrates a difrupture and breach in the mountain, and that, before this happened, what is now a fruitful vale, was for merly a great lake or collection of water, which poffibly might have here formed a mighty cascade, or had its vent to the ocean by the Sufquehanna, where the Blue ridge feems to terminate. Befides this, there are other parts of this country which bear evident traces of a like convulfion. From the best accounts I have been able to obtain, the place where the Delaware now flows through the Kittatinny mountain, which is a continuation of what is called the North ridge, or mountain, was not its original course, but that it passed through what is now called the Wind-gap,' a place feveral miles to the weftward, and above an hundred feet higher than the present bed of the river. This Wind-gap is about a mile broad, and the ftones in it fuch as feem to have been washed for ages by water running over them. Should this have been the case, there must have been a large lake behind that mountain, and by fome uncommon swell in the waters, or by fome convulfion of nature the river must have opened, its way through a different part of the mountain, and meeting there with lefs obftruction, carried away with it the oppofing mounds of earth and deluged the country below with the immense collection of waters to which this new paffage gave vent. There are still remaining, and daily discovered, innumerable inftances of fuch a deluge on both fides of the river, after it paffed the hills above the falls of Trenton, and reached the champaign. On the New-Jersey side, which is flatter than the Pennsylvania fide, all the country below Crofwick hills feems to have been overflowed to the distance of from ten to fifteen miles back from the river, and to have acquired a new foil by the earth and clay brought down and mixed with the native fand. The spot on which Philadelphia ftands evidently appears to be made ground. The different ftrata through which they pafs in digging to water, the acorns, leaves, and fometimes branches, which are found about twenty feet below the furface, all feem to demonftrate this. I am informed that at York-town in Virginia, in the bank of the river, there are different ftrata of fhells and earth, one

above another, which feem to point out that the country there has undergone feveral changes; that the fea has, for a fucceffion of ages, occupied the place where dry land now appears: and that the ground has been fuddenly raised at various periods. What a change would it make in the country below, fhould the mountains at Niagara, by any accident, be cleft afunder, and a paffage fuddenly opened to drain off the waters of Erie and the upper lakes! While ruminating on these subjects, I have often been hurried away by fancy, and led to imagine, that what is now the bay of Mexico, was once a champaign country; and that from the point or cape of Florida, there was a continued range of mountains through Cuba, Hifpaniola, Porto rico, Martinique, Gaudaloupe, Barbadoes, and Trinidad, till it reached the coast of America, and formed the fhores which bounded the ocean, and guarded the country behind; that, by some convulfion or fhock of nature, the fea had broken through these mounds, and deluged that vaft plain, till it reached the foot of the Andes; that being there heaped up by the trade-winds, always blowing from one quar ter, it had found its way back, as it continues to do, through the gulph between Florida and Cuba, carrying with it the loam and fand it may have scooped from the country it had occupied, part of which it may have depofited on the fhores of North-America, and with part formed the banks of Newfoundland.But these are only the vifions of fancy.

(3.) p. 49. There is a plant, or weed, called the James-town weed*, of a very fingular quality. The late Dr. Bond informed me, that he had under his care a patient, a young girl, who had put the feeds of this plant into her eye, which dilated the pupil to fuch a degree, that fhe could fee in the dark, but in the light was almost blind. The effect that the leaves had when eaten by a ship's crew that arrived at James-town, are well knownt.

* Datura pericarpiis erectis ovatis. Linn.

† An inftance of temporay imbecility produced by them is mentioned, Beverl. H. of Virg. b. z. c. 4,

(4.) p. 93. Monf. Buffon has indeed given an afflicting picture of human nature in his defcription of the man of America. But fure I am there never was a picture more unlike the original. He grants indeed that his ftature is the fame as that of the man of Eu rope. He might have admitted, that the Iroquois were larger, and the Lenopi, or Delawares, taller than the people in Europe generally are. But he fays their organs of generation are smaller. and weaker than thofe of the Europeans, Is this a fact? I believe not; at leaft it is an obfervation I never heard before. They have no beard.' Had he known the pains and trouble it coft the men to pluck out by the roots the hair that grows on their faces, he would have feen that nature had not been deficient in that respect. Every nation has its cuftoms. I have feen an Indian beaux, with a looking-glafs in his hand, examining his face for hours together, and plucking out by the roots every hair he could discover, with a kind of tweezers made of a piece of fine brass wire, that had been twisted round a ftick, and which he ufed with great dexterity.

They have no ardor for their females.' It is true, they do not in dulge thofe exceffes, nor difcover that fondness which is customary in Europe; but this is not owing to a defect in nature but to manners. Their foul is wholly bent upon war. This is what procures them glory among the men, and makes them the admiration of the women. To this they are educated from their earliest youth. When they pursue game with ardor, when they bear the fatigues of the chase, when they sustain and suffer patiently hunger and cold; it is not fo much for the fake of the game they pursue, as to convince their parents and the council of the nation that they are fit to be enrolled in the number of the warriors. The fongs of the women, the dance of the warriors, the fage counfel of the chiefs, the tales of the old, the triumphal entry of the warriors returning with fuccefs from battle, and the refpect paid to those who diftinguish themselves in war and in fubduing their enemies; in fhort every thing they fee or hear tends to inspire them with an ardent defire for military fame. If a young man were to difcover a fondnefs for women before he

Or were he to indulge him

had been to war, he would become the contempt of the men and the fcorn and ridicule of the women. felf with a captive taken in war, and much more were he to offer violence in order to gratify his luft, he would incur indelible disgrace. The feeming frigidity of the men, therefore, is the effect of manners, and not a defect of nature. Befides, a celebrated warrior is oftener courted by the females, than he has occafion to court: and this is a point of honor which the men aim at. Inftances fimilar to that of Ruth and Boaz* are not uncommon among them. For though the women are modest and diffident, and fo bashful that they feldom lift up their eyes, and scarce ever look a man full in the face, yet, being brought up in great fubjection, custom and manners reconcile them to modes of acting, which, judged of by Europeans, would be deemed inconfiftent with the rules of female decorum and propriety. I once faw a young widow, whose husband, a warrior, had died about eight days before, hastening to finish her grief, and who by tearing her hair, beating her breast, and drinking spirits, made the tears flow in great abundance, in order that she might grieve much in a short space of time, and be married that evening to another young warrior. The manner in which this was viewed by the men and women of the tribe, who stcod round, filent and folemn spectators of the scene, and the indifference with which they anfwered my queftion refpecting it, convinced me that it was no unusual cuftom. I have known men advanced in years, whofe wives were old and past child-bearing, take young wives, and have children, though the practice of polygamy is not common. Does this favor of frigidity, or want of ardor for the female? Neither do they feem to be deficient in natural affection. I have feen both fathers and mothers in the deepeft affliction, when their children have been dangerously ill; though I believe the affection is stronger in the defcending than the afcending scale, and though custom for

*When Boaz had eaten and drank, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of corn: and Ruth came softly, and uncovered his feet, and laid her down. Ruth iii. 7.

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