dence, by his enlarged wifdom-To fink their factious temper in his public fpirit. In fpite of his people he refolved to make them great and glorious; to make England, inclined to fhrink into her narrow felf, the arbitrefs of Europe, the tutelary angel of the human race. In fpite of the minifters, who ftaggered under the weight that his mind impofed upon theirs, unfupported as they felt themfelves by the popular fpirit, he infufed into them his own foul; he renewed in them their ancient heart; he rallied them in the fame caufe. It required fome time, to accomplish this work. The people were first gained, and through them their distracted reprefentatives. Under the influence of king William, Holland had refifted the allurements of every feduction, and had refifted the terrors of every menace. With Hannibal at her gates, the had nobly and magnanimously refused all feparate treaty, or any thing which might for a moment appear to divide her affection or her intereft, or even to distinguish her in identity from England. Hav. ing fettled the great point of the confolidation (which he hoped would be eternal) of the countries made for a common intereft, and common fentiment, the king, in his meffage to both houses, calls their attention to the affairs of the flates general. The houfe of lords was perfectly found, and entirely impreffed with the wifdom and dignity of the king's proceedings. In answer to the meffage, which you will obferve was narrowed to a fingle point, (the danger of the ftates-general) after the usual profef. fions of zeal for his fervice, the lords opened themselves at large. They go far beyond the demands of the meffage. They exprefs themselves as follows: We take this occafion further to affure your majefty, that we are fenfible of the great and imminent danger to which the fates general are expefed. And we perfectly agree with them in believing that their fafety and ours are fo infeparably united, that whatfoever is ruin to the one must be fatal to the other. • We humbly defire your Majefty will be pleased, not only to make good all the articles of any former treaties to the ftates general, but that you will enter into a ftrict league, offenfive and defenfive, with them, for their common prefervation: and that you will invite into it all princes and ftates who are concerned in the prefent visible danger, arifing from the union of France and Spain. • And we further defire your Majefty, that you will be pleased to enter into fuch alliance with the Emperor, as your Majefty fhall think fit, purfuant to the ends of the treaty of 1689; toward all which we affure your Majesty of our hearty and fincere affiftance; not doubting, but whenever your Majefty fhall be obliged to be engaged for the defence of your allies, and fecuring the liberty and quiet of Europe. Almighty God will protect your facred person in fo righteous a caufe. And that the unanimity, wealth, and courage of your fubjects will carry your Majefty with honour and fuccefs through all the dif ficulties of a juft war.' The house of commons was more referved; the late popular difpofition was ftill in a great degree prevalent in the reprefentative, after it had been made to change in the conftituent body. The principle of the grand alliance was not directly recognized in the resolution of the commons, nor the war announced, though they were well aware the alliance was formed for the war. However, compelled by the returning fenfe of the people, they went fo far as to fix the three great immoveable pillars of the fafety and greatnefs of England, as they were then, as they are now, and as they must ever be to the end of time. They afferted in general terms the neceffi ty ty of fupporting Holland; of keeping united with our allies; and maintaining the liberty of Europe; tho' they restricted their vote to the fuccours ftipulated by actual treaty. But now they were fairly embarked; they were obliged to go with the courfe of the veffel; and the whole nation, fplit before into an hundred adverse factions, with a king at its head evidently declining to his tomb, the whole nation, lords, commons, and people, proceeded as one body, informed by one foul. Under the British union, the union of Europe was confolidated; and it long held together with a degree of cohefion, firmness, and fidelity not known before or fince in any political combination of that extent. Just as the laft hand was given to this immenfe and complicated machine, the master workman died: but the work was formed on true mechanical principles; and it was as truly wrought. It went by the impulfe it had received from the firft mover. The man was dead but the grand alliance furvived, in which king William lived and reigned. That heartless and difpirited people, whom Lord Somers had reprefented, about two years before, as dead in energy and operation, continued that war to which it was fuppofed they were unequal in mind, and in means, for near thirteen years. For what have I entered into all this detail? To what purpofe have I recalled your view to the end of the last century? It has been done to fhew that the British nation was then a great people-to point out how and by what means they came to be exalted above the vulgar level, and to take that lead which they affumed among mankind. To qualify us for that pre-eminence, we had then an high mind, and a conftancy unconquerable; we were then infpired with no flashy paffions; but fuch as were durable as well as warm; fuch as correfponded to the great interefts we had at ftake. This force of character was infpired, as all fuch spirit muft ever be, from above. Government gave the impulfe. As well may we fancy, that, of itself the fea will fwell, and that without winds the billows will infult the adverse fhore, as that the grofs mafs of the people will be moved, and elevated, and continue by a steady and permanent direction to bear upon one point, without the influence of fuperior authority, or fuperior mind. CURIOUS PARTICULARS OF THE CUSTOMS AND MANNERS OF THE NORTHERN INDIANS ON THE BORDERS OF HUDSON'S BAY. [Concluded from page 285 of our laft Vol.] THE girls are always betrothed when children, but never to those of equal age; which is, doubtlefs, found policy with people in their fituation, where the existance of a family depends entirely on the abilities and industry of a fingle man. Children, as they justly obferve, are fo liable to alter in their manners and difpofition, that it is impoffible to judge from the actions of early 'youth what abilities they may poffefs when they arrive at puberty. For this reafon, the girls are often fo difproportionably matched for age, that it is very common to fee men of 35 or 40 years old have young girls of 10 or 12, and fometimes much younger. From the early age of eight or nine years, they are prohibited by cuftom from joining in the moft innocent amufements with children of the op pofite fex; fo that when fitting in their tents, or even when travelling, they are watched and guarded with fuch an unremitting attention as cannot be exceeded by the most rigid difcipline of an English boarding. fchool. Custom, however, and conftant example, make fuch uncommon restraint and confinement fit light and ealy even on children, whofe tender ages seem better adapted to innocent and chearful amusements, than to be cooped up by the fide of old women, and conftantly employed in fcraping skins, mending fhoes, and learning other domestic duties neceffary in the care of a family. Notwithstanding these uncommon restraints on the young girls, the conduct of their parents is by no means uniform or confiftent with this plan; as they fet no bounds to their converfation, but talk before them, and even to them, on the most indelicate fubjects. As their ears are accuftomed to fuch language from their earliest youth, this has by no means the fame effect on them it would have on girls born and educated in a civilized country, where every care is taken to prevent their morals from being contaminated by obfcene converfation. The Southern Indians are ftill lefs delicate in converfation, in the prefence of their children. Divorces are pretty common among the Northern Indians; fometimes for incontinency, but more frequently for want of what they deem neceffary accomplishments, or for bad hehavi our. This ceremony, in either cafe, confifts of neither more nor lefs than a good drubbing, and turning the woman out of doors; telling her to go to her paramour, or relations, according to the nature of her crime. Providence is very kind in caufing thefe people to be lefs prolific than the inhabitants of civilized nations. It is very uncommon to fee one woman have more than five or fix chil• dren; and these are always born at fuch a distance from one another, that the youngest is generally two or three years old before another is brought into the world. They make no ufe of cradles, like the Southern Indians, but only tie a lump of mofs between their legs; and always carry their children at their backs, next the fkin, till they are able to walk. Though their method of treating young children is in this respect the most uncouth and awkward I ever faw, there are few among them that can be called deformed, and not one in fifty who is bow-legged. There are certain periods at which they never permit the women to abide in the fame tent with their huf bands. At fnch times they are oblie ged to make a small hovel for themfelves at fome distance from the other tents. As this is an universal custom among all the tribes, it is also a piece of policy with the women, upon any difference with their husbands, to make that an excufe for a temporary feparation, when, without any ceremony, they creep out (as is their ufual custom on thofe occafions) under the eyes of that fide of the tent at which they happen to be fitting; for at thofe times they are not permitted to go in or out through the door. This cuftom is fo generally prevalent among the women, that I have frequently known fome of the fulky dames leave their husbands and tents for four or five days at a time, and repeat the farce twice or thrice in a month, while the poor men have never fufpected the deceit, or if they have, delicacy on their part has not permitted them to enquire into the matter. I have known Matonabbee's handsome wife, who eloped from him in May 1771, live thun-nardy, as they call it, (that is, alone) for feveral weeks together under this pretence; but as a proof he had fome fufpicion, he was always carefully watched, to prevent her from giving her company to any other man. The Southern Southern Indians are also very deli- inconvenience arife from it, or having the least dislike to it, they frequently do it by choice, and particularly in the article of fish: for when, they do make a pretence of dreffing it, they feldom warm it through. I have frequently made one of a party which has fat round a fresh-killed deer, and affifted in picking the bones quite clean, when I thought that the raw brains and many other parts were exceedingly good; and, however strange it may appear, I must bestow the fame epithet on half-raw fish. Even to this day, I give the prefer. ence to trout, salmon, and the brown titterneg, when they are not warm at the bone. cate in this point; for though they do not force their wives to build a feparate tent, they never lie under the fame clothes during this period. It is, however, equally true, that the young girls, when thofe fymptoms make their first appearance, generally go a little distance from the other tents for four or five days, and at their return wear a kind of veil or curtain, made of beads, for fome time after, as a mark of modesty; as they are then confidered marriageable, and of course are called women, tho' fome at these periods are not more than thirteen, while others at the age of fifteen or fixteen have been reckoned as children, though apparently arrived at nearly their full growth. On thofe occafions a remarkable piece of fuperftition prevails among them: women in this fituation are never permitted to walk on the ice of rivers or lakes, or near the part where the men are hunting beaver, or where a fishing-net is fet, for fear of averting their fuccefs. They are alfo prohibited at those times from partaking of the head of any animal, and even from walking in, or croffing the track where the head of a deer, mouse, beaver, and many other animals, have lately been carried, either on a fledge or on the back. To be guilty of a violation of this custom is confidered as of the greateft importance; because they firmly believe that it would be a means of preventing the hunter from having an equal fuccefs in his future excurfions. Thefe poor people live in fuch an inhofpitable part of the globe, that, for want of firing, they are frequently obliged to eat their victuals quite raw, particularly in the fummer feafon, while on the barren ground; but early custom and frequent neceffity make this practice fo familiar to them, that, fo far from finding any Ed. Mag. Jan. 1796. The extreme poverty of these Indians, in general, will not permit one half of them to purchase brafs kettles from the Company; fo that they are ftill under the neceflity of continuing their original mode of boiling their victuals in large upright veffels made of birch rind. As thefe veffels will not admit of being exposed to the fire, the Indians, to fupply the defect, heat ftones red-hot, and put them into the water, which foon occafions it to boil; and, by having a constant fucceffion of hot ftones, they may continue the procef's as long as is neceffary. E This method of cooking, though very expeditious, is attended with one great evil: the victuals thus prepared are full of fand; for the ftones thus heated, and then immerged in the water, are not only liable to fhiver to pieces, but many of them being of a coarfe gritty nature, fall to a mafs of gravel in the kettle, which cannot be prevented from mixing with the victuals. The tract of land inhabited by the Northern Indians is very extensive, reaching from the 59th to the 68th degree of north latitude, and from eaft to weft it is upwards of 500 miles wide. It is bounded by Churchill River on the fouth, the country of the the Athapufcow Indians on the weft, the Dog ribbed and Copper Indians' country on the north, and by Hudfon's Bay on the eaft. The land, throughout the whole tract of country, is fcarcely any thing but one folid mafs of rocks and ftones, and in moft parts very hifly, particularly to the weftward, among the woods. The furface, it is very true, is, in most places, covered with a thin fod of mofs, intermixed with the roots of the wee-fa-ca-pucca, cranberries, and a few other infignificant (hrubs and herbage; but under it, in general, there is a total want of foil, capable of producing any thing except what is peculiar to the climate. NEW AND CURIOUS INSTANCES OF THE FASCINATING POWER OF SERPENTS. From a Tranflation of Le Valliant's New Travels into the Interior Parts of Africa, by way of the Cape of Good Hope. A CURIOUS event, which happened in one of our excurfions, I cannot pafs over in filence. One day, we perceived a motion in the branches of one of the trees. Immediately we heard the piercing cries of a fhrike, and faw it tremble as if in convulfions. We first conceived that it was held in the gripe of fome bird of prey but a clofer attention led us to discover, upon the next branch of the tree, a large ferpent that, with ftretched-out neck, and fiery eyes, though perfectly ftill, was gazing at the poor animal. The agony of the bird was terrible; but fear had deprived it of ftrength, and, as if tied by the leg, it seemed to have loft the power of flight. One of the company ran for a fuzee; but before he returned, the fhrike was dead, and we thot only the ferpent. I requested that the distance between the place where the bird had experienced the convulfions, and that occupied by the ferpent before it was fhot, might be measured. Upon doing fo, we found it to be three feet and a half, and we were all convinced that the thrike had died neither from the bite nor the poifon of its enemy. I ftripped it also before the whole company, and made them obferve that it was untouched, and had not received the flighteft wound. I had my reafons for what I did. Extraordinary as the fact may ap pear, and though the perfons who had been the witneffes could hardly believe, even after having feen it, it was to me not new. A fimilar adventure had happened to me in the canton of the Twenty-four Rivers, and I inftantly related it to confirm what we had just feen. Hunting, one day, in a marshy piece of ground, I heard, all at once, in a tuft of reeds, a piercing and very lamentable cry. Anxious to know what it was, I tole foftly to the place, where I perceived a fmall moufe, like the fhrike on a tree, in agonizing convulfions, and two yards farther a ferpent, whofe eyes were intently fixed upon it. The moment the reptile faw me it glided away; but the bufinefs was done. taking up the mouse it expired in my hand, without its being poffible for me to discover, by the most attentive examination, what had occafioned its death. Upon |