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block in the way of all who have written on their marine affairs; it would be a great fatisfaction to the curious, to be poffeffed of the opinion of fo eminent an enquirer as Ifaac Cafaubon, on a matter fo much difputed; efpecially as that opinion appeared fo fatisfactory to his fon Meric, who must have been acquainted with what had been advanced relating to it, by the various authors who had made the art of war of the ancients by fea and land the object of their refearches.

I have therefore ventured to trouble you, Sir, with a request, that you will be pleafed, in your own way, and at your own conveniency, to invite your numerous learned readers and correfpondents to communicate to you what they may know concerning any manufcripts of Ifaac Cafaubon on Polybius, fuch as the Commentaries mentioned by his fon.

That work muft (from the expreffion "Had my father's Commentaries been fi nifhed and printed)" have been very different from the notes which accompany Ifaac's tranflation of the above admirable hiftorian, and was probably among the papers of his fon Meric, many of which, and of his books, he fays in the work which gave rife to this application, were difperfed during the troubles in this country, before and after the death of Charles

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P. S. In a work published several years ago by governor Pownall, an explanation is given of the opinions and experiments of general Melvill on the external form and internal distribution of the ancient Roman war-galley: but this is done in a way too fuccinct for the infor. mation of the generality of readers. It is a pity therefore that the world is not favoured with a more ample and accurate account of the fentiments entertained on this fubject by a gentleman fo eminently qualified to decide the question fub judice, as general Melville must be allowed to be: for, notwithstanding the prefent highly improved ftate of naval architecture and tactics, as well as of the art of navigation itfelf, yet any ufeful practical hints might, I doubt not,

be derived from a more perfect knowledge of the ideas which our great mafters, the Grecians

and the Romans, poffeffed on thofe fubjects.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR,

in

HE charitable inftitution propofed THE your valuable Magazine, p. 429, I fincerely hope will meet with the cooperation and fupport of the benevolent and affluent part of the nation; who, I truft, by with-holding their patronage, will not fuffer a plan to drop, which may evenfrom the depth of vice and mifery;-for tually be the means of faving hundreds

I believe that hundreds of the unfortunate females who infeft our streets, at the commencement of their career in vice, would moft gladly have sheltered them felves in a friendly afylum, and have gladfound the means, to an honeft employment ly betaken themselves, could they have and virtuous courfe of life. They, indeed, are objects of diftrefs, which, to the feeling mind, cannot but excite the most poignant reflections. It is hardly pro bable that innate depravity, or bad example, were the only caufes which have reduced them to this method of acquiring their livelihood. Other caufes prefent themselves to my mind. The inexorable and cruel severity of parents in difcarding a female from their roof and protection, who has unhappily fallen a facrifice to the has perhaps offended them in a less ferifnares of fome inhuman wretch, or who ous manner, appears to me to be one great ferted and expofed to the wide world, is fource of this evil. A female, thus dedriven to defpair, and compelled to rusk into diffipation which the at first abhors, but which in time becomes familiar, merely to fave herself from absolute want.

Another caufe may be found in the illnature and favage tyranny of masters and miftreffes, who fometimes difcharge female fervants at a day's notice, where no adequate caufe for fuch severity can be affigned, and afterwards refuse to give them a character; or, if they be compelled to give it, it is given in fuch a manner (and furely much depends upon the manner), that it becomes of little or no ufe. Inquire into the caufe of this behaviour, afk whence proceeds this fatal wrath ?-Per

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haps an impertinent answer has been given! But fhould not fome allowance be made for a flight and tranfient want of temper in a perfon expofed to the fatigues, to the contumelious taunts and infults too frequently attendant on a fervile condition? -Surely it is the duty of parents to recover and reclaim their child; and not to expose to mifery, and the almoft confequent commiffion of crimes,-not to purfue with inexorable hatred the foul and body of her, whole faults, arifing from a momentary imprudence, not from a fettled and habitual turpitude of mind, wifdom would teach us to conceal, and humanity to forgive! I am, Sir,

Your humble fervant,

A. E.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

IN looking into your useful and enter-
taining Magazire, for June 1796. In
an Effay on the Laws relating to Corn, it
is stated that the confumption of England
and Wales is 13,954,474 quarters annu-
ally (exclufive of feed).-Dr. Brakenridge,
in a letter publifhed in the Philofophical
Tranfactions, vol. XLIX, eftimated the
confumption in 1756 at 2,026,100 quar-
ters, calculating a population of 6,078,300
perfons, If your ingenious correfpon-
dent B. would be fo obliging as to state
the data upon which he makes his calcu-
lations, if they can be verified, they will
prove an amazing increase in our agricul.
ture fince that period.
June 17,
$799.

Your humble fervant,
W. C.

For the Monthly Magazine. Extract of a Letter, dated October, 1798, from DANIEL MACKINNEN, Efq. Barrifter at Law, to Major giving an Account of the Country South of Lake ONTARIO,

TH

HE country through which I travel. led extends Weft of the fources of the Mohawk River, along the fouthern fhore of Lake Ontario to the ftream which connects it with Lake Erie, and forms the boundary of Upper Canada. Ten years ago it was for the most part a vaft unexplored foreft, affording fuftenance to a few tribes of wandering Indians. To behold what it has become in this fhort interval of time may be an object of fome intereft and curiofity-without therefore attempting to elevate the subject by fan

Called Cadaraquai, by the Indians.

ciful defcription, I will endeavour to give you a faithful and accurate picture of the country which I have juft vifited, having previously fubmitted my remarks to the infpection of fome of its moft refpectable inhabitants. From the account of an intelligent traveller who took this journey about fix years ago, fome idea may be formed of its ftate at that recent period of time-" The road, fays he, is little better than an Indian path- -we found only a few ftraggling huts from ten to twenty miles from each other, affording nothing but the conveniency of fire and a kind of fhelter from the fnow."-Defcription of the Genefee country,-Printed at Albany, 1798.

I left Fort Schuyler, a fmall town fituated near the western extremity of the Mohawk River, in the beginning of October, 1798. We proceeded over a gentle rifing from the beautiful fhore of the Mohawk, fcreened on the South by an elevated range of hills, through a country which for twelve miles affords a ftriking proof of what may be effected by the induftry of ten years. The fettlement here called New Hartford exhibits a continuation of handfome farms on each fide of the western road, with neat and convenient dwelling houfes, and the appearance of all thofe comforts which are the first rewards of agricultural labour. -There was nothing to indicate what is called a new country, but the standing foreft which appeared about a quarter or half a mile from us on each fide in the rear of the farms, and the numerous ftumps and burnt trunks of trees which had been deftroyed. Our courfe lay through a tract of land named The Oneida Refervation, near the centre of which lies a village, the prefent caftle or chief refidence of the Oneida Indians. The whole of the country which I am about to defcribe,was formerly the territory of the Six Indian Nations, called by the French writers The Iroquois. They were the original lords of the major part of the ftate of New York, and held fubject to them many inferior and tributary tribes or communities. From the earliest and moft authentic accounts, it appears that nearly two hundred years ago they were in poffeffion of all the prefent ftate of New York lying weft of the Hudfon or North River. The Mohawks (who now refide in Upper Canada) on the firft difcovery of this country, were fettled along the fouth banks of that interefting river, which will probably bear their name much longer than the exiftence of their race: the Oneidas, another band of the confederates, make this refervation their chief refidence: the reft the Onondagos,

Onondagos, Cayugas, Senecas, and Tufcaroras, inhabit various fpots to the weftward. Of the exact time when their league (denominated by the Indians the ftrong boufe) originated, we have no certain account. The Mohawks are acknowledged to be the eldest of the confederate tribes: the Senecas and Onondagos have the next, and, I believe, equal claims to feniority: the reft are properly the younger tribes. Their languages, though not precifely fimilar, have been confidered as dialects of one radical tongue. Thefe nations, from the part they have acted in the British and French contentions for territory in America, and laftly in the revolutionary war, will be entitled to fome notice by the future hiftorians of this country. In general the Indians inhabiting the United States, according to their traditions, have come from the Weft. It is probable, I think, that the anceftors of the Six Nations croffed the Miffiffippi, and first inhabited fome part of the Carolinas. But to refume my journey We entered on the Oneida Refervation, now for the most part belonging to the ftate of New York, about an hour before fun-fet. I was amufing myfelf in the contemplation of a fine colonnade of the ftems of majestic trees, which line a road from forty to seventy feet wide, when we were overtaken by darkness; and we had the fatigue of fpending a great part of the night in the woods, labouring with the difficulties of our way over an almoft impaffable clayey foil. In the midst of the night we paffed through the Oneida vil lage, and I deferred any examination of it till my return. The Oneidas have made fome faint advances to civilifation, as might be expected from their vicinity to the European fettlers. Their caftle (as it is termed) is quite a picturefque village. It lies on the North fide near the foot of a high range of fylvan hills, and firft prefents the eye of the traveller, as he emerges from the woods, with a few cultivated fpots of corn, backed by a grove of pines and white poplars. Their huts, covered with bark, are fcattered over a large green of uneven ground, watered by a clear rivulet, and furrounded by a flight wooden fence. It wears an air of novelty in fome flight particulars, which, to a perfon who has lived all his life within the pale of civilifed fociety, is extremely curious and interefting. I had understood it was their culom to protect their dwelling-places

* See Barton's New Views of the Origin of the Tribes and Nations of America, published at Philadelphia, 1798..

MONTHLY MAG. No. XLVII.

with palifadoes, in refemblance of the block-houfes furrounded with ftockades, which were erected as places of fafety and retreat in most of our early fettlementsBut the Indians of thefe parts have now entirely neglected the habits and study of

war.

From Oneida we continued. our course through the woods, and over the Canafaraga Creek, running towards the Oneida Lake to the confines of the next fettlements called the Military Bounty Lands. Here we were gratified with the fight of the growing labours of thofe enterprifing emigrants who have recently established themfelves on their farms. The progrefs of every fettler is nearly the fame. The firft year he begins with clearing a small fpot of ground, on which he erects a temporary dwelling of the logs of wood. Ho then proceeds to deftroy the trees by fell ing them, ringing the barks, and burning the bodies and branches when they be come dry. His cattle in the mean while find fubfiftence in the woods. After a few years, if his neighbourhood fhould be induftrious, he finds himself in another ftate of existence. The woody country becomes converted into open fields. He generally is enabled, with the affiftance of a faw-mill, to complete his barn and a farm houfe for his habitation. He lays out his garden, and commands all the con veniences of life. The length of time in which this is effected by ordinary exertion depends a great deal, as may be fuppofed, upon the quantity, fize and quality of the timber. The oak is eafily fubdued; but the beech, which abounds in this part of the country, demands a much greater proportion of time and labour in its demolition. It is remarkable that the NewEngland farmers felect their lands in the heavily-timbered beechen tracts which are generally beft fuited to pafture: the Pennfylvanians almoft uniformly give a preference to the dry and light foil in which the oak predominates, and which is preferred for the cultivation of grain. In the military tract, we found on the road fide numerous inftances of families in the firft ftage of fettlement: in other places they had advanced much further in their la bours; and examples were not wanting, particularly in the diftrict of Manlius, of fome complete and refpectable farins.

In fpeaking of the Military Bounty Lands, I must give you a fhort account of fome refpectable brethren in arms, who the conclufion of the revolutionary war, were the first proprietors of this tract. At the ftate of New-York, finding itfelf in

3) Y

debted

debted to the valiant authors of its independence, in a fum to which its pecuniary refources were unequal, had recourfe to the expedient of fatisfying them by a grant of lands which had been derived by a purchafe from the Six Nations. For this purpofe the territory extending from the fources of the Sufquehannah to the fhore of Lake Ontario, and from the Canafaraga ftream to the Seneca Lake, was divided into 28 townships, bearing the names of fome of the more diftinguifhed heroes, poets, and philofophers. Each township was fubdivided into 100 lots of 600 acres each, and diftributed amongst the army, from the foldiers to the general officers, in proportion to their rank. Some indeed of the officers had the magnanimity to refufe any compenfation for their fervices; and many of the poor foldiers who accepted of it, confidering the property in fo remote a country as little better than lands in the moon, were the dupes of fpetulators, who made a jufter eftimate of its future value. Being fhifted from hand to hand, and undergoing in many infances repeated fales by the fame or fictitious claimants, this tract continues a fruitful fource of litigation and fraud.-Our first entry on this claffic ground was towards the waist of Manlius, the great defender of the Capitol, from whom we were to proceed over Marcellus and Aurelius, to the great grandfire Romulus. As I lay upon bed much fatigued in coping with the clay of the venerable Manlius, I was amufed to over-hear an equivoque in the next ropa Connecticut emigrant, relating his travels in the fouthern town fhips, in converfation round the fire, obferved that he had been all through Tully, Locke, and Virgil, and I now, faid he, intend to go over Homer, which will not take me above two or three days. The fecretary of ftate, or whoever planted thefe hard names in the wildernefs, had but a fuperficial acquaintance, one may fufpect, with the originals; for neither Dryden, Milton, nor Ovid, was ever diftinguished as an example by any of the attributes of heroitm.--Galen may be admitted to defignate the lands of the furgeons of the army: but Tully and Cicero (who are here made diftinct perfons), when united, were not worth a joint of Alexander or Achilles, who were entitled, I fhould have thought, to a fief a-piece, as tenants in capite of ancient renown.

I cannot but admire the great labour which has been employed in cutting a road through this hilly and heavily timbered country-and, indeed, to the honour of

fome diftinguished gentlemen of liberal and enlarged minds, it must be mentioned that the juftness and the grandeur of their fchemes, in promoting the fettlement of this Western country, has given a direction to the labour employed in its cultivation, which is perhaps without example in the fuccefs and rapidity of its progrefs. The paffage of the intended road is generally from thirty to fixty feet wide, and for the moft part in a direct line. From fome points of view, looking before or behind, you perceive a lengthening aperture through the wood for feveral miles, and in the valleys and fwampy places, long extended caufeways, on which infinite labour has been bestowed.

The land, after we croffed the Canafaraga, appeared gradually rifing, till we reached the vicinity of the military tract, and then became mountainous and uneven. Unfor tunately, from an ignorance of the spots where it was visible through the trees, we loft a view of the Oneida Lake, which lay ftretched at a confiderable diftance to the North-eaft. The first water we discover. ed was the Onondago, or falt fpring lake, adjoining the Seneca river, which fhortly after affumes the name of Ofwego, and runs into Lake Ontario. We faw this lake furrounded with luxuriant woods, making a picturesque object in perfpective, from an eminence above what is called the Onondago hollow. From an interefting memoir communicated by Mr. Benjamin De Witt, to the Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts, and Manufactures, of the ftate of New York, it appears that he found the principal falt fprings iffued from a marth on a folid bed of cal careous rocks in the vicinity of the lake ; the bottom of which has a whitish appear ance. Mr. De Witt obtained from a pint of the falt water, 551 grains, or about

ounce and avoirdupois of falt, 26 grains of calcareous earth (lime), and a minute proportion of vitriolic acid probably united with the foffil alkali, in form of Glauber's falt. The prefent proceeds of the different falt-works may be estimated at 6000 bushels per annum.

The Onondago Indians, from the etymology of this word in their language, are fo denominated from their refidence on a march at the foot of a mountain, which is the defcription of the Onondago hollów. This hollow, or vale, furrounded by large elevated hills, where about 100 of their tribe ftill refide, is famous in the history of the confederate nations, for having been the feat of their councils. They have 60 or 70 acres of cleared land at their cattle:

but

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but foon, like the Mohawks and the Oneidas, they will leave, in the pots which they have inhabited, no other trace of their existence than a name. We proceeded through Aurelius and Marcellus, now richly painted with the variety of autumnal dyes, in which the fcarlet of the maple and the yellow of the beech were remarkably confpicuous, and after croffing the outlets of the Oftifco, Shaneatetes, and Owafco lakes, which unite with the Ofwego river, we arrived at the Cayuga. You may imagine what a happy relief it afforded the eye, long pent up by furrounding woods, to take a glance over a beautiful expanfe of water, mingling in blue perfpective with the horizontal sky. The fhores of this lake are generally level, and there is an air of pleafing tranquillity in the fcenery of its borders. On our return, we croffed it in a calm night, when the image of the moon reflected in its beautiful mirror fringed with the dark fhadows of the fylvan banks, prefented a picture that entranced us in meditation. The bottom of this lake is muddy, and affords nourishment to very fine eels. Salmon trout, and various other fish, are caught in it. Amongst the extraordinary exertions of its inhabitants, for which this part of the ftate is diftinguifhed, it is now in agitation to lay a bridge over the Cayuaga lake, towards its northern extremity, where the paffage is nearly a mile in extent. The depth of the water does not exceed eight or ten feet on this end of the lake; but to the fouth, where the land is more elevated, it is not lefs than eighty fathoms. It is remarkable to an inhabitant of the Southern parts of the ftate, who has been accustomed to the fine pure exhilarating influence of the North-weft winds on the atmosphere, that in this quarter they are generally fraught with rain. This is the cafe alfo on the Mohawk river, and it may be afcribed to the vicinity of Lake Ontario, from whofe exhalations a vapour is precipitated as the wind directs, On the Western fide of Lake Ontario, I found allo that the Easterly winds generally pro

duced rain.

Having been ferried by a venerable major over the Cayuga, we again entered into the woods, and croffing the outlet of a green ftream from the lake, proceeded towards Geneva. I was fenfibly ftruck at various times on my way with odoriferous effluvia from fome unknown quarters, which I could have fancied as the mingled and concentrated effences of the whole vegetable world around us for a world it truly feemed whenever we sould take a

retrofpective, or bird's eye, view of the country-It was one immenfe interminable foreft-colum undique et undique fylva-at this feafon of the year moft beautifully adorned with a variety of colours. It has been obferved that the winters to the Weft of the Cayuga lake are milder than on the Eaftern fide. This, amongst other caufes, may be owing as well to a difference in the foil which becomes more light and dry to the weltward, as to a diminution of the quantity of wood.

Geneva is fituated on an eminence at the North-west end of the Seneca Lake; on its moft commanding point of eleva tion ftands a fine and ipacious hotel, which would be worthy of the meridian of Europe. This lake, formerly called the Conodafago, derives its prefent appellation from the Seneca Indians, who have inhabited thefe parts, and are now the most numerous and refpectable tribe of the Six Nations. The town on its bank has been called Geneva, from a refemblance, in point of fituation, to the city which bears the fame name in Europe. Its fituation, with refpect to the body and fhape of the water, may afford fome fimilitude, but I faw nothing to correfpond with the bold and fnow-capt mountains of Meillerai, none of the picturefque and fhelving banks of the Pays de Vaud.-The character of its scenery bears no stronger refemblance to any thing I have feen, than the level and woody margins of the Cayuga. I obferved, as I walked the fhore, an aftonishing number of bones and organifed fubftances, in a petrified ftate. A valuable falt fpring, I have been informed, has lately been discovered near Geneva.

The next lake we reached was the Conadarquai, which lies fixteen miles to the weftward of Geneva. The fouthern extremity of this and of all the northern communications or fountains of Lake Ontario, as well as of that great lake itself, affords the deepeft water. The Canadarquai has been founded to the South with a line of one hundred and twenty fathoms, without reaching its bottom. It is backed on that quarter by a range of high and picturefque mountains. The beautiful little town of Canadarqual, rifing on a gentle acclivity from the bottom of the lake, prefented to us a fight as unexpect ed as reviving. It confifts of one street about three quarters of a mile long, not only remarkable for the neatness of its dwelling-houfes, but for fome embellifaments of architecture and taste. We vi3 Y 2

fited

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