generally planted in the latter end of February, and the beginning of March. Rye has been attempted in some places, and raised with success; but wheat has not yet succeeded. Apples and cherries are scarce; but peaches, plumbs, and figs, are very abundant. The vegetables of the middle states generally succeed there. The sugar-cane has been attempted near the southern part of the district, near the boundary; I have not yet heard with what success: but from Point Coupée, down to the gulf of Mexico, it answers at present better than any other article; and sugar has, within a few years past, become the staple commodity of that part of the Mississippi. A variety of oranges, both sweet and sour, with lemons, are in great plenty on that part of the river. "From the great number of artificial mounds of earth to be seen through the whole settlement of Natchez, it must at some former period have been well populated. Those mounds or tumuli are generally square and flat on the top: add to this circumstance in favour of the former population of that district, the following fact, which is very conclusive. In all parts where new plantations are opened, broken Indian earthen-ware is to be met with; some of the pieces are in tolerable preservation, and retain distinctly the original ornaments, but none of it appears to have ever been glazed." How melancholy to observe, in the midst of these forsaken wilds, the reliques of anterior civilization, and abolished arts! Here perhaps dwelt some fugitive remnant of those Mexicans, who scorned to submit to Spanish jurisdiction; who undertook a vain conflict with contiguous barbarism, but preserved awhile the knack of manufacturing pottery, and of picture writing. The gesture language of the roving Indians may itself be the result of Mexican intellect; and a translation into signs, of their picture writing, which, like the flourishes of the Chinese, might be intelligible to distinct nations, in their respective languages. Perhaps these mounds or barrows were once the haunts or the tombs of those Welsh Indians, the wildered posterity of the companions of Madoc, whom our bardic songs and native traditions describe as the first explorers of the Patomak, and the earliest European settlers of the Blue Mountains. We send to Babylon for its brick-bats; why not to Natchez, for its broken and buried crockery? A single Welsh syllable, on the rim, would wake all the echoes of Plinlimmon. How favour able the leisure of savages is to acute observations of human character, to ethic wisdom, to the practically correct estimate of men, may be inferred from the following anecdote: "Two or three days before our public conferences took place with the Indians, the Mad Dog asked colonel Hawkins and myself, if we supposed that governor Folch would attend at the treaty: to which we answered in the affirmative. "No, replied the Mad Dog, he will not attend, he knows what I shall say to him about his crooked talks: his tongue is forked; and, as you are here, he will be ashamed to show it. If he stands to what he has told us, you will be offended, and if he tells us that the line ought to be marked, he will contradict himself; but he will do neither, he will not come." "On the 4th of May, we were joined by colonel Maxant, and several other Spanish officers. Colonel Maxant represented governor Folch, who was taken so unwell on his way to the treaty, that he thought proper to return back to Pensacola. So soon as the Mad Dog discovered that governor Folch had returned to Pensacola, and was not going to attend the treaty, he called upon colonel Hawkins and myself, and with some degree of pleasantry said, "Well, the governor does not come: I told you so; a man with two tongues can only speak to one at a time.” An extraordinary instance of idiosyncrasy is here recorded: My journey up the river was disagreeable and painful, being blistered by the rhus This aptitude to be disordered by this poiradicans, (poison vine,) from head to feet. sonous vegetable, I have been subject to from my infancy, and have generally been confined in consequence of it, at least once a week every summer since. The evaporation from the dew from this plant in the morning, falling upon me, is sufficient to produce this effect. The irritation and heat of this complaint was frequently so excessive, that I had day, and lay whole hours in it during the to plunge into the river many times in, the night, which was the only relief I could find. Medical aid had, at all times, proved ineffectual to relieve me." Another phænomenon in physiology deserves attention. resulting from it, the fruit was constantly used by the crew during our continuance among the keys or islands." It appears, therefore, that the juice of the Indian fig may be animalized into a crimson die, by other processes than the digestion of the cochineal insect. Chemistry may hope one day to publish the scarlet-dyer's vade mecum, or every man his own ingrainer. Important maritime observations are recorded at page 251, page 257, page 265, and others; but this is not the expedient place for transcribing them. The following short history of Florida may be convenient to our geographers. "The discovery of East Florida is generally attributed to Juan Ponce de Leou, in 1512; but it is probable the eastern coast was discovered about fifteen years before that time by Sebastian Cabot. After the coast of East Florida had been discovered by Juan Ponce de Leon, the country was visited by a number of adventurers; but the first patent was obtained by Francis de Geray, who did not live to take possession of the province. Francis de Geray was succeeded by Luke Viscompte de Allyon, who visited Florida about the year 1524, and was succeeded by Pamphilo de Narvaez in 1528, or 1529, who died on the 'coast, and was succeeded by that celebrated adventurer, Fernando de Soto; who traversed both the Floridas, and part of our western country, from the year 1539 to 1542, and died at the forks of the Red river, or, as some writers state, on the Mississippi. "The first permanent settlement in East Florida, was attempted by some French protestants in the year 1562, to secure to themselves a retreat from religious persecution. But as soon as the king of Spain received an account of the commencement of this infant settlement, he dispatched Don Pedro Malendez de Aviles into East Florida, with a considerable force to destroy it, which he effected in a most cruel and barbarous manner, in the year 1565, and established a colony at Saint Augustine For this service, it appears that Malendez obtained a grant for all Florida, which grant included the whole coast on the gulf of Mexico, and as far north and east as Newfoundland; to which was added a number of privileges, for which he was to perform some signal services: one was to make a chart of the coast of Florida for the use of the Spanish navigators who visited those seas, but this service was never performed. Neither does it appear, that any measures were taken for that purpose until about 1718, when Don Gonzales Carrenza, the principal pilot of the Spanish flota, undertook it, but his observations remained in manuscript, and were little known, until published in London, in the year 1740: they are, however, very imperfect. ANN REV. VOL. III. "In 1586, St. Augustine, the capital of the province, was taken and pillaged by sir Francis Drake; and, in 1665, it was again taken and commanded a body of Buccaneers. In and plundered by captain Davis, who headed 1702, an expedition was carried on against it by colonel Moore, governor of Carolina; his force consisted of five hundred English troops, and seven hundred Indians, with whom he besieged the city for three months without success, and then retired. Except those incidents, the history of East Florida, from the a succession of governors, until general Oglesettling the colony in 1565, is little more than thorpe tock possession of Georgia, which circumstance excited considerable jealousy at the court of Madrid, and a large force was sent against him, which he not only defeated, but, after various encounters, carried his conquests to the gates of St. Augustine, and laid siege to that city in 1740; but being badly supplied with almost every article necessary to give success to such an undertaking, he was obliged to relinquish his design. 66 By the peace of 1763, the Floridas were ceded to his Britannic majesty George the third; but who, in consequence of the ill advised war he made upon his American colonies, now the United States, and which involved France, Holland and Spain in the contest, was reduced to the necessity, in 1783, of acknowledging the colonies independent states, and restoring the Floridas to his catholic majesty, who yet retains them." Of the manners and subsistence of the alligator, a new particular is given. "This being the season that the alligators, or American crocodiles, were beginning to crawl out of the mud and bask in the sun, it was a favourable time to take them, both on account of their torpid state, and to examine the truth of the report of their swallowing pine knots in the fall of the year, to serve them, on account of their difficult di gestion, during the term of their torpor, which is probably about three months. For this purpose two alligators, of about eight or nine feet in length, were taken and opened. and in the stomach of each was found several pine and other knots, pieces of bark, and, in one of them, some charcoal; but exclusive of such indigestible matter, the stomachs of both were empty. So far the report appears to be founded in fact; but whether these substances were swallowed on account of their tedious digestion, and therefore proper during the time those animals lay in the mud, or to prevent a collapse of the coats of the stomach, or by accident, owing to their voracious manner of devouring their food, is difficult to determine. "The alligator has been so often, and so well deseribed, and those descriptions so well known, that other attempts have become unnessary. It may, nevertheless, be proper 19 C remark, that so far as the human species are concerned, the alligators appear much less dangerous, than has generally been supposed, particularly by those unacquainted with them. And I do not recollect meeting but with one well authenticated fact of any of the human species being injured by them in that country (where they are very numerous), and that was a negro near New Orleans, who while standing in the water sawing a piece of timber, had one of his legs dangerously wounded by one of them. My opinion on this subject is founded on my own experience. I have frequently been a witness to Indians, including men, women, and children, bathing in rivers and ponds, where those animals are extremely numerous, without any apparent dread or caution: the same practice was also pursued by myself and people, without caution, and without injury." A copious appendix contains the diary of all the astronomical, thermometrical, and meteorological observations which were made during the survey: they are very numerous. Maps of the Ohio, of the Mississippi, and of the boundary-line along the north of Florida, are delineated on a convenient scale. The eastern limit of Louisiana, for it is here presumed to extend beyond the great river, has neither been defined, nor surveyed. Thames to North America, lend each other the same tooth-brush warm from the mouth without any apparent feeling of impropriety: in common with other gothic nations the Americans drink of the same glass or tankard with their neighbours unhesitatingly. This work is essential to the geographer, who will find many hitherto unrecorded latitudes and longitudes ascertained with satisfactory precision. It is instructive to the statist, who may glean valuable particulars relative to the fringe of back-settlements, which are gradually naturalizing the English language along the banks of the Ohio (the Americans pronounce Oyo) and the Mississippi. It is amusing to the general reader, but would admit of considerable abbreviation without any loss of interest; it has the dry journal form of a voyage round the world, the heaviness of a log-book This volume will long be appealed to as authority on public occasions; it is in every sense an official publication; it will therefore permanently impose names to wish that the author had more freon places yet in embryo. One is tempted quently preferred the Indian and the they are more euphonius-Nogalez raSpanish names to the English, because than Big-black. Long vowels and vowelther than Waluut-hills, and Rionegro endings are so scarce in our language, that every opportunity should be seized of immingling the luxuries of the ear: duct the element of cleanliness into every pellations of geography are always mubesides, the harsh and consonantal ap house. The personal habits of the Ame-tilated by foreigners; so that letters are Before the conclusion Mr. Ellicott speculates much at length on the causes of yellow fever. He dwells insufficiently on the want of neatness. In Philadel phia the privies are unpaved, and taint the well-water: there are no common sewers, there are no water-pipes to con ricans are not nice: the writer has seen merchants in the higher lines of business, on board a ship on its passage from the the oftener misdirected and miscarried, because a town's name is unharmonious. ART. IV. An Excursion in France and other Parts of the Continent of Europe; from the Cessation of Hostilities in 1801, to the 13th of December 1803: Including a Narrative of the unprecedented Detention of the English Travellers in that Country as Prisoners of War. By CHARLES MACLEAN, M. D. 8vo. pp. 304. IN the preface to this volume Dr. Maclean warns us against expecting a regular description of cities, towns, and countries, or of the manners and customs of their inhabitants; he contents himself with sketches, unconnected traits of public characters and proceedings, which, in some cases, have come exclusively under his own observation. The laudable motive which led this gentleman to Paris is thus explained in his own words: "It had long been my favourite wish to have an opportunity of proving by experi ment what I had previously learnt from an induction of reasoning, that maladies, usually called epidemic and pestilential, are not in their nature contagious, and that, under a due application of scientific principles, they easily admit of a cure. To undertake, as a simple individual, an investigation of this magnitude, I knew to be a very arduous task. But my zeal overcame my judgment, and I determined, in September. 1800, to accompany. Mr. Windhain, theu British envoy at the court of Tuscany, to Florence; with a view to embrace the first opportunity of passing from thence to the Levant, in order to put my doctrines to the text of experiment in the plague; a project in which that gentleman promised to aid me as much as should lay in his power. But on our arrival at Vienna, we learnt that the French troops had entered Tuscany, which of course for that time frustrated my plan of going to Italy." At this period a terrible epidemic prevailed at Cadiz, and Dr. Maclean waiting to proceed thither, presented a memorial to Don Alonzo, the Spanish ambassador at the court of Vienna, begging permission to proceed to Cadiz and expose himself to every risk of what is called contagion for the purpose of establishing the truth of his theory, and endeavouring to cure, by a novel mode of treatment, those persons who were labouring under the disease. His excellency received Dr. Maclean with politeness, and lamented his inability to furnish him with the necessary passports with out first writing for permission to his court. Dr. M. truly predicted that the delay thus occasioned would frustrate his views he therefore returned from Vienna to Hamburg, and addressed a memorial to the duke of Portland, ex pressing a desire to obtain a special commission for the purpose of applying himself exclusively to the investigation of these disorders; he concludes by stating that," as the possession of Egypt may soon afford the opportunity of a practical investigation," he should be proud of an appointment which would enable him to pursue it. The arrangement already made for Egypt, however, did not admit of any new medical appointments; and Dr. Maclean flattering himself that those services which had been declined by his own country would be gratefully accepted in France, where scientific projects were so splendidly encouraged and patronised, at least in the journals," continued in the practice of his profession in Hamburg, till the preliminary articles of peace between Great Britain and France were signed. He instantly repaired to Paris, and then presented a memorial on the subject to the minister of the interior, which was referred to L'Ecole de Medecine de Paris: the plan was conceived to be of too extensive a nature to be carried into execution, and of less interest to France 66 than to those countries which had great commercial connexions with the Levant. "The plan was simply this: To establish an institution at Constantinople, or some other part of the Levant, for the treatinent and investigation of the plague: that the funds necessary for this institution should be provided by means of voluntary subscriptions of governments and of individuals: that it should be under the superintendance of all the foreign ambassadors at Constantinople for the time being, and of one of the members of the Ottoman government: that the Sublime Porte should be invited to allot a certain district of land for the establishment of the necessary buildings, &c.; and to confer on it certain privileges and immunities, such as could be accorded without offence to any of the laws or customs of the country, &c." This projected establishment had the double object in view, first, of proving, by the application of principles to prac tice, that medicine is a science, and not a conjectural art—a fact, it must be observed, which could require no proof at this time of day; and secondly, to shew that plague is not contagious, but depends on the states and vicissitudes of the atmosphere; and that it is easily ca pable of being cured. When Dr. Maclean found that his schemes were unsupported, he had some thoughts of engaging in private practice, but he assures us that medicine is in a more degraded state in France, both as an art and a profession, than in any other civilized country of Europe: ope rative surgery, indeed, is carried to a considerable degree of excellence, but the remark is very just that "the knowledge of rendering operations unnecessary is of infinitely more importance than a dexterity in performing them." This is altogether a book of outlines: Dr. Maclean seems to have taken out his pocket-book and made a sketch of this, that, and the other, and in the same unconnected, unfinished manner do they now appear before the public. Dismis sing plague, pestilence, and medicine, we are now presented with random conjectures on the changes which will take place when the imperial tyrant is hurled from his throne, Dr. Maclean assuming it as indisputable, that the present state of things cannot continue long. really are not so sanguine in our hopes of change: but are compelled to believe that Bonaparte is more firmly seated than Dr. Maclean is aware of. His as We assumption of the consulate for life was certainly an unpopular act: but he braved the unpopularity with impunity and triumph. The restoration of the catholic religion has given Bonaparte a great accession of strength; he has flattered the vanity of his subjects by raising France to the rank of an empire, and by the high dignities which he has prodigally bestowed, he has created a greater interest in supporting the present system of things, than has ever been approached by any who have taken the rule since the death of Louis XVI. Of what power external or internal is the tyrant afraid? he can assassinate Pichegru and sentence to imprisonment Moreau himself with impunity. If any counter-revolution is effected, it will probably come from the Jacobins: Camille Jourdan had the courage to oppose the assumption of hereditary empire. But Bonaparte will caress and conciliate when it is not in his power to subdue or intimidate. The patronage of Bonaparte is enormous: ford Bacon asserts that knowledge is power: Bonaparte finds that patronage is power, and he is very good authority. Concerning the detention of the Eng. lish as prisoners at the breaking out of the war, Dr. Maclean has given few or no particulars that have not been published in our daily journals. Bonaparte is supposed to have been deceived as to the umber of English within the territories of the republic at the time of his decree against them: Dr. Maclean says, that there is reason to believe their number never exceeded one thousand, and that Bonaparte would not have incurred the odium of the measure, if he had been rightly informed of the insignificancy of the advantage to be derived from it. It seems that the members of the French government were themselves ashamed of it, so much so, that Dr. Maclean believes they only wished for a decent pretext to allow individuals an opportunity of departing without giving them express permission. The atrocious circumstance belonging to this detention was its treachery: for weeks before lord Whitworth left Paris all the journals were inviting the English to remain in France by the strongest assurances of protection and respect. When it is considered that these journals are notoriously at the disposal of that govetminent, which, within ten days after his lordship's departure from Paris, published a decree of detention against the very persons who had thus been induced to confide in its honour and hospitality, it is impossible not to feel indignant at so gross a violation of the faith which is common among all civilized nations. The French say that this decree was first issued simply as a retaliation for the ships and crews belonging to France, which were stopped in England before the declaration of hostilities.. Dr. Maclean contends that the captains "knew or ought to have known that it is the cus tom in England, as soon as the govern ment have determined on war, to lay an embargo on all vessels belonging to the enemy in their ports; and that they ought to have gone away in time." Is Dr. Maclean of opinion then that the precedent now set by France of violating the rights of hospitality will justify the violation of them another time? Is he of opinion, if all the English who may be within the French territories at the breaking out of any future war, are detained as prisoners, that it would be a sufficient excuse for the French government to say to them, "You know, or ought to have known that it is our custom, as soon as we have determined upon war, to detain all subjects of the enemy prisoners; and therefore you ought to have gone away in time?" In England, however, no false expectations of protection were held out: in France our unfortunate countrymen were in a most base and foul manner deluded and betrayed. Surely the English government has been remiss in their behaviour towards these individuals: they refused to acknowledge them as lawful prisoners of war, and thus deprived them of the most distant hope of returning to their own country, except by escape. It would have been worthy the magnanimity of a British government therefore, nay, it became a duty incumbent on them, to support in a liberal manner these unfortunate prisoners. Some of them are persons of rank and fortune, but many others are in an opposite situation of life, and stand in great need of assistance. Dr. Maclean compliments our government on its humanity, that when a representation to this effect was made by Mr. Robson, the sum of 20001. was sent for their relief! the humanity of a government which scatters its millions with unconcern, in sending 20001. for the main |