the others were affembled. Every eye was again fixed by turns on me and on the Lake; when juft as the fun had reached his zenith, agreeable to what the priest had foretold, a canoe came round a point of land about a league diftant. The Indians no fooner, beheld ir, than they fent up an univerfal fhout, and by their looks feemed to triumph in the intereft their priest thus evidently had with the Great Spirit. ; In less than an hour the canoe reached the fhore, when I attended the king and chiefs to receive thofe who were on board. As foon as the men were landed, we walked all together to the king's tent, where, according to their invariable culiom, we began to fmoke and this we did, notwithstanding our impatience to know the tidings they brought, without asking any questions; for the Indians are the moft deliberate people in the world. However, after some trivial converfation, the king inquired of them whether they had feen any thing of the traders? The men replied, that they had parted from them a few days before, and that they propofed being here the fe cond day from the prefent. They accordingly arrived at that time, greatly to our fatisfaction, but more particularly fo to that of the Indians, who found by this event the importance both of their priest and of their nation, greatly augmented in the fight of a stranger. This flory, I acknowledge, appears to carry with it marks of great credulity in the relator. But no one is lefs tinctured with that weakness than myfelf. The circumftances of it, I own, are of a very extraordinary nature; however, as I can vouch for their being free from either exaggeration or mifreprefentation, being myself a cool and difpaffionate obferver of them all, I thought it neceffary to give them to the Public. And this I do without wishing to mislead the judgment of my Readers, or to make any fuperftitious impref. fions on their minds, but leaving them to draw from it what conclufions they pleafe.' This is, indeed, a curious narrative; concerning which, in imitation of our Author, we shall leave cur Readers to their own remarks and conclufions; and proceed to mention his account of the manners and customs of the Indians, in their ancient purity. This, Mr. Carver flatters himself, he has been enabled to do, with more juftice than former writers, having made his obfervations on thirty Indian nations. He is, accordingly, very diffufe in his account of these people, who seem to be a race as totally diftinct from the rest of mankind, as the negroes are from the whites. He defcribes, and illuftrates by fome good engravings, their perfons, drefs, arms, habitations, cookery, temper and difpofitions, method of computing time, government, feafts, dances, games, hunting, methods of making war and peace, language, marriage ceremonies, religion, difeafes,' and the treatment of their dead. Under all thefe diftinct heads we have a great variety of information, and many very entertaining defcriptions and details: in which the fair fex (if it be fo to flyle the Indian women) come in for a due share of notice.-He clofes with a general character of the Indians; proper in in which he appears to have difcriminated, with great propriety,, between their good and bad qualities. He obferves that they are of a cruel, revengeful, inexorable difpofition; that they will watch whole days, unmindful of the calls of nature, and make their way through pathlefs and almoft unbounded woods, fubfifting only on the scanty produce of them, to purfue and revenge themselves of an enemy; that they hear unmoved the piercing cries of fuch as unhappily fall into their hands, and receive a diabolical pleasure from the tortures they inflict on their prifoners but, adds he, let us look on the reverse of this terrifying picture, and we shall find them temperate both in their diet and potations (it must be remembered, that I fpeak of those tribes, who have little communication with Europeans), that they withstand, with unexampled patience, the attacks of hunger, or the inclemency of the feafons, and efteem the gratification of their appetites but as a fecondary confideration. 6 We hall likewife fee them fociable and humane to thofe whom' they confider as their friends, and even to their adopted enemies; and ready to partake with them of the laft morfel, or to risk their lives in their defence. In contradiction to the reports of many other travellers, all of which have been tinctured with prejudice, I can affert, that not-. withstanding the apparent indifference with which an Indian meets his wife and children after a long abfence, an indifference proceeding rather from cuftom than infenfibility, he is not unmindful of the claims either of connubial or parental tenderness; the little ftory I have introduced in the preceding chapter of the Naudoweffie woman lamenting her child, and the immature death of the father, will elucidate this point, and enforce the affertion much better than the moft ftudied arguments I can make ufe of. 誓 ; • Accuftomed from their youth to innumerable hardships, they foon become fuperior to a fenfe of danger, or the dread of death and their fortitude, implanted by nature, and nurtured by example, by precept, and accident, never experiences a moment's allay. · Though flothful and inactive whilft their ftore of provision remains unexhausted, and their foes are at a distance, they are inde-. fatigable and perfevering in pursuit of their game, or in circumventing their enemies. If they are artful and defigning, and ready to take every advantage, if they are cool and deliberate in their councils, and cautious in the extreme either of difcovering their fentiments, or of revealing a fecret, they might at the fame time boaft of poffeffing qualifications of a more animated nature, of the fagacity of a hound, the penetrating fight of a lynx, the cunning of the fox, the agility of a bounding roe, and the unconquerable fierceness of the tyger. In their public characters, as forming part of a community, they poffefs an attachment for that band to which they belong, unknown to the inhabitants of any other country. They combine, as if they were actuated only by one foul, againit the enemies of their nation, and banish from their minds every confideration opposed to this. U 4 • They They confult without unneceffary oppofition, or without giving way to the excitements of envy or ambition, on the measures neceffary to be purfued for the destruction of those who have drawn on themselves their difpleafure. No felfish views ever influence their advice, or obftruct their confultations. Nor is it in the power of bribes or threats to diminish the love they bear their country. The honour of their tribe, and the welfare of their nation, is the firit and most predominant emotion of their hearts; and from hence proceed, in a great measure, all their virtues and their vices. Actuated by this, they brave every danger, endure the most exquifite torments, and expire triumphing in their fortitude, not as a perfonal qualification, but as a national characteristic. From thence alfo flow that infatiable revenge towards those with whom they are at war, and all the confequent horrors that difgrace their name. Their uncultivated minds being incapable of judging of the propriety of an action, in oppofition to their paffions which are totally infenfible to the controul of reafon or humanity, they know not how to keep their fury within any bounds, and confequently that courage and refolution which would otherwife do them honour, degenerates into a favage ferocity. But this thort differtation muft fuffice; the limits of my work will not permit me to treat the fubject more copiously, or to pursue it with a logical regularity. The obfervations already made by my readers on the preceding pages, will, I truft, render it unneceffary; as by them they will be enabled to form a tolerably juft idea of the people I have been defcribing. Experience teaches, that anecdotes, and relations of particular events, however trifling they might appear, enable us to form a truer judgment of the manners and cuf toms of a people, and are much more declaratory of their real ftate, than the moft ftudied and elaborate difquifition, without thefe aids." 2.3 1. The natural history forms a confiderable part of this work, and is given under the diftinct heads of beafts, birds, fishes, reptiles, infects, trees, fhrubs, roots, herbs, and flowers. The Author has likewife given a vocabulary of the Chipeway and Naudoweffie languages; and he concludes with an Appendix, intended to evince the probability of the interior parts of North America becoming commercial colonies; pointing out the means by which this may be effected; with the tracts of land on which colonies may be eftablished with the greatest advantage: he has alfo a differtation on the discovery of a north-weft paffage. 1-7 We fhall conclude this Article with an extract from Capt. Caryer's general view of his great defign, in exploring thefe unknown regions; with his reflections on the fuccefs of his undertaking; viz. • In October, 1768, I arrived at Bofton, it on this expedition two years and five time travelled near feven thousand miles. having been abfent from months, and during that From thence, as foon as I had I had properly digefted my journal and charts, I fet out for England, 'I cannot conclude the account of my extenfive travels, without expreffing my gratitude to that beneficent Being who invisibly protected me through thofe perils which unavoidably attended fo long a tour among fierce and untutored favages.' ART. VI. An Efay on the Immateriality and Immortality of the Soul, and its inftinctive Senfe of Good and Evil, &c. &c. With an Appendix, in Answer to Dr. Priestley's Difquifitions on Matter and Spirit. By the Author of the Letters in Proof of a particular as well as a general Providence, which were addreffed to Dr. Hawkef worth, &c. &c. 8vo. 5 s. Boards. Dodfley. 1778. T " · HOUGH this Effayift declares, at the commencement of his work, that he thinks metaphyfical studies neither inftructive, nor entertaining,'-and that he fhould never have been at the trouble of reading either Dr. Hartley's Obfervations on Man, or the Introductory Effays which Dr. Priestley has prefixed to his abridgment of that work;' had not a Mr. Seaton's. well-known advertisement informed him that Dr. Priestley had' denied the immortality of the foul:-he has nevertheless, himfelf, compiled a metaphyfical work, confifting of no less than 466 pages in octavo; and doubtless expects that there are readers, befide the Monthly Reviewers, who will take the trouble of perufing it, and may hope to receive instruction or entertainment from it. A very brief account of the work will ferve to fhew how far fuch hopes are well founded. 18 Our Author firft endeavours to fhew the general bad tendency of Dr. Prieftley's Introductory Essays above mentioned; and that his arguments in fupport of the materiality of the hu man foul are equally inconfiftent with that belief in a future. ftate, which is derived from the light of nature, and with the doctrines of revelation contained in the fcripture. He next feems inclined to enliven the fubject by a ftudied detail of the ridiculous confequences,' which, he alleges, muft follow from denying the immateriality of the foul of man. Thefe are, indeed, ridiculous enough. We mean the Author's confequences; and that we too may enliven the prefent Article, and render it as entertaining as is confiftent with the nature of the subject *7 putting putting inftruction out of the queftion-we fhall exhibit fome 6 . If we are uniformly and intirely material, our metaphyfical 31 > 6 Further, if it is only the intire material body that perceives, thinks, reafons, &c. then every bone, cartilage, and muscle, as well as the heart, lungs, and liver, &c. have each a part in the perceiving and thinking quality. Now, if this be the cafe, fays he, a man muft lofe part of his thinking principle, on lofing a leg-but if he should happen to lofe both his legs -and, perhaps an arm befides or both-be ought to life half, if not more than half, of his thinking principle: for he certainly will then have loft near half of his material frame !-If he was a fenfible man, prior to his amputation, he should confiftently afterwards not be above half as fenfible!-In this cafe, people fhould be cautious how they pared their nails, or cut their hair -left they loft, with their hair and nails, part of their reafon !" Foreseeing however that Dr. Prieftley, thus driven from the bowels and extremities, will make a fnug retreat into the cra-, nium, or rather the medullary fubftance of the brain, as the part poffeffed of the exclufive privilege of thinking; our alert Author, nothing dismayed, pursues him thither, and thus attacks him in the citadel. i He tells a story of an officer, who, to his certain knowledge, had a piece of his fkull, of above two inches long, and one broad, cut out of his head, by a stroke of a broad fword, at the battle of Prefton-pans, in the year 1745-(which piece of the kull hung by a bit of skin-and the officer carried it for years, in his purfe) and it was a truth publickly known, that a very large quantity of the brain came out at the wound-infomuch that his recovery greatly furprised every one who had heard of fituation; for all the furgeons had declared they thought him paft hope-yet he regained his perfect health-and was as fenfible as ever. In fhort, this officer's foul, after his recovery,— owing, under God, to the care and great fkill of his fur-> h 1 gcon |