THE UNITED STATES LITERARY GAZETTE. Published on the first and fifteenth day of every month, by Cummings, Hilliard, & Co. No. 1 Cornhill, Boston.Terms, $5 per annum, payable in July. VOL. I. REVIEWS Journal of the Conversations of Lord Byron: Noted during a Residence with his Lordship at Pisa, in the years 1821 and 1822. By Thomas Medwin, Esq., of the 24th Light Dragoons, Author of "Ahasuerus the Wanderer." With additions. New York. 1824. 12mo. pp. 304. BOSTON, JANUARY 15, 1825. gave his note for a guinea; and that it was The twig, thus bent, was sent to Harrow; All the friends of my youth are dead; either shot THE writer of these Conversations proposes time, during a period of about nine months. in this volume was communicated during a period of many months' familiar intercourse, without any injunctions to secrecy, and committed to paper for the sake of reference only. They [the notes] have not been shown to any one individual, and, but for the fate of his manuscripts, would never have appeared before the public. under my name. No. 19. us, which describe the man, whose character seems to have been such as we might expect of a soul of the higher order, bound down in eternal slavery to the dominion of the passions, and cursed with a continual secret longing after the good which he laboured to depreciate and despise. Like many other eccentric persons, who begin by outraging society, and end in hating it for resenting the insult, his lordship had transferred his affections to a lower order of beings, who do not look beyond the present moment, and are always ready to I fought Lord Calthorpe for writing d-d atheist forget, in the caresses of to-day, the neglect or harsh treatment of yesterday. Captain Medwin found him at Pisa, attended by nine horses, a monkey, a bull-dog, and a mastiff, two cats, three pea-fowls, and some hens. From school he was advanced to the university, where, we are informed, that "they were as glad to get rid of him as they had On leaving the univer been at Harrow." The bull-dog acted as porter, being atsity, Lord Byron plunged into the most de-tached to the head of the stair-case, "by a praving dissipation, and suffered its inevita- chain long enough to guard the door, and ble consequences. prevent the entrance of strangers." The past this Cerberus, by Shelley, whom the Captain, however, was conducted in safety animal, being acquainted with, only noticed by a growl. The appearance of his lordship is thus described. possession of it, and a constitution impaired by before me. The fruit of these travels was the Childe Harold, the publication of which placed him All which, together with the assertion that at once at the summit of literary reputation; the writer despises "mere book-making," and this was the period in the life of this we believe because it is printed; and are unhappy man, when it was almost to be as well satisfied as any reasonable book- hoped, that a soul like Byron's would have maker can expect us to be, that the pub- shaken itself free from the fetters of vice lisher of these Conversations was actuated and debauchery; but they were too firmly by that enlarged benevolence, which re- rivetted, and had been worn too long. His gards the satisfaction of the public curiosity marriage was soon followed by separation as an object of far higher moment, than the from his wife, and exile from his country; gratification of private feeling. And if some and the remainder of his existence was of the more strait-laced among the gentle- spent in wandering from city to city, in men on this side of the Atlantic, should disgraceful intrigues with the degraded festick a little at the implied doctrine of males of Italy, and the society of such as Captain Medwin, that it is fair and honour-Hunt, Shelley, and Medwin, and at last able to repeat and publish every private communication, which is not attended with an express injunction of secrecy, they should We have thus given a rapid sketch of the recollect, that it is proverbially superfluous life of this remarkable personage, who, for to criticise the liberality by which we are the last ten or twelve years, has excited so the gainers. Leaving the point of honour great an interest in the literary world. We out of the question, however, for the pres- cannot weep, with some of our periodical ent, we observe, that we consider recorded brethren, the early death of one, who was conversations of this kind, as much more perverting his ingenuity, and prostituting likely to give one a just view of character, his talents to the abominable purpose of than any autobiography soever, upon some-giving new and powerful attractions to thing the same principle, that laying one's vice, and compelling the Muses to assist ear to a key-hole is often a more certain in rendering pollution seductive, and blasway of learning a man's real opinion, than asking questions about it. From these Conversations we learn, that the father of Lord Byron was a shining example of genteel vice and extravagance; one who ruined ladies of fortune and spent their money; "rap out three fortunes," and terminated in a crusade against the barba- phemy classical. We do not intend to dis- Thorwaldsen's bust is too thin-necked and young for Lord Byron. None of the engravings gave me the least idea of him. I saw a man of about five feet seven or eight, apparently forty years of age; as was said of Milton, he barely escaped being short and thick. His face was fine, and the lower part symmetrically moulded; for the lips and chin had that curved and definite outline that distinguishes Grecian beauty. His forehead was high, and his temples broad; and he had a paleness in his complexion, almost to wanness. His hair, thin and fine, had almost become gray, and waved in natural and graceful curls over his head, that was assimilating itself fast to the "bald first Cæsar's." He allowed it to grow longer behind than it is accustomed to be not sufficiently dark to be becoming. In criticising his features it might, perhaps, be said that his eyes were placed too near his nose, and that one was rather smaller than the other; they were of a grayish brown, but of a peculiar clearness, and look through and penetrate the thoughts of others, when animated, possessed a fire which seemed to while they marked the inspiration of his own. His teeth were small, regular, and white; these, I afterterwards found, he took great pains to preserve. worn, and at that time had mustachios, which were I expected to discover that he had a club, perhaps have distinguished one from the other, either in a cloven foot; but it would have been difficult to size or in form. The following morning, Medwin found him at breakfast. 290 In another part of the volume, we are informed, that he drank a pint of Hollands every night. He said to me humorously enough—'Why don't you drink, Medwin? Gin-and-water is the source of all my inspiration. If you were to drink as much as I do, you would write as good verses: depend on it, it is the true Hippocrene." This is vegetable diet with a vengeance, and about as likely to improve the digestion as the temper and morals. His life at Pisa was very uniform : I continued to visit him at the same hour (two o'clock) daily. Billiards, conversation, or reading, filled up the intervals till it was time to take our evening drive, ride, and pistol-practice. On our return, which was always in the same direction, we frequently met the Countess Guiccioli, with whom he stopped to converse a few minutes. He dined at half an hour after sunset, (at twentyfour o'clock), then drove to Count Gamba's, the Countess Guiccioli's father, passed several hours in her society, returned to his palace, and either read or wrote till two or three in the morning. The Countess Guiccioli was the wife of an old Italian nobleman, who had objected to her intimacy with Lord Byron, on the ground of his being "a foreigner, a heretic, an Englishman, and worse than all, a liberal." The lady, deeply offended at this unprecedented illiberality, complained to his holiness, the Pope, "who ordered her a separate maintenance, on condition that she should reside under her father's roof." The account of his lordship's marriage, treatment of his lady, and separation from her, has been already published in so many papers of the day, that we consider it unnecessary to extract it here. He seems anxious to make it appear that his behaviour in this affair was not remarkably culpable; but besides that his own story is bad enough, he admits, that his own relations, as well as the lady's, that is to say all who had the best opportunity of knowing the truth, condemned his conduct. All my former friends, even my cousin, George Byron, who had been brought up with me, and whom I loved as a brother, took my wife's part. He followed the stream when it was strongest against me, and can never expect any thing from me: he shall never touch a sixpence of mine. Every one has heard the report of his drinking out of a skull; the following is his own account of the circumstance. There had been found by the gardener, in digging, a skull that had probably belonged to some jolly friar or monk of the Abbey about the time it was dis-monasteried Observing it to be of giant size, and in a perfect state of preservation, a strange fancy seized me of having it set and mounted as a drinking-cup. I accordingly sent it to town, and it returned with a very high polish, and of a mottled colour, like a tortoise-shell; (Colonel Wildman now has it). I remember scribbling some lines about it; but that was not all: I afterwards established at the Abbey a new order. The members consisted of twelve, and I elected myself grand master, or Abbot of the Skull, a grand heraldic title. A set of black gowns, mine distinguished from the rest, was ordered, and from time to time, when a particular hard day was expected, a chapter was held; the crane was filled with claret, and, in imitation of the Goths of old, passed about to the gods of the Consistory, whilst many a prime joke was cut at its expense. The ladies will hardly feel much compla Without placing these works of imagination on a level with those of Shakspeare, it appears to us, that the excellencies of both are of the same kind; that there is in both the same individuality in the character, the same universal truth in the sentiments, and the same accurate and spirited delineation of the "passions common to men in all ages of society, which have alike agitated the human heart, whether it throbbed under the steel corslet of the fifteenth century, the brocaded coat of the eighteenth, or the blue frock and white dimity waistcoat of the present day." cency for his lordship, when they learn his they are a library in themselves—a perfect literary Dr Johnson died like a coward, and Cowper was near shooting himself; Hume went off the stage like a brave man, and Voltaire's last moments do not seem to have been clouded by any fears of what was to come. His lordship's own deathbed seems not to have been troubled by fears of the future, but this does not persuade us, that his life was not frequently tortured by such fears, nor that he had not many moments when he wished as sincerely, as any dying person whatever, that he could hope for a better world. What he wanted, however, in religion, was made up in superstition; for your infidel does not always reject Christianity for want of credulity. He believed in omens, lucky days, and, above all, held that convenient faith, which lays upon destiny the fault of one's own imprudence or wickedness. Though little doubt can now exist respecting the real author of these novels, the question, like that concerning the author of the letters of Junius, will continue to possess a degree of interest, so long as any uncertainty remains. The first of the following anecdotes would be decisive, if it could be depended on. I asked him if he was certain about the Novels 'Scott as much as owned himself the author of being Sir Walter Scott's? 'On another occasion I was to dine at Murray's; I should meet the author of "Waverley" at dinner. and being in his parlour in the morning, he told me He had received several excuses, and the party was a small one; and, knowing all the people present, I was satisfied that the writer of that novel must have been, and could have been, no other than Walter Scott.' But we hesitate about receiving it in its full Among other heresies, Lord Byron in- "Of all the writers of the day, Walter Scott is the least jealous: he is too confident of his own fame to dread the rivalry of others. He does not think of good writing, as the Tuscans do of feverthat there is only a certain quantity of it in the * * He spoiled the fame of his poetry by his supe rior prose. He has such extent and versatility of 'I never travel without Scott's Novels,' said he; powers in writing, that, should his Novels ever tire * Heart of Mid-Lothian the public, which is not likely, he will apply himse to something else, and succeed as well." the few subjects, on which his lordship's mind seemed uniformly to dwell with pleasOn one occasion he says, "The sight of his letters always does me good." And again ure. "His Indeed the character of Scott is one of inform me."- -"How can I?" rejoined my master; "it is now too late, and all is over!" I said, "Not Yes, not mine be done-but I will try our will, but God's be done!"-and he answered. lordship did indeed make several efforts to speak, but could only repeat two or three words at a timesuch as, "my wife! my child! my sister! you know His (Jeffrey's) summing up in favour of my friend all-you must say all-you know my wishes:" the Sir Walter amused me; it reminded me of a school-rest was quite unintelligible. A consultation was master, who, after flogging a bad boy, calls out to now held (about noon), when it was determined the head of the class, and, patting him on the head, to administer some Peruvian bark and wine. My gives him all the sugar-plums. master had now been nine days without any sustenance whatever, except what I have already mentioned. With the exception of a few words which can only interest those to whom they were addressed, and which, if required, I shall communicate to themselves, it was impossible to understand He expressed a wish to sleep. I at one time asked any thing his lordship said after taking the bark. whether I should call Mr Parry; to which he replied, "Yes, you may call him" Mr Parry desired him to compose himself. He shed tears, and apparently sunk into a slumber. Mr Parry went away, expecting to find him refreshed on his return-but it was the commencement of the lethargy preceding his death. The last words I heard my master utter were at six o'clock on the evening of the 18th, when he said, "I must sleep now;" upon which he laid down, never to rise again!-for he did not move The following passage will show, that however authors may affect to despise the opinions of periodical critics, these opinions do occasionally produce considerable sensation, though, fortunately for the tribe, they do not often draw upon themselves so severe a counterblast. When I first saw the review of my "Hours of Idleness," I was furious; in such a rage as I never have been in since. I dined that day with Scroope Davies, and drank three bottles of claret to drown it; but it only boiled the more. That critique was a masterpiece of low wit, a tissue of scurrilous abuse. I remember there could hardly have been very full, especially was a great deal of vulgar trash in it which was hand or foot during the following twenty-four hours.ing at Pisa are correct, we can hardly be meant for humour, "about people being thankful for what they could get," -"not looking a gift horse in the mouth," and such stable expressions. The severity of "The Quarterly" killed poor Keats; and neglect, Kirk White; but I was made of different stuff, of tougher materials. So far from their bullying me, or deterring me from writing, I was bent on falsifying their raven predictions, and determined to show them, croak as they would, that it was not the last time they should hear from me. I set to work immediately, and in good earnest, and produced in a year "The English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.' We shall conclude our extracts from this volume with the account of the last moments of Lord Byron, as given by his valet Fletcher, in a letter to Mr Murray. The good points in the character of Lord Byron, were general kindness and generosity to his servants and dependents, by whom he seems to have been much beloved, and his zeal for the civil liberty of mankind. This was shown in Italy, but more particularly in the country where he ended his career. To this sentiment is also to be attributed the favourable light in which he seems to have regarded the people of the United States. He expresses strong affection for his daughter, and occasionally some regard for Lady Byron. His faults were the consequences of bad education, and bad company, early dissipation, and the habit of yielding to the impulses of passion; and in a character dangerous alike to itself, and to society, we are uncertain whether more is to be pitied, or condemned. surprised at any extravagance. Admit further, that these Conversations were private, and that his lordship had no suspicion that every casual ebullition of spleen, and every expression, uttered under the inspiration of his "vegetable diet," was treasured up to gratify the public voracity; and we have a clue to almost any contradiction that can be pointed out between the letter of these Conversations and the spirit of his written productions. There is one view given in this volume, which, if it approaches at all to the truth, and that it has some foundation we shall believe (whether this book shall be proved authentic or not), should make us sincerely grateful that we live under a better influence. Although his lordship did not appear to think his dissolution was so near, I could perceive he was getting weaker every hour, and he even began to have occasional fits of delirium. He afterwards We mean the view of depravity, said, "I now begin to think I am seriously ill: not merely of the people of Italy, but of and, in case I should be taken off suddenly, I wish many among the higher ranks in the British to give you several directions, which I hope you We have thus far gone upon the supposi- empire. It is a consequence of a governwill be particular in seeing executed." I answered tion, that the Conversations, which are the ment, as well as of individual conduct, I would, in case such an event came to pass; but subject of them, are authentic. Since the founded on just principles, that not only expressed a hope that he would live many years to above remarks were written, we perceive their immediate results, but those that are execute them much better himself than I could. To that the London papers endeavour to dis- more distant and contingent, shall be prosthis my master replied, "No, it is now nearly over;" and then added, "I must tell you all without losing credit them. There may be, and doubtless perous and happy. We doubt not that a moment!" I then said, "Shall I go, my Lord, and there are, some misrepresentations con- among the middling classes of British sofetch pen, ink, and paper?"-"Oh, my God! no, tained in Captain Medwin's collection. Still ciety, public opinion is as powerful a guaryou will lose too much time, and I have it not to a great deal of what is reported, agrees so dian of virtue and morality, as it is in New spare, for my time is now short," said his lordship; and immediately after, "Now, pay attention." His well, both with the accounts of Lord Byron England. But the misfortune is, that a class lordship commenced by saying, "You will be pro- from other sources, and the opinions we should exist, which may be in some measure vided for." I begged him, however, to proceed with naturally form of his character from his above the influence of this opinion. But the things of more consequence. He then continued, writings, that we incline to the belief, that corner-stone of the structure of our governOh, my poor dear child!--my dear Ada! My God! they are in the main correct. There are ment, the principle which recognises the could I but have seen her! Give her my blessing two obvious causes for mistakes and incon-natural equality of the rights of mankind, and my dear sister Augusta and her children; and sistencies in a work of this sort. The first and refuses to admit the absurd pretensions you will go to Lady Byron, and say every thing; you are friends with her." His lord- is, that few things are more difficult than to of primogeniture,-prevents the entailment ship appeared to be greatly affected at this moment. retain and correctly repeat the substance, of estates and titles; with a silent and conHere my master's voice failed him, so that I could and much more, the words of any conversa- tinual operation, obstructs the unnatural only catch a word at intervals; but he kept mut- tion, after some hours have elapsed.. The separation of wealth and industry, of labour tering something very seriously for some time, and would often raise his voice and say, "Fletcher, memory of man is very treacherous, and and enjoyment; and puts an eternal veto now if you do not execute every order which besides the interval between the time when upon the elevation of a body of men, above have given you, I will torment you hereafter if pos- the words were spoken, and that when they the control of the opinion and moral sense Here I told his lordship, in a state of the were noted down,-we are also to consider of their fellows. As yet we are a young greatest perplexity, that I had not understood a that which intervened between the making people, and have allowed the natural affecword of what he said; to which he replied, "Oh, my God! then all is lost, for it is now too late! of the notes and the publishing of the col- tion which we must feel for the land of our Can it be possible you have not understood me ?"lection. Notes, which, as Captain Medwin fathers, the soil which gave birth to our No, my Lord," said I; "but I pray you to try and tells us, were only intended for reference, nation, to make us morbidly sensible to any sible.' tell her I disparaging observation on our manners and, guages, there is given a delineation of the The American Indians live in a state of customs, from the other side of the Atlantic. grammatical character of thirty-four Ameri- society which affords every encouragement Our republican feelings have been too ready can languages, and translations of the Lord's to the growth, and every facility for the to be irritated, by any intimations of our prayer into fifty-nine different dialects of development of, the sterner qualities of later birth, and induced us to show rather these languages. Although much that is human nature. The men live almost wholly an overweening jealousy, that our elder known upon these subjects is known but by the chase, and its vicissitudes make them brethren were disposed to snub us before imperfectly, and many facts and circum- habitually patient of fatigue and hunger;company. But we are happy to perceive the stances which would throw a strong light their hunting grounds are seldom very ac signs of a time, which is fast approaching, upon important subjects, are probably be- curately divided, and a herd of deer affords when we shall be sensible of our vast superi-yond the reach of investigation; still much a strong temptation to pass such lines of ority in those fundamental points, upon which has been recovered and added to the mass separation as there may be; and thus occa the true prosperity and happiness of a nation of human knowledge, which may be made sions for war are constantly occurring, and must depend; and have too much real pride to yield valuable instruction. All inquiries frequent wars give them all the qualities to be disturbed by any view of our deficiency respecting the American Indians may be proper to the warrior. But their warfare in matters not essential; when we shall feel arranged into four general divisions, as is rather characterized by stratagem and that there are worse practices than spitting they relate to their character, their religion, surprise than force; they seldom fight openly on the floor, and worse things than bad inns their languages, or their history. There and fiercely until all their tricks, all the and bad coaches; when we shall reflect, that certainly is at the present day a disposition, resources of their ingenuity are exhausted; it is neither impossible, nor very difficult, which is much more amiable than philosophi- to be detected and out-manoeuvred is almost to macadamize our roads, and induct Betty cal, to give these savages credit for all the the same thing as to be defeated, and the Chambermaid, Dick Ostler, and Sam Boots moral excellence and dignity which is in warrior has more frequent occasion to sig into places that have never yet known any degree compatible with their known nalize himself by skill, or sullen, obstinate them; and console ourselves under the condition; and to throw into deep shade, or endurance, than by prowess in fair and open consideration, that these things will cost perhaps apologize for, all those follies and fight; and therefore their courage is passive time and money, by regarding the fearful vices which are attributed to them upon rather than active. Insensibility is with price at which the nations of the old world authority that cannot be questioned This them a point of honour; public esteem is must purchase, if they ever obtain them, is in great part but a reaction from the made to depend upon it, and it is carried to the privileges which we inherit. prejudices and fears of those days when an extreme which astonishes those who do they were believed to have allied them- not recollect, that all men in all ages have selves with the powers of darkness,-to equally acknowledged this power of public Sketches of the History, Manners, and Cus"kill and destroy by treachery, poison, and opinion; Curtius before the gulf in the Fotoms of the North American Indians. By sorcery ;"-when the courage of our fathers rum, the leader of a forlorn hope in modern James Buchanan, Esq. His Majesty's quailed before the sad omen of a lunar days, and perhaps the Hindu devotee standConsul for the State of New York. Lon-eclipse, because "in the centre of the moon ing for weeks upon a pointed cone, all illusdon. 1824. 8vo. pp. 371. they discerned an unusual black spot, not a trate the power and energy of those feelings THIS work was written, or rather compiled, little resembling the scalp of an Indian ;"- which support the Indian through his deathin this country; but the author is an En- when the venerable Hubbard could find no torture. There is no reason to believe that glishman, in the service of the king of Great language sufficiently expressive of his feel- they are by nature inferior in point of inBritain, and his Sketches were published in ings towards these "perfidious, cruel, devil- tellect to Europeans, or those of European London. We may therefore consider it as ishi, savage miscreants,"-and even went so descent. Education has done for some of an English work, intended principally to give far as to "hope that God will find some them all that it could do for men born to a foreign people information respecting way to cut off the deceitful enemies of his among civilized nations, and the instances the aboriginal inbabitants of this country. people, and not suffer them to live out half which have certainly occurred of half-eduThe subject will no doubt be interesting to their days!" Since those days, our relations cated Indians relapsing into an entirely many readers; for our Indians are a pecu- with these savages have changed;-they savage life, prove little more, than that liar people, in whose history, customs, and now are the oppressed and desolate few; there is in the absolute freedom and irrecondition, there is much that will arrest we are the people of the land, and they are sponsibility of these children of the woods, and well reward the attention of every one the scanty, forlorn, and powerless intruders, something which is most fascinating to the who loves to look upon human nature in all who are glad to hide their misery in any weakness and pride of human nature. Many its actual varieties of situation and character. corner whither they may go, when we bid virtues are unquestionably compatible with Learned and able men have laboured to ac- them crawl out of our way. They fought the character which their condition and quaint themselves with every thing that can against us with the arrow, the bullet, and habits both reveal and create. No doubt a now be learned respecting the past and pres- the tomahawk, and they fought in vain ;- benevolent and perfectly amiable being like ent generations of this expiring people. In in our contest with them, we have allied our- Mr Heckewelder, might remember many our own country great and successful efforts selves with pestilence and famine, and that instances of mildness, forbearance, kindness, have been made to investigate the present far fiercer foe to humanity than either,— and pure charity, which occurred during his condition of our Indians thoroughly, and the intemperance; and they are well nigh ex-long intimacy with them. But if, on the scholars of Germany have toiled with their tirpated. When the warwhoop disturbed one hand, it would be unfair not to admit usual energy and success to bring together the repose of our villages, and a savage foe that these instances prove the Indian char all the detached parts and fragments of beset every path, and men were obliged to acter to be capable of an occasional exhi knowledge, which could be found in the bear their arms with them to the house of bition of these favourable traits; on the many works published in various lan- God, these ferocious and dreadful enemies other, it would be altogether unreasonable guages respecting different subjects conwere of necessity feared and hated beyond to infer from them, that these savages live in nected with different parts of this continent. the degree which different circumstances the habitual exercise of such virtues. Surely Their industry in these researches has been would have justified. For this there was there cannot be any doubt, that the Indians carried to an almost astonishing degree, excuse enough; but it will not be reasona- are rather ferocious than mild, rather imand rewarded by a proportionate success. ble that we should go to the opposite ex-placable than forgiving, and rather less Probably all the principal customs of the treme, and suffer our sympathy and sorrow Indians are now known, and all of their past for these wretched remnants of nations, or history is ascertained which ever can be even our remorse for the miseries we have learned; with respect to their languages, it inflicted upon them, to influence our opinions, is enough to say, that in the "Miltiades," when we are investigating their character a work upon the general science of lan-as an important fact in the history of man. honest and trust-worthy than men among whom deception and stratagem are more dishonourable. We do not believe that there is any great and peculiar mystery in the Indian character, or that the laws which govern human nature in all other cases, do not apply in this. They have their virtues | Journey to the Northern Ocean, and quoted and their vices, and we see no reason for by Dr Jarvis, in his Discourse delivered bebelieving that the proportion between the fore the New York Historical Society. good and the bad that is in them, constitutes any very striking difference between them and other men. With the utmost good-will to the cause which Mr Buchanan labours to advance, we advise him not to rest upon the peculiar excellence of their character, their claims to better treatment at our hands than they have hitherto received. per Their jugglers and priests, of course, endeavour to confirm this disposition, and acquire a skill and facility in carrying through their impostures, which might well deceive a wiser people. An instance of the sagacity of a juggler thus employed, which Mr Heckewelder relates, proves at least, that changes in the weather are indicated more distinctly and earlier, than casual observers of such things would suppose. Matonabbee, one of their chiefs, had requested him (Hearne) to kill one of his enemies, who was at that time several hundred miles distant. To please this great man,' says he, and not expecting that any harm could possibly arise from it, I drew a rough sketch of two numan figures on a piece of paper, in the attitude of wrestling; in the hand of one of them I drew the figure of a bayonet, pointing to the breast of the other. This,' said I to MatonThe religious opinions, traditions, and abbee, pointing to the figure which was holding the rites of the Indians, have been investigated bayonet, is I, and the other is your enemy.' Opwith great care, and many facts have been posite to those figures I drew a pine tree, over ascertained and used in support of many tree projected a human hand. This paper I gave which I placed a large human eye, and out of the theories. That which has attracted most to Matonabbee, with instructions to make it as pubattention, identifies these savages with the lic as possible. The following year when he came remains of the ten tribes of Israel. Mr to trade, he informed me that the man was dead. Adair, whose means of obtaining knowledge Matonabbee assured me, that the man was in respecting the Indians, were very great, and fect health when he heard of my design against him, but almost immediately afterward became more lately, Dr Boudinot, have urged with quite gloomy, and, refusing all kinds of sustenance, great force, every thing which can be sug-in a very few days died.' gested in support of this hypothesis. Resemblances, some of which seem almost too exact to be referred to chance, unquestionably exist between many rites and religious customs observed by the Indians, and those which were imposed by divine authority upon the Jews. But it is difficult to ascertain how far the authority for some of the most important may be relied on; and, without adverting to the fatal objections against this theory which may be drawn from the physical structure and peculiarities of language of the natives of this country, it may be safely asserted, that many nations of the old continent are as closely assimilated to the Jews, by an identity of religious ritual, as are the aborigines of this. Somewhat similar ceremonies are practised by nations who have not gone beyond a certain degree of civilization in all parts of the world. Sacrifices, the worship of the principal heavenly bodies, and of spiritual powers in various forms, and some measure of veneration for consecrated periods and places, are always found among the savage nations of the old world, and have always been among then, if we may trust to the evidence of records, and of monuments which go back beyond all record; and they are now ascertained to have existed among all the tribes of American Indians. Perhaps the only conclusion which can be rationally deduced from these facts, is, that all the religions in the world had one common origin;-that there was a time when the parents of the inhabitants of the earth knew, from sources which are now closed, that God is, and what He is, and what are the laws and relations which govern and connect the various parts of his creation;-and that as the weakness and wickedness of men varied in character and measure, this knowledge was lost or perverted in different modes and degrees. Perhaps there have been no nations more superstitious than the Indians; many in stances are known of individuals losing all strength and health, from the anxiety and horror which some unlucky omen or fearful circumstance had caused, and literally dying from the fear of death. A remarkable instance of this is related by Hearne, in his In the summer of the year 1799, a most uncommon drouth happened in the Muskingum country, so that every thing growing, even the grass and the leaves of the trees, appeared perishing; an old man named Chenos, who was born on the river Delaware, was applied to by the women, to bring down rain, and was well feed for the purpose. Having failed in his first attempt, he was feed a second time; and it happened that one morning, when my business obliged me to pass by the place where he was at work, as I knew him very well, I asked him at once what he was doing? I am hired,' said he, to do a very hard day's work.' Q. And, pray, what work? A. Why, to bring down rain from the sky. A. The women of the village; don't you see how much rain is wanted, and that the corn and every thing else is perishing? Q. But can you make it rain? A. I can, and you shall be convinced of it this very day. which I was going. I mentioned the circumstance to the chief of the place, and told him that I thought it impossible that we should have rain while the sky was so clear as it then was, and had been for near five weeks together, without its being previously announced by some signs or change in the atinosphere. But the chief answered: Chenos knows very well what he is about; he can at any time predict what the weather will be; he takes his observations morning and evening from the river or something in it.' On my return from this place after three o'clock in the afternoon, the sky still continued the same until about four o'clock, when all at once the horizon became overcast, and with out any thunder or wind, it began to rain, and continued so for several hours together, until the ground became thoroughly soaked.' of the American aborigines have been It was not until lately, that the languages studied with great care; and valuable results have rewarded the labour bestowed upon these pursuits. Mr Duponceau, who is the best authority upon these subjects, and whose authority is indisputable, declares that, the American languages in general are copious both in words and in grammatical forms, and that their structure is exceed. ingly methodical and regular. That their peculiar and complicated forms,-which he calls polysynthetic,—appear to characterize all these languages, from one extremity of the continent to the other, and that they differ essentially from those of the dead and living languages of the old hemisphere. The polysynthetic construction of language, Mr Duponceau explains to mean, "that in which the greatest number of ideas are comprised in the least number of words." This is effected in the Indian languages by constructing compound words, by interweaving together the most significant sounds or syllables of each simple word, in such a manner as to excite in the mind immediately all those ideas which the primitive words would have singly expressed; and also by combining the various parts of speech, particularly the verb, so that the various forms and inflections will express, with the principal action, the greatest possible number of the ideas of moral and physical subjects connected with it. Thus there are many words of these languages, which are made to convey very different ideas by the simple addition or subtraction of a letter. "Wunachquin" means the nut of a tree, the leaves of which resemble a hand;" and "nadholineen" means come with the canoe, and take us across between the northern and southern lanthe river." With regard to the similarity guages, in respect of grammatical construction, we will give Mr Duponceau's own words. It will be remembered, that such is the difference between the words of these different languages, that the principal nations of America can understand each other no better, than different nations in Europe or Asia. He had, by this time, encompassed a square of about five feet each way, with stakes and barks, so that it might resemble a pig pen of about three feet in height, and now, with his face uplifted and turned" closely shutting up with bark the opening which towards the north, he muttered something, then had been left on the north side, he turned in the same manner, still muttering some words, towards the south, as if invoking some superior being, and having cut through the bark on the southwest corner, so as to make an opening of two feet, he said: 'now we shall have rain enough!' Hearing down the river the sound of setting poles striking against a canoe, he inquired of me what it was? I told him it was our Indians going up the river to make a bush net for fishing. Send them home again!' said he; I told him to let them come on, and speak to them 'tell them that this will not be a fit day for fishing! himself, if he pleased. He did so, and as soon as they came near him, he told them that they must by no means think of fishing that day, for there should come a heavy rain which would wet them in a jocular manner, give us only rain, and we all through. No matter, Father!' answered they will cheerfully bear the soaking. They then passed on, and I proceeded to Goschachking, the village to trate the extraordinary similarity which subsists I beg leave to adduce one single example to illusbetween the languages of the north and south. The Abbé Molina, amidst a number of compound verbs in the Araucanian language, instances the verb iduancloclavin, I do not wish to eat with him.' any similar verb in the Delaware, and he immediI once asked Mr Heckewelder whether there was ately gave me n'schingiwipoma, 'I do not like to eat with him. A stronger feature of resemblance |