No moments glide away more agreeably than those that are
employed in writing to a friend. Happy am I in having
frequent opportunities of exhibiting my sentiments to you,
and in return receiving yours, which palliates in some
degree, the sorrow our separation occasions.----The glaring
absurdities of the dress of the Boston ladies, occupied the
greatest part of my two last letters. It is but just to say
something of their more laudable qualities; amongst which,
maternal affection deservedly claims precedence.--The
barbarous customs of Europe, in this particular, have not as
yet, and I hope never will be, practised here. Mothers in
this country are so much attached to their tender offspring,
as to forego all the pleasures of life (or rather what are
so termed in Europe) in attending to their nurture, from
which they derive the most superlative of all enjoyments,
the heart-felt satisfaction of having done their duty to
their God and country, in giving robust, healthy and
virtuous citizens to the State. The effeminacy of exotic
fashion has not at present extended its pernicious influence
so far as to induce them to commit the rearing of their
children to mercenary nurses, who are sometimes the very
dregs of a people; and whose vicious habits of taking a drop
of the _good creature to drown sorrow_, does not promise
redundancy of health and vigour to those suckled by them--on
the contrary, children thus unnaturally thrown from the arms
of a parent into those of a nurse, are, almost without
exception, weak and puny; of irrascible tempers and vicious
inclinations.--Nor does the attention of the ladies expire
with the infancy of their children--they still are unwearied
in instructing them as they increase in years, and
assiduously endeavour to inculcate principles of virtue into
their young minds at a time when they are most liable to
make a deep impression--to accomplish which, they never fail
to teach them the catechism, Lord's prayer, &c. &c. all of
which they oblige them to learn, because they are perfectly
adapted to their comprehension, though many parts of the
catechism are altogether incomprehensible to most
adults.--Yet this is not strange to those who credit the
scriptures; nor does it appear the least inconsistent--for
there it says, "God hath chosen the foolish things of this
world to confound the wise."--Therefore, the wonder that
children should be able to _understand_ that, which is the
_foundation_ of all polemical divinity, vanishes, when we
try it by the touchstone of scripture, which is the
criterion by which we ought to judge.--When they are thus
instructed in the rudiments of virtue, they are seldom known
to apostatize; so that for a native to become dissolute and
abandoned, is very rare.--Indeed they have characters of
this kind who emigrate from old countries; but they soon
find employment for such gentry, by obliging them to labour
for the publick good, and "work out their salvation by the
sweat of their brow."--Thus the community is not only
delivered from such pests, but experience beneficial effects
from their confinement. Knavery, though rarely found in a
native, is not entirely extirpated from the breasts of some
among them.
* * * * *
Remarkable instances of longevity.
LONGEVITY. Mafeus, who wrote the history of the Indies,
which has always been a model of veracity as well as elegant
composition, mentions a native of Bengal, named Numas de
Cugna, who died 1566, at the age of 370. He was a man of
great simplicity and quite illiterate; but of so extensive a
memory, that he was a kind of living chronicle, relating
distinctly and exactly what had happened within his
knowledge in the compass of his life, together with all the
circumstances attending it. He had four new sets of teeth;
and the color of his hair and beard had been very
frequently changed from black to grey, and from grey to
black. He asserted that in the course of his life, he had
700 wives, some of whom had died, and the others he had put
away. The first century of his life passed in idolatry, from
which he was converted to Mahometanism, which he continued
to profess to his death.--The account is also confirmed by
another Portuguese author, Ferdinand Lopez Casteguedo, who
was historiographer royal.
_Salem Observer,_ Feb. 22, 1834.
* * * * *
LONDON, May 28.
_Remarkable Instances of Longevity in Europe._
THOMAS PARRE, of Shropshire, died on the 16th of November,
1635, aged 152.
James Bowes, of Killinworth, in Shropshire, died the 15th of
August, 1656, aged 152.
Anonymous, of Yorkshire, aged 140, and his son, aged 100,
were both living, and attended to give evidence at York
Assize, in 1664.
F. Sagar, of Lancashire, died in January, 1668, aged 112.
Henry Jenkins, of Yorkshire, died on the 8th of December,
1670, aged 169.
Robert Montgomery, of Yorkshire, was living in 1670, aged
126.
Countess of Desmond, Ireland, aged 140.
Mr. Ecleston, of Ireland, died 1691, aged 143.
Mr. Lawrence, of Scotland, living, aged 140.
Mary Gore, born at Collinworth, in Yorkshire, lived 100
years in Ireland, and died at Dublin in 1727, aged 125.
Mr. Ellis, of Surrey, died about 1748, aged 137.
Simon Sack, of Trionia, died on the 30th of May, 1761, aged
141.
Col. Thomas Winsloe, of Ireland, died on the 12th of August,
1766, aged 156.
Francis Consist, of Yorkshire, died in January, 1768, aged
150.
Francis Bons, of France, died on the 6th of February, 1769,
aged 124.
Christopher Jacob Drakenberg, of Norway, a boatswain in the
Danish navy, died on the 24th of June, 1770, aged 146.
Margaret Forster, of Cumberland, aged 136.
Gen. Oglethorpe died in August last, aged 103.
A goldsmith, of France, died in June, 1776, aged 140.
Mary Yates, of Shropshire, died in 1776, aged 128.
John Brookley, of Devonshire, living in 1777, aged 134.
Miss Ellis, daughter of Mr. Ellis, of Surrey, died in 1781,
aged 104.
Mr. Froome, of Holms-Chapel, in Cheshire, died in May last,
aged 125.
Mary M'Donald, county of Down, in Ireland, died on the 16th
of June last, aged 118.
Mary Cameron, of Invernessshire, in Scotland, died in July
last, aged 130.
Miss Ellis, of Richmond, in Surrey, living on the 16th of
August last, aged 105.
Mr. Rowe, at Nutwell-House, in Scotland, died in August
last, aged 106.
Donald McKeen, of Argyleshire, in Scotland, died in
September last, aged 109.
John Button, of Liverpool, died on the 18th of November
last, the oldest burgess of that borough upon record; he
lived in six reigns, being born in the reign of James II.
Mr. Smith, a farmer, at Dolver, in Montgomeryshire, died in
November last, aged 103: He was never known to drink any
thing but buttermilk.
John Follart, woolcomber, at Norney, near the city of
Exeter, living and in good health on the 30th of November
last, aged 121; he works still at his business, and retains
his faculties.
_Massachusetts Gazette,_ Sept. 1, 1786.
* * * * *
PHILADELPHIA, August 19.
_Instances of Longevity in America._
In South-America there was said, in the year 1785, to be a
negro woman living, aged about 175; she remembered her first
master, who died in 1615, and that he gave her away with
some other property towards sounding a school.
Some years ago there was living in Virginia, a native of
Ireland, who at the age of 109, was able to work at the
taylor's trade without spectacles; and what renders this
case more remarkable, he was naturally very intemperate, and
would get drunk as often as he could get liquor.
In the year 1776, died one Mr. Payne, in Fairfax, Virginia,
upwards of 100 years of age.
Died, November, 1782, in this city, Mr. Edward Drinker,
almost 102, being born December 24, 1680, in Philadelphia.
In the year 1782, there was living, near this city (and
perhaps may be still living) a healthy negro woman, able to
walk several miles in a day, and wash clothes, who was then,
as near as she could tell, about 103.----She remembers her
being brought to this city before any houses were built
here.
Died last summer, in New-York, Mrs. Slock, aged 108 years
and one half.
Last winter died at Jones's creek, a branch of Pee Dee, in
North-Carolina, Mr. Mathew Bayley, aged 136: he was baptised
when 134 years old; had good eye sight, strength of body and
mind until his death.
There was a woman living last winter, in Uxbridge, state of
Massachusetts, of the name of Aldrich, and likely to live
many years, who has 12 children, all living, and has lived
till 25 of the fifth generation are born, the eldest of
which is more than eleven years of age.
Died on Tuesday the 1st inst. at Hudson, in New-York, Mrs.
Christina de Lametter, in the 94th year of her age. She died
merely of old age, without any kind of disease or fever; but
descended very slowly and patiently to the bottom of the
hill of life. She was a woman, who, through life, has been
remarkable for her silent resignation to the divine will.
What renders the last part of her life remarkable, is, that
she lived 39 days without any sustenance whatever, except
about two spoonfuls of wine with water daily; the vital
motions and functions being so near a cessation, that the
solids needed no reparation; yet she retained all her senses
to the last moment.
In the year 1774, died at Danvers, in Massachusetts, Mr.
---- Nelson, aged 106 years.
_Massachusetts Gazette,_ Sept. 1, 1786.
* * * * *
STOCKHOLM, Aug. 8.
A widow lately died near Landscrone, aged 118 years. She
continued to get a livelihood by spinning till she was 116.
_Salem Mercury,_ Nov. 25, 1786.
* * * * *