Nothing in the history of mankind is like their progress. For my part,
I never cast an eye on their flourishing commerce, and their cultivated
and commodious life, but they seem to me rather ancient nations grown
to perfection through a long series of fortunate events, and a train
of successful industry, accumulating wealth in many centuries, than the
colonies of yesterday; than a set of miserable outcasts, a few years
ago, not so much sent as thrown out, on the bleak and barren shore of
a desolate wilderness, three thousand miles from all civilized
intercourse.